DUFF & NONSENSE!

My election opinion - well, everyone else has one - or two - or more!

I have kept relatively quiet about tomorrow's election, not out of discretion, or because I will almost certainly be proven wrong or even because I am pretty sure you are all as bored with it as I am!  No, my main reason is my almost total ignorance.  I am not ashamed of this because it is a condition I share with all the 'meeja' and their highly-paid 'experts' and with most of the opinion polls.  Of course, one of the opinion polls will prove to be more accurate than the others but as nobody knows which one then it is a total gamble to choose which one!

So instead, I will give you my hopes for the result tomorrow.  Obviously, I want Boris and the Tories to win, not because I am a 'yuuuuuuuuuge' admirer but because, despite the 'cock-ups' and 'snafus' one expects from a Boris-led administration, it will be infinitely preferable to anything else on offer.  Part of my support stems from my fascination with the career of Dominic Cummings who to my - and probably his, too! - surprise has ended up as a key advisor in the Tory HQ.  Where this man will lead us, no-one knows for sure, least of all himself!  He will already have built up some hefty opposition for his 'off the wall' approach to politics from the usual 'collective' of stodgy mediocrities who control the Tory hierarchy.  Still, some ideas are glinting through the smog, such as kicking the BBC out into the public arena where they will have to earn their own living instead of relying on licence payers.  Similarly, it seems that, at last, a cool and detached eye will be cast over the foreign aid department which shovels so much of our 'dosh' into the pockets of sundry gangsters and murderers around the world!

I am less than impressed with Boris's glad-handing of 'zillions' of my money (as I fondly think of it!) to all the 'usual suspects' such as the NHS, et al!  I live in a small hope that all those, er, 'promises' will go the way of most pre-election promises!  If indeed, Boris really and truly 'gets Brexit done', then we must expect exceedingly troubled times ahead, particularly given the suggested 'decline and fall' of the EU as Germany slides towards recession.  I know nothing of the details of Boris's so-called 'deal' with the EU but I fear the worst because our civil service couldn't negotiate their way out of a paper bag, let alone the fine mesh net the EU will cast over us. So long as we manage to evade the control of their wretched Courts system, I will be satisfied.

Now, having donned my NBC warfare suit, I turn to Labour!  I sort of want them crushed but not, I hope, totally!  Corbyn and his polit-bureau need to be smashed by the electorate but we need a functioning opposition, so I hope that a core of decent Labourites survive.  In fact, and I find this difficult to write, I suspect that Labour will do rather better than the experts believe.  It is almost unbelievable that anyone with more than three brain cells and a sense of smell could even contemplate a Labour government given their political make-up today.  But, to paraphrase an old American saying of great wisdom, 'you'll never go broke underestimating the intelligence of an electorate!'

Finally, the 'il-Lib-non-Dems' who proved my summary of their two-faced hypocrisy to be absolutely spot-on when they decided to stick two fingers up to the democratically decided decision by the British people to leave the EU by simply announcing that were they to win they would simply rip up the referendum result.  I suspect, or at least, I hope that that ghastly, bossy and stupid 'head girl' who leads the party gets a big slap from the electorate that she so obviously despises!

I was going to finish this tedious diatribe but I suddenly remembered that hideous woman, 'Mrs. McWhinge', up in, er, bonny Scotland.  Come on, you Jocks, sober up and just 'stick yure heed in wi' your bonnet on' and get rid of her so that I never have to hear her voice ever again!

There you are, that was a useful and perceptive analysis of the political situation in dear, old Blighty, don't you agree?  Sorry, I missed that . . .

 

 

 

Never trust those damned, smoothie Brits!

A fascinating article via Zero Hedge which originated at The American Conservative.com.  It details the, er, 'dastardly deeds' of William Stephenson (a Canadian actually) who in 1940 - a rather sweaty time for Britain! - was despatched to the USA by Churchill in order to set up - dare I say it? - a 'fake news factory' to help persuade the American 'Peeps' to give up their really rather sensible insistence on neutrality as the rest of the world went to hell in a handcart!

Stephenson knew his way around the 'meeja' which barely differed in its crookedness then, to what it is today!  Also, given Roosevelt's quiet determination to get America into the war, he was content to allow Stephenson to pump his fake news into the American system.  Of course, it was not simply love for Britain and dislike of Hitler that moved Roosevelt but his absolute determination to use the disaster of yet another world war to provide an opportunity to create a new, American world order.

So, let's hear it for 'Fake News'! 

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 8.12.19

Art criticism at its very best:   As y'all do know, I am in a quiet way a bit of an old 'arty-farty'.  I rarely pay attention to art critics because I know what I like even if, sometimes, I don't exactly know why!  But here is a man whose, er, 'taste' I would trust implicitly.  Recently an 'artwork' was unveiled which consisted of a banana duct-taped to a wall with a price tag of $120,000 attached.

On Saturday, the man, Mr. David Datuna, who is obviously of impeccable, er, taste, ate the banana!

 

Are you as confused as me over the forthcoming election?   Well, neither of us can be blamed given, as an example, two headlines in the same edition of the Sunday Mail:

"Tories scent victory with fresh poll showing late Labour surge has not materialised"

"Boris Johnson refuses THREE times to say if he would quit, should the Tories fail to win the election, as polls tighten with just days to go" 

I think I'll just stick to the pattern of the tea leaves at the bottom of my morning cup of tea!

From The Telegraph

 

Classic Peter Hitchens:   He is always a 'Must Read' on a Sunday but today he covers a range of topics all of which make you think.  I never followed his late brother and I wonder if he was a patch on Peter?

 

Hoot of the Year:   I am indebted to the Red State site for providing the hoot of the year from the lips of that well-known American comedienne, Mrs. Hillary Rodham Clinton.  She was re-acting to that mummified creature who calls herself Nancy Pelosi who has inveighed against Trump's evil ways and threatened dire legal counter-measures.  'HillBilly' responded with these immortal words: “no one is above the law”.

 

If only!   Apparently that irritating little girl, Greta Thunberg, is complaining that 'they' are trying to silence her!

Well, 'they' are obviously not very good at it because she never shuts up talking total 'tosh'!  Good job she's not my daughter!

 

Why I no longer go the theatre:  Particularly if it is a play by William Shakespeare.  The pig-ignorant dolts who rule 'theatre-land' these days are an insult to my intelligence but not to theirs because they do not have any!  This from a review of Richard III in this week's 'Speccie':

This modern-dress production (co-directed by Sean Holmes and Ilinca Radulian) has been cast without regard to race, gender or age. Anyone who doesn’t hold a professorship in Plantagenet genealogy will struggle to comprehend the sinuous plot. Richard (Sophie Russell) enters wearing a white footballer’s shirt inscribed RICHARD 03. Clear enough. Margaret, played by a man, also appears with her name embroidered on her football kit but with the letters covered by a coat. An easy blunder to correct. Harder to fix is the sparse company which isn’t populous enough to serve the text. Matti Houghton plays Anne and two other large-ish roles. Colin Hurley begins as Hastings and morphs into Tyrrell, the Mayor and Oxford. Steffan Donnelly opens as Margaret and ends as Richmond.

Need I say more?

 

No more Rumbles

 

 

 

Feeling good this morning? Then don't read this!

Let me begin by tweaking a famous phrase from those old, British, PoW films from the 1950s in which the smug German officer tells his British prisoners, "For you, ze var iss over!"  Instead, given a fascinating article by Matthew Lynn in The Telegraph, I will flip it over and say to Germany, "Awfully sorry, mein Herr, but for you, your economic dominance is over!"  Not, I hasten and emphasise to say, that it is neccessarilly good news for us!

According to Mr. Lynn:

Its main industry is in freefall. Its political system is descending into chaos. The banking system is in crisis, and consumer demand is stuck in the doldrums. Which country? It is, of course, Germany. With every week that passes there are more and more signs of a deep malaise in its economy.

I have nothing much against post-war Germany.  I was quietly pleased that they made such Herculean efforts to rebuild their country from the rubble they inherited in 1945.  Needless to say, as their industrial and economic power grew they began to use it to influence European affairs but, hey, that's what all nations do if they can!  At least this time they did so quietly and discreetly by twisting the arms of the various sock-puppets, like 'Junck the Drunk' who ran the EU, and happily, we in Britain were (for a change!) shrewd enough to heed the words of the late, great Nicholas Ridley that "the EU is a German racket" and given our chance we voted to leave.

Even so, Mr. Lynn's news is sobering:

When Germany released its industrial production figures yesterday, they were predictably awful. Output dropped by 5.3pc over the same month a year ago, the worst reading since the depths of the last recession in 2009.

But then, the news out of the country is usually grim right now. Retail sales figures out this week showed a 1.9pc year-on-year fall. Its mighty auto industry, the engine of the industrial machine, is slashing jobs, with 9,500 redundancies at Audi announced in the last month and another 10,000 at Daimler, as its manufacturers desperately try to pivot away from high-pollution diesel to electric vehicles.

The once mighty Deutsche Bank is still cutting jobs as it tries to keep itself alive. Meanwhile, the government looks more fragile than ever, with Angela Merkel’s grand coalition coming apart at the seams and with the anti-business Greens almost certain to win a share of power soon.

I am tempted to ask what the German is for "Oh dear, what a pity, never mind"?  However, I will set aside my sneer because the economic crash of any hitherto prosperous and democratic nation is bad news for everyone.  We are about to launch ourselves away from Europe and the last thing we need is a major economic - and therefor political! - car crash 'just over there'!

 

 

'Steady the Buffs', er, I mean the Duffs!

I must confess to a very slight sense of uneasiness as I approach next Thursday's election.  All the 'meeja' seem confident of a Tory majority, albeit, somewhat divided over the probable size of it.  As a sane, semi-educated Brit, I cannot conceive of anyone outside of a mental institution actually voting for Jeremy Corbyn to be Prime Minister.  Not only is he dim, dumb and daft, he is also a disgusting human being.  Anyone who spends a lifetime cosying up to every murderous terrorist with a hatred for Britain, ranging from IRA thugs to Muslim killers, is the worst of all types because whilst he nurses his hatred inwardly, he actually lacks the guts to take his chances on the streets with a bomb in hand!

Even so there are one or two factors in this coming election which, alas, I am unable to quantify with any exactitude.  First, there are the 'kiddie-winkies', a.k.a. as 'young people'.  Mostly soft in body and in mind - given their pathetic 'edukashun'! - they are incapable of detecting the nature of the evil in the current cabal that has seized power in the Labour party.  They can just about master the slogans they carry around on demos - provided none of the words has more than one syllable!

These 'ninnies' dance to the tune of 'Twitter' which, I gather, utterly dominates their lives and which, I am told, is a constant source of Left-wing agit-prop.  Hitherto, I have relaxed in my confident expectation that the lazy, little sods will be too idle to actually get out of bed and vote!  However, so powerful is the grip of the internet on their lives via the plugs constantly jammed in their ears that this time they might just be galvanised.

All of that, of course, is a call for action from us 'oldies'!  Come on, 'Gramps', get your arse out of the armchair and get voting next Thursday!

 

 

Cartoon Corner #1

I am a great admirer of cartoons, particularly political cartoons which sum up complex situations in a single illustration - with wit and humour.  This, the first of many, I hope, is from The Telegraph:

 

Pheeeew, so far, so good!

I must confess to opening my Daily Mail this morning with trembling hands.  Well, 'Big Don' was in town and the least I expected was a couple of 'hooooge' big 'clangers' to be dropped.  I mean, he was attending the 70th anniversary of NATO and was thus surrounded by dozens of national leaders so the opportunity for some 'schlock-horror' pronouncements was enormous.  Consider the opportunities offered by him meeting and greeting the likes of  'mini'-Macron, although I gathered they went into max-hand squeezing when they shook hands.  (By the way, don't you just detest those uber-masculine twerps who go in for that sort of thing - I always want to jerk them towards me and then 'nut' them!)

Even more potentially hazardous was the prospect of 'Big Don' meeting the ghastly thug who now runs Turkey - not so much the 'clash of titans' as the clash of total tits!  Incidentally, what the hell is Turkey doing in NATO?  Yes, I know that geographically it is situated in at an exceedingly strategic place but even so, do I want to go to war to protect the Erdogan government?

Rather wisely, given that he is in the middle of an election, Boris, I gather steered well clear so as not to offer 'Big Don' the chance to opine on the contest.  Any exuberant words of praise from him for Boris would go down like a shit sandwich.  As Michael Deacon describes it in The Telegraph:

The one subject he tried not to express a view on was our own election. Supposedly Boris Johnson is worried that Trump might inadvertently derail the Tory campaign – but on Tuesday, at least, the president was clearly striving with all his might to break the habit of a lifetime, and keep his opinions to himself.

Mind you, he couldn't resist the chance of bragging about Brexit:

Although determined not to comment on British politics, Trump did reiterate his support for Brexit. Not for the first time, he boasted that he’d predicted it. “I called it the day before [the referendum],” he told reporters, with an air of fond reminiscence. “I was opening up Turnberry [his Scottish golf course] the day before – many of you were there, I recognise that many of you were there. And they asked me whether or not Brexit would happen. I said yes, and everybody smiled, and they laughed. The next day they had the [referendum] – and I was right.”

A great story. Pity it isn’t true. In reality, Trump didn’t arrive at Turnberry until the day after the referendum. It’s fascinating. Not only does he seem to forget things that have happened. He also seems to recall – with the most dazzling clarity – things that actually never happened at all.

Actually, I don't think he's that bad a President but I just wish he would button up two things - his jacket and his mouth!

 

 

Sorry, sorry, sorry and all that sort of thing!

Yes, I do realise that yesterday markets fell, production slumped and sundry religious fanatics foretold the imminent end of the world because my Monday Funnies failed to appear!  Of course, my foreman-elf in the Australian joke mine has gone a.w.o.l. which meant there was a dire shortage of jokes to go round yesterday.  Anyway, it wasn't so much those "Events, dear boy, events" that got in the way yesterday, more like 'bloody this, bloody that and the bloody other'.  Today, I'm pleased to report that all's quiet on the 'Zummerzet' front!

Which leaves me to ruminate on the young tartlet and the middle-aged Prince - of course, you know to whom I am referring because every bloody newspaper in the western world is full of it!  The Prince, of course, is a total prat with the intelligence of a rutting stag but we have all known middle-aged men like him whose brains appear to be packed inside their Y-fronts!  The tartlet concerned, although she is more grown-up now, is plastered all over The Mail and to be honest I could not be bothered to plough through all of her tear-stained diatribe for which, I suspect, she was exceedingly well-paid!  At the time, she was only 17 years old and so can be excused somewhat from her silliness but I can't help wondering where her parents were?  They are the ones who should be dragged before that most severe of tribunals - the court of public opinion!

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 1.12.19

God bless 'Speccie' readers:   Well two of them, at any rate.  They wrote in to the latest edition to settle an old puzzle which has baffled drunks the world over!  How do you pronounce 'vermouth'?  Alas, both writers disagreed so we are no further forward:

Sir: Henry Jeffreys (Books, 16 November) asks if vermouth should be pronounced ‘vermuth’ or ‘vermooth’. I can’t go past Cole Porter’s song of ‘Two little babes in the wood’, who discovered that ‘the fountain of youth is a mixture of gin and vermouth’. Vermooth it is for me.

Sir: Regarding the pronunciation of ‘vermouth’, I strongly maintain that it should be ‘vermuth’. A resident of a well-known Dorset seaside resort would not say that they lived in Bournemooth, nor would a Geordie pleasure-seeker spend a beach holiday at Tynemooth.

Oh dear, I need a dry martini!

 

I told you the Poles were mad!   One of the courageous civilians who leapt into action to deal with the terrorist in London was a Pole called Lukasz.  Rather sensibly he armed himself with a 'pole' in the form of an enormous whale tusk which was displayed on a wall in the building where things kicked off.  Here he is in action on London Bridge with two others.

Well, makes a change from charging German panzers on horseback armed with a lance!

 

Oh God, now 'panto' has fallen to the 'woke' brigade:   According to Toby Young, in the 'Speccie' of course, good old-fashioned pantomimes enjoyed all round Britain have been got at by the PC miserabilists.

If you were hoping to escape the bilge that’s been pumped out by supposedly neutral organs of the state during this general election campaign — the BBC, schools, the NHS — I don’t recommend going to see a pantomime. Gramsci’s long march through the institutions has finally reached the last redoubt of political incorrectness. Say goodbye to bum-pinching, boob-squeezing and irreverent, smutty gags about holier-than-thou political figures; say hello to anti-austerity scripts, racially sensitive casting and three-hour lectures on climate change.

 

(Sir) Lewis wins again:   What an incredible young man!  Brought up in a council house in Stevenage but with the help of an even more incredible man - his father who once held down three jobs to pay for his son's early attempts in motor racing - he has now won the last Grand Prix of the year - his eleventh.  Only one thing holds him back - he must, absolutely must- get rid of that dreadful hairstyle!  How can he expect 'Her Maj' to entertain him to tea and a Knighthood with his head covered in dead rats?

 

 

No more rumbles

 

 

But when the Jews are dumb, they're really, really dumb!

Many a time and oft', I have declared my admiration for the intelligence of Jews but even so, they do sometimes get things very wrong.  The perfect example has arisen in an article in The Spectator this week by Johan Norberg.  It is summed up by its title: "The rise – and disastrous fall – of the kibbutz".  Now, I can vaguely remember as a young person - yes, even that far back! - hearing about the Israeli kibbutzim, in which Israelis of various ages joined together to form 'collectives' to till the land, grow their crops and raise their livestock.  Nobody received more money than anyone else, such 'profits' as arose were shared equally but only to the level to cover neccessities.  To a young person it all sounded rather attractive.  Alas, it was not!

As Mr. Norberg puts it:

Joshua Muravchik, who has documented the rise and fall of the kibbutz, explains that the first sign of trouble in paradise was the revolt against collective child-rearing. To break the tyranny of the bourgeois family unit, children were raised in separate houses, where they lived and slept. Some enjoyed it, but others have described the terror of being ripped from their parents, left to the mercy of gangs of other children. Family ties were seen as the nemesis of perfect collectivism. Indeed, Jon Lansman had only one complaint about his kibbutz: ‘I was disappointed,’ he mused, ‘by the absence of children’s houses’ — he had hoped his kibbutz would include a separate building for children to be honed into impeccable young socialists.

For those not familiar with Mr. Jon Landsman, he is the leader of an extreme socialist sect within the Labour party which, with the rise of Jeremy Corbyn, has now reached a position of real power inside the party.  

Mr. Norberg continues with his history of the collapse of the Israeli kibbutzim.  Needless to say, 'it wos the wimmin wot done it!' 

There was another powerful force that kibbutz utopians had not taken into consideration: women’s preference for choosing their own outfits. In a traditional kibbutz, clothes were deemed to be collective property. Dirty clothes were handed to a central laundry, and clean ones were handed out in exchange — but no tabs were kept on whose were whose. Women hated it and demanded cash allowances to buy their own clothes. As the pioneers warned, this opened up a Pandora’s Box of savage individualism. If you could own clothes, why not toiletries or furniture or even individual refrigerators?

Yes, it's always that damned irritating human nature that interferes with 'the best laid plans of mice and men':

There were other problems too. What happens when you can’t fire a slacker or reward someone productive? A scholar of kibbutz education, Yuval Dror, realised: ‘People like me who started as socialists concluded that you can work hard and get nothing while others don’t work hard. It is so unfair.’ Another kibbutz veteran concluded that his community was turning into a ‘paradise for parasites’.

And so, slowly but inexorably, the entire structure collapsed.  Even so, it is another credit to Jewish intelligence that nobody attempted to enforce the system against the wishes of the people.  If 'Jezza' and his 'polit-bureau' ever gain power in Britain, can we rely on them not to use extra-legal powers of coercian to enforce their mad dreams?  I would not bet on it!

 

 

 

This piece of irony is more sour than delicious

As y'all do know, there is no-one who appreciates irony more than me and yesterday, during that incredible action on London Bridge, there was a major example of it and yet … and yet … perhaps I should explain. A Muslim 'nutter' went berserk with a knife on a London street, killing two people and wounding several others and yet sundry passers-by courageously decided to take the man down themselves.  My admiration for them is boundless.

However, according to The Mail, amongst these heroes - and I do not use that word lightly - was a Mr. James Ford, 42, who instead of running away from a dangerous man who might have been wearing a bomb-vest, he stayed and attended to a wounded woman.  And now comes the irony.  It transpires that Mr. Ford is, himself, a killer who had recently been early-released from a long prison term for murdering a young woman in 2004 by cutting her throat!  Sometimes, there are just no words I can think of, so once again I thank God for William Shakespeare who sums up the quandry in one brilliant phrase;

 

"What a piece of work is a man"

 

 

 

They walk amongst us!

Yes indeed and if only they kept their mouths shut we would never realise it.  Imagine, if you will, sitting in a library opposite Jeremy Corbyn.  Nice, old codger, you would think.  Or sitting opposite John McDonnell in a train, quite a distinguished-looking bloke you might think, although he's looking a bit baggy-eyed these days!

 

But then you hear or read their political opinions and instantly you think 'raving loonies', or 'who let them out?'  During this election campaign, were you to visit your nearest, friendly 'looney-bin' and conduct a political survey you would almost certainly hear more realistic and sensible ideas than either of those two could utter.

Between them, these two 'nut jobs' along with the gaggle of dribbling retards who surround them, are destroying utterly a once distinguished and decent political movement that, albeit mostly wrong on most things, nevertheless had a proud past and a common-sensical and moderate approach to the myriad problems that exist in our society.  I have not, and never would, vote Labour but, in the past, I have viewed equably the prospect that they might form a government.  I was content to believe that they would abide by the traditional and legal mores developed over the centuries.  Today, I would not!

Those two men and the ignorant, stupid gangsters who surround them are "a real and present danger" to everything we hold dear in this country.  They need to be utterly crushed at this election not just to save us from a fate worse than death but to save the small, moderate cluster of socialist democrats who still hang on despite the swivel-eyed loonies who have captured their party.  We need a Tory government but equally we need a sensible, centrist, Labour opposition.

 

 

The Poles are mad but we all knew that!

A fascinating article by the distinguished observer of all things Eastern European, Ms. Anne Applebaum over at the CAPX site.  She begins with the Poles whom she suspects are going into one of their mad seasons:

Poland is very, very profoundly divided into really warring camps, people who not only disagree with one another, they don’t even agree on the facts of the day.

Well, that would describe most countries most of the time but the Poles do have a tendency to take things to extremes - sometimes for good, sometimes for ill!

At least half the country is extremely worried by the government’s attacks on the Polish constitution, by the government’s attack on its judiciary, and by the potential for future attacks on free media – there’s already talk of so called re-Polanisation of the media, and nationalisation of private business more generally. So, yes, there is a lot of concern. And then there’s the part of the country that is happy because it feels that it’s benefiting from the government’s social programmes.

Of course, looming over the Polish horizon is the ever-present threat of 'Mother' Russia!  At least there is one slightly modifying factor present in that Nato has moved further east with British troops in Lithuania and American troops in Poland which will give even Putin pause!  A delicate situation so we must all pray that the Poles don't go 'bonkers'!

 

 

 

"The evils of the British empire"

Well, that's how 'Jezza' and his 'polit-bureau' put it and they are determined, if they form the next government, to ram the nasty details down the throats of all the 'likkle kiddie-winkies' who go to 'skool'!  Gosh, that should keep them busy because there was plenty of evil to go around back in the, er, 'good ol' days!'  However, if accuracy is also important, which in this case I doubt it is, then even greater time will be required to teach all the benefits that accrued from the British empire.

I haven't the time to draw up a balance sheet but it is worth pointing out that if slavery was part of empire rule, it was actually the Brits who eventually put a stop to it.  Of course, it still exists but is mainly confined to countries that have long since been granted their independence!  Also, it is worth remembering the industrial infrastructure that was, in effect, donated to empire countries on independence, such as India's railway system.  Yes, a particularly useless Brit General did order the shooting of several hundred Indians at Amritsar but that was 'a mere bagatelle compared to the number Indians put to the sword by their previous Indian Princes and Rajahs.

Perhaps, in the long-term, the best thing we bequeathed them was the notion of democracy.  True, it hasn't lasted all that well, particularly in Africa, but -hey! - that was the fault of the, er, 'freedom fighters' who took over when the Brits departed.  You may not like it, my old ex-colonial fellows, but you just have to suck it up 'cos it's your fault!

Can you imagine a modern British school (non)teacher even trying to explain that to the little yobs and yobettes before them?  Nah!  Nor can I!               

 

 

Right, get fell in, you 'orrible lot!

Thus spake sergeants through the ages and almost certainly still do so today.  So, 'you 'orrible lot' can 'get fell in' at the Daily Telegraph which has a fascinating briefing on the current and future developments of that awsome 'queen of the battlefield', the tank!  The possibilities are immense and with the advent of ultra-sophisticated electronics the horizon is enlarging at speed.  

Alas, as an ex-infantryman, I have nothing to add to the debate except enormous gratitude that I never had to face up to enemy tanks.  In fact, I wasn't too keen on friendly tanks, either.  I once looked inside one and my incipient claustrophobia instantly took over!  Even so, this is a fascinating article and I do hope that our military 'brain-boxes' are thinking things through with imagination and technical expertise.  If and when the 'brown stuff' hits the fan, it will be too late for any more original thinking!

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 24.11.19

Thanks, 'Jezza', for being so honest:   Yes, you did read that right but please note that I do not suggest he was totally honest which would be a ludicrous suggestion as he faces a general election. Even so, he and his 'polit-bureau' have laid their aims and purposes face up on the table for all to read. In the unlikely event of his and his 'Marxist-Labour' party actually winning, no-one will be able to claim that 'they didn't know'!  Now, precisely what 'Boing-Boing' Boris will actually do when he is in office is much more of an enigma wrapped in a puzzle, etc, etc!

 

Time to say good bye, your Honour!   The remarkable High Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 86, has been carted off to hospital yet again.  She is, of course, battier than a really, really batty thing but, dammit, you have to admire her guts.  Apparently she is determined to serve on into her 90s not least, I suspect, because she wishes to deny Trump his pick for the Supreme Court.

Wouldn't want to come up in front of her for some misdemeanour! 

 

"Great balls of fire!"   Er, well, 'great balls of steel', actually!  That is what Mr. Elon Musk arranged to have thrown at the windows of his new armoured van at its mega-launch a couple of days ago in order to prove how resistant is was to any sort of attack:

'Shurely shome mishtake here!"

What can one say except 'ohdearwhatapitynevermind!'  Never mind, Musk baby, at least you set Xmas off with a laugh!

 

Let's hear it for Ms. Joy Morrissey!   She is the lady contesting the Beaconsfield seat for the Tory party against that 'dirty rat', Dominic Grieve, who, in his impeccably snooty way pulled every trick in the book to ruin Brexit.  I hope he loses his deposit!

 

A little taste of Hopper:   I just came across his name and instantly, no hesitation, I went to look for some examples of his superb artistry.  He is, without doubt one of my favourite artists.

Lighthouse at Two Lights by Edward Hopper

 

Hotel Lobby by Edward Hopper

 

Automat by Edward Hopper

It's not just the paintings but the untold stories behind them which Hopper leaves to the viewer to invent.

 

An historical view of Britain and Europe!   I draw your attention to a thoughtful article at the CAPX site by the distinguished historian, Niall Ferguson, on the hoary, old subject of Britain and the EU.  The good news is that he thinks the EU is going 'tits up' irrespective of anything Britain does.  Bring it on!

 

You may need to fasten your seatbelts 'over there':   I offer this entirely unwanted, and indeed, un-needed, advice to my 'Yankee-doodle' friends 'over there' who appear to be headed for exceedingly tempestuous times.  This extract from a piece over at the American Thinker sums it up fairly well:

I'm sure I am also not alone in thinking that Attorney General Barr, with his recent speeches, is using his bully pulpit to lay the groundwork for shaping public understanding and support for drastic action that should result from those reports and that he is employing high-octane, carefully crafted rhetoric to prepare public opinion for the explosive, controversial revelations — i.e., possible judicial proceedings against high-ranking members of the Deep State in the CIA, the FBI, and the Obama administration, including such persons as Brennan, Clapper, Comey, and Rice.  [My emphasis]

What was that remark concerning "interesting times"?

 

No more rumbles

 

 

In which I am literally purring

This is quite the very best general election I have ever lived through.  Normally they are "close run things" and if one has leanings in one direction or another, there can be a need to bite one's nails!  Not this one, though!  Barring Boris being caught in bed with Prince Andrew, he is already home and dry in No. 10.  It's just a pity that we still have to trudge through several more weeks of pointless blather.

I do remember, albeit very slightly, the late Michael Foot.  A 'looney Leftie' leader of the Labour party whose only, er, 'success' was to cause a split in his party and then produce the lowest vote for Labour - ever!  His, er, 'record' stands to this day but I can't help thinking that it is now under severe threat from 'Jezza' and his 'polit-bureau' of sub-normal henchmen who are so fixated with looking Left that they cannot see the chasm they are approaching.

Meanwhile the big, bouncy 'Head Girl' who leads the il-Lib-non-Dems, Ms. Jo Swinson, is heading in roughly the same direction as 'Jezza'.  She might think she is putting over the image of the 'New Woman' dreamed of by feminists for decades but unfortunately she comes across as just bossy, 'naggy' and the epitome of the mother-in-law you never, ever want!  She is also equal to 'Jezza' in the stupidity stakes.  By announcing proudly that she, with one stroke of her phantom Prime Ministerial pen, will overthrow the declared, by referendum, wishes of the British people has doomed herself and her party to yet more wasted years on the side-lines of British politics.

So that leaves us with shambolic Boris - yeeeeeees, quite!  Still, his heart is in the right place even if his hands are not always!  Oddly enough, I do wish that Phil Hammond had not retired so early.  Yes, he was 'a dirty rat' 'Remainer' but he was also a damned good Chancellor and he might have been able to stand guard over the national coffers to protect them from spendthrift Boris with whom I would trust neither my daughter (if I had one) or my savings!

Oh well, only about three more tedious weeks to go and at least we have Xmas to look forward to - Ho, Ho, Ho and all that jazz!

 

 

The American 'Speccie' spots a winner!

No, no, don't worry, it has nothing to do with politics but everything to do with one of my favourite TV detectives.  Given that he is a fat slob from 'ooop Yorkshire way' I was amazed to see him mentioned in such a distinguished American magazine.  The name of the character is 'Andy Dalziel', pronounced 'Dee-yell', hereafter referred to as 'DL'.   Mr. Larry Thornberry, the writer of the piece sums him up thus:

DL is a son of blue-collar Yorkshire, with all the prejudices and resentments that come with this pedigree. He has made it to the rank of detective superintendent without benefit (if such it is) of a university education, or anything else that would add what some would call polish. For the anti-DLs, the main charges and specifications against him are that he smokes extravagantly and everywhere, drinks athletically, sometimes yells at subordinates, makes fun of everything PC, can be profane, and scratches various body parts in public that would be better attended to in private. I stipulate all these charges while still rising to his defense.

That's him, on the left, alongside his long-suffering sergeant, 'Peter Pascoe' played by Colin Buchanan.  The TV series was based on the numerous novels of Reginal Hill but, alas and alack, I have never got round to reading any of them.  The TV episodes are available via the usual 'whizzy-do' channels and I would urge you to give them a try.  In this PC age 'DL' is hardly a role model but he makes me chuckle!

 

 

In which I almost - but not quite - felt a twinge of sympathy for Jo Swinson

See?!  I do have a (sort of) soft spot!  I felt it this morning when I read Ms. Alison Pearson's summary of her opinion concerning Ms. Jo Swinson, the leader of the 'il-Lib-non-Dem' party in today's Telegraph.  Gosh, there's no man can ever put the boot into a lady politician the way a lady reporter can stomp down with her high heels!  "Patronising, low on charisma, high on self-confidence" is how Ms. Pearson puts it.  She continues, “Up her own bottom, but not far enough so we can still hear her,” was one verdict. Sorry, shouldn’t laugh…".  Crikey, I doubt even Richard Littlejohn would use that line!

I struggle a bit with the Boden Mum Who Always Wins the Parents’ Race vibe, writes Allison Pearson  Credit: PA

Appearances are not everything even though the very sight and sound of the wretched woman irritates me but her fanaticism in favour of Britain remaining in the EU puts her well and truly beyond the pale as far as I am concerned.  It confirms the accuracy of my description of her party as the ''il-Lib-non-Dem" party in that she swears that if she becomes PM she will simply rip up the referendum result and rejoin the EU.  By their deeds shall you know them!

I sincerely hope and trust that 'Jezza' and his Bolsheviks will be slaughtered at the election but if the illiberal and undemocratic Jo Swinson joins the body count then I will celebrate!

 

 

 

The election roundabout is out of control!

One doesn't expect a smooth ride with Boris at the controls but, dammit, we're only a couple of weeks into the electoral journey and already he has slammed his proudly flaunted tax policy into reverse.  Last week he was determined to cut corporate tax rates, this week he is not!  Last week he was still sticking by the 4-year old Tory pledge to give MPs a free vote on allowing fox hunting but this week he has become unstuck!  Positively 'Trumpian', methinks!

Meanwhile, after executing a sharp Left turn, 'Jezza' continues to hurtle up a dead-end street at high speed despite the increasingly obvious concrete wall ahead.  More and more of his passengers are taking their chances by leaping off his kamikaze bus!  If Mrs. May's last snooze-fest of an election was eye-stabbingly tedious then this one is like no other!

 

Of princes and paupers

Needless to say, Andrew is the prince and I am the pauper - although, to tell truth and shame the Devil, I'm not exactly begging on the streets!  Anyway, never mind me, what I wanted to make clear is that I am bored to near insanity by all this non-stop 'yadda-yadda' concerning Prince Andrew.  I do realise the 'meeja' have a problem what with one of the most boring and predictable general elections going on and the England 'footie' team is actually winning matches (even if they are up against the equivalent of a medley of Division 3 sides) plus the fact that Meghan and Harry are 'over there' hiding (until she starts to miss the publicity!), even so, enough is enough, my life already!

Andrew, like many of the Windsor's, is not the brightest light in the Royal firmament.  He's a thoroughly decent chap and all that sort of thing, he went up the 'sharp end' in the Falklands, he stands around dutifully at the back of the balcony in 'Buck House' when he has to, and like Princes everywhere, he enjoys the occasional 'bonk', particularly if it is offered to him on a plate, so to speak!

So, please, Mr. Editors, you are right to report it but you are not right to go on and on and on and on about it.  Give it a rest!

 

PS: Sorry, sorry!  Dozy, old git that I am, I forgot to put a heading to my last post.  Oh dear, do you think it's old age catching me up?

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 17.11.19

Those damned Dambusters!   I am somewhat over-hyped because whilst slurping my morning 'drain-clear' (aka: my fresh orange juice) this morning, I read that part of Max Hasting's superb history of the 'Dambuster' raid in which the actual attacks went in.  I found myself gripping the arm of my chair!

Can you imagine flying that behemoth, straight and true at night, just 60' above the water, with German AA fire streaming in at you?  The courage and the skill required defies belief!  Mind you, it is worth pausing to also remark on the courage and sense of duty of the likes of Cpl. Schulze, the son of a local farmer, who remained at his AA post on top of the dam desperately trying to defend against this seemingly endless line of incoming bombers all of whom were firing back at him!  All that courage, all that skill, all that scientific expertise - and all for the purposes of mutual destruction!  One can only echo Othello: "But yet the pity of it, Iago! O Iago, the pity of it! "  And it's worth remembering that it was very much and Anglo-Saxon enterprise.  The crews were an ad hoc mix of British and British  Empire men from around the globe and also included an American (Joe McCarthy - no, not that one!) who had volunteered for the RAF before his country was involved.  It's a terrific book - treat yourself - or others - at Christmas!

 

Poor old Oliver Kamm, up the creek without a paddle!   As regular readers know, I have not just a soft spot for Oliver Kamm but admiration.  I remember way back in the day, long before he rose to the dizzy heights as a leader writer for The Times, when he was just another blogger, er, like me, really! (Well, not quite like me because he has brains, intelligence and learning and all that sort of thing!)  Anyway, I have, sort of, followed his progress since then and occasionally picked up his 'scribblings'.  Like today, for example, over at CAPX where the poor chap finds himself all at sea now that he accepts the cold truth that his lifetime of love and support for the Labour party needs must end.  He appears to be dismissive of the 'il-Lib-non-Dems' and somehow I cannot see him ever voting for Boris, so the question remains, who will he vote for next month?

 

We can't see ya' but we can hear ya and smell ya'!   According to the Sheriff's Office in Clay County, Missouri, a runaway dope-dealer suspect hid himself away so well they could not find him.  Alas and alack, he could not control his wind and let forth an almighty loud and long fart which gave him away.  The story does not say how long the sheriff had to wait up-wind before carrying out the arrest.  Possibly the suspect had over-indulged in a slug of Barney Magroo's finest!

 

Movin' along from Missouri to Louisiana:   Bad news for 'The Donald' in a State Governorship election in Louisiana.  The incumbent Democrat who took the 'Repubs' by surprise by winning the previous election, now he's done it again to win a second term.  This, despite three visits from 'The Donald' and a 'yuuuuge' campaign by the GOP who were anxious to regain what they considered to be a safe Republican state.  Not the best pre-Christmas gift Mr. President was hoping for!

 

Does anyone really know the real Boris?   I ask because I haven't a clue!  But next month I will probably help vote him in as Prime Minister.  What will he actually do?  The only 'hints', broadcast across the 'meeja' at full volume, is that he will spend money like a drunken sailor.  I must ask my e-pal, 'JK', how that works in practice but I fear the worst.  Part of the problem is that I have considerable difficulty in understanding what he is saying via that gurgling, stuttering,stammering burble that sounds terribly posh but is mostly indecipherable!  Mind you, I have no problem understanding 'Jezza's' agit-prop and I tremble!  Alas, when it comes to Boris, all we can do is hope for the best but expect the worst and comfort ourselves with the thought that his 'worst' is infinitely preferable to Jezza's best!

 

No more rumbles 

 

 

Into the valley of political death they rode!

With apologies to the late, great Alfred, Lord Tennyson:

Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
“Forward, the Lab Brigade!
Charge for the guns!” Jez said.
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

On account of the innumerable wounds and scars I have accumulated over the years whilst offering election forecasts, most of which were hopelessly wrong, I tend to avoid them now.  However, I make an exception today because I am able to hide behind the skirts of Ms. Sherelle Jacobs of The Daily Telegraph!  Her headline sums it up:

Labour is on the brink of the most seismic wipeout in British election history

My feelings exactly!  Of course, they are tinged more than somewhat by my detestation of the stupid, vile idiocy of Jezza's so-called 'momentum' philosophy which has proved utterly disastrous in every country in which it was ever tried.  Also, it is driven by fear of what a Labour government - today! - would mean for my country.  As Ms. Jacobs puts it:

In its historic heartlands, the end of Labour can’t come soon enough. It is a stillborn populist movement that has mummified hideously into a metropolitan protest group. Its story is tragic. Within 30 years of its launch, bohemian Bolshevism had smothered the hopeful pragmatism of its rank-and-file.

Of course, the extinction of Labour Bolshevism might result in the growth of the il-Lib-non-Dem party but, at least for the moment', they do not appear to have their political coshes and knuckle-dusters to the fore!

 

 

Well, Hillary's visit went down like a bowl of sick!

To be honest, I barely noticed that the ex-First Lady had graced these ancient shores but, happily, The Coffee House spotted it and today we had some commentary from Brendan O'Neill.

Mr. O'Neil was not amused!

She’s here with her daughter Chelsea — the dictionary should replace its definition of the word nepotism with just a photograph of Chelsea Clinton — to promote their book, The Book of Gutsy Women.

That’s clearly how Hillary and Chelsea see themselves. As gutsy women. I guess it does take a great deal of courage to live in vast mansions and earn £190k ($250k) for a speech to filthy-rich bankers about diversity or whatever. I wonder if the numerous women adversely affected (to put it politely) by the various Hillary-cheered wars in the Middle East think the Clintons are gutsy? Someone should ask them.

Apparently, she ticked us off for leaving the EU:

She’s called into question the wisdom of our democratic vote to leave the EU. She is ‘concerned’ about where the UK is heading. You shouldn’t ‘separate yourself from Europe’, she said. ‘Democracies need to stick together.’

Mr. O'Neil puts her right but I doubt he will receive any thanks!

We’re not separating ourselves from Europe, Hillary. We’re separating ourselves from the EU. Europe is a vast continent that has existed for aeons; the EU is a bloated, bureaucratic nightmare that has only existed, in its current form, since 1993. We’ll be fine.

And, Mrs. ex-First Lady, when we need your advice, we'll ask for it.  It appears that even the American public can do without it judging by your electoral record!

 

 

 

'Remainers' - either dim, dumb or lying liars!

Do you remember the deluge of panic-stricken warnings the 'Remainers' trumpeted, non-stop, from the minute we Brexiteers won the referendum?  It was worse than mere doom and gloom, it was full-on 'Apocalypse Now'!  Yesterday the government figures showed a 0.3% quarterly growth!  According to the redoubtable, 'A E-P' at The Telegraph, we have now enjoyed "13 quarters of economic growth since the Brexit referendum."  Sorry Phil Hammond but alas and alack you are as stupid as you look!  And so too are you, Dominic Grieve QC, the ultra-snooty, half-French 'Remainer-in-Chief' in the last parliament.  

'A E-P' takes the equivalent of a base-ball bat to Grieve and the rest of those 'lying-liars:

Totting up the exact numbers, it is no longer excusable for the Remainer establishment, the Liberal Democrats, and allied think tanks, to keep claiming that the UK economy is 3pc smaller than it would have been without Brexit, or that we are “3pc poorer” in Westminster parlance.

The total accumulated growth for the UK is 4.9pc. This compares with Belgium (4.7pc), or Germany (4.7pc) if we generously assume that there is no German contraction in the third quarter when the final result comes out later this week, not to mention Italy (3.2pc).

I will not attempt to paraphrase A E-P's learn-ed discourse, just read it, with my emphasis, and cheer if you are a Brexiteer - or weep if you are a Remainer:

The overall picture of the last three years is taking clear shape. The UK had a relatively bad year in 2017 when it was still carrying out fiscal tightening. The eurozone had a stellar year because the stars were briefly aligned: the end of austerity, the delayed effects of QE, and a Chinese mini-boom that lifted Germany, all at a time when there was still a large output gap and therefore plenty of low-hanging fruit.

That one year of 2017 distorted perceptions and allowed anti-Brexit agitators - including at times the Bank of England and the International Monetary Fund, and above all lobby groups funded by EU vested interests to foster a narrative of lost growth, which has since become an article of faith in the European and global media.

That narrative has been invalidated by the last seven quarters. The UK has grown faster (2.2pc) than the eurozone as a whole (2pc) over that period, yet there has been no acknowledgement of this levelling effect.

Of course, past statistics do not forecast the future and I, personally, suspect that there will be rocky economic times ahead much of which will be fostered by our former chers collègues who will be using every trick in the book, and some outside the book, to make life as difficult as possible for the UK.

 

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 10.11.19

Remembrance Day:   An article in today's Mail took me by surprise.  They conducted a survey of some of those very 'foreign fields' on which British soldiers perished.  What was extraordinary was the fact that local people still tend these graves lovingly, some of them despite the fact that their history of inter-action with the British army was not always, shall we say, amicable!

In the heart of the African bush, Kokou Esso, an impoverished villager, carefully sweeps the grave of a British upper-class Army officer. It is well-tended, pristine and, most of all, remembered

Even in Russia the graves of various British servicemen who died there are still cared for - including the ones who perished in the abortive attempt to oppose the Bolshevik revolution!  For what it is worth, my grateful thanks to all of them.

 

Incoming 'SoD':   Posting might be a tad erratic today because I have it on high authority that 'SoD' might be visiting.  NOTE TO SELF: Don't mention the 'Br' word!

 

That Peter Hitchens is tossing grenades again!   This time his target is Winston Churchill as war leader who is, of course, a 'yuuuuuge' target and therefor fairly easy to hit!  Even so, Hitchens is in receipt of some fairly heavy counter-battery fire from some distinguished historians.  I will not attempt to summarise the arguments but I will provide you with the links so that you WWII buffs can study them at your leisure.  This is his opening salvo in today's Mail:

700 people came to see this talk about my book 'The Phoney Victory' in Edinburgh . Now you can share the experience

At last! The recording of my appearance last August at the Edinburgh Book Festival to discuss my widely-ignored book ‘The Phoney Victory’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb8A4AGKGkg&feature=youtu.be

The interviewer is Ruth Wishart, to whom I offer my thanks . Likewise to the Edinburgh Book Festival, the only major book festival which showed any interest in this book .

I think the unfairness and idiocy of the boycott of silence to which the book has been subjected by festivals and reviewers was well-illustrated by the fact that 700 people attended this event, and I missed my train home because so many people wanted me to sign books afterwards.

I have addressed two other private events about this book and on both occasions received an enormous amount of interest. It is not because this book is a commercial flop that it is being ignored, but perhaps because it might be a success if it were given normal levels of publicity.

These are two responses.  The first is from Daniel Johnson at Standpoint.   The second from Richard Evans, a history swot from Cambridge.  I am unqualified to adjudicate so I will leave it to you WWII students to take your own decisions.

 

I never thought I would write these words!   However, I really think I will miss Phil Hammond, the previous Chancellor of the Exchequer.  Yes, he looked like a gormless twit and over Brexit he demonstrated it!  However, he kept a canny eye on the nation's finances which are looking remarkably healthy despite the squealings of the 'Remainers'.  Alas, both Boris and 'Jezza' are throwing money - er, our money, I would remind you! - in all directions in their desperation to win the election.  There will be tears - or even blood!

 

More war - sorry!   But this is just a Hollywood film of a particular battle and I am sorry to say that it is based on one of the most crucial, subtle and sophisticated battles of WWII.  I refer to the Battle of Midway which involved not just the courageous sailors and airmen involved but also the highly secret skills of the American code-breakers.  Somehow, don't ask me how, I just cannot believe Hollywood will do it justice.  Read a bbook on the subject and be amazed!

 

Another tricky question for my American friends:   I keep coming across hints and whispers and the occasional nudge here and there in the 'meeja', to the effect that California is headed towards a financial collapse of Argentinian proportions!  Tell me it ain't so!

 

Too, too delicious!   I am referring to the plight of Michael E. Mann, the, er, 'inventor' of the 'Hockey Stick' graph which purports to show an up-tick in global temperatures.  He sued one of his critics, a Dr. Tim Ball, in the Canadian courts - and lost - BIGTIME!  Ordered to pay costs to Dr. Bell, he has so far refused.  The similar case against Mark Stein which Mann started some seven years ago has still not been judged in court because Mann keeps dodging.  How much faith do you have in global warming prophets?  That much, eh?   Sucker!

 

No more rumbles 

 

 

 

 

Yet more offal tipped on the deserving head of "the Nonce Finder General"

Sometimes - oh, alright then - most times it is better for us 'ams' to give way to the 'pros'.  Thus it is in the case of Mr. Tom Watson who has, allegedly, stepped down from the political platform which he has defiled for so long.  Yesterday, I gave it, or rather, him, my best shot but this morning I was delighted to read Mr. Richard Littlejohn in The Mail who slipped on his 'bovver boots' and 'knuckledusters' before reducing the detestable Watson to mincemeat.  Here are a few tasters for you to enjoy:

He can’t be allowed to shed his wicked past, like one of those Weight Watchers of the Year posing alongside a cardboard cut-out of his Nonce Finder General former self.  The truth is he’s one of the most malevolent, malignant individuals ever to soil British politics, a self-serving, self-pitying, self-righteous enemy of free speech and persecutor of innocent men and their families.

[snip]

Instead, he made it all about him — burbling about having been on a ‘health journey’ and wanting to move on with his life. Sweet.
He didn’t mention that the only reason he had been on his health journey, shedding eight stone in the process, is because he had been eating and drinking himself into an early grave, much of the time on his parliamentary expenses.
In fact, he spent so much taxpayers’ money at Marks & Sparks, they gave him a free pizza wheel.
I wonder if he ever spares a thought for those who can’t move on with their lives, like the families of the blameless men he falsely accused of child molesting and worse.
Watson abused Parliamentary privilege to incite the hysterical Paedos In High Places witch-hunt against senior Tories, smearing them as rapists and murderers.
He used Prime Minister’s Questions to claim that there was a ‘powerful paedophile network linked to Parliament and No 10’ during the Thatcher years.

[snip]

He compared former Home Secretary Leon Brittan to the serial sex fiend Jimmy Savile, writing that he was ‘as close to evil’ as any man could get.
Brittan died before he could be exonerated, but only belatedly did Watson issue a grudging statement of regret.
He put pressure on the police and the Crown Prosecution Service to pursue a vendetta against blameless individuals such as the then 91-year-old war hero Lord Bramall.
Watson helped to ensure that reputations were dragged through the mud, that homes were ransacked, that families were terrorised, that lives were ruined — and all on the word of a known fantasist, Carl Beech, aka Nick, currently serving 18 years for perverting the course of justice.

[snip]

Then there was his bromance with Max Mosley, son of the wartime fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley, from whom he accepted a donation of more than half a million pounds. Watson shares with Mosley a hatred of the popular Press and has made several attempts to bring newspapers under state control.
Even after Max Mosley himself was exposed by this newspaper as having a revolting, racist past, Watson still refused to return the money.

[snip]

Yet, incredibly, you won’t be told any of this in the glowing tributes to Watson on the BBC and elsewhere.
They are all prepared to overlook, or forget altogether, his past transgressions. As far as they are concerned, he is the greatest Prime Minister We Never Had.
Sorry, but I’m not buying any of it. Public life is well rid of the Nonce Finder General.
I’m sticking with my verdict that Watson — to adapt the outrageous smear he directed at Leon Brittan — is as close to evil as any politician can get.
Or, as a headline on this column put it last year: ‘A muck-slinging zealot utterly unfit for high office. [My emphasis]

Thank you, Mr. Littlejohn, you put it so much better than I ever could - why am I not surprised?  Still 'n' all, am I mistaken in thinking that the air smells a little sweeter this morning?

 

 

 

Farewell, Tom Watson and good riddance to bad rubbish!

The utterly disgusting Tom Watson, the deputy Labour leader who swallowed whole the ludicrous phantasies of Carl Beech, a paedophile 'nutter', and thus helped besmirch the reputations of decent men, many of them brave former soldiers, has (at last) resigned from Parliament.  The reputation of the House of Commons is at an all-time low but his absence will help raise it several notches!  

Watson might run but he can't hide.  One of his victims, Harvey Proctor, a former Conservative MP, who lost his job, his seat in Parliament, his home and much of his money, is already in legal pursuit of Watson and has no intention of stopping.  For Watson, the pain is just beginning!

 

 

Ne mentionnez pas Agincourt!

Or Waterloo, for that matter!  I mention this, usually unwritten, law because according to the Telegraph there have been wails and shrieks of outrage in La France over the release of a Netflix film based on the (in)famous battle.  The curator of the newly refurbished museum close to the original battlefield has, so to speak, 'gone off on one', of which phrase I am unsure of the correct French translation!

"I'm outraged. The image of the French is really sullied. The film has Francophobe tendencies,” he said, taking offence at Pattinson’s hammed-up take of the French Dauphin Louis de Guyenne, Henry’s nemesis.  “The British far-Right are going to lap this up, it will flatter nationalist egos over there,” he predicted.

English “raping and pillaging” was totally overlooked and the king’s cold-blooded execution of his French prisoners glossed over, despite them having “their throats slit and heads crushed with sledgehammers” or “faces slashed with daggers”.

Doesn't the silly man know that “raping and pillaging” is what we Brits are famous for - how else do you think we aquired an empire?  Needles to say, M. Christophe Gilliot, gives Will Shakespeare a well-deserved slap for historical inaccuracy in his play on the subject, seemingly unaware that Will was in it for the money, not scholorship!

Still 'n' all, as our American cousins say, the fact is that a shambolic, starving, British army floundering around northern France were eventually cornered by a larger French army but still managed to beat the pants off them!  'Zut alors!'

 

 

Bye-bye, Bercow!

I meant to write a post this morning extolling the virtues of Sir Lindsay Hoyle MP who is to be the next Speaker of the House.  Alas, due to my old age forgetfulness combined with ancient idleness, I failed to do it - mea culpa!  Even so, my influence moves by mysterious means through the ether and tonight I am delighted to see that he has been appointed.  I liked his style when he was Deputy Speaker under that malignant monkey, Bercow.  He will stand no nonsense but he will not preen and prance like his predecessor. Arguably, this was the best decision taken by the House in years! 

And thank the Lord that creepy, Chris Bryant MP, who once photographed himself posing in his underpants for a 'gay' magazine, failed to get the job.  Even so, he still managed to raise 213 votes which indicates the average intelligence, not to say, the peculiar 'taste' of many of our often less than 'Honourable Members'!

 

A fascinating question for my 'Yankee-doodle' friends

Needless to say, it is one of those irritating 'ifs, buts and maybes' questions which could keep us all arguing for hours.  However, don't blame me, instead blame Mr. Rich Lowry at the National Review and the question rests in the title to his piece, "Would America Be the Same If It Had Been Settled by Russians or Spaniards?"

He answers it later in his article with this rather witty sentence with my emphasis:

At the beginning, this was a country not necessarily for Englishmen but by Englishmen, including their notions of liberty, which defined the American experience from the outset.

Spot on, methinks, and it leads to the greatest attribute we have donated, unthinkingly, to our American 'cousins' - the English language.  With it, of course, came instant access to a wholly different set of political and philosophical thoughts far removed from the European style.  He continues:

Tocqueville famously wrote that the American was the Englishman left alone. If the eastern seaboard had been settled by Spaniards, you could have “left them alone” for a very long time and marinated them in all the Enlightenment philosophers, and they still never would have come up with the American founding.

Of course, I am not suggesting that we Brits 'built the house', so to speak, but I think we laid out the American foundations and for that alone we can claim some mitigation for our ghastly and bloody history!

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 3.11.19

Feeling cheerful this Sunday morning, are you?   Well, I'll soon put a stop to that!  Or to be precise, Mr. Peter Hitchens, will!  He has a terrific article in The Mail today in which he looks back over his political travails during the numerous general elections  from the early '70s until today in which he was either a participant or just another voter.  All the old names resurface, Michael Foot, Harold MacMillan, Ted Heath, Jeremy Thorpe and so on and on, ad nauseum, although, oddly, he never mentions "that woman"!  It has obviously been a long and painful journey for poor Peter because he looks back on it, and into the future, with undoubted anguish.  But of course, his real problem is that he is now and has been since his early teen-age years, an idealist which is why he began his political journey with the Labour party.  Alas, idealists of all persuasions are doomed to disappointment because this messy world just doesn't behave like that!  Even so, it is a superb and in some ways moving essay and well worth reading.

 

Do get a grip, Mr. President!   Alas, after reading Mr. John R. Bradley's piece in this week's 'Speccie', I fear that the 'Ginger Ninjah' has adopted an odd anthem to lead his Middle East policy - "In-out, in-out, wave it all about!"  A few days ago we - er, well, me, at any rate - were breathing a sigh of relief following 'The Donald's' decision to withdraw American ground troops from the Middle East.  Since then, the American Generals have ordered their Military Police to give him a whacking with their 'yuuuuuuuge' truncheons and in this they have been aided and abetted by the Evangelical vote which will be crucial at the next election.  Then there are the neo-cons led by the likes of Sen. Lindsey Graham whose support will be critical if this fatuous impeachment goes much further.  The result is that now 'the GIs ain't goin' nowhere no how'.  Please, pretty please, Mr. President do try and engage the brain before opening your mouth - and in the meantime have your twitter finger amputated!

 

Dammit, that Max Hastings is good!   Yes, I have finally begun his book "Chastise", his history of the famous dam-busters raid in 1944.  I was somewhat surprised to learn that it took place on the night of the 16th of May and the early morning of the 17th which, of course, as y'all do know, do you not?, was my 4th birthday!  I am only into it in a small way but already Sir Max has dropped some 500lb bombs on that bumptious fool, Air Marshal 'Bomber' Harris, which is excellent.  Even based on the opening chapters I can thoroughly recommend it.

 

Good News and Dribbling Idiocy:   Thanks to today's Mail I learn two things.  First, the police are to be given the power to arrest (so-called) gypsies if they set up their squalid camps illegally on private or public land.  Second, audiences at theatres will no longer hear the phrase "Ladies and Gentlemen" which has been banned for the usual eye-ball rolling idiocy perpetrated by the 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz' pressure group. (Note: I have put all the letters into their title to ensure that I don't leave one out!

 

When it comes to the horror of black slavery, check out Arab-Islam!   A fascinating, 'MUST READ' article at The American Thinker site in which the little known, or at least, the little mentioned, facts of Arabic slavery in Africa, which far exceeds anything we wicked, Western Whites ever did, is exposed.  Nowadays, of course, much of black Africa has converted to Islam so we are unlikely to see any recriminations from there!

 

No more rumbles  . . .

 

 

And it's, hey-ho and off to the election races!

Of course, my world-wide audience will be looking to me for a forecast of the outcome and, naturally, I have no hesitation in telling 'y'all' that, er, um, on the one hand but then again on the other, maybe or even possibly, perhaps with a following wind the result is a foregone toss-up!  You see, that's the sort of razor-sharp political analysis you can expect from this blog - and I heard that!

I think it is safe to say that the Conservatives will win the most votes but whether it will be sufficient to form a government is another question entirely.  I am fairly confident that the labour vote will be decimated but then the question becomes qui prodesse? - who benefits?  As usual when I am uncertain I like to introduce a bit of Latin to, er, 'add lustre to my cluster'!  Some of the fleeing Labour voters will be what I call 'softie Lefties' and may well go to the 'il-Lib-non-Dems', and the harder, pro-Brexit Lefties may well go to the Brexit party.  Happily, the Tories have one attraction for many of the, er, 'workers' in that Boris is an eccentric toff and many of them have a soft spot for that sort of character.

I have no idea what Boris's so-called deal with the EU is all about.  The fact that it is a deal at all fills me with dread because it means that we have given much away.  My preference was, is and remains - No Deal!  Just walk away and let those damned "events, dear boy, events!" take over.  Currently, my MP is the Tory,  David Warburton who strikes me as an eminently sensible man as well as an exceedingly interesting man.  He is a musician at heart but is also happy to start and to run businesses and make some 'moolah' which is always an indication that he is well and truly grounded.  Above all, he did not follow those "dirty rats" in the Tory party who bent every scruple in their miserable bodies to bring down Brexit.

Of course, it goes without saying that where I lead others will follow!

 

 

Casualty list #4: Nicki Morgan

Alas, I cannot offer up any specific charges against this woman because she always strikes me as totally vague and utterly useless.  Also, and I realise this not her fault, she looks totally dim and vacuous and permanently startled:

I have wracked what passes for my memory but I cannot think of a single useful contribution she has made to our country.  The fact that she is retiring because so many of those nasty 'Peeps' have been rude to her on the internet tells you how utterly pathetic she is.  To misquote - sorry, Bill! - "Nothing so became her as her leaving"

 

Casualty list #3: Amber Rudd

Couldn't happen to a bigger double-crossing traitor who appears to change what passes for her mind and her loyalty with her underwear!

And apparently her brother who played a big role in the 'Remain' campaign has also suffered some heavy setbacks.  My cup over floweth!

 

 

The casualty list #2: John Bercow

The malignant monkey is finished!  Now it only requires our PM to deny the little squirt the honours he drools for and which, in his blind stupidity, he thinks he deserves.

In my lifetime I have observed a procession of mentally-retarded Parliamentary 'actors' but none of them ever descended to the depths of this jumped-up poltroon.  I can only hope and even pray that the House takes more care in selecting a replacement.  Well, a man may hope, may he not?

 

 

The casualty list #1: Ms. Anna Soubry

This is the beginning of a running list of joyful farewells to sundry ghastly and mostly useless MPs who are already 'walking dead' in the Halls of Westminster.

 

Or, as I think of her, Ms. Anna 'Sour Brie'!  Never no more will I have to put up with seeing her scowling face on my TV and her hectoring, bossy voice scratching at my ear drums!  I gather from Wiki that she has been married twice and is currently in a third relationship.  Where she finds these blind, deaf men I do not know!

 

 

A University finally learns a lesson!

Many years ago I was tremendously keen for 'SoD' (er, that's 'Son of Duff' if you are a new reader of this distinguished blog!) to go to a University to complete his 'edukashun'.  Part of my enthusiasm on his behalf was because his chosen subject was 'computerology', you know, all those whizzy-do-thingies that drive us all mad these days!  Had he intended to study a non-technological subject, like History or Literature, I doubt I would have been so enthusiastic.  To my non-University mind these former, er, 'Halls of Learning' have descended to the depths of pig-ignorance and corruption!

Nowhere is this better illustrated than in an article at The Coffee House featuring events at the Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) - and no, me neither!  Apparently it has several distinguished alumni including a certain, Junius Ho, currently a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong.

According to Luke de Pulford at The Coffee House:

The folk at ARU seemed to like Ho. In fact they liked him so much that they gave him an honorary doctorate in 2011. The fawning description of Ho on the ARU website says they are ‘proud to follow his continuing evolution.’

Indeed, they were so proud that they granted this mega-rich 'Hong-Konger' an Honoury Degree in 2011.  Alas and alack, since then, 'oh what a falling off was there!'  Here are some of Mr. Ho's pronouncements:

In 2017 Ho called for protestors to be ‘killed mercilessly’. It’s not a big deal to kill ‘pigs and dogs’ he reasoned. In July this year he circulated photos of Westerners at protests, and implied they were foreign intelligence agents. This month he said that fellow legislator Claudia Mo was ‘habitually eating foreign sausage’, referring to her English husband.

Ho issued what was widely perceived to be a death threat live on air to another legislator, Eddie Chu. He regularly calls protestors ‘cockroaches’. When the Legislative Council of Hong Kong was debating same sex marriage, Ho objected and argued that it could lead to permitting bestiality.

All very nasty but, of course, to the ARU management Mr. Ho was the means by which zillions of 'moolah' could be diverted from Chinese government sources into their coffers.  Thus it has taken a considerable time for them to pluck up such moral courage as they possess and revoke all connections to this detestable Chinese thug and his Peking puppet-masters!

 

 

 

Janet Daley, as usual, says it for me - and infinitely more intelligently

Sorry again for my 'hissy-fit' but don't these computer-thingies drive you mad when they go wrong?  It's alright for those 'whizzy-do' experts, like 'SoD', who actually understand how they work but for 80-year old grumps like me they remain the usual mix of riddle, mystery and enigma.  Anyway, I have watched an episode of "Morse" and have now calmed down.

On return, I read today's column by Janet Daley in The Telegraph which is laser-like in its accuracy.  

"It is generally the case that when the state of the country demands a general election it is because we need a new government. This time it is because we need a new opposition."

Absolutely spot on although I would strongly suggest that in addition the Government ranks could do with a clean out.  What a squalid bunch of treacherous double-dealers many of them are!  As for Her Majesty's (dis)Loyal Opposition, I don't think I have ever seen such a hopeless, hapless collection of utter deadbeats!

How can it be that while all the opposition parties excoriate the sitting prime minister (even after he has succeeded in the most monumental and supposedly impossible task set before him, the result of which they have approved) they are unanimously opposed to permitting him to be removed from office, at least without impossible conditions? Or, to put it more simply, they are united in their refusal to give the electorate any role in their private game.

Note to all opposition politicians: nobody in the real world now believes (if, indeed they ever did) your excuses about fearing a “no deal” exit, or needing more time to scrutinise a Withdrawal Agreement most of which has already been, in its earlier incarnation, scrutinised to exhaustion. As this column has observed before, the people are not fooled.

No, we definitely are not!  This lot are clinging to their Parliamentary places because they know 'The Peeps' are poised with an electoral axe which will see the end of their perks and privileges.  They really are the dregs:

But the need to replace the opposition is not just because of the insoluble Brexit stalemate. We have reached a historic milestone of a different order. I cannot recall a time – in nearly half a century of observing British politics – when the quality, professionalism and intellectual performance of opposition MPs has been as grotesquely inadequate as it is now. [My emphasis]

Just think Jeremy Corbyn, Ian Blackford, Jo Swinson and … well the list goes on.  Oliver Cromwell put it better than anyone:

"You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!"

HEAR, HEAR!

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 27.10.19

CANCELLED - Sorry, sorry, sorry but I tried to copy and paste something and it completely buggered up my screen and now I am in such a 'grump mood' that I can't be bothered to scribble anything more!

See you tomorrow!

 

Oh no, say it ain't so!

Just picked up a worrying report - from America, 'natch'! - that the Barclay family are considering selling 'Her Majesty's Daily Telegraph'!  Happily, The Spectator is not included in the mooted deal.  Also, even more happily, none of the 'Usual Suspects' from the Left-wing, loony fringe have enough money to run their own failing newspapers let alone buy up another one so the chances of 'The Graun' buying it up are miniscule.  Apparently, The Mail might be up for it and at least they are well to the Right under the splendid leadership of Lord Rothermere - so far!  Perhaps, and this could be even worse news, some Russian crook oligarch with a Swiss bank full of stolen 'dosh' might fancy his chances!  Life may not be the same!

 

 

"Per ardua ad astra"

The motto of the Royal Air Force seemed the only proper heading to this post which follows my attendance this evening at a talk given by Sir Max Hastings, author of "Chastise", the title of his just published history of the Dambusters' raid in 1943.  Needless to say it was a polished 'performance' from a man who had obviously studied the subject in detail.  Like most wartime operations it was a mix of 'rights' and 'wrongs', successes and failures, and the inevitable outcome was a huge loss of life - but, hell, that's war!

First and foremost was the sheer skill and courage of the airman concerned who, in effect, had to fly their massive bombers almost as though they were fighters.  Imagine, flying your aircraft, at night, straight and true and at a steady speed at a mere 60' above the ground against AA defences mounted round the targeted dams.  Then there was the inventive brilliance of Barnes Wallis, the engineer/scientist who invented the 'bouncing bomb' which was required to ensure the explosion, when it occurred, was hard up against the structure of the dam.

Most British people know the story, not least courtesy of the famous film "The Dam Busters".  As Sir Max made clear in his talk, the operation and the characters who took part in it were multi-layered.  Needless to say, one man's reputation was not exactly enhanced by the story - Sir Arthur 'Bomber' Harris who should, perhaps, have been used as a 'bouncing bomb' himself!  Sir Max made light of his problem in trying not to overly repeat the name of Guy Gibson's pet, black dog - "Nigger"!  It gives me no problems because at exactly that same time, the family I was evacuated to had a pet, black dog called "Nigger".  Also, on a personal note, I hadn't realised that the raid took place on my 4th birthday!

Anyway, I have bought a signed copy of the book which I will try and read without damaging it so that I can give it to 'SoD' at Christmas - or throw it at him if he irritates me!

 

 

 

Tricky and messy, this democratic lark

And so Parliament enters round 3, 6, 9, or is it 19?, of the never-ending Brexit war which appears destined to run and run.  But, hey, that's democracy!  We go on for decades with the usual 'boring-snoring', tit-for-tat of party politics which most people ignore until they attempt to shake off their lethargy and vote in a general election which they know in their hearts will not change anything very much.

But Brexit is different!

Not only do most people have a view on it, their views are likely to be very strong.  As a subject it refuses to be bound by the old party politics, hence the shambles to which Parliament has descended.  There is, of course, only one solution, not another referendum which will simply add fuel to the fire but a general election in which the feet of the candidates from any and all parties can be held to the fire.

Do not despair, my fellow Brits, what you have seen recently is democracy in action.  No governmental decrees backed up by threats of prison or firing squads, a la Russia or China, but messy, mixed-up, sometimes malodorous, democracy where at least our dodgy politicians have been forced to show their true nature.  Not very admirable in many cases but an election will allow us to reward the decent and dump manure on the malefactors.  Not, of course, that our individual views en masse are likely to be imbued with wisdom but at least it will be our choice - and thus our responsibility.

In the meantime, be glad the Gauleiters and Commissars are not let loose!

 

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 20.10.19

Yes, you're right, I have been a tad lackadaisical on this, er, distinguished blog since I snuck off for a three-day break.  It's a funny thing, this writing lark, you really do have to be in the mood for it.  Anyway, after a good night's sleep, my first for a while, I am firing on all of my 2.5 cylinders!

Who is Ms. Tulsi Gabbard?   And why do I want her to have my babies?  Well, I'm not too sure about that but anyone who can describe 'HillBilly' as "the queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party for so long" certainly deserves consideration as a bearer of my precious hereditary 'jewels'!  Also, as a female member of the American army, the first Samoan to stand for high political office and as a practicing Hindu she is certainly worth watching.  Alas, she seems imbued with all the usual Left-wing twaddle but even so she may be worth watching.

 

This gives me a warm feeling:   I might even give myself a self-congratulatory hug!  According to the Charity Aid Foundation - no, me neither! - who have conducted a survey of every nation in the world in order to find out which is the most charitable in its giving, the UK came in second!  I point this out to remind y'all that contributions to DPCBF will be gratefuly received.  (Er, that's Duff's Poor Children's Beer Fund, of course!)

 

Dear Meghan, six weeks isn't long enough:   Apparently, poor little Meghan is in desperate need of a six week holiday after the stresses and strains of jetting hither an thither to various places ranging from American high society spots to South Africa.  I can only suggest, your Royal Highness, that you make it six months, nay, better still, take the next six years off and give us all a break.  At my age I will probably be dead by the time you return to constantly clutter up the front pages where you are rapidly becoming even more boring than Brexit!

 

Hey! You 'Noo Yawkers', get down to the Morgan Library!   According to the National Review, an exhibition of John Singer Sargent's later charcoal drawings has just opened.  Absolutely and definitely worth a look.  The man was a truly brilliant artist.  Who could ever forget, "Madame X":

 

That Max Hastings better be on his game!    Next Wednesday, as part of the internationally acclaimed Sherborne Literary Festival - waddya mean, ya never heard of it? - Mr. Hastings is giving a talk on his latest book covering the (in)famous Dam-busters raid in 1943.  Actually, he has nothing to fear from me because I have been an admirer of it since I first read about it as a nipper.  However, that did not stop mounting suspicions in my mind that perhaps it was not quite the triumph it was proclaimed to be.  Anyway, I am looking forward to it immensely and, of course, I will report in here for a debriefing!

 

'I'm black 'n' fat cos you is white 'n' ginger'!   Thus sayeth, sort of, Professor Britney Cooper who "sports a PhD from Emory University and who currently is an associate professor in the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies at Rutgers University".

In her own inimitable words which, I suppose, indicate the er, value of a PhD from Emory University, she says:

"I hate when people talk about black women being obese.  I hate it because it becomes a way to blame us for a set of conditions that we didn't create."

Do you get that, 'Whitey'?  Those grossly fat, black ladies are not that way because of the extra doughnuts they stuff down their throats at every coffee break but because of your racism in general and your 'gingerism' in the last three years!

 

Let's hear it for good old Albert!   There is an excellent review of A. N. Wilson's new biography of Prince Albert in this week's Spectator.  Poor, old Albert must qualify as one of the most under-rated men in recent British history.  Alas, poor fellow, he never won any great battles and all of his many great achievements were in the field of civic advancement, you know, 'boring-snoring'!  If I didn't have so many other books waiting for my attention I would snap it up immediately.

 

No more rumbles 

 

 

"It ain't over 'til the fat lady sings!"

As on so many occasions I am grateful to 'the cousins' and their endless supply of succinct aphorisms, one of which I have used in my heading to summarise the current state of Brexit.  Thought it was all over did you?  Sucker!  Now it begins because whilst our mostly useless civil service will happily return to sharpening their quill pens, 'just over there' the 'Eurapparatchiks' will be pouring over the thousand and one paragraphs and sub-paragraphs such that our so-called Brexit agreement will be rendered useless.  That is why 'No Deal' was always to be preferred to any deal that allowed them to cling, limpid-like, to the zillion and one words of any sort of deal.

I haven't yet had the time to assess all the different summaries of this so-called 'deal' but I hope and trust - Yeah, I know - sucker! - that henceforth the Laws of England will reign supreme 'in this, our septic Isle'.  That was, is and will forever be, the absolute essential in any deal - which is precisely why I preferred 'no deal'!  Anyway, y'all have the rest of today to stock up with beer and crisps so that you can enjoy the sport on Saturday.  No, no, not that ghastly rugby game over which the troglodytes are getting so excited, I mean the clown show in Parliament led by that prize dwarf, John Berkow - and my misspelling was deliberate!

 

 

And lo, I am returned!

Yes, and to the infinite relief of all my loyal readers who suffer with difficulties in sleeping, I am back and even more eye-stabbingly tedious than usual!  The Memsahib and I enjoyed a very comfy three day stay in an excellent hotel, The Belmont, where the average age of the residents was roughly 83, although there were a few tearaway yobs in their 70s who occasionally 'went off on one'!  Six old friends, in every sense of the word, drove down to share lunch with us on the Tuesday.  On the Monday night I treated myself to the first dry martini I have had in 'yonks', although I had to give the young barman a lesson in how to prepare it - for which I am sure he was very grateful!  All in all, a lazy three day break in arguably the most pleasant town in the Kingdom.  Number of tattoos spotted - NIL!  Need I say more?

Anyway, back with you soon because according to the jungle drums Boris has cut a deal with the Euro-crooks - that can only presage trouble!

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 13.10.19

"The horror, oh, the horror"

Image by The Earl of Taint

Another corker from The American Thinker site.  You will recall that 'Fauxcahontas' contributed to "The Pow Wow" cookery book but, alas, to no one's surprise, her recipes were nicked from some French cook-book!

 

'Très bien', "Spiral" is back!   Alors, mes amis, I was doing celebratory somersaults last night because, totally unexpectedly, I saw that the French 'policier' series, "Spiral" was back on BBC4.  Most of the 'old gang' were there including my darling, darling, Audrey Fleurot playing the part of Joséphine Karlsson.  I really must try to improve my written French because, merde alors, she has failed to respond to my numerous letters!

 

A Brexit deal?   "You're 'avin' a laugh!"  There will be NO Brexit deal!  The reason is 'simples', the European 'apparatchiks' do not want a deal, they have never wanted a deal, all they want is total surrender and a victory parade down Whitehall.  If Boris is dumb enough to surrender then he will take the prize as the shortest term Prime Minister in our history! 

 

That Max Hasting better be on his toes!   The week after next he is giving a talk to the Sherborne Literary Society and that expert on any and all matters military will be present - er, that's me, actually, ex-Cpl. Duff!  Bet he's shaking in his boots!

 

Bucket & Spade time - again!  Yes, you will all be delighted to know that on Monday this distinguished blog is going on its holidays! No, no, I'm not jetting off to the south  of France, just chugging gently down to south Devon where the Memsahib and I will enjoy three nights in a very nice hotel on the seafront.

 

Exciting, it is not!  But, what the hell, who needs excitement at our age?  Just give me hot 'n' cold running housemaids and a decent chef!  Should be back on Thursday.

 

"The Quintet of the Hot Club of France":   I just came across that title of, arguably, one of the very greatest jazz combos of all time.  Started by that jazz genius, Django Reinhardt, and later given la crème de la crème when they were joined by the incomparable Stéphane Grappelli, they constituted 'jazz genius' of the very highest order.  I am grateful to 'Commentary' magazine for giving me a kick in the 'memory bank' and I will now start to search for my precious CDs.

 

No more rumbles

 

 

Here's an interestin' fella'

I refer to the Cambridge historian, Robert Tombs, whose speciality is the history of France.  He has an interesting article in The Telegraph which is headed "Misguided Remainers do not understand European history".  Yes, I do realise that is a statement of 'the bleedin' obvious' but his knowledgable analysis is worth reading:

Romantic Europhiles like to hark back to ancient Greece and adopt a quasi-nationalist view that Europa has some deep and continuing cultural identity of which the modern European Union is somehow an embodiment and Europe’s destiny. A glib answer would be that if such identity were real, the EU would not be experiencing so many conflicts. The truth is that Europe is very diverse. Its only historical claim to unity is as Christendom, but even that unity did not last beyond the 11th century. In its languages, cultures and mores it is hardly more a unity than Africa or Asia, and far less so than South America.

So is it, perhaps, that inherent disunity that is the driver behind the 'United States of Europe'?  Not quite, says the Professor:

Should one then turn the argument on its head? Is it precisely because Europe is so divided that it needs the EU? Without it, one often hears, we would go back to the 1930s or to 1914. But so remote from any imaginable reality is war between European democracies that justifying the EU as the force keeping them from each other’s throats is absurd. Even more extraordinary is the idea, espoused by Tony Blair among others, that if we withdraw from ‘Europe’, we might have to go back as in 1914 to stop future mayhem.

Or is it, perhaps, that the EU protects all those 'lickle' European countries from Big Global Bully Boys?  According to the 'Prof', not so:

Mr Guy Verhofstadt declared to cheering Lib Dems that “The world of tomorrow is a world of empires” in which the EU would replace the nation-states. How often we have heard this since Joseph Chamberlain first announced in 1904 that “The day of empires has come”. Leaving aside the question of whether the lumbering EU is remotely capable of bestriding the globe, we should ask ourselves where Chamberlain’s great empires are now.

Good question, and the 'Prof' answers it thus:

One with Nineveh and Tyre is the answer – though interestingly, some of the leading imperialists of Chamberlain’s day became early champions of European federalism. The huge states are all and always in trouble, struggling to hold themselves together and defend their borders. Small, nimble, united and democratic states are more resilient and successful. Where would you put your life savings? Brazil or Switzerland? China or Singapore?

We Brexiteers have no wish to be enemy of the EU.  Quite the contrary, we wish to freely trade and exchange with them.  What we do not want under any circumstances is for their laws to have precedence over ours.

Cue: Enter stage Left, Right and Centre - SoD!

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 6.10.19

The difference between two brothers:   I refer to the Princes William and Harry and, no, I do not wish to sink in the mire of speculation concerning their parentage!  Suffice to say that they could not be more different.  William is the straightest of straight arrows, imbued with the sense of duty possessed by his Grandmother.  Harry, by contrast, is a loose canon careening around the Royal deck and likely to go off at any moment.  It's a pity because he is a courageous and likeable young man who did his duty in Afghanistan 'up the sharp end'.  Alas, his wife, I suspect, has an ego that far exceeds her brain cells.  There will be trouble ahead . . .

 

Will Boris blink on the 'chicken-run'?    As he accelerates towards the massive road block that faces him in Europe, in Parliament and in the Courts, will Boris lift his foot off the accelerator or will he push down even harder?  I do not know but the fact that he still employs that determined/fanatical (you choose!) back-seat driver, Dominic Cummings, would indicate that we should not expect the shriek of brakes!  Also, the fact that an increasing number of voters are sick of the whole business and simply want 'OUT', then it will aid Boris, when we finally get to the inevitable election, to show that he has been deliberately obstructed by people intent on defying the will of the majority of voters.  Bring it on!

 

Murray mints:   Do you remember them and their catchy slogan, "Murray mints, Murray mints, too good to hurry mints!"  I am reminded of them, for obvious reasons, because Douglas Murray has entered my life - BIG TIME!  He is, and has long been, a fairly constant commentator on all sorts of subjects in all sorts of newspapers and magazines, as well as being a prolific author on a variety of subjects.  In fact, I have just purchased his latest book: "The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity" so you can expect a review (of sorts) in due course.  He is a former practicing Christian, a homosexual, a strong anti-Islam critic and politically a conservative.  The Guardian described his latest book as "the bizarre fantasies of a rightwing provocateur, blind to oppression."  Apparently they are unaware that he also wrote a book severely criticising my old Regiment when in 1972 it shot 28 unarmed civilians in Derry, 14 of whom died.  So, an interesting fella' and I am looking forward to reading his latest book.  Also, of course, he is a contributing editor of The Spectator - so that's alright then!

 

Call in the Paras!   Apparently, the dim-dumb 'kiddiewankies' are planning to bring London to a halt for a fortnight whilst they protest about '_____________'  (fill in your choice of cause).  I am not really suggesting the military but the police, with the full support of the government, need to act with energy and, if necessary, force!  They might consider spraying them all with yellow paint!

 

Oh 'strewth, I just fell into a gay/queer imbroglio:  Even at my age I keep stumbling over topics about which I know little or sometimes nothing!  The world of 'gays 'n' queers' is one of them but, courtesy of Mr. Murray (see above), I now know very much more.  As I mentioned, Mr. Murray is homosexual and the opening section of his book is devoted to explaining this highly nuanced sub-section of society.  For example, did you know that 'gay' is the word used to describe the more moderate world of homosexuality where-as, 'queer' is the far more extreme version of it?  From that point on, Mr. Murray, with his piercing intelligence, analyses - dare I say? - the 'ins and outs' of this section of society.  I could have managed the rest of my life quite well without it but, dammit, I do have an enquiring mind so I am happy to explore different facets of life, particularly with Mr. Murray as my guide.  All I can say is - 'HOONOO'?

 

No more rumbles

 

An interesting book - well, to me!

I am referring to "Our Boys: The story of a paratrooper" by Helen Parr.  She is now a distinguished academic but earlier in her life as a young girl she was distressed to learn that her uncle, Dave Parr, had been killed in the Falkland Islands whilst serving with the Paras.  Now, later in life, she has returned to this sensitive subject and has used it as a base from which to examine the nature of the Parachute Regiment before, during and after the Falklands war.

She has the essence of the regiment exactly right with its emphasis on  stamina and aggression - both of which could not have been more severely tested than in that freezing, bleak landscape in which virtually everything a soldier needed had to be carried - by the soldier!  She has not flinched from investigating and telling in some detail the nature of very close combat, so close that frequently the bayonet was required.  Nor does she flinch from pointing to some brutal details of the behaviour of some of the 'Toms' when hand-to-hand combat ceased.

Moving back from the 'cut and thrust', so to speak, of the combat, she sets the entire war into the background of UK society then, at the beginning of Margaret Thatcher's premiership, and now, when it seems impossible to imagine British troops going halfway round the world to fight a war - which, of course, was exactly how things were back in 1982!  Not the least of her concerns was, and still is, the nature of the relationship now between British civilian society and its armed forces.

Even so, above and beyond everything is her judicious admiration for 'the Paras', their history and their ethos.  Not a book for everyone but I, an ex-Para who (thank God!) never fired a shot in anger, enjoyed it immensely.