Category: Chips on Shoulders

Dave’s day

Pigs and flies take on a whole nuther dimension. But hey! Who hasn’t been embarrassed by reminders of student indiscretions? I know Backside has.

And luckily for Dave, Rebekkah is back in town, ready I’m sure to rejoin his Cotswold country supper set. Lol. So look out for more local goss, old chap.

Meanwhile the arch chav, Jerry, can’t help little Nicola with her CND revival, but ironically gives the Scottish labourites some ammo to fight her with. (Sorry about the preposition at the end there, Boris.)

And over in NY NY Dave’s leading the Syrian Peace Corps, with the help allegedly of our new mates, Iran, and Putin, suddenly everyone’s best friend.

More pigs and flies, Dave? Probably.

Alles ist nicht in Ordnung

How could VW engineers ever imagine they could hoodwink the American market with fake emissions results?

If ever there was an example of the mighty falling, this is it! VW Group ads here recently have even managed to underline their leadership with ‘Germans do not make jokes’ – a tag-line that I suspect is now verboten.

The auto industry worldwide struggles with recalls but this is surely the biggest b*ll*ck ever dropped. Quite a feat for a firm to lose market value worth $20 bn – or twice the total value of the French rival Peugeot!

Ziz is ze Wnterhorn of our discontent, nicht Wahr? Hehehehe

A modern diaspora

We accept the media cliches. Destitute families with young children, exhausted and hungry from the gruelling trek from war-stricken places, arriving in their hundreds every day at the ferry port less than 15 miles from here. They are grateful for help from local people who will drive them up to Sweden or they will stay and wait for asylum here.

Of course it’s true. But it’s only part of the story.

A less publicised component is the young men who accompany them. They are not distraught or at their wit’s end. In fact they are confident, even demanding. They know their rights. They show no gratitude or sense of relief. They have their iphones, checking the latest international news and show disdain for mere border cops  trying to cope with the human tsunami.

Being a refugee is no longer demeaning; no longer just for the dispossessed. It is a life-style choice for many. Should we be concerned?

PC again

Last week it was a politician being rebuked for comparing disabled with ‘normal’ folk for the purposes of employment. This week Snow White is making an appearance on stage but friends have to take the place of dwarves.

Is the norm – in any social context – no longer a suitable topic for comment? Are we not allowed to refer to any less usual combination of attributes except by avoiding mention of the usual?

The trouble is that a significant number of common English adjectives is now outlawed: blind, deaf, crippled, etc., unless euphemisms replace them. Which ironically takes us back to the reign of Victoria, when so many conditions were unspeakable.

I am not proposing offensive bluntness. Just a proper understanding that censorship tends to have effects quite opposite to those intended. Calling a spade a coloured person doesn’t advance the cause of integration.

Select few

Almost everyone’s gone. Maybe not to the moon (but who knows?). And parting is such…er….sorrow. Especially when y’all left without so much as a flounce, a strop or a fond farewell. Was it something we said or failed to say? Was it fickle fate that tempted you to pastures new? Was it the Big House or twatter or facebonk?

No answers unless you’re planning to stick around. Excuses are so yesterday.

 

Rewilding

Apart from the horror of the word, let’s pause to consider the sheer madness involved in reintroducing species which man deliberately wiped out long ago.

I like the article’s final line: ‘The Scottish government has said there are no plans to reintroduce large predators’.

But what about fish? The little Sturgeon is quite enough, thank you; not to mention the untameable Salmond.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/rewilding-reintroduction-extinct-species-back-to-britain-will-be-enormous-challenge-study-finds-10478370.html

But enough…..

…..of sparring with unworthy opponents.

What about the disintegration of the Labour movement back home?

The party will soon revert to its grass roots policies – public ownership and the redistribution of wealth – which Bliar abandoned, in favour of personal fame and fortune.

Do we care? Yes, if it means alliances with other madcap parties to name but the SNP.

Let’s face it, most sane voters reject ideologs. Practical politics works better.

Howzat?

No matter if our Caledonian prophet of doom manages to jinx our lads and they snatch defeat from the jaws of Nike, nothing can spoil the memory of 60 all out. A new meaning for down under perhaps. The day Extras top-scored. Enough ducks for a feeding frenzy. Let’s fill our white boots.

Ben Stokes celebrates

If I could see Backside’s face, I know he’d be smiling. ‘Happy happy happy – you can’t take that away from me….’

The Ashes urn

Entente cordiale?

Help me out here.

Thousands of ‘migrants’ are congregating around ugly Calais, apparently destitute but equipped with wire-cutters and determined to get into the Tunnel to Blighty.

OK so far?

Why? What’s wrong with Spain, Italy, France (etcetera ad nausem) where they entered the fabled EU?

Send answers please to a jobsworth in Brussels who will reply after les vacances, peut-etre.