An important day in modern world history. Everyone should know it.
ajh
Tag Archives: Britain
Too many knuckleheads!
AND PEOPLE DIE FROM THEIR IDIOCY
Why are so many of those in positions of authority such gullible fools? The murders committed by this terrorist is why people should be able to sue government bureaucrats. People must be held personally and criminally responsible for such negligence.
ajh
Goodbye, Emma Peel
ajh
“Give us a date.”
WHEN CAN WE REOPEN?
That is what composer Andrew Lloyd Webber is asking politicians in Britain during testimony before Parliament.
“We simply have to get our arts sector back open and running.”
I wholeheartedly agree and hope that people are listening. The lockdowns cannot go on indefinitely. It is time to reopen.
“We are at the point of no return, really. There comes a point when we really can’t go on anymore.”
Please heed his warnings.
“Theatre is an incredibly labour-intensive business.”
ajh
Ultimus Haeres
From BBC News Scotland, a sad story about people who die alone with no one to mourn them.
ajh
GOOD WRITING
I LOVE READING
GOOD WRITING BY GOOD WRITERS.
ANDREW SULLIVAN DOES SUCH AND IS SUCH.
“One of the more surreal experiences of getting older has been watching Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer rise to the top in the country I left many years ago.”
Of course, Sullivan is talking about Britain, specifically one of its four component parts, England. Boris has risen through the political world to become prime minister. Keir Starmer is unknown to me, though his name sounds very German.
“It’s surreal because at school in the 1970s I spent a small part of almost every day debating Keir; and at Oxford in the early 1980s I watched Boris rise in the Union. Boris was then who he is now: a charming bullshitter.”
There is nothing quite like getting to the point.
“I liked him because he made me laugh, didn’t take himself too seriously, and wouldn’t compensate or apologize for his ridiculous toffishness, which was a nice change from all the other Etonians. But I was closer to Keir. Every morning, we both took the 428 and 410 buses, if I recall, from our respective homes, East Grinstead and Oxted, to Reigate Grammar.”
I don’t know anything about bus lines in England. But I am hoping to learn. I have never been to Europe. I have been dreaming about it for years.
“I was a diminutive, bespectacled, very uptight young Thatcherite, and Keir was a near-Bolshevik bruiser, with a Bay City Rollers haircut, a fat tie, an unbuttoned collar and an air of real roughness. The arguments began on the bus, and got more intense in 1975, when Thatcher became Tory leader, escalating through to 1979, when Keir and I were all but screaming at each other on a daily basis.”
I, too, enjoyed having debates with classmates and friends. Mostly, however, I am not in touch with many from my school days.
“It wasn’t all politics, of course. The morning after the previous night’s Monty Python, we’d be trying to remember the best lines, shouting over each other, to the general consternation of the good local folk of Godstone and Redhill.”
I never did any yelling on a bus. I like quiet on transit. I like being quiet and having quiet.
“I guess we both mellowed. But Keir also transformed himself into someone far more polished and professional than I remember. The difference between him and Boris is that Keir has obviously matured, and Boris seems incapable of that.”
I have certainly mellowed and moderated somewhat, though I am sure a few would dispute that.
ajh
Laws must be based in reason. The law must be reasonable. Or it is void. — Sir Edward Coke
Before the concept of nullification in America, there was Mr. Coke.
“How long soever it hath continued, if it be against reason, it is of no force in law.”
— Edward Coke
Chewie Likes Harry & Harry Likes Chewie
Apparently Prince Harry is a Star Wars fan.
ajh
Straight Outta Scotland
Billy Connolly was great in Dustin Hoffman’s film about aging, retired singers. It’s called Quartet. It’s a fun, little film. I enjoyed it.
I watched an awards show clip on YouTube a week or two ago with Hoffman presenting Connolly with some such thing. It was moving. I didn’t quite understand why Hoffman was there, somewhere in Britain. Now, after seeing the movie, I get it.
Billy Connolly is one of the best. He’s one of my favorites to come out of Scotland — him & Craigy Ferg.
ajh
The Problem with the World
“The whole problem
with the world
is that
fools and fanatics
are always so certain of themselves,
but wiser people
so full of doubts.”
A wonderfully insightful quote from Bertrand Russell.
Ever since hearing that Brit Stephen Fry admires him so, I’ve been thinking that I should learn more about the man.
He was imprisoned twice by the British government. I’ll have to read more about the particulars.
I hope we’ve moved past that kind of suppression. I fear that we, here in America and also in Britain, are not so lucky.
Despots lurk, never pausing to rest. We must be ever vigilant.
ajh
AARON HILL’S NOTEBOOK 