Archive for 05/12/2010

Angry And Sad At The Same Time

05/12/2010 Politics, Uncategorized

The Germans have a word for almost everything, often it’s a combination of words, two words joined together to describe something with more precision than either on their own provide. Take “Shadenfreude” those crazy Germans add Schaden {adversity, harm}  and Freude {joy} to give us a word that describestaking pleasure at someone else’s suffering. They’re a very precise race the Germans, I’d like to own one of their cars or motorbikes (Hell !, one of their cars AND one of their motorbikes).

Do they have a word for” livid with anger yet really, really saddened at the same time” ?

But we can talk etymology until the cows come home. I’m really angry and very, very sad. Finally all the ballots have been counted in The IK election, and all the back-door deals have been done.

The gormless half-wits of the Liberal-Democrats have delivered to Britain a Tory Government. That Clegg needs to be punished, his pain should equal the pain he has inflicted on British workers and pensioners, school-kids, sick people and me !

I’d suggest stringing him up somewhere prominent by his testicles, but I don’t think he is possessed of those glands so I’d be satisfied with thumbs instead.

“The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them.”

Then people could gather and pelt the coward with rotten produce, abuse him, poke him with pointed sticks. And still that wouldn’t be penalty enough.

This Son-Of-A-Banker has decided that despite more voters casting their ballots for non-Conservative parties he would decide who would be PM. And if he thinks that as Deputy PM he will be able to minimise the suffering of the under-privileged, to temper the Tory iron fist he really does have rocks in his head and maybe he should be pelted with rocks instead of table waste.

He was born in 1967, his Dad was awarded the CBE so I’m guessing he remembers Thatcher/Major but didn’t fare too badly under them, his comfortable upper-middle class life protected him from the excesses of economic  rationalism.

“The rich will do anything for the poor but get off their backs.”

My God ! “Clegg’s paternal grandmother, Kira von Engelhardt, was a Russian Baroness” his Wikipedia entry has been updated recently to reflect his new, elevated status. I shouldn’t say ‘elevated’ it may have raised some people’s estimation of him, his actions to become the second-in-charge have lowered him in my estimation. Still I should have expected it, the Grandson of White Russian anti-communists, a representative of those wishy-washy people who can’t decide if they’re red or blue, the leader of a party which is the UK equivalent of The Australian Democrats – why am I surprised ? They’re Tories who don’t have the courage to declare themselves as such. They can bleat all they like about how this Government will be good for all of the country but you know that’s going to be a lie, the pain won’t be shared equally nor will any gain.

Gah !! – I’m too furious with the Lib-Dems to finish, I owe you another half later

If you see this dude in the street kick his shins soundly and say it’s from me

a pratt

This is him

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The Circus Is Coming To Town !

05/07/2010 Politics
Britain - For Sale

Britain - For Sale

Yes kids the circus is coming to town, readying to hit your streets, your mass media, your shopping centres and your homes. You have been warned !

But it won’t be a circus in a good way. Nothing like the usual fun fair with the tombola, hurdy-gurdy, the Ferris Wheel, the itinerant entertainments that gave rise to the saying “all the fun of the fair”.

No this is the next British election, and it will be anything but fun. Firstly not enough people can be bothered to get off their arses and go have a look at what’s on offer, The newspapers, TV and radio will already have a winner in mind and will be pushing their own barrow, not the party or candidate that will be good for their readers/viewer but whoever will be best for the paper/TV station/radio station. Secondly those who have had a look at the entertainments on offer a lot don’t bother going to the pitch before kick-off.  But here’s where I get a bit hot and bothered, the few that do front on the day, pay for their ticket at the gate and go through the turnstiles will be grabbed at the entrance and ushered over to one of two sides.

On the one hand there’s a tired old ride, it’s been around the block a couple of times, it’s a bit shabby, tired and worse-for-wear the other is flash, never ridden and shiny. Standing in front of the old ride as a dour, dull sort of chap, quite un-enthused by the prospect of anyone hopping on and seemingly unsurprised that no-one does.

The other guy however is quite the lad, new suit, polished shoes all in all quite an attractive sort of a chap. But, and this is a huge ‘but’ this ride lasts for years and years once you’ve hopped into the seat and as Paul Keating (one of the better Australian Prime Ministers) said “you change the Government and you change the country” and that’s what will happen.

Again, this was started last July, never got around to getting it done, read this instead

have some of the pictures I was going to use anyway – enjoy the ride !!

The Spiv

Doesn’t he look absolutely magnificent, a fine figure of a man ! – of course I have my tongue firmly in my cheek this is how a private school bully appears to the masters of his college the day before annual Parent Teacher day and this spiv knows that his Mummy and Daddy  paid for the polo kit so he can get away with absolutely anything, including beating up on the first form boys.

Here’s a more appropriate photo

This is the Iron Lady an inspiration to bullies everywhere

and something more recent, but just as appropriate

whatever you do, don't vote tory

best grafitti evah

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It ends the thought; but not the sentence.

05/07/2010 Politics

They work in the corners, hidden in the shadows, few know their name, nobody their face. But everybody can see the product of their labours.

Who are they ?

I’m not in a position to name names just yet, but lets have a look around the internet and see what might be uncovered in a single hour.

I’m going to start off where I left off last week, we now know that Johanna (the poor delusional old woman who loves the British Conservative Party so deeply that she has re-named her blog to reflect her affection for, and devotion to, the political party that represents the British upper class and the ‘big end of town’)

She wants a United Kingdom where the smug face of David Cameron might grace her TV set as he announces another round of ‘unfortunate’ cuts to government services or a raft of sensible measures to protect ordinary Britons from the worst of the global financial crisis, ad of course she looks forward to him tackling the menace of the Trade Unions.

I’m pretty sure that she discusses her Blue-Sphere blog with the other members of the knitting circle known as the Bethnal Green branch of the tories and perhaps one or two of them might help her from time to time. Maybe slip her some juicy gossip, or correct her spelling tell her what might make a good topic for her to raise.

Big Dave (I’m going to call The Rt Hon David Cameron MP ‘Big Dave’ from now on, even though he’s not that big except in the mouth department ) has a staff on henchmen and lackeys to do his bidding they include his Parliamentary Private Secretary and a Senior Parliamentary & Political Advisor not to mention his personal staff, those employed by the Party Head Office whatever PR firm they have on retainer all of them trying to keep the troops on message. The message of course is that people living in England Scotland Wales and a small part of Ireland( and there some weird little islands scattered around the world that are part of the United Kingdom? – like the Malvinas) NEED a new Government and that Government is going to be led by that fresh-faced boy genius – Big Dave. They can worry about policy, practice and programme after the dust has settled from the election. The Message is ‘Brown Has Gotta Go’.

And it is the members of this team of spin doctors and communications advisors who will be filling the otherwise empty heads of people  like Johanna with the idea that the conservatives of today are nothing like the conservatives of yesteryear, that they have a duty to convince all their friends and neighbours that the world and Bethnal Green will be a better place when Big Dave and his team of spivs have cleaned out the communists who currently hang onto the treasury purse-strings.

OK, nobody in their right mind likes Gordon Brown. Brown by name and brown by nature ( this would have been better if he’d been born Gordon Grey – I could have used a Goethe quote “Grey, grey is theory, but green is the tree of life !” I think it was from Dr Faustus but since it’s not appropriate I won’t bother to look it up), he’s a dull, dull, dull man I’m not in England and only see him rarely on local TV but there’s something about him that makes me nod off. But the question has to be asked. Does being a dullard and a plodder make him an un-desirable PM ? Sure, I would absolutely hate having a pint with him in my local, I’d feel like I was drinking on my own, he doesn’t look the type of fellow who’s handy with a pool cue or can find his way to the dartboard. But it doesn’t make him a worse Prime Minister than that clown Cameron.

And ‘clown’ is the impression I get of the Conservative leader, he’s flashy and has a wonderful smile, but the party he represents has a long history (of which they’re proud) of being brutal Economic Rationalists. Their notion of Good Government is to govern nothing – that’s right, NOTHING ! You see all of a persons hopes and desires may be satisfied by the market, Government and regulation artificially constrains the market and according to these wannabes thwarts each individuals ability to obtain happiness and fulfilment in their lifetime. I’m old enough to have kept my hatred of Thatcherism in my fore-brain ( I should look up the actual part of the brain where memory is stored), the apparent cruelty to the poor and under-privileged perpetrated by the User-Pays system of providing governmental services. Jeez ! When will the tories get it through their over-stuffed and under-empathetic heads – some people don’t got no dosh, yet are deserving of community services by the fact that they exist – it’s called HUMANITY Cameron

The class system serves so very few people well, but so many very ill

I started writing this over a year ago, I had planned on a lengthy pre-election series but never got around to it, this I regret. Especially now since the elction is nigh and there’s some doubt that it will return a clear Government I never thought that I’d live to see the day that the Lib-Dems would be in a position of such influence, it would be like the Australian Democrats here being courted to form a coalition Government with either the Liberal Party or the ALP.

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Porn Star attacked by Extra Terrestrials

05/04/2010 Non-Fiction, Politics

It was a staccato, 3 pops, a pause and 5 more, then the big shells were launched – whoomp, whoomp, the windows shook as did the ground, dogs started howling – those that weren’t hiding under beds, legs or tables cowering from this assault. I expected to hear the echoes from the ring of hills surrounding this small-ish town to start echoing with the reverberations of bullets as they pass through the sound barrier and the whizzing as they pass nearby.

I swear I heard grenades and mortars as well as a cannonade

The barrage lasted a full half-hour and I’m not on an obvious war zone but a suburban backyard

This was the close of Australia Day 2010, a rowdy and drunken holiday ending in violent and intrusive noise

A celebration of all things Australian, something I’ve never really come to grips with.

I understand we are a small country, an island and isolated from the rest of the world by vast distances, but there isn’t a single nation in this country, there are many. There isn’t a unified community of interest, there are many. There isn’t a single ‘Australia’ there are many.

Some might be able to argue that the similarities within the population far out-weigh the differences, I probably don’t agree.

I doubt that when some business magnate looks out over whatever harbour his penthouse apartment has views of (or mansion – take your pick, I’m not fussy on how you imagine the truly wealthy live) staring at an uninterrupted view of the fireworks spectacular will be feeling the same emotion as one of his employees standing uncomfortably in a crowded public space craning for a view of the fireworks his tax dollars have subsidised. After all the rulers of this nation have established a strong tradition of tax-avoidance so not a lot of thought in the well-fed plutocrat’s behalf on whether this is a money well spent, his kids schools don’t have to hold raffles to make up for shortfalls in Government funding to cover the cost of excursions and after-school activities.

I don’t think newly arrived Australians look to the skies and feel the same as the indigenous Australians who had their country stolen by some better-armed British over 200 years ago (and which by the way they still have a pretty clear constitutional claim on us – the Queen of England remains the Queen of Australia and our Parliament legislates at her pleasure).

I might also suggest that rural Australians who have to make do with a small bonfire-type arrangement miss out on the multi-million dollar circus provided by their tax-dollars altogether won’t be sharing in a common bond of Australian-ness ( them city folk being all soft and lazy and wouldn’t know hard times if it kicked them in the arse) with the People who have settled in the cities from war-torn regions, fled dictatorships, famine. droughts and sought succour and aid here.

I raise this now because of the increasing number of attacks on foreign-born students in Australia, as my notion of a patriotic Australian keep’s returning to a white low-middle class male with a temporary Australian Flag tattoo on one or both of their blue-singlet clad shoulders yelling at ‘foreigners’, a notion given to me from what is now known as the Cronulla Riots not any one’s finest hour and certainly doesn’t make my heart glow with the warmth of a caring country ready to help and support those people in the world who are worse off materially than we here.

Nope, the newspapers can print off all the paper flags they can sell, the television can broadcast as many happy families standing around bar-be-ques as they feel necessary but my mind’s eye always goes back to the snarling, vicious thugs and their racist chants chasing Lebanese kids away from ‘their’ beach. I re-visit recent images of devastated Indian students sorrowed by another attack on their fellows

Australia won’t ever be a united nation, it can’t even get close until we have matured enough to be rid of the backward racist elements who define what a decent Australian citizen should be as someone who is exactly like themselves.

Better late than never, I wrote this ages ago in Adelaide in a Brompton back-yard, I haven’t changed my position on racism or the fact it’s an elephant standing in the corner of Australian lounge-rooms.

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