New Year’s Eve 2015, Johnson promised to make the World a better place and told us all about Syrian refugees. What a fun sponge! 2014, there was a ticketing fiasco. 2013 Johnson recorded a special video message https://www.london.gov.uk/press-releases-5994 It’s as if the Spectator has the collective memory of a goldfish, as do its readers.
Talking of the Spectator I read this on its website yesterday. I'm glad I stayed at home with a library book and a bottle of brown ale instead of going to Sadiq's fireworks party Fireworks at New Year are the purest distillation of the spirit of frippery. All Sadiq Khan had to do was give ‘em the old razzle dazzle. There is no higher meaning to these colourful explosions, no significance to the spectacle beyond the fun of communal cries of ‘ooh!’ and ‘aah!’ Fireworks are quite enough – more than enough – in themselves. You can leave it to the bangers to do the job; adding anything else on top is not necessary. Appending a civic lecture to a firework display is like adding tripe to a trifle. But Khan, like all the grim municipal fun sponges who run and ruin almost everything nowadays, can’t just sit back and let any harmless pleasure follow its well-established course. We were not left in any doubt as to who had granted us this spectacle, which kicked off with ‘The MAYOR OF LONDON Presents …’ in huge showbizzy letters, reminiscent of The Benny Hill Show, as if he had dug into his own pocket to grant his subjects this boon of bangs. The flashes that followed were indeed spectacular, but were interspersed with paeans to our new top-down megalopolitan touchstones: the Empire Windrush, environmentalism, the NHS (as if a public health provision was unique to Britain!), and same-sex marriage. This was all bundled under the theme ‘London: A Place For Everyone’, which given the blind eye turned by Khan and the police to the horrific displays of mass anti-Semitism in the streets of central London over the last three months is a blatant regime lie worthy of a Second World junta. There is something grimly ironic that a 16 year old was stabbed to death while watching this display. A soul-destroying firework display wasn’t the only example of this phenomenon over the holiday period. The fun destroyers were out in force across the board. At exactly the same time, ITV decided to ring in the New Year with a toe-curlingly sanctimonious montage of ludicrously wealthy actors, including Glenn Close and Idris Elba, lecturing its viewers about climate change. The BBC shovelled up another of its Christmas Agatha Christie adaptations, this time about colonialism apparently. The sheer pleasure of immersing yourself in a classic ‘cosy crime’ puzzle is lost. Yes, there is a difference between the image of Christie’s work and its reality: the novels are frequently harder-edged than their media representations from the later twentieth century suggested, and only acquired their cosy patina many years after they were published. But this doesn’t invalidate the fun and the joy to be taken from that slant – properties the BBC has now sucked out completely. These things were all, not so long ago, toasty delights, little escapes at a special time of year. But now there is to be no escape. The presumption of it all! I can’t imagine being the kind of person who would try to impose my political world view into the world of jolly festive fun. What a rotter you would have to be. The irony is that this is all supposed to be ‘inclusive’ and welcoming, but it is in fact the ‘progressive’ boilerplate ideology of the executive DEI class – of at best about ten to fifteen per cent of the population. Imagine it coming from the opposite end of the spectrum: a gigantic face of Nigel Farage beaming down over the capital; ITV corralling celebs to demand urgent action on stopping the boats; a retelling of Christie that extolled the virtues of pre-Blair Britain. We don’t notice how strange this is because we have been inured to this guff through endless repetition. It is the culture of psychopaths who enjoy ruining other people’s simple pleasures. We suffer this for the rest of the year, and now we must suffer it over Christmas and New Year too. For heavens’ sake, bureaucrats and boondogglers – take a day off!
Good one. Can’t run to an actual like though. I bet Spectator readers think someone else is the ‘chattering classes.’
Incredible that whichever opinionated, self-righteous muppet penned that decided to criticise any move that leads to drama adaptations of Christie's work becoming more in line with the tenor of what she actaully wrote. 'But it's not as rose-tinted, sickly sweet as it used to be!' they wail.
So great, that even after he died buildings and outbuildings were being unified to form spa complexes in his honour.
The picture taken a few seconds later showed a firework display of his daughter running off with a bunch of cash.
Anyone in the market for a yacht? There may be a bargain to be had as Michelle Mone is looking to sell hers pronto, in what the Mirror describes as a ‘fire sale.’ https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/michelle-mones-launches-80million-fire-31793288
Yes actually. I'll pay twice what she actually earned to afford it. So that's £60M they can pay me to take the depreciating asset of their hands. Mind you some could argue that the general public, of which despite my protestations I am still a part of, actually already own it.
Lady M is clearly an odious character, but it must very convenient for the Tories that she and Barrowman are taking all the heat at the moment. Why is no one mentioning all the other Tory supporters who had their snouts in the trough? She probably only benefited from an absolutely miniscule portion of the billions which evaporated in scandalous circumstances.......
Always, always the way with the Tories. Absolutely no surprise that the fall guys are the outsiders who've convinced themselves they are true Conservatives, the ones who've worked so hard to belong. Mone was brought up in the East End of Glasgow, in a one-bedroom house with no bath. She left school with no qualifications. Hauled herself up, ticking the box of the aspirational Tory who's bettered themselves. Met all the right people, earned a load of money, been to the right places, but still not a real insider. When push comes to shove, people like her can be sacrificed very easily. Same goes for her husband, although he's not from as poor a background. Always surprises me the people who vote for and see themselves as Tory. Paying off their mortgage, HP on their car, imagining the Conservatives think for one moment that they are 'their' guys.
You have to hand it to the Tories. When they want to say a big ‘Up Yours’ to the public, they are not scared of doing so. So when they looked to find a candidate to fight the Wellingborough seat, made vacant by Peter Bone’s flashing and subsequent recall, they choose his partner, Tory councillor Helen Harrison. Gobs well and truly smacked that you would choose the partner of a man ostracised for his sexual misconduct. But this isn’t the first time, as Dover MP Natalie Elphick also inherited her seat following husband Charlie’s removal for serious sexual misconduct. In the case of Wellingborough, this leaves the possibility, that should his partner win the seat, flasher Bone continues to have Parliamentary influence in his constituency. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/breaking-tories-pick-partner-disgraced-31826122
One wonder is Bone did "An Elphick"? There are loads of patently false rumours flying about how Charlie Elphick told his local constituency party that unless they chose the fragrant Natalie as candidate, he would stand as an independent against whomever they chose, splitting the Tory vote and losing them the seat...
Never for one second would I think that I am a Tory or could I ever vote for them . However I know what their game is and they can't fool me . This labour mob tho, who knows what their end goal is ? It is something I don't recognize . Vote this current shower out by all means but don't be surprised if Labour are elected that it all ends in tears very quickly with internal in fighting that can never be resolved.
“I dOn’T kNOw whY they ARe BaD bUt They defInITEly aRe.” Said through mouthfuls of establishment boot leather.
Oh no not another one etc. Tory MP Chris Skidmore (yes, really) quits over the Tory policy allowing drilling for gas and oil. https://news.sky.com/story/tory-mp-chris-skidmore-quits-over-oil-and-gas-drilling-13044206
What I don’t understand is why you don’t seem to recognise the tiny landing strip Labour has to put forward its platform. It will simply get torn to shreds for anything radical or for being seen to be only associated with organised trade union labour. Imagine if the Party of Callaghan or Wilson campaigned now. What chance of election would they have? But Labour still has a job to do, for young people who can’t get housed, for the low waged, for public services. In order to do that, it has to win, which means keeping a very difficult coalition of classes and interests together. It’s a shame that you oppose, not because you seem to want it to do more, but because of wedge issues the Tories, with their thousands of media fellows, have played to the hilt. There couldn’t be a clearer demonstration of ‘divide and rule.’
I'm not voting either for Tweedledee or Tweedledum. The same dog with a different collar! He who votes in elections of Sunk and Starver is going to burn his beans.
“They’re all the same.” Never ceases to amaze me when intelligent, rational people say this. It may feel principled but all it does is line the country up for more Torying. It also means they’ve failed to recognise that they’ve been thoroughly played by the nudge theorists and have done precisely what the likes of Lynton Crosby intended them to do. Ho hum.
They aren't though are they. Just because they aren't Fidel Castro or Karl Marx doesn't mean they are the same. They are clearly very different.
Really? It seems to me you can vote on the one hand for more of the same, or on the other hand you can vote for more of the same.
Conservative irrationalism was on full display on Politics Live the other day, when it kicked off with a debate on Labour’s plans to teach all primary school children how to brush their teeth. Is this the ‘Nanny State’ the panel was asked. And the Tory MP along with the Spectator’s Tim Stanley took the bait gleefully. What about parental responsibility, they thundered. As if anyone was suggesting that parents should be encouraged to neglect their children. Stanley, barely in touch with terra firma, bemoaned the death of Victorian Values seemingly unaware of the almost legendary cruelty and neglect children suffered in that era, to mention nothing of their appalling teeth. Clearly parents should look after their children, but for some reason or combination of reasons, diet, poverty, ignorance, lack of dental services etc. it is not happening for all. Bemoaning feckless parents as a primary response has little value to a child under 10 who will have multiple extractions in the coming years. Costly to their self-esteem and health. Costly to the NHS. A sensible response to encourage this in schools. What should four year olds be doing? Learning Latin? Many conservatives have become complete irrationalists, motivated by bizarre emotions and resentments. Cannot be sustained.
"Parents should be responsible". But some of them, a lot of them, are not. "I taught my children to brush their teeth". Basically sums up the Tory lack of empathy, compassion and, **** it, common sense. These people are selfish and very very stupid.
Most of them probably grew up in the era when they were given free milk, eye tests, hearing tests, vaccinations etc etc at school! I bet they didn't see that as being the "nanny state". The general health of children should be the concern of all of society, including (perhaps especially) educators. It makes economic sense if nothing else!
I will talk and fight for those who are the crabs trying to escape the barrel . Affluent issues mean sh*t to me . For example how Brexit has affected their lifestyle. I don't care .
What if Brexit has made "the crabs" lifestyle worse? Every indication is that it has and it's only going to get worse....the checks on imports, which will cause more food inflation, have still not been implemented. And who suffers most when food becomes more expensive? Clue: it's not the elites. Or alternatively can you show how Brexit has helped "the crabs"? I can give plenty of examples of how the affluent have benefitted from shorting the pound (including Farage) to escaping the EU tax avoidance legislation. Brexit is the perfect example of how "the establishment" used the very justifiable unrest of the general populace to further it's own agenda at the expense of "the crabs". You really are angry at the wrong people. Nigel Farage and Jacob Rees Mogg are not on your side.
Farage is not the affluent one Davy is taking about. He means the young graduates on 28k, middle class office workers who earn slightly above average and go on holiday to Italy, and anyone who's been to pret
If you have eff all how does voting make one jot of difference ? I'm angry at the morons who think voting actually gives us a choice Farage and any toff you care to mention don't care about me. Do you think that those who pretend to care , be it a politician or woke celebrity, care about you ? Do you think that Gary Linekar really cares ? How many youth clubs , 5g football pitches etc lost their funding after St Gary of Linekar won his £5m tax case ? How much money do you need to earn to have a tax bill of £5M ? And how much money does Gary need ?
