QUOTE OF THE DAY. TRIPPS ORIGINAL

[Stanley]

Couldn't agree more Peter. Total lack of leadership. It wasn't me who voted for the buffoon!

[Stanley]

An anonymous Tory MP was asked yesterday what the reaction should be to the departure of Cummings.
He replied with one word; "Rejoice!"

[Stanley]

I came across this in 'The Offing' by Benjamin Myers. He is referring to his age in the war. It struck me that it applies to me as well.
I was neither old enough to have made myself a hero nor young enough to have escaped the newsreel images or the long dark images that soldiers dragged behind them like empty coffins...

[Tizer]

Andrew Warren from the British Energy Efficiency Federation: ““It’s unbelievable to think there would have been a ‘mix-up’ on a really important prime minister’s document like this. Are we expected to believe they can't tell the difference between a 3 and a 5? Here we go again.”
He's referring to this: `The prime minister’s pledge to ban gas boilers from new homes by 2023 has been withdrawn. The promise first appeared on the Downing Street website this week attached to Mr Johnson’s climate plan. But the date was later amended, with the PM’s office claiming a “mix-up”..'. LINK

[Stanley]

""Boris Johnson's low-carbon 10-point plan is already falling to pieces within just days of being announced with one commitment mysteriously vanishing and government admitting that only £3bn of the funding is new.""

No surprise there, it's par for the course to announce the same money over and over again. Whenever a diversion is needed the spin doctors magic up another policy announcement. They are at it as we speak.

[Tizer]

Laura Kuennsberg: Another senior Tory, a former minister, said "the mood is toxic", suggesting relations between the backbenches and Downing Street are getting worse, not better - even though this is one of the first big set pieces since the departure of Dominic Cummings that was meant to herald a "reset". They added: "The tom toms are beating. We said we would take back control, but it feels like the government has lost control."

[Stanley]

I think some of us had noticed that.

[Tripps]

Heard on the radio today.

"we do not welcome supporters who boo the knee"

What would we have made of that just a short while ago ?

[Stanley]

Was that the Millwall supporters David? I don't follow football or understand the politics of supporters clubs but am I wrong in thinking the name Millwall seems to come up more often in these matters than most other clubs?
Gestures like bending the knee disturb me because once they have been elevated from a podium gesture to a general custom as bending the knee has you begin to wonder if it can ever end. I hate racism and applaud the sentiment in the gesture but I can see no hopes of it ending any time soon. That being the case this source of friction will remain and one wonders how it can be contained. These disputes often seem to escalate in one way or another and we live in febrile times.

[Tizer]

Unfortunately, if you don't follow the demands of the woke disciples you end up being `othered' and `cancelled'. We might say that doesn't bother us but it sometimes leads to more than just nasty comments, like JK Rowling receiving threats from trans activists when she spoke out on behalf of kids being forced into taking puberty blockers.

[Stanley]

I see the clubs did take action but now are hitting problems with linking arms. I think they should concentrate on football and ignore the comments of fringe groups.
Why does my mind make comparisons with children trying to attract attention?

[Tizer]

Yes, and to make the comparison those children would have to be on astronomical levels of pocket money.

[Stanley]

Heard quoted by an airline expert commenting on the reintroduction of the Boeing 737 Max. Evidently it's a common saying in the industry.
'Safety is no accident'.

[Tizer]

Brexit was supposed to be about taking back control of our sovereignty but as Simon Jack, BBC Business editor, points out today...
`All international trade treaties involve a sacrifice of sovereignty - including membership of the WTO. Witness the battle between Airbus and Boeing, with the WTO approving tariffs in both directions as reasonable punishments for governments doing "whatever they want" to support their own industries.'

[Tizer]

More on sovereignty, this time from the BBC's Europe Editor, Katya Adler. A very different story from that which the Express and Mail and the Brexiteers would have us believe...
`On Friday the European Commission president - who had a working dinner with the prime minister just this week - hit back at the `EU-is-in-denial-about-UK-sovereignty claim'. Yes, said Ursula von der Leyen, the EU was insisting on what it views as rules on "fair competition" in exchange for agreeing the UK could have preferential access to the single market - i.e. tariff and quota-free. But she pointedly added that the UK would remain free - "sovereign, if you wish" were the words she used - to decide what it wanted to do. "We [the EU] would simply adapt the conditions for access to our market accordingly. It would be the decision of the UK and this would apply vice versa."

[Stanley]

I noted the sovereignty/free juxtaposition when she used it. I think that 'sovereignty' as used by the Brexiteers is a back reference to our superiority in that we still have a Monarchy and that taps into our whole glorious history and tradition which Europe does not have. I really do think that that is the childish level of thinking in the heads of the Johnsons and Rees Moggs of this world. It's always pathetic and stupid but when it occurs in a strata of society that holds the levers of power due to wealth and privilege it leads to the dangers we can see coming down the track towards us.
Why does this keep coming to mind....?
"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." (Samuel Johnson.)
For patriotism, read sovereignty.

[Tizer]

If a deal isn't agreed by 31 December, we go onto World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, what Boris calls an `Australia deal'. The BBC reports Mr Barnier saying it was the UK that decided on the deadline and the EU would have been willing to extend the so-called transition period into next year so talks could continue. He told the European Parliament: If they should leave with an agreement or without, it is nevertheless the Brits that decided on that deadline. BBC

I bet the Mail and Express won't publish that quote!

[Stanley]

I heard that report Peter and thought the same thing. This is one of the factors that convinces me that they actually want No Deal. The EU would give them more time any time they ask for it. (And I suspect no limit as to how long!)

[Tizer]

Re: US senators say they will refuse to certify Joe Biden's election...
Utah Senator Mitt Romney, the only Republican to vote for Trump's impeachment last year, has also expressed dismay at moves to overturn the election. "I could never have imagined seeing these things in the greatest democracy in the world. Has ambition so eclipsed principle?" he said in a statement.
BBC

[Stanley]

Triggered by the fact that all those who have signed to oppose have political ambition and are looking to tap Trump's political base in their own efforts to run campaigns and get elected.

[Tizer]

From the Queen 's 1957 Christmas broadcast... (see the Attention thread)...
"In the old days the monarch led his soldiers on the battlefield and his leadership at all times was close and personal. Today things are very different. I cannot lead you into battle, I do not give you laws or administer justice, but I can do something else, I can give you my heart and my devotion to these old islands and to all the peoples of our brotherhood of nations."

[Stanley]

Do modern politicians ever think about that concept? Or are they too busy scheming, chasing promotion and checking their pension pot.

[Stanley]

I buy expensive suits. They just look cheap on me. Warren Buffet.

[Tizer]

Genuine comment by Warren Buffett to a reporter who asked him his view on Bitcoin...
`See this button on my suit, it's worth a thousand dollars. I'll sell it to you and you can sell it on for two thousand dollars.' The reporter declined the offer.

[Tripps]

President Donald J Trump. 8.15 pm 6 Jan 2021

"I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order – respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!"


The Nobel Peace Prize must surely follow.