tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post2420098260930634445..comments2024-03-29T10:53:28.617+11:00Comments on loon pond: In which the pond prepares for a good movie with classy villains … thanks to the bromancer ...Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-57610927855286971142019-01-13T08:19:12.231+11:002019-01-13T08:19:12.231+11:00Thinking about it later, FD, but I kind of recall ...Thinking about it later, FD, but I kind of recall that the US pressured Britain over the Palestine/Israel situation - I have this vague kind of recall that US pressure effectively allowed the Jewish terrorists/freedom fighters to basically get away with the assassination of Lord Moyne. Plus a few other things around that time.<br /><br />Regardless, there was American pressure that surely was showing Britain its dependent situation. Wikipedia has it this way:<br />"<i>Britain was at this time</i> [late 1940s]<i> negotiating a loan from the United States vital to its economic survival. Its treatment of Jewish survivors generated bad publicity, and encouraged the U.S. Congress to stiffen its terms. ... U.S. President Harry S. Truman put extensive pressure on the British government over its handling of the Palestine situation. <b>The post-war conflict in Palestine caused more damage to Anglo-American relations than any other issue</b>.</i>"GrueBleennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-608270094039169692019-01-13T04:28:00.701+11:002019-01-13T04:28:00.701+11:00Quite so, FD, I do have a tendency to equate "...Quite so, FD, I do have a tendency to equate "political crisis" with music-hall melodrama. But on that basis, the UK has been in a state of "political crisis" almost continually since WWII. Including the Suez thing which I tend to overlook since it happened just when I'd become a teenager.<br /><br />But that's at least in part because I reckon that any rational assessment had the UK as no longer a 'world power' since some time before WWII. So, indeed no real 'existentsial crises' but almost continual 'political crises' on both sides of the political divide. Including "thatcherism*" and "Third Way" along the path.<br /><br />Yes, I was quite entertained by the Bromancer's 'great Britain is still great' rant. Sure, it's still a sizeable economy, but it isn't much of a leader about anything nowadays.<br /><br />* we all remember: "She promised to follow him to the end of the Earth; he promised to take her there."GrueBleennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-29589878700445886602019-01-13T03:26:34.855+11:002019-01-13T03:26:34.855+11:00GB, you need to make a distinction between an exis...GB, you need to make a distinction between an existential crisis and a political crisis. Existentially, you are correct, but politically there are several which stand out, though I will note two in particular - Suez in 1955, when Britain had to choose between alienating the US, or submitting to their will and in so doing admit that they were no longer a global power of consequence, and the state of permanent crisis that marked John Major's tenure, especially in 1992-93, when he was mired in European difficulties - ironically trying to secure the ratification of the Maastricht Treaty, which aimed at closer European integration. 25 years later the opposite side of the same coin is destroying another Tory government. While I would be predisposed to say yay! about that, 25 years ago, the Tories tore themselves apart leaving the field open for the poisonous bullshit that was "the Third Way", so my enthusiasm for whatever will follow the evisceration of the Conservatives is somewhat dampened at present.<br /><br />Be that as it may, the best line in the whole thing is Sheridan's description of Britain as "by a distance Europe's most successful nation". Of course, in the absence of any success criteria, this is mere Humpty-Dumptyism, as the Bromancer could mean literally anything by that. But by any reasonable set of criteria - GDP per capita, human development, balance of trade, educational attainments, happiness, debt to GDP, crime and punishment, whatever - Britain lags behind Northern Europe generally, and in many cases is at or about the EU average. Average equals most successful! Woot! Everyone gets a participation ribbon!FrankDnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-7170396521631962972019-01-12T14:54:08.969+11:002019-01-12T14:54:08.969+11:00Pretty much says it all, Anony, but just a few sma...Pretty much says it all, Anony, but just a few small comments I'd interpolate.<br /><br />"<i>to once again supply herder with cheap goods and services</i>"<br /><br />And gold, mate. It was Victorian gold that financed Threadneedle Street and the English 'City' (not in any sense to be confused with the City of London which is quite a different beast).<br /><br />"completely hopeless Prime Minister"<br /><br />Well, not as bad as Cameron, and way, way better than Boris would (have) be(en). After all, the Bro says that May shows "<i>an indifference to humiliation</i>". Interesting. I would have thought that if you were "indifferent" to it, then it simply isn't humiliation at all.<br /><br />Finally, the Bromancer: "<i>British politics is facing a shocking crisis, as complex and dangerous as anything the great nation has seen since WWII</i>."<br /><br />Pray tell, what "complex and dangerous" situations has the (once upon a time) "great nation" faced since WWII ? Not the Falklands, surely, and if not that, what ? It's been much more a case of Britain taking a "<i>long march down through the failures of relevance</i>".GrueBleennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-3118611488891139932019-01-12T13:00:53.307+11:002019-01-12T13:00:53.307+11:00I’m glad that I’m not the only one who is greatly ...I’m glad that I’m not the only one who is greatly enjoying the spectacle of the Headless Chooks of Brexit - it’s definitely the funniest show in town. Sure, it may result in economic disaster, famine, plague, the break-up of the United Kingdom and the reinstatement of Feudalism, but you gotta larf, right?<br /><br />I’m not sure which is the more rib-tickling aspect of the whole shebang. Is it the complete clusterfuck the Tories have made of trying to exit the EU? Or is it the assumption on the part of so many nostalgics that as soon as Britannia is freed from those odious foreigners, the subjects of the Empire will hurry back to Mother, desperate to once again supply herder with cheap goods and services in return for wise counsel and the occasional gunship patrol<br /><br />Sadly, I suspect that those who dream of Empire may be disappointed. The rest of the world has moved on, and the best that can be hoped for is a trickle of food parcels from a few survivors of the 1940s keen to once again supply Home with packets of tea, tins of dripping and the odd can of pineapple.<br /><br />So why - apart from suddenly noticing what’s actually been occurring (or not occurring…) for the last two years - is the Bromancer suddenly clutching his pearls and swooning at what may befall the Old Dart? Surely the Chairman isn’t expressing doubts, after so many years of doing everything possible to bring about the current debacle? And why no mention of Rees-Mogg? Has the Bro lost faith in his leadership qualities, simply because he’s been revealed as a minor supporting character in a P G Wodehouse novel who can’t even organise a decent plot against a completely hopeless Prime Minister?<br /><br />I certainly hope that the Bro continues to report on Brexit in the lead-up to 29 March, and that his hysteria continues to mount accordingly.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com