Tag: Parliament
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Fact Up
It’s the one most striking paradox about 21st century democracy. The moment a politician starts to lose their grip on power, they lose their grip full-stop. Invariably, this heralds a bullish attempt to unpick the legitimacy of those who had exercised their democratic choice Of course, the very same rogues had employed fakery and charlatanic…
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Any Scheme Will Do
I’ve always been sceptical about COVID mask diktats because adherence to face coverings has inexplicably landed squarely in absolutist territory. Veiled criticism doesn’t feature when it comes to masks (chortle). Donning a vizard of whatever type is good. Not wearing a mask of any type is bad. And that wasn’t the case a few months…
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Square One
The great baseball coach Yogi Berra once said, ‘If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up someplace else’. While ‘girly rounders’ might be anathema to Boris, it must be evident that his ‘any road to nowhere’ rationale has transported us all well beyond the looking glass to a place for which alignment with…
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Britannia Waives the Rules
The current UK Government, which has been unravelling at an unparalleled rate of knots since Christmas, is about to traverse the fundamental red line of any respected nation state. They have announced that they are pondering a deliberate transgression of international law in relation to the EU Withdrawal Agreement – because it suits them. This…
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Rumpy Pumpy
The US Presidential race is gathering pace on the uphill side of pretty warm, and with that we have started to witness a corresponding stoke-up of rhetoric. But for all the criticism of Mr Trump – all the bonkers, collapsible car/squirty flower clown stuff – he made it to the White House. And that route…
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Get Dawn on It
Dawn Butler has been in the news again, which is always a nailed-on opportunity for absurdity and a good giggle. This time it’s some stop-and-search shenanigans. If you need a good laugh, just get Dawn on it. Whatever has occurred, it will doubtless be a matter for some up-and-coming cop to unravel while maintaining his…
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Meddle Ceremony
I am a fan of etymology and the origins of words, but I have always known that they might sometimes be susceptible to the incorporation of urban legends. This false etymology, as linguists term it, sometimes takes the form of outwardly reasonable explanations that are essentially flawed or backronyms (acronyms that are contrived to provide…
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Shop and Search
So, the lockdown is being reviewed as promised but will almost certainly be extended – no surprises there, then. As time drags on in splendid isolation, and domestic violence, obesity, and suicides spike, we will doubtless focus on the slide that we vicariously permitted when our elected representatives pushed it all through into law without…
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#Keirin
With the election of Sir Keir Starmer as the new Leader of the Labour Party, I saw the hashtag #keirin trending in Twitter. It rang a bell, so I refreshed my memory. In cycling, Keirin is an event of Japanese origin where a host of riders circle a track on fixed-gear bicycles with no brakes,…
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Take a Step Back, Please…
Well. After a few days of headless-chicken coppering in the new corona state, constabularies around the country have taken a momentous step. They’re actually going to read the 350-page Coronavirus Act in order to understand exactly what the law says. Or at least their Legal Directors are. It beggars belief that they weren’t all over…
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