British Politics thread

Erica Ambler wrote:

Hilly KCMG wrote:

Good old Penny

Good old Melissa. Her article today is a timely reminder that not all women are completely bonkers:

Sorry for touching your knee Michael Fallon – I exploited you to get ahead
Flirting makes the world go round – well, the political and media worlds anyway
Melissa Kite

Quote :

This one goes out to all the male MPs I’ve taken to lunch. I want to apologise to each and every one of you. Some of you know who you are and what went on. Some of you were so tipsy you may not have been fully aware of how shockingly you were being exploited.

I estimate there are dozens, if not hundreds, of you whom I’ve taken to lunch, dinner and drinks during my time as a political correspondent.

In dark bars and expensive restaurants, or just casually in Commons corridors, I’ve sidled up to you in a designer outfit and pretty much said ‘Howdy, right honourable!’

I took advantage of men to get ahead, and because I enjoyed it. And yes, Michael Fallon was one of them.

I cosied up to them, batted my eyelids, wore the right outfit.

‘Wear the black dress,’ one chap would say to me before lunch. And sometimes, if I was feeling generous, I wore it.

One MP asked me to marry him and I turned him down. There was a peer I chased relentlessly, having fallen hopelessly in love. He turned me down. But that is another story.

There can be no excuse for genuine harassment and abuse. But flirting? Flirting makes the world go round. Well, it made my world go round anyway

.

https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/11/sorry-for-touching-your-knee-michael-fallon-i-exploited-you-to-get-ahead/

It's perfectly fine for her to view the dynamic this way.
Where I would start to disagree is the expectation that all of her peers perceive it exactly like that themselves.
Surely it should be a female political correspondents own choice if she deploys her womanly wiles to get ahead or keeps it all 100% professional?

Yes, good ol' Melissa.

I fully expect Penny to be PM soon. Rate this government's going, it might just last that long.

Jacob Rees-Mogg for PM.

j

If Labour want Boris out, best cleanse their ranks from top to bottom.

An Ordinary British Muslim wrote:

“No, I’m not a Nazi, I’m an ordinary British Muslim..."

Inadvertently perhaps, but this was the most telling quote.

British politics is turning into some weird Twilight Zone. Watching from a distance it feels like I'm watching a film. A Monty Python film, actually.

Is it really that much worse than on the continent? I think if you threw any of the continental governments a problem as complex as managing a successful Brexit, they would look lost too at times.
It's also further complicated by the Tories losing a significant amount of senior figures in the aftermath of the referendum.

In keeping with recent kosher-related discussions:

https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-1986-letter-prince-charles-blames-foreign-jews-for-mid-east-turmoil/



He's right, though, all two dozen of the Jews left in Poland after the war are the cause of the Middle East's problems.

All the more reason for Prince Tampon and that other one to be skipped for King Harry the Tali-Bane.

Salomé wrote:

Is it really that much worse than on the continent? I think if you threw any of the continental governments a problem as complex as managing a successful Brexit, they would look lost too at times.
It's also further complicated by the Tories losing a significant amount of senior figures in the aftermath of the referendum.

Well I can't speak for every other country but no, it's probably not that much worse than here in Spain. Our politics at the moment are a car crash - but then I kind of expect it here. That's pretty standard Spanish behaviour. I haven't seen it get this weird in the UK for a long time.

x

Erica Ambler wrote:

To keep the debate topical and moderate the fucking language, may I suggest we all use this in future:

https://phrasegenerator.com/politics

May I start by saying I will not stand for a Britain where whores and pot smokers undermine our Christian traditions.

But I thought you liked whores and pot smokers?

b

I will work for an America where communists and racists can't undermine our sense of trust.

"Unlike my opponent, I believe in our medical dramas, our basic democratic principles and our Bill of Rights."

If I hear another bad word about ER...

'When I'm elected, I'll make sure racists and Washington elitists cannot corrupt our megachurches.'

Found this on Twitter, regarding ex-British politician Gerry Adams, who announced his upcoming retirement as President of Sinn Féin in 2018:

Come, A Chara, rest your weary head,
Let not the dead keep you from your bed.
Their voices trouble you, never go away,
But, smile; here is your day.
You've sowed our fields
With children's bones, decreed
Them fools: fodder for your IRA.  
But, smile; here is your day.
#GerryAdams

Gerry's retirement will give him even more time to tweet about trampolining in the nude with his dog/spectacularly ill-advised thoughts while watching Django Unchained.

He's just an eccentric oul grandad now, you see. In no way was he once the figurehead of the biggest terrorist threat to the UK, oh no.

Think of Brian Blessed's line about him when talking about Thatcher's funeral on HIGNFY. No love lost for Adams.

Hilly KCMG wrote:

Think of Brian Blessed's line about him when talking about Thatcher's funeral on HIGNFY. No love lost for Adams.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isaIhX7llVk

Brilliant stuff!

One of my favourite HIGNFY moments was when (about halfway through one of the episodes Blessed presented) an incredulous Paul Merton asked 'Brian, what are you like when you're drunk?'

Aye. One of my favourite HIGNFY's lines is the late Brucie's indignant: "Please! This is satire!"

Hehehe ... during 'Play Your Iraqi Cards Right', I bet.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

Hehehe ... during 'Play Your Iraqi Cards Right', I bet.

Indeed so. One of the most hilarious if surreal moments on that show. Inspired really.

It was in spectacularly poor taste, thank God. Satire is nothing without 'sharp corners', IMHO.