Tempting Fate 270

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This is the third time I have posted that there is a temporary hiatus in blogging but nothing to worry about, and subsequently ended up in hospital. Just discharged from Edinburgh Royal Infirmary after losing an unexpected argument with a piece of agricultural machinery. Between Eden Festival and that, I have missed the most fascinating fortnight in politics this year. Next time I have a break I shall put up a post asking you to worry a lot, then hopefully nothing will happen.

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270 thoughts on “Tempting Fate”

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  • Old Red Sandstone

    Given your silence during a most involved two weeks of politics – national and international – I just knew something had to be amiss. Whatever it was, please do not do it again!

  • Trowbridge H. Ford

    So you regret dismissing Trump as just an act of American hubris after all?

  • Sharp Ears

    Really sorry to hear that Craig. Rest up and come back when you are ready.

    • Iain Orr

      You will recall that the (apocryphal) Chinese curse is “May you live in interesting times!”

      Incidentally, “Interesting Times” is one of the best of the Terry Pratchell Discworld novels – and chock-full of Confucian, Taoist and Maoist allusions.

  • SA

    Glad you won the argument, albeit a bit of a pyrrhic victory if you ended in hospital. Agricultural machinery do not take kindly to arguments.
    Whilst you have been absent there has been a serious infestation of your blog with some rather vacuous types who have been contrary in a very superficial way to many regular commentators. There is a suspicion that some of them are trolls and perhaps some sock puppets.

    • Ian

      Yes, it is a shame you inadvertently give a platform to some very obtuse and wilfully provocative people who have little interest in your writing.

    • Shatnersrug

      You should have seen the tractor…Breakers Yard mate, don’t mess with Craig..

    • Anon1

      Craig welcomes dissenting views. What’s more, unlike you he can handle them. Now I know you regularly get your arse handed to you on here, SA, but there’s no need to go crying to teacher.

    • SA

      Disruptive juvenile commentators have increased after the Philip Cross expose. Coincidence?

  • laguerre

    Someone who resents Muslims, and can only cite the Daily Mail as a source of truth.

      • laguerre

        That is a substantial reply. What does ignorance, and calling the blog owner a drunk merit?

        • Anon1

          Well he says the ISI is in bed with the Taliban. This is demonstrably true. In his opinion Islam is not as deeply embedded in Afghanistan as it is in Pakistan. In my experience this is also true. He says Pakistan’s reason for existence is to hate India. You probably won’t be able to find an academic who doesn’t agree that Pakistan was in large part created in opposition to India. He predicts that Trump will turn his fury on Pakistan. This will probably happen as Pakistan’s duplicity is a major obstacle to securing a lasting peace in Afganistan.

          And what do you say? He resents Muslims and can only cite the Daily Mail as a source. I shudder to think that you describe yourself as an academic. I actually feel sorry for your students.

        • JohninMK

          This leader has been claimed dead in 2014 and 2016 but he survived. Hope they really got him this time.

  • Node

    A quote from Israeli MP Miki Zohar which may explain Israel’s behaviour towards its neighbours and the rest of the world.

    “the entire Jewish race is the highest human capital, the smartest, the most comprehending […] What can you do? We were blessed by God … I don’t have to be ashamed about the Jewish people being the Chosen People; the smartest, most special people in the world.”

    https://www.rt.com/news/429817-jewish-supremacy-israeli-lawmaker/

  • Anon1

    Well done Craig, I hope you get better soon. As you know, while you’ve been away Trump has made peace with North Korea and I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for helping to get him elected instead of the ghastly her who would’ve invaded at least six countries by now.

    Where do you think Trump will bring peace to next? I reckon he might just be the man to resolve the Israel/Palestine conflict. By giving it all to Israel! (Just joshing before anyone starts erupting)

    As the man said, “Anyone can make war, but only the most courageous can make peace”. And who can argue with that?

    • glenn_nl

      I have to admit, I was wrong about Trump not meeting (and becoming a good friend of!) Kim Jong-un.

      So let’s give Trump credit – he did indeed tamp down the potentially explosive situation he started, by goading NK into a rushed programme of nuclear development. If he had to grovel, and provide NK leadership with propaganda material beyond their wildest dreams, so be it.

      Nevertheless, I’m pushed to think what – exactly – Trump got out of it. He gave plenty away, admittedly, but what of substance did Trump get in return?

      • bj

        Don’t ask what he got in return, more important is what we got in return:
        Chuck Schumer and his Democratic War Party finally showing their true ugly face.

      • Hatuey

        Closer relations and a reduction of tension between North and South Korea was going to happen anyway, regardless of what the incoherent retard in the Whitehouse said or did. He could either stand back and watch or con equally stupid people into thinking he played a constructive part on it.

        If this new era on the Korean peninsula can in any way be attributed to Trump, it’s because his behaviour encouraged politicians in the South to realise that they couldn’t rely in any way on the crackpot and sought to address security concerns by other means.

        Normality is on hold for a few years in international affairs. Once we get rid of Trump and ditch the rule Britannia Brexit crap, we can fix our democracies so that the swinish thick masses don’t ever again get to influence anything important ever again.

        • Anon1

          This what they always say about every Trump success – it was all going to happen anyway*. Never mind NK relations being at the lowest level they have been in the last sixty years.

          *Previously it was “Obama did this” but that’s getting a bit old now.

      • Anon1

        Hi Glenn. You were wrong about a lot more than that. Let’s recap.

        Literally Hitler was supposed to have nuked half the world by now and set himself up as perpetual fascist dictator. You were, if we may recall, completely hysterical when Trump got elected – it’s all on record. You were like one of those Hillary morons screaming at the sky about the end of the world.

        Now the reality of how things have turned out so far is jobs coming home to Americans, record employment, including for blacks and hispanics, a strongly performing economy and peace with North Korea. Not a bad start. And all this despite 80% of the media and 50% of his own party doing all they can to destroy him.

        What did Trump get out of it? Well it’s not about what he got out of it but what America got out of it. Peace with North Korea is going to save the US taxpayer a fortune. Trump is tired of the US policing the world. It was one of his most consistent themes in campaigning – the $trillions wasted on the Middle East that could’ve have been spent on US infrastructure. NATO, North Korea, trying to start a new cold war with Russia, they all come under the same umbrella.

        So Trump scared the shit out of Kim by letting him know how wild and unpredictable he was and how if Kim didn’t come in then he would turn his country to glass. And do you know what? It worked.

  • N_

    @Hatuey – How do you envisage Brexit getting called off?

    1) Current govt chucks in towel.
    2) Replacement govt chucks in towel.
    3) EU reorganisation with Brit participation, then new referendum.
    4) EU reorganisation without Brit participation, then new referendum.
    5) Referendum on “deal” includes Remain option.
    6) Party with a Remainer manifesto wins a majority in general elecction.
    7) Something else.

    1-2 would be difficult, even 2 with a Lab-LD coalition.
    3 is unfeasible without a major crash, and I mean major.
    4 is easily portrayable as 1 or 2. No govt wants that look.
    And with 3-4 the new immigration and freedom of movement policies would be what?
    5 brings the problem of which option do cabinet ministers including the PM advocate a vote for? They can’t say “abstain” or “vote your conscience”. Look at why most Leave voters really voted Leave. Are you sure the Remain option would win?
    6 is not on the horizon. If a “Remainer” party splits off from either major party – or combines splitters from both – it won’t come anywhere close to winning a general election. Its main function would be to hand a landslide victory to a by then mostly pro-Leave Tory party probably under Rees-Mogg or Gove. (Personally I think Rees-Mogg will be the next PM but I reckon Gove, author of the book Celsius 7/7 – derivative title, huh? – has got a future at senior cabinet level.
    7 ? Over to you.

    “Major crash”…did I say “major crash”?

    Well there is talk in the financial press of driverless cars. Driverless f*cking cars! Seriously! Can you imagine them stacking up in suburban cul-de-sacs, as passengers all sit in backward-facing seats and play with their phones like mental defectives, as the cars sort themselves into their proper places like containers moved in a depot by robots? It isn’t going to happen. Netflix and Adyen may not be echoes of the “dotcom boom”, but driverless cars certainly are! The Dow Jones is up about 30% in the less than two years since Trump was elected. And to cap it all, Uri Geller is trying to sell his house on the Thames in Sonning. I don’t reckon that’s only because his neighbours include both Theresa May and Boris Johnson 🙂

    • Dungroanin

      N_ here is one for your list
      ‘Bordeaux lawyer Julien Fouchet has received the long-awaited confirmation that his case, on behalf of Britons in the EU including Second World War Veteran Harry Shindler from Italy, will be be heard by the court.

      It will be based on his analysis that the negotiation should not be taking place because the EU referendum was arguably illegal, having excluded many of those most affected – Britons who have lived, exercising their free movement rights, for more than 15 years in other parts of the EU.’
      https://www.connexionfrance.com/French-news/Brexit/French-lawyer-presents-Brexit-case-to-EU-court

      There is also the self-confessed electoral fraud of Dominic Cummings and co too…

    • Hatuey

      There are other options. Remember that over 90% of MPs campaigned sincerely against Brexit. The only thing stopping say the Labour Party doing something to scupper it is that it would be forever held against them in future elections. The same goes for the others. This is the biggest obstacle to anyone doing anything to stop it and I’m surprised nobody mentions it.

      Thus, my expectation is “no deal” and lots of wrangling. There’s a good chance some national coalition government will emerge from that — it’s hsppened in peace time before, remember. Right now any sort of unified front with the Tories and Labour seems unlikely, and citizen Corby doesn’t help, but I can easily imagine a sort of Blairite group going into such a coalition.

  • Courtenay Barnett

    My Dear Murray,
    Accept heart-felt appreciation from a regular of yours on your blog and admirer of your scribal efforts in ‘ Sikunder Burnes…’. On a recent trip to America, my girlfriend was kind enough to purchase a copy for me from Amazon.
    A work of research of some 382 pages is no small effort.
    While so far having only viewed the most interesting pictures in the book, that which equates to attention, reading and comprehension shall be, I believe, an enjoyable task soon to come.
    As they may have concluded one to the other in writing in Burnes’ day…
    Fare ye well and believe me always as to sincere appreciation for your efforts and very sincerely yours.*
    Courtenay Barnett
    P.S. – i.e. a lot of long-winded verbiage which, translated into straight-talk really is just saying – “thanks” ( smile – or – chuckle).

  • Sharp Ears

    Old Charles Rennie Mackintosh must be spinning in his grave*.

    Did they not think to include fire precautions included in the ‘multi million pound renovation’ of the Glasgow School of Art?

    LIVE: Huge fire ‘consumes’ Glasgow’s iconic Mackintosh Building
    Flames engulf the historic Glasgow School of Art as residents living nearby are evacuated from their homes.
    https://news.sky.com/story/live-raging-glasgow-fire-causing-extensive-damage-11406404

    * In Golders Green Crematorium apparently. He was only 60.
    https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/5747391/charles-rennie-mackintosh

  • quasi_verbatim

    A laconic explanation, Craig. Scottish agricultural machinery is to be treated with respect, especially since they learned to fit a metal blade on the wooden plough. No upskirting of nurses, I hope.

  • Anon1

    More on Grenfell:

    The original 138 dwellings are now housed in 203 dwellings.

    Council has bought 307 dwellings at avge £850K each.

    No scamming going on here, no sireee! Don’t say anything or well send the police round.

    • Anon1

      Plus all the £££000,000 compensation and then the subletting starts all over again with no questions asked. Then Momentum Grenfell shrieking the whole time that it’s not enough…

  • Sharp Ears

    Interesting that the minister dealing with the roll out much hated Universal Credit (which he was defending yesterday), Alok Sharma, is a member of Conservative Friends of Israel and visited Israel in 2013 with them.

    https://www.theyworkforyou.com/regmem/?p=24902

    Here he is with colleagues and prospectiveCon MPs. They even rope in those who haven’t yet been elected.
    https://cfoi.co.uk/november-2013/
    Two or three ‘delegations’ visit each year.

    Also on the site, with great glee.

    Kensington Palace announces details of the Duke of Cambridge’s upcoming visit to Israel
    June 15 2018,
    Kensington Palace this week confirmed details of the itinerary of His Royal Highness Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge’s upcoming visit to Israel on 25th June.

    The three-day trip, will be the first state visit to Israel by a member of the Royal Family in the country’s 70-year history. The Duke will visit Yad Vashem, the world holocaust remembrance centre and meet a survivor of the Holocaust and the Kindertransport, on the morning of 26th June, the day after he arrives in Jerusalem from Jordan.
    /..
    https://cfoi.co.uk/kensington-palace-announces-details-of-the-duke-of-cambridges-upcoming-visit-to-israel/

    Disgraceful. Will he be visiting the sandbanks overlooking Gaza from which the IDF snipers did their worst?

    • Anon1

      In your copy and paste you forgot to include this part:

      “On Wednesday 27th June, the Duke of Cambridge will travel to Ramallah in the West Bank to meet with Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas and attend an event focusing on refugees and exploring Palestinian food and culture.”

    • Dr. Ip

      Re: Anon1
      “Most Germans…”

      Seehofer is a well-known right winger from the CSU and is closer to the AfD than to the centrist CDU (even though many in the CDU lean right). The site you link to is a Bavarian mouthpiece for the right. And of course everything on the political right is wrong.

      Most Germans realize that in times like these, Merkel is still the only rational person in the house. Keeping a balance of power in her government is a daunting task.

      BTW: The good writers are all at the TAZ, FAZ and Die Zeit. Link to them for analysis and opinions that have some merit. Of course you would have to be able to read German to do that.

      • Jack

        Dr lp

        “Most Germans realize that in times like these, Merkel is still the only rational person in the house.”

        Rather “most germans” are brainwashed to believe that.

        Why is it so hard to understand that the situation with refugee flows are out of hand and not rational?

        • bj

          Oops — you created some haze there.

          He is talking about whether Merkel the person is rational, you are talking about whether a situation is rational.

          • Jack

            bj

            Merkel is not rational and she has created this situation Germany have put itself in and that society is no longe rational.

      • Anon1

        “Most Germans realize that in times like these, Merkel is still the only rational person in the house.”

        Allowing millions of rapefugees into your country is rational? And threatening other countries’ EU funding if they refuse? Persisting with a suicidal course of action is the very definition of irrational. And it leads to the growth of the right. Rationalize much?

        • JOML

          “ millions of rapefugees ”?
          Anon1, are you a headliner for the Daily Hate? I think your post loses all credibility when you use extreme language that is clearly sensational and inaccurate.

      • Anon1

        “And of course everything on the political right is wrong.”

        Great Orwellian turn of phrase you have there, Drip.

  • Dennis Revell

    Nobody ever, Ever EVER wins an argument with agricultural machinery 😉 , so whilst the argument itself may have been, losing it could not have been 😉 .

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