Randy McNob
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- Jun 13, 2020
- 4,724
Indeed it is, I suppose Brexit has now become hoping the EU suffers seeing as we've given up on any benefits
Indeed it is, I suppose Brexit has now become hoping the EU suffers seeing as we've given up on any benefits
[emoji23][emoji23][emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]
Not sure what is more amusing, Baker lite now flying the EU flag or Nicko flying the Union flag
I hate to say it, but Britain's doing OK. Even Germany envies us...
For diehard Remoaners like me, all this endless good news about jabs and carbon emissions is pretty hard to take
For those of us who like to talk Britain down, all this good news is hard to take. The vaccination figures are shocking. Nearly 20 million first doses administered. A forward-thinking procurement plan. The leading large nation, far ahead of the US and, more gallingly for us frothing Remoaners, miles ahead of Europe. Nothing could be more depressing for the honest self-loathing liberal Brit. You know the type. Recycle assiduously but fly once a fortnight.
We can’t say we haven’t had a good run. The past few years have been wonderful. Any positive stories could be written off as a fluke or a statistical aberration. There has been abundant bad news to confirm what we already knew: Britain is a sad, grey little Plague Island in the Atlantic, incapable of relinquishing its past glories and heading full tilt towards irrelevance. Brexit has been Gloomster Glastonbury.
Surely the pandemic can’t have exposed shortcomings in having a pan-continental uber-bureaucracy?
The early days of the pandemic were promising, too. We had the dithering over lockdown, the PPE fiasco and the Barnard Castle drive-by. All reinforced our narrative of total incompetence. A simple eye-roll was usually enough to convey your membership of the told-you-so club. What do you expect from 10 years of Tory rule? The turkeys voted for Christmas. It’s our children and grandchildren I’m worried about.
The self-loathers hadn’t had it so good since Suez. But this year life is increasingly bewildering. The test-and-trace fiasco was comforting. It proved that when the Tories combine public money with private businesses, an orgy of cronyism ensues. Yet the vaccine programme has turned out to be a slick collaboration between hard-nosed businesspeople, big pharma and the academic establishment. It’s almost as confusing as Gillian Anderson playing Margaret Thatcher. Even Private Eye conceded that they’d been “harsh” on vaccine tsar Kate Bingham.
It turns out it might not only be vaccinations that Britain is excelling at. An article in the Economist, not normally given to jingoism, pointed out the UK’s success in cutting carbon emissions. For several months last year the UK burned no coal. It looks likely that soon it won’t burn any at all. You might argue we’ve outsourced emissions to China, but so has everyone else. The bitterest pill is that we’re beating Germany. Germany, the nation self-loathing Brits revere more than any other. Germany, which welcomes every immigrant, has sensible governments, and has only ever craved peaceful European integration.
It transpires that several of the dozen or so vaccines Germany thought to order have been ensnared in red tape. Surely the pandemic can’t have exposed shortcomings in having a pan-continental uber-bureaucracy?
Wasn’t all that technik meant to lead to a bit of vorsprung? The front page of Bild, one of Germany’s main tabloids, last Wednesday read “Britain, We Envy You”. While Eeyorish Mrs Merkel warns of yet another lockdown, with less than 10% of her population vaccinated, our flaxen-haired prime minister leads his nation towards a summer of Weimar excess. Mutti, how could you forsake your fans in Islington like this?
The American economics professor Tyler Cowen, in a blog about the Economist piece, said Britain was “grossly underrated”, also pointing out our performance in AI and London’s enduring appeal as a global city. Our bond yields are substantially higher than Germany’s, indicating that hopes of recovery are better advanced. At the time of writing it looks as though the European Football Championships, originally to be played across the continent, will be held solely in England, a neat metaphor for this confusing year.
There are glimmers of light for gloomsters. Amsterdam has taken over as Europe’s share-trading capital? Tell me more. Lorry delays and export nightmares? Give it to me neat. But everywhere we look there are questions without easy answers. Does Ed Davey deserve some credit? Is Matt Hancock not the literal devil? Is the UK actually… good?
We must be thankful for the cricketers. Presumably reading about the vaccination rates from their bubble in Gujarat, they took the trouble to engineer one of their most craven defeats in memory. When everything else is looking up, it’s nice to have failures you can rely on.
https://www.theguardian.com/politic...-but-britains-doing-ok-even-germany-envies-us
Always said the Guardian/Observer was worth a read ...
Not sure what is more amusing, Baker lite now flying the EU flag or Nicko flying the Union flag
I hate to say it, but Britain's doing OK. Even Germany envies us...
For diehard Remoaners like me, all this endless good news about jabs and carbon emissions is pretty hard to take
For those of us who like to talk Britain down, all this good news is hard to take. The vaccination figures are shocking. Nearly 20 million first doses administered. A forward-thinking procurement plan. The leading large nation, far ahead of the US and, more gallingly for us frothing Remoaners, miles ahead of Europe. Nothing could be more depressing for the honest self-loathing liberal Brit. You know the type. Recycle assiduously but fly once a fortnight.
We can’t say we haven’t had a good run. The past few years have been wonderful. Any positive stories could be written off as a fluke or a statistical aberration. There has been abundant bad news to confirm what we already knew: Britain is a sad, grey little Plague Island in the Atlantic, incapable of relinquishing its past glories and heading full tilt towards irrelevance. Brexit has been Gloomster Glastonbury.
Surely the pandemic can’t have exposed shortcomings in having a pan-continental uber-bureaucracy?
The early days of the pandemic were promising, too. We had the dithering over lockdown, the PPE fiasco and the Barnard Castle drive-by. All reinforced our narrative of total incompetence. A simple eye-roll was usually enough to convey your membership of the told-you-so club. What do you expect from 10 years of Tory rule? The turkeys voted for Christmas. It’s our children and grandchildren I’m worried about.
The self-loathers hadn’t had it so good since Suez. But this year life is increasingly bewildering. The test-and-trace fiasco was comforting. It proved that when the Tories combine public money with private businesses, an orgy of cronyism ensues. Yet the vaccine programme has turned out to be a slick collaboration between hard-nosed businesspeople, big pharma and the academic establishment. It’s almost as confusing as Gillian Anderson playing Margaret Thatcher. Even Private Eye conceded that they’d been “harsh” on vaccine tsar Kate Bingham.
It turns out it might not only be vaccinations that Britain is excelling at. An article in the Economist, not normally given to jingoism, pointed out the UK’s success in cutting carbon emissions. For several months last year the UK burned no coal. It looks likely that soon it won’t burn any at all. You might argue we’ve outsourced emissions to China, but so has everyone else. The bitterest pill is that we’re beating Germany. Germany, the nation self-loathing Brits revere more than any other. Germany, which welcomes every immigrant, has sensible governments, and has only ever craved peaceful European integration.
It transpires that several of the dozen or so vaccines Germany thought to order have been ensnared in red tape. Surely the pandemic can’t have exposed shortcomings in having a pan-continental uber-bureaucracy?
Wasn’t all that technik meant to lead to a bit of vorsprung? The front page of Bild, one of Germany’s main tabloids, last Wednesday read “Britain, We Envy You”. While Eeyorish Mrs Merkel warns of yet another lockdown, with less than 10% of her population vaccinated, our flaxen-haired prime minister leads his nation towards a summer of Weimar excess. Mutti, how could you forsake your fans in Islington like this?
The American economics professor Tyler Cowen, in a blog about the Economist piece, said Britain was “grossly underrated”, also pointing out our performance in AI and London’s enduring appeal as a global city. Our bond yields are substantially higher than Germany’s, indicating that hopes of recovery are better advanced. At the time of writing it looks as though the European Football Championships, originally to be played across the continent, will be held solely in England, a neat metaphor for this confusing year.
There are glimmers of light for gloomsters. Amsterdam has taken over as Europe’s share-trading capital? Tell me more. Lorry delays and export nightmares? Give it to me neat. But everywhere we look there are questions without easy answers. Does Ed Davey deserve some credit? Is Matt Hancock not the literal devil? Is the UK actually… good?
We must be thankful for the cricketers. Presumably reading about the vaccination rates from their bubble in Gujarat, they took the trouble to engineer one of their most craven defeats in memory. When everything else is looking up, it’s nice to have failures you can rely on.
https://www.theguardian.com/politic...-but-britains-doing-ok-even-germany-envies-us
Always said the Guardian/Observer was worth a read ...
So in a nutshell more backslapping over the vaccine rolout. The article does comes across a little tongue in cheek
So in a nutshell more backslapping over the vaccine rolout. The article does comes across a little tongue in cheek
While relative calm has descended can I please remind people of the sticky on this sub-forum. Partiicularly
From now on, every time someone is abusive or resorts to name-calling, an infraction (warning) will be given. Multiple infractions automatically become bans - initially temporary and short but, ultimately. permanent.
That is now extended to derailing and continuing off-topic personal battles.
We've had enough.
Just to clarify....
Does starting a post off topic but then saying " back on topic" constitute being off topic and worthy of the infraction or does saying "back on topic" negate the initial off topic and give you a free pass?
Asking for no one in particular.
Just to clarify....
Does starting a post off topic but then saying " back on topic" constitute being off topic and worthy of the infraction or does saying "back on topic" negate the initial off topic and give you a free pass?
Asking for no one in particular.
When this thread looks like it's being contributed to by the same ten or so people, is nothing to do with Brexit and is full of name calling and trolling, and you're one of the ten, then check your inbox.
And if you're really boring everyone, just try to log on.
HTH
When this thread looks like it's being contributed to by the same ten or so people, is nothing to do with Brexit and is full of name calling and trolling, and you're one of the ten, then check your inbox.
And if you're really boring everyone, just try to log on.
HTH
Lock it. Put it out of its misery.
Should have been closed down when the Exit (end of membership and end of transition) concluded.
No one seems to want to start a BREJOIN thread (where you can complain all you like about being non members and why we should go back ) though
Lock it. Put it out of its misery.
I admire your optimism but have you read this sub-forum? Every single thread is about race/BLM, Islam or Brexit and every single thread is contributed to by the same sad cases. Bozza's sub-forum description is one of the best pieces of writing on this site.
Every time some second rate London club decide they might not take the knee someone starts exactly the same BLM/knee taking thread. And if we locked this there would be a new one started before I'd finished my cereal.
Some people just can't help themselves.
Should have been closed down when the Exit (end of membership and end of transition) concluded.
No one seems to want to start a BREJOIN thread (where you can complain all you like about being non members and why we should go back ) though
it should have been closed on 24 June 2016, as for Brexiters it was only about the vote