Ah, but on a more serious note, "what is inadmissible, both morally and scientifically, is the hubris that pretends to understand the behavior of human agents without for a moment listening systematically to how they understand what they are doing and how they explain themselves.”
(My copy of James C Scott's Two Cheers for Anarchism has arrived and I am reading it).
Meanwhile, it is Monday morning and things are looking bleak.
I admire anyone who thinks that there is any viable way to stop no-brexit this morning.
Because from where I'm sitting, it looks basically inevitable.
Well, it is 'Blue Monday!'
I think that things may have cleared a little by Tuesday week, but in between it will be torrid. As someone observed, this is what History looks like when you're in the middle of it.
She's probably supervising the work of the Home Office to ensure that the process for non-UK EU citizens to obtain the right to live here post Brexit is as difficult and expensive as possible. That way she can ensure that the maximum number of people possible will be deported on technicalities as possible.
I am trying to work out when I should put in another request for meds - I topped up everything before Christmas, but should make sure I have everything I need for the next few months.
Almost as if we were in a third world country. Oh - we are.
I see the Mrs May stated that she's opposed to a second referendum because of the precedent it might set. "I fear a second referendum would set a difficult precedent that could have significant implications for how we handle referendums in this country." Which is a bit rich, given that the vote in 2016 had already set a difficult precedent (as I've stated ad nauseum for years).
No leader is perfect but she does seem to go above and beyond to be stupid. It would s about time parliament did its duty and took over Brexit.
Yes she is surrounded by so many ye sayers that she doesn’t know how to come with proper opposition
She has also been reported as saying a second referendum could "damage social cohesion".
Has she not realised how much damage she and her predecessor have caused to social cohesion? Just how much they have broken our nation?
(Answer: of course she doesn't. She hasn't met anyone other than officially approved people for the last 30 years.)
There's a sort of Potemkin Villages effect which seems to operate on politicians once they reach a certain level. They're only shown what their officials want them to see, they travel around in their official cars and have their heads buried in their red boxes so don't register the homeless and the queues at foot-banks, and they try never, ever to meet real local people - so when Treeza was down in the South West of England just before the last election her meet-the-press opportunity was carefully choreographed to exclude the local media.
And then it all went hilariously wrong, and she had to explain to a nurse on camera that her pay was frozen because There's no magic money tree. Of course, a couple of weeks later she found it was growing in the back garden of No. 10 and bribed the DUP with its fruit.
Homelessness in London - we have had people sleeping rough here this winter, the first time I've seen it in 20 years. But the short stretch (it's ¼mile) from Oxford Circus tube station to All Souls' Church, Langham Place, there were 10 people sleeping rough, including 4 tents around the church and another 3 with cardboard and sleeping bags, then another three in doorways, all before 9pm. I don't remember there being so many people sleeping on the streets before.
I bet if they went and camped by the Downing Street gates they'd be rounded up by the Police at 3am or thereabouts, and shipped off to...well, your guess is as good as mine.
Didn't Someone once tell a salutary tale about a poor man lying at a rich man's gate?
Yes, so He did, and it became a folk-song, rendered here by the incomparable Maddy Prior:
I bet if they went and camped by the Downing Street gates they'd be rounded up by the Police at 3am or thereabouts, and shipped off to...well, your guess is as good as mine.
Didn't Someone once tell a salutary tale about a poor man lying at a rich man's gate?
Yes, so He did, and it became a folk-song, rendered here by the incomparable Maddy Prior:
It's the law, ennit. And, as Anatole France observed, 'The law, in its majestic impartiality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.'
Reminds me of the rhyme from the days of the Enclosures Acts:
"The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the common
But leaves the greater villain loose
Who steals the common from the goose."
I was trying to remember what Mrs Mayhem's immigration policies reminded me of, and now I have it: villeinage. Think you're free? You're not free to marry anybody you want, if they come from a different manor (country) you have to get permission from your overlord. And good luck getting it if s/he/they doesn't have any skills the overlord is interested in acquiring...
I was trying to remember what Mrs Mayhem's immigration policies reminded me of, and now I have it: villeinage. Think you're free? You're not free to marry anybody you want, if they come from a different manor (country) you have to get permission from your overlord. And good luck getting it if s/he/they doesn't have any skills the overlord is interested in acquiring...
Oh no, you're free to marry them if you want. You just can't live together in this country if you don't meet the Lord of the Manor's conditions, thus blatantly disobeying the Prayer Book's plain injunction, Those whom God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.
But perhaps Treeza doesn't know anything about that, daughter of the vicarage and regular churchgoer though she is. She never hears anything that she might not like, does she?
And, IIRC (though I wasn't there at the time), Eowyn was assisted in the destruction of the undead Nazgul by one of the unregarded, despised 'little people' - the valiant Hobbit Meriadoc.
If Gondor had been ruled by the Tories, the Hobbits would not have been allowed near the border, let alone across it.
Apologies to those for whom Lord of the Rings is a closed book, or unknown territory, but it is tempting to draw parallels......
Well, yes - but the poor chap died on the Pelennor Fields, admittedly in a suitably dramatic 'glorious-high-spot-of-his-reign' sort of way....
Interesting tangent, perhaps suitable for another thread. I'm sure we can all think of fictional and/or actual heroes/heroines who would make a better fist of 'governing' this outpost of Mordor than Grey Treeza and her Toddler Orcs...
Consider the lavishly preposterous MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham, Daniel Kawczynski, who this week took it upon himself to announce that he has written to the Polish prime minister and requested “formally” that Poland veto any request by the UK to extend article 50.
In other words, he's written to a representative of a foreign power asking him potentially to veto the decision of the British legislature.
Taking back control? More like treason if you ask me.
I'm sure we erstwhile colonials would be more than happy to send you a delegation of our own treasonous, lying lot to tutor yours in the fine particulars. Why, in the interest of acknowledging our debt to Britain, we're happy to let you keep them!
I'm sure we erstwhile colonials would be more than happy to send you a delegation of our own treasonous, lying lot to tutor yours in the fine particulars. Why, in the interest of acknowledging our debt to Britain, we're happy to let you keep them!
{Equally bright voice, but with sawtooth edge}
Very kind I'm sure, but I have an alternative, far more reasonable counteroffer to make. In reparation for our various colonial sins and abuses, we would be very happy to donate our most caring, concerned citizens, who have already distinguished themselves in the service of national interest. Whose national interest has not yet been firmly established, but I would hate to deprive you of their services.
I nominate "Tommy Robinson" as our first donation to your cause.
Isn't she also using no deal as a threat against the EU? Some countries will also suffer from blocked trade routes, and maybe she thinks they will beg Brussels to offer some chickenfeed for MPs to swallow. Poker, really.
Consider the lavishly preposterous MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham, Daniel Kawczynski, who this week took it upon himself to announce that he has written to the Polish prime minister and requested “formally” that Poland veto any request by the UK to extend article 50.
In other words, he's written to a representative of a foreign power asking him potentially to veto the decision of the British legislature.
Taking back control? More like treason if you ask me.
I do wonder if the police should investigate that - didn’t a minister get fired last year for having unauthorised policy discussions with the Israeli government ? And she was at least in the cabinet at the time. Labour have been extremely careful about the nature of their discussions with the EU.
I do wonder if the police should investigate that - didn’t a minister get fired last year for having unauthorised policy discussions with the Israeli government ? And she was at least in the cabinet at the time. Labour have been extremely careful about the nature of their discussions with the EU.
Are there any laws against this? In all honesty I don't know what the laws are in the UK or the US regarding this. Getting fired from the cabinet is different from breaking the law. A backbench MP isn't part of the government and isn't a civil servant so they aren't being insubordinate, although they may be punished in an intra-party way. In the US, members of Congress - who aren't in the cabinet or in any administration post - often meet with foreign government officials to discuss policy. I don't know if they can be charged with a crime for any negotiating that they do. I think the biggest no-no, which might be illegal, is pretending to represent the administration in an official fashion when you are not. Informal discussions of diplomatic possibilities, which sometimes may be backdoor negotiations with the administration's blessing but other times are not - are they legally prohibited?
Maybe an important difference is that MPs have the ability to vote a government out and vote in a new government that they may be part of or even lead, so it is different than members of Congress who can only become part of the administration (which would require resigning from Congress) if they are appointed by the President. There also is no way for Congress to vote out the President without impeachment, and even then, there is a strict order of succession so they can't have whomever they want as the new President.
Comments
Bloody Dananns, coming over here, being handed Mag Tuiread over the heads of the native Firbolg...
I think it's what's conventionally called a circular argument.
(My copy of James C Scott's Two Cheers for Anarchism has arrived and I am reading it).
I admire anyone who thinks that there is any viable way to stop no-brexit this morning.
Because from where I'm sitting, it looks basically inevitable.
Well, it is 'Blue Monday!'
I think that things may have cleared a little by Tuesday week, but in between it will be torrid. As someone observed, this is what History looks like when you're in the middle of it.
We should get her to go on Dancing on Ice. Jason would tell her straight.
I mean, fucking hell. This government is snake-belly low.
Almost as if we were in a third world country. Oh - we are.
Has she not realised how much damage she and her predecessor have caused to social cohesion? Just how much they have broken our nation?
(Answer: of course she doesn't. She hasn't met anyone other than officially approved people for the last 30 years.)
Yes she is surrounded by so many ye sayers that she doesn’t know how to come with proper opposition
There's a sort of Potemkin Villages effect which seems to operate on politicians once they reach a certain level. They're only shown what their officials want them to see, they travel around in their official cars and have their heads buried in their red boxes so don't register the homeless and the queues at foot-banks, and they try never, ever to meet real local people - so when Treeza was down in the South West of England just before the last election her meet-the-press opportunity was carefully choreographed to exclude the local media.
And then it all went hilariously wrong, and she had to explain to a nurse on camera that her pay was frozen because There's no magic money tree. Of course, a couple of weeks later she found it was growing in the back garden of No. 10 and bribed the DUP with its fruit.
Didn't Someone once tell a salutary tale about a poor man lying at a rich man's gate?
Yes, so He did, and it became a folk-song, rendered here by the incomparable Maddy Prior:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Sl3xFnoDZ_I&list=RDSl3xFnoDZ_I
It's the law, ennit. And, as Anatole France observed, 'The law, in its majestic impartiality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.'
"The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the common
But leaves the greater villain loose
Who steals the common from the goose."
Why steal bread when you can steal land?
Oh no, you're free to marry them if you want. You just can't live together in this country if you don't meet the Lord of the Manor's conditions, thus blatantly disobeying the Prayer Book's plain injunction, Those whom God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.
But perhaps Treeza doesn't know anything about that, daughter of the vicarage and regular churchgoer though she is. She never hears anything that she might not like, does she?
Perhaps Moggy is the Nazgul? He certainly has a whiff of the undead about him.
If Gondor had been ruled by the Tories, the Hobbits would not have been allowed near the border, let alone across it.
Apologies to those for whom Lord of the Rings is a closed book, or unknown territory, but it is tempting to draw parallels......
GANDALF!! SAVE US!!
Corbyn? Leader of the Dead Men of Dunharrow? Ghân-buri-Ghân?
Interesting tangent, perhaps suitable for another thread. I'm sure we can all think of fictional and/or actual heroes/heroines who would make a better fist of 'governing' this outpost of Mordor than Grey Treeza and her Toddler Orcs...
Consider the lavishly preposterous MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham, Daniel Kawczynski, who this week took it upon himself to announce that he has written to the Polish prime minister and requested “formally” that Poland veto any request by the UK to extend article 50.
In other words, he's written to a representative of a foreign power asking him potentially to veto the decision of the British legislature.
Taking back control? More like treason if you ask me.
I'm sure we erstwhile colonials would be more than happy to send you a delegation of our own treasonous, lying lot to tutor yours in the fine particulars. Why, in the interest of acknowledging our debt to Britain, we're happy to let you keep them!
{Equally bright voice, but with sawtooth edge}
Very kind I'm sure, but I have an alternative, far more reasonable counteroffer to make. In reparation for our various colonial sins and abuses, we would be very happy to donate our most caring, concerned citizens, who have already distinguished themselves in the service of national interest. Whose national interest has not yet been firmly established, but I would hate to deprive you of their services.
I nominate "Tommy Robinson" as our first donation to your cause.
Maybe we could compromise, and let them all meet in the middle!!!
I do wonder if the police should investigate that - didn’t a minister get fired last year for having unauthorised policy discussions with the Israeli government ? And she was at least in the cabinet at the time. Labour have been extremely careful about the nature of their discussions with the EU.
Are there any laws against this? In all honesty I don't know what the laws are in the UK or the US regarding this. Getting fired from the cabinet is different from breaking the law. A backbench MP isn't part of the government and isn't a civil servant so they aren't being insubordinate, although they may be punished in an intra-party way. In the US, members of Congress - who aren't in the cabinet or in any administration post - often meet with foreign government officials to discuss policy. I don't know if they can be charged with a crime for any negotiating that they do. I think the biggest no-no, which might be illegal, is pretending to represent the administration in an official fashion when you are not. Informal discussions of diplomatic possibilities, which sometimes may be backdoor negotiations with the administration's blessing but other times are not - are they legally prohibited?
Maybe an important difference is that MPs have the ability to vote a government out and vote in a new government that they may be part of or even lead, so it is different than members of Congress who can only become part of the administration (which would require resigning from Congress) if they are appointed by the President. There also is no way for Congress to vote out the President without impeachment, and even then, there is a strict order of succession so they can't have whomever they want as the new President.