I had forgotten my favourite OJ Simpson fact (probably my favourite fact), OJ Simpson was a sprinter before becoming an American footballer, he took part in a race in 1967 won by a British athlete who ran under 10.2s for the second time that year
That athlete, Ming Campbell
A good friend of mine who is active in politics (to the extent that a Lib Dem can be) used to describe how, in his 60s, Ming would go canvassing in St Andrews. He would have several door knockers asking who wanted to meet the great man and he would literally run from house to house all day until his young door knockers were just out on their feet.
Ming didn’t murder anyone, either.
To be fair, neither did OJ, so said a court of law.
The British created their own no go zones in Spain on the Costa del Sol. It’s odd these are not bad though, could it be because the people are white?
We do tend to be a bit less keen on beheading, terrorism, random stabbing attacks, cousin marriage, concomitant child deformation, massive racist rape gangs of local underage girls, female genital mutilation, impositions of sharia law and multiple honour killings. On the other hand, we insist on Full English Breakfasts and we like a pint
Swings and roundabouts
Where are these no go zones in Costa Del Sol, anyway? I’ve never seen any.
I had forgotten my favourite OJ Simpson fact (probably my favourite fact), OJ Simpson was a sprinter before becoming an American footballer, he took part in a race in 1967 won by a British athlete who ran under 10.2s for the second time that year
That athlete, Ming Campbell
A good friend of mine who is active in politics (to the extent that a Lib Dem can be) used to describe how, in his 60s, Ming would go canvassing in St Andrews. He would have several door knockers asking who wanted to meet the great man and he would literally run from house to house all day until his young door knockers were just out on their feet.
Ming didn’t murder anyone, either.
To be fair, neither did OJ, so said a court of law.
And another found him liable for the killing. On a balance of probabilities, it’s reasonable to label him a murderer.
And he’s dead now, and they have a very high standard of defamation for a public figure in the US - even if Norm Macdonald did eventually get fired from SNL for his relentless assertions on the subject.
On the Palestine Conference that was broken up by German police yesterday: the fellow who was detained at the border, Ghassan Abu Sittah, has reported that the polizei questioned him about "his testimony to the International Criminal Court as part of South Africa’s case against Israel".
(Note that there is an error in that report, or in what Abu Sittah said, because the actual court where the genocide case was brought by South Africa was the International Court of Justice, not the International Criminal Court. Both are based in the Hague. The ICJ is part of the UN. The ICC isn't.)
On the Palestine Conference that was broken up by German police yesterday: the fellow who was detained at the border, Ghassan Abu Sittah, has reported that the polizei questioned him about "his testimony to the International Criminal Court as part of South Africa’s case against Israel".
(Note that there is an error in that report, or in what Abu Sittah said, because the actual court where the genocide case was brought by South Africa was the International Court of Justice, not the International Criminal Court. Both are based in the Hague. The ICJ is part of the UN. The ICC isn't.)
This guy being the nephew of Salman Abu Sittah, a terrorist-supporting anti-Semite who is banned from political activity in Germany, and who appeared by video call on the first day of the conference having been barred from entering the country. At which point the German authorities realised what was up, and shut the whole thing down.
A quick note on Islam and babies: Islam teaches that all human beings are born Muslims (in a "state of purity") and that it is the influence on them by parents who follow another religion or who are atheists that makes them into non-Muslims in later life. It is an extreme crime according to Islam to murder any baby.
FGM isn’t Islamic either. Some Muslims do it, but the vast majority don’t.
He worked schemed and manoeuvred for more than 20 years to become Conservative leader and then Prime Minister. When he was a journalist he was espousing the Conservative line during the zenith of Blair and when he became London Mayor, he was briefly the senior elected Conservative politician.
The self-promotion and image development belies the notion of being a lazy individual - he's not. He will work hard on things he cares about but less so on other issues.
He finally became Prime Minister with a sizeable majority, a party in thrall to him and a new set of believers in the north and midlands who could have kept him in power for longer than Thatcher and yet...
Not quite the same as being brought down by two tarts but a microscopic virus was the last thing he wanted or needed. Instead of presiding over an optimistic, cheery, upbeat Britain in the 2020s he had to lock us all down and showed that while he had levitas in abundance, gravitas was sorely lacking. He does well in a war type situation (Ukraine) but you can't argue or reason with a virus and the measures he had to take (against his better nature) fundamentally changed the psychological and cultural mood.
He found the job of Prime Minister not what he expected - to be cheerleader-in-chief for the country - and what he had to do wasn't what he wanted to do.
The irony was having worked for so long to get where he wanted he found it wasn't what he expected or in the end wanted. Having been successful for so long, he found failure hard to swallow (that's true of many politicians) and he found the popularity and optimism he wanted to engender just wasn't there in pandemic and post-pandemic Britain.
All that said, his support for Ukraine in the immediate aftermath of the Russian invasion stands as a monument to his better nature - he's not a bad man by any stretch, foolish, self centred, perhaps naive at times but many of us have those traits often in abundance. I'd happily have a drink with him anytime and I think he'd be good company on the right day as he's incredibly knowledgeable on a range of topics but as Prime Minister, no.
The takeaway from your analysis, which is fairer to Johnson than I would be, is Brexit and Covid no longer count as net positives for Johnson. It's down to just Ukraine now.
On which topic, the news from Ukraine isn't good these days, sadly.
I had forgotten my favourite OJ Simpson fact (probably my favourite fact), OJ Simpson was a sprinter before becoming an American footballer, he took part in a race in 1967 won by a British athlete who ran under 10.2s for the second time that year
I've been out canvassing this lovely april morning in outer London. No-one gives a fuck about Rayner but everyone over 60 is terrified of Sadiq Khan, although a sizeable minority won't vote for tories either under Sunak.
The overall winner is the 'got something more interesting to do than talk politics on a saturday morning' party
The Mayor isn't really a serious political post...
Unless you want to use it as a springboard for, oh I don't know, Prime Minister for example?
That's only happened once so far and under, I'd argue, very special circumstances.
It’s only happened once, but that is one in three of all London mayors becoming PM. Whatever other position has a 33% hit rate for producing future PMs?
One more point - on the emigration of affluent Brits - in the last year two of my friends have confirmed their departure: one to Provence, the other to Thailand. It really is happening. People are fucking off, and these are all prosperous net tax positive people for the UK, one in his 40s with decades of good earning ahead
Britain is driving away the affluent Brits (let alone the non doms) and replacing them with Nigerian nurses with fake qualifications and Bangladeshi students that murder their dependant wives
Are you having a bad day? Do you have a hangover?
No, why? I'm in a jolly good mood. It's a beautiful spring day, I have some enjoyable work to do. I'm just being honest about the State of the Nation, and the increasing appeal of foreign parts to more mobile Brits (and non doms). Britain is becoming quite dystopian (the weather doesn't help). People will not pay high taxes to live in dystopia
Nor is this a partisan thing. Much of the blame for this lies with the Tories, they have been economically inept, and pathetically leftwing - while saying naff rightwing things, and it was them that turned on the migration taps to an insane 1.4 MILLION in two years. I despise them for it and I hope they are destroyed in the election. Fuck em
Spain has had large-scale immigration...mostly white.
Is it the fraudulent Nigerians and homicidal Bangladeshis you don't like or, when it comes down to it, the proles, horrible smelly proles of whatever colour? As a check, imagine being surrounded by born and bred lilywhite Londoners, with so much Thames blood flowing in their veins that they've rarely left their city of birth, all saying "Gorblimey mate" and how much they admire the Queen Mother and the Kray Twins. Less scary or about the same?
Much less scary, or, rather, much less "alien". I miss the old white cockney London. It was still very noticeable when I was first here, indeed it prevailed until the late 1990s. The demographic stats show this
There is a tipping point, to my mind, where a great city goes from being fascinatingly diverse and vibrant, with lots of different communities but still one big welcoming host community - in London's case, white Brits (and I liked that vibrant, diverse London) - and then you cross a line where the host community is no longer the majority and something profound changes. Whte Brits are in a minority in London now. I find this regrettable, I am sure the French might feel the same about Paris or the Nigerians about Lagos or the Japanese about Tokyo or the Papua New Guineans about Port Moresby, so it's not reacism, it is preferring your own people in your own city, which is entirely human, like preferring your own family in your own home
And yes, maybe I am just a grumpy old man, or maybe I just like sun too much. But I do think I'm off, I've kinda already left, spending more than half the year abroad as it is, so it won't be a dramatic wrench, I've basically already done it
Another Leaver quits.
No patriotism some people.
Like Nick Clegg, you mean?
I don't think he voted Leave.
No, he solemnly promised us an in/out EU vote in the election of 2010 and then reacted like a scalded cat when we actually had one, and said it was a terrible idea, and then when we had one and voted Out he tried to get it overturned, he tried to cancel democracy, and then when he failed to destroy British democracy he fucked off to California to earn $2m for Facebook, aka EVIL INCORPORATED. That's yer Lib Dems. That's you
So after depriving others from retiring to the sun, you are getting away from the mass immigration and cultural change in this country by immigrating to Spain and causing cultural change there.
I will be paying in Spain, even as a digital nomad, a fuckload more tax than the average "dependant" of a Nigerian nurse or a Bangladeshi student in the UK; as an affluent person I will also be injecting more money into the local economy rather than being a net negative for Spain. I guess that is why Spain has voluntarily devised this scheme, to invite higher tax payers like me
I am sorry you are stuck in a fucking shithole like Leicester, you should have been more persuasive in the referendum
So immigration is good for the Spanish economy, just ignore the cultural change and squeezing out locals.
I've just got a weird feeling that as a late middle aged white thriller writer, of British descent, with a large income and no need to draw on the local economy, I am going to cause a bit less social and cultural trauma to Ibiza, than a large community of rural Pakistanis moving to London or Bristol or Manc, being an economic net negative, and then possibly blowing up a bus. Dunno. Random guess
Thriller writer? What profession is this of which you speak?
I'm thinking of branching out from flint knapping. Seems to work for some
Just popped back from a stroll in the gorgeous April sunshine. Not too cold, not too oppressive - is there any place on earth better than Britain when the weather is perfect? I love Britain. I love its sense of space and its intimacy. I love the way it reveres history but doesn't fetishize the past. I love its moss-covered walls and its dandelions. I love its bustling streets and sleepy pubs on rainy afternoons. I love the way you can exchange hellos with total strangers. I love its relaxation and it sense of purpose. I love its people, its landscape and its spirit. I love. I love. I love.
Great post. Have you considered that maybe it's time to change your profile picture?
Should be worse on the Tory MPs who knew him well and chose him as leader with the fairly predictable result of the party collapsing and massive damage created for the country.
Hmmm… that’s a take I suppose. The party collapse happened more or less as a result of him being deposed and nearly happened prior to his ascension.
But if you look at why the Conservatives were in so much trouble (Brexit and the failure of the Conservatives to pass their leader's deal), the 2019 near-collapse has Boris's fingerprints all over it. He doesn't get credit for solving a problem he helped create.
As for Conservative MPs who fell for him, do we mean chumps like these three?
Hope they were never put in charge of anything important- their judgement is clearly terrible.
😹 Is this forum really going to fixate on Brexit again when we look to be days and possibly only hours from Western forces engaging Iran in the battlefield?
How likely is that? If the Ayatollah's have any sense (I know) they'll enjoy a rare taste of the moral high ground for a while and not give the US and Netanyahu the fight they're so clearly spoiling for.
I had forgotten my favourite OJ Simpson fact (probably my favourite fact), OJ Simpson was a sprinter before becoming an American footballer, he took part in a race in 1967 won by a British athlete who ran under 10.2s for the second time that year
Comments
He was booked on Letterman’s show the day he got fired from Weekend Update, and turned up anyway.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki6z4ohppbE
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/4/13/israels-war-on-gaza-live-5-dead-dozens-injured-in-gaza-city-attack?update=2833730
(Note that there is an error in that report, or in what Abu Sittah said, because the actual court where the genocide case was brought by South Africa was the International Court of Justice, not the International Criminal Court. Both are based in the Hague. The ICJ is part of the UN. The ICC isn't.)
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/police-shut-down-pro-palestinian-gathering-germany-over-hate-speech-fears-2024-04-12/
https://apnews.com/article/germany-gaza-doctor-conference-entry-refused-e82252cb9bc5e010e8bfd0689f816e53
On which topic, the news from Ukraine isn't good these days, sadly.
(So far I haven't tried it, but may if I can find a way to buy a single can, rather than a six-pack.)
Republicans have a stark choice: help Zelenskyy or pay fealty to Trump
https://www.ft.com/content/98f37cee-aaf6-47c5-b032-bde2968e00f0