Boris's Brain is missing

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Psamathe
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Re: Boris's Brain is missing

Post by Psamathe »

thirdcrank wrote: 17 Jun 2022, 8:59pm I see he ducked out of a meeting at the last minute at Doncaster Racecourse with his "red wall" MPs to discuss levelling up. AIUI, there was also to be some sort of appearance in Wakefield ahead of next week's by election.
Several European leaders were in Ukraine yesterday (or day before) and Johnson does not like to feel left out. Sounds like levelling-up is still a soundbite waiting to be defined let alone deliver benefits. So give Johnson a choice between a big fan (Zelenskiy) and some rather rebellious MPs who have failed to deliver and facing their electorate, no contest.

Other European leaders seem to be trying to sort out real problems (much needed grain) while Johnson took him (Zelenskiy) a book about the Queen and made some announcement about longer term training possibilities.

Ian
francovendee
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Re: Boris's Brain is missing

Post by francovendee »

Interesting that Zelenski hasn't tapped Johnson up with the idea of Ukraine joining the Commonwealth.
Can't think why he wants to join the EU.
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al_yrpal
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Re: Boris's Brain is missing

Post by al_yrpal »

From what I heard other EU leaders failed to deliver practically anything and are financing Russias war by buying shedloads of Russian oil and gas.
We have offered to train 10000 Ukranians a month as well as supplying armour ship missiles ammo, rocket launchers anti tank missiles as well as all the vital satellite surveillance and intelligence no one talks about.
Get real, take those EU beer goggles off and stop continually running down our country!

Al
Reuse, recycle, thus do your bit to save the planet.... Get stuff at auctions, Dump, Charity Shops, Facebook Marketplace, Ebay, Car Boots. Choose an Old House, and a Banger ..... And cycle as often as you can......
thirdcrank
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Re: Boris's Brain is missing

Post by thirdcrank »

Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel
- Samuel Johnson

FWIW, I think this may latest incident may involve a bit deeper analysis than may be superficially apparent.

On 5 September 2019 Boris Johnson made a highly-publicised visit to West Yorkshire which included a coup when an image was contrived of him "backed" by ranks of police trainees at the Wakefield police training school All very helpful to red wall tory candidates. This week's by election has been triggered by the tory MP being imprisoned, but it's against the background of partygate. Perhaps having Boris Johnson canvassing this time round is is considered too much of a risk, while a bit of posturing in the Ukraine might impress those impressed by that sort of thing
reohn2
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Re: Boris's Brain is missing

Post by reohn2 »

-----------------------------------------------------------
"All we are not stares back at what we are"
W H Auden
Stradageek
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Re: Boris's Brain is missing

Post by Stradageek »

al_yrpal wrote: 18 Jun 2022, 8:52am Get real, take those EU beer goggles off and stop continually running down our country!
Al
Much as positive discrimination is justified to tackle misogyny and racism, I feel a certain amount of 'running down' is justified to tackle the outdated imperialism that pervades British society.

I love this country and its people but the sooner we realise that we are nothing special the sooner we'll be able to work together with the rest of the world to solve the world's problems rather than trying to stand independently aloof from the chaos.

We do not have the economic power of the US or the tyrannical power of Lukashenko yet we persist with the divisive FPTP voting system we share with these countries alone. When will we wake up and join the rest of humanity?

Saturday morning rant over :)
Mike Sales
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Re: Boris's Brain is missing

Post by Mike Sales »

Stradageek wrote: 18 Jun 2022, 9:35am
al_yrpal wrote: 18 Jun 2022, 8:52am Get real, take those EU beer goggles off and stop continually running down our country!
Al
Much as positive discrimination is justified to tackle misogyny and racism, I feel a certain amount of 'running down' is justified to tackle the outdated imperialism that pervades British society.

I love this country and its people but the sooner we realise that we are nothing special the sooner we'll be able to work together with the rest of the world to solve the world's problems rather than trying to stand independently aloof from the chaos.

We do not have the economic power of the US or the tyrannical power of Lukashenko yet we persist with the divisive FPTP voting system we share with these countries alone. When will we wake up and join the rest of humanity?

Saturday morning rant over :)
If we want to boast about the good Britain has done, we should also acknowledge the harm done in our past., and the things that are wrong. A true patriot wants to make the country even better, by looking at the things we have done wrong, and the things we need to improve.
We should not pretend we are already perfect.
It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame
It's the rich what gets the pleasure
Isn't it a blooming shame?
thirdcrank
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Re: Boris's Brain is missing

Post by thirdcrank »

With thanks to Private Eye

click to enlarge
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al_yrpal
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Re: Boris's Brain is missing

Post by al_yrpal »

OTOH practically none of us alive today had a hand in or influence over Britains past imperialist crimes. As a nation we dont continually keep pointing fingers at the Nazi Germans, Brutal Japanese or American failures in Vietnam. So why do the Remainiacs and hard left continually keep denigrating Britain? Yes, what we are going through isnt perfect but IMO things never are. Boris is clearly a poor Prime Minister and leader, no reason to constantly denigrate everything. IMO the weak and badly led opposition wouldnt prove any better.

Al
Reuse, recycle, thus do your bit to save the planet.... Get stuff at auctions, Dump, Charity Shops, Facebook Marketplace, Ebay, Car Boots. Choose an Old House, and a Banger ..... And cycle as often as you can......
thirdcrank
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Re: Boris's Brain is missing

Post by thirdcrank »

Al

From where I'm sitting, you equate the self-motivated actions of Boris Johnson with the good of the country and indeed the wider world, when it appears to me that any connection between the former and the other two is coincidental. As I tried to explain above, even his own party and the spinners in particular are becoming increasingly wary about this.
Mike Sales
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Re: Boris's Brain is missing

Post by Mike Sales »

al_yrpal wrote: 18 Jun 2022, 10:10am OTOH practically none of us alive today had a hand in or influence over Britains past imperialist crimes.

Al
And equally we no hand or influence in the historic changes which have resulted in a country we are glad to live in.
But the many good things about Britain resulted from people seeing the things that needed improving, making a fuss about them and getting improvements made.
It does nobody any good to keep quiet about evils.
Throwing around words like "remainiacs" and "hard left" does not help your case.
It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame
It's the rich what gets the pleasure
Isn't it a blooming shame?
francovendee
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Joined: 5 May 2009, 6:32am

Re: Boris's Brain is missing

Post by francovendee »

Boris did sort of get brexit done. Because of this, are we supposed to ignore all the lies that get churned out about how much better off we are now?
It takes a very special person to ignore the facts.
reohn2
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Re: Boris's Brain is missing

Post by reohn2 »

francovendee wrote: 18 Jun 2022, 10:42am Boris did sort of get brexit done. Because of this, are we supposed to ignore all the lies that get churned out about how much better off we are now?
It takes a very special person to ignore the facts.
And Al is a very special person,in that he's been proven wrong times out of number on the issue of Brexit among other issues claiming he knows best :roll:
The country is well on the slide and has been since 2009,that's not because of the opposition but because the Tories under Johnson and the two previous PMs have lead it down that slope backed by their financiers for their own monetary gain andnthe people who voted for Brexit and the Tories.
The opposition cannot continually be blamed for the Tories selfseeking,hand in the till,lying mismanagement of the country as a whole.
The country can't be trusted on the world stage due to that lying and mismanagement,breaking international law,the way it treats the poorest amongst us,and it's degredation of human rights.

I love the country on the one hand,but I'm ashamed to say I'm British on the other,for way it's currently conducting itself,the king is naked and I'm not shamed to point the finger and claim it as such,the UK has become a joke under Tory rule.
-----------------------------------------------------------
"All we are not stares back at what we are"
W H Auden
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Cugel
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Re: Boris's Brain is missing

Post by Cugel »

reohn2 wrote: 18 Jun 2022, 11:04am
francovendee wrote: 18 Jun 2022, 10:42am Boris did sort of get brexit done. Because of this, are we supposed to ignore all the lies that get churned out about how much better off we are now?
It takes a very special person to ignore the facts.
(snip)

I love the country on the one hand,but I'm ashamed to say I'm British on the other,for way it's currently conducting itself,the king is naked and I'm not shamed to point the finger and claim it as such,the UK has become a joke under Tory rule.
Some of our Panglossian members have an understandable wish for the pleasures of their now nearly past lives to remain unsullied. I confess, this includes me. I'm inclined to the conservative, meaning those tried & tested traditions that provide the rock on which our civilised aspects are built, the fences that keep out the ravenous gharks & hoos intent on feasting upon us all, the safeties of community and mutuality.
.

Those who adopt the faux-Victorian Jingo mode as some sort of attempt to raise the dead past seem not to notice that this would entail them living with a zombie - one that will turn on them as readily as zombies turn on anyone. They also mistake the feeble remnant of the left, or its even feebler ghost, for some sort of change-threat to an imagined stability supposedly pursued by the current ruling political elites, with the culture wars intended to keep alive or even invigorate some sort of golden-past condition.

But here's an alternative perspective of things from the viewpoint of one of those leftist bogeymen (a school of thought known as "Savage Marxism") which the Panglossian supporters of Tories and their ilk paint as the danger to our perfect Britain:

'Marx’s key insight was that far from being haunted by the spectre of communism (or any other movement on the left), the ruling class is more troubled by the horrifying prospect of all being well with the world. As the American political theorist Marshall Berman pointed out in the 1980s, Marx saw that, far from being the party of order, the ruling classes thrive on chaos. Berman writes that “catastrophes are transformed into lucrative opportunities for redevelopment and renewal; disintegration works as a mobilising and hence integrating force”. All life is disenchanted and de-sanctified before the avalanche of creation, innovation, development, conquest, shock and destruction – elements of the master principle governing all human affairs. As one of the most infamous lines in the Manifesto reads: “All that is solid melts into air.”'

https://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2022 ... -manifesto

Another and similar analysis can be found in "The Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shock_Doctrine

The current Tories are very much inclined to be "the ruling class thriving on chaos". They are intent on creating as much chaos as possible because this is what'll provide them with the greatest opportunity to thrive and prosper via the acquisition of more power and wealth, as opposition to their larger intents is distracted by having to deal with the minutiae of the chaos they constantly create.

Al and his pals don't recognise this. They seem to be going on the same criterion used by my dear ole Mammy to choose who to vote for. "The Tories are a better class of people". As I used to suggest to her, "Oh no they ain't"!

But modern voters go on these queer shorthands - loyalty to a political party no matter how it morphs between vastly different behaviours and intents; the suggestions of the class system still everywhere in Britain that there is a "natural party of government"; the instructions of a mass media organ read in faith rather than with judgement.

Cugel
Last edited by Cugel on 18 Jun 2022, 2:58pm, edited 1 time in total.
“Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence are usually the slaves of some defunct economist”.
John Maynard Keynes
reohn2
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Re: Boris's Brain is missing

Post by reohn2 »

Cugel
Yer not wrong! :wink:
-----------------------------------------------------------
"All we are not stares back at what we are"
W H Auden
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