Wavy Davy’s Navy

I saw this on the Dark Side today. Just about sums up GB 2012:

A vision of the Cameron Navy!

The Royal Navy is proud of its new fleet of Type 45 destroyers. Having initially named the first two ships HMS Daring and HMS Dauntless, the Naming Committee has, after intensive pressure from Brussels, renamed them HMS Cautious and HMS Prudence. The next five ships are to be named HMS Empathy, HMS Circumspect, HMS Nervous, HMS Timorous and HMS Apologist.
Continue reading “Wavy Davy’s Navy”

Seen on a T shirt

I saw this slogan, or something very like it, on a T shirt recently. It seems to sum up the state of the UK and, possibly, the USA at the moment:-

Ineptocracy

(in-ep-toc’-ra-cy) – a system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers. syn- socialism.

The Reith Lectures – Niall Ferguson

I have just been listening to the 4th and final of the BBC Reith Lectures presented by Niall Ferguson. Despite his conceit and reputation as a media tart, I like Prof Ferguson. I have read a couple of his books, Empire and The Ascent of Money both of which I thoroughly enjoyed. In my view he is a bright man with sound ideas

Ferguson was born in Glasgow and educated at the Glasgow Academy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niall_Ferguson

The subject of the Lectures this year was The Rule of Law And Its Enemies http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01jms03

I am not sure if you can still find the first 2, but the 3rd and 4th are available and worth listening to, especially the last which is presented up in Edinburgh. Ferguson advocates more individual involvement in all aspects of daily life including social activities and private education, especially education and less government interference. His audience seems to entirely comprise Glaswegian left-wing academics and trades unionists; add to that the BBC’s Sue Lawley and he appears to be in a minority of one. But I find it difficult not to agree with almost everything he says and it leaves me depressed that there are so many who would oppose his views.

Have a listen if you can. I think Mr Mackie in particular would enjoy them.

The green and gold

After much debate and heartache, Oscar’s off to the big London show
the question we ask ourselves now, how fast and far can he really go?

He’s running the four hundred and the four by four
Fate dealt a cruel cruel blow, not set back by that score
With a buffalo’s grit, the heart of ten lions
we’ll see him compete with fellow Olympians

There is of course, more to The Games, than just winning
respect, treatment as a fellow human being
I’m sure he’ll reminisce as he grows old
of that day, he pulled on the green and gold

The Viking name game

I’ve heard that Spanish folk can have a nomenclature as long as Don Quixote’s spear but there’s a practice here that intrigues me.

Take the newly crowned tennis king of Denmark, Frederik Løchte Nielsen., known to his friends as….what? Well, his English doubles partner calls him Freddie, as one might; but the commentators on Danish telly can’t seem to find out. He’s Freddie Løchte, just Løchte or all three names, but never Freddie Nielsen, and I can’t fathom why. Nielsen for some arcane reason is nomen non gratum.

Just like the NATO chief, ex PM Anders Fogh Rasmussen. He’s always Anders Fogh, just Fogh but never Anders Rasmussen.

Is it snobbery because Nielsen and Rasmussen are common names? It can’t be to avoid confusion – after all how many Fred Nielsens are at Wimbledon, how many Anders Rasmussens in NATO?

Btw Danes I have asked can’t explain. We just do, they say. Fine.

There is no third way

There are three steps to heaven. The best democracy has an executive, legislature and a judiciary. Basic technical drawing at first year level will show you that designs have a front elevation, end elevation and plan. This three-dimensional world we live in just loves to hit us with threes. The post-impressionist French artist, Paul Cézanne, defined natural things by their geometric shapes. In nature everything was either a cylinder, a cone or a sphere. I could go on with more trinities but it’s time to get the point and it concerns that most basic of popular art: the song. Continue reading “There is no third way”

Results of Photo Competition No. 28

So there we were, (yes, we have a panel) four of us mulling over the entries for our current photo competition.

A fine selection of entries indeed. As per my intention subjects were varied and imaginations tested.

After much debate and consideration we had a split decision!… Continue reading “Results of Photo Competition No. 28”