The Sunday Rumble: 5.4.20

Bye-bye Jezza (yawn) hello Keir:  If what passes for the Labour Party thinks a posh, 'smoothie-chops' lawyer steeped in the 'woke' sentiments of metropolitan London is going to change the political sentiments of the country, they are dafter than a truly daft thing!  Keir Starmer has all the magnetism of a dummy in an M&S window!  However, before he attempts to win over the country, he needs to win over his own party.  The dribbling Reds who 'luuuuurved' 'Jezza will despise Starmer and the 'ay oop' working class will remain under-whelmed.  Good luck with that one, Keir, me old comrade!

D&N gains distinguished support:   I call in support of my post below, Sir John Jenkins, Senior Fellow at Policy Exchange and former UK Ambassador to Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.  In an excellent article for The Spectator - natch! - he finishes with these wise words:

Don’t trust China. Ever. This doesn’t mean not doing stuff that’s in our mutual interest. But we need to make damn sure it really is. Meanwhile distrust and verify.

Couldn't have put it better myself, er, well, I didn't but the sentiment is the same!

If you are short of things to read:   Then Mr. Douglas Murray, he of The Spectator, of course, offers four articles which stand out in his memory and urges us to read, or re-read, them.  You might as well give them a try, there's bugger all else to do!

The best café in the internet world!   I refer, of course, to Cafe Hayek and its distinguished owner, Don Boudreaux.  Here's an example of the excellent 'dishes' he serves up so regularly:

As best as I can judge, a Pres. Clinton (H. or B.) or Pres. Obama or Pres. Biden or Sanders or Warren or Klobuchar in this moment would likely have done some things better than Trump, but also would likely have done some things worse. The social-engineering itch of modern-day Democrats would have prevented any of them from easing some of the regulations that Trump justifiably eased, and would perhaps have, in addition, moved them to impose restraints and restrictions that Trump never dreamed of and which – although surely these would have been greeted with “Oooohs” and “Ahhhs” from the intellectual and entertainment-world elite – would perhaps have inflicted even graver damage on the economy than that which we are enduring now.

As matters stand, however, Trump is the excuse. It’s lazy. It’s largely mistaken. And, as such, it’s dangerous. But it’s oh-so convenient and cool.

It has been too long, far too long, since I last visited Mr. Boudreaux's excellent site.  That will be corrected!

Do buck up, Boris!   Just heard that Boris has been taken into hospital.  Given his 'crack on' personality that is definitely not good news!  I wish him well - soonest! - we need him.

 

No more rumbles tonight

 

 

Comments

[Whitewall]

"Don't trust China. Ever."
Like dealing with the former USSR, just on steroids. The economists and business honchos who told us that expanded trade with them would eventually reform their government's attitudes. Wrong. China like much of Asia is a "face" society. Face must be saved, be it Mr.Xi, or the communist party or both. And Xis is expendable.

[Glesga]

Whitewall, China can afford mass deaths like they did in Korea and they can carry on in their same old fashion. They are not allowed to send thousands of tourists to the West and that must continue.

[Whitewall]

AussieD, if you see this:
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/blogs/tim-blair/via-local-commie-underlings-beijing-officially-disapproves/news-story/491b415795fbbdc526d33d5b569134a4

Tim Blair published a masterpiece!

[Loz]

"Don't trust the US or the UK. Ever"

Seems like the US and UK were prime candidates for the origin of the Spanish flu back in 1917, and used fake news under the name "Spanish flu" to cover their tracks ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu#Hypotheses_about_the_source

At least the Don had the goddamn common decency to name the current virus by the place it really came from. For the 1917 virus "Uncle Sam Flu" or "British Bulldog Flu" might have had a bit of ring to them but, oh no-no-no, not in our name!

Who'da thunk it, eh?

Ref BoJo, don't get too worried, Gaffer. If he croaks then one can say every death is a tragedy of course, but there's plenty more fish in the pol pond where he came from. Like the Ost Blokkers said when that plane crashed in Poland killing 150 of their pols: "If it had been full of doctors and nurses we'd have a problem. Or engineers, or bus drivers. But it was full of pols, so no problem." Everything continued just fine. The stock market went up, GDP went up, unemployment went down, inflation went down that year.

SoD

[Loz]

When it comes to the NHS, I must read more Nietzsche ...

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/08/covid-19-has-exposed-folly-one-size-fits-all-health-service/

“Madness is something rare in individuals – but in groups, parties, peoples, and ages, it is the rule.”

SoD

[Loz]

By George and all the Saints, US cavalry to the rescue! ...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/09/us-firm-says-on-track-give-uk-100000-coronavirus-tests-day-thermo-fisher-scientific

I hope the Brit peeps wake up to the fact that the NHS has been totally effing useless throughout all of this. A national disgrace. Reform is not an option. Total replacement of the NHS with a insurance based, market supplied (and globalised market supplied at that, Whiters) system, like Germany, the Nordics, and the Tiger economies, is imperative.

There must be a pol with the courage, honesty, and leadership to tell the Brit peeps the 75 year old misery show is over and "do the right thing" as they say. To tell them "The envy of the world" was a whopping great lie hiding in plain view, the Jimmy Savile of the political, social and economic world.

There should be Nuremberg style trials for those senior public sector bastards at PHE and NHS who slaughtered so many Brits needlessly. Like there should have been a trial for them when they slaughtered 10,000 elderly and vulnerable people per annum by starvation and dehydration. Like there are trials for them for the record levels of negligence claims the NHS has against it today.

Tyranny begins where the law ends. And vice versa: The Law begins when tyranny ends.

But why am I not going to hold my breath waiting?

SoD

[Bob]

SoD,

Your dreams still might come true:

https://www.citylab.com/design/2018/04/the-unsinkable-dream-of-the-floating-city/559058/

Of course as soon as pirates showed up, Cloud Cuckoo Land residents would be begging for Big Government intervention. Now that would be fun to see.

[Loz]

Bob, we don't need an engineered floating island, we've got one already that needs dredging and starting from scratch in many respects!

SoD

[Loz]

Here's an illustrative one ...

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/04/09/resignation-eus-top-scientist-has-exposed-sheer-vanity-incompetence/

The top EU health aficionado just resigned / was sacked in a cloud of bad tempered recriminations.

Apparently he tried to do exactly what the Brexiteers accuse the EU of doing: control the nation states and assert authority over them on the coronavirus program of action. And the EU told him to eff off!

The EU revealed its true nature: That it is a mere treaty organisation, with the real sovereignty enshrined in the nation states who send their heads of state to form the so called "EU executive body".

The EU scarcely categorises as a confederacy, far less a federal state. The executive body is really just a treaty management committee with the nation states doing as they please, including withdrawing from the treaty if they wish as is the case with Blighty.

And then some jumped up little creep bounds onto the scene trying to assert authority and control over the nation states and the EU can't slap him down hard enough ...

This highlights that in a crisis the EU reverts to the deepest legal basis of its constitution and reveals it true nature.

Ferrari claims that there is a political thunderstorm in the EU in response to his plans to address this problem and that he has lost faith in the system where there is a clear absence of co-ordination of policies.

Indeed, with regards to healthcare, there has been none with perhaps a nod to the EU health card but that it is. Covid-19 has opened up a window to the inner rotten core that is the heart of Europe, a political project unable to deliver in a crisis.

Not only has there been an inability to coordinate but opposition to a financial support programme left the South of Europe seething against the richer north, a schism which could yet be terminal for Jean Monnet's dream of the united states of Europe.

And yet the dumb-arse DT Brexiteer who authored the article is admiring the sacked EU health aficionado for the very EU behaviour he once criticised the EU for: centralised authority dominating the nation states. And in parallel, he chastises the EU for the very behaviour he always wanted the EU to engage in: hands-off nation state soveriegnty and control!

You couldn't make it up!

SoD

[Bob]

First off, Mauro Ferrari was described as flamboyant, dynamic and a great communicator who could instigate change and get things done. I would suggest that anyone who fits that description shouldn't be allowed to run anything larger than a family business.

Secondly, you've made quite an about face on the merits of the EU. That would suggest an attraction to facile opinions.

Thirdly, the actual "United States" doesn't function all that smoothly either, and we've been at it longer than 80 years. Try to be more patient.