UK Politics: Royal Weddings and Referendums

[mankytoes]

17 hours ago, williamjm said:

It does feel like Boris is getting more Trump-like by the day.

I think he's been doing it for years, in that  he's attempting to be a "celebrity politician" (I never believed he really got stuck on that zipline, for instance). I don't want to over egg the Trump comparison because there are a lot of differences, but it's notable that Boris also has a history of sexual misconduct (no accusations of actual offences I'm aware of, but he's treated women like shit and lied repeatedly about it) and seems to have side stepped it well. 

It's an interesting contrast that while American right wing populists tend to use deliberately dumbed down language, ours, like Boris and Rees-Mogg do the opposite, with frequent flourishes of latin. 

[SeanF]

On 6/26/2018 at 8:10 PM, williamjm said:

It is an unusual choice of slogan for a Conservative politician. It's not only a weird thing for him to say, even if he was going to say it surely a group of European diplomats aren't the best audience.

 

 

I can't remember any other cabinet minister who seems so blatantly contemptuous of following the Government's line. He's hardly the first minister to disagree with their government, but usually they at least try to pretend publicly that they agree.

I think Johnson has used up all his political capital.   He'll be gone before too long.

[mormont]

The Latin is best understood as a way of invoking that most treasured thing for a populist politician - nostalgia for an imaginary past. In Britain, this includes the days when Latin and Classics were taught in schools, memorising Ovid and Homer and so on. Rees-Mogg and Johnson deliberately play up the public schoolboy image in a way that no US populist ever would or could, but it's the flip side of the coin to when US populists invoke the down-home good-old-boy stuff.

While I wish Johnson's political capital was used up, there is no sign of that.

[Cas Stark]

3 minutes ago, La Albearceleste said:

The Latin is best understood as a way of invoking that most treasured thing for a populist politician - nostalgia for an imaginary past. In Britain, this includes the days when Latin and Classics were taught in schools, memorising Ovid and Homer and so on. Rees-Mogg and Johnson deliberately play up the public schoolboy image in a way that no US populist ever would or could, but it's the flip side of the coin to when US populists invoke the down-home good-old-boy stuff.

While I wish Johnson's political capital was used up, there is no sign of that.

But, that past isn't imaginary is it?  

[mormont]

Just now, Cas Stark said:

But, that past isn't imaginary is it?  

It's not imaginary that these things were taught in schools, no. But they're cited to evoke that imaginary past when all was well and our country was great and rich and respected in the world. You know, the one populists in every country imagine and invoke.

[Cas Stark]

3 minutes ago, La Albearceleste said:

It's not imaginary that these things were taught in schools, no. But they're cited to evoke that imaginary past when all was well and our country was great and rich and respected in the world. You know, the one populists in every country imagine and invoke.

But, that past isn't imaginary either.  The British Empire was a thing, and that thing included greatness and riches and respect that no longer exists in the same way.  Is it really that surprising that some fairly large segment of society would think back fondly on the days their country was a world power?

[Werthead]

1 hour ago, Cas Stark said:

But, that past isn't imaginary either.  The British Empire was a thing, and that thing included greatness and riches and respect that no longer exists in the same way.  Is it really that surprising that some fairly large segment of society would think back fondly on the days their country was a world power?

It is imaginary in the sense that the British Empire was built and maintained through blood, colonisation, slavery (up to the 1830s), oppression, military occupation and genocide (particularly the famines in India and Ireland), not to mention immense social division at home. Also, depending on where in the empire's timeline you're standing, there's also the matter of near-constant warfare, rebellions and civil unrest. The idea of a British golden age when everything was awesome and there weren't any problems is completely mythical. It's also one that's very easy to perpetuate and believe in, as Johnson clearly does (as evidenced by his colossal faux pas in Myanmar recently).

[Maltaran]

10 hours ago, Cas Stark said:

But, that past isn't imaginary either.  The British Empire was a thing, and that thing included greatness and riches and respect that no longer exists in the same way.  Is it really that surprising that some fairly large segment of society would think back fondly on the days their country was a world power?

Unsurprising, yes, but the glasses they’re wearing are very heavily rose-tinted.

[mormont]

11 hours ago, Cas Stark said:

But, that past isn't imaginary either.

Yes, it is.

 

[Werthead]

Brexit in a nutshell.

[Which Tyler]

So after 18 months, we still can't even agree what we want - and are still throwing temper tantrums about it all.

No way we're ever going to to find anything the EU will rubber stamp

[williamjm]

48 minutes ago, Which Tyler said:

So after 18 months, we still can't even agree what we want - and are still throwing temper tantrums about it all.

The Government does seem intent on tearing itself apart over deciding which proposal the EU is going to reject.

[mormont]

Fact is, the government don't have a Brexit strategy. They have a series of 'get through this week' strategies instead.

[Werthead]

We are somewhere way beyond farcical. Boris Johnson swearing to a foreign dignitary should have gotten him the sack, Mobile Giant Testicle* Michael Gove tearing up documents should have gotten him the sack, the defence secretary threatening to "break" the Prime Minister should have gotten him the sack (no matter how correct his core concerns over the defence budget are). This is dysfunction on a scale I can't recall seeing in government before in my lifetime. Remarkable and despair-inducing.

 

* Possibly too generous. Testicles, of course, are productive and useful.

[Pebble thats Stubby]

10 minutes ago, Werthead said:

We are somewhere way beyond farcical. Boris Johnson swearing to a foreign dignitary should have gotten him the sack, Mobile Giant Testicle* Michael Gove tearing up documents should have gotten him the sack, the defence secretary threatening to "break" the Prime Minister should have gotten him the sack (no matter how correct his core concerns over the defence budget are). This is dysfunction on a scale I can't recall seeing in government before in my lifetime. Remarkable and despair-inducing.

 

* Possibly too generous. Testicles, of course, are productive and useful.

I really hope any testicles when used in the same sentence as Gove are are not Productive or useful.

[Werthead]

15 hours ago, Pebble said:

I really hope any testicles when used in the same sentence as Gove are are not Productive or useful.

He has two kids, so too late in this instance.

I think we need to move on from this topic quickly.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

I am just not sure why you refered to the Tories' squinting toilette brush as a testicle, though.

[JesonYao]

People who pick apart spellingus and grammarae, especially in situations where the meaning is clear despiteth the techinkal and most speciale error, remaineth precisely clear

[Werthead]

Esther McVey somehow still in her job despite either 1) knowingly lying to Parliament or 2) failing to read - twice! - reports from the National Audit Office to her and making some shit up off the top of her own head. Both are breaches of the Parliamentary Code.

[Werthead]

Two more people poisoned by the same nerve agent used against the Russian defector in March.

Current theory is that these two people came into contact with the agent in a place the authorities hadn't previously cleaned up. They are now in hospital.

Obviously massively concerning that the agent can still be so toxic four months after its original use, and the fear must be there's more pockets of it lurking in the area.