QUOTE OF THE DAY. TRIPPS ORIGINAL

[Tizer]

Rather a long quote but a useful one to keep in mind when we see where relying on a referendum result gets us. I have taken this from Wikipedia where it notes Edmund Burke stated that part of the duty of a representative was not simply to communicate the wishes of the electorate but also to use their own judgement in the exercise of their powers, even if their views are not reflective of those of a majority of voters...

`...it ought to be the happiness and glory of a representative to live in the strictest union, the closest correspondence, and the most unreserved communication with his constituents. Their wishes ought to have great weight with him; their opinion, high respect; their business, unremitted attention. It is his duty to sacrifice his repose, his pleasures, his satisfactions, to theirs; and above all, ever, and in all cases, to prefer their interest to his own. But his unbiassed opinion, his mature judgment, his enlightened conscience, he ought not to sacrifice to you, to any man, or to any set of men living. These he does not derive from your pleasure; no, nor from the law and the constitution. They are a trust from Providence, for the abuse of which he is deeply answerable. Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.'

[Stanley]

Don't apologise Tiz. That is as true today as it was in the late 18th century.

[Tizer]

in Amber Rudd's resignation letter: `I must also address the assault on decency and democracy that took place last week when you sacked 21 talented, loyal One Nation Conservatives. This short-sighted culling of my colleagues has stripped the party of broad-minded and dedicated Conservative MPs I cannot support this act of political vandalism.

The words that I have emphasised with italics are her diplomatic way of saying that those of you left in the party are narrow-minded and don't really care what happens next.

[Tizer]

Later...As you know, Sir Nicholas Soames was given the boot by Boris and his gang last week regardless of his 36 years in Parliament. However he has been getting his revenge with some cutting comments. Among these is one reported yesterday in The Times which I hadn't previously seen. He was offended by Ree-Mogg sprawling across the Commons front bench, which he regarded as repulsive and went on to say: `He is an absolute fraud, he is a living example of what a moderately cut double-breasted suit and a decent tie can do with an ultra-posh voice and a bit of ginger stuck up his arse'. Sir Nicholas should be invited to write for the newspapers!

[Stanley]

Rees Mogg would be a good candidate for the Drones Club.

[Stanley]

This excerpt from John Bercow's resignation speech giving his opinions about the Prorogation. (LINK)

[Tizer]

We had a bit of discussion on OG recently about `right wing' newspapers. I defended The Times, saying I thought it was the most balanced of the lot. This weekend Rose Wild, who writes the paper's feedback column, described how they get lots of letters accusing them of being biased to the right or to the left. She notes that `people are just seeing what they want to see' and quotes Francis Bacon, 1620, in `Novum Organum'...

`The human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion (either as being the received opinion or as being agreeable to itself) draws all things else to support and agree with it. And though there be a greater number and weight of instances to be found on the other side, yet these it either neglects and despises, or else by some distinction sets aside and rejects, in order that by this great and pernicious predetermination the authority of its former conclusions may remain inviolate.'

[Tripps]

Mr Speaker Bercow -

"I couldn't give a flying flamingo what your view is"

[Stanley]

[Stanley]

"White posh people who go to a school like Eton need to get to know ordinary people before they take charge of the country."
Anne Longfield, Children's Commissioner for England and Wales this morning on R4 Today.

[Tripps]

From Dawn Butler (Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities) at the Brighton conference of the Labour Party.

"If we don't pull together - if we don't get our sh*t together, Boris Johnson is going to win."

[Stanley]

That'll be right! And in a strange way it would not be a bad thing. Whoever wins is on a hiding to nothing.....

[Tizer]

BBC Legal Affairs Correspondent on the Supreme Court decision:
`Wow! This is legal, constitutional and political dynamite....Be you ever so mighty, the law is above you - even if you are the prime minister. Unprecedented, extraordinary, ground breaking - it is difficult to overestimate the constitutional and political significance of today's ruling.'

[Stanley]

"...the British Constitution is the most subtle organism which has proceeded from the womb and long gestation of progressive history...

W E Gladstone. 1878

[Stanley]

"(Incidentally, amid all the gloom I couldn't help laughing yesterday over the response of Jennifer Arcuri, the American businesswoman and pole-dancing ex-model, who received thousands in public money after befriending Boris. She insists he only visited her flat for technology lessons!)"
Source is the Daily Mail this morning.

[Tizer]

Jo Swinson to Boris Johnson in the Commons last night:
`Even my 5-year-old knows when it's time to say sorry!'

[Tripps]

I can't claim credit for this. . . During current Tory conference in Manchester

Isn’t it odd how Peston’s new squeeze didn’t claim Boris had squeezed her thigh in 1999-

1. When he ran for Mayor in 2008 & 2012
2. Or when he ran for MP in 2001, 2005, 2015 & 2017
3. Or when he ran for Tory Leader in 2019

But only now when he’s trying to take us out of the EU?

[Stanley]

If my limited experience of behaviour at conferences and weekend courses is anything to go by thigh squeezing is only the half of it!

[Tripps]

"I don't want to kill Bambi"

Andre Fabre French racehorse trainer in Paris today - but he did !

[Stanley]

French mayor and partisan during WW2 replying to a man who questioned how he could have faith in a God he had never seen. " I've never seen my arse but I know it's there!"

[Tizer]

In the newspaper I read that Alan Johnson likes to tell a story about the Labour heartland of Hull. He says that Michael Heseltine visited and noticed that the list of mayors in the town hall had a lone Conservative in 1942. When asked what happened that year the clerk replied `There was talk of a Nazi invasion and people had heard that the first thing they did when they took over a place was to shoot the mayor. So it seemed a sensible precaution'.

[Stanley]

What good thinking!

[Tripps]

Found on the interweb somewhere today.

"In an ideal world - the worst person in the world and the President of the United States would be two different people".

[Stanley]

[Stanley]

From Bryson's 'The Body'.
"Stopped!"
Reputed to be the last word uttered by British Surgeon and anatomist Joseph Henry Green (1791-1863) While feeling his own pulse.