DUFF & NONSENSE!

I'm dying - of boredom!

God!  Life sure is tedious, ain't it?  And yes, yes, I know all about the dangers of 'living in exciting times' but even so, this current existence is truly 'boring-snoring'!  Mind you, I suspect that the eventual outcome of this 'covid-virus-thingie' may well prove to be cataclysmic.  Not so much the virus itself but the eventual knock-on effect on the economy and the social life.  Those effects, of course, will eventually reverberate in the political arena.  The one small advantage to us Brits, of course, is that there is at least four years to go before another election which gives Boris the chance not to panic but to act sensibly.  Alas, 'over there' the election race is off and running.  Even so, I think, I hope, I even pray that 'The Donald' and the 'Repubs' have enough support to hold off the mad 'Lefties'.

We shall see what we shall see, er, and all that sort of thing!

 

 

A Sunday Rumble: 20.9.20

Sorry, Donald, but Daniel Hannan has it about right:  I will not attempt to paraphrase his impeccable English, so instead I will take the lazy way out and just paste and quote from his piece in today's Telegraph:

If I were an American, I’m not sure I could bring myself to vote for Donald Trump. It’s not that he lacks achievements. His tax cuts and deregulation worked: the US economy was booming pre-Covid, and unemployment was at a record low. His judges have the humility to recognise that the Constitution is bigger than they are. His success in reconciling Israel with a number of Arab states would have had the global commentariat demanding a Nobel Peace Prize had it come from any other president.

But I keep coming back to his character flaws: the childish lies; the inability to distinguish between public office and private interests; the mafia-like expectation that his supporters should follow him on his own account, changing their views whenever he does.

Yeeeeees, I think that about sums it up!  Even so, Mr. Hannan reminds us:

I don’t think I could vote for Joe Biden, either. I remember watching him at a conference two years ago, and it already seemed painfully clear that, to deal plainly, he was no longer in his perfect mind. With the world in its worst-ever recession, can Americans afford to have him at the helm?

From a British point of view, though, things are far clearer. Trump is unquestionably the more Anglophile candidate. He identifies strongly with his Scottish mother, and sometimes describes himself as half-British. 

'Nuff said!  I think we'll keep him on!

 

The real test for Boris:   Will he have the balls to flog off the BBC to the highest bidder?  It is now a self-inflated balloon filled with rancid anti-British, pro-socialist opinions and a provider of programmes, sport excepted, that hardly anyone watches or listens to!  It's your final test, Boris, just 'man-up' and do it!

 

This day 80-years ago:   Was the height of the most crucial battle fought by Britain since the Armada.  As has been well-expressed in most of the media, it was fought with the essential assistance of sundry Poles and Czechs and others who took to the skies and helped us defeat the Luftwaffe.  At the same time, we must NEVER forget the likes of the late Sir Robert Watson-Watt who was the force behind the construction of the radar defence system which was to prove critical.  Let us salute all of them, pilots and 'swots' alike!

 

Or could Boris 'do a runner'?   Patrick O'Flynn at The Coffee House seems to think it is quite likely:

Few would suggest that Boris Johnson, for all his gifts, ever had a Wilsonian concentration span or a Stakhanovite work ethic. So it requires no great leap of imagination to suppose that the not easy, not spacious, not socially-orientated days he is enduring right now are not what he had in mind for his premiership.

Throw in divorce, fatherhood again at 56, an impending further marriage and a touch-and-go spell in intensive care that may have left its mark on his own capacity and it's easy to see why the gossip has been building that Johnson may do a Wilson early in 2021, once the main loose ends of Brexit have been tied up.

Apparently, Michael Gove is reckoned as a favourite to take over and that would be interesting not least because I have always detected some considerable intelligence behind those owl-like specs of his.

 

 

No more rumbles

 

 

Sorry, Boris, but your time is up!

There's no doubt about it, Boris has faced a fairly severe crisis with all this 'Covid-crap' but the fact is that he has been found wanting!  Let me make clear that I do not have any brilliant, fresh ideas on how it should be handled but the muddled response from Boris & Co. has been mostly desultory, occasionally heavy-handed and with hardly any of it looking very intelligent!  His own, personal re-action as Prime Minister makes Mrs. May look like 'Superwoman'!  At least Churchill made regular and public visits to the bombed ruins to show that he was involved.  At the very start, Boris's 'First Lieutenant', Cummings, 'did a runner' but apparently received no admonishments for it and remains in his job.  Early on in his 'reign', many of us quietly admired Boris for his bouncy, 'boing-boing' approach to public affairs but that disappeared faster than a Spring snowfall!

Do get a grip, Boris, you are making Keir Starmer look like 'Superman'!

 

 

"So, who's a naughty boy then?" Er, me, actually!

Yes, sorry, sorry for going a.w.o.l. for the past couple of days or so but frankly what is there to write about?  Even 'The Donald' seems to have faded from the headlines and Boris appears to have put away his clown outfit and is trying his best to appear restrained and sensible - 'E for Effort', Boris!  Even so, it's all very boring even if I keep reminding myself that it is a curse to live in interesting times!

Talking of 'interesting times', there is a fictional program on the 'telly' tonight based on Singapore as war broke out.  I shall watch it because I am something of 'an old Singapore hand, don'cha know'! Happily - mega-happily! - my tour of duty was well after the Japanese invasion and the only invaders we feared was a visit by the US Far East Fleet - sheer hell, I tell you, sheer hell!  Well, just imagine several hundred 'JKs' let loose on the town!  I was amused to read that they had to film it up in Malaysia because there was no part of modern Singapore that looked the part!  Mostly, that was due to the late - and exceedingly great! -  Mr. Lee Kuan Yew who was ruler of Singapore when it was granted independence.  He is one of the exceedingly tiny group of politicians I truly admire.  I lived there during his first years in power and his intelligence was awesome!

Meanwhile, America - yet again! - demonstrates the 'stoopidity' of me moaning about English weather!  The scenes from the western side are truly horrifying.  I can hardly believe the colossal dimensions of the fires ravaging California.  On the whole Americans are a sturdy bunch of people but I do hope 'The Donald' has some imaginative and useful assistance he can offer them in this catastrophe.

 

 

Ach aye the noo, or something like that!

As my surname indicates, I am actually half Scottish although my time spent up in, er, 'bonny Scotland' has been minimal.  The only exceptions were courtesy of the Ministry of Defence who sent me - and several hundred others - up there to play soldiers.  My abiding memory is that it was exceedingly hilly, cold, wet and windy!  So, just like Yorkshire and the Lake District, really!  Anyway, the Jocks, under the leadership of the mighty midget, Nicola Sturgeon, are poised to depart the so-called 'United Kingdom'.  Why do I feel a tiny bit relieved?

Actually, it is nothing to do with Scotland or the Scots whom I mostly admire but it is all to do with the scoundrels who infest the Scottish National Party, particularly the atrocious, wee Nicola!  She knows full well that any divorce from Britain would inflict enormous hardships and problems on the Scottish people but, of course, she 'disnae give a flying fig' for that because it will give her a platform to strut her stuff, not just in Edinburgh but, more importantly, in Brussels.

For God's sake, 'Jockland', get a grip and kick the silly woman off the stage and stick with the English whose history you share and who admire you immensely.  Do you seriously believe that Brussels is going to treat you better than London?

 

 

Boris is rubbish!

Read this opening line carefully.  Boris is a pricked balloon!  (See why I urged care in reading?)  He came into play like the bouncing balloon he resembles and I for one thought this was the beginning of "interesting times".  Instead it has been totally turgid times!  Boris appears to have no original thoughts about anything.  He could have indulged himself - and us! - by some original negativity, like calling a halt to that ridiculous HS2 project which will, allegedly, get us from London to Manchester ten minutes quicker than now even if it does bankrupt us!  Or he could have cheered us all up by sacking that total 'plonker', Gavin Williamson, who masquerades as the Minister for Education!  And what, if anything, is that supposed 'live-wire', Dominic Cummings, doing to earn his crust?  Sweet F.A., by the look of it!

Get a grip, Boris, or get lost!

 

 

 

That Shakespeare fella', very tricky, you know!

I have given 'old Bill' a bit of a rest in recent times, mostly because I have been taking a bit of a rest, too!  However, I am prodded into action by an interesting article by the highly intelligent Daniel Hannan in The Telegraph.  In it, he points to the probability, or in his opinion, the certainty, that Shakespeare was bisexual.  Well, that's OK with me.  Old Bill was, or at least, appears to be from his writings, all things to all Men.  I would not be so quick to accept his actual homosexuality because, dammit, of that "all things to all men" characteristic!  His imagination took him inside the minds of heroes, cowards, kings, murderers, rebels, refined ladies, tarts and so on and on.  However:

Harold Bloom, after a lifetime of studying and teaching the plays, concluded only that “by reading Shakespeare, I can gather that he did not like lawyers, preferred drinking to eating, and evidently lusted after both genders.” To that list, I would tentatively add that he distrusted crowds, had suffered a painful betrayal and hated hedgehogs.

You will need to read Mr. Hannan's original article for an explanation of Shakespeare's alleged dislike of hedgehogs!  As for me, I do not give a flying hedgehog whether he was queer or not.  I simply remain in awestruck gratitude for him writing those plays which added so much to my life.

 

 

 

Donald or Boris - who shall I start with?

Why give myself hard choices, I'll deal with both of them.  Mind you, that gives me a problem because I am wracking what passes for my brain to try and remember what either of them have actually done!  Needless to say, the fact that both of them have more or less 'gone with the flow' is actually praise-worthy.  Usually, whenever politicians decide to 'do things' the results are disastrous!  That is why it is imperative that both the Labour and Democratic party are kept well away from those damned 'levers of power' because they always have long lists of things to be done - aaaaaaaaargh!

Donald does nothing much but does it very well by providing some unintentional humour with it.  Most of all, apart from a few brown-skinned rascals in the Middle East, he has not bombed anyone.  Who was the last POTUS who never bombed anyone?  Similarly, Boris is surprisingly peaceful for a full-blooded Tory of the 'old school'!  Also, he has shown - so far! -  no inclination to kiss and make up with Michel Barnier, the EU apparatchik responsible for tricking/negotiating (you choose!) us back into that den of thieves aka the EU!

Well done, chaps, just keep on doing nothing much and we will 'lurve' you!

 

 

Yes, I'm back again - again!

It's not just that I am bone idle, although I am, as the 'Memsahib' will confirm, but the fact is that for perhaps the first time in my life I have nothing to say!  The so-called 'news' is now eye-stabbingly boring both at home and abroad.  I suppose that is really "A Good Thing" because exciting news is frequently bad news!  Even so, when both Boris and Donald fail to raise even a chuckle then matters have sunk to new lows of tedium.  And if I hear the 'C'-word - no, no, not that one, the medical one! - again I may hurl my TV and/or radio through the window.  The whole world now wander about like zombies in their masks,  The other day I actually saw one of my neighbours cross from his house to his lock-up store fully masked up!  I tell you, they walk amongst us!  Needless to say, our government is making a complete cock of it in their response.

I refuse to wear a mask over my face because it is uncomfortable.  However, in order to ensure entrance to various shops I wear one round my neck and that seems to gain me entrance.  Mind you, the other day in Sainsbury's supermarket some elderly lady admonished me and told me to pull it over my face.  Just in time, I stopped the automatic response which rose to my lips and instead, breathing heavily into her face, I simply said, "NO!"  Grumpy old men are best not admonished, even by grumpy old women!

Given my increasingly short temper in these irritating times, it can only be a matter of time before I am arrested!

ADDITIONAL:  By the way, I suspect that part of the reason for my recent inability to say anything is because I no longer seem to read anything!  I haven't read a book for 'yonks' and I skim the papers in seconds!  Memo to self: Start reading again!

 

 

 

Did 'Mrs. McWhinge' just say 'sorry'?

It is difficult to be certain because trying to decipher the words that actually emanate through those razor-thin lips in an accent that sounds as though it was bottled on the Isle of Skye is exceedingly tricky!  However, the press seem to think it was an apology over some total 'cock-up' in the Scottish education system which, of course, used to be held up, rightly, as an example to us English in how to properly educate our 'little Herberts and Henriettas'!

How she must have writhed in discomfort as she tried to force the word "sorry" through that slit of a mouth!  According to The Mail, the exam results of individual pupils were altered in order to fit in with a pre-planned, over-all outcome.  Sorry, Nicola Sturgeon, you have been down-graded to  'D-' and removed to the 'Remedial Class'!

 

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 9/8/20

Do get a grip, America!   I read today that 84,000 mail ballots have been disqualified in an election in 'Noo Yawk'.  Why am I not surprised and as it is, so to speak, 'bleedin' obvious' that postal votes are always and forever open to abuse and malpractice, why do Americans persist with the practice?  If as an American citizen you can't actually 'haul yo' ass' to a voting centre then you lose your vote - end of!

 

So Brexit wasn't quite the end of the world after all!   According to a Dutch writer at The Spectator:

An article in the Dutch, left-leaning newspaper Het Parool led with the headline ‘Despite Brexit, multinationals prefer London over Amsterdam or Paris’ this week. The piece reports that ‘the feared exit [of companies] from Great Britain is not happening’ as expected, and highlights the fact that Unilever decided to:

“Become fully British, scrapping its dual [Anglo-Dutch] structure [which has been in place for 90 years]. Its headquarters will be London and not Rotterdam, despite the avid attempts of Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

'Hoodathunkit?'  Er, well, me, actually!

 

That Borodin fella is driving me nuts!   By pure coincidence, I seem to have come across his rightly famous composition "In the Steppes of Central Asia" at least three times in the past few weeks and now that damned theme is firmly lodged in my mind.  I'm not really complaining because it is gorgeous but, in the words of my old Jewish accountant, "Enough is enough, my life already!"

 

No more rumbles 

 

 

Not "a naughty Tory" but a stupid, arrogant one!

I refer, of course, to Mr. Charles Elphicke, the former Tory MP for Dover and about to be resident of Wormwood Scrubs!

My instant re-action to seeing a hitherto successful man, in effect, drive headlong into a concrete wall, not once but several times, is a tiny dash of pity.  Alas, reading of Mr. Elphicke's trail of self-inflicted injuries as he constantly followed his erect penis into even greater trials (literally!) and tribulations, such pity as I might have faded rapidly.  Did he really and truly believe he was so irresistible to so many women?  The jail-time he will serve will be a severe punishment but the loss of his career and political power will be crushing.  How much grief the loss of his wife will be can only be answered by him.

 

 

 

Yes, alright, alright, I HAVE been skiving!

Sorry for my absence - waddaya mean ya never noticed?! - and thanks to 'SoD' for 'filling in', as it were.  My reason for going a.w.o.l. is simple - I just felt dead lazy!  Also, the fact is that I couldn't think of a single thing to say to y'all - and I heard that!  At 81, my life is fairly boring but looking around me, so is the rest of the world!  A 'boring-snoring' world, of course, is not necessarily 'A Bad Thing' because compared to an, er, exciting world with all that that might entail it is much to be appreciated.  

The fact is that my, er, 'creative juices' (so to speak) appear to have dried up along with the minute amount of energy still hiding somewhere inside me!  To my amazement, the two prime sources of ludicrous behaviour on the world stage on whom I was relying for a steady stream of stories, Boris and 'The Donald', have turned out to be, on the whole, a pair of 'Steady Eddies' - hoodathunkit?  And, of course, the support act of 'Jezza the Clown' took early retirement and has been replaced by the most 'boring-snoring' politician in my lifetime, Keir Starmer!  

I haven't been doing nearly enough, or even any, reading just recently, particularly of my history books, so I think I need to get back to them and see if they will energise me.

 

 

 

The Sunday morning/afternoon/evening (delete as appropriate) Rumble!

Yes, I know, I know but it has taken me a while to engage the brain today - not of course because I was wrestling with the square root of -1, absolutely no chance of that, but merely because I am suffering with acute langour!  OK, OK, the fact is that I have been feeling dead idle all day - sorry!

 

Dear Meghan, just bugger 'orf'!   That is my message to the Lady who is currently playing the role of Duchess of Sussex.  It is clear beyond doubt that she is part of that 'yuuuuuuuuuuge' majority of people who do not like us Brits in general and our Royal family in particular.  That's OK but you've made your point, Darling, so please don't go on and on and on about it, just go back to Hollywood where you can mix with, er, real Ladies and Gentlemen!

 

Poor Harry!  I do realise that he is not 'the sharpest knife in the block' but he really has hit crass bottom with this marriage to Meghan.  Mind you, he will keep the ladies glued to their favourite tabloids so Fleet Street is happy.  The future, of course, is that the pair of them will end up like a re-run of the Windsors - two sad, old 'has-beens' that nobody cares much about.

 

Corbyn may well destroy the Labour Party utterly:  According to Nick Cohen at The Spectator, and he is a long-term, pro-Labour supporter, the virulence of the anti-Semitic virus that is racing the veins of the Party is now at truly dangerous levels.

On Thursday the supposedly resurgent Labour party lost control of Brighton and Hove, one of its few centres of power in southern England, because of the endemic anti-Semitism on the left. The fate of the local Labour group shows in microcosm the problem facing the Labour leadership nationally as it struggles to pull the party away from being the natural home for creeps and conspiracy theorists.

That's the problem for the fanatical Left in a Democracy, sooner or later they have to face the 'dreaded Peeps', at which point, they get a good, hard slap!  I wonder how they deal with the fact that Karl Marx was Jewish?

 

 

 

No more Rumbles

 

 

 

How long do you give the European dis-Union?

My guess - hope? - is 10 years max!  Things were bad enough before but now that they have agreed - sort of! - that the Brussels' apparatchiks may be free to borrow as much as they want on the basis that every day is Christmas Day then it will only be a matter of time - very short time! - before the people and tax-payers of Germany, Holland, Denmark and Austria, aka: the frugal four, realise that it is them who will be paying to keep Italy and Greece and the rest in the style to which they are now well accustomed.

Each time I read about the crazy, out of control bus-ride the EU is taking, I close my eyes and offer a prayer of Thanksgiving to that frequently derided group, the British people.  Having finally been offered their chance of escape, they had the guts to take it.  The fact that it was offered by perhaps one of the biggest Euro-fanatical 'plonkers' of all time, David 'Dimwit' Cameron, who never imagined for a second that he would be outvoted, makes that event the second most pleasurable political event of my 81-year old life.  The first, of course, was VE Day in 1945 - another damned defeat for the Huns!

On my headstone they can carve the words: 'He came in on a happy note and he went out even happier'!

 

 

 

 

 

For God's sake, Boris, don't wear a kilt!

I wish Boris well on his visit to Scotland.  It is a brave gesture given that his popularity north of the border is, I suspect, minimal.  Even so, he is Prime Minister of Britain and the last time I looked Scotland was part of it so it was his duty to do so.  I do hope he resists the temptation to wear a kilt because sight of those plump white thighs exposed to the press photographers would finish off such popularity as he possesses up in bonny Scotland.  Certainly such a sight would only increase the popularity of 'Mrs. MacWhinge'.

The breakdown in Anglo-Scottish relations is a very real shame but most of it is down to the rabid Scots-Nats and their fanatical drive for (so-called!) independence.  If any of them think that the EU-apparatchiks will treat Scotland better than the British already do then their swivelling eye-balls will shortly explode.  As for 'Mrs. MacWhinge', personal ambition long ago overtook any genuine feelings she had for the future of Scotland.  She is nothing more than a non-stop agitator with only a single aim in view - her place in Scottish history!

 

 

 

Is she the most deeply unpleasant woman in British politics?

 

 

 

 

 

 

icola Sturgeon, SNP

 

 

Well, I think so and have done ever since the raucous, wee lassie first appeared on the political stage.  Of course, her politics are detestable and typical of the sort of jumped-up nationalist tripe spewed forth by every 'wannabe', power-mad leader who ever climbed on a soap-box wrapped in a flag!  Needless to say - because she makes it clear every-time she opens her wee gob - she loathes and detests the English.  In doing so, she joins a large club mostly made up of the very worst and most stupid people in the world.  Happily, for me, at any rate, most of those spittle-flecked 'ranters' do their shouting in foreign languages but she, alas, speaks English.

It is no surprise, of course, that a majority of Scots support her, not least I guess, because it is now frequently reported that the previously excellent education standard of the 'Jocks' has sunk down to English levels, if not lower!  The Scots have much of which to be exceedingly proud, their influence is felt in all corners of the globe but they would do well to remember that it was done in partnership with the English!  

There is a very small but naughty part of me that secretly hopes the wretched woman succeeds in breaking away from England - then the Jocks will find out the hard way just how benign and friendly all those Europeans really are!

Incidentally, you will guess from my surname that I possess more than my fair share of Scottish blood and should you doubt it, let me tell you that my Mother's full name was Jean Ann Mary Mackay Campbell Duff!  She, incidentally, told me that she couldn't get out of Scotland fast enough but then I suspect that as a young lassie she was a tad naughty.  'Nuff said, I feel!

 

 

 

The eccentric political genius of the British

I try not to write in praise of my countrymen too often because, alas, there is all too much evidence to contradict it.  Even so, the event of 1215 in which King John signed, under intense pressure, the Magna Carta, was an event of world-wide and historic importance.  It was the foundation stone for the concept of democracy, although if any of the participants had known the long-term outcome, I suspect they would have agreed to tear it up on the spot!

Romantics (like me, I'm afraid to say) would dearly love to claim this as the first step to democracy.  Well, it was - sort of - but actually, in itself, it was just another roughly-hewn deal between two groups of powerful men trying to hang on to their riches without the risky business of going to war.  Even so, one damned thing led to another and then to another and then to yet another and - 'hey-ho!' - we were off on the democratic hurdle race.

For myriad reasons way beyond my educational 'ken', gradually, despite occasional setbacks, this democratic lark actually ascended until it became the icon for other nations to try and emulate it.  Not, of course, that it is political perfection, not least because it is operated by human beings - yeeeeees, quite!  Even so, where it has worked it has, by and large, been incredibly beneficial to people of all classes.

So, all I can say is, jolly good show, Britain!

 

 

 

I despair of Whitehall and their useless idiots!

I doubt anyone in Whitehall understands the word 'Strategy', let alone 'Grand Strategy'!  So dim are they that I suspect they might have difficulty spelling the words!  Having blissfully floated along for some 20+ years in a blissful romance with the murderous thugs who run the Chinese concentration camp, they suddenly stub their toes on the concrete reality exhibited in Hong Kong.  At which point they throw a hissy-fit and kick the major Chinese company/government, Huawei, out of our budding/shrivelling (you choose!) 5G system.  Quite right but does anyone in Whitehall have the remotest idea what the next move should be?  Has anyone been working on alternatives to what was obviously about to happen?  Of course not, but I bet they are already forming a committee to, er, work out some sort of a plan.  Ah yes, the British answer for everything - form a committee!

 

 

“Sumorsǣte ealle”

As 'Her Majesty's Daily Telegraph' reports this morning:

An Old English phrase, it translates to, “all the people of Somerset”, and refers to the support that locals gave to King Alfred in his struggle against Viking invaders in the 8th century.

Ah yes, good, old King Alfred - wasn't he the one who burnt the cakes?  Anyway, the story confirms what I have been telling y'all for 'yonks' that 'Zummerzet' is the 'go to' county of England.

Whether fashion designer, media mogul, acting royalty or tech entrepreneur [or retired second-hand car dealer!] – if you have money, power, influence and – ideally – a slight bohemian side, it is not the eastern Cotswolds counties of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire you look to conquer from London in 2020, but the genteel land of milk and cider a little further west.

The article goes on and on and on some more, listing the various 'slebs' who have followed me 'down 'ere to zunny Zummerzet'.  You see, I told you, where I go others follow!  Mind you, haven't seen too many of them in The Tippling Philosopher' - thank God!  Incidentally, me and my neighbour have arranged to resume our weekly Wednesday evening visit to 'The Tippling' after this bloody-bloody lock-down!

 

 

 

The bamboo veil has been ripped down - hurrah!

Thanks, Boris - or Dominic - or Rishi - or who-ever it was who finally took the axe to it!  The Chinese menace has been swelling before our very eyes for decades but their bribery and corruption of key 'puppets 'n' muppets' in the establishment has hidden the threat for too long.  Mind you, the Chinese themselves were mostly responsible for their own exposure because of their arrogant, heavy-handed tactics.  Confucius would be hanging his head in shame!  What's the Chinese for "DUH!"?

Thanks to Matt at The telegraph today:

 

 

There is a good-ish chance I may be arrested soon!

This morning, the 'Memsahib' and I went to our local garden centre because we needed some replacement plants for pots previously inhabited by what turned out to be malingerers!  I was looking forward to it because I rather like our garden centre, no, no, not so much for the plants, though they're OK, but more the rather tasty snacks they serve up in their café.

Anyway, first off I had to ask a young lady how the hell to get in because the entrance was a maze of yellow tape.  Having entered, I was forced to follow an intricate line of arrows which took me in what I knew to be the wrong direction for what I wanted.  Then, I discovered that the café was not selling the sort of "tasty snacks" that I was looking forward to. So then I bought four plants, made my excuses and left - with steam coming out of my ears!

I am sick and tired of all this lock-down nonsense!  Even more, I am raging at a world in which I, a free-born Englishman, is forced to bend the knee to sundry quill-pushing clerks and their pettifogging rules 'n' regs!  For God's sake, Boris, and mine, please put a stop to all this nonsense before I go mad with an axe! My local Tory party HQ might be my first target!

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 5.7.20

Sometimes 'the cousins' can be a tad forgetful:  For example, some of them are huffin' 'n' puffin' because Prince Andrew refuses to go 'over there' and testify against Ghislaine Maxwell.  They appear to have forgotten that we are still waiting for that American woman who left a US Air Force base driving on the wrong side of the road and killed a young lad on a bicycle.  She, of course, instantly fled back to the States, never to be seen again.

I bid farewell to F1 racing:  Actually, I have been gradually going off it for some time but now that Lewis Hamilton, who is, I think, one of the greatest racers ever, has joined the unholy chorus of 'Black Lives Matter', then that's it, as far as I am concerned.  He can continue to go round in circles until he disappears up his own exhaust pipe!

Additional:  Perhaps I wrote too soon because I gather that several drivers refused to bend their knees.

Well done, Boris:  I gather from news reports that Boris is on the brink of cutting ALL connections with Huawei.  Obviously, my instructions to that effect have been received and acted upon!

You lucky American 'Peeps':  Have you heard the great news?  Apparently, Mr/Mrs/Ms Kanye West - don't ask me, I've never heard of him/her - is planning to run for the Presidency. Well, I assume it must Mr. Kanye West because his wife, Ms. Kim Kardashian is supporting him.    Should be a shoo-in, don'cha think?

A damned fine run thing that Battle of Britain:  As Leo McKinstry reminds us in The Spectator this week.  As so often in WWII we must thank German stupidity for helping us to win, not least 'Fat Hermann's error in ordering his bombers to switch from attacking Fighter Command's airfields to bombing London.  Hitherto, the German's had been aided in their near victory by the top brass in the RAF, especially Sir Hugh Dowding, whose operational tactics were hopeless.  Eventually, the likes of Douglas Bader who understood the necessity of attacking German formations with large formations, not penny packets, had his way. "A fine run thing" indeed!

 

 

No more Rumbles

 

 

The European Union goes south!

By which I mean that Angela Merkel, at last, has decided to loosen her grip on the EU purse strings. Despite the moans and groans from the ‘frugal four’,  Austria, Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands who are virulently opposed to permitting the EU hierarchy to borrow money at will because they know that it will be a green light for the catholic South to spend it like drunken sailors - money for which they will be partly - if not wholly! - responsible.

Of course, the devil - or perhaps the angel! - in this will be, as always, in the detail.  I simply cannot believe that 'Mutti' Merkel would surrender the keys to the European treasury.  Konstantin Eckner puts it this way in 'The Spectator' with my emphasis:

After the mortal shock of Brexit, the EU tried to show confidence about the future. Brussels tried to punch above its weight, taking on tech giants like Google and Apple. But now the pandemic has transformed the EU from policymaker into big money spender. This means Germany’s council presidency will revolve around two questions: Can the EU cushion the economic effects of the crisis? And can the member states agree on the EU budget for the next seven years? The budget for the entirety of that period will be in the ballpark of 1.1 trillion euros (£1 trillion). 

Of course, the Covid pandemic has caused massive financial problems everywhere including 'this septic Isle' but we are a sovereign country capable, eventually, of working our way through it.  The European Union is not!  The strains and anguish will be immense and will take them to the very edge of the precipice.

Thank God we're out of it!

 

 

The 'Old Bill' gets busy!

Like most people, I suppose, I have mixed opinions on our Constabulary - or the 'Old Bill' as they are frequently referred to. Not, I hasten to add, that I have had much contact with them!  I suppose, in my usual lazy way, if I was asked for an opinion on them I would come up with some 'smart Alec' (or 'Dim David!) remark to the effect that they were 'over-weight, over-paid and never 'over-here' when there was a burglar about'!

Well, not for the first time, I appear to have it all wrong. According to reports in The Telegraph today:

Britain’s National Crime Agency, with European law enforcement bodies, had spent four years trying to crack [a European IT] system without success. But in April, cyber specialists working with the French police managed to hack into the network without being detected.

They were able to eavesdrop on millions of chilling messages and harvest a treasure trove of evidence. Nikki Holland, director of investigations at the NCA, said: “It was like getting the keys to Aladdin’s cave”, while her deputy, Matt Horne, likened it to “cracking the criminals’ Enigma code”.

Unaware they were being spied upon, gangland bosses were unwittingly providing evidence the police could have only dreamed of. As well as drug deals and gun running, law enforcement agencies intercepted gangsters as they planned assassination hits.
In one case killers were intercepted on their way to kill a rival drug dealer.

Within weeks, more than 740 suspects had been arrested and millions of pounds in illicit cash, tons of class A drugs and vast caches of firearms seized.

Now that is what I would call a RESULT!  Well done, Constable!

 

 

 

The worst is yet to come . . .

Yes, you can always rely on D&N for a ray of sunshine in these gloomy times, er, but not today!  This 'Covid-thingie' has already had a devastating effect on those unfortunates unlucky enough to be hit directly by it. Then there are the uncountable number of people caught by its knock-on effects, those whose jobs and incomes disappeared overnight, to say nothing of all those small to medium sized businesses which have been wiped out.

Now, however, as the very worst extremes, seem to be declining an even bigger problem arises - how do we pay to rectify matters?  Boris appears eager to chuck oodles and boodles of money at the problem but, as I am sure y'all know full well, that is your money!  Needless to say, the 'Blobsters' (the servants of the Blob!) will be eager to interfere and run things the 'Whitehall way' which, of course, will require even more zillions, most of which will go straight down the drain!

The answer, Boris, is obvious.  Don't YOU spend our money, instead, just cut taxes and let us do it for you! Take a scythe to all those 'rules 'n' regs' so beloved by the Blob and, to quote a phrase, "Set Your People Free!'

 

 

 

'Xi Ping-a-ling' is an international menace

Yesterday I read that China was manufacturing and distributing fake gold bars.  Well, to be fair, if you are a professional gold dealer then you should have the expertise to spot the fakes.  However, for a nation the size of China to permit - encourage? -  forgery on that scale in a market which is crucial to international trade is yet another sign of their non-stop mischief-making.  

Today I read that China has also been caught out exporting 10,800 assault weapon parts into Florida.  The inference is that they were destined for some members of the 'Black Lives Matter' gang.  Well, at least 'The Donald' has taken some fairly severe actions against China over matters of trade but my question is what is Boris doing?  The sheer numbers of Chinese immigrants/visitors to Britain is alarming, particularly at Cambridge University where the place is flooded with 'wannabe' students.

Get a grip, Boris, and do something!  For a start, cancel that ludicrous Huawei project which threatens to allow China to have total control over our national communications.

 

 

 

And so we bid farewell to Sir Mark Sedwill

And, unsurprisingly, I am not exactly choking back the tears, in fact, it's more like I am trying not to cheer too loudly!  Not that I know too much about Sir Mark but the fact that he was an assiduous anti-'Brexiteer' who attempted to pull every governmental lever he could get his pudgy mitts on in an effort to deny the peoples' choice to leave the EU, is enough for me to decide that I will not be sending him a Xmas card - again!

In the meantime, 'Killer' Cummings stalks the corridors of Whitehall power and numerous other top civil (non)servants will be running their fingers round their starched shirt collars!  Oh please God, let me live another 20-odd years so that I can read the 'Heffalump's' detailed back story to this massacre of the 'mandinerate'!  Simply too, too delicious!

 

The Sunday Rumble: 28.6.20

Understanding is beginning to dawn!   Now, at least, I am beginning to fully understand what "Going to Hell in a handcart means!"  Perhaps, Field Marshall Foch put it better with "My centre is giving way, my right is retreating …", although he added that in response he intended to attack!  Whatever, both 'over here' and 'over there' our societies appear to be disintergrating and the (so-called) 'powers that be' appear to be clueless over what to do.  Sometimes, edging ever closer to our mutual, good friend, Death, is a comfort!

Oh no, I've been 'Hefferlumped' - again!   Well, of course, as I intimated earlier, I have just finished Simon Heffer's superb - and I do mean superb! - history of Britain during the Great War.  So now I have bought his earlier work "High Minds: The Victorians and the Birth of Modern Britain".  I have no doubt that it will as perceptive and well-written as his later work "Staring at God".  Dammit, I just 'lurve' history and my only regret is that I will never be able to thank the late Miss Purvis, an elderly, unmarried lady, like several others who taught me at school and who were doomed to spinsterhood having lost their beloveds during WWI.

Latest score: Dom 1, Blob 0:  According to reports, Sir Mark Sedwill, the 'Grand Blob of Blobs' (ie: the Head of the Civil Service), is to be fired.  The lesson is obvious now to all the lesser 'blobs' - don't mess with the Dom!  Dammit, up above I intimated that I was asking "Death where is thy sting-a-ling?" but now, I want to live at least another 25 years to find out the background to this example of 'history in the making'!

All this knee-bending is ludicrous!   And I can state here, clearly, that I will never 'bend the knee' to anyone except Her Maj, er, on the understanding that one of her footmen will help get me upright afterwards!

Yes, that about sums it up:   I was much taken with these words from Andrew Stuttaford at The National Review:

What is really killing Italy’s economy, Italy’s banks, and Italy’s public finances are the consequences of Italy’s decision to cheat its way into the euro, a currency for which it — as at least some of those putting together the single currency knew — was never suited.

Italy wasn’t suited to the one-size-fits-all euro then, and Italy is not suited to the one-size-fits-all euro now. The least bad way out of this mess remains, as it always has been, the division of the single currency into ‘northern’ and ‘southern’ units.

But don't hold your breath waiting for Brussels to see 'the bleedin' obvious'!

Who is Zion Lights?   I don't know for sure but I think I want her to have my babies!  Well, I nearly always admire people who learn things and then change their minds.  It's nearly my bedtime so I will not go into the details, just pop over to the CAPX site and read about a remarkable and rather attractive lady.

 

No more Rumbles . . .

 

Britmiliation 1-2

Please note:  As SoD's comments became longer and longer I suggested that he contribute his own posts which, at least, would break the tedium of my endless ruminations and provide a different perspective.

 

SoD Contribution:

Blighty's routine humiliations at the hands of its criminally negligent and incompetent state are now so frequent we have to number them and group them into one post to keep up with them all.  Here we go ...

Britmiliation #1

Of all the criminal negligence and blue socialist degradation this government is presiding over, this is one of the worst ...

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/27/private-schools-offer-state-pupils-summer-catch-up-sessions/

Private schools have offered to run summer catch up courses for local children, as they accuse ministers of “ignoring” their offers to assist.

Christopher King, chief executive of the Independent Association of Prep Schools, has written to the Education Secretary to express his “frustration” at the Government’s “reluctance to accept help” from fee-paying institutions.

In the letter, seen by The Sunday Telegraph, he said that members of his association were prepared to open up their buildings in July and August to run summer courses for children in their local community.

Mr King said that private schools could make a “significant difference” to the education of children in their local community by helping them get up to speed over the summer holidays, and would come at a minimal or no cost to parents.

The offer from independent schools comes amid rising concern about the plight of children during lockdown and fears that a decade of progress in narrowing the attainment gap is in danger of being reversed.

What a major wasted opportunity to show up state education for the feckless waste of money it is. To give state school parents the chance to experience top quality education and contrast it against the incompetent, lazy, unionised Marxist brainwashing their kids have had from the state thus far.

The Summer school service would have been free or trace cost. What an opportunity to fund a Summer of education and put pressure on the Left Axis and unions to say "You can be replaced - and for less money" ...

Research published earlier this week showed that more than two million children have done virtually no schoolwork during lockdown.

One in five pupils in the UK – equating to around 2.3 million children – either did no home learning at all or less than one hour a day, according to a report by University College London.

The study found that there was a huge gulf between the amount of home learning carried out by pupils at state and private schools.

Nearly a third (31 per cent) of private schools provided four or more online lessons each day, compared with just six per cent of state schools.

“In such circumstances, it is disappointing that the independent school sector’s offer of assistance has been ignored,” Mr King said in his letter to the Education Secretary.

“Given the key role that the private sector has played in the country’s response to the pandemic – such as private hospitals alleviating bed capacity issues and private industry tackling the shortfall in ventilators – the Government’s reluctance to accept help from the private education sector is even more frustrating.”

Once again the Dombo demonstrates its true blue socialist DNA: eschewing the private sector, like they did early on in the crisis for testing, tracing, bed capacity, and ventilators, and then in denial of the efficacy of these solutions they refuse state school children the chance of a free or low cost private schooling catch-up.

It's like Dombo actually wants a future generation of BLM supporting ignoramuses.

Well that's it in a nutshell of course - they are blue socialists after all, and therefore part of the Left Axis.

Britmiliation #2

The Jerries have mastered the "new normal" with their test, track, trace and targeted lockdown mechanism, having listened to and watched South East Asia and China ...

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/27/europe-looks-germany-outbreak-set-template-new-normal/

More than 640,000 people are back under lockdown in Germany this weekend as Europe faces its first major test in containing fresh outbreaks after lockdowns were lifted.

The German R number, which briefly spiked to 2.88 last Sunday, has since dropped back to 0.57, a significant relief.

Well let's see what Dombo's "world class" test, track, trace and targeted lockdown system is made of as the results of this week's beach and party fests feed into the pandemic.

Another Britmiliation at the hands of the state no doubt.

SoD

Oh, do get a grip, Boris!

The Prime Minister's apparent inability to take a tough decision is beginning to make Theresa May look like 'The Iron Lady'!  Dominic Cummings should have been read the Riot Act following his scampering trip 'ooop North' during the so-called 'lock down'.  Not that I think the lock down is of the slightest use but if Boris insists that it is then he should have the 'mojo' to chastise an underling who thwarts it!

Now we have the case of that slimy Conservative MP, Robert Jenrick, who is actually a Minister, ducking and diving on behalf of his property-developer chum who raked in 'zillions' through a (very!) prompt planning approval.  From our beloved Prime Minister there came not a word!  So now we are taking your measure, Prime Minister.  It appears that you are a gutless leader afraid to discipline your own political malefactors. 

Meanwhile, the Labour Party leader has just sacked the leader of the extreme Left cabal within his party!  Perhaps, Boris, you should ask him for some advice!

 

 

 

Pheeeew, what a scorcher today and yesterday and the day before . . .

Truly, I cannot remember such long, sustained heatwave since those, er, 'happy' days when I lived in a tent on the end of runway #2 at Bahrein Airport.  Yes, yes, I know, I know, I keep repeating that tale but that's why it is a mistake ever to buy an old soldier a drink in a pub!  Mind you, old sailors are just as bad!  Anyway, the fact is that an occasional hot day or two is perfectly acceptable in this "our septic Isle' if only to remind us that drizzly rain does not last for ever!  Even so this extended 'scorcher' is, quite simply, damned un-British!  Even reading, my 'go to' hobby is hard work because I have to keep pausing to wipe the sweat from eyes.

Talking of reading, I noticed an old book of mine up here in 'God's little attic' which I can barely remember reading.  It is titled "Lloyd George and Churchill" by Richard Toye.  I sort of want to re-read it but having just read part way through the 'Heffalump's shocker, "Staring at God", I'm not sure I can.  What a pair of twisters and rascals they were!  I sort of knew it with 'Winnie' but I hadn't realised what an 'A1 shit' LlG was!  

God save us from politicians!

 

 

 

I couldn't put it better myself, Sir!

As per usual I am indulging in petty larceny from an excellent writer very much more erudite than me. even if he does sound a tad 'Oirish'!  I refer to a column at the National Review written by Mr. Michael Brendan Dougherty.  Suffice to say that I agree entirely with his view.

Four years ago, the most important political event in the Western World since 1989 happened: The people of the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union.

Every single institution in Western public life was against Brexit. Of course, every single government in the European Union itself, including Britain’s own government, then led by David Cameron and his gang of “Tory modernizers.” The President of the United States was against it, intervening to say that a post-Brexit United Kingdom would be in the “back of the queue” when it came to trading with the United States. The international institutions were against it, with idiotic threats about permanent downgrades of credit, the disappearance of the financial sector from London, and immediate depression. The President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, predicted that a vote for Leave “could be the beginning of the destruction of not only the EU but also Western political civilization in its entirety.”

And what happens when the universities, the established Church, the government, the media, the leading figures of the opposition, and the bureaucracy of Brussels want something? They get it. It might take a second referendum in Ireland, or an end run around France. But you’ll vote until you turn in the Establishment’s preferred result, and then the question will be deemed answered for at least a generation. Maybe forever.

But democratic peoples can find a way.

The European Union is a utopian project, a series of endless corporate giveaways, and an escape hatch for failed politicians. So of course the entire fashionable oligarchy supports it.

Opposition to the European Union was deemed “populist,” which is the Establishment’s word for déclassé and illegitimate. But the vote four years ago proved that Brexit was not just a “populist” cause but a democratic one.

Democracy has its critics going back to the ancient Greeks. And many modern conservatives look at it with dismay. They fear that a rabble can, on a whim, overturn the great and often misunderstood customs and institutions that guard our liberties. That is sometimes true.

But the institutions in many Western nations have largely been captured by a self-seeking class that feels no duty to posterity, has only conditional loyalty to their respective nations, and respects no principle that gets in the way of attaining personal wealth. This is as true in Britain as it is in the United States. The same managerial class that would forbid Americans to criticize the mob for destroying America’s cultural artifacts is the same that forbids too-harsh criticism of China doing the same in Kashgar. The consultants at McKinsey will put up a #BlackLivesMatter post on Instagram and still party with the Chinese Community Party in the shadow of concentration camps. There’s no principle involved — except keeping a profitable status quo going.

This Establishment flatters itself as democratic even as it rages at the results of elections in Italy, Poland, Hungary, the United Kingdom, and America. But it’s not democratic, which is why those who lead it, whether prime ministers such as Tony Blair and David Cameron, presidents such as Barack Obama, or Chancellor Angela Merkel, constantly refer to the “direction” of history itself, and moral arcs of the universe. This is a rhetoric of inevitability, and iron laws, irresistible forces — it’s the rhetoric of Communism, really.

But Brexit is proof that a democratic mandate can overturn the “inevitable.” It’s a proof that democratic peoples still have free will. And it’s a sober proof that the Establishment is almost always projecting and lying. They accuse their opponents of their own misdeeds. Brexit did not sink the United Kingdom into Depression. In fact, the United Kingdom was growing faster than Germany until recently. Membership in the European Union is no prophylactic against disaster. The end of Western political civilization is still possible, and we’ll know it has come when democratic events like Brexit really are made impossible.

Well said, Sir, and your next pint of Guinness is on me!

 

 

 

*ALL* lives matter!

I must say that I enjoyed a snort of laughter at the cheeky fellows who flew a 'plane over the Burnley football pitch prior to a game, towing a banner reading: "WHITE LIVES MATTER".  It's about time someone said the equivalent of 'Bollocks to the Bishop' to all those sanctimonious, 'I'm woker than you' praters and preachers. They, of course, are dim enough to believe that their endless marches and demos and chants are helping the incipient problem of so-called 'racism'.  Of course, the exact opposite is the truth of the matter.  More and more people are sick and tired of hearing the constant repetition of the ghastly history of black people which, of course, began centuries ago when black Africans acted as agents for Arab slavers from the Middle East, long before Europeans joined in.  You don't see too many demos in Riyadh about that part of black history!

Of course, the end result is that in Europe and America, more and more white people (like me!) are reduced to tears - er, that's tears of boredom! - by this never-ending campaigning which frequently results in riots and destruction - mostly of black peoples' homes and businesses!  Another result is that more and more, originally sympathetic, white people, are becoming increasingly anti-black because of this non-stop agitation.  Yes, the history of black suffering is enormous but the key word is "history"!  There may be examples of it today here, or more so perhaps, 'over there' but mostly it's history and there is sweet f.a you can do about history.  Some mad dictators try to rewrite history but it never works!

 

 

 

'Les Temps Perdue' - thank God!

Well, my ignorance concerning Prime Ministers of Britain is 'yuuuuuuuge', as regular readers will testify! After all, I have only just in the last few weeks discovered what an unprincipled, lying, duplicitous, Welsh shit, the late, unlamented David Lloyd George, was as PM. Thus, I am less than shocked to find out that the late Clem Attlee was not much better.
Of course, the main chance he had for everlasting fame was as deputy Prime Minister under the enormous shadow of Winston Churchill during WWII. No chance there, of course, with that massive ego towering over everything and everyone. Still, he had a sort of second chance when, against all the odds, he beat Churchill in the election at the end of of the war. Unfortunately - for him but not for us! - he took command of a country that was wrecked almost beyond repair. Of course, he nationalised just about everything he could lay his socialist hands on but really that amounted to a mere extension of wartime 'rules 'n' regs'. None of them worked that well and over the next 50+ years his socialism was sold back to private enterprise.  Even his 'goody-goody' left-wing credentials do not stand up to scrutiny, according to 'The Speccie' which points out':

Today the twitter mob likes to condemn Churchill for the darker episodes of the war, like the handling of the Bengal Famine in 1943 and the strategic bombing of German cities. But Attlee, as Deputy Prime Minister from 1942, was fully involved in those policies and raised no objections. Indeed, it was Attlee, in Churchill’s absence, who gave the order for the bombing of Dresden in February 1945, which killed 25,000 civilians. Nor was he then a firm supporter of Indian self-rule, which he feared could lead to 'a brown oligarchy'. One Labour peer, Lord Listowel, complained that on India, Attlee was 'a muted echo of his master’s voice'. Modern ideologues might also be interested to know that in 1944 Attlee fully backed Churchill in overturning an attempt by parliament to give equal pay to women teachers.

Nationalisation of some industries apart, his home policies were not exactly true red, international/socialist:

After the war, Attlee was no social justice warrior. In fact, he was the iciest of Cold War warriors. Without consulting either the cabinet or the Commons, he decided that Britain should have its own independent nuclear arsenal. A key architect of Nato, he approved of clandestine operations to undermine eastern European communism like an attempted coup in Albania. At home, he used 12,000 troops to smash a communist-backed dock strike in 1949. Fascinated by intelligence – he met the director general of MI5 more than any other post-war prime minister – he introduced anti-subversive security vetting for senior civil servants and also instructed that MPs, ministers and even their families be monitored for signs of disloyalty. 

I'm not complaining, mind, in fact I am deeply grateful that his upper-middle-class background, plus perhaps, some ingrained common-sense kept him away from the wilder yearnings of his, er, 'Brethren'!  Imagine what Michael Foot  or Jeremy Corbyn might have done!

 

 

 

Who wins 'over there' in November?

After years of predicting the outcome of elections 'over there' - and getting them wrong! - I must confess that I have not the slightest idea who will win in November.  The world everywhere is going bonkers!  Apart from anything else, who knows what 'The Donald' is capable of doing or saying between now and then?  Even he doesn't know!  Then there is that 'yuuuuuuuuuge' febrile mass of voters.  Does anyone know for sure which way they will shift over the next four months?  Of course, there are always the opinion polls which will come at us with increasing frequency from all directions but, seriously, do you really place much faith in them anymore?  If you do, I have a very nice, 1958 Ford Cortina with only 27,000 miles on the clock and previously owned by a vicar's wife - honestly!

The fact is that America is simply too 'yuuuuuuuuge' to get a grip of and make sense of a population that shifts hither and thither depending on the latest - usually false! - headlines.  I mean, seriously, does anyone believe what's printed in, say, the New York Times or the Washington Post?  Not, mind you, that I am unsympathetic towards the American 'Peeps'.  Given a choice between befuddled pensioner, Joe Biden, and that fairground barker, a.k.a. Donald Trump, I would find it impossible to choose.  I suppose, you could try and decide by taking a close look at the people who support them them but, alas, on the 'Left' hand you have a bunch of screeching adolescents and on the Right hand you have a gang - I use the word deliberately! - of 'get rich quick merchants' from any of whom you would never buy a used car!

So, my genuine sympathies to the American 'peeps' and I just hope you get it right in November!

 

Brit or American, if you read nothing else today, please read Janet Daley in The Telegraph!

 

 

 

Sino-Indian clash - "A Good Thing" or "A Bad Thing"?

Well, the murder of 20+ unarmed Indian soldiers is obviously an exceedingly 'Bad Thing' but, of course, this is part of the warp and woof of international power politics and thus human feelings are to be ignored!  The end result is that China now has a massive and exceedingly angry neighbour right on its frontier - and that, for the rest of us, is very definitely 'A Good Thing'.  It is also an indication that belief in the superb and subtle craft of Chinese 'real politik' is nonsense.  They are as big a bunch of stumblebums as any other so-called 'Great Power'.

They are already locked into a wrestling match with the most powerful nation in the world and one would have thought that they would have the good sense not to provoke a 'next door neighbour' whose population of 1.3 billion is equal to theirs!  I trust - I hope? -  that 'The Donald' has the good sense to make 'nicely-nicely' with the Indian government, you know, 'hands across the Himalayas' and all that sort of thing.  Even more so, I hope that he offers Australia similar support as China unleashes its ill-temper against the 'Aussies' - as should we, although quite what we have to help them I'm not sure!

Oh God, those damned 'interesting times' have returned!

 

 

If you're a Brit and feeling cheerful do NOT read this book!

Alas, I refer to Simon Heffer's superb history of Britain, or  to be precise, the British government, during WWI.  Pay no attention to my misleading title above, the book, "Staring at God", is essential to anyone interested in the governance of Britain - then and now!  Even so, I must warn you that you will not be the same person at the end of it.  I have still not finished it because I can only take small amounts at a time.  Of course, "as any fule do no", WWI was an unmitigated disaster for virtually all the national participants but a great deal of the blame for British suffering attaches to the two nincompoops, Herbert Henry Asquith and David Lloyd George, who led the nation through 1914-18.  

It is difficult - although Simon Heffer manages it superbly - to grasp the incredible stupidity and dereliction of duty by these two utterly incompetent men.  Dammit, Asquith spent time during cabinet meetings writing love letters to his lady friend, whilst in 'Flander's fields' British soldiers were being slaughtered wholesale under the military leadership of total incompetents!

Alas, the long lesson to be learned from this book is that nothing has changed!  Even a quick glance at the occupant of No. 10 is enough to confirm your worst suspicions.

 

 

 

What a man!

I refer to Mr. Patrick Hutchinson, the exceedingly large and very black man in the photo below carrying an unconscious white man to safety during the major punch-up in London at the weekend.

It is no more than a single incident on a weekend filled with violence and hatred but thus, even more so, it is absolutely admirable and Mr. Hutchinson deserves unreserved praise for his humanity.  Just sometimes, amidst the dire misery and destruction inflicted when populations go out of control, you can spot the occasional act of both courage and decency.  Mr. Hutchinson, I suspect, might make a superb and admirable leader for the 'Black Lives Matter' movement.

The Telegraph puts it this way:

The image of Patrick Hutchinson, a grandfather and personal trainer from Wimbledon, south west London, carrying the man on his shoulder through the rioting crowd went viral as a symbol of hope and unity amid the chaos of Saturday’s disorder.

Yesterday Mr Hutchinson, who is an athletics coach, dismissed suggestions he was a “national hero” insisting he simply acted on instinct to protect the man.

The security consultant and martial arts expert said he and a group of friends had decided to attend the Black Lives Matter protests in London on Saturday to prevent young black demonstrators from getting into trouble.

Or, to put it another way, I would definitely NOT want to criticise the exceedingly fit-looking Mr. Hutchinson, especially face to face!

 

 

Monumental

The National Trust has joined the Left Axis, or more correctly, restated its membership credentials, and started ripping down Blighty's statues  ...

https://inews.co.uk/news/uk/black-lives-matter-uk-latest-national-trust-reviews-collection-dunham-massey-444857 

Soon to follow the castles as well ...

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/penrhyn-castle/features/penrhyn-castle-and-the-transatlantic-slave-trade 

And further afield, the Ptolemy family will be spinning in their graves - quite literally - as the global Left Axis and BLM movement's wrecking ball comes their way ...

No slave trader, racist, or terrorist's statue or fastness shall survive.

Strange then that the Left Axis would like to see a statue to an anti-Semite and IRA supporter go up instead ... 

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/11833544/jeremy-corbyn-fans-want-statue-of-former-labour-leader-to-replace-edward-colston-monument-in-bristol/ 

Mmm, shurely shome mishtake?

And if Winston Churchill was a racist and terrorist then so was this one - but no sign he'll be off his pedestal any time soon.  How curious they both fought against white racism too? ...

Now here's Fluffbun at Bodiam, a rather splendid castle in East Sussex ...

The floating fortress was built by one Edward Dalyngrigge.  If the Left Axis and BLM ever need a lesson in looting, arson, pillaging, terrorism and all other violent means in the name of gaining power and privilege (not likely, I know, but bear with me on this one), they would do well to read up about this chappie.  That castle was built on the proceeds of looted, pillaged, scorched and terrorised Frenchman ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Dalyngrigge 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodiam_Castle

And my beloved Fluffbun has her very own castles story to tell too.  She is from a race and ethnicity that was so persecuted by slavery during a period of history that her race and ethnicity gave its very name to the word slave ...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/9chapter1.shtml 

Fluffbun is a slav.  I wonder why the Left Axis isn't tearing down Spanish castles built by slav, err, slaves in solidarity with Fluffbun's ancestors?  Maybe because she is white and the slave owners were brown Muslims?

So it dawned on me a while ago that all edifices, statues, castles et al, are monuments to the most destructive and abusive gene in the pool - the power gene.  It doesn't matter who you're "fore or agin", it is you that's the problem for being "fore or agin" anyone in the first place! ...

 

You should either tear them all down, or none at all, to be consistent.  To tear them down and replace them with your own is to be a hypocrite.  And to tear them down and replace them with nothing is, as one Spaniard famously put it, for "Those who cannot remember the past and are condemned to repeat it".

Leave 'em up and learn from 'em, I say.  They'll be coming down soon enough anyway ...

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Son of Duff

The Sunday Rumble: 14.6.20

Peter Hitchens goes to the dark heart of it all:   I will not attempt to summarise his superb essay in today's Mail but, instead, urge you all to go and read it - please!

 

'Gotta just lurve this pic':

 

From this morning's Mail and it shows a BLM supporter carrying an injured, er, 'Black Lives Don't Matter'  (or something like that!) supporter following a violent clash in London.  What can one say, except possibly:

What a piece of work is man, How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, In form and moving how express and admirable, In action how like an Angel, In apprehension how like a god.

Well, 'maybe, baby'!

 

"Gone with the Wind"   But never gone from my memory!  It must be 60-odd years ago since I first read the book and then later on saw the film.  I have never forgotten them; story-telling of the highest order.  Now, of course, the puritan, peck-sniff censors have attacked it and driven it from the TV listings.  Whatever those preachy, hectoring idiots might say or do my response is the same, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn!"

 

Not just 'Good News' but deliciously, lip-smacking news:   I can hardly wait and it is all due to the splendid United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.  No, me neither but they are the judges who have just decided that 'HillBilly' Clinton must personally enter the Court and answer questions from lawyers representing Judicial Watch who are eager, nay, slavering, at the chance to find out exactly what she did or did not do during the run-up to the slaughter of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans in Libya in 2012.

 

 

More Rumbles later . . .

 

 

 

 

The final surrender

What is the point of having an enormously expensive police force if it lacks the guts to defend a statue of Winston Churchill?  And when will the people of London finally recognise that Sadiq Kahn is the most useless and cowardly Mayor of London since time immemorable?  He's not fit to sweep the streets of London let alone have charge of them!  Mind you, his quivering backbone is hardly supported by the utterly inept Police Commissioner Cressida Dick, the policewoman in command - who giggled? - of the fire-arms squad that, in the wake of a terrorist shooting, managed to shoot dead the totally innocent, Snr. Jean Charles de Menezes.

That was in 2005 and, guess what, in 2006 she was promoted, well, that's how it works in the 'Met'!  Obviously, this week the gutless woman has shirked her duty to protect the statue of one of the greatest, albeit with faults, British Prime Ministers in our history, and instead had him covered inside a wooden shelter.

What would 'Winnie' have said of her?

And by the way, what has she ever done to deserve all those medals?

 

 

 

I'm dying - of boredom!

Yes, yes, I realise that y'all are dying of boredom, too, and that is why, from the kindness of my heart, I have refrained from posting anything for a couple of days and thus adding to your terminal tedium!  To be honest, the fact is that I simply could not think of anything worthwhile to write.  Even as I tried to compose a comment I could feel my eyelids dropping!  So, you ask - er, you did ask, didn't you? - what words of enlightening wisdom have I to offer you today?

Well . . .

Or there again, maybe . . .

Perhaps even  . . .

Oh Lord, don't give me strength, just give me an original thought - or better still, three original thoughts!  

Well, here's one - I actually have some - notalot! - but some sympathy for the Government!  By which I mean the handful of mostly useless politicians who occupy the highest ranks in the cabinet.  Yes, they are crap but, before you put the boot in, pause, and ask yourself what you would do?  And when you come up with some highly intelligent ideas just pause, and ask yourselves how you would get the glutinous 'blob', aka: the civil non-service, to actually get on and do it?  Especially given that vast tracks of the country are ruled by a dire dung-heap of Scots Nats, Welsh wizards and loathsome Labourites!

Having considered that, ask yourself if you would really like to be a cabinet minister?  Mind you, the money and the perks are pretty good  . . .

 

 

 

I am beginning - just - to dislike black people!

I have never liked or disliked them as a group before.  In fact I never thought about them! They were just there, part of the warp and woof of modern British society although, to be honest, in the mostly middle-class, provincial parts of the country in which I have lived, there were never that many of them.  Even so, today I am forced to quote one of my favourite Jewish sayings, "Enough, my life already!"

There was a time when public, black violence was restricted to a few punch-ups, or the odd stabbing, at the annual Bank Holiday black festival in north London. Now, they seem to be erupting every where and at any time and involve enormous crowds of malevolent people, black and white, intent on wreaking havoc on ordinary people's property.

I seem to remember, back in my army days, we used to rehearse riot squad drills designed to clear people from the streets.  It involved, if memory serves, marching in open square formation up a street and coming to a halt in front of the mob. The men on the sides of the square would turn, alternatively, left and right.  The soldiers facing the street at ground level would aim their rifles at the doors and windows facing them. The others, facing across the street would aim at the windows on the higher floors.  Two men from inside the square would run forward with a coil of barbed wire which they would stretch across the street between the troops and the mob.  A bugler would sound off to attract the attention of the mob - if they hadn't already noticed!  Then a banner would be unfurled inside the square stating that unless the mob dispersed we would open fire.

What happened after that?  I don't know because - thank the Lord! - I never saw it put into practice.  Mind you, my Regiment did execute - I choose the word carefully! - a rough proximity to it when they opened fire on a mob in Northern Ireland.  Not, alas, likely to be repeated in this our sacred Isle!

 

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 7.6.20

I had fond memories of HSBC:  But not any more!  The reason is that because as a young and married soldier living in Singapore I needed to open my first Bank a/c - yes, yes, I know but up to then I was just another feckless 'Tom' living week by week, cash in hand from my army wages.  However, my newly acquired 'Memsahib' who had worked in a Bank most of her life soon put me straight!  Anyway, I am sorry that HSBC has now been swallowed whole by those political gangsters who have seized control in China.  My advice - don't go anywhere near any of their branches!

 

Ms. Patricia McCarthy is spot on!   No, I don't know who she is but this is an extract from piece at The American Spectator:

What is so disappointing is their cowardice in the face of outright thuggery. What nonsense. Black Lives Matter, as Tucker Carlson so aptly pointed out, is a cult, a new religion for those who virtue-signal because they crave to be seen as woke. It’s all pathetic, a sad commentary on the lack of moral and intellectual stamina of far too many Americans.

Couldn't have put it better myself!

 

Charles Dickens - bit of a rat, apparently:   There was a fairly hefty piece in The Telegraph the other day following publication of a new biography of the, er, great man of letters!  I didn't read it all, any more than I ever read any of his great novels which were rammed down our throats at school.  Alas, I cannot offer a thoughtful critique of his work simply because I know so little of it.  Totally tedious!  

 

I've suspected it but Patrick O'Flynn says it!   And, needless to say, he says it at The Spectator site.  Quite baldly he tells Boris to get a grip!   I must admit, albeit somewhat reluctantly, that I, too, have sensed a certain waywardness from this government.  Yes, it appears that Boris has decided to take a strong line against China even, allegedly, hinting that he will cut Huawei out of our 5G communications system.  I have yet to see any blood! Also, there have been what I can only describe as 'Trumpian' promises to flood the country with 'zillions' of quid to fire things up after this damned pandemic.  Where it will come from and how it will be repaid remains a mystery.  Yes, I do realise that these are incredible times but that is when 'Great Leaders' come to the fore and, er, well, LEAD!  Ask old 'Winnie'!  OK, so he can't reply but just read some of his biographies!

 

"Downton Abbey" - simply the best!   Happily they are repeating the series on TV these days, every evening Monday to Friday.  Julian Fellowes, the creator and writer of it, is a genius!  His storylines cover a host of interesting characters and situation both above and below stairs.  Impeccably acted and directed.  In the unlikely event that you have not seen it - treat yourself to a box-set!  You can take my word for it because I was once an actor, you know - and I heard that! 

 

Is "Black Lives Matter" a racist slogan?   I ask because I fear that were I daft enough to attempt to publicise the slogan "White Lives Matter" I would have the 'woke' mob on my back instantly!

 

If you read nothing else today, read this:   By Kevin D. Williamson at The National Review:

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/06/george-floyd-protests-comforting-abstractions/

 

 

No more Rumbles

 

 

 

 

In which I have been nudged - firmly!

Yes, indeed, and from a fairly hefty 'fella', too!  I have just received an e-mail from Lord knows where sent by 'JK' who is on a mission - or a piss-up - or something somewhere!  In it, he reminds me that today is the 6th June and therefor an anniversary of the D-Day landings.  Normally, I do not take kindly to 'punters' telling me what I should write but as it's 'JK', possibly my longest serving reader who is also, I fear, very much larger than me, then I must take the hint.

Even so, what can one add to the mountain of words that already exist on the subject of perhaps the greatest military operation ever undertaken?  Even now, having read countless books on the subject I remain 'gobsmacked' at the sheer, unbelievable complexity of that operation.  The fact that it was run by two separate and proud nations with all that that entails, adds to my incredulity that not only did it occur but that it was a magnificent success!

Even I, a non-stop 'scribbler', cannot find the words to express my admiration and gratitude to the men - and women - who contributed to it.

 

 

 

No, 'rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated'!

It's just that it has been so damned, festeringly hot for the last two days that I lacked the energy to climb two sets of stairs to my eyrie in the sky!  Also, to be honest, I just knew that if I did make it, I would have no idea what to write when I arrived there!

Tomorrow, the Met Office says, will be rainy but - heh! - would you bet the deeds of your house on their forecast being right?  We shall see what we shall see! 

 

 

'Still 'n' all', there is some 'Good News'!

And the very best 'Good News' of all is that Boris has put a stop to Labour's suggestion that John Bercow receive a Peerage on the grounds of his reported bullying of staff during his ghastly 'service' as Speaker of the Commons.  In my opinion, "a poor thing but mine own, Sir", the self evident fact that he is a jumped-up, pig-ignorant, little shit of the first order is quite sufficient not just to stop him receiving undeserved awards but also to bury him up to his neck in the Thames mud prior to an incoming tide!  Preferably, opposite the Houses of Parliament which he did so much to belittle!

 

 

 

You can almost hear the world straining at its bonds

It isn't just the crazy weather we are experiencing here in the UK which, I suspect, makes southern Spain feel like Iceland.  No, there are tremors reverberating around the globe and they do not augur well.  This wretched pandemic has 'upped the ante', not so much for its medical effects which, from where I am sitting, do not appear to be anything like as severe as the 'meeja' warned us!

No, there are other moves afoot around the world which make me exceedingly uneasy.  By far the biggest is the Chinese behemoth which is swaggering round the globe barging into areas likely to erupt very easily.  For example, now they are threatening India at some point on their mutual frontier, not because they have a strong case but simply to pile on the pressure.  Alas, we are no longer the power we used to be but even so we must support India in this struggle with China just as they supported us in WWII.

Similarly, we must back America to the hilt in their confrontation with China.  Yes, I do not have total confidence in Donald Trump as a President but that is not the point.  If America is threatened then we are threatened - end of!  Alas, there is not much we can do to support Africa whose crooked states are being bought and paid for by the Chinese.  However, there is one thing we can do about another critical problem - the Chinese in our country!  I do not refer to the myriad Chinese restaurants that exist in all parts of the UK and have done for over 50 years.  But I do mean the host of incoming Chinese 'students' who bought and paid for their entrance into innumerable British Universities where sections of them have taken over student unions. And, of course, there are the numerous number of universities - which we pay for! -  who have accepted enormous bribes investments from Chinese sources.  The heads of those universities should lose their heads! 

However, above and beyond all that, the critical point is that we must absolutely ally ourselves to America in facing down this menace

 

 

!

I'm shocked, I tell you, shocked!

Here we all are, virtually imprisoned in our homes, unable to mix with friends, pubs all shut down and what does a senior Army officer do - has a 'piss-up' with his mates!  Well done, that man!  And, needless to say, he is, of course, a Para!  In fact, he is the second-in-command of the Para Brigade of which - ahem! - I was once a proud member although of very much lower rank and status!

Colonel Andrew Jackson, 2 i/c 16 Air Assault Brigade

It warms the cockles of my heart to know that the drunken spirit of 16 Para Brigade remains undiminished and as sodden as ever!  Give that man another medal!