SOPPY SUNDAY
THE MAGIC OF MR BELL
Steve Bell in the Guardian. Thanks to “BSJAlba” for bringing them to my attention.
I WANT THE SAME RIGHTS AS NORTHERN IRELAND SUBJECTS
I’m getting the impression from the net tonight that Mrs May has proposed that Northern Irish citizens will continue to be British and Irish. It is, she says, their birthright.
OK, I can absolutely understand that…although they live in two different countries. Countries really different, the one from the other. One a modern, forward looking, small republic getting on with making its way as an integrated European country of the 21st Century. The other a faded world power with an antiquated system of government including royal princes and aristocrats, secret privy councils and special instruments, where old men walk backwards down steps whilst bowing to a superior being, and they launch massive aircraft carriers, but can’t afford any aircraft to put on them. Punching above their weight.
Anyway, as I understand it, currently, a Northern Irelander is an NI subject of Her Majesty, a British subject of Her Majesty, a European citizen and a citizen of the Irish Republic.
And currently, as a Scot, I am a Scottish subject of Her Majesty, a British subject of Her Majesty and a European citizen.
Mrs May says she doesn’t want to take away the birthright of a Northern Irish subject, Irish citizenship, and thus a European citizenship, but I can go fiddle, because my birthright to be a European citizen, is worth nothing to her.
I wonder why Northern Irish subjects are being treated differently, and better than, Scots. (English and Welsh subjects voted for this so I feel less sympathy for them.) The word “troubles” wouldn’t have anything to do with it, would it?
Interestingly, I hear that English barrister, Jolyon Maugham, has tweeted asking if any of his followers are human rights lawyers, and asking “Is there a case here?”.
I look forward to hearing the outcome.
Sorry for the rant, but I’m actually really angry about this. Normally, to lose your citizenship, you have to do something horrific. I don’t think I’ve done anything wrong, so why am I being stripped of my citizenship and all the rights that it confers on me?
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OH YES, AND…
Apparently Big Ben will stop sounding for four years while maintenance work is done on the tower as part of the massive (and hugely expensive) renovation of their parliament at Westminster.
There are two reasons for this:
There will be workmen in the tower, presumably trying to stop the whole horrible edifice sliding into the Thames, Lords, Commons and all;
and
The clock needs to be taken to pieces to be cleaned and repaired itself. Like the rest of Westminster, it’s run down and decaying… not to mention dirty.
Those are the reasons given by the keeper of the clock.
The Daily Mail has been HORRIFIED!!!! Nay, MORTIFIED!!!!
The health and safety issue isn’t unreasonable. Y’know, these clocks that can be heard over a wide distance are ear-splittingly loud close-up.
But no show without Punch! Making an unwelcome return to the UK today (Wednesday), Theresa waded into the debate. (Why are they having a debate about it for heaven’s sake? It’s a bloody clock.) She wants it looked into, because…well because she probably wants to keep “Outraged, Tunbridge Wells”, a Daily Mail regular and Tory voter, from having a stroke or something.
And, after all, why would the average Daily Mail reader give a damn about workmen being deafened every 15 minutes. They are only working class, why do they even need ears?
Most likely May gets involved in these things because she’s more at home with trivia than with the hard facts of Brexit and Rail Fares, and hospitals and schools and all the other stuff that is so entirely dismal on her watch. (Remember the Easter Eggs?)
I mention this because it’s an amusing little pointer to what goes through the head of our dreadful prime minister, however, unlike the removal of my citizenship, I really don’t give a stuff if Big Ben slips quietly into the Thames and is never heard again.. and as for Outraged of Tunbridge Wells… Aye, well.
BECAUSE BRITAIN ALWAYS MINDS ITS OWN BUSINESS…
Goodness me, changing the habits of a lifetime, the UK has decided not to poke its nose into another country’s business. May be something to do with a prime minister desperate for a trade deal on any terms… Surely it cannot be that she doesn’t have a problem with white supremacists.
Of course, maybe she’s just too busy looking after the “Just Getting By”, concentrating on coming out of the single market and customs union whilst staying in the single market and customs union, and having a secure border while leaving the border open…or maybe she’s genuinely got lost in the Alps.
RANDOM THOUGHTS
Journalists, and amateur bloggers, of all political persuasions, make mistakes. (I readily acknowledge culpability).
No one is perfect and even with meticulous checking, some little errors can be left unnoticed.
However, it seems that no one ran this piece on Michelle Thomson past the most basic of fact checks.
Additionally, it seems to me that to describe property worth £1 million as an “empire”, in these days of inflated property prices, is a tad of an exaggeration.
It’s not too difficult for professionals to check on these things before they put them in print. Indeed, it is very much easier than it used to be. A few Google searches takes a great deal less time than endless phone calls or searching physically through back copies of newspapers.
Maybe our journalists should consider that.
The Herald has corrected these mistakes in a short paragraph and Michelle Thomson has acknowledged this on Twitter.
Noting thanks for @heraldscotland corrections today from KMcK article printed Saturday. Online changed quickly.
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Can Munguin take this opportunity to point you in the direction of Ian Dunt’s excellent piece on today’s Customs Proposal Paper by the UK government? Guy Verhofstadt described it as fantasy.
Guy Verhofstadt has described the proposals as fantasy. Not the best of starts, but as I read Ian’s piece I became convinced that M Verhofstadt was being quite complimentary.
It seems that what they are proposing is that they spend billions to set up a complex method of replicating the customs union with unproven electronic gadgetry, and a good deal of trust in systems and personal honesty, and ending up with what we already have, but not quite so good.
“Lunatics”, “asylum” and “have taken over”, are all words that come to mind.
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Thanks, Labour. Brilliant idea.
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Has anyone seen Theresa?
Just asking because you’d think that, with a two-year deadline on her to deliver the most complex set of international negotiations undertaken by the UK in 70 years, a cabinet falling down around her ears and biting chunks out of each other, and having wasted 2 months on a pointless election, she might have thought it propitious to take a short break and return to her desk to get on with the day job.
So, if you see her, could you point her in the direction of England, lest she has become lost, or some might say, even more lost…
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JUST FOR A LAUGH
SOPPY SUNDAY
