Poppy
What is different today compared to yesterday? Well, the new government rhetoric is dying down a bit as I expect the excitement is dying down and the reality of the task becomes clear. After all the speeches and promises of the last few days we had a new minister on TV, and that new minister began the familiar pattern of dodging questions and refusing to talk specifics. This doesn’t make him a bad man, or his party a bad party. What it does do is reveal that no matter how enthusiastic and positive a party may be, they are still constrained by reality. We have an expensive war on the doorstep, we have a broken society (which isn’t a new thing) and we don’t have enough money. Welcome to government, all you happy, smiley people, and welcome to reality.
Meanwhile the French are rioting in the streets again after a coalition of moderates managed to avoid a move to the extreme right, a Turkish football player is under investigation for making a fascist salute as part of his goal celebrations, and a German poll reveals that 20% of the population would like to see more white players in the team. Looks a bit like the whole of Europe is broken, not just Britain. Strangely, as Europe moves to the right, the UK has just moved to the left.
Welsh Poppy
Those few superficial observations on politics. I looked into the world of the Grey Wolves and the Armenian genocide and decided not to delve deeper. I have enough anxiety without adding to it. To save you the trouble of looking into the links, I will summarise by saying that this is what some Turkish youths supposedly does in search of national identity (note I am not saying that this is more than a small minority, as I try not to exaggerate or stereotype). This is what the British do in search of their national identity, when they aren’t drinking warm beer and chanting “Football’s coming home.” in an effort to make it come true. (I linked to an article about the song rather than the song itself, which I’ve always found a bit arrogant, particularly as it’s now nearly sixty years since we have won a major trophy.)
Poppy and chamomile
I’ve seen ‘coming home’ next to the bus numbers locally today. I don’t know what to make of it….
Yes, politically, other European countries, if not the whole world are in a mess.
We will soon see. Then the excuses will start . . .
Vive la change
🙂 It’s a bit like Animal Farm – give them a few years and they will metamorphose into “politicians”.
I forgot to mention how beautiful those flowers are.
I must start taking some more. 🙂
The world is broken as best I can tell from here. 🙂
Seems a fair assumption from all the news I see. 🙁
The politicians appear shifty on the telly as the interviewers spend most of their time asking them questions which they know they cannot answer. This drives me mad. If you have to interview politicians, it would be much better to ask them questions which they can answer, and then listen to their replies and go on from there. We might actually find out what they are really thinking if this method was employed. Where is Socrates when you need him?
More to the point, where is the hemlock?
I know a spot where there is a plentiful supply of water dropwort which is hemlock.
🙂 Hold that knowledge and let’s pretend we never discussed it. That way it can’t be used in evidence . . .
I can only hope that our election turns out as well as yours has. Holy cats, what a race we are having. A stinker vs. a very old man.
Two old men, actually. 🙂 I just checked – there is only 3 years difference in age and whichever one wind will be the oldest candidate to take office by the time it happens.
Age and public office is a difficult subject – experience versus mental decline is a difficult balancing act. We have just increased the retirement age for judges from 70 to 75 to allow for better use of expeience. Before we introduced retirement ages some sat until they were 90 and senile.
Yes, two old men. Unfortunately, one seems much older than the other, and the one who seems more vigorous is a rotter. What a choice!
At least I was able to vote Green and show my disdain of the two main parties. Why not start the Maine Popular Front/Front Populaire du Maine? I have checked on the internet and there seems not to be one. It’s a step ahead of my attempt to found a Mercian Nationalist party because when I checked there already is one!
https://independentengland.org/independent-mercia/
Alas, ours is two-party system, and third parties just dilute the vote, often taking votes away from the best candidate.
“democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time” as Churchill said. I worry that we will move to Proportional Representation, then we can have politics like Italy . . .