Word reaches ETTL that the Tory website (I am not a frequent visitor) lists the schooling of only those Shadow Cabinet members who went to one of those ghastly state schools, despite the preponderance of old Etonians and other less than typical types in said party.
Well fancy that!
Dave, George and co. are acutely aware of their rapid and less than meritocratic advancement thanks to their parents' wealth. The voters might not like "class war" (whatever that means) but they also do not like Tory fopps with no experience beyond SW1 and Balliol College.
The justification that one's past does not matter is bunk. It matters completely. What signal does it send of Britain when, in the era of Obama, Sarkozy and Merkel, we are likely to have one of William IV's ancestors as Prime Minister? Cool Britannia it is not.
It also continues the awful legacy in Britain of a permanent governing class which, until recently, ensured that most top jobs and positions of influence were open only to those with friends in high places. Britain's economy and society suffered as a result and we became the sick old man of Europe.
It seems that the era of the gentleman amateur is back. Happy days!
Sunday, 6 December 2009
Saturday, 5 December 2009
Toffs and troopers
Anything more embarassing than David "flak jacket" Cameron hanging out with squaddies trying to look hard? No.
So DC is in Afghanistan promoting more cash for the boys when they come home. Obviously these public sector workers (the ones that kill people) are deficit-bustingly good. Regardless, he had nothing new to add to the increasingly tiresome Afghan debatey thing - quite the opposite.
Dave did reassert, as so many other armchair warriors have in recent weeks, that for some bizarre reason Britain not having a few thousand men in said country would imperil our lives. Really? Or would the US not continue to play policeman and fill the gap, allowing the UK to free ride via NATO like the rest of the Western alliance.
A withdrawal from Afghanistan is win-win. It saves the Treasury cash whilst not leaving "national security" (sic) imperilled. Indeed we are more likely to be attacked by the crazies if we're got troops in their villages.
So let's leave the US to pick up the tab in blood and treasure. It would be a small expansion of a role they already seem to enjoy playing.
So DC is in Afghanistan promoting more cash for the boys when they come home. Obviously these public sector workers (the ones that kill people) are deficit-bustingly good. Regardless, he had nothing new to add to the increasingly tiresome Afghan debatey thing - quite the opposite.
Dave did reassert, as so many other armchair warriors have in recent weeks, that for some bizarre reason Britain not having a few thousand men in said country would imperil our lives. Really? Or would the US not continue to play policeman and fill the gap, allowing the UK to free ride via NATO like the rest of the Western alliance.
A withdrawal from Afghanistan is win-win. It saves the Treasury cash whilst not leaving "national security" (sic) imperilled. Indeed we are more likely to be attacked by the crazies if we're got troops in their villages.
So let's leave the US to pick up the tab in blood and treasure. It would be a small expansion of a role they already seem to enjoy playing.
Sex and the single woman
Foxy Knoxy is a pretty appalling moniker, but it has certainly stuck in the public consciousness. Indeed the Italian judicial system seems to have been far more concerned with all the kinky details of said woman's sex life than whether anything quaint like evidence suggested she was a murderer.
The very fact that the world knows how many men Knox had slept with in her life (7, since you're asking) says an awful lot about Italian jurisprudence. The fact that she enjoyed sex, drugs and partying (who doesn't?) was the centrepiece of the prosecution's character assassination; it paints a very worrying picture of priorities which is in line with the stereotypical view of Italy's piss-poor and corrupt approach to mafia prosecutions, or the lack thereof.
Italy has many problems, some of which start at the top. But a system which convicts on the basis of innuendo begins to explain a lot of the problems infecting Italian politics as well. Berlusconi is Knox writ large.
The very fact that the world knows how many men Knox had slept with in her life (7, since you're asking) says an awful lot about Italian jurisprudence. The fact that she enjoyed sex, drugs and partying (who doesn't?) was the centrepiece of the prosecution's character assassination; it paints a very worrying picture of priorities which is in line with the stereotypical view of Italy's piss-poor and corrupt approach to mafia prosecutions, or the lack thereof.
Italy has many problems, some of which start at the top. But a system which convicts on the basis of innuendo begins to explain a lot of the problems infecting Italian politics as well. Berlusconi is Knox writ large.
Monday, 30 November 2009
Irish eyes a-smiling
Bono reckons he's pretty "humbled" to be headlining Glastonbury next year. ETTL will avoid pointing out that most thinking people are pretty "humbled" by just how lame U2 are and instead ponder how much the fair payment of taxes might humble the ever-humble Bono?
Perhaps Bono might like to consider how many kids wouldn't die if he paid tax in Ireland like the little people instead of hiring lots of suits so that money flows wherever it can't be touched? Cos it might have escaped his notice, but all his demands for more cash for the poor folk he affects to care so much about has to come from somewhere. And when he dodges his obligations, there's less in the kitty.
Indeed it's not like he's short. U2's last tour was deemed the second biggest-grossing in history. But clearly Bono deserves every penny, much like the dictators he supports by chunnelling the funds he helps control to them instead of African civil society. Less glamorous, more hard-working charity professionals have pointed this out many times, but no-one knows more about saving the dark continent than Bono, so the papers largely ignore them.
Makes one wonder whether this sort of thing should be left to boring old politicians rather than vacuous rockers, no?
Perhaps Bono might like to consider how many kids wouldn't die if he paid tax in Ireland like the little people instead of hiring lots of suits so that money flows wherever it can't be touched? Cos it might have escaped his notice, but all his demands for more cash for the poor folk he affects to care so much about has to come from somewhere. And when he dodges his obligations, there's less in the kitty.
Indeed it's not like he's short. U2's last tour was deemed the second biggest-grossing in history. But clearly Bono deserves every penny, much like the dictators he supports by chunnelling the funds he helps control to them instead of African civil society. Less glamorous, more hard-working charity professionals have pointed this out many times, but no-one knows more about saving the dark continent than Bono, so the papers largely ignore them.
Makes one wonder whether this sort of thing should be left to boring old politicians rather than vacuous rockers, no?
Egg on her face
Shed a tear if you will for Baroness Warsi, a woman so unimpressive she looked bad on the same Question Time panel as Nick Griffin. And now she gets egged like Nick!
Tis true. The tokenistic Tory apparently disagreed with some headbanging Islam-types who felt she was less than tip-top re: sharia, and they felt the need to throw things at her.
Hmmm. ETTL would think these crazies would appreciate her borderline homphobia and general air of twattiness. For was it not the good Baroness who, desperately seeking elected office in Parliament circa 2005, put out leaflets claiming Labour peddled gay propaganda to kiddies, and that they were "allowing schoolchildren to be propositioned for homosexual relationships"?
Warsi sounds like a great Muslim, and a great Tory to boot.
Tis true. The tokenistic Tory apparently disagreed with some headbanging Islam-types who felt she was less than tip-top re: sharia, and they felt the need to throw things at her.
Hmmm. ETTL would think these crazies would appreciate her borderline homphobia and general air of twattiness. For was it not the good Baroness who, desperately seeking elected office in Parliament circa 2005, put out leaflets claiming Labour peddled gay propaganda to kiddies, and that they were "allowing schoolchildren to be propositioned for homosexual relationships"?
Warsi sounds like a great Muslim, and a great Tory to boot.
Thursday, 26 November 2009
Home taping is killing record industry profits!
Of course if naughty illegal filesharing was allegedly destroying, say, coal miners and shipyard welders, rather than middle-class musos presumably no-one would give a shit?
ETTL was shocked by one Grauniad comment piece earlier this week that suggested the current trends would mean arty folk would have to "go amateur and get boring jobs". Heaven forbid! They would have to live as one of the masses with their cubicles and their suburbs and their lack of delusions of grandeur!
Truly a scary prospect. Maybe then they would remember that culture is the opposite of profit, and that they should have worked at daddy's investment bank in the first place instead of pretending to be Bob Dylan via the artistic abilities of Bob Dole.
ETTL remains confident that real and wonderful artists of all stripes will continue to emerge, not because of the market but in spite of it. Some might even spend their time creating beautiful things instead of defending the horrid corporate status quo!
ETTL was shocked by one Grauniad comment piece earlier this week that suggested the current trends would mean arty folk would have to "go amateur and get boring jobs". Heaven forbid! They would have to live as one of the masses with their cubicles and their suburbs and their lack of delusions of grandeur!
Truly a scary prospect. Maybe then they would remember that culture is the opposite of profit, and that they should have worked at daddy's investment bank in the first place instead of pretending to be Bob Dylan via the artistic abilities of Bob Dole.
ETTL remains confident that real and wonderful artists of all stripes will continue to emerge, not because of the market but in spite of it. Some might even spend their time creating beautiful things instead of defending the horrid corporate status quo!
Bankers and their banking ways
ETTL has been most irritated by coverage of the OFT bank excitement, mainly because it has been painted as a loss for "consumers". It is not.
Undoubtedly the Supreme Court decision is a loss for overdrawn consumers who, sans figures to hand, I assume are a fairly small minority in absolute terms, despite the ridiculous amounts they are charged. It is an open secret that the current system of free banking is only free because of this cross-subsidisation, from the profligate to the frugal.
So any other decision would have led us down the route of other countries and obliged British citizens to pay to maintain their own money with a bank; surely a worse outcome. The majority gain from the banks' profiteering, and long may this continue.
Seriously.
ETTL is all in favour of a whole gamut of reforms to finance, from micro-credit to overhauling the whole rotten system. But let's not piss around the edges and pretend the majority of people are worse off today because of the Court's decision. They are not.
Undoubtedly the Supreme Court decision is a loss for overdrawn consumers who, sans figures to hand, I assume are a fairly small minority in absolute terms, despite the ridiculous amounts they are charged. It is an open secret that the current system of free banking is only free because of this cross-subsidisation, from the profligate to the frugal.
So any other decision would have led us down the route of other countries and obliged British citizens to pay to maintain their own money with a bank; surely a worse outcome. The majority gain from the banks' profiteering, and long may this continue.
Seriously.
ETTL is all in favour of a whole gamut of reforms to finance, from micro-credit to overhauling the whole rotten system. But let's not piss around the edges and pretend the majority of people are worse off today because of the Court's decision. They are not.
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