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Saturday, June 28, 2008 |
Yes, Boris Johnson is a dear. He has a high cuddle factor. But that is all. His love of P.G. Wodehouse is no excuse.
PaulWalter: "On BBC Radio Four's PM, Boris Johnson was described as being regarded as the 'Bertie Wooster of Westminster'.
Obviously, whoever described Johnson as such has never read the Wooster books or has forgotten all of them, if they did read them. P.G.Wodehouse must be turning in his grave. Wooster was always immaculately turned out, due to the fastidious sartorial attention of Jeeves. Johnson, in contrast, invariably looks as though he has just been dragged through a hedge backwards.
Johnson might be a candidate to be regarded as similar to one of the other characters in the Wooster books. Certainly not 'Gussie' Fink-Nottle, who was more like Ken Livingstone, with his love of newts. Bingo Little perhaps? Or one of those young men in the Drones Club who used to throw round bread rolls at the drop of the hat, perhaps."
I say, watch out for politicians declaring their love of Wodehouse. President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya is a Plum lover too, but his democratic standing is much in doubt. Some politicians of the worst kind seem to unjustly want to embellish their nasty wheelings and dealings with some ha 'innocent' and ha 'idyllic' fun, what, what. We had Tony Blair as well. Also a Plum lover.
Well, you can't blame Wodehouse for his tainted groupies, though he did commit a faux pas himself during the war. Nevertheless, it doesn't feel right, all those right-wingers hanging on to Wodehouse as their saviour and succour. I bet even the odd MI6 agent has a secret admiration for Wodehouse's faux pas.
NewStatesman: "As he has evicted the most famous newt fancier since Gussie Fink-Nottle from City Hall, it is appropriate that Boris Johnson should so often be compared to a character from P. G. Wodehouse. But which one?
His second announcement was that he would look at setting up 100 Saturday 'Respect' schools. Bankrolled by a new fund drawn from super-rich City donors, these establishments would employ a 'magnificently untrendy bootcamp style of discipline'. Children, the press enthusiastically reported, would be made to march and learn manners.
If Boris does resemble a Wodehouse character, it may turn out to be Roderick Spode, eighth Earl of Sidcup, the leader of the Black Shorts."
Boris Johnson certainly is no Bertie Wooster, no preux chevalier, no protector of the weak and needy, not the good soul who'd rather get himself in trouble than let down a mate.
Boris is axing the half-price bus fares for the London poor. If you compare these two maps, you'll see that these poor mostly live in Labour areas. So good old Boris is not a good sport, he is simply getting back at Labour.
He has worse plans:
ToryTroll: "Boris Johnson's senior planning advisor and head of the Local Government Association has called for the full-scale privatisation of Britain's schools."
And what's all this, Boris? Read too many Wodehouse novels?
BorisWatch: "A police probe has forced Boris to hand over a cigar case that he 'trousered' in Tariq Aziz's home. Police have stated that they will hold the item 'while further enquiries are made'."
I say, old sport, stealing is a prerogative solely of the mentally negligible upper-upper class, who absent-mindedly put someone else's scarab in their large pockets. No doubt Wodehouse has a bad influence on the right-wing politician.
Of course, he is making light of it in the Telegraph, calling it his 'war crime'. He has a point though; some other politicians get away with murder.
Good try, Boris, but when have I ever seen you at an anti-war demonstration?
"Not only did I want Bush to win, but we threw the entire weight of The Spectator behind him.
That is the best case for Bush; that, among other things, he liberated Iraq. It is good enough for me. (Daily Telegraph 26 February 2004)."
Your words, Mr Mayor?
2:55:12 PM 
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Haaretz: "The emotion in Andreas Van Agt's voice as he lambastes Israel's behavior seems puzzling for a man of his status. It is especially intriguing when one is reminded that this blue-eyed professed idealist is an astute statesman who presided as the Dutch prime minister for five years, until 1982.
'My involvement in the Middle East is certainly unusual,' Van Agt confessed in an interview with Haaretz at his home in Nijmegen, where he discussed Israel, the Palestinians, European foreign policy, the Holocaust and anti-Semitism.
Currently, Van Agt is writing a book about the Israeli-Arab conflict. In December he launched an info-site about the subject, in which he accuses Israel of brutal treatment of the Palestinians, violating international law and implementing racist policies.
Among other illustrations, the site contains one snapshot of a graffiti slogan said to have been sprayed by Jewish settlers on a Hebron wall, reading: 'Arabs to the gas chambers'."
It is known that victims often tend to repeat the crimes visited on them. That is in my opinion also the case for Israel. Instead of learning from history, they are repeating it. It's a crying shame.
2:10:46 PM
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FAS: "The United States has withdrawn nuclear weapons from the RAF Lakenheath air base 70 miles northeast of London, marking the end to more than 50 years of U.S. nuclear weapons deployment to the United Kingdom since the first nuclear bombs first arrived in September 1954.
The withdrawal, which has not been officially announced but confirmed by several sources, follows the withdrawal of nuclear weapons from Ramstein Air Base in Germany in 2005 and Greece in 2001. The removal of nuclear weapons from three bases in two NATO countries in less than a decade undercuts the argument for continuing deployment in other European countries."
It's time to pull the nuclear weapons out of the Dutch base at Volkel too.
2:04:50 PM
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© Copyright 2008.
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