OneGuyFromBarlick

The Guardian:
"In a political party that struggles to shake off its elitist, old Etonian, yah-boo-sucks reputation, [Theresa] May represents a different kind of politician: a calm headmistress in a chamber full of over-excitable public schoolboys."

Unfortunately I suspect her of being just as reactionary as the Old Etonians....

Very short this one.... Alex Salmond recently asked Dennis Skinner what the reason was for the present unpleasantness in the Labour Party. Dennis' reply was "Iraq". (Chilcot report imminent)
(I wonder whether he is right.....)

From a caller to LBC this morning. He said it's Socrates, others say Eleanor Roosevelt.

Great minds discuss ideas;
Average minds discuss events;
Small minds discuss people.

Stanley wrote:Unfortunately I suspect her of being just as reactionary as the Old Etonians....

It's not the Old Etonians you have to worry about now, it's Andrea Leadsom...Margaret Thatcher incarnate!

Tizer wrote:

Stanley wrote:Unfortunately I suspect her of being just as reactionary as the Old Etonians....

It's not the Old Etonians you have to worry about now, it's Andrea Leadsom...Margaret Thatcher incarnate!

Nothing wrong with the Iron Lady. Sounds like that is what you're short of at the moment.

No, China, Britain is split enough without a re-run of the Maggie Thatcher days. What we need now is to heal the wounds, not rip them open even further.

I'm glad you said that Tiz, my reply would have been somewhat more venomous, I will defer.

Ditto. I would get myself into deep trouble!

Regrettably, I feel our country is far more divided now than it was under the Thatcher governments.

Definitely David! I think it won't be long before we have to qualify 'our country'. Not hard to foresee three separate kingdoms, Scotland, Wales and England.....

A couple of quotes from Alan Johnson on the BH radio programme this a.m.
First, in discussing the after effects caused by divisions between leavers and remainers he quoted what he said was a trade union saying: "Don't insult today the person you will have to negotiate with tomorrow".

Second, he was asked about his friendship with the other guest in the interview, the Tory Ian Duncan-Smith, and he quoted a possibly apocryphal story about Churchill and a new MP sitting for the first time in the House of Commons. The MP remarked on what it was like to be sitting facing your enemy and Churchill replied: "Those facing you are the Opposition; the enemy is all around you".

Anthony Zurcher, the BBC's North America reporter:
"Lee Atwater, George HW Bush's campaign manager, used to tell a story about how the number of people Americans viewed as presidential calibre could fit in a small boat. The goal of a campaign, he said, was to push the opponent overboard."

Charles Spies, a former top lawyer at the US Republican Party, says that Donald Trump won't give up when he has all the news reporters hanging on his every word and he draws huge crowds to his rallies:
"If you're in an echo chamber and everyone is telling you what you want to hear, why would you think you should drop out?"

Roy Hattersley's book `Borrowed Time' about Britain in the inter-war years (1920s/30s) has a quote at the beginning of each chapter. Chapter 11 is about the rising interest in sport and has this quote from a young lady's diary:

Daddy quietly passed away...Dads looked so lovely like a wonderful marble statue.
Kissed him goodnight. Gloucester 69 all out. Yorkshire 98 all out. Yorks second innings 18 for 3.
Elizabeth Daphne Thompson, age 16
Cricket enthusiast, 12 May 1924

She had her priorities right!

Another thing I noted from Hattersley's book is how often statements made by the political commentators in the 1930s are relevant to today's world. For example, "We can't continue to expect Britain to be policeman to the world", and "No matter how good our defences, the bombers will always get through" (for bombers, think terrorists and cyber attackers).

The Olympic diving bronze medalist Daniel Goodfellow came from this village. there is an anecdote about him from his former teacher, in the parish magazine.

"Just before the boys completed their final year at Meldreth, they went on a school residential trip. We attended an open air pool in Hathersage, where like most pools diving was allowed. Dan promptly climbed the steps, and performed what looked to us like a perfect Olympic quality dive, with tucks somersaults, and twists. A shrill screech on the lifeguard's whistle welcomed Dan to the surface.


'Learn to dive first sonny before you try the fancy stuff' called the lifeguard. "

From my diary, a Winston Churchill quote:
"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last."

Wise words from our leader. . . I agree.

If you come up against a problem that mystifies you, pursue it for as long as the return is worth the investment. If it isn't worth it, ditch the problem and get on with life!

I bet Theresa wishes she could use this mantra at the moment, no bloody clue comes to mind!

But Brexit means Brexit

Thanks David! I've always favoured that approach and have an idea that it might be an SG original.

A lovely quote from Elliot Kaye, chairman of the US Consumer Product Safety Commission which has ordered a formal recall of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 after the reports of fires caused by faulty batteries. He said Samsung should not have tried to do the recall by itself and:
"Anybody who thinks that a company going out on its own is going to provide the best recall for that company, and more importantly for the consumer, needs to have more than their phone checked."