Tag: Politics
-
Poise On
While it made the headlines, we did not witness the expected dogpile onto Dominic Cummings in the wake of his apparently premature evacuation. A few expected barbs from our old centre-left faves who momentarily broke away from their Diwali celebrations, and that was about it. The whole affair is characterised largely by stunned silence: the…
-
Colour Me Bad
Greg Clarke, the FA Chairman, has fallen on his sword for, among a selection of meek faux pas, describing black people as ‘coloured’. From that point, everything was going to get stuffed into the fact-mincer. ‘Coloured’ is a problematic term because while it is deemed by many to be offensive, ‘of colour’ is not. ‘Of…
-
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…
-
Leaving Party 🎉
The golden rule for the cognoscenti when you leave a job is to walk out and don’t look back. Any glance in the rea-view mirror offers you only a glimpse of second-raters picking bits off your professional reputation for their own ends. It’s a harsh blow to be basking in your own irrelevance, which is…
-
Steer Calmer
So, the man Diane Abbott had once inadvertently christened ‘Steer Calmer‘ has finally made an impact. Unfortunately, it was not in matters political, and some hapless cyclist was upended at a junction in Kentish Town by Sir Keir’s quintessentially social democratic SUV. Comatose Keir likely indicated left but moved to the right before toddling off…
-
Clowning Glory
Looking at the free school meals row, you might feel that this is a classic confrontation between a government and an opposition with diametrically opposed positions on social welfare. It isn’t. It’s actually an artificial squabble for political ground that distracts from a much more damaging affliction: local government incompetence. If local government agencies had…
-
Down in One?
Momus, the god of satire and mockery, must be sitting on a cloud somewhere, pleased with his day’s work. President Trump, who had reportedly played down COVID, has acquired the germ. And it was confirmed on The National Day of the People’s Republic of China. The old Kung Flu is not so funny now, I’ll wager.…
-
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…
-
Top of the Populists
This week’s edition of Top of the Populists comes directly from Downing Street as Boris looks straight into the camera while surreptitiously abusing members of the audience. Blondie and the gang are rapidly closing the gap on Jimmy Savile’s scumometer needle reading, but surely not even Jim could have fixed this clusterfuck. Even keen Brexiters…
-
Give Us a Break
‘I’m taking a break from Twitter‘, say an increasingly hefty swathe of Tweeters. Typically, this is coupled with a reference to the essential preservation of mental health. This must be an affliction of the new millennium. Even an exercise in withdrawing from the social scene ostensibly to avoid the spotlight morphs into a supplementary attention-seeking…
maxfrances.com 