What a bloody day. I mean that both figuratively and profanitively and if I've just invented a new word, so what, Shakespeare is remembered for the same thing so that must make me the New Bard of South Lakeland. I like inventing words, but they seem to spring up simultaneously in different places at the same time as if the time is right and they somehow hatch. I started using the description 'twonk' spontaneously to describe an acquaintance who was particularly annoying, only to discover that I didn't appear to have invented the word at all, although I am certain I had never come across it before. I think it could be a word I will use quite a lot over the next few weeks.
Since the entries closed for the Tory leadership contest we have learned quite a lot of other stuff. Angie the Eagle has delayed her move. She claims it is because of turmoil in the Tory Party and has nothing whatsoever to do with putting more pressure on Jeremy Corbyn to resign. Do they have a plan? If he does resign who the hell will take over, what credibility will they have, and will I want to continue supporting the party? Don't know, none and probably not, in that order. Maybe Boris Alexander Stanleyovich could advise them on how to cope without either a Plan B or indeed a Plan A. His answer seems to have been to run away and let someone else clean out the Augean Stables.
Jeremy Corbyn has been attacked by the Jewish establishment in the the form of the Chief Rabbi for saying that "Our Jewish friends are no more responsible for the actions of Israel or the Netanyahu government than our Muslim friends are for those various self-styled Islamic states or organisations." If you want to interpret that as anti-semitic then no wonder our universities are having to curb the freedom of speech.
Then at the same meeting a (black) labour activist, Marc Wadswoth attacked MP Ruth Smeeth for working 'hand in hand' with The Daily Telegraph to try to get rid of Jeremy Corbyn. She chose to take this as an anti-semitic comment, although having seen the video footage I'm not clear that it was and Wadswoth claims he did not even know she was Jewish. She stormed out of the room, reportedly in tears and then demanded Corbyn's resignation saying a 'Labour Party under his stewardship cannot be a safe space for British Jews'. The level of bile and hatred in the Parliamentary Labour Party at the moment depresses me. Quite how she was so unsafe also escapes me but anti Corbyn voices were quick to join in baying for his blood.
I am in a bit of a mental turmoil here. I have never been subject to racial or religious prejudice, although my sister-in-law did once describe the Church of England as 'your lot' which I took exception to and also called me a southern wuss, which I might be, I'm not sure. I have been accused of being fat, which I am. When I lived in Ireland I was acutely aware at times that I wasn't Irish and one or two unpleasant people were just that, unpleasant to me, but I have never felt unsafe. I cannot help feeling that some of this indignation is part of the greater plot to unseat Jeremy Corbyn but I am acutely aware that in saying so I am laying myself open to accusations of anti-semitism. Had Ruth Smeeth not been Jewish I wonder how she would have responded to the accusation that she was hand in glove with the Telegraph. We can never know.
If she was being disloyal to Corbyn, and in the current climate there is every likelihood that she was, then the fact that she played the anti-semitism card is not to be admired. The cynic in me, and that's quite a big cynic, suggests that she is very worried about mandatory re-selection as I see that she is not local to Stoke on Trent, having been chosen as part of an all-women shortlist, so she potentially has a lot to lose if Corbyn prevails. Or am I being anti-semitic? I am reminded of Ali G and his cries of 'Is it because I is black?' Ali Gee is the creation of Sacha Baron Cohen who ironically is himself Jewish.
I am in a bit of a mental turmoil here. I have never been subject to racial or religious prejudice, although my sister-in-law did once describe the Church of England as 'your lot' which I took exception to and also called me a southern wuss, which I might be, I'm not sure. I have been accused of being fat, which I am. When I lived in Ireland I was acutely aware at times that I wasn't Irish and one or two unpleasant people were just that, unpleasant to me, but I have never felt unsafe. I cannot help feeling that some of this indignation is part of the greater plot to unseat Jeremy Corbyn but I am acutely aware that in saying so I am laying myself open to accusations of anti-semitism. Had Ruth Smeeth not been Jewish I wonder how she would have responded to the accusation that she was hand in glove with the Telegraph. We can never know.
If she was being disloyal to Corbyn, and in the current climate there is every likelihood that she was, then the fact that she played the anti-semitism card is not to be admired. The cynic in me, and that's quite a big cynic, suggests that she is very worried about mandatory re-selection as I see that she is not local to Stoke on Trent, having been chosen as part of an all-women shortlist, so she potentially has a lot to lose if Corbyn prevails. Or am I being anti-semitic? I am reminded of Ali G and his cries of 'Is it because I is black?' Ali Gee is the creation of Sacha Baron Cohen who ironically is himself Jewish.
I joined the party in the expectation of a new, kinder type of politics. I have got that from Jeremy himself, but the rest of them seem to have failed to get the message. The behaviour of the plotters is unforgivable. They have produced a candidate with the requisite 51 nominations. She then says she will wait and give Jeremy Corbyn more time to do he right thing. I don't think she is doing it out of kindness. Like Boris Alexander she is trying to avoid drinking from the poisoned chalice. She must be aware that she really doesn't have a chance in a straight two horse race. After all she only came fourth in the election for the deputy leader.
It is now Friday morning and all seems to be quiet on the Western Front. It is the 100th anniversary of the first day of the Battle of the Somme and here on the Home Front there is a slight pause in the carnage (so far) after yesterday's mayhem. The great and the good have gathered in Thiepval for a ceremony of remembrance following an all night vigil at the Thiepval Memorial. Jeremy Corbyn, as leader of the opposition is attending. John McDonnell is holding the fort back home. Let us hope that all those warring factions in Westminster can take a lesson from history and call a truce if only for one day.
In the very early seventies my family went on one of our annual camping trips around Europe. My recently widowed grandfather had just come to live with us and he came with us, at the age of 75 or so, gamely sleeping on a lilo in his own little tent. He had taken part in the First World War. He had not fought but had been in charge of a tractor which dragged the guns around just behind the lines. He told us he never fired a shot in anger and was proud of the fact that he received a sergeant's pay, although only a private, because he was responsible for the tractor he drove. This is a picture of the type of machine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holt_tractor#/media/File:Holt75pk.jpg He also told me that at one point he built a shelter out of tins of bully beef and remembered arriving in Albert to see the Golden Madonna hanging from the top of the church tower. On that holiday we took him to revisit some of the places he had been to and also to visit some of the war cemeteries. I can remember the massive effect they had on me. I was a callow teenager and the sight of these endless headstones, some with full details of who was buried there, others with just 'A Soldier of the Great War', shocked me into silence.
As I write the Gove has started to address the nation. So much for my hope for a truce.
Just watched a bit of it. Apparently he is 'passionate' about something or other. I would have thought David Cameron had completely worn out that word, but the Gove is still using it like a pair of Cameron's cast-off underpants which he has fished out of the bin and decided that there's still a bit of wear left in them. He apparently wants a more equal and fairer society and then promptly goes on to extoll free market capitalism and tell us how good it has been for the world. At this point I stopped watching. I couldn't take any more.
I had hoped to spend this episode in looking into how we might take advantage our our leaving the EU, seeing as we have no choice on that matter, and use the freedoms offered to create a better society, or at least one which benefits most of us rather than one which just benefits the super-rich. I'll try again tomorrow. It is the weekend, but I expect the slaughter will start again pretty soon.
Until then take care and nil illegitimi carborundum.
Love Tim xx
It is now Friday morning and all seems to be quiet on the Western Front. It is the 100th anniversary of the first day of the Battle of the Somme and here on the Home Front there is a slight pause in the carnage (so far) after yesterday's mayhem. The great and the good have gathered in Thiepval for a ceremony of remembrance following an all night vigil at the Thiepval Memorial. Jeremy Corbyn, as leader of the opposition is attending. John McDonnell is holding the fort back home. Let us hope that all those warring factions in Westminster can take a lesson from history and call a truce if only for one day.
In the very early seventies my family went on one of our annual camping trips around Europe. My recently widowed grandfather had just come to live with us and he came with us, at the age of 75 or so, gamely sleeping on a lilo in his own little tent. He had taken part in the First World War. He had not fought but had been in charge of a tractor which dragged the guns around just behind the lines. He told us he never fired a shot in anger and was proud of the fact that he received a sergeant's pay, although only a private, because he was responsible for the tractor he drove. This is a picture of the type of machine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holt_tractor#/media/File:Holt75pk.jpg He also told me that at one point he built a shelter out of tins of bully beef and remembered arriving in Albert to see the Golden Madonna hanging from the top of the church tower. On that holiday we took him to revisit some of the places he had been to and also to visit some of the war cemeteries. I can remember the massive effect they had on me. I was a callow teenager and the sight of these endless headstones, some with full details of who was buried there, others with just 'A Soldier of the Great War', shocked me into silence.
As I write the Gove has started to address the nation. So much for my hope for a truce.
Just watched a bit of it. Apparently he is 'passionate' about something or other. I would have thought David Cameron had completely worn out that word, but the Gove is still using it like a pair of Cameron's cast-off underpants which he has fished out of the bin and decided that there's still a bit of wear left in them. He apparently wants a more equal and fairer society and then promptly goes on to extoll free market capitalism and tell us how good it has been for the world. At this point I stopped watching. I couldn't take any more.
I had hoped to spend this episode in looking into how we might take advantage our our leaving the EU, seeing as we have no choice on that matter, and use the freedoms offered to create a better society, or at least one which benefits most of us rather than one which just benefits the super-rich. I'll try again tomorrow. It is the weekend, but I expect the slaughter will start again pretty soon.
Until then take care and nil illegitimi carborundum.
Love Tim xx
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