OneGuyFromBarlick

Anybody hoping for some light at the end of the tunnel should not read what PM Johnson said on the Andrew Marr show as reported in the Guardian.....

"Asked about warnings of the imminent slaughter and incineration of up to 120,000 pigs because of labour shortages across the UK, Johnson initially argued that this was no different from what normally happened to livestock. Speaking to BBC One’s Andrew Marr show, he said: “I hate to break it to you, Andrew, but I’m afraid our food processing industry does involve killing a lot of animals, that is the reality. Your viewers need to understand that. That’s just what happens.” When Marr pointed out that it would be different, as in this instance the pigs would not be butchered for food and the farmers would receive no income, Johnson said this was part of a wider transformation of the economy post-Brexit. “If I may say so, the great hecatomb of pigs that you describe has not yet actually taken place. Let’s see what happens,” he said.“What we can’t do … in all these sectors is simply go back to the tired, failed old model, reach for the lever called ‘uncontrolled immigration’, get people in at low wages. And yes, there will be a period of adjustment, but that is, I think, what we need to see in this country.”"

Could he possibly be this ignorant?
By the way, a definition of 'hecatomb' for you. " (in ancient Greece or Rome) any great public sacrifice and feast, originally one in which 100 oxen were sacrificed " So when he was trying to be clever he was wrong as well because these animals will never be eaten but incinerated.

Accordion to research, 9 out of 10 people don't notice when you replace words with random musical instruments.

I noticed straight away that you fiddled with the words...

PostmanPete wrote: ↑14 Oct 2021, 19:13 I noticed straight away that you fiddled with the words...

I didn't, I had to look again. I still got the sense of the sentence though so perhaps it doesn't matter.

The Duke of Cambridge said great brains and minds should be trying to repair this planet, not trying to find the next place to go and live. I hope Bezos, Musk, Branson et al are listening.

So do I! Welcome back Peter.....

Thanks! We've been very, very lucky with the weather. Mild, windless sunny days, not a drop of rain. People were wearing masks in shops etc but were without them outdoors. We kept our distance and there were no problems. We didn't go to any of the `honey pots' like Padstow and Newquay and there were few crowds. Food shopping was in the little local Spar shops, usually with only a few other folk in there.

Sounds ideal and today is so mild.... But Barlick is promised rain all day.

"Self-obsessed, selfish and not very bright" councillors are costing Middlesbrough Council dear because they keep complaining about each other, the town's mayor [Andy Preston] has said. The standards committee report said: "We need to consider whether there is a culture that has developed within Middlesbrough to have a low tolerance to the usual cut and thrust of political debate.

It's not what you know - it's who you know. . . .

Jacob Rees-Mogg has said Conservative MPs do not need to wear face masks in the Commons chamber because they know each other and have a “convivial fraternal spirit”.
Sajid Javid, the health secretary, yesterday said MPs should be “setting an example” for the public.
But speaking in parliament on Thursday, Rees-Mogg dismissed calls from Labour and the SNP for Tory MPs to wear masks while sitting on the benches.
“The is no advice to wear face masks in work places,” he said. “The advice on crowded spaces is crowded spaces with people you don’t know. We on this side know each other.”

It takes some believing David. Rees Mogg is presumably reasonably intelligent, in that case he is simply deluded. Does he really believe that the Tories are a breed apart and therefore normal rules don't apply?
He is a symbol of a lot that is wrong with this country.....

His ancestors wouldn't have been about if we had been revolting in the 18C as we should have. A massive missed opportunity for the peasants.

Stanley wrote: ↑22 Oct 2021, 03:23 Rees Mogg is presumably reasonably intelligent..

Not necessarily. Schooling at Eton and a degree in history, even from Oxford, can churn out a swot who can't cope with modern technological challenges but has been led to believe that they are a lord of the universe.

You're right of course Peter. God knows we have plenty of examples in government at the moment. I think of the Buffoon on the Andrew Marr show demonstrating that not only was he completely ignorant about what was happening to pig farmers but that he confused the meaning of 'hecatomb'.
I regard the use of Latin phrases and allusions to ancient history in modern political announcements as indicative of the fact that the people who do it are trying to bullshit us. Bullshit baffles brains as we used to say in the army. It's like scientists using too much jargon when explaining things.
( 'Jargon'. Late Middle English (originally in the sense ‘twittering, chattering’, later ‘gibberish’): from Old French jargoun, of unknown origin. The main sense dates from the mid 17th century.)

The Daily Star deserves quote of the day this morning. It's front page has pics of Biden's jumbo jet and others' private jets landing at Glasgow and the headline is `The Egos Have Landed'.

I heard that and agree with you Peter, brilliant headline.

Looking at the fact that the Bank of England is being criticised for confusing forecasts on inflation reminded me of this...

“THE only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable,”
John Kenneth Galbraith

Nadhim Zahawi - presently the Education Secretary.

“Schools should always remember impartiality. Any contested theory should not be promoted, or if they are, they should be – depending on the year group – people should hear both sides of any argument. But very importantly, it should be very much around the evidence, and impartiality is very important, and not to politicise this in any way. And political groups like Extinction Rebellion should not be promoted in any school.“

I agree but does that cover religion too? It should.

I think he's a bit confused David, that quotation certainly is. You're right about religion also. I wonder how he'd view the way we were taught Empire 80 years ago?
It reminds me of what I now see as a narrow escape. There were two primary schools within striking distance of where I was born, one CofE and one Roman Catholic. Mother took me to look at both but thank god settled for the CofE! I can still remember the nun in an old fashioned wimple and the crucifix on the wall.

"There is more than a whiff of 'We are the masters now'" (Sir John Major)
He was describing the Paterson affair.

Everything John Major said about the present government in his BBC interview by Nick Robinson is worthy of being registered as a 'Quote of the day'. Funnily enough the best account is in what used to be the Tory Party's main supporter, the Mail newspapers. So have a look at THIS and wonder where we are going next.....

Not sure why - but I like this. Note the date. . .



"And it's through that there Magna Charter,
As were signed by the Barons of old,
That in England today we can do what we like,
As long as we do what we're told"

Magna Charter, Marriot Edgar 1930.

Magna Charter is one of the party pieces of one of our friends Alan along with Albert and the Lion. With the former we always used to all join in with the last two lines.

More to Marriot Edgar than I thought. I looked his biog up on Wiki and learned he was half brother to Edgar Wallace amongst other things. (LINK)