“That one can convince one’s opponents with printed reasons, I have not believed since the year 1764. It is not for that purpose that I have taken up my pen, but rather merely to annoy them, and to give strength and courage to those on our side, and to make it known to the others that they have not convinced us.”
G.C. Lichtenberg (1742 – 1799), courtesy of 'Deogolwulf'
A re-animating monster: every degradation of the 20th century visited, and with each atrocious failure a turn to the next: race socialism, class socialism, the psychotically arrogant authoritarian with a psychopathic lack of empathy, not one mention of Liberty, his spinning needle finally coming to rest on Liberal Fascism.
If the New Dark Age ever needed a founding father. Tomorrow belongs to HG Wells.
The Russia investigation: confirmed as totally incompetent, corrupt, and a political assault using the resources of the state, with no conviction of the Don, as we already knew. It is its own story, but this is about the total lack of coverage in the left MSM.
Here's a screenshot of my google search for "graham russia investigation" ...
Where's CNN, WAPO, NYT, BBC et al? No where to be seen.
The US election was a fake before the votes were cast, let alone counted. That level of media manipulation voids any election. 70% of Russians voted for Vlad because the Rooskie media is a stitch-up and the opposition suppressed. It's a phoney democracy.
People are entitled to rise up with violence when democracy has failed and becomes re-elected tyranny.
In the middle of the Covid pandemic, the NHS calls up young and middle aged people to have flu jabs, in such numbers it overwhelms the GP's administering the Covid jabs, and in spite of flu being trace this year due to the lockdowns ...
GPs are warning of growing chaos after NHS chiefs urged millions of healthy middle-aged people to demand flu jabs in the middle of the Covid crisis.
They said switchboards have collapsed under the weight of calls from those who received a letter from health chiefs telling them to come forward now even though flu levels are very low.
The latest figures for England suggest that more than 13 million people – including around 1.7 million healthy people aged 50 to 64 – have received the flu jab this winter. Meanwhile, just 2.5 million people have received a Covid jab against targets for 15 million to get one by next month.
And then the NHS urges GP's to dispose of any surplus Covid vaccines they have, rather than give them as the second dose to NHS staff or others, because HMG told them not to give second doses ...
Local NHS leaders are forcing GPs to throw away vaccines rather than give second doses, medics have revealed.
Doctors who are organising clinics at short notice and find they have several injections left are being warned that they cannot use them on staff or any patients who have already received their first jab.
While it is understood some are refusing to comply, others are said to be fearful that their supplies will be cancelled if they do not follow instructions.
I feel physically sick to my soul. The relentless insanity and cruelty, the atrocity of 91,000 dead, the loneliness of being surrounded by people brainwashed to cult status, the agony of watching America tread down the same path to the slaughterhouse.
Not sure I can do this much more. Maybe you will be pleased to know.
Perhaps, just perhaps, 'The Donald' has succeeded in providing America, in general, and future Presidents, in particular, with an invaluable lesson. From now on, Presidents will know with absolute certainty that there are limits to their power. Delusions of grandeur, of course, will continue because they are all part of the toxic atmosphere of presidential politics in the USA but from now on, the political ghost of Donald Trump will haunt the corridors of the White House and act as a reminder to new incumbents that there is a power greater than themselves which will, if required, act with crushing effectiveness.
Happily on this occasion, the threat to America and everything it stands for was mostly individual and in no way backed by military forces or overwhelming masses. Even so, it could so very easily have qualified under the heading of 'A damned fine thing, the finest thing you ever saw' in which, of course, the word "fine" is used in the early 19th century sense as meaning 'close run'. I will use some more 'olde worlde' English to provide Donald with a parting message: "You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately... Depart, I say; and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!"
How could Bojo forget the bacon butties in the negotiations last year? He eats enough of them by the looks of things, serious Covid and 7 mile cycle rides in breach of lockdown rules make no dents on his spare tyre(s), no Sireee!
This is a disaster, how am I gonna survive if I can't take my Branston pickle and Tetley English breakfast teabags to Czech Rep when we start flying again - oh Gawd, and the half a pig, sausages, and Slivovice we bring home on the way back! And no more Czechie mustard, num-nums! You bastards!
And now the supermarkets are empty of fresh fruit and veg at home as well! ...
And the state has started to get into food distribution, with the predictable rip-off and shambles that makes the former Soviet Union and Ost Bloc look good! ...
£30 turned into £5 by the state's incompetent procurement teams! Jeez, it's only their first day in this new market, imagine what they'll be like after 75 years of decline like the NHS.
Fluffbun has a message for y'all: She didn't apply for her Brit passport to be transported back to Czech Republic circa pre-1989!
You've managed to create an incredible new unique and peculiar blend of national socialism, a sort of Captain Mainwaring meets Adolf and VI Lenin. The sheer fascinating horror of the new records in the realms of state clusterf**kery this one is going to break might make Brexit worth it.
So, good call 23rd June 2016. I am going to enjoy ramming it down your throats until oblivion puts us all out of our misery!
I remain as addicted to books as I have been for some seventy years but, alas and alack, my actual reading of them has fallen away - bit like my sex life, really! Consequently the pile of 'waiting to be read' books is actually blocking out the light round my armchair! This old-age lark really is quite insidious as the energy cells empty themselves and defy replenishment. Even as I tap this piece of non-news out on my computer-thingie, sitting on the desk before my eyes is a book by Kenneth Macksey entitled: Why the Germans Lost the War: The Myth of German Military Superiority.
The title really intrigued me because I have long believed that when it comes to the art and craft of warfare the Germans far exceed any others. Actually, thinking about it, I suspect that it is the art of tactics at which they excel, strategy is beyond them - thank God! For example, apart from loonies like Hitler, did anyone in the German High Command really believe they could conquer the entirety of Europe? True, they did come close but when it comes to war, close is never close enough!
Anyway, I must give myself a kick and get reading again!
Some good news - for a change:Courtesy of The Mail I bring you these glad tidings:
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will never return to social media after claiming to have dealt with an 'almost unsurvivable' amount of abuse, a source has claimed.
Ohdearwhatapitynevermind! Don't worry about being missed - you won't be!
Three cheers for 'plucky little, er, Taiwan', actually: 'The Donald', in a last mischievous throw of his Presidential dice, has lifted all previous American restrictions on Taiwan - and about time, too! 'Xi Ping-a-ling' will not be amused!
The Scottish Play - no, not that one, the real one! Yet more obscurity from me - sorry, sorry! I refer to the current claymore fight going on in Edinburgh between the Sturgeon clan and the Salmond clan. It is always amusing to learn, yet again, that the smaller the territory the more vicious is the fight. Let us hope that neither party applies that favourite Scottish ploy and 'puts their heed in wi' their bonnet on!'
That Starmer fella' is beginning to impress me! I am grateful - again! - to Guido for informing me of this:
Blatant double standards by an unaccountable authoritarian power.
Twitter then removes all of Trump's previous tweets and destroys the meaning of the free discussions that had embedded them. Google removes Parler, the right wing social media network, from the app store.
Airbrushing history in our faces. Shutting down freedom of speech and association in plain view.
Democratic authoritarianism has reached out to the statist monopolies of the private sector and received succour.
Democracy has failed through over-reach in the US. It is no different to Zimbabwe or Russia.
Time to press the reset button and restate the supremacy of Liberty over Democracy. Bring your AR15.
The Putsch has failed. The US military has refused to acquiesce. It has become impossible for Donald Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act or resort to force in a final throw of the dice.
The Pentagon and the National Guard are already answering to a chastened vice-president Mike Pence, acting in concert with leaders of Congress. Effective power has passed. The Trump presidency no longer exists. Trump has been forced to accept an “orderly transition”. He had no choice!
Thank God and praise the Constitution! Also, praise the American political 'club', normally buried in insults, which almost unanimously revolted against Trump's criminal stupidity! All great nations have their testing times and this has been one of America's greatest. They passed with flying colours!
I have hoped, in fact I nearly prayed, that Donald Chump Trump would never, ever, have to face truly serious pressure exerted on the very foundations of the United States. I hoped that he would 'stumble-bum' his way through the choppy waters of American politics providing us all with a chuckle or three as he did so and then simply - GO! Well he nearly made it but now on the very last laps he is steering the ship of state straight towards the very rocks which could sink the whole edifice. That, of course, is exactly and precisely the outcome desired by the extreme Left lurking in the shade of the once responsible Democratic party.
With the other global threat hovering over us all, who the hell needs an American crisis? The smile on the face of Xi Ping-a-ling grows broader by the day!
It seems to have degenerated like a Napoleonic battle, where at dawn there are shoulder to shoulder formations, all smart and lively, and by dusk it's like a bar room brawl spread all over a couple of miles of countryside!
If anyone could write an overview of what just happened, where we are at now, and what happens next, to get me up-to-date, please do, because I haven't got a bloody clue!
And Indonesia's got a population of 268 million, 4 times that of Blighty at 65 million, so actually borderline pussy-zone.
There'll be no Nuremberg Trials. No criminal negligence investigations. No-one will go to prison. There won't even be any sackings. Dido Harding and her ilk will march on, ploughing Brits into the earth.
There's a point of no return in tyranny. When the education and media industries have indoctrinated all living generations, nothing will stop the death camp until external actors intervene.
And now the only external actor Blighty had resides outside the Brexit Curtain, so it's straight line decline until fall.
Before you dismiss my title as wishful thinking - think about it! There are hard times - no, seriously hard times! - approaching and the structure is not sound. There are two main fault lines running through the structure, the north/south one which divides the 'Scandies' and the 'Meds', and the east/west one which divides the impoverished eastern bloc from the more affluent west.
By June 2020, according to EU statistics, Greece’s national debt to annual GDP ratio stood at 187.4 per cent, Italy 149.4 per cent, Portugal 126.1 per cent, France 114.1 per cent. The battle to mutualise a small part of the debt has again pushed to one side the fundamental structural problem with the EU, the Euro: undervalued for some (Germany and the northern states) and overvalued for others (Italy and the southern states).
Needless to say, the Germans and the Scandies just 'lurve' operating on world markets with a falsely lowered exchange rate. Not sure what the Italians make of it because no-one asks them!
Thanks to the common-sense of the Brit 'peeps', we're out of it!
So, "Off we go again, happy as can be; all good friends and jolly good company"! - who snorted? I don't quite know why I am so cheerful? After all, it's freezing cold, everything is shut down and the misery is mounting! In some - many? - cases, I mean real misery! For many this last year has became apocalyptic and there are precious few indications of any improvements. It's a bit reminiscent of those endlessly long 't.a.b.s'* we had to do in the army loaded down with full kit. They just seemed to go on and bloody on and then on a bit more but, of course, in the end they did finish and it was time for a 'brew up'!
I have no great confidence in Boris and his accomplices doing the right thing at the right time but, to be fair, I'm not all that sure exactly what is the right thing to do! I must confess immediately that, fortunately, the 'Memsahib' and I live comfortably in a warm house and whilst we are far from being mega-rich we do have the means to keep things going. Looking back on my earlier life when I was totally dependent on a single working mother with only her weekly wage to keep us, I do have a rough idea how some people must be feeling the strain.
Well, unusual for the BBC to be on the ball, but here's the truth about how Blighty just kissed goodbye to the last, and best, vestige of the Iron Lady's legacy, namely, the Single Market, Four Freedoms, and State Aid Rules ...
The Prime Minister has succeeded in taking the UK out of the Single Market created by his heroes. The UK now stands outside a system that it helped invent. For now its new single market is not the size of the country. The test of all of this, is to make the UK's new single market, the size of the globe.
4. Has just contributed to the massacre of 70,000 Brits in excess deaths, 60,000 of which occured in the three months of the first wave of Covid, 3 times the rate the Wehrmacht, Kriegsmarine, and Luftwaffe managed in any three month period in WWII.
Meanwhile, Norway's excess deaths fell during the same three month period, so much so the only industry Norway had to bail out was the funeral directors because not enough people were dying ...
5. Has 1.4 million staff, the 5th largest employer in the world after McDonald's, Walmart, the US DOD, and the Chinese Army, yet still doesn't have enough doctors and nurses. So Brits wait weeks to see a GP, months to see a consultant, and years to have an operation, and the Nightingale hospitals have to be dismantled because there are no doctors and nurses ...
When, oh when, will Blighty yield up a pol, just one pol, who's honest and courageous enough to tell the Brits the emperor has no clothes? That the NHS is broken by design, and failed in practice?
A mini-Auschwitz operating in plain view, like the BBC, another state failure, harbouring the celebrity paedophile Jimmy Saville in plain view for three decades.
The "R.I.H." in my title stands for 'Rest In Hell'! And I sincerely hope - alas, I don't 'do' praying! - that you share your space there with the late, and equally vile and treacherous, Kim Philby. Did both of these despicable traitors truly believe that Soviet Russia was the idealistic heaven the world was waiting for? That Stalin and his henchmen were the saviors of Mankind? If so, they were both as stupid and ignorant as they were treacherous!
Sweet Mother of God, I didn't think it possible to trump Liam Halligan's leftist blue socialist diatribe, but here it is from Tim Stanley. And remember, these two write for the Daily Telegraph, the broadsheet of the Right ...
I just vomited in mouth a little at the warm up ...
First, Brexit makes the argument for social democracy, and its construction, a little easier. Many Tories wanted to leave the EU as a means of reducing the size of the state; recall Mrs Thatcher’s warning at Bruges in 1988 that Britain hadn’t defeated socialism at home only to have it imposed from overseas. But Brexit in practice is so disruptive that it justifies more state intervention, not less. No-deal preparations hinged on the Government promising to subsidise affected industries, and a mix of Covid cash and redevelopment money might soften the blow of compromises made in the trade deal for fishing towns.
Then this ...
State aid played a big role in the talks because the economy is changing and the UK wants the flexibility to support emerging industries (the plan seems to be to turn the Highlands into Cape Canaveral). Remainers were also wrong when they presupposed that liberation from regulatory alignment would mean Britain will weaken its rules: to assuage those very fears, the Tories are talking about strengthening them, starting with animal welfare. The tone of our politics is shifting to the centre‑Left, towards themes of solidarity and investment, and Boris Johnson won his majority because he moved with it, offering a brand of patriotic social democracy that isn’t a million miles from Old Labour.
"The plan seems to be to turn the Highlands into Cape Canaveral?" WTF is he talking about? Who's going to be in charge, Dido Harding? Would you get into a rocket designed and built by Dido Harding?
The "tone of our politics is shifting to the centre-Left", "solidarity and investment" comrade, mixed with a "brand of patriotic social democracy", like a blend of Old Labour and fascism.
And then the absolutely clear admission of the exact benefit of Maggie's Single Market, Four Freedoms, and State Aid rules, with the ECJ as judge and jury: The constitutional gap filler against rampant statism, collectivisation, socialism, and ludicrous "popular will" that have destroyed states the world over throughout history ...
New Labour’s gamble that Europe would quietly impose social reform that English voters might otherwise stonewall was naive; in a series of essays for the London Review of Books, Perry Anderson has built the case for the opposite. Among the revelations is that the founding judges on the European Court of Justice included fascist collaborators, that the ECJ’s landmark case asserting the supremacy of European law was in protest at an act of nationalisation, and that the court has ruled against the interests of trade unions. The effect of “constitutionalising… issues like the permissibility of state aid”, writes Anderson, has been to protect judicial decrees “against any ordinary exercise of the popular will”, a legal barrier to democratic socialism.
And I said this 5 years ago, as y'all know, bloody plagiarist Stanley - Sue Grabbit & Runne have been informed ...
Secondly, just as Brexit is a chance for Britain to become more like Britain, it could help Labour rediscover itself.
As BoJo starts the decline, old Labour will complete the fall ...
But the referendum summoned ghosts of a time when Labour MPs were pro-world and romantically in love with their own country. As Peter Shore said in that famous Oxford debate of 1975, the pro-Common Market position was a vote against Britain’s ability to run itself.
"The pro-Common Market position was a vote against Britain's ability to run itself". Well there it is, what I've been saying for 5 years (Sue Grabbit & Runne better accept "no-win-no-fee" terms on this one). That's why every poll since Theresa May took charge has been pro-Remain: The Brit people can see they've been conned and made a horrible mistake, the rotten political class is worse than it was when Blighty joined the EU.
But so much for Tim Stanley's "popular will" now though, eh? The chance for the Brit peeps to enact their will and swallow their pride - no chance. Now the Brexiteers have conned their way past the Brit peeps there's no more "popular will" allowed.
Like the German election of 1933, once in there's no more elections.
Liam Halligan logs the whole money tree forest in one fell swoop. Do you think he's running for parliament in the next election?
As follows: -
Levelling up, eh? ...
Average annual earnings are 30pc higher in London than the UK average, and 50pc above those in the North East. GDP per head in the UK’s 90th income percentile region is 2.25 times higher than the 10th percentile part of the country, compared with 1.7 times in the US and 1.6 in France. On this standard regional inequality measure, Britain is the most imbalanced developed nation on earth.
A half-baked argument that hides two inner inconvenient truths.
Firstly, America achieves comparatively low regional disparity by the purest of Thatcherite doctrines: Norman Tebbit's "On yer bike!" principle. Look at the regional populations of the states ...
Many are simply empty if there's no productive base. Americans don't expect handouts to stay put. If there's no work they hitch up their trailer if they're working class or fly coast to coast if they're middle class, and go where the jobs are. The best leveller-upper known to economics: mobility of labour.
Also, looking at the regional income disparity between US states, one wonders if Liam is telling porkies about America's imbalances being less than Blighty's? ...
One heck of a spread. New York second from the top at $85k per person, Arkie at fiftieth on $42k. But do we see JK with his begging bowl out and shoved under the swamp's nose? Liam doesn't publish his figures for claiming that Blighty is the "most imbalanced developed nation on earth", so we don't know.
But accepting Liam's claim that the US is less imbalanced than Blighty, he should be endorsing "On yer bike!" Thatcherite labour mobility to match the American solution he himself quotes!
Secondly, France. Who wants to be like France, FFS!? Well, only a died in the wool blue socialist would want the state at 60% of GDP, feeding off the deficit teat of German debt worthiness. QED on Halligan and the Johnsonite Tory party's political colours.
I mean, did Blighty do Brexit to be more like France? How extraordinary: Brexiteers voted to leave the EU states in order to become more like the EU states!
And remember, we aren't feeding off the deficit teat of German debt worthiness. Our limit before the market turns on Blighty's debt is considerably lower than France in the Euro system. Blighty's magic money forest is not augmented by Teutonic budget surpluses.
In Stuart Sweeney's book "The Europe illusion", he illuminates the contribution to faith in socialism that was made in the 1945-75 era by the Marshall plan. Blighty took 25% of the cash, more than Germany and France! The latter day magic money forest got a boost, fuelling expectation that the state was the infinite be-all-and-end-all of free consumption and investment.
But at least the Marshall Plan boost was real! In exchange for handing over Blighty's empire, Uncle Sam gifted Blighty with a massive dollop of wonga - and unwittingly fueled faith in socialism in his "special relationship" pal. Brexit Blighty has no equivalent to France's Teutonic underwriter or the Yank backhander of yesteryear.
But then Liam opines ...
But can this Johnson government afford it? ...
The Government borrowed £285bn between April and November, three times the previous nine-month record. With new restrictions set to remain in place until spring, after mass vaccination, borrowing could soar well over £400bn during the 2020/21 fiscal year. Since April, VAT receipts are 42pc down on the same period in 2019, while furloughing, benefits payments and business support grants mean spending is 39pc up.
UK government expenditure has risen more as a share of GDP than any other large European economy.
Well if Blighty can't afford the state spending splurge he just espoused, why go on about it?! In fairness to Halligan a half decent socialist would simply have missed out the affordability to avoid the risk of appearing incoherent. So Liam just goes straight for incoherence!
Then this ...
In tackling this policy conundrum, ministers should remember that how money is spent can be even more important than how much.
Sweet Mother of God! How is it possible that someone can still believe that politicians are some kind of Bill Gates, Alan Sugar, or Richard Branson: super-CEO's filtered up as winners through and through the operational Olympics of the independent sector to the medals podium? The pols and their acolytes in the civil service, public sector, and welfare state haven't run so much as a ruddy whelkstall in the free market, let alone bestrode the podium! Yet Liam thinks a quick word of reminder from him, "Do it right, alright", and all will be well. F. F. S. !!! No pol, ever in human history, has ever outperformed the operational Olympics of the independent market sector for the money. They will never "Do it right, alright", otherwise we'd all be celebrating Venezuela, the former Soviet Union and Ost Bloc, or North Korea. Somewhere there'd be some state whose pols had got on the podium with the super-CEO's, but there are none!
And then, bursting with re-envigorated "You don't wanna do it like that, you wanna do it like this" energy ...
... Liam decides he knows how to "back winners", and lays on thick his own "How to do it right, alright" ...
The Midlands and North, in particular, suffer from ghastly bus and train links. So, finally scrap – or at least put on ice – the vastly overpriced HS2 North-South super train and upgrade local commuter services into cities like Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle.
As working patterns change post-Covid, they’ll continue to be used far more than intercity routes.
Build better links between our big Northern cities – revamping the West-East trans-Pennine line, from Liverpool to Newcastle and Hull, creating a growth centre to rival London and the South East.
Widen Manchester’s “Castlefield corridor”, a mile-long train bottleneck that has blighted the Northern capital for decades. The vital Birmingham to Coventry corridor could be similarly eased, cheaply addressing capacity constraints that have long held back the UK’s second city.
And how about finally electrifying the rail network across the North and Midlands, much of which still relies on slow, infrequent diesel trains, many using rolling stock made from converted bus carriages?
The second thing is to more obviously align Brexit with levelling up. Outside the EU, the UK regains control over billions of pounds of “cohesion fund” spending, which can tackle regional inequalities. Free of Brussels’ state aid rules, government can back industries of the future, not least artificial intelligence and biotech.
Did Harry Enfield's character ever have such a real world instantiation as Liam and the army of blue socialists now upon us?
Then he begins the round off with a drop in tax, as if yet another magic money forest had sprouted from the earth ...
We need to hear much more about freeports and enterprise zones, low-tax jurisdictions bringing investment and prosperity to deprived areas – again, only possible outside the EU. And what about research and development tax credits and other post-Brexit regulatory tweaks, again with a regional focus?
Btw, if freeports are so great, why not make the whole of Blighty a freeport? Why not do the full Singapore-on-Thames and get GDP per capita up to $65k across the board ...
The finale being an "all things to all men" flourish of incoherence ...
Finally, ministers need to emphasise that genuine, sustainable growth is driven, above all, by the private sector.
Infrastructure projects, while seeded by central government, should be largely financed by commercial infrastructure bonds. High-speed broadband rollout is vital – and again, private sector players have a huge part to play. More housebuilding is vital too, not least social housing – once more, harnessing both private and public sector funding.
While levelling up costs money, the emphasis must be on tax breaks and vigorous supply-side reform.
And what if the private sector tells you to stick your blue socialist French model up your arse and does a runner, Liam?
What are you gonna do then?
Hand over to the Labour party and the true red socialists to finish the job, that's what you're gonna do, Liam.
Just like the 1970's, but it's ok, I won't say I've been telling you so since June 23rd 2016.
At last, at last, just as I was worrying that I might die before my country regained its independence, we managed to break free! For me, it truly is the very best Xmas gift I could wish for! No more of those snooty, Brit-hating French telling us what to do, or those haughty Germans telling us what we must not do! After what seems like forever, we are free again! Yes, of course, we will almost certainly make 'a pig's ear' of it because that is the traditional British way - just check our exceedingly chequered history! But, they will be our mistakes, our errors and now we will be free to correct them through the Parliamentary system which we developed on our own to suit ourselves. Positively, the very best political Xmas present I have ever received, apart from the German surrender 10 days before my Birthday in 1945!
Finally, my very best wishes to you all and I hope you enjoy an excellent Christmas!
So Brexit Blighty has got its new names from the world's media: "Plague Island", and "The Dirty Man of Europe". ("The Dirty Man of Europe" is actually an old name from 1975 when Blighty joined the EU, our beaches were so filthy and our air pollution so rancid after 30 post-war years of Westminster being in charge, hence the name was coined. Back to the 70's eh? It's ok, I won't say I told you so) ...
For those outside the DT's paywall, here's the gist ...
The Spanish newspaper, ABC, tied Britain's isolation to Brexit. France also jumped on this bandwagon; a piece in Le Figaro said: "Ten days from Brexit the UK has effectively been cut off from Europe ... in a disastrous foretaste of what could happen with the scheduled divorce of 31 December."
Likewise, a headline in regional newspaper Sud Ouest read: 'Cut off from the world, the UK fears chaos'. And, on the French radio station, France Info, one journalist said Britain's isolation "is concentrating British minds on the consequence
And by George and all the Saints, here's the Graun actually criticizing Blighty's state, out of whose arse the sun normally shines ...
No paywall on the Graun, you can read the damning truth of Brexit Blighty garnered from the world's media in that article.
Where to go? What to do? Well good old Gibraltar looks like it's been smelling the coffee since 23rd June 2016, and a prosperous and free future for its citizens is just a few negotiation days away - while the rest of Blighty sinks into oblivion ...
They're joining the Schengen zone, so they don't have to show their passports at the border or get a visa, they can move freely into Spain and Europe's leading states. Freedom and prosperity in one hit, what we used to have ...
Spanish newspaper El País reported on Tuesday that Gibraltar and Spain are close to a deal that would allow for free movement across the border, with Gibraltar entering the Schengen space.
Ironically, the change forced by Brexit would bring Gibraltar closer to the EU than ever, with UK visitors still required to show their passports on arrival in the territory, while anyone crossing from Spain into Gibraltar or vice versa would walk through an open border.
How long before the rest of Blighty falls apart: Northern Ireland folding into the Republic of Ireland, and Scotland joining the EU directly?
When her Maj asked, "Give me three reasons why Blighty shouldn't do Brexit?", I replied, "The prosperity of Blighty, the unity of Blighty, and peace in Blighty".
It helps that the news is so depressingly repetitive that I don't really read or watch it anymore. The Memsahib and I stay at home as much as possible and confine ourselves to peeping through the curtains from time to time to confirm the world is still 'out there'! Of course, Boris continues to suffer non-stop 'incoming' and no doubt he has committed many an error but would any other politician do any better? Imagine if 'Jezza' and his Marxist fanatics had been in charge - "Oh the horror, the horror"!
It is some slight comfort that Xmas is almost here to lighten the gloom. However, what I fear is next year. We still have a couple of months of winter to get through and then, although the weather will begin to improve, nothing much else will! That's when the wailing and the shrieking will reach new heights.
In the meantime, keep safe and well, my many e-friends, where-ever you are.
I apologise for my absence and, of course, it was not SoD's fault at all, In fact, he has been an absolute diamond in making all the arrangements, legal and religious for the funeral of the late 'Auntie Babs'. He's a cracking good lad and I am exceedingly grateful.
Of course, what with all that plus this bloody 'Covid-thingie' I confess I am not particularly up to date with all those "Events, dear boy, events!" The only thing that is manifestly clear is that next year is going to be sheer, unmitigated hell! Mind you, we need to remind ourselves that we have been through sundry hells, many a time and oft', and we always stagger out of it eventually - just in time for the next one!
Over this coming weekend I promise to try and catch up with politics, local and international, and offer you my opinion - "a poor thing, Sir, but mine own!" Mind you, I am being dragged out tomorrow at the crack of dawn to assist the 'Memsahib' in her final Xmas shop. Such fun!
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