Category: Politics

He would say that, wouldn’t he?

A certain Mandy Rice-Davies is alleged to have coined the oft-quoted question during the infamous (but juicy) Profumo trial 50 years ago; and the man himself had already averred in Parliament that there had been ‘no impropriety whatsoever’. But the papers relating to the Denning Report which wound it all up are still not available for us to slaver over, presumably because there are still some Great and Good chaps around whose reputations might fade in the glare of exposure.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/jul/18/simon-hoggart-sketch-profumo-scandal-lords .

It’s all very nostalgic for me too.

Continue reading “He would say that, wouldn’t he?”

Inhuman wrongs vs human rights

What is it with the EU ‘mores’?

Not content with dishing out cash to southern states whose farming methods date back to Adam; with bailing out countries whose troubles are all of their own making, and moving their deliberations from Belgium to France for a few days every month by train (at a cost even the PoW would blush at), they now insist that convicted rapists and killers have the ‘human right’ to seek parole!

What happened to the old idea that such pests have forfeited their rights for as long as the Court decided?

If the UK’s monsters are detained ‘at Her Majesty’s Pleasure’, how can an overpaid lawyer from the Continent say they are not? Beats me.

Please indicate what you would do:

1. Hang ’em?
2. Detain them in open prisons in Dover with free one-way travel over the Channel?
2. Send them to live next door to the Eurojudges who want them freed – at the EU’s expense.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/10170325/Calls-grow-to-boycott-toxic-human-rights-court.html

Toady

Tony Robinson

 

 

 

 

The mysteries of the British honours system usually leave me yawning but this time a particularly unprepossessing, second-rate actor with pretensions to adequacy as a tv presenter caught my eye.

One Tony Robinson, a non-academic dig enthusiast, ever-present at political events and a sycophant of the first water is now to be addressed as ‘sir’. Gawd ‘elp us!

Monroe

No, the other one – of ‘Doctrine’ fame. In short it allowed the good ole boys to stop other kids playing in their own backyards too close to the land of the free. And in the ’80s Sheriff Reagan and Col. Oliver North sent some help to the Contras in Nicaragua, funded by the sale of arms to Iran. And all on the hush-hush too.

 The two canals

So I wonder if there’ll be some behind-the-scenes jiggery-pokery again in Nicaragua now that the pesky Chinese plan to compete with the US-controlled Panama canal by digging a new, much better one? Will the US of A bribe the poor Nicaraguans to reject the project? Has the Pres already told the Chinese to butt out? And will we ever know?

French stick to French

It’s more reminiscent of Canute the Great Dane at the seaside than Francois the Small Froggy at the Elyssee – the way our near-neighbours are constantly trying to purge their Latin tongue of anglicisations, as you might say; and even now are resisting the demand for their seats of learning to teach in English.

We of course have always delighted in importing all their trash, ever since 1066 at least. But usually the words have been mangled beyond recognition – except among the incurably pure who still stay at ‘otels and drink ‘erb tea. More respectful folk, like the Danes, continue to make an effort to pronounce French words properly but score zero po-ang for their efforts.

But our most endearing trait (both t’s sounded) is to dub so many not-quite-British things ‘French’. My favourites include: bed, cricket, disease, fry, knickers and letter. If you will pardon my French…………

Idolatrine

Evangelical Protestantism is on the rise in South and Central American countries.
This part of the globe has historically been a catholic stronghold in matters of faith but the flock are turning. Brazil and Mexico, the two largest catholic nations in the world have had many converts to the Evangelical side and other Protestant church communities: Pentecostals, Baptists and Methodists. A personal relationship with Jesus is most important to evangelicals, whereas in Catholicism, priests and the church hierarchy are tasked with interpreting the Bible and being “God’s representatives”. Has the continent of Pele et al seen the light shining?

With chapel attendance dwindling in these areas it begs the further question, was Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the Jesuit cardinal from Buenos Aires the newly appointed successor to Saint Peter, chosen purely to revitalise the ailing roman church in Latin America? In modern times we don’t expect political intrigue straight out of the Borgias yet the appointment smacks of a desperate attempt to woo back floating voters by installing one of their own. And was the retired/deposed Benedict part of the scheme? We’ll need to wait until the papal archives are released. Continue reading “Idolatrine”