Tuesday 11 December 2018

"There'll Be No Rioting Here"

... says Simon Jenkins.  So that's alright, then.

I think he's predicating this on 'No Deal' being ruled out.  Let's see - on both counts.

Speaking of editors of the Evening Standard:   how must little Georgie Osborne be regretting he left Parliament?  All this flux and and turmoil, so ripe for a decisive political initiative.  And all he can do is make cheap jibes from his student-newspaper-style editorial platform.

ND

10 comments:

Raedwald said...

It took 14 years last time - 1628 to 1642 - to come to violence; then, as now, the nation is geographically divided, Parliament and government deadlocked, neighbours and brothers divided, passions high, beliefs intractable. And we are so damned vulnerable - one could take-out London with half a dozen thermite grenades.

We don't have a safety valve like the French do, Jenkins is saying in effect. He does't continue the argument - that a build up of pressure, when it happens, is far far more dangerous than a few burned cars on the street.

E-K said...

It won't happen like that.

First

- people like me stop voting (we no longer trust ourselves because we believed in unicorns, apparently) so we leave it to the oh so wise young people

- they vote for a real unicorn (Jeremy Corbyn)

Then some time after that the rioting begins.

Responsible, grafting people like me don't riot. Only students, criminals and dole wallers do that. Football hooligans generally have a time and a place of their own to do their thang.

E-K said...

Raedwald - The French don't have a safety valve. We're just better than they are.

It's never acknowledged.

Through democratic process, we do these things. 2 1/2 years later, we're still waiting. No rioting.

Is there any other nation like ours ???

*** The 2011 riots shows that we are really two peoples in one now.

E-K said...

"- they vote for a real unicorn (Jeremy Corbyn)"

There's something on his forehead, I'm not sure it's a unicorn though.

hovis said...

Interesting counter factual if George Osbourne had remained in parliament.. however he is nowhere near as clever or as popular as he thinks he is. I can't see him really being PM material. I admit neither is May, but would the Tory's have been as stupid as to replace one turd with another?

Nick Drew said...

Oh, I just think he'd have had a Cunning Plan of a fairly comprehensive nature, unlike BJ / Gove et al whose only thought is to be seen at the back of the class with their hands up - Me Sir!, Me Sir! - when the time comes.

People often fall in behind someone who looks as though they know what to do next (it was 95% of my technique in the Army, being no kind of "up & at 'em" gung-ho leader).

Of course, the scenario would have also required Osborne to have behaved soberly in the interim - an impossible ask, I grant you

dearieme said...

GOs flight from parliament implies that he had no idea what a disaster May would turn out to be. Which is pretty odd - I've always assumed that she was a deep-dyed incompetent, based on what little I knew of her performance at the Home Office.

I've ignored the small change of politics for some years now. My first rule for all my adult life has been that I shall never, under any circumstances, vote for the official Labour candidate. Who I shall vote for, God knows. I even voted for an independent Labour chap once, though I've never been tempted again.

Peter MacFarlane said...

"I've always assumed that she was a deep-dyed incompetent"

The degree of incompetence required to end up in a mess like this by mistake is so extreme that we employ Napoleon's famous dictum: on this occasion incompetence does NOT adequately explain what has happened, so we must assume malice.

Frankly I think malice has been pretty obvious for quite a while now.

Elby the Beserk said...

@PeterMac

"malice aforethought". Quite. Unless she's playing an absolute blinder to get us out by No Deal. I'll believe that when I see it. My man in a pub story is one I met a couple of years back when the dogs took me for a drink after their avo walk. Said bloke and I started chatting, and it turned out he worked for May in the Home Office. Chronic ditherer was his verdict. As we now all know.

We watched BBC Parliament online y'day from c3pm till 9 or so. Extraordinary, gripping, and I never thought I'd see the day when I agreed with some MPs from all parties. Pulling the motion was a disgrace.

E-K said...

Malice from someone, Elby.

Someone who put here there and used her ditherishness.

I reckon she defaults to Remain and that's all she had to do. Her Parliamentary majority was inconvenient for Remain and so she got rid of it.

And can we all please stop saying what a strong and stoical woman she is. Out of view is a full Remain network keeping her supported spiritually.

BBC at it again. The latest film on Elizabeth MQoS. "A woman harassed and bullied by nasty men - a bit like today."

That's the narrative that is being pushed and it's a complete crock.