Questions Of The Day (Politics)

[Mick Harper]

Well, Scotty, our rules permit people to believe in gigantic conspiracies (Question 1) but they do not permit ducking out of the really crucial Question Two. So I had better hammer the nail into your head.

It must be accepted that the chances of getting caught setting fire to 5G towers is fair-to-middling and while the arsonists themselves can be hired-for-the-job and know nothing, this cannot be said of the people who hired them. They must have known the purpose for doing it which in turn must mean they know of the conspiracy itself, however loosely. Since there is a fair-to-middling chance that the arsonists will blag on their employers, this means that an organisation that is conducting a worldwide people-altering campaign green-lighted an operation with a fair-to-middling possibility of having the whole shooting match exposed in order to ensure that people who weren't being taken seriously in the first place are taken less seriously. In England.

Unless, of course, you have a better answer to Question Two. And, I'm afraid, we must press you for one.

[N R Scott]

[Mick Harper]

Scotty, never flannel a flanneller. Here's the meat-and-potatoes

[N R Scott]

[Mick Harper]

Good, good. The monsignor gives you absolution.

[Mick Harper]

[Mick Harper]

I don't normally read Guardian think pieces apart from our own Marina but I had to make an exception for this one because of the irresistible headline

[Mick Harper]

If, as seems at least possible, China gets fingered as having made and then inadvertently let loose the coronavirus, some interesting times are ahead. China has had an easy ride so far, at first because of sympathy, latterly because of fear, but when every country in the world has dropped millions, billions and jointly trillions because of her action, we can expect a joint démarche. What the demands will be and -- as long as it was accidental and as long as it was in a good cause -- they won't be financial, it might be a signal that 'enough is enough'.

A straw in this wind has just occurred. China claims the whole of the South China Sea as her territorial waters and while nobody takes this claim seriously, nobody has felt able to do much about it. Recently Malaysia did -- resisting her fishing boats being harassed -- and this time the US and Australian navies have turned up to point out they were inclined to take the little guy's side. Hard a port, number one.

[Mick Harper]

I had that Dominic Raab round yesterday, wanting me to join in with his putsch. I was in a definite quandary because one of the features of the Boris/Donald style of government -- a fresh distraction every day -- means that even a few days without a distraction (and we've had weeks) reminds people they are really not awfully good. Mind you, Dominic Raab every day...

Anyway, he's back tomorrow so we shall see if cheekie-chappie can clamber back into the saddle as if he'd never been away. The problem with leaders and illnesses -- and why they always keep them secret if they can -- is that people are forever saying either, "Ooh, he's still looking peaky" or "He's looking well, considering." Mystique is everything. As Princess Margaret used to say in her strangulated vowels.

[Boreades]

[Mick Harper]

It is always said that Suez was caused by Anthony Eden insisting on having the top man for his op and the poor old chap (the surgeon, I mean) felt too honoured to point out he hadn't done much at the sharp end for donkeys and botched it. Whether the Chinese sent exactly the right team is not something we will know until the 500-year rule to inspect the records is up. Those bastard Shangs, have you been reading about it?

[Mick Harper]

I mostly can't bear to watch the covid news but every time I do, I witness fresh imbecilities. "Emergency fast-tracked loans to small firms," comes the trumpet announcement. "I am happy to announce that, from nine a m next Monday..." Duh? What's wrong with nine a.m. this morning? Because it hasn't been worked out yet? Yes, it has, it's just been announced. They haven't had time to print up the forms? So start printing them. Whole newspapers get printed overnight. The help lines aren't up and running? And you think they won't be overwhelmed by 9.02 am next Monday? But then comes the clincher...

Pause. Deep breath. Meaningful look round the chamber. "And they will be sent out within twenty-four hours of approval." You steaming jizzock, that's not the point at all. How long will they take to be approved? My guess will be shortly after the emergency is over. Clarice, cancel my eleven o'clock with Dominic Raab, get me the Chief of the General Staff. Better make that the German General Staff.

[Boreades]

Is this true news?

[Mick Harper]

Borry, the Scottish news seems important but the Times won't let you read it without a subscription and nobody else seems to be reporting this, if true, fairly astounding development. Can you post it up in full?

(Other one most amusing ... and depressing)

[Mick Harper]

Newsnight picked up the home-education story though typically with more restraint ie. more boringly. There are, I think, two strains going on here. The first is 'tall poppy syndrome'. It is better that the middle classes be not educated than they be given a better education than the working class. (Their language, I do not subscribe to the existence of these 'classes' qua classes.) A somewhat dangerous position for professional educators to adopt, I would have thought, but unavoidable given their belief that egalitarianism take precedence over all things.

Especially dangerous in view of your other quote which hinted so amusingly that all classes could easily get used to the idea that professional educators can be dispensed with in their entirety if, just once, it was realised that having one of their number actually physically present boring your socks off is unnecessary. (Not that I subscribe to the need for 'education' qua education.)