Questions Of The Day (Politics)

[Mick Harper]

What is bad for both the USA and Canada is automatically bad for us.

[Wile E. Coyote]

The last known trip by a director of the CIA to Russia was that of Wiliam Burns, Nov 2021. This was to warn Vladdy the Baddy, that he should not invade Ukraine. Until that is Tuesday. The last known trip is now that of CIA Director John Ratcliffe, on Tuesday.

For what purpose?

I doubt this was a negotiation Witkoff and Kushner do those. Normally they do it badly.

This was something that the CIA were doing, a clear one way communication, "You are preparing to do this, if you do it, this will happen".

The question, (he didnt listen to Burns, he wont have listened to Ratcliffe) is what madness, is Vladdy now planning, that the CIA have the intel on?

[Mick Harper]

[Mick Harper]

It is said, and I believe it, that people are losing their faith in the police. An example of why was on show in the aftermath of the Middlesbrough car smash.

A few days after and a mile away from the crash, there was an arson attack on a family home resulting in the death of a woman and a toddler in her care. The following day Cleveland Police issued a statement that there was no connection between the two events.

Since (a) car crashes that result in seven fatalities are as rare as hen's teeth and (b) arson attacks that result in two fatalities are as rare as hen's teeth, the chances of this being true is close to zero. But even if it was true the police could not possibly have had the time to establish it as being true.

Now of course one can see why the police acted as they did. They wished to lower the general excitability of Middlesbrough and especially the general hostility to the minority group held to be responsible. But since nobody believed the statement for one minute only the credibility of Cleveland police was lowered.

It is important to understand that the British police are not institutionally racist or sexist or violent or corrupt. They are institutionally woke.

[Wile E. Coyote]

[Mick Harper]

[Mick Harper]

We listened to the great and the good discuss Middlesbrough on Newsnight. Not a single person -- sofa guest, talking head, party spokesperson, a local journalist with an impeccable Teesside accent dragged into the national light of day -- referred to the actual cause. Not once, not even in code.

Which is, insofar as I can judge, gang wars between and antisocial behaviour among local Traveller families. Instead, our masters listed crime problems that affect all deprived areas. Always have, always will. But no more. Andy Burnham has promised to raise living standards in every postcode!

"Aye, pet, that should do it."

[Wile E. Coyote]

Instinctivly I would disagree.

Travellers often have a cultural aversion to bricks amd mortar, they do have family feuds that are bitter and go on a (very) long while, but they are not normally drawn into joining gangs.

Not saying your wrong, but I can see why the police would not see this link as obvious. The second incident does not seem obviously connected to the first.

I agree you are normally right.

[Mick Harper]

[Mick Harper]

I am currently listening to the stirrings of something that encapsulates some of the differences between two of our racial minorities. The Notting Hill Carnival lasts two days, is some forty years old and is dedicated to music and dance. The Appleby Horse Fair lasts a week, is two hundred and fifty years old and is dedicated to commerce and matchmaking.

I wish them both well despite the dislocations experienced by the locals. I like to think that encapsulates my general attitude to racial minorities.

[Mick Harper]

* A few days ago CrossCountry's control centre in Birmingham blew a fuse (or whatever) which resulted in a more or less complete breakdown in train services for a considerable time throughout large parts of the country.

Who do you suppose was blamed for this? It was obvious enough. CrossCountry should have had a back-up generator that took over instantaneously and/or a back-up control centre.

* A few weeks ago Avanti's Control Centre in Manchester blew a fuse (or whatever) which resulted in a more or less complete breakdown in train services for a considerable time throughout large parts of the country.

Who do you suppose was blamed for this? It was obvious enough. Avanti should have had a back-up generator that took over instantaneously and/or a back-up control centre.

I don't expect anyone will listen to me about such nationally important matters, but I disagree about who was to blame.

1. Train control centres are vital parts of the national infrastructure and supervised as such
2. They hardly ever go out of commission
3. When they do, disruption is localised and of short duration
4. Twice within a month in two completely different train systems is not a coincidence
5. The same thing happened a year or two back with two airport control centres
6. Twice to two different transport systems is not a coincidence
7. I can't remember what was happening at the time of the airport outbreak
8. Russia is now threatening retaliation for Britain supplying Ukraine with advanced missiles
9. I conclude all four events were examples of Russian hybrid warfare
10 Even if they aren't, somebody should for chrissake consider the possibility.

[Mick Harper]

[Wile E. Coyote]

[Mick Harper]

Everyone's always whingeing on about how we're a de-industrialised open economy, subject to world shocks like no other etc etc. Of course we bleedin' are, we started the whole thing. These are good things, not bad things. It's what we all set out striving for. As we'll discover when the world returns to some semblance of boring normality.

Except by the time it does we'll all be groaning under the lash of Victorian values: lotsa tariffs, loadsa pointless education, welfare for anyone who asks, subsidised housing for life, landed nimbies stopping vital infrastructure, armed services girding up to refight the Crimean War...

Blimey, we're only waiting for the EU to break up so we can apply to join.

[Mick Harper]