Not exactly the Stasi

I'm not sure if it's a comfort or not that we're surveilled* by morons.

*Is this a word?

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Haven't you people got jobs to go to?

Not for much longer we hope. 

Presumably they haven't been missed this afternoon? Point proved I think. 

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Georgian Idol

It's 1750. We are in a theatre in Haymarket.

Contestant: [squeaky voice] Hello Simon. It hath been mine life's ambition to become a castrato. I am normally a shit sweeper but I really want to be a performer on the stage.

Simon: Really. Please go ahead.

Contestant performs a piece from an oratorio currently in vogue.

Simon: Thank you for coming today but we are going to have to reject you.

Contestant: [squeaky voice] But, but, but, me plums?

Simon: Sorry you were awful

Contestant: [squeaky voice] But I cut off me plums?

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D & D not to be

Meh, Nevermind. The David & David show wasn't to be. In 50 years time no doubt, the Bey of Englandstan, reporting to the Grand Vizier in Brusslebad, and his cabinet will all have the same name. And be more closely related to each other than even Harold Macmillan's cabinet.

So that'll be something to look forward to.  

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Spread

If you thought that was obscure...

I see the 1918 General Election had no party leader running for a seat in England.

They were:

• Glasgow Central                Andrew Bonar Law
• West Fife                William Adamson
• Caernarvon Boroughs        David Lloyd George
• East Fife                          H. H. Asquith
• Clare East and Mayo East Éamon de Valera
• Glasgow Gorbals George   Nicoll Barnes 

Eyebrows would be raised if that happened to today I'm sure. Back then what with votes for women and the Irish situation reaching boiling point, it was but a footnote. Regardless, Britain, politically at least it seems, was more evenly balanced in 1918 compared with now.

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And it's goodnight from him

Should David Milliband, who has invoked every dodge and wheeze in order avoid being clobbered by the taxes he believes the little people should get lumbered with in order  to inherit a £1.3 million house from his "Marxist intellectual" father who fled the Nazi invasion of Belgium but obviously took a wrong turn to come here instead of going to Moscow and the true workers' paradise, become leader of the Peoples' Party tomorrow then the leaders of the government and opposition will both have the same Christian name.

I'm presuming this hasn't happened since Harolds Macmillan and Wilson faced each other across the dispatch box during 1963. I'm not certain but don't think it occurred any other time in the 20th Century at least.

I see that from 1945 to 1955 there were two Clements as party leaders. Attlee of Labour and Davies of Liberals. You'd imagine the phenomenon wouldn't be that unlikely. Names follow fashion after all. But Clement seems pretty obscure.   

There's assorted early bishops and a Pope and this guy:

Marie-Clément Rodier, C.S.Sp. (born Vital Rodier; 1839–1904)[1] was a French missionary brother in Algeria. He is credited with creating the clementine variety of mandarin orange in 1902.

Clementine was, of course, Mrs Churchill's first name. Which means for those ten years after the war there were not only the two Clements leading parties but a Clementine as the other leader's wife. And, having been born in 1885, the future Baroness Spencer-Churchill precedes the citrus fruit in bagging the name; in case you wondered. 

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Action causes reaction shock.

"He talked to me as though I was just going through a phase in my life, but this is my lifestyle choice, and this is who I am."

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The Middle East summed up

By Dom Joly on The Word Podcast. Something like:

Most Middle Eastern countries have a fundamentalist population and a vaguely moderate, pro-Western government, while Iran is the otherway around.

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Switzerland is only 8 years old

...which is probably news in Basle.

But no, according to our intellectual superiors and their goal posts of perpetual movement, a state is only a state if its a member of the United Nations. The Vatican City isn't a member ergo The Pope can't come on a state visit. 

I remember when the old Tsar would dock up to visit his uncle Edward VII on the Isle of Wight. "You know Nicolas I'd love to invite you over on a state visit but unfortunately Russia isn't a member of the United Nations." "Vut arr Uniiited Naaaations?"

Collateral damage to the new status quo, screw you Nagorno Karabakh! 

Once a big deal for the left, self-determination for oppressed peoples has had to go. "Is that the Angolan resistance? MPLA or whatever. I'm a bit confused as to which side is which to be honest. Anyway, it's Fidel Castro here. Look I'd love to send some troops over to help you but you haven't got a seat at the United Nations I'm afraid. You'll have to stay Portuguese."

Ooh. We have a late breaking development. I said these rules were ever changing. The Palestinian get out....

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Battalions on manoeuvres

I'll tell you've what I've been enjoying about the papal visit. Much like the Queen Mother's funeral and the days leading up to it, it's seeing and hearing the voices of the solid backbone of the country. The much sneered at silent majority if you will. It's at times like this when one realises just how narrow and orthodox the tide of opinion normally is.

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I'm for whatever these guys are against

Just a quick thought: I wonder how many of the signatories to this letter* are/were fans of Britain's most Roman Catholic leader since James II? (Tony Blair I mean.)

*"Curt and unfriendly" according to Roman Catholic central, aka Telegraph Blogs less Daniel Hannan, in a pithy post. 

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The Pope

Sky News tracks His Holiness Papa Benedotto XVI as he descends from the heavens to his lost protestant dominion. Via Alitalia. That's where Phillip II went wrong. Should have took an Airbus.

Has someone checked the Pope's passport?

Sky News' ticker "Pope... moment of penance." From the corner of my eye it leaps out as "moment of Penzance".

Papal protest banner with prominent spelling error. Presumably we'll be seeing that as much as the "morans" guy. (Not)

FFS! This crap is exactly what I was talking about the other day. You want to know what would turn most normal people off "reason" and towards "superstition"? When its leading voices come out with this sort shit.

Once again:

Does it need to spelled out? Seemingly it does.

The Pope was unfortunate to have been born in Bavaria in 1927; his father bitterly opposed Nazism; the young Ratzinger's disabled cousin was murdered in the Holocaust; the future Pope didn't turn up to Hitler Youth meetings and later deserted his army battalion; there is virtually is nothing more a decent German could have done at that time and yet he's forever tarred with the Nazi brush.

This is obviously too much of a high falutin' a concept for your average intellectual.

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