... I'm having this really disturbing dream where Ukip have turned the whole UK into a creepily unfunny, racist 1970s sitcom and put Jim Davidson in charge of the Foreign Office:
The Windrush scandal is Theresa May’s creation, borne of an innate inability to equate ‘immigrant’ with ‘person’. It’s a hefty accusation, I know, but it makes sense of almost everything she’s done since 2010. Lying about a cat; Go Home vans; subsuming Ukip; EU citizens as cards.
And Theresa went his way, and entered into the house; and putting her hands on him said, Brother Boris, The Donald, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost.
And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales...
... are a few of my favourite things, so if course I was going to enjoy Simon Whistler's video on the history of the phrase "having your cake and eating it." My favourite piece of trivia was the fascinating detail that The Unabomber's pedantic habit of turning this phrase around so that it made more sense was one of the linguistic clues that finally revealed his true identity. If these are your sort of things too, help yourself to a slice...
Thousands of activists will take to the streets on Saturday as part of a national day of action to demonstrate public support for a vote on the final Brexit deal.
Several pro-EU organisations have joined forces to mount an attack on the government’s Brexit plans with more than 350 events across the country, ahead of the launch of a £1m campaign demanding the opportunity to stay in the EU if the people want to...
...As well as flagship events in 12 cities, ranging from Weston-super-Mare to Edinburgh, there will also be thousands of supporters setting up stalls and leafleting in both Remain and Leave areas.
The European Movement stall outside Milton Keynes Central station today
Just one of a very long list of needless cruelties that people once thought were OK.
More surprisingly, this sort of thing didn't die out with the Victorians. Apparently, competitive sing-offs between caged chaffinches (called vinkenzetting, or vinkensport) is still a thing in Belgium, although at least blinding the birds was banned in the 1920s (interestingly enough, as a result of a campaign by blind World War I veterans, it says here). Even so:
Modern animal rights activists, such as those from the Flemish Bird Protection Society, accuse trainers of "brainwashing" birds into singing more than is natural or healthy by playing looped recordings of finch calls, and that caging birds in the intentionally small and dark contest boxes is cruel.
Of course, morose and sulky boys that they are, some of the owners still find bizarre reasons to criticise the songs of the birds they've imprisoned in the dark for their own amusement:
On the face of it, that was a big deal and a strong argument for having another vote to check whether the people of the UK really want to be poorer. However, the Express's headline writers, having had two months to produce a watertight counter-argument, have come up with, not one, but two (count 'em!) irrefutable arguments against thinking twice about this whole thing:
"Question Time audience HOWL and BOO commentator for advocating second Brexit referendum"
To me, Howl and Boo sound great as names for a pair of children's cartoon characters, maybe not so great as conclusive arguments for leaving the largest free trade area on the planet, but what do I know?
Maybe, with Howl and Boo, we've reached the logical conclusion of Banksy's campaign to lobotomise political argument, all the better to connect with unthinking gut instinct which, as any fule kno, is all you need to make good decisions about the future of international trade, tariffs and customs unions.
But, then again, over the last couple of years, whenever I've imagined that the level of policical debate has definitely reached rock bottom, some twit has whipped out a stonking great diamond-tipped drill and bored down a bit further into the bedrock. Howl and boo too complicated for you? Coming soon to a headline near you: "Audience members GRUNT and HOWL at smelly Remoaners."
Oh well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. All together now:
"All the little pigs, they grunt and howl
The cats mee-yow
The dogs bow-wow
Everybody makes a row
Down on Jollity Farm..."
"...Everything's a perfect treat
Down on Jollity Farm..."
No yearly round robin letter from me - just a blog about anything odd, entertaining, surprising or interesting enough to share with friends, family and other sentient lifeforms.
Also contains witterings about politics, society and the economy (mainly from the socially liberal/left quadrant of the political compass), along with a bit of marvelling in stunned disbelief at religion, Brexit and other odd belief systems.
I am not really called Robin, nor have I ever been.
Occasional tweets at twitter.com/2primates
