Categories
politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Symbols for our time
politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Symbols for our time
In an age of hashtags, social media campaigns, lit candles and all the rest of it, it is easy to sneer. Such narcissism. Gesture politics is castigated as the last word in pointless posturing, mainly designed to make the politician – rather than the persons at whom it is aimed – feel good. “Action this day. Not words or images” – as Churchill did not say.
0
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
However, re Mandela. I would argue it was the wearing of the Springbok shirt which carried the greatest psychic relevance.
Would not have had the impact in a suit.
This quibble apart, great work!
After all that talk about Parliamentary sovereignty.
It speaks volumes about the contempt for Parliament and incompetence some Leavers have.
No, the result of the general election would not have been so close. But in the long term they would have saved the Labour Party from the destruction by the hard left which is bound to come. It may not look like that now, but in ten years........................
Add to the list: Nixon to China.
Also there are probably some interesting ones which looked at the time like significant symbolic acts, but which didn't in the end achieve anything
‘The cost of building a real world AT-AT’
http://geekxgirls.com/article.php?ID=7571
Not a positive symbol of our time, but a symbol nonetheless
I am sure if he ever becomes Prime Minister, Boris on the zip wire will symbolise his Premiership. In fact it almost symbolises Brexit as it stands today. Stranded in mid air, going nowhere and looking ridiculous to onlookers.
https://twitter.com/bbclaurak/status/935515513849110528
Tiananmen Square and student versus tank
The black power Olympic salute
The helicopter evacuation of the US Embassy as they lost the Vietnam War
Two which I would also add are:-
1. The last Remembrance service at which there were present soldiers who had actually fought in WW1. The sight of Harry Patch trying, vainly, to stand up and present his own wreath while the crowd applauded him was very moving.
2. Pope John Paul II going back to Poland and telling the crowds: "Do not be afraid." A simple but incredibly powerful statement. The way to live your life. (And had real political consequences.)
Of course one could do an equally long list of symbolic moments of hate and horror but that would have turned into a list of IS and similar atrocities. And I wrote this in the wake of yesterday's wedding announcement so I was in a happy frame of mind.
The Portillo moment
Well worth seeing if you enjoyed The Vietnam War documentary.
At the opposite end and as counterpoint to a summer of glory Botham walking back in to silence after a pair at Lord's in 1981
JFK jnr saluting the coffin
Aung San Su Kyi obviously doesn't care that she's a fallen Idol for the likes of me. My naivety, I guess
[blockquote]Article 112
1. If serious economic, societal or environmental difficulties of a sectorial or regional nature liable to persist are arising, a Contracting Party may unilaterally take appropriate measures under the conditions and procedures laid down in Article 113.
2. Such safeguard measures shall be restricted with regard to their scope and duration to what is strictly necessary in order to remedy the situation. Priority shall be given to such measures as will least disturb the functioning of this Agreement.
3. The safeguard measures shall apply with regard to all Contracting Parties.
Article 113
1. A Contracting Party which is considering taking safeguard measures under Article 112 shall, without delay, notify the other Contracting Parties through the EEA Joint Committee and shall provide all relevant information.
2. The Contracting Parties shall immediately enter into consultations in the EEA Joint Committee with a view to finding a commonly acceptable solution.
3. The Contracting Party concerned may not take safeguard measures until one month has elapsed after the date of notification under paragraph 1, unless the consultation procedure under paragraph 2 has been concluded before the expiration of the stated time limit. When exceptional circumstances requiring immediate action exclude prior examination, the Contracting Party concerned may apply forthwith the protective measures strictly necessary to remedy the situation.
For the Community, the safeguard measures shall be taken by the EC Commission.
4. The Contracting Party concerned shall, without delay, notify the measures taken to the EEA Joint Committee and shall provide all relevant information.
5. The safeguard measures taken shall be the subject of consultations in the EEA Joint Committee every three months from the date of their adoption with a view to their abolition before the date of expiry envisaged, or to the limitation of their scope of application.
Each Contracting Party may at any time request the EEA Joint Committee to review such measures[/blockquote]
Liechtenstein used this measure to put an emergency brake on FoM, and it was then endorsed and extended by the EEA Joint Committee.
Yet despite this, both sides spent a great deal of treasure in a symbolic act to highlight their detente.
In a similar vein, the entire ISS project. Despite Russian-US relations being in the gutter, the ISS collaboration continues regardless. A brilliant indication that sensible people can work together, even when the politicians are philosophically miles apart.
Good article, Miss Cyclefree, and I agree entirely on the Danish cartoons. It was a watershed of cowardice, perhaps more from politicians than the media.
A decade later there was the Charlie Hebdo massacre after which the Pope, vaunted on the news as a moral man, made a comment about punching a man if he insulted his mother. "Je suis Charlie" - a slogan with no substance, alas.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/42148636
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/nov/28/disadvantaged-children-face-worse-outcomes-in-rich-areas-report-finds
If there was one image which summed this up for me it was the image of people burning Rushdie's book on the streets of Bradford decades earlier.
As the poet Heine put it in 1823: ""Where books are burned, in the end, people will also be burned."
We had book burning and years later we had people being killed on the streets of our cities for what they said and drew and thought. And the line from then to now was made up of cowardice and evasion and double standards and appeasement. Utterly shameful.
That statement by the Pope was idiotic. Insulting a person is bad manners. But a person is not the same as a thought system or ideology or idea or religion or political belief. If those cannot be insulted, then there is no freedom of thought. For a Pope who likes to be thought of as different he was depressingly traditional: no different to those Popes who sought to chastise Galileo for not toeing the Church line.
Look back at our acclaimed 2012 Olympic opening ceremony and that could generate a whole list by itself. HMQ 'jumping' from a helicopter. The Olympic Flame being lit, for the first time not by a veteran competitor, but by a group of young upcoming athletes. Etc.
Much as I abhor Cyclefree's mini-me SeanT agenda when it comes to Islam, on the cartoons and free speech I can see that she does have a point.
I'd add Reagan: tear down this wall.
Which is maybe my emotional problem with Brexit that goes beyond the practical difficulties. I prefer to tear down walls; not build them.
She obviously isn't - she's 36 and never been confirmed.
Are we seriously expected to believe that after meeting Harry she's suddenly become religious?
Time to end the charade.
NB. It was exactly the same with Kate - she also got confirmed just before she married William.
I particularly like q10
Which two houses form the UK Parliament?
The House of Lords
House of Members
House of Commons
House of Fraser
The picture of the dog attacking the protestor in the civil rights movement in Alabama, or the image of the schoolchildren going to a desegregated school in Little Rock.
Jesse Owens in Nazi Germany Olympics winnign 4 gold medals.
I had no views on Islam until I saw that book burning and the reaction to it. Read Christopher Hitchens on the Rushdie fatwa in his autobiography. He sums up pretty well how I felt.
My concerns with Islam stem from my belief that liberal values - such as freedom of thought and speech - are a good end in themselves and matter and I don't want them curtailed or removed because we refuse to be clear-sighted about what it means to have a largely credal culture at odds in certain significant ways with Western liberal values, as - say - set out in the ECHR - living in our midst.
Best summarised in this thread header - http://www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2017/01/29/angels-and-fools-cyclefree-on-trumps-latest-executive-order/.
Also UK - “Why can’t Ireland just ignore the rules and leave their borders open?”
The assessments do exist. They just don't exist as 58 separate reports. Since DD never claimed they did exist as 58 separate reports, this is a non-story, although Labour are doing a good job in pretending not to understand this simple point.
As for 'Now we know they absolutely no interest in the outcomes of the detailed negotiations' - for heaven's sake, we 'know' nothing of the sort.
Why can't either side be a bit grown up in this debate? It's hard enough to limit the damage of Brexit as it is. All that the Continuity Remainers are doing is making the likelihood of a bad outcome more likely, or revisiting arguments which they lost 18 months ago. It's a great pity that Labour Remainers in particular weren't rather more supportive of Cameron 18 months ago when it might actually have helped, rather than weighing in now when all they are doing is obstructing a deal.
Having said all that, it's also true that the government have made a real pig's ear of this assessments issue. I suppose it would be asking too much of any opposition not to exploit it.
Is that the answer you mean?
Clearly remaining part of the EU is tying the Irish hand here.
After coming round I was offered unlimited tea and a piece of toast then told to get dressed on my own and the family could collect me. Everyone was delightful and by the time I had reached my lift I felt quite pleased with myself and very definitely good practice. Very sore with lots of pain killers and no driving for two weeks but I was very grateful to all the medical staff even though I waited 65 weeks for the operation in labour's Wales NHS.
The news today of an amazing two months in the Spring should lift the Country though Republicans and the hard left will not be amused.
Early April Katherine's third child is due, the middle week of April is the Commonwealth Heads of State conference in London (lots of trade deals) and then in mid May a wedding in Windsor Castle with Union Jack's everywhere.
Following on a good trade deal with the states will put the icing on the cake
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5124911/How-mans-aftershave-caused-Question-Time-cut-short.html
Is batshit mental...
https://order-order.com/people/sioux-blair-jordan/
"In excruciating detail", as David Davis would say, here:
http://jackofkent.com/2017/11/the-early-history-of-the-58-brexit-sector-analyses/
Each truck that passes through Dover from another EU country takes on average two minutes to clear customs.
If the average clearance time were to double to four minutes there would be 17-mile queues on either side of the channel.
The average clearance time for a truck from a non-EU country is 45 minutes.
My wife will confirm that on occasions I can be a stirer if I put my mind to it
And nice to have you back.