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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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I don't understand the logic of the Tory Right. Fine, they don't believe the latest Rishi stop-the-boats proposal will work. Nobody knows whether it will work or not, it's in the lap of the Gods and the Judges. But what's the point of voting it (and perhaps Rishi and perhaps the Tory Party) down? There is no time to to remove Rishi, get one of their own in, frame an alternative policy, enact all the necessary legislation, get the planes flying to Rwanda and stop the boats before the next election.
At which the voters will surely vote down any party that has had four prime ministers since the last time their opinions were sought. Which means the planes will never fly. If there is no chance of trying out your own devil, you might as well go with the devil you know. Either by some minor miracle he'll turn out to be the devil you wanted all along or the voters will get rid of him for you.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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| Ambelopoulia is a controversial dish of grilled, fried, pickled or boiled songbirds |
Controversial because it means two million migratory song birds using Cyprus as a stopover between Europe and Africa get killed every year. This is illegal under EU laws but every country is offered an exemption 'for folk customs' on accession (we got one for fox-hunting). However Cyprus did not apply for one -- presumably for PR reasons -- and the practice was made illegal under domestic legislation. This has had little effect since hunting in general and ambelopoulia in particular are national passions in Cyprus, vide this exchange (which I have slightly adapted)
BBC busybody: Have you any intention of doing anything about it?
Minister for Wildlife: No
BBC busybody: Would this have anything to do with all those trophies of animal heads I can see on the wall behind you?
Minister for Wildlife: No, we do try but it's a question of priorities.
It wasn't too bad when they used branches with glue to trap the birds but nowadays 'mist nets' are employed on a lavish scale and it's become a zillion dollar industry. You untangle the bids from the net, bite them in the neck and throw them in a bucket, in case you want to have a go. We weren't told exactly what happens to the much larger number of non-song birds that get caught in the nets but suffice it to say the owls, cuckoos et al do not get as far as the bucket.
Most of the largest sites, the ones used year after year, are on land belonging to the British sovereign bases because (amateur) Cypriot bird protectors can't operate there. Nor in Turkish Cyprus where they do it just as enthusiastically but only for the export trade as songbirds cannot easily be killed using halal methods.
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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One of the most amusing things (in that folks don't realise it's happening) about the new Migration plan is that it makes it incredibly difficult for most British nationals to bring in foreign nationals as dependents. So no more Thai or Russian brides for those earning under 38K a year.
I guess the new plan was devised by a London civil servant earning, um, around about 40K a year?
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Which of us is correct?
| Mick Harper, Applied Epistemologist wrote: | | Anti-Semitism in, say, Britain or America is so trivial it's not worth bothering with. When it's in the context of Israel/Palestine it is legitimate. If Israel chooses to characterise itself as ''The Jewish State' then opposition to Israel is certain to be anti-Semitic to one degree or another. In the context of academic life, I might report a personal experience. When visiting American universities in the 1970's I was astounded by the name boards in faculty lobbies -- they seemed to be overwhelmingly Jewish! Coming from a British university, I had never been consciously aware of any Jewish academics. Even though the relevant numbers must surely be comparable. |
| Sarah MacGregor, Physics Professor wrote: | | I'd argue that it's the opposite of trivial! Anti-semitism has always been at a higher rate in the US than Islamophobia even after 9/11. Which is nuts. Same is true in the UK (I lived 7 years in Scotland and England and while I was there, we had over a 1000% increase in antisemitic attacks in one year in Scotland... and grew up in the US, currently am living in Canada). |
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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This was added a few hours later
| William Bilek wrote: | Anti-Semitism in, say, Britain or America is so trivial it's not worth bothering with.
That has not been my personal lived experience.
opposition to Israel is certain to be anti-Semitic
Not opposition to Israeli policies. Only to the very existence of Israel.
I had never been consciously aware of any Jewish academics.
I guess you missed the Nobel Prize awards. |
A curious but typical response. I wasn't denying the existence of WASP anti-Semitism only claiming it was not on anything like a comparable scale. Though my use of 'trivial' was needlessly provocative. I do not understand at all his point about Israel. The Nobel Prize jab is positively weird when I was referring to the generality of British academics, and even then only reporting a twenty-year-old's impression way back when. Though, specifically, I don't think we would have thought of British/Jewish Nobel Prize winners as being specifically Jewish. Then or now.
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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In terms of voter influence (how much influence do voters and grassroots activists have?) you would now expect a difference in the UK and US.
All figures based on a quick google.
The Muslim population in Britain is now 3.9 million, it's about 6% of the total population
The Jewish population in Britain is 270,000
The Muslim population in the US is 3.45 million.
The Jewish populaton is 7.6 million, that's about 2-3 % of the population.
Support for Israel within the US runs well ahead for that of Palestine. I doubt the political parties in the UK are thinking much about losing the Jewish vote.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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The Labour Party is because of the proportion of four-by-twos lurking in its kommandatura (they're very pushy, you know). Jews-for-Conservatism don't think much about Israel or Palestine (or anything else, being Conservatives) though some Finchley furriers once threatened Margaret Thatcher with deselection if she paid heed to Alan Clarke's proposals to stop animal exploitation.
I have been thinking more about Nobel Prize winners (I haven't decided about accepting one myself). First of all, can anyone remember a British prize winner in an academic subject? If so, were they Jewish? I have a vague memory of Florey (?) in connection with (I think) penicillin but other than assuming most of them probably were, I can make no Jewish connections. That may, in itself, be anti-Semitic.
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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I thought Harold Pinter was a secular Jew. I thought he got a Nobel. Could be wrong. Maybe Doris Lessing?
I cant think of any economist. They all are Yanks.
The rest are proper scientists so I would not know.
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Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
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| Wile E. Coyote wrote: | | I doubt the political parties in the UK are thinking much about losing the Jewish vote. |
The Conservative party is bankrolled by Jewish money. The party's treasurer is Howard Leigh, a post he's held since 2000 and which earned him a seat in the House of Lords as Baron Leigh of Hurley. The names of Jewish members are not necessarily emblazoned on plaques.
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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Egypt-born businessman Mohamed Mansour has just given the Tories 5 million.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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By the usual action of serendipity Dance First has just come out on Sky Movies, the first scene of which is Samuel Becket getting his Nobel Prize for Literature. The film itself is hard doing.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Those of you who have been tuning into Ukraine discussions on the internet will know that not only is sympathy overwhelming for Ukraine -- that is to be expected from the facts of the case -- but everyone has translated that into a rosy-eyed view of Ukraine's prospects. Anything is grist to the mill
| Russian servicemen in Ukraine have been succumbing to disease spread by rats and mice. The disease spreads through bites from rodents, food consumption, or even breathing air mixed with feces. The disease causes dangerously high temperatures, rashes, low blood pressure, nausea, and vomiting and can cause bleeding from the eyes. It starts as an affliction resembling the flu but deteriorates with time. It is a by-product of poor sanitation in the trenches and a lack of hygiene discipline. |
There's never been any doubt that Russian grunts get the grim end of the wedge -- and hand it out too -- but it is an AE observation that people always believe that which makes them happy. Nobody seems to realise that every time another factor is thrown onto the scales favouring Ukraine is another tribute to Russia which somehow manages to overcome all hurdles and stays there impervious.
The German General Staff made the same error during WW2, just as the British Ministry of Economic Warfare made the same mistake about the Germans.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Some fascinating developments in the South China Sea. The Filipinos are flexing their muscles by sending in small boats into their traditional fishing grounds and daring the Chinese to do their worst. Since China
(a) claims the whole of the South China Sea
(b) has a navy about a trillion times bigger than the Philippines and
(c) isn't afraid to use it
you've got to wonder what precisely is going on.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Are They Having A Laugh?
Illegal -- er, sorry, undocumented... migrants are crossing the southern US border at the rate of ten thousand a day. Two million people have passed through this year alone. Now even the most third-worldie American liberal would have to concede that this is unsustainable. I'm sorry to tell her (usually) that she will have to sustain it because one thing we know about migrant flows is that once a desirable border is known to be breechable there is no stopping millions of people heading for it.
In this case the numbers are not even containable geographically. According to Al-Jazeera, the flow across the Med is slowing down because migrants from Asia and Africa see Tex/Mex as a better prospect than Med/EU. One wonders where they get all the money from but here's the thing...
The current US government (and third-world US loonies) can do nothing about it because that would be admitting that Trump had got it right after all. After the election, who knows? But by that time millions will be on the march north of the Darien Gap so quite a lot of flack/money is going to have to be thrown around quite a lot of countries to solve it. It's fun if nothing else.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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The present merry goings on in Guyana look promising. Venezuela has always claimed a big chunk of western Guyana but the matter was settled (sort of) as far back as the early nineteenth century. Oil was discovered there in 2015 which has led Venezuela to revive its claim. The only problem with that is Venezuela already has the biggest oil reserves in the free world (or somesuch statistic) but is currently importing the stuff from Iran because Mad Maduro Socialism is not up to the task of accessing any of it.
So why add more? Why do it now when it's obvious that the days of Big Oil are numbered anyway? Obviously to take the Venezuelan citizenry's attention away from the fact they're starving to death. But Maduro wants to watch it. The last bunch of South American weirdo's who tweaked the British lion's tail was the Argentinian junta over the Falklands. Followed swiftly by the exit of the Argentinian junta.
PS Could Rishi do a Maggie and storm to electoral triumph by Rejoice! Rejoice! Rejoice!? No.
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