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I see that an American golfer I had never previously heard of, Fuzzy Zoeller, has just died. Despite him apparently being a major and successful figure, having won the 1979 Masters and 1984 US Open, this is how the print version of The Times summarized Fuzzy’s life in the one-sentence strapline to his obituary: “Golfer who tarnished his reputation with a racist joke about Tiger Woods.” (more…)
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The Jury’s Out?
The British people are starting to understand something vitally important, albeit at glacial speed: the current Labour government is not incompetent, it is malevolent. Nigel Farage, widely tipped as the next British Prime Minister, put it rather well in an open letter to the British people the day after the budget (of which more later). (more…)
1,935 words
David Lammy is a very large man. The left-wing black Labour Party MP and Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is a political giant in only one sense of the term: the width of his trousers. You could use his belt as a noose to hang a hippo with. He does, in all sincerity, increasingly come to resemble Idi Amin, a fact I am not the only one to have noticed lately. (more…)
Huw Edwards, former BBC news presenter and a convicted paedophile. Image courtesy of Crown Prosecution Service
2,441 words
Huw Edwards, former BBC news presenter and a convicted paedophile. Image courtesy of Crown Prosecution Service
Hello, and welcome to Celebrity Paedophiles!
The phrase “two-tier policing”, coined by then-Tory Home Secretary Suella Braverman in 2023, has widened out in semantic scope to become, first, the “two-tier justice system”, and now, the “two-tier society”. (more…)
James Baldwin, who made a career out of being a black bellyacher. (Image source: Wikimedia Commons)
James Baldwin, who made a career out of being a black bellyacher. (Image source: Wikimedia Commons)
2,965 words
Bellyaching is an argumentation tactic featuring overblown complaining, typically combining elements of whimpering with indignation. It’s rather like pouting, but often sullener than that. It’s done for a reason, of course. The usual object is to tug at the listener’s heartstrings. With enough repetition, perhaps it will even induce a guilt complex.
Note that bellyaching is not simple passive-aggressiveness, such as a moody girlfriend who says that she’s “Fine!” but clearly means nothing of the sort. (more…)
David Lammy, the UK’s new Foreign Secretary, who made sure to mention in his very first speech in the post that he is “a descendant of enslaved people.” (Image source; UK Parliament website)
David Lammy, the UK’s new Foreign Secretary, who made sure to mention in his very first speech in the post that he is “a descendant of enslaved people.” (Image source; UK Parliament website)
2,607 words
England swings like a pendulum do.
Bobbies on bicycles two by two.
Westminster Abbey, the tower of Big Ben.
The rosy red cheeks of the little children.
— Roger Miller, “England Swings”
And so, as they say, it begins. Labour’s predicted landslide in last week’s United Kingdom general election proved to be just that, with the party winning 412 seats out of the parliamentary total of 650. It is the second-largest Labour majority in history in a general election which had the second-lowest voter turnout (a pathetic 52%) in that same history. (more…)
Kemi Badenoch
Kemi Badenoch
2,023 words
This year’s run-up to the British General Election is reminiscent of 1997, when Tony Blair was so spooked by the enthusiastic backing he was getting from the media that he warned his party about “triumphalism” in the weeks leading up to the ballot. That election was a forgone conclusion, and this year’s looks much the same. (more…)
Prof. Rebecca Walkowitz of Rutgers claims that the only way to deal with racial inequality is to get rid of grammar altogether.
Prof. Rebecca Walkowitz of Rutgers claims that the only way to deal with racial inequality is to get rid of grammar altogether.
2,276 words
The word “moronic” was never a particular favorite of mine, but a few years ago it started coming to mind increasingly at things I heard people say. At first I thought I must be getting less tolerant, but I eventually concluded that there was indeed a rising tide of moronity. To record the fact, I started making a note of statements that especially triggered me. (more…)
