Friday Post - Fun Tory Time Competition

Who will make the best next Prime Minister? You have to choose a current Tory MP to make it a bit harder.

I start with mine below:

Tom Pursglove. He is the youngest Tory MP but very experienced nonetheless. Rising up from roles as advisor and also from Wellingborough Borough Council, he has already fought and won 3 elections in 2015, 2017 and 2019. As the MP for Corby he is in the heart of the Country and so nicely between the ex-Red Wall seats but far from the Home counties. 

He has been chair of Conservative Youth and has expressed the "right" views on being anti-Europe and also a borderline climate change denier and actively campaigning against more onshore wind farms. A good anti-dote to the green obsessed Boris but still unlikely to undo Brexit. 

Being so young he is also unlikely to die from the ongoing covid pandemic and is not a member of either the Cotswold or Islington sets that have done so much damage to the body politic over the last few years. 

Answers in the comments please.

I'll try to engineer a job as an unpaid Tory spad for the winner.

Friday Fun: All projection is reflection

 Absolutely the worst thing happening this week is the adoption of the England Football team by all and sundry. 

Heaven know we have needed a good news story for a while and here one is. But this weekend is going to see an ocean of pixels and newsprint devoted to "Why England's success means...." and what comes after will surely be whatever the pet subject is that the author normally bangs on about ad infinitum. 

Here are my ideas for what we might want to avoid reading:

"Why England's success shows a new emergence of left-wing patriotism"

"Why England's success shows the positive of conservative patriotism"

"Why England's success can only happen outside of the EU"

"Why England's success shows Boris is a bad leader"

"Why England's success shows Boris is a good leader" 

"Why England's success shows immigration is good"

I mean, all of the above I have either read or know I am going to be asked to read in the near future. It is a tedious part of the new click-bait media culture that see churnalists just use whatever the new bandwagon is to keep their own views going. No one I see is using it to change their established and set views on the world which seems to be the norm these days, unfortunately. 

So as a task for the readers over the weekend, I have some work for you. Below are some heroically bad takes, even worse than the above. Can your precis an article for them for 100 words in the comments, even better if some moron's write them and you can post links to them...

"Why England's success is a prelude to the green revolution"

"What England's success tells us about capitalism" 

"Why England's success is good/bad for LGBT issues"

El Salvador goes crypto

 Already a shady place, El Salvador has decided to go all out and embrace its heritage. Rather than be a dollarised economy, it is the first large economy to declare bitcoin as its main currency. No longer will Uncle Sam's interest rate changes or weak dollar games impac El Salvador. 

So on one level this makes sense, many Central and South American countries are stuck in the dollarised trap after managing their own currencies proved too much for them and the markets. This on paper is a way out to freedom and stability. 

But Bitcoin is traded for huge gains and losses every day, it is not stable at all. So I do sense a fault in this scheme. There are still many who think it will all collapse tomorrow (then again, this is true of the Greenback too). 

El Salvador is going to be in for a helluva ride....certainly more than England, Scottish or Welsh fans over the next few weeks!

An alternative to lockdown strategy for 2021

The current lockdown strategy in the UK is not working and leaves me enervated. The virus has become more widespread than before it started a month ago, lots of places that were Tier 1 before lockdown are now in tier 2 or 3. 

There is no acknowledgement of this in Government, becuase there is no acknowledgement of this from their scientific advisers. The advisers are obsessed with their forecasting, which has been both broadly right and specifically wrong for the entirety of pandemic. I am tempted to almost to say I have had enough of experts...

Worse, there is not real calculation of the real hrm being done by cancelling other types of care and impoverishing millions through killing jobs. Any work done on this has been buried deep under Whitehall. 

In general, I am supporitive of the Government, the crisis awful to deal with and has hit a cold Europe very hard, even Germany is more or less at the same levels as the UK now - Italy, Spain and France too, if not relatively worse. There are no easy answers. 

However, for me it is time to try something new in the new year. Free everyone, restore liberty to travel and work to most. But, make the wearing of masks and even gloves more or less compulsory. no bleating about asthama or some other excuse. Just behave in public, full social distancing too of course. Shops caught not enforcing can be find as can any other service, public or private. 

Yes, the draconian enforcement is still a breach of habeas corpus, but there is a virus to defeat for antoehr six months. The up side is a recovering economy, the only places to keep closed in bad areas are pubs and nightclubs - no compliance from drunk people is to be expected. The rest of life can continue in a freer way. 

Bullying is rubbish in any work place - Friday View

I have worked in quite a few organisations, big and small. One thing that has always led me to leave is a horrid, bullying boss. I have had my fair share of them and luckily, my fair share of inspirational bosses who really helped me to learn and kick on. 

In some ways, the bas bosses, who I generally experienced earlier on in my career taught me the most. They taught me that fear works in terms of driving short-term performance and can lead them to their own promotions. Long-term, it does nothing for the organisation or the people in it. Bullying and picking on individuals might push you to avoid being the target, but no one is happy and less value is created. 

Interestingly, the worst bully bosses I have ever had are all female. Maybe it is fluke or random error, but certainly just as there is an alpha-male type of boss who is a nightmare to work for, there are plenty of women whose own insecurity is taken out on those below them. 

I learned much more from the political and bullying bosses - it taught me how I did not want to be when it was my turn later in my career - not taking credit for things I had not doe, not randomly hauling people over the coals because I was having a bad day, not coming up with petty ideas just to trip people over, not getting angry over presenteeism and not trying to turn the team on one another - all great lessons. 

Not to say the good bosses did not help, making time to speak to people in your team, encouraging them and trusting them even when you know they will make mistakes. To me the companies that do this best always end up succeeding the most in the long-term, even if the bullying ones can do better in a hit and run type market. Personally, I certainly know which ones I would rather work for. 

Friday Fun - Covid Conspiracy plans

If there is one thing that has kept me going over the past few months it is the endless litany of more and more outrageous conspiracy stories about Covid-19.

In many ways Covid is THE perfect conspiracy platform. After all, China really did do a massive job covering up how it started (and then started in its national newspapers claiming it was from a USA lab - classic maskirovka). And the virus is scary, out of control and affecting the whole world.

But, the anti-mask fanatics, the lunatics who claim it is all a hoax, the anti-vaxxers, the people who call it a plandemic and also those who claim Bill Gates wants to kill us all. 

It is amazing, a rich and deep seem on human "intelligence" and nonsense. And really entertaining, I mean check this one out for example:

"Recently, Chandra Wickramasinghe, known for his work in astronomy and astrobiology, spread the idea that the virus was living on a comet and a piece of that space rock may have fallen to Earth during a brief fireball event over China in October 2019. He further implied that comets carrying viruses may have caused outbreaks in the past as well."

Anyway, they are funny is even they help to further the idea that much of humanity is made up of nut-jobs. So what is your favourite one for the comments? Or indeed, which to you actually believe?

Winners and losers of Covid19 pandemic

Winners so far:

Strong goverments who put it about a bit...

Amazon - having nearly destroyed the retail economies of the West, they have now been handed them on a plate...

Toilet Roll Makers - surely a one off in history?

Medics and carers - becuase they are so key and important at this time

Rishi Sunak - all those female journalists seem to like socialist policies from a good looking guy - who knew?

Super Market Workers - this get the award for the most surprising heroes of the coronavirus war

Loser so far:

Libertarians - sadly total freedom when your whole species is under attack does not cut it as a political strategy.

Airlines and Tourism - This will turn out to be a real long term hit, less travel, just like after 9/11 is baked into the system now. Countries may keep their strict visa systems too.

Government debt - an early and fatal casualty has been any ideas around keeping some sort of track on the Government spending. At least we won't be needing a new runway at Heathrow anymore.

China  - not happy with their Government, not one bit.

Friday Fun - Viral Market Turmoil

How low will the markets go?

In what proved to be a dead cat bounce for a couple of days, it seemed that Global markets had rallied off the lows. I spoke to a few city types who assured me the Hedge funds had closed their shorts and gone long.

But then today has proved another tough day with the FTSE down 3.5% to a new low for the year and Global markets all in risk-off mode?

So for the weekend, where are the markets going to go. Oil is down below $50 a barrel and staying there, will this itself cause a bounce as that has a deflationary effect across the whole world? Will that save airlines (I doubt it)? Will the market carry on witht he FTSE headed toward 5000 and the Dow 20,000?

Or is this all overdone and the bounce back be strong next week?

Interesting times ahead.

Friday Fun: One wish from the Labour Magic Lamp

So, as we have long know, social media and Brexit have destroyed our body politics. Our political class has now stopped any pretence of seriousness and just promises anything to try and bribe voters; in many ways this is the end of democracy.

Back in 2009 and 2010, we wrote a series of articles on Greece - two years ahead of the eventual terrible financial crisis. One of the main takeaways was that the politicians in the Country had reduced democracy to bribing their own voting factions and nothing else, plus the bribes were increased massively with borrowed money. The result was a bankrupt country with 25% unemployment and a ruined body politic. I recall warning we may head the same way and by a little more circuitous route we have indeed!

Anyway, it is Friday so it is a challenge day. Imagine you are a political leader in the UK and you have one last bullet to fire to get as manay votes as possibly through electoral bribery - what do you choose to make free with you magic money tree wand?

You had one job: Friday Fun

So last week we took it upon ourselves to find the ultimate leader for the September Government of National Disunity.


(I know its just phase, but a Government of National Unity that replaces the elected Government is no such thing and  should be called out more frequently, harumpphh).


Now of course we know the only purpose of that Government will be to delay or cancel Brexit and in this phoney war phase of August lots of noise is being made about how this will be done and then an election called. Again, the mechanics of this are not very clear and indeed to me suggest there may not be a vote for an election (the Tory rump can vote against it, leaving PM Clarke or Junker swinging with the backing of communists etc - oh what japes!) that passes easily.


So, here YOU are, head of a Government of a rag tag bunch of anti-democrats, Scottish nationalists, Tory Quislings and an eco-loon.


What would you do, the power is there to coerce on policy through Parliament, what do you choose?

Friday Fun: Pick Your Own Prime Minister Day

Here we are the silly season in full swing and make your own Government being played out in the Media and, rather more bizarrely, by actual politicians too.


What a shower we have been cast with, if only it was just the Weather.


But today, you can pick your own. The scenario is the losers and traitors coalition in Parliament manage to defenestrate Boris by a small margin on Sept 4th.


With no backing for Corbyn, the cry goes out, who can our Prime Minister be to cancel Brexit - in desperate times they could be from the House of Lords or even further afield - after all the losers coalition is literally making the rules up as it goes along with the Speaker Bercow's blessing.


For me, I think we need an experienced Politician who is used to playing and winning the long-game here. So I would go for Jean-Claude Junker?


Fun in the comments...

Friday Humour: Trump Style

"In June of 1775, the Continental Congress created a unified army out of the revolutionary forces encamped around Boston and New York and named after the great George Washington, commander in chief. The Continental Army suffered a bitter winter of Valley Forge, found glory across the waters of the Delaware and seized victory from Cornwallis of Yorktown. Our army manned the [unclear], it [unclear] the ramparts, it took over the airports, it did everything it had to do. And at Fort McHenry, under “the rockets red glare,” it had nothing but victory. And when dawn came, their star-spangled banner waved defiant."

 Donald Trump, 4th July Speech 2019

Posted without comment with a humour tag. Maybe a small tear for his history teacher.

I really, really thought this was some made up Saturday Night Live comedy, apparently its the real deal. 

Brexit Compo Revisited

Well here we are on Brexit Day, commmemorative coins minted, *ahem*; bunting and Union Flags (*ahem ahem*) being flown all over the land. Back in November with the WA hot off the press we set a compo, the questions being as follows:

Your predictions, please, for the state of play on Brexit Day 29 March 2019:

1. who will be PM?

2. has there been a GE? If so, what headline outcome?

3. has a 2nd referendum happened? If happened - question? result?

4. in broad terms, on what basis is the UK / EU relationship set for the immediate 12 months following that date?

5. has Gove disappeared up his own fundament?

6. do the LibDems still exist?

7. tie-breaker: any other colourful details concerning British politics you care to append?

But now we must wait for another roll of the die!  Talk about brinkmanship.  So - for the next few hours the compo is re-opened.  Any of the 16 stalwart playahs who submitted valid entries back then, plus anyone else who'd care to join in, can add a final rider - what'll be the numbers in today's Parliamentary vote??

We'll close the book at 2pm.

ND  

The Guardian: Oh, So Cruel

This callous juxtaposition is surely going a bit too far ...

 
She's trying her best!

ND

Friday Light Relief: a Belly-Laugh from the SJWs

So over in the US of A, where they are sore afflicted by student lunacy of both the pitiful snowflake variety and the pernicious SJW kind, there is a 'liberal arts college' just north of New York City in Yonkers, NY called Sarah Lawrence College.  (I presume that good lady has long since spun herself clean out of her grave.)  Students are predominantly female (are we allowed to say that?), a legacy from the early days when it was founded as a women's college.  45 US States and 53 countries are represented in the student body.  From their website:

Its pedagogy ... a rigorous personalized approach to education, modeled on the tutorial system of Oxford University and the theories of educator and philosopher John Dewey. These educational strategies continue at Sarah Lawrence today ... Our students are men and women who share an enthusiasm for intellectual rigor

Right.   Well kindly don't blame Oxford for what's happening just now; and don't be too quick to claim 'intellectual rigor', either.  The SJWs there have assembled a long, long list of impossibilist (and deeply illiberal) demands in the name of the Diaspora Coalition, under the ringing slogan: If the College does not accept these demands, it will no longer be hailed as a progressive institution but instead remembered for its inability to truly embody its self-proclaimed progressive ideology and support all students against an international rising tide of white supremacy and fascism.

• We demand a mandatory first-year orientation session about intellectual elitism and classism
• We demand that the College offer classes that embody intersectionality, as defined by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, and address the racial diversity of the LGBTQ+ community instead of centering whiteness 

And so it goes on, for 94 pages.  Have a laugh and read them all in a quiet moment, it's awful and highly predictable stuff  -  or, just possibly, satire and spoof, but I doubt it.  Rigor?  Rigor mortis, more like.  But it is all made worthwhile by the following cri de coeur, nestling incongruously amongst the blood-curdling sub-Maoist drivel and rant:

All campus laundry rooms are to supply laundry detergent and softener on a consistent basis for all students, faculty and staff.

Hurrah!  Picture the scene: everyone is sitting cross-legged on the floor, taking it in turns to denounce President Cristle Collins Judd (sic) as a racist cisgender purveyor of actual harm to LGBTQI+'s of color everywhere ... when Angielou-Maybelle LaTrine declares for the fourteenth time:  err, sisters, what about the laundry detergent?  -  we should demand softener!  And it must be replenished every week.  And it must be Fragrant RosePetal fragrance.  Every time!  Not just whatever the drugstore has on discount.  Sisters?  Sisters ..?

OK honey, yeah, whatever.  We'll include the detergent, yeah ... yes, and the softener, OK?  Now, about those facist m***********s ...

ND  

The G7 Agenda - Whoops, Apocalypse

Inclusive economic growth

Gender equality and women's empowerment

World peace and security

Jobs of the future

Climate change and oceans



I know I should not be amazed any more at the capture of the world agenda by a bunch of inconsequential and hand-wringing socialist wishes, but really, I am.


The G7 meeting this weekend comes on the back of one of the most fraught periods in international politics for some time. Russia has been actively attacking the West with covert operations for while, the Korean peninsular swings between war and peace at the whims of some fairly nutty leaders and the US has decided a trade war is the way forward to help its already strong economy.


Meanwhile, the world economy actually ticks along quite nicely, even Argentina is getting a deliverable and simply IMF bailout. The US economy is in great shape, as is China, Africa is growing fast and the sclerosis in Europe is still there by dormant for now thanks to monetary easing.


But politically, wow, the world is in a tough place. ISIS is gone but, as with Al-Qaeda's destruction, a new variant will soon pop to life - the Middle East's state of civil war continues. And this is in addition to the above.


So of course, inclusive economic growth - whatever this means and gender equality are the key issues in the world. Hoping for world peace too and jobs of the future  - what a load of twaddle. At least climate change and the oceans has some purpose in needing the big economies to agree what and how to deliver change.


Unsurprisingly, the agenda comes from Jeremy Corbyn's young acolyte, Justin Trudeau. Worryingly, this kind of agenda is designed to look and sound caring but will deliver nothing. Indeed, Trump et al won't even engage with it. Which will leave him crowing from the his moral high ground as nothing of note is achieved.


The end of the Western age beckons quickly if this is the route the leaders choose.

The Chinese Are Coming? I Can't Wait

I've been to a few funerals featuring unexpected turns of events.  People these days want them to be 'celebrations', and solemnity seems to be pretty much out of fashion.  (The undertaker in our high street now offers a gigantic black Hummer-hearse with the number LA57 BYE, and you see prospective clients viewing it enthusiastically:  oh yeah, gotta have that!)

But our new masters the Chinese are pioneering something altogether more progressive: funeral strippers.   No, not grave-robbers; pole-dancers!  

It has been a long tradition for Chinese rural residents to hire local opera performers for funerals to allure mourners and show respect to the deceased. By hiring performers, people can ensure a higher turnout at the deceased's funeral as a way of honoring the dead and showing "filial piety." In recent decades, Chinese rural households are more inclined to show off their disposable incomes by paying out several times their annual income for actors, singers, comedians, and - most recently, strippers - to comfort the bereaved and entertain the mourners ... Opera singers soon lost their market as more and more locals became fascinated with striptease and shibamo (eighteen touches), a traditional Chinese folk song that is flirtatious, bawdy and erotic in nature.

Eighteen touches, eh?  Well, it's what he would have wanted.

To be fair, the Chinese authorities have been trying to stop this for 12 years now - but evidently not very hard, if it's still rampant after all that time.  Any remaining humourless marxists in government obviously pick their fights carefully, and this one doesn't seem to have a particularly high priority.

On the subject of Eastern entertainment, another great turn of events is the attendance of "Howard", the Australian Kim Jong-un Lookalike ("actually, I'm a satirist as well") at the Olympics, acting as self-appointed front-man for the North Korean cheer-leader lovelies.   He gets a kicking for his pains, but hey, what a man!  The humourless marxists have got their work cut out in the east. 

ND

Friday funny; Tories rising in the polls

It is hard to reflect on a worse period of Government than currently. Of course we have the disastrous Brown years as a recent measure of ineptitude. That will hopefully never be topped.


The Major years were bad too at the end, but only politically, economically they were very successful indeed after 1992.


The May years, notably after a period of good Government by Cameron, feel quite bad. The Brexit mess, and what a mess it is, at least is not of her own making and she is trying to straighten spaghetti long after the pot has boiled.


What is so notable is that when Brown was at his worst, he trailed the Tories in the polls by 20 points plus, Major was even 30 points down on Blair.


Mrs May, it seems, is there or thereabout against Corbyn, with a hair's breadth between them. For all the huffing of momentum there is a big lack of buyers for radical socialism in the shires of England.


On any historical view, this must simply be hilarious that Labour - who with this historical view be in teens ahead at least and should have easily won the snap election, are instead meandering around.


Perhaps in due course the momentum ground game will catch-up and the Tories be thwarted, but I have my doubts this socialist game will play too far beyond the ancient borders of Islington, Manchester and Liverpool. Huge majorities beckon in a large number of seats, but well under 200.


So perhaps we will yet be spared Corbyn as Prime Minister?

The Christmas Post

Happy Xmas one and all.


It has certainly been a strange year and to be frank 2018 looks already like it is just going to get weirder.


We will have a proper review next week and some predictions for 2018 at New Year's.


In the meantime, have a good time all with family and friends.

Euro Fudge Brexit Bake-Off results

In the first round of the Brexit bake-off Euro challenge, the contestants were set a keen challenge.

They had to bake an enormous Euro Fudge brownie, first by developing the recipe but then, in a standard test designed to increase ratings, they were only allowed to turn the oven on with 15 minutes to go - thereby guaranteeing an exciting end to this first half of the series - but of course, we have no final winner as yet

In testing conditions, the main contestants worked hard:

- Keen Irish labourer, Leo "Vrad" McPaddy, tested his pink French fancy recipe late in the day with near disastrous results. But all came good, with the icing applied just in the nick of time to cover what was in reality an empty shell of fudge.

- The Belgian chocolatier, Mr Willy Junker, struggled with his whisky flavoured fudge, insisting on keeping his recipe unchanged despite complaints from many tasters that it was unpalatable. Eventually the final product, with only minor modifications, appears have sold well.

- UK stalwart, Theresa Maybecake, struggled in getting her recipe at all, it either all hard or all soft fudde. In a major panic towards the end of the show, having had her had fudge spilled by Vrad, she loaded up with soft fudge - and in doing so, has won great acclaim to take into the second half of the series.

Stay tuned fudge fans, there is plenty more on the way!