DUFF & NONSENSE!

Should old 'Shakespeak' be taught in 'skools'?

A minor 'kerfuffle' has broken out over whether or not Shakespeare should be taught in schools.  Well, of course he should!  Yes, most of the 'kiddie-winkies' will be bored even more witless than they are naturally but here and there a spark might be lit.  What probably does need changing is the way that Shakespeare is taught.  It's no good droning on and on about iambic pentameters and all that stuff, it will put them off it for life.  The only way to teach it is to make the little 'perishers' act it!  Make them say the words out loud and clear against their class-mates playing opposite roles.

"the play's the thing
Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King"

 

 

 

La (not so) Belle France!

Of course, being a Brit to my finger tips (although rumour has it that my toes might be Canadian!), I cannot resist a snigger and a chortle at the news of the former President of France doing the French equivalent of 'goin' up the ol' Bailey'.  Well, there's not much to laugh about these days so the sight of the diminutive but jumped-up Nicolas Sarkozy having to account for his past actions can bring Christmas cheer to us all.  Apparently, much of the case concerns 'loads'a moolah' shuttling between Sarkozy and some judge, and guess who is on the fringe of this, er, contretemps?  Why, our old ami, Muammar Gaddafi!  What's the French for "hoodathunkit"?

 

 

 

The Mad Mullahs mullered?

Don't know about you, but I'm getting this feeling that the Don, Israel, and the Saudis might be planning a parting shot for the Mad Mullahs?

The Don asked if it was possible and the generals said "Nah".  But was that a falsie to throw everyone off the scent?

Then the Israeli media reported Netanyahu meet MBS, and the Saudis denied it.

Something's afoot.

From a practical political point of view, a dirty great crater where the Iranian nuclear weapons project used to be would suit the three players fine - and a bigger crater where Sleepy Joe's Iran and Middle East strategy might have been, even finer.

And in four years when the Mad Mullahs resurface from under the rubble, they'll be just in time to meet the Don again after his re-election to see if they fancy some more of where that came from!

SoD

There are simply no words . . .

No, really, I mean it, there are no words, even for an old gas-bag like me!  And there are no words because there is bugger all happening!  Well, of course, if you live in central Africa, or the Bronx, or, heaven forfend, deepest darkest Liverpool, then no doubt there is plenty going on but 'down 'ere in dozy Zummerzet', it's all quiet on the South Western Front and long may it remain so!

National politics has withered.  Parliament looks and sounds like an empty echo chamber with half a dozen - on a good day! - MPs all sitting carefully in their own space - what would old 'Winnie' have made of them?  International affairs seem to have disappeared although, no doubt, beneath the surface there is much being perpetrated of which we know nothing - yet!  Social life is restricted to the occasional 'phone call to old friends when you learn the hard way that, really and truly, you do not have that much to say to each other.  Happily, as I have progressed steadily in my later years to being the anti-social 'grump' I was intended to be, none of it bothers me that much.

Have a nice day, y'all!

 

 

 

Over to you ...

Juliet Samuel on the money ...

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/11/21/real-coronavirus-scandal-not-corruption-shocking-state-failure/

 

The real coronavirus scandal is not corruption. It's shocking state failure. 

Our Government is firstly guilty of a failure of planning and foresight, despite years of assurances that it viewed a pandemic as a top threat and was brilliantly prepared. Secondly, once panic set in, ministers and civil servants seem to have gravitated towards the familiar. Why, for example, should a referral by an MP make a supplier more credible and worthy of a “priority lane”, unless you have a rather blinkered view of the world? Why appoint Dido Harding, a mediocre crony, to lead test and trace rather than paying up for someone experienced from Singapore or Taiwan? Why in April was I able to find and interview a company called AITbiotech that was already supplying Covid tests to the Singaporean government and had spare capacity, which the Government not only hadn’t contacted but then failed to follow up with once I put them in touch?

I don’t believe the answers to these questions have much to do with corruption. I believe they show that a huge swathe of this country’s top administrators and ministers are just not up to the job. If we obsess over the idea of a conspiracy to milk taxpayers using a handful of companies among thousands with tenuous links to the Tory Party, we risk overlooking the more serious problem. Our institutions just aren’t very good.

By all means, prosecute corruption where it’s found, but let’s just not miss the bigger picture. Our state does not promote and provide the skills needed to do its job. That, rather than petty corruption, is the really serious scandal of the Covid pandemic.

 

You heard it on D&N first - about 4 1/2 years ago.

Now that you've isolated us and locked us in with these serially incompetent at best and criminally negligent at worst authorities, just what do you propose doing about it?

SoD

Australian shame

Sorry, mates, but there are no other words for it!  I refer, of course, to the just released report into atrocities perpetrated by some 'Aussie' soldiers over nine years in Afghanistan.  Needless to say, but I will anyway, the British army from time to time has 'executed' similar operations around the world.  Nor am I even slightly surprised that an earlier 'investigation' by the Australian military 'found' that the shooting was in, er, "self-defence"!  What can one say except, 'Yeeeeeeeees, quite'!

I'm sure that the overwhelming majority of 'Aussies' will be sickened and ashamed by this report which, at least, will add pressure to the useless senior ranks of the Australian Army to do what they evidently failed to do 'back in the day' which was to exert discipline!  Having said all that, were I in some crazy world to find myself up the 'sharp end' of some conflict, there is no set of troops I would rather have alongside me than Aussies.

 

 

 

Has Keir Starmer got what it is going to take?

For the benefit of my foreign readers who no doubt have enough problems of their own without being bothered by a Brit 'hoo-ha-ha', I should explain that the Right Honourable Sir Keir Starmer MP, is the new leader of the Labour Party and yes, we should all send him our condolences!  Well, I mean, who in their right (or even Left) mind would want the job of leading that shambolic collection of twerps anywhere except, possibly, over Dover cliffs?!  I sense that Sir Keir's heart is in the right place but I am not sure that he realises that leading the Labour party is like herding chickens!

Well, actually, now he must realise it because having been bold enough to boot 'Jezza' Corbyn out of the leadership, elements of the Labour Party have promptly booted him back in!  It almost makes Boris look masterful!  Personally, I wish Sir Keir all the best in his endeavors because, as a nation, we have enough problems without Her Majesty's Loyal (well, sort of!) Opposition being controlled by a mixture of 'Bolshies', students and power-hungry Trades Unionists.

So, get a grip, Sir Keir, "No more Mr. Nice Guy!"

 

 

Dem bones

The road to hell is paved with good intentions, they say.  In the case of Socialism, the twisty little punchline is more direct: the road to Socialism is paved with the bones of the road makers ...

https://www.google.com/amp/s/metro.co.uk/2020/11/16/human-bones-mixed-with-sand-used-to-de-ice-road-in-russia-13603327/amp/

Russia's brutalities and atrocities literally poke out of the ground, layers of massacres under highways, execution pits filled with sand, and remember good old Dan Carlin's "bone fields" from his ground-breaking (no pun intended) podcast "Ghosts of the Ost Front"?

How is it possible that a political ideology, whose practical legacy was 120 million murders world-wide and to turn the largest state in the world by surface area into an open air human ossuary, is still in play at all today, let alone a major faction of the winning party (TBC) in an election for president of the United States of America?

SoD

'To deal or not to deal, that is the question!'

As regular readers know, I have always taken a hard line on our departure from the EU.  I have loathed and detested it since first we entered the wretched conglomeration and I remain steadfast, er, sort of, in making our escape.  Even so, today at The Spectator, Mr. James Forsyth gives me pause for thought particularly if the end result is 'no deal'.

No deal would be acrimonious. The EU would probably take a hard-line approach to border checks to try to force Britain back to the table. Boris Johnson would, as the Internal Market Bill proposes, override parts of the withdrawal agreement that he himself signed. The EU would take legal action.

It is impossible to believe that these tensions wouldn’t bleed across into other issues such as foreign policy and defence cooperation. The arguments that would follow a no-deal Brexit could poison UK-EU relations for years – undermining the Western alliance.

All probably true but just how much faith do we really have in the so-called 'Western Alliance'?  Would France and Germany stand by us should we be threatened directly by Russia?  'Maybe, baby'!  Today, can we depend on 'good ol' Joe Biden if Russian push comes to shove?  Well, yes, probably ...  possibly.  Far and away the most critical thing for HMG to do is hang on to our A-bombs and the means to deliver them.  They concentrate minds like nothing else!

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 15.11.20

Brexit is the true test of Boris:   God knows - and He's not too sure! -  what Boris will get up to now that he has disposed of his two leading advisors.  However, we 'the great unwashed' have one litmus test by which we may judge him - BREXIT!  Either it happens, boldly and clearly, or it does not and ends up as a hopeless Euro fudge in which, as we have learned over the years, we always come off worse!

 

Nazi Germany:   I stumbled upon a TV programme last night which touched on the early days of Nazi Germany.  Good God, those Germans were stupid beyond belief!  Exactly how evil they were is another question.  Even so, surely they did not need a degree in Political Philosophy to see 'the bleedin' obvious', that Adolph Hitler was a charlatan with galloping megalomania who would bring down disaster on their nation.  We were right to bomb them to bits and then invade them and thereby humiliate them.  The only ones I feel sorry for were the children!

 

And still 'The Ginger Ninja' continues with his clown act!    Alas, it was only ever funny for a few days but now, as the flecks of spittle fly from his little gooseberry lips, it has become tiresome and, given the high political temperature that pervades America, it is positively dangerous!  Just go!

 

Alas, this is all too true:  Nick Cohen, at The Spectator site, has Downing Street summed up in his first paragraph:

For all his Falstaffian swagger, Boris Johnson resembles no Shakespearian character so much as Henry VI. He is a weak and vacillating king at the mercy of palace factions. He thinks whatever the last adviser he spoke to told him to think. He has no policies that cannot be changed under pressure or principles that cannot be abandoned if the loudest voice in the room says they must go. He does not know his own mind. At times it appears he has no mind worth knowing.

And whilst we have two clowns operating in Washington and London, the Chinese quietly get on with their malicious business!

 

 

No more Rumbles 

 

 

 

Libertarian splitters!

By George and all the Saints, this one's a cracker from the Yankee Speccie! ...

https://spectator.org/keep-fighting-in-the-courts-and-start-fighting-the-libertarian-party/

And yet no post-election analysis can be complete without confronting the evil of the Libertarian Party. I personally am very libertarian-oriented. Ayn Rand impacted my life and worldview very deeply. My conservatism strongly derives from my own life experiences living overseas for two years in a socialist country that now has gone capitalist. 

Commensurate with my intensely strong libertarian streak, I vote Republican. There needs to be a reckoning with the Libertarian Party — and within the Libertarian Party — regarding the catastrophic damage they singularly have caused in this election.

Bloody right there does.

If the next election is to be won, the Left Axis of Socialist and Liberal factions must be confronted by a Right Alliance of Republican and Libertarian parties.

Because, the fact of the matter is: The Right Alliance won the 2020 election - and that's not even taking into account the voter fraud ...

 

Arizona (11 Electoral Votes)

Biden — 1,633,181

Trump — 1,613,833

Libertarian — 49,454

 

Pennsylvania (20 Electoral Votes)

Biden — 3,359,270

Trump — 3,316,019

Libertarian — 77,513

 

Wisconsin (10 Electoral Votes)

Biden — 1,630,570

Trump — 1,610,030

Libertarian — 38,415

 

Georgia (Presidential Race) (16 Electoral Votes)

Biden — 2,465,500

Trump — 2,455,305

Libertarian       61,888

 

Georgia (Perdue-Ossoff)

Ossoff — 2,365,916

Perdue — 2,456,211

Libertarian — 114,566

 

Ladies and gentlemen, there is your presidential election. Without Libertarian Party sabotage, President Trump emerges with 289 electoral votes and wins handily — regardless of what emerges from investigating the honesty of the tally. And the Republicans control the Senate outright without the Perdue–Ossoff race needing to go into another round.

So Bob, as I pointed out to you in dialogue a week or two back, Uncle Sam is still Right Libertarian (my invoice going in to the Yankee Speccie for the original observation, and Messrs Sue Grabbit & Runne briefed and ready with a plagiarism case if required).

The future of the West rests on the uptake of that Yankee Speccie article.

Goppers and Libs, "Go do, that voodoo, that you do, sooooo weeeellll!"

SoD

'Quiet goes the Dom!'

Well, we'll see just how quietly Dominic Cummings goes!  Also, and more interestingly, as we watch the Boris pantomime run through its Winter programme, we will be able to judge the new Pantomime Dame as she takes centre stage.  Personally, I am sorry to see Dom go.  I suspect that he was a major pain in the arse to work with given his fanatical streak but the fact is that he was an enormous influence in getting us out of that wretched EU racket and somehow I doubt it would have happened without his driving force behind it.

He's gone now and as we contemplate his replacement, Ms. Carrie Symonds, we are forced to raise that old, Shakespearean question:

"Hence shall we see,

If power change purpose, what our seemers be".

I know next to nothing concerning Ms. Carrie Symonds but so far I can discern I see no indications that she is a great political wizard.  Perhaps she will prove me wrong and I hope that I am because the thought of four more years of undiluted Boris is frightening.

 

Boris! Please, just bugger off!

It has become increasingly obvious that Boris really is as useless as his shambolic appearance indicates.  This latest fracas in which a senior advisor is, in effect, forced out by Boris's girlfriend, Carrie Symonds, tells us all the nature of 'politics' (if you can call it that!) as conducted inside No. 10.  I would like to know exactly how many people voted for Ms. Symonds in the last election?  Somewhere between none and zero, I think!  The Tory party, once upon a time, had a reputation for ruthlessness in dealing with trouble-makers.  Not any more, now that Ms. Symonds has Boris's balls firmly clutched in her hand!

 

 

Why do the people of Minneapolis all look suspiciously like each other?

I assume it is the result of decades of inbreeding which also means that they tend to shuffle round with their mouths sagging open and faithfully chanting the latest mantras issued by the (non)Democrat Party.  Thus, it was just recently that a majority voted in favour of cutting resources to their Police Department following the death of George Floyd.

Guess what!  According to Zero Hedge there were 48 homicides in Minneapolis in all of 2019. There are still nearly two months to go in 2020 and so far there have been 74 homicides this year. Doubling last year’s homicide number is not out of the question.

'HOODATHUNKIT'?

Well, obviously not the muppets of Minneapolis!

 

 

 

Pboh

Why haven't BLM / Antifa thrown this rug into the nearest local river to the National Trust location that hosts it? ...

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/paradise-underfoot-a-persian-carpet-at-nuffield-place

The prophet Muhammed showed great foresight in demanding no images were made of him, thereby sparing National Trust and the woke generation from having to plaque his statues and images up with "Paedophile, rapist, murderer, thief, and corpse mutilator".

But perhaps any mention of him in the texts describing the artefacts, like the rug above, should be updated to provide the full context? ...

"The prophet Muhammed (peace be upon him) [paedophile, rapist, murderer, thief, and body mutilator] ..."?

SoD

I miss theatre

Although, to be honest, if this bloody-bloody lockdown was not in place, I'm not sure at my age how often I would be able to make the effort to attend!  I still wonder about the magic of theatre at its best - at its worst it is torture!  Even so, we all go along from time to time despite the grinding tedium of many performances about which I know having been in one or two of them!  And when you think about it, what a strange process it is for a bunch of people to climb onto a stage and pretend to be what they are not and for hundreds of other people to accept the illusion!  Of course, whilst the performances are important "the play's the thing/ Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King", as some old scribbler once wrote!

I was tremendously lucky to have been involved, in one way or another, with productions of some terrific plays.  Placing Shakespeare's plays on the plinth they deserve, I still have very fond memories of other plays with which I was associated.  If you ask me, apart from Shakespeare, which was the greatest I would not hesitate to name "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour" by Tom Stoppard.  I remain forever grateful to the shade of the late, great critic, Bernard Levin, whose rave review of the London production drove me to see it.  Literally, my life changed!  I still remember walking down The Strand afterwards unable to speak because of the emotion engendered by the production.  Thanks, Mr. Stoppard, you changed my life!

 

 

 

We bid, 'yuuuugely, a farewell to one president and greetings to another

I shall miss 'The Donald', his enormous, puffed-up ego provided a constant source of humour, not least when it was well and truly punctured by a man who is almost his exact opposite.  Not, I hasten to add, that 'good ol' Joe' doesn't have an equally large ego but he has the good sense to keep it hidden.  Without raking through the details of the last four years, it seem to me that the politics pushed through by 'The Donald' were not that bad.  He never attempted a coup, he never had his opponents executed (which in some instances is a pity!), he never started a serious war and, most important, he was quick to acknowledge and warn of the menace of China.

Now, the great question is how 'good ol' Joe' will make out?  Somehow, I doubt, just like his predecessor, that he has ever had a strategic thought pass through his mind.  What worries me is just how much influence his 'advisors' have over him?  And who are they, exactly?  Our newspapers are wringing their hands and suggesting that Britain's influence will simply melt away.  I wish they would tell us just how much influence we have ever had with a US government?

The big worry, of course, is not Joe Biden's politics but, at his age, Joe Biden's health!  I know precisely nothing about his vice-President but even so I sense some alarum bells ringing!  So, whatever else you do, Joe, keep taking your meds!

 

 

 

'Mrs. MacWhinge' is a menace to us all!

Any piece of legislation anywhere in the (dis)United Kingdom which is entitled  'The Hate Crimes and Public Order Bill' and which is intended to crush any expression of opinions which a government decides is illegitimate should be torn to shreds and the 'perps', in this case, 'Mrs. MacWhinge and her SNP poodles, should be pelted with dog-droppings at every opportunity.  Perhaps it is time for me to alter my nickname for that ghastly Nicola Sturgeon and refer to her as 'Mrs. MacHitler'.

For God's sake, Scotland, get a grip and boot that wretched woman out!

 

 

"It's all over"

 

Sorry, Don baby, but it's all over.  It was fun - sort of - for a while and it will be to your eternal credit that unlike so many of your predecessors you did not actually rush into any wars.  I hope I live long enough to read a detached and neutral record of your presidency. As a life-long, free-wheeling capitalist you appear to have kept the strangling hands of the State off the free markets that give your country, and the rest of the world, its wealth.  Also, being totally un-self-aware you provided us all with a never-ending source of chuckles.  You will be missed.

 

 

 

 

"In the name of God, go!"

Thus spake Oliver Cromwell 'back in the day', er, April 1653 to be exact, and personally I would redirect those words today to the increasingly ridiculous and dangerous President of the United States.  Hitherto he has been a figure of fun but now, as my Jewish friends might say, "Enough, enough, my life already!"   America has never been perfect but, despite the all too obvious fault lines, it remains a rough and ready symbol of a democratic ideal.  This flouncing, foolish clown is besmirching that ideal and causing immense damage.  And yes, I know the alternative on offer, plus the apparat behind him, is not much better but this ludicrous clown must go!

 

 

 

So who won the bloody thing?

Well, I woke up earlier this morning eager to find out who won the keys to the White House - and then went back to bed again because nobody is quite sure?  It is now just gone 10.00am and still I do not know!  As they are both truly third-rate candidates I don't really care although I remain deeply suspicious of Biden's 'Leftie apparatchiks' particularly as he is obviously too dim, dumb, daft and elderly to control them!  As for Trump, his wild lurches in different directions worry me but I suppose the good thing is that it must worry America's enemies even more!  What I truly dread is the sort of dead heat between them that results in endless court litigation.  It has been obvious for some time that 'The Donald' is incapable of running a whelk-stall but, alas, I suspect that 'good ol' Joe' is finding it even more difficult to tie his own shoe-laces which will leave a 'yuuuuuuuuuuuuuge' power gap at the centre of American politics.

How they must be smiling in Peking!

 

 

What's up, cat got your tongue?

Did something just happen ?

Fades to MAGA hatted peeps chanting ...

"You're not singing any more, 

You're not singing,

You're not singing,

You're not singing any more"

SoD

Jolly good luck today, Mr. President, you may need it!

Matthew Lynn at The Coffee House this morning provides a useful summary of the best and worst of 'The Donald'.  I am pushed for time - 'Memsahib' orders shopping trip prior to the lockdown! - so I will quote Mr. Lynn extensively:

If the polls and bookmakers are to be trusted, Donald Trump will be the first sitting president to be ejected from office since George Bush Senior, way back in 1992. In truth, he won’t be much missed. His bullying, narcissistic manner demeaned the office. His estranged relationship with the truth made him an unreliable ally. And his lack of empathy made him a poor leader at a time of crisis.

All true, of course, but even so, with my emphasis added  . . .

But in one respect at least he will have a legacy. He is the first leader since Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher to show two things; that you can deregulate; and that you can dramatically reduce taxes. And that both will make an economy more competitive.

When the history books deliver their judgement on the brief Trump administration, the verdict is likely to be mixed, at best. And yet the economic record is in many ways surprisingly strong, not just for its tangible achievements, but for the way it has shifted the consensus.

Alas, the question is, will the dreaded American 'Peeps' acknowledge that and vote accordingly?  Alas, I have no idea but my fingers - and toes - are firmly crossed.

 

 

The (late) Sunday Rumble

God, life's boring!   Even so, as I have remarked before, many a time and oft (perhaps too oft!), sometimes boring is better than exciting!  Part of the problem for me in this 'Covid' era is that my scientific/medical knowledge is miniscule and even though, as my regular visitors will know, I am never averse to making a prat of myself on all sorts of subjects, virus behaviour, along with sub-atomic particle behaviour is way beyond my ken!  In these sorts of situations I simply dig in and keep my head down!

 

Next Tuesday's US election:  Yet another subject about which I have little to say - let alone forecast!  My sincere hope is that 'The Donald' will win, not because I am a great admirer of the buffoon but simply because an (un)Democrat regime would be a disaster!  Here's hoping!

 

I loathe and detest the National Trust!   'Back in the day', the 'Memsahib' was always eager to visit this or that stately, historic house most of which were run by the National Trust.  Not me!  I could only think of the families who had built them and lived in them for hundreds of years before being forced out by rapacious governments.  Today, The Mail reports that the jumped-up bureaucrat who runs the NT is determined to publicise any of the houses whose previous owners were associated in any way with the slave trade.  Well, I expect it gives the smug, stupid woman a warm glow of self-appreciation even if nobody but her and few Lefty twerps gives a toss!

 

Farewell, Sir Sean, and thank you:   I think that Sean Connery's performances as 'James Bond' were simply superlative!  There is no doubt that he looked the part of an exceedingly dangerous man and his growly, Scottish accent added to the menace.

 

No more rumbles