Wednesday, March 24, 2021

Things picked up from the news


I don't want to frighten you first thing in the morning but doesn't the poor love look haggard, running a country is not  easy.  And then, to release on the news that  
"The reason we have the vaccine success is because of capitalism, because of greed, my friends." 

Though the words may have been taken out of context, foot and mouth come to mind.  For the moment I will allow Johnson to rest on his laurels about vaccination, but the EU have made a mess of it. But then I read that as far as the EU is concerned we have become a third rate country, no longer able to call the shots, see below....

No one is measuring the UK-shaped hole in Europe.

On that score, Johnson’s consequential victory was not the defeat of enthusiastic pro-Europeans, who had not been a dominant cultural force, but the annihilation of rational Eurosceptics. It was the banishment of moderate Tories and the scorching of earth beneath anyone who could see flaws in the EU but wanted to address them from the inside, because membership still served the national interest. The extinction of that tribe is a tragedy for British politics, but it is also a loss to the rest of Europe. And the cost has yet to be counted.  Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist

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And then there is of course the protest action against the bill going through parliament and the Bristol protest, which of course will only unite those for the bill.

“The loose and lazy way this legislation is drafted would make a dictator blush. Protests will be noisy, protests will disrupt and no matter how offensive we may find the issue at their heart, the right to protest should be protected.”


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-56400751

Perhaps when the pandemic slowly slides to a halt we should look at different views.  Rachel Reeves (Labour) writes in a heartfelt manner in the Newstatesman last week.  But I am not sure I can trust the Labour party not to skewer itself on its own politics.

10 comments:

  1. Have you seen the cover of this week's Spectator magazine? Even they think that there is no credible opposition anymore, and they have no particular agenda in this issue. It is a shame that the Bristol protest was taken over by thugs who do not care one way or the other about the right to protest.

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    1. The problems with the thugs is that they are drawn to any protest like bees to the honeypot, they love anarchy, and the real protestors are too naïve to understand. No haven't seen the Spectator cover, but I am sure there is a sinking feel in this country whether right or left.

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  2. A lot of people carrying out research in universities - long hours not for profit - will be angry about the capitalism remark.

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    1. Johnson often has a problem when he opens his mouth, such things said in jest or real are an unfortunate thinking on the part of the Conservative 'cronyism' party.

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  3. Insults are flying back and forth at present, as are accusations. The whole seems in such disarray that I am just trying to ignore it, hoping it will go away.

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    1. But that is the way we arrive at answers and solutions Pat.

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  4. I don't ever comment on another country's politics because I think it is rude to give opinions on something I know little about. However, the vaccine or the lack of it is a world-wide problem, not just the UK and EU. It has become a political bombshell every place. So many people are angry about something or another and I fear where it will all lead. One can't go backwards and change what was done, but reasonable people can figure out a way that is right and just and will save lives.

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    1. And I think Arleen that when we look behind the front line instigators of discord there is a mass of people just getting on with it and saving lives. The vaccine problem may well stretch into the future, when we need booster vaccine in the Autumn.

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  5. I think the vaccine was always going to be the strength in the UK response. For the simple reason that vaccines are an established part of what the UK is good at - so the scope for the government to bungle it or exploit it for their friends' profit was limited.

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  6. In fact it is really all about balance! The bad balanced by good but when will greed be balanced not by fear but by altruism?

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