Sunday, September 08, 2019
Interesting times
"May you live in interesting times" is an English expression purported to be a translation of a traditional Chinese curse. Despite being so common in English as to be known as the "Chinese curse", the saying is apocryphal, and no actual Chinese source has ever been produced. But what times we are living in.
Just a sample of this morning's headlines illustrate the point, involving the Lib Dems having just acquired their seventeenth MP, Angela Smith from Penistone and Stocksbridge in Yorkshire, doing a deal to stand aside for Tory rebels in the forthcoming General Election, and former Home Secretary and current Work and Pensions Secretary, Amber Rudd, quitting the cabinet and Tory whip over Boris Johnson's political vandalism and failure to negotiate seriously with the EU. She plans not to stand again as an MP.
The former Chancellor of the Exchequer, Phillip Hammond is threatening to sue the Tory Party over having the whip withdrawn. Meanwhile the Prime Minister still refuses to say whether he will obey the law and ask the EU for an extension, and some reports claim that he is planning to try and sabotage the EU altogether by refusing to appoint a commissioner, putting the EU in breach of its own legal duty for all 28 member states to be represented on its executive branch.
And then on top of that we have the usual Tory plot to oust the speaker, who many blame for their present predicament.
The truth is that politics in the UK is broken. What we don't know is whether a general election will reset things or just entrench the chaos even more. We truly do live in interesting times, and it is far from pleasant.
Just a sample of this morning's headlines illustrate the point, involving the Lib Dems having just acquired their seventeenth MP, Angela Smith from Penistone and Stocksbridge in Yorkshire, doing a deal to stand aside for Tory rebels in the forthcoming General Election, and former Home Secretary and current Work and Pensions Secretary, Amber Rudd, quitting the cabinet and Tory whip over Boris Johnson's political vandalism and failure to negotiate seriously with the EU. She plans not to stand again as an MP.
The former Chancellor of the Exchequer, Phillip Hammond is threatening to sue the Tory Party over having the whip withdrawn. Meanwhile the Prime Minister still refuses to say whether he will obey the law and ask the EU for an extension, and some reports claim that he is planning to try and sabotage the EU altogether by refusing to appoint a commissioner, putting the EU in breach of its own legal duty for all 28 member states to be represented on its executive branch.
And then on top of that we have the usual Tory plot to oust the speaker, who many blame for their present predicament.
The truth is that politics in the UK is broken. What we don't know is whether a general election will reset things or just entrench the chaos even more. We truly do live in interesting times, and it is far from pleasant.
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Zahawi was on Broadcasting House this morning (BBC4) and was asked to give a yes or no answer to whether Johnson would obey the law on an EU extension.He waffled,no straight answer.The interviewer asked him a few times,got nowhere and gave up. Zahawi expert at talking without answering the question.
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