Politics, The Final Frontier (Politics)

[Hatty]

Japan may decide to abandon its pacifism. The prime minister, whose grandfather was convicted of war crimes in the Second World War, has been accused of attempting to rewrite history. Japan has been saying this for years to forestall American withdrawal of military aid so it's presumably based on North Korea's latest threats rather than Trump's brand of isolationism.

[Mick Harper]

Watching a Where is Jimmy Hoffa Buried? programme I was surprised that nobody suggested the obvious answer, 'nowhere'. He was put into a witness protection programme. As one of the most recognisable faces in America this required special measures, including presumably relocation outside the USA. This latter fact would be why the real story has not been released by now, long after his actual death (b 1913).

Looked at the other way, if he was bumped off by the Mob, this must be known to sufficiently many people for at least one of them to use it in the vast number of plea bargains since Hoffa's disappearance in 1975. The year, the progamme claimed, when the Mafia began its precipitate decline.

But you didn't hear it from me.

[Mick Harper]

I am in favour of background checks before a firearms licence is issued. If it is shown unequivocally you are an American, no licence.

[Boreades]

[Mick Harper]

Do you know, Borry, I'm not absolutely sure. Off the top of my head, Mexico cartel members, no; Welsh gaucho Patagonians, yes. But I'm going to have to give this one a lot more thought.

[Mick Harper]

Due to the current savage weather conditions we are closing the AEL until further notice.

[Mick Harper]

OK, we're back up and running.

[Ishmael]

That joke would be funnier if we hadn't removed the time stamps from all posts in the AEL.

[Mick Harper]

What do you know about savage weather conditions? We're in the front line here but Britain can take it.

[Boreades]

Good news chaps! We can indeed take it.

Chateau Boreades has taken one hell of a pounding from the weather. Blowing to snow drifts five feet deep in places in deepest East Wiltshire. The hens don't like it. But we've battled through.

#1 son walked all the way through the snow from GWR's finest railway station to home. Bodyrolling is the best way over the snowdrifts. We met him three miles from home with hot drinks, fresh wellies and dry socks and our Golden Retriever who was delighted to see her pack reunited.

#1 daughter had to drive through the snow to collect beer barrels from our local brewery to keep her pub going. Minor crisis averted.

We did have a bit of a major crisis though, we were down to the last bottles of Merlot and Sauv' Blanc.

Fortunately, M'Lady Boreades channelled her rally driving skills and drifted the old family wagon sideways into Waitrose carpark, just in time to empty their shelves of the essentials of life.

[Mick Harper]

They've got Waitrose in Wiltshire?

[Wile E. Coyote]

Cripes it's a rush to the bottom if Waitrose is stocking Merlot.

[Wile E. Coyote]

There is a new (maybe old) paradigm developing....

In the olden days after a careful study of the results coming in last night from Euro lands.... your commentator would weigh up whether left or right had won, and predict what relevance this had for the UK........this was of course different in the ex colonies...there we had to tot up the votes for modernist educated parties against the religious fanatics...........

These days the left/right thing is gone.... we now have to count up the votes for the so called establishment v non establishment parties

Then, this is the tricky bit.... we have to treat the establishment parties as modernist, civilised and the non establishment as fanatics.

It now becomes really worrying as the fanatics are winning, and the world is plunging backwards.......................we are all going to die.

[Mick Harper]

It was hilarious over the weekend watching left and right putting out the Brexit solutions that would best suit us—and no doubt they were sincere in doing so. None of them mentioned that as a matter of definition we are going to get the solution that best suits the EU. Despite them all saying, quite truthfully, “The EU will want to trade with us just as much as we do with them” none of them mentioned a rather larger truth.

The EU as a whole has a minor interest in trading with Britain, but a major interest in the EU not falling apart. At the moment it is extremely major (no pun intended) because in every EU country there is a groundswell (for the first time, in most of them) to leave the EU. So what do you think? Make it easy to leave or make it as disastrous as possible to leave? You cut off your nose to spite your face in order to save your body.

Heigh ho, heigh-ho, it’s off to the WTO we go.

[Hatty]

If the outlook is horrendous enough there might be a need for the politicians to reconsider leaving (perhaps making hay with the Irish Border issue) and having a second referendum.

Conversely, general resentment, should the EU seem too vindictive, could result in people who voted to remain changing course and declaring 'enough already'.