tie or tie less -Jeremy Hunt

I watched Jeremy Hunt being interviewed by Robert Peston last night - he wasn't wearing a tie-why? Had he forgotten to put one on or was he making a 'statement' -saying to the viewer -look I am not a stuffy  Conservative politician who want's to be Prime Minister but a 'right on' sort of person who can appeal to the 'yuff' vote?

Well -sorry -it's pathetic - he is Foreign Secretary for goodness sake - so dress like one. I have written about this  arrogance of politicians before who seem to think that by taking off their coat and rolling up their sleeves (David Cameron) the voters are conned into believing they are working hard. Sorry it doesn't work - all you do is come across as a phoney - which is exactly what Jeremy Hunt achieved last night.

A great night and a great victory for the Brexit Party.  Now every thinking member of the Conservative party must know that unless they deliver Brexit they are doomed at the next General Election as the Brexit Party will wipe the floor with them.

The next Conservative leader needs to understand that Brexit is this countries 'War of Independence.' If you are in a war the first thing you must do is write your 'War AIM' and stick with it. That was what was so disappointing about Mrs May -she wrote good 'War Aims' -'Brexit means Brexit' -'No deal is better than a bad deal' and then allowed herself to be talked out of them by snakes like Phillip Hammond. She 'talked the talk' but couldn't 'walk the walk.'

There is another point about wars which the next Prime Minister must be prepared to accept- casualties. You cannot win a war if you are afraid of taking casualties not - of course-in this one human dead and wounded -but there will -in all probability -be some economic casualties in the short term.  If we go out though without a deal though we will have a 'war chest ' of the £39 billion we won't be paying out in the so called 'Divorce Settlement' which should go some way to alleviating such short term economic problems.

As I tell my children - you are living through history now so make a note of it because - in fifty or so years time - one of your grandchildren is going to say to you: "G'pa we are doing Brexit in history -what was it like to live through the Great Debate and what side were you on? "   

Mrs May and Marshal Petain - a comparison

Listening to Teresa May trying to justify her Brexit deal to the House of Commons I had a thought. Marshal Petain, the Hero of Verdun in the First War and the man who France called to in its hour of need in the Second could have made an identical speech justifying his deal with the Germans in 1940.

Yes it is all there. The need to be realistic - this is the only deal on the table - the need to protect jobs/business/ the way of life etc.- Petain would have said it all and the same people who are urging either acceptance of May's 'deal' or a second 'peoples' referendum - you know what - they would all have been collaborators in 1940 France and enthusiastic supporters of the Vichy regime.

It is I think worth a thought. You see there are no statues to Marshall Petain in France but there are many 'Place de Resistance' scattered among the towns and villages of France.  The Frenchman who emerged as the hero of the last War was -of course - de Gaulle - the villain -who died in prison -Marshal Petain.  No statue will ever be erected to Mrs  May but one day Nigel Farage will take his rightful place on top of a plinth in Parliament Square.

End of The Great War

My father was born in 1898 and went out to France as a nineteen year old second Lieutenant in September 1917  He was on his way back from England to rejoin his battalion when the Armistice was declared. This is his letter home:

Dear Daddy

Yesterday was a wild day. We got the news of the signing of the armistice at 9.15 and great was the jubilation. A draft of Australians going off to the line threw their tin hats and respirators on the ground saying they wouldn't be needing them now and left them there.

I went into Havre in pm. It was amazing the civilians were marching about with Belgian, French, USA,English,Australians arm in arm singing the Marseilles and waving flags. All work stopped including the trams. Hundreds of bands marched about playing , followed by huge crowds cheering and singing and dancing. The number of soldiers drunk by tea time was amazing, by evening they were lying all over the streets, the civilians were as bad . We had tea & dinner & came back at about 9.30.

At Tortonis, which is the biggest rest camp by dinner time everyone was tight, pouring champagne stuff all over everyone 7 the floor, hurling bottles and glasses about.

All the ships blew their hooters continuously for hours, some of them were illuminated. We are still waiting here for our orders which I trust will come soon.   

I think therefor I am

The French philosopher Rene Descartes coined this phrase in his book Discourse of Method published in 1637. That shows how advanced in thinking this Rene was because now what he propounded as a mere philosophical thought has become  law! So, according to modern lunacies, if I think I am a woman I am a woman and I have to be treated as a woman even if I have all the genitals etc. of a man.

This patent absurdity was highlighted over the weekend when a white theatre producer got funding from the Arts Council England to go on a full years residential course which was restricted to applicants of 'colour.'  He thinks he is black so he is black -apparently.

Well HURRAY for that I say. I am a member of one of the only two groups of people who you are aloud to mock and be rude about. Yes you've got it. I am white, male and privately educated oh, and to top it all I voted for Brexit. If you are wondering who the other group is it is also white, working class,patriotic, male and voted Brexit.  But hope is now at at hand for us persecuted minorities. We can all think. Just now I am pondering what I think  I might be.  I am quite tempted by being a female Muslim human rights campaigner from Somalia. That seems to tick a lot of boxes and should be worth a fortune in government grants. After all there can't be many female Muslim human rights campaigners from Somalia who happen to own a socking great house in the country in need of repairs.

Nigel Farage - wherefore art thou in our hour of need?

Nigel Farage is that rarity among politician - a man who retired form the stage at the pinnacle of his career.  Watching the events unfolding as Mrs May tries her best to emasculate Brexit turning the UK, into in Boris Johnstone's  choice turn of phrase, a 'colony of Europe' one wonders where he is and why he is not bestriding the airwaves denouncing Mrs May as a modern day Quisling.

Nigel though I suspect knows his history. He is waiting in the wings. he knows timing is everything in revolutions and a pure Brexit would indeed be a revolution. Like Lenin he will await his time in a self imposed political exile and, when he judges the time is ripe, he will reemerge - we all hope - to lead us into freedom. 

The Francis Hotel Bath -The World we Live in

We spent a weekend in Bath recently, staying at the Francis Hotel, which is an MGallery Hotel. The blurb says that: "MGallery by Sofitel is a collection of boutique hotels dedicated to lovers of life, literature and culture." Well that's as maybe but it also seems to be dedicated to total stupidity in it's staff.

The story. My wife booked the room, I paid for it with my credit card. When we checked out I asked for a receipt, a perfectly normal request you would think, for some reason though this was clearly a problem but the girl behind the desk offered to email me one to which I agreed. Two days went past and no receipt. I emailed them. No response. Two days later, by now getting pissed off I emailed them again now -Wow -they deigned to reply. We will they said send you a receipt if you give us the last four digits of your credit card and tell us who booked the room. I did this and got back a reply thanking me for my email and telling me they would now happily send me a receipt providing I got my wife to email them. Then I exploded

What sort of pathetic little mindset is it that inhabits people who can find reasons not to send a receipt to someone who has paid a bill with his own credit card. Who writes these rules and who is so incredibly stupid that they then obey them. Has everyone forgotten that the excuse: " I was/am only following orders/obeying rules" was totally discredited at the  Nuremberg Trials after the last war.

Rules, as we used to say in the army, are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men. Sadly the modern generation seems to consist totally of fools. And the real joke is that most of the idiots slavishly following ridiculous rules and guidelines (they are so stupid they don't even know that a rule and a guideline are different) went to university where you are supposed to learn to think for yourself.