Brown has a reasonable number of intelligent women in his cabinet,
OK, allow me to be a little less sexist. Does Gordon Brown have a reasonable number of intelligent people in his Cabinet?
OK, I\’ll wait…..
Blogworld is the future, and it will not be resisted; but at this stage in its development, it seems dominated by rightwing male individualists and libertarians.
Indeed, and Hurrah, Hurrah!
But the interesting question is why? Allow the truth of the statement, that the mainstream media is more socially authoritarian, more economically illiberal, than us shouting out here in cyberspace.
OK, now, who is reflecting most accurately the real tenor of the times? Those working in commercial structures, those with careers to protect by following the party line? Or the individuals ploughing their own furrow and attracting (or not) audiences thereby?
Could it be the individualists and libertarians?
“seems dominated by rightwing male individualists and libertarians.”
Pfft. There are plenty of female individualists and libertarians.
I still resent that “right wing” label. Is being a civil liberties champion “right wing”? Is advocating a fair treatment of immigrants “right wing”? Is defending the rights of gays “right wing”?
‘I still resent the “right wing” label’
Why? And why accept it as a pejorative when all it means nowadays is the opposite of whatever passes for current political intelligence?
`When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, `it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’
`The question is,’ said Alice, `whether you can make words mean so many different things.’
`The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, `which is to be master – – that’s all.’
“Brown has a reasonable number of intelligent women in his cabinet”
Fucking funny stuff! The average IQ of women or men in the cabinet is around 12 I reckon. Take one of them as an example. David Milliband has only ever made two correct statements in his entire lifetime;
1) Hello my name is David Milliband
and
2) You’ll all be sorry when Tony’s gone (on QT shortly before the demise of the last great leader).
And I’m not even 100% sure about the first.
“Why? And why accept it as a pejorative when all it means nowadays is the opposite of whatever passes for current political intelligence?”
Is ‘left wing’ pejorative? The words ‘left wing’ in my household are uttered with a lip-curling sneer, so I guess so. Right-wing, in the usual definition, implies social authoritarianism. Every bit as unpleasant as the left’s economic and social authoritarianism.
There is no shortage of intelligent people in Broon’s cabinet. They aren’t stupid, they are just lying. Their policies and initiatives never achieve the declared aims. That is because they woudn’t dare tell us what their real aims are, so they invent something plausible that has the same effect.
For example:
1. Import voters from the third world and pass it off as an economic boost. Just don’t say for whom…
2. Scatter speed cameras all over the country and pass it off as a safety measure while counting the revenue.
3. Sign the Euro-constitution and pretend that it isn’t the constitution and you weren’t actually there anyway until teatime and you only used a cheap biro from Poundstretchers. (Or was it Sandpounders?…)
4. Campaign publicly against post office closures and then vote for same closures.
5. Inaugurate postal voting and pretend it is a pro-democracy measure. Apparently, all the dead people who are currently rigging our elections support this measure.
6. Set up the NICE to camouflage your unwillingness to pay for real clinical excellence.
7. Pretend you are discouraging unhealthy lifestyles by raising duty just enough to maximise your revenue, without improving the longevity of expensive hospital patients.
8. Quietly restrict increases in the the rates support grant so the local authorities have to raise extra revenue, and it looks like it was their fault not yours.
9. Send criminals to prison through the front door, and sneak them out through the back door. Tell folk it was a “loophole”, or they all escaped disguised as poor old washerwomen. In a vaulting horse.
10. Find out which issues are of most pressing importance to the public, and kick them into the long grass as if they didn’t exist at all. On no account allow anyone to address these issues.
So what do we do with these people? I can’t help thinking that Belgium fared perfectly well when it was totally without any form of national government, in recent months. In fact, the King was almost on the point of going door to door, trying to find some schmuck to be Prime Minister. That’s how it should be.
“1. Import voters from the third world and pass it off as an economic boost. Just don’t say for whom…”
Not sure that non-EU residents get to vote.
“2. Scatter speed cameras all over the country and pass it off as a safety measure while counting the revenue.”
Safety Cameras, please.
“3. Sign the Euro-constitution and pretend that it isn’t the constitution and you weren’t actually there anyway until teatime and you only used a cheap biro from Poundstretchers. (Or was it Sandpounders?…)”
Oh, but it’s a treaty, you see? That biro was used to cross out the word “constitution” and write in the word “treaty.” So it’s a treaty.
“4. Campaign publicly against post office closures and then vote for same closures.”
VOAT. Votes Of All the Talentless.
“5. Inaugurate postal voting and pretend it is a pro-democracy measure. Apparently, all the dead people who are currently rigging our elections support this measure.”
Why should dead people be denied a say? They are stakeholders too (well, the ones buried at a crossroads, anyway).
“6. Set up the NICE to camouflage your unwillingness to pay for real clinical excellence.”
The ‘E’ stands for Equality.
“7. Pretend you are discouraging unhealthy lifestyles by raising duty just enough to maximise your revenue, without improving the longevity of expensive hospital patients.”
As a society we must send a message about appropriate behaviour.
“8. Quietly restrict increases in the the rates support grant so the local authorities have to raise extra revenue, and it looks like it was their fault not yours.”
Not at all. It’s all down to the irresponsibility of rural councils. That they are largely Conservative councils is a demonstration of the waste and instability that would result from a Conservative government.
“9. Send criminals to prison through the front door, and sneak them out through the back door. Tell folk it was a “loophole”, or they all escaped disguised as poor old washerwomen. In a vaulting horse.”
Err.. Um.. It is Right to Do So.
“10. Find out which issues are of most pressing importance to the public, and kick them into the long grass as if they didn’t exist at all. On no account allow anyone to address these issues.”
I would respond to this now, but I want to wait until a review of Mr. Worstall’s blog has been completed by the respected peer Lord Dither of Obfuscate.