Reading Time: 3 minutes It must be a sign that my modem crashed just as the election of Boris Johnson as prime minister was being announced. In one fell swoop I was deprived of broadband, television and telephone. It was not a very funny joke for my work but I eventually managed to divert incoming calls to my mobile […]
UK
So What, Ambassador – Isabel Had Sex And Then Took A Leak
Reading Time: 3 minutes No one was much bothered by what had been leaked. Kim Darroch, the UK ambassador to the US, had only reported back what had long been obvious to the entire world: that Donald Trump was vain and inept and ran a wholly dysfunctional administration. It was the sort of email that anyone might send after watching […]
Why Ann Widdecombe Got Her French “Leave” Terribly Wrong
Reading Time: 2 minutes A trilogy of posts on Ann Widdecombe! I cannot believe that I’m wasting my time on an old lady who is well past her “sell-by” date. I promise that you will not see another post on her from this particular IP address. Promise that, I do. But it sprang to my attention that no one […]
Return Of The Hooligans – Ann Widdecombe In Europe
Reading Time: 3 minutes It was an outburst that initially made me laugh, such was the clumsiness, inaccuracy and frankly vaudeville nature of Ann Widdecombe’s rant at the European parliament. Having heard that she is unrepentant and will not apologize in the least for her pathetic performance that was so out-of-place in Strasbourg, I now not only feel embarrassed […]
Connaissez-vous l’histoire d’une anglaise, d’un français et d’une irlandaise?
Reading Time: 3 minutes Non, avant que vous le demandiez, ce n’est pas l’histoire de l’anglais, de l’écossais et de l’irlandais dans un club, où l’anglais voulait partir et ils ont tous dû rentrer à la maison. C’est l’histoire d’une (ancienne) Première ministre britannique, d’un négociateur français et d’une frontière irlandaise. Tous trois ont attendu près de deux ans […]
Brexit, 3 Years On – Lies, Post-Truth Or Bullshit?
Reading Time: 5 minutes Brexit guru Boris Johnson is one of those people who thinks that you can make your own truth as long as you believe hard enough in yourself. 2016 was a good year for those politicians who occult the real truth and make up their own, with Donald Trump leading the way for overt lies, post-truth […]
Brexit Means Brexit, But What’s EU Citizenship?
Reading Time: 5 minutes The chips are ready and the cooking oil is piping hot. EU citizens in the UK and Brits in the EU are just about to be immersed for the umpteenth time in a deep pan fryer that will finally scar for good any last remaining ounce of citizens’ rights as we knew them. I may […]
Brexit Musings (44) – Mister Johnson, I Presume?
Reading Time: 3 minutes We have just been traversing a terrifying jungle ridden with dangers and now come face to face with an unexpected creature who is just waiting to finish us off. He answers to the name, Mister Johnson. Is it just possible that Mister Johnson represents the missing link between the rational and the irrational? Or am […]
A Day At The Beach In The Name Of Freedom
Reading Time: 4 minutes Frail men in their late nineties gazed into the Normandy sky at what may have been. A grateful president saluted them with the respect that underscores the grandeur of their courage. Fifteen thousand people listened to the wise words of a world leader who is too young to have known the calamities of war and […]
Citizens In Distress – The Mental Strain Of A No-Deal Brexit
Reading Time: 6 minutes If we reflect on the situation of EU citizens in the UK and British citizens in the EU-27, nothing has really changed since the referendum vote three years ago. Although an agreement concerning our fate was reached in December 2017, it very much depends on the whole withdrawal deal being accepted by Westminster. This is […]