Will Dave make it to the end? It's not "the vision thang" with Dave, he doesn't have any, but the judgment thing. I suppose, in retrospect, the first doubts arose before he even entered No. 10 when he hired the ex-editor of The News of the World to be his main spokesman. I remember thinking at the time, The News of the World - uuurgh - The Times, possibly; The Independent, maybe; The Telegraph, perhaps; but the good, old 'Screws' - never! Anyway, that was but the first of a series of misjudgments which have culminated in the long-overdue despatch of Andrew Mitchell whose only claim to fame appears to be his ability to drag down even further the contempt in which most of us hold politicians. He should have been marched into No. 10 the next morning and in brusque, Clem Attlee-style told to get on his bike - and use the proper exit! Dave funked it and now he's paying for it and, even worse, his own party, already aware of his general uselessness, are beginning to realise that he is an electoral disaster. It can only be a matter of time - watch this space . . .
If Romney loses: 'MDA2' which stands for 'My Darling Andra' and has the numerical suffix to differentiate her from 'MDA1' (My Darling Ann [Coulter]) poses a question in a thread below: when Romney doesn't win ... what then? Well then, MDA2, America will go to hell in a handcart and you, as an Australian living in the southern Pacific will either have to seek about for new powerful friends - and don't ask me where - or learn to speak Chinese! At home, Obama, with nothing now to lose, will let loose the Democrat dogs of big spending and constitutional tampering with catastrophic results. And to put the final seal on it, Obama will choose the next one or two Supreme Court Justices who will set his Marxist ideas in stone for a generation. The good news' is that he will not win. As I have said since the last Congressional elections two years ago, he's dead man walking!
Crime stats down - you're 'avin' a laugh! At sometime during this week I heard an item on the news that crimes stats in the UK were down across the board. What I would really like to do is meet the solitary man, woman or, more likely, child, who actually believes any stats issued by this government but in particular the crime stats. They, in particular, are the most ragged, bagged and shagged set of numbers in the entire government machine. It starts at the very bottom of the imput process in which the various police forces throughout the land duck and dive with the full connivance of their Chief Constables, a bunch of self-interested, self-promoting chancers I wouldn't trust with a two times table. The results then go to the "not fit for purpose" Home Office and after that they don't stand a chance.
My bottom: Yes, I know, not the most prepossessing subject to contemplate over your Sunday breakfast (or is it lunch, you lazy sods?) but it gets even worse because it is actually what emanates from my bottom that is the real subject. I know, I know, it might not be something you wish to know about but Her Majesty's National Health Service are tremendously interested and have kindly sent me a special pack with instructions and little cardboard sticks with which to lovingly take samples to send back to them for inspection. I hasten to add that there is absolutely nothing wrong with my bottom, or its contents, but apparently my age has triggered this enquiry. As a less than sympathetic friend remarked, "Well, if it's your shit they're interested in, tell 'em to read your blog!"
The Head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is a pillock! To be honest, I'm not absolutely sure what a 'pillock' is so I looked it up. According to the OED it is "a stupid person" which is what I meant but its archaic origin comes from "pillicock, a penis"! Anyway, it's nice and rude and above all - insulting! At this point my innate sense of fairness intercedes which it tends to do from time to time thus ruining many a good rant. The fact is that I have no idea who the head of the CPS is and anyway, he or she is not to blame, it's those 'pillicocks' (and their female equivalents) in Parliament who deserve the insults for it was they, in their infinite dimwittedness, who made a crime out the very fine, old, British tradition of insulting. I have become dimly aware (look, I've told you lot before, I do the jokes!) that various mouth-breathers using a public communications system called 'Twitter' which confines your comments to a tiny number of words - to the relief of the afore-said mouth-breathers - have been arrested and charged in the courts, so the Head of the CPS does share some of the blame. These alleged miscreants have not been urging violence or racist attacks against anyone, all they have done is publish moronic grunts - to call them 'thoughts' is to stretch meaning too far - usually in extremely bad taste. For this the 'Old Bill' are suddenly galvanised and whilst incapable of catching or stopping your average burglar they are right on the case of some dimwit who helps them by providing an identity - and it improves their stats no end! Brenden O'Neill, editor of Spiked has an excellent article on this over at Reason.
At last, some words of wisdom here at D&N: No, no, not from me, come on, you should know better than that! No, these, courtesy of Cafe Hayek are from a very wise old bird, indeed, a man who had an enormous influence on my hesitant tiptoes into philosophy and science - Karl Popper:
There is, first, the classical myth, vox populi vox dei, which attributes to the voice of the people a kind of authority and unlimited wisdom. Its modern equivalent is faith in the ultimate common-sense rightness of that mythical figure, ‘the man in the street’, his vote, and his voice. The avoidance of the plural in both cases is characteristic. Yet people are, thank God, seldom univocal; and the various men in the various streets are as different as any collection of V.I.P.s in a conference-room. And if, on occasion, they do speak more or less in unison, what they say is not necessarily wise. They might be right, or they might be wrong.
On this Sunday morning, here endeth the first lesson - and what a corker!
ADDITIONAL - A 'MUST READ': Do not, under any circs, miss Chapter One of Anna Raccoon's life story.
Absolutely agree about the crime stats. I believe the police themselves refer to the process as "cuffing the stats", which shows how seriously they take it all.
There is one reason why we should believe the general point of a downward trend, though. The most believable stats we have are the birth, marriage, and death rates. And the birth rate declined sharply from about 1990. This means that the group most likely to commit crimes, young men between the ages of 14 and their mid-twenties, have declined as a proportion of the population. This fits the detail of the government stats, which is that the types of crimes which these useless shits excel at - thefts from cars, criminal damage, and buglaries - have seen the steepest decline.
Don't worry, though. The birth rate picked up again after 2000. Soon, the mini baby-boom playing happily in the park will be frequenting it around the hours of darkness, and looking to threaten your property and peace of mind...
Posted by: Whyaxye | Sunday, 21 October 2012 at 15:46
Oh, and another thing. Just read the bit about your bottom. I'm surprised you are going along with this. Shouldn't the people whose wages we pay through our taxes take an interest in our poo when we request them to, and not a moment before? Come on, DD, get a grip! (But wash your hands first, please....)
Posted by: Whyaxye | Sunday, 21 October 2012 at 15:51
Good point about the birth rate, 'W', and of course car and property theft has probably declined because the security has improved enormously in recent years.
As for my 'poo problem-not', I am normally of the 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' tribe but the 'Memsahib' became somewhat insistent - need I say more?!
Posted by: David Duff | Sunday, 21 October 2012 at 18:24
I confess that, were I an American, I'd tend to vote simply for the less bad of the two principal candidates: in this case Romney.
I further confess that I'll be astonished if he wins.
Posted by: dearieme | Sunday, 21 October 2012 at 18:40
Not a bad summary, DM, but trust me, Obama will lose. You may rely on the word of an ex-member of the second-hand car trade!
Posted by: David Duff | Sunday, 21 October 2012 at 18:47
" I hasten to add that there is absolutely nothing wrong with my bottom, or its contents, but apparently my age has triggered this enquiry."
Do exercise some degree of caution David. Wouldn't want your NHS ...
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/21/14598776-9-year-old-girl-shot-after-relative-mistakes-her-for-skunk?lite
And I wouldn't be so sure I'd advise placing any actual money on the Presidential Lottery either - my guess is, it'll be decided in the Electoral College. However... this year is very unusual - there's the ever so slight chance it could be decided in the House of Representatives (if so, Romney wins) but that'd be the nightmare scenario.
Posted by: JK | Sunday, 21 October 2012 at 23:55
"The Head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is a pillock! "
This is the biggest story around and yet the MSM can't seem to be particularly bothered.
We have people being arrested, charged and given custodial sentences which far outstrip those given out for burglary, theft, or any number of violent crimes for that matter. And what for? For typing some unfunny joke, making an incorrect, biased or just opinionated statement, or for wearing a stupid T-shirt.
On top of this we have people being arrested for pre-crimes. Now I'm in no way a supporter of the EDL and yet I have nothing but outrage for the fact that 53 of them were arrested because 'they might commit some offence'! (I, as with most people, am aware that most of those arrested at EDL marches are from the extreme left-wing UAW and Muslim groups who attempt to disrupt these legitimate and legal meetings - the MSM, of course, simply implies they were 'trouble making EDL members'. I don't agree with the EDL but I support their right to protest and meet).
I'm seriously concerned that what we are rapidly becoming is a police state - thought crimes, speech crimes and dress crimes and now maybe crimes.
I... just.. I'm simply lost for words!
Posted by: Able | Monday, 22 October 2012 at 06:26
Wha... Able? S'that a certainty? Otherwise "good people" getting arrested for "crimes" they've merely, uhm... thought about?!!!
I mean. I did notice the lovely looking me over across from the grocery - "thought" about pulling over but then I noticed the two smallish chilrens following fairly close and decided to forego.
That could get me arrested in England?!!!
God I hope the one eyeing me was a nanny - dressing like a French maid couldn't possibly get me extradited - could it?
"I was formerly a sailor" in anyways a justifiable defense?
Posted by: JK | Monday, 22 October 2012 at 07:16
Not quite sure I follow your train of thought to that link, JK, but I suspect the shooter had been up at the still! And you being an ex-sailor is not a defence, it's grounds for prosecution allowing society to get its retaliation in first!
Able, I absolutely agree.
Posted by: David Duff | Monday, 22 October 2012 at 08:55