A Barack Obama quip

“If I had to name my greatest strength, I guess it would be my humility. Greatest weakness, it’s possible that I’m a little too awesome.”

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Book Review: Bonnie Garmus ~ Lessons in Chemistry (2022)

The usual hyperbole on the front cover included ‘Absolutely unputdownable’ by Richard E Grant. And it was true! Only massive willpower stopped me reading at 11 p.m. Then I couldn’t sleep because I was thinking about the storyline. Which is?

Set in the early 1950s in the USA’s scientific-research world. Elizabeth Zott is a victim of rape by her doctoral supervisor. She viciously defended herself and was promptly slung off the Ph.D programme. Once she got a job she was marginalised by her section head – because of her superiority. Meanwhile she has a colleague who’s utterly brilliant AND they fall in love.

Unmarried, pregnant, with a dead boyfriend and unemployed – unmarried mum in the 1950s need I say any more? She rebuilt her life, which includes a very precocious daughter. It’s a wonderful story of feminism without politics. Courage. And grim humour. I totally loved it.

Lots of coincidences which stretch credulity but go with the flow and enjoy.

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Boris Johnson in Downing Street

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Rishi Sunak’s Poisoned Chalice

The Chalice

The CDO’s [Conservative Democratic Organisation] chairman, David Campbell-Bannerman, said the party faces a “turning point” as it risked the possibility of losing office to Labour, and claimed that Mr Sunak still had questions over his legitimacy as he was not elected by party members.1 (my emphasis)

The Conservative party were power hungry. Everything else was secondary. The Maastricht Treaty, 1992, changed all that.2 John Major’s premiership imploded into internecine warfare, culminating in a self-inflicted leadership contest in 1995. Major manufactured the contest as a ‘put up, or shut up’ event to lance the boil. Nothing changed apart from a stronger Labour party. Thirteen years of Labour governments postponed the in-fighting, which resumed when David Cameron took office in 2010.

Cameron tried to resolve the EU ‘boil’ with an In-Out referendum in 2016. He played his cards badly and lost. Brexit ended his prime ministership. In-coming Theresa May negotiated terms.

The Conservative pressure group European Research Group (ERG) treacherously plotted her downfall. They succeeded. Brexit had become an ideological motif with ERG a True Believer cult led by Jacob Rees-Mogg.

The Poison

Jacob Rees-Mogg [former Conservative cabinet minister]has accused Rishi Sunak of “behaving like a Borgia” after the Government scaled back its promised post-Brexit bonfire of EU-era law.3

“You never know with Boris.” This is Gutto Harri’s assessment of Johnson’s political stability’ Johnson has the delusional belief that he has inherited Churchillian greatness.4 Sunak, knows the other former prime ministers are working to sabotage his prime ministership out of hatred.

Usually, out-going prime ministers resigned from parliament: Margaret Thatcher, 1990; John Major, 1997; Tony Blair, 2007; Gordon Brown, 2010 and David Cameron, 2016. That practice ended with Theresa May, 2019, after her career ended à la Julius Caesar.5 She’s a festering presence on the back-benches being ‘helpful’. Boris Johnson, 2022, committed political suicide and blamed everyone except himself. He’s posing as ‘the Prince over the Water’ and many Conservative MP supporters believe he’s a vote-getting machine. Finally, Liz Truss, 2022. Her triumph of ambition over talent flared out after 49 days of Zombie Thatcherism As delusional as Johnson, she ‘knows’ she’s right and the financial world is wrong. 

Rishi Sunak inherited organised groups who make Ted Heath’s gigantic ‘Sulk’, 1975-2001, look insignificant. All three former prime ministers bitterly resent Sunak and want revenge. They have willing sword bearers. Johnson is, of course, supreme at treachery but neither May or Truss should be under-estimated in this gruesome ‘Game of Thrones’.

The parliamentary Conservative party have abandoned loyalty, preferring internecine war. Sunak’s Kamikazi enemies are fatal to the possibility of Conservative success. A likely defeat began with the end of the tradition of former prime ministers resigning when leaving office. Sunak will be unfairly blamed if they are defeated in 2024.

Notes

1 Rishi Sunak is overseeing the ‘managed decline’ of the Tory party, blasts Priti Patel (msn.com)

2 Maastricht Treaty – Wikipedia

3 Jacob Rees-Mogg rages at Sunak for ‘behaving like Borgia’ after Brexit law U-turn (msn.com) The Borgia Family were notorious for treachery. “….they were suspected of many crimes, including adulteryincestsimonytheftbribery, and murder (especially murder by arsenic poisoning).” House of Borgia – Wikipedia Rees-Mogg’s comment is hysterical ranting as opposed to a reasoned opinion by a senior politician.

4 ‘You never know with Boris’ – former press chief says Tories ‘addicted to killing each other’ so Johnson could return (msn.com)

5 Theresa May was 63 when she left office; Boris Johnson, 58; Liz Truss, 47. All three were at their peak political ages when losing power.

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Modern ‘Woke’ Witches

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Aldous Huxley’s Wisdom

“In Brave New World people were controlled by pleasure.”

If you haven’t read it it is a ‘Must Read’

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Regrets!

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Football Review: Manchester City vs Real Madrid 17th May 2023

Expectations were sky high. Two giants of European football playing in the semi-finals of the Champions League.

What could possibly go wrong?

Real Madrid froze. The anticipated titanic match between “galácticos” became a mismatch. Real relied on their world class goalkeeper, Courtois, to prevent a rout. His brilliance kept the scoreline down to a mere 4-0 defeat. It could have been 6 or 7. A ‘victim’ of Courtois’s genius was goal scoring machine Haarland. He left empty handed.

Manchester City’s excellence in depth is illustrated by their three substitute players. They were Mahrez, Foden and Alvarez. Their ‘market value’ is about £170 million, with Foden being the most valuable. All three would walk into top European teams but here they were used as ‘impact’ players. And the impact? Foden’s exquisite through pass to Alvarez, who pounced and scored. Alvarez had been on the pitch for a minute.

The bookies must have been shell-shocked. They quoted Manchester City as 1-21 odds on. This error of judgement must have been costly. We feel their pain.

Note

1 The bookies priced this as a likely Manchester win but out of three matches they thought Real would win one (two thirds/ one third)

 

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An engineer makes a decision

An engineer saw a colleague riding on a new bike and asked where he got it.

“I was walking in the park when a beautiful woman rode up on this bike. She stopped, took all her clothes off and said, ‘Take what you want.'”

“So, I took the bike.”
“Good choice. The clothes probably wouldn’t have fit you.”

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Marilyn Monroe and Ella Fitzgerald

In 1955, Marilyn Monroe learned the Mocambo, a popular Hollywood nightclub, would not book Ella Fitzgerald because she was black.

Monroe phoned the manager and told him she would reserve a front row table every night Ella performed there, knowing that her presence would get a lot of press and publicity for the club.

Soon, Ella became the first African American to perform at the Mocambo, and as promised, Marilyn was seated up front to enjoy her favorite singer.

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