The Sunday Rumble: 12.11.17

I hope he's right:   According to Mr. Dan Hodges, a political scribbler I take seriously, the Brexiteers in the cabinet, led by Boris and Gove, have decided to exert their power by insisting that Mrs. May takes a very much tougher stance in the Brexit negotiations.  In her very English way, Mrs. May has tried to be conciliatory in her dealings with the EU apparat, and they, true to form, have taken that as weakness and are now holding a knife to her throat.  However, if Boris and Gove have their way it will become clear that the knife blade is made of rubber because they will respond to European intransigence by telling 'Junck the Drunk' and his 'thugocracy' that 'no deal' is very much better than abject surrender. I am also happy that for once my political prognostication, that the Euros would never compromise, has proven to be correct.  Well, there has to a first time for everything!

 

Nelson as he really was:   A couple of posts down below I reprinted some satirical nonsense illustrating how today's PC culture might have operated on board HMS Victory.  Today we have more Nelsonian news with the discovery of a portrait of the great man executed during his lifetime but later covered up to hide Nelson's battle scars.  The painting has been cleaned up and so now we can see him as he was, scars and all.

Actually, with his hat pushed back slightly on his head and looking rather melancholy, he looks as though he had enjoyed a good night out in Portsmouth which is, of course, a tradition with matelots!  To be serious, it is worth remembering that apart from his personal courage the most important part of his story is that he possessed a deep understanding of naval warfare in his era.  It was this that allowed him to execute the daring approach at Trafalgar when he ignored the tradition of sailing parallel to the enemy line and instead approached it in two separate lines thus volunteering to have his 'T' crossed, not once but twice.  

 

The biggest booby of a 'Bobby', ever!   I refer, of course, to Chief Constable Dogberry Mike Veal of the Wiltshire Police, the man responsible for wasting £1.5 million quid 'investigating' the fantasies of a convicted paedophile currently serving time in the slammer who claimed that the late Sir Edward Heath was also a paedophile.

Sir Richard Henriques has criticised the Wiltshire Police investigation into the former prime minister for treating as a victim a serial paedophile who is Sir Edward’s chief accuser

According to The Telegraph, the High Court judge who exposed the Met Police for wasting police time in their fruitless search for a paedophile network in Parliament, has also accused Chief Constable 'Plonker' and his Keystone Cops of perpetrating the same errors.  One is forced to ask if this man is capable of issuing a parking ticket?

 

I want Melania to have my babies:

But first of all, she really must get rid of that aging hair-dresser who seems to follow her around.  I have been exceedingly impressed with Melania who seems to cope with her impossible job exceedingly well and who always, even in the most casual of clothes, looks the very essence of elegant.  I shall expect a prompt reply to my offer!

 

I'm being followed, I tell you!   Everywhere I go, in the papers, the mags, the internet, there they are - the same two books!  And more books, just at the moment, I need like a hole in the head!  The first is Stalin: Waiting for Hitler 1928-1941 by Stephen Kotkin.  From the reviews there appear to be no surprises although Mr. Kotkin's scholarship is praised.  But, honestly, who really wants to wade through the rivers of blood that that stupid, ignorant son of a serf created?  We Brits think that Chamberlain was dim, dumb and deluded in his dealings with Hitler but Stalin was a total dupe and a dope as well as being criminally insane!

 

 

And the other book haunting me is:   The Mayflower Generation: The Winslow Family and the fight for the New World by Rebecca Fraser.  I may have mentioned this one earlier and, alas, the tale it tells is almost Shakespearean in its theme of hope followed by tragedy.  It tells the story of the first boatload of 50 or so Puritans who landed in Plymouth in the New World.  To begin with Indians and settlers worked well together and genuine friendships arose but then "that old common arbitrator, Time" marched on and more settlers arrived and . . . well, we all know the end story.

 

Maybe 'Lord' Lewis Hamilton is in order:    Alas, I was unable to watch the Brazilian Grand Prix because my ex-best friend, Rupe, charges far too much for his TV coverage.  However, reading the minute-by-minute reports by The Telegraph it appears that (Lord) Lewis started from the pit lane but ended up in fourth place and only a whisker away from gaining a podium third place.  What a racer!

 

 

No more rumbles tonight

 

 

Comments

[Loz]

"In her very English way, Mrs. May has tried to be conciliatory in her dealings with the EU apparat"

Balls.

It's nothing to do with her "very English way".

She knows if she backs the Brexiteers or the Remoaners in order to present a "strong and stable" front to the EU, the rejected side will eviscerate her, destroy the Tory party, and get Corbyn elected for sure.

So this "conciliatory" tone is only there because in keeping the two factions in the broadest of broad churches she is so hobbled a "conciliatory" tone is the only one on offer.

Neither faction is willing to make the move and grab power. The Brexiteers know they will get a hard Brexit if they can just keep May and the status quo going until the time runs out. The Remoaners won't act until Blighty's in recession and unemployment ticks up generating a groundswell against Brexit from the hoi-poloi. Hence it will be the EU who will decide if anything happens before the time runs out and we get a default hard Brexit.

Mutti will be back soon, in what condition to be seen. Macron's laid out his table and is waiting for her to join him. Junck-the-Drunk, well, we know where he stands - it's got to be painful.

All that lot will come together next year and decide Blighty's future.

Same as it ever was.

What an irony Brexit is: it's given the continental executives even more power in deciding Blighty's future than when we were in the EU.

Good call, Brexiteers!

SoD

[Loz]

Tic tac toe, two hypocrites in a row ...

Gove ...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41958801

Rudd ...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/11/11/far-right-groups-trying-hijack-poppy-saysamber-rudd/

There's Gove, proclaiming animal rights in Blighty, when only a while ago he was berating the EU for its habitats regulations that caused a blanket ban on new home building in Surrey - his constituency and mine - due to the existence of large but diminishing populations of "ground nesting birds" on the common lands that are a feature of Surrey that were threatened by more cat owners and dog walkers.

And there's Amber "Don't tell him your name, Pike" Rudd berating far right parties for expropriating the image of the poppy who only a year ago wanted businesses to "name and shame" their foreign workers.

The pol class of Blighty is comprised of the absolute barrel-scrapings of Blighty's "elites" gene pool. The incompetence, negligence, hypocrisy, lack of principles, cowardliness, has never been so prominently expressed from the political DNA of the establishment as it is now.

And you chose to steer us into their exclusive jurisdiction over us when they were being held in check by another power.

When it comes to barrel scrapings of the gene pool perhaps it's "turtles all the way down" the class structure. Didn't someone once say, "In a democracy, the people get the government they deserve"?

SoD

[backofanenvelope]

I was going to say, SoD, that your faith in the EU leadership is touching..... But maybe hilarious is the right word.

The German Chancellor is trying to cobble together a coalition of 3 parties with rather strong views, different to hers. Whilst at the same time coping with 3 or 4 million Muslim savages. The French have a president who married his granny, hardly encouraging.

We should just tell them what we want and ask how much? With the French it is always about money. They don't care tuppence about the Irish or the EU expats.

[Whitewall]

Interesting juxtaposition of Lord Nelson right after the Brexit piece and before the "Keystone Cops" piece!

[Frank]

I saw that Nelson picture and thought somebody had Photoshopped Paul Daniel's face onto it.

[Pat]

The problems we are having with Brexit negotiations are caused by their being conducted with the EU itself. The EU is primarily concerned with its own power, wealth and prestige, and the fate of the people only registers when member Governments pressure the EU. Sadly the member Governments are pretty weak right now, too preoccupied with other things to look after the interests of their peoples'. Hence the EU is getting away with screwing them in an attempt to screw us.
Should we just leave the fate of the peoples of Europe in the hands of their respective Governments, and just look after our own interests, then the negotiation problem will disappear.

[Loz]

"Should we just leave the fate of the peoples of Europe in the hands of their respective Governments, and just look after our own interests, then the negotiation problem will disappear ..."

... and the two millennia old resolution by military conflict will begin again.

SoD

[Pat]

I doubt Germany is about to invade either France or Poland regardless. The French don't seem set to re-establish their European empire either. Probably because they can see that such adventures will cost far more than any conceivable benefit.

[Bob]

David, compliments to your unusually sound judgement in choosing Melania over Donald.

[David Duff]

Thank you, Bob, but I am not in need of Specsavers!

[jimmy glesga]

The Brexit negotaitions are going ahead behind closed doors and a deal will be done or not.
It is in the court of the EU whether they try to bleed Britain of money or act sensibly and do a trade deal and we carry on as neighbours in a friendly manner.
It is really up to the EU. We Brits will prevail whatever the outcome.

[Whyaxye]

Nelson looks a bit miserable, because apart from his many serious injuries he was also very sickly, and seems hardly ever to have been in good health. It is all the more amazing that he was so brave and clear-headed when it came to naval warfare. The following article is interesting:

http://www.aboutnelson.co.uk/health.htm

[Loz]

"I doubt Germany is about to invade either France or Poland regardless."

Pipe bomb in Northern Ireland.

So soon. I thought they'd wait at least until hard Brexit and the border was closed.

And here's that "disputed territories in europe" wiki page ...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Disputed_territories_in_Europe

... Lest we forget.

SoD

[AussieD]

The Peerage? For a bloke whose sole contribution to mankind is driving a little motor car very fast around a closed track?

You have to stop smoking that wacky baccy Duffers.