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I’ve got an old framed print of Nash’s ‘We are making a New World’ at home, I’ve had it for decades, it ‘s evidence of a lifelong obsession with The Great War.
You’d think in a sane world such scenes couldn’t possibly reoccur, wouldn’t you?
You can’t have failed to have noticed the narrative all this week, its been predominantly about the reaction of currency markets and the canvassed opinions of spokesmen for international conglomerates, of the effects this fiasco is having on the great mass of the British people barely a peep.
This is it, isn’t it? The end point of the long, slow crumbling. The existence of a docile, apathetic population of ‘consumers’ either unable or unwilling any longer to test the bars of their own confinement. Abject.
I see our girl has resigned from The Democratic Party across the pond.
Now then, as a gambling man what would you say are the odds on her being the Republican nominee in November ‘24, and as a double, on her being the first female POTUS?
For obvious reasons her personal views were never publicly aired, but of her fifteen or so Prime Ministers during her reign there was only one she met with twice a week. Do you know who?
"Because when I am only a number. When I no longer have an identity or roots. Then I will be the perfect slave at the mercy of financial speculators. The perfect consumer." pic.twitter.com/yiwEevv7V9
Gwyn on the pomp and circumstance thread was quoting Doug Stanhope, those on the left have been doing that a lot online recently; now I’m not accusing Gwyn of such ignorance, but I don’t know how many of them realise it was part of a drink and cocaine fuelled comedy skit?
I’d like to offer a counter-quote from Bowden that was borne out all around me on the streets of central London yesterday, it is the sentiment Orwell was groping toward in his essay ‘The Lion and the Unicorn,’ but Bowden manages to convey it in one easily remembered aphorism: “Patriotism is the one true socialism in that it holds people together in their difference.”
That is what I saw played out. I was outside The Red Lion on the corner of Parliament Street and Derby Gate yesterday as the gun carriage bearing the coffin of HM went by. Stood immediately around me were people of all ages, all backgrounds and all income brackets. A few of the thousands of ex-servicemen who descended on SW1, a couple of members of The House of Lords immaculately dressed bearing ID lanyards, four elderly Caribbean ladies dressed in their Church best waving Union Flags and a family from Belfast who had made it over with the aid of a loan from ‘the Pru,’ as “we won’t see a day like this again in our lifetime.”
Unity of purpose from people who had nothing otherwise in common. There are precious few things in this world can engender that.
It’s 1948 and George Orwell is dying of tuberculosis. His great friend The Observer editor David Astor approaches the Home Secretary to get permission to by-pass the BMA and fly over at his own expense a consignment of what is being hailed as the new wonder-drug, Streptomycin.
Cognisant, no doubt, of the professional good a kind word from Astor in the columns can do for a Labour politician the Home Secretary Chuter Ede signs the waiver and the consignment is flown over.
Now this is the fascinating bit: unfortunately Orwell proved allergic to the treatment and his last hope was gone, but he and Astor insisted that the drug ought not to be wasted and insisted the Doctor administered it among a few of his worst cases. This the Doctor did but of the five recipients at an East Lothian sanitarium only two went on to make a full recovery.
One of them was a young man who went on to become the King of rugby commentators: Bill McLaren. So, if not for Orwell’s allergy we’d have never have got to enjoy this…
Despite all the Yes Cymru stickers you’ll encounter on road signs, despite the obvious enthusiasm for political self-immolation you’ll see from a few on here and on the other place, this is the real state of public enthusiasm.
Bit of trivia for the history buffs on here: her Welsh father Bryn was an MI5 agent who worked on the Enigma Project at Bletchley. He was also Rudolf Hess’ interrogator.
Fantastic listen this. The ‘We Have Ways’ podcast is always a brilliant show but here they have Brian Johnson late of AC/DC … and 3 Para … as their guest.
A decade on this is still one of the most musically exciting performances I’ve ever seen. Jeff Beck is a maestro, nobody argues with that, but his reaction when Imelda May saunters up to the mic and comes in pitch-perfect is the pointer for everything that follows.
Having just listened to an extended interview with her, and not only empathised with her own story but instantly recognised her story and how close it is with the experience of kids I grew up with. I’m left shaking my head. Sweetheart, WTF has modern Labour got to say to the likes of us?
If you like footballing documentaries, which I’d imagine we all do, there’s an excellent production on Amazon Prime charting Rangers run to the 1972 Cup Winner’s Cup Final in Barcelona, featuring some nice cameos from ex-Swan Derek Parlane.
…and Willie Johnston is still as mad as he ever was!
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