29 replies to this topic

[Splodge]

Trouble is, you can't just turn up with a flag & start shooting the natives these days, seriously bad form what what! I think the modern way is to be in a club & use a sort of "negotiation combined with economic pressure/weight of numbers" approach. Takes a bit longer but is far less grisly. You can of course choose to go it alone & the very best of luck with that, but the rest of the world has already formed a small number of immensely powerful trading groups who are in fierce competition with each other and they aren't going to wait while the "special ones" stop for a spot of unicorn hunting or try to think up ways to get back to 1896.

Anyway I'm out , lifes too short etc . I'm sure that les monsieurs De Peffel, Farage, Francoise et les autres (that german family with all the big castles in that London) have oven-ready solutions for the problems that everyone but themselves will have created when la merde  gets airborne. Salut!

[fixitsan]

Trouble is, you can't just turn up with a flag & start shooting the natives these days, seriously bad form what what! I think the modern way is to be in a club & use a sort of "negotiation combined with economic pressure/weight of numbers" approach. Takes a bit longer but is far less grisly. You can of course choose to go it alone & the very best of luck with that, but the rest of the world has already formed a small number of immensely powerful trading groups who are in fierce competition with each other and they aren't going to wait while the "special ones" stop for a spot of unicorn hunting or try to think up ways to get back to 1896.

Anyway I'm out , lifes too short etc . I'm sure that les monsieurs De Peffel, Farage, Francoise et les autres (that german family with all the big castles in that London) have oven-ready solutions for the problems that everyone but themselves will have created when la merde  gets airborne. Salut!

Very precise assessment I'm sure !

 

It all went wrong with the Inclosure Acts as far as I can tell, when the common land was taken from the British Islanders, however, whatever the future, we can be certain that we have absolutely no say at all in what is coming down the line.

As for leaving the EU, the Green Pass system will bring it all back, there never was any leaving - the UK military are still signed to work with the EU forces,

 

An interesting statistic I learned recently - 40 years ago the list of the worlds top 100 economic powers was populated mostly by countries, with a few corporations in there. Now the majority of the top 100 economic powers are corporations, not countries.

 

If money still talks then we can see the future....

“Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power”
― Benito Mussolini

 

"negotiation combined with economic pressure/weight of numbers" approach...... indeed, that sums up lobbying by large corporations to change the political landscape such that it doesn't interfere with profiteering ! (In both Brussels as well as London)

 

Let's face it, we play 'pick-a-puppet' every five years or so with zero expectation that any pre-election promise will be adhered to We are not the voice, and we probably never were. We pay the tax and that's about it !

[Splodge]

I can only agree there. I'm no fan of empirism, and view the EU more as part collective bargaining tool, part peacekeeper/mediator & part watchdog on potentially extremist regimes . All members have veto rights & retain full sovereignty. Its a sad fact though, that corporatism has been continuously promoted as an economic necessity since long before Maggie & Ronnie (with the help of the dirty digger of course) jammed the throttle open & sabotaged the brakes. I think we're too far down that road (& have been for decades now) to change course without major incident (cue war rhetoric towards enemy of the month).

Cooperation & reason appear to be too difficult concepts these days for most people to grasp, certainly whilst their perception of their personal situation is one of disadvantage, and the above mentioned "leaders" scream for blood from their gilded bunkers.

There are also serious problems with the media these days ('twas ever thus) too. The perfect shitstorm.

As an aside, has there been much reported in the British media about the 10 nights of violence in N.I.? Just wondering. 

BTW, I haven't had a right to vote in any elections since the 90s, but I haven't worried too much 'cos the PR system here generally keeps the loonies on the path. Then came Brexit, & I was being dictated to by a country I hadn't lived in for a quarter of a century, threatening my future, & placing obstacles between me, my friends & my family. All so that a few millionaires could carry on evading taxes. So feck brexit & all who voted for it ( I, as a then British SUBJECT, couldn't). 

Peace out.

[ChrisG]

BTW, I haven't had a right to vote in any elections since the 90s, but I haven't worried too much 'cos the PR system here generally keeps the loonies on the path. Then came Brexit, & I was being dictated to by a country I hadn't lived in for a quarter of a century, threatening my future, & placing obstacles between me, my friends & my family. All so that a few millionaires could carry on evading taxes. So feck brexit & all who voted for it ( I, as a then British SUBJECT, couldn't). 

Peace out.

 

Do you even have a government at the moment?  You seem to spend more time without one than with, so its hard to keep track.

 

Ours resigned in January over some scandal that's been rumbling on for years, and they're still trying to work out a coalition after the elections in March.  I have to say I quite like the idea of the multi party PR system, meaning they have to work together, rather than the UK and US style 2 party systems that flop from left to right and seem to more extreme every time.

[fixitsan]

 

As an aside, has there been much reported in the British media about the 10 nights of violence in N.I.? Just wondering.
 

 

 

It gets a mention, but you need to look at other country's media to get to see more coverage usually

It's concerning because my daughter has plans to move there in 3 weeks time

 

A lot of noise over a maskless funeral seems to have been a tipping point, but then when you look at the excess mortality figures for Northern Ireland there doesn't appear to have been any. It's all about cases, case numbers are important, but deaths haven't followed.

 

If you look at the Euromomo website and scroll down to the excess deaths score, Belgium seems to have been badly hit, but not Finland, yet Finland declared a national emergency about 4 weeks ago

 

https://www.euromomo...raphs-and-maps/

 

And then look at Ireland, hardly an issue

 

 A week ago I would have suggested scrolling down to the very bottom of that page to get to 'UK Northern Ireland' to see there has been no problem at all, but a week ago NI's details were scrubbed from the official figures. How convenient. All it took was for the graph showing NI to have been sent around a lot of websites showing NI didn't have a problem, for it to be removed.

 

Information management is the new form of politics, but then it always was

 

To add more mystery to the mayhem, the Cabinet Office have had three Lt Cols working in it for a while. It's almost like a government of occupation now.

 

Again if you scroll down that page to the excess mortality for England you would be hard pushed to prove any reasonable cause for continuing the discussion of vaccine passports, but yet that trundles along too.

https://www.euromomo...raphs-and-maps/

[fixitsan]

 

Do you even have a government at the moment?  You seem to spend more time without one than with, so its hard to keep track.

 

Ours resigned in January over some scandal that's been rumbling on for years, and they're still trying to work out a coalition after the elections in March.  I have to say I quite like the idea of the multi party PR system, meaning they have to work together, rather than the UK and US style 2 party systems that flop from left to right and seem to more extreme every time.

 

I think it could work here too, but then I think you can go too far in the wrong direction and end up with something like Israel's coalition, with over 20 distinct groups ! (mostly 5 main groups though)

 

Have to say, having visited Switzerland that their solution seems so simple to me. People put forward a petition to change a law in a particular way, and if they get enough signatures within 6 months the issue goes to a public referendum. Short and sweet, and everyone feels directly connected to the political process.

[Favs]

Right- this week's dust up is a 3 round special between Wallonia and Limburg....

 

@Splodge

None of this please when me n Ian are lazing about on your sofa/sun-loungers and having beers

[Splodge]

There are lies, there are damn lies and there are statistics.... Interpretation & presentation are everything. We seem to have drifted into covid territory, but the handling of that forced a "unified" emergency govt. here. To be honest , I couldn't tell you who is at the wheel here now, I dont consume the state kool-aid (no tv/radio/papers). If its important I'll hear about it, and in the meantime the multiple (duplicated) governing bodies will keep bickering and gulping down tax money ( remember, Belgium is a construct with multiple official language groups, all of which get what the others get. & nothing happens cheaply ). Covid will eventually be under control/forgotten about, but the selfish infighting will be eternal, because, well, politicians gonna politic, & they aint on the lower pay scale. We went a couple of years without a central government & nobody noticed any disruption whatsoever, so theres that...

 

Belgium is very small, but apparently not small enough for the extreme right flemish separatists demanding self rule. They can never be satisfied though, because the power struggle will keep going until their tiny pond contains one big fat unhappy fish, paranoid & uncertain of what the surrounding Dutch, French, German, Wallonian and indeed British fishermen are contemplating.

It's a long way from perfect here in western Europe, but I have a stable existence with a full belly & loadsa toys. All of my problems are luxury problems, or the results of my own doing. For those with real problems I'm prepared to give up something of mine to help them. Not for greedy moaning miserable selfish intolerant b'stards though. Or I could be wrong & we should all just have a bloody big fight, only this time with the Obergobshitenfuhrers & their families on the front lines. I'll hold their coats & keep their daughters occupied while they're busy.  Anyroadup, I'm feeling peckish, time for a hoss sarnie. 

Right- this week's dust up is a 3 round special between Wallonia and Limburg....

 

@Splodge

None of this please when me n Ian are lazing about on your sofa/sun-loungers and having beers

As if...

[fixitsan]

There are lies, there are damn lies and there are statistics.... Interpretation & presentation are everything. We seem to have drifted into covid territory, but the handling of that forced a "unified" emergency govt. here. To be honest , I couldn't tell you who is at the wheel here now, I dont consume the state kool-aid (no tv/radio/papers). If its important I'll hear about it, and in the meantime the multiple (duplicated) governing bodies will keep bickering and gulping down tax money ( remember, Belgium is a construct with multiple official language groups, all of which get what the others get. & nothing happens cheaply ). Covid will eventually be under control/forgotten about, but the selfish infighting will be eternal, because, well, politicians gonna politic, & they aint on the lower pay scale. We went a couple of years without a central government & nobody noticed any disruption whatsoever, so theres that...

 

Belgium is very small, but apparently not small enough for the extreme right flemish separatists demanding self rule. They can never be satisfied though, because the power struggle will keep going until their tiny pond contains one big fat unhappy fish, paranoid & uncertain of what the surrounding Dutch, French, German, Wallonian and indeed British fishermen are contemplating.

It's a long way from perfect here in western Europe, but I have a stable existence with a full belly & loadsa toys. All of my problems are luxury problems, or the results of my own doing. For those with real problems I'm prepared to give up something of mine to help them. Not for greedy moaning miserable selfish intolerant b'stards though. Or I could be wrong & we should all just have a bloody big fight, only this time with the Obergobshitenfuhrers & their families on the front lines. I'll hold their coats & keep their daughters occupied while they're busy.  Anyroadup, I'm feeling peckish, time for a hoss sarnie. 

As if...

 

Enjoy that sarnie, I was introduced to horse by an old French lady in a market near Toulouse, strange as that sounds ! 

 

The end result of all this current calamity, I can't help feeling, is going to start unfolding after the G7 meeting in Cornwall in June, and then the COP26 in Glasgow, which concludes the carbon pricing program, and then the new climate taxes will have to come in, so what we pay for covid in order to travel now, will be blended into being a carbon tax to travel abroad, hence why Bojo's dad, Stanley, had an ammendment made to the covid regs to allow people with second homes abroad to be able to travel without being financially burdoned by it.  They keep slipping them in under the radar !

 

It's just pure speculation for now.......

[dablik]

Nice Splodge, i mean even i understood that last write up    Obergobshitenfuhrers haaaaa wish i had known that word when living in the Fatherland  could of come in useful so many times.