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Advanced robotics
Brassneck was a cartoon robot schoolboy from a popular comic I read as a young lad in the 1960s, The Dandy. Older British readers will also remember this comic’s great rival, The Beano, and Dennis the Menace (which was very different from the American Dennis). (more…)
Rishu Sunak
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We’ve tried the cowboys, now for the Indians
There is nothing so exciting or colorful as the election of a Hindu Prime Minister. The splendor of India, the heat and dust, the parade of many-armed goddesses and elephant gods, the dusky maidens in bright saris doing that thing with their necks that parrots do, the flowers, the smell of spice, the . . . (more…)
Royal commentator Hilary Fordwich recently stood up for Britain by owning Don Lemon on his own show when he brought up slavery reparations.
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No pal of mine
Free speech and skepticism are or should be two central pillars of civilization, so it is no surprise to see them under attack from the British deep state and its provisional wing in the guise of Big Tech. (more…)
A self-portrait by Flemish painter Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641), whose work has been deemed too beautiful by the National Museum of Wales such that cardboard boxes have now been placed in front of it.
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Royal Air Farce
As seasoned military historians will know, many of Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) pilots during the Second World War were Polish. Today, however, those plucky air aces from a country that historically has been more warred against than warlike (and so know how to defend like furies) would find no place for them in the RAF, and they would be unlikely to get their wings not because of any aerial incapacity, but because they are the wrong color. (more…)
England’s lily-white Lionesses women’s football team.
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Rampant lionesses tamed by BBC
Women’s football — soccer to my American readers — is often scorned but is actually enjoyable to watch, provided you actually like the game and not just the tribal and commercial nonsense that nowadays comes with it. (more…)
Vikki Spit and her fiancée. Spit has become the first person in the UK to receive compensation from the government for a death — her fiancée’s — resulting from the Covid-19 vaccine.
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Beware the Ides of June
Under British parliamentary rules, a vote of no confidence in a Prime Minister is similar to a recall vote in the United States, but it is the members of the incumbent PM’s parliamentary party — 359 Conservative MPs, in this case — who vote, and not the people. The peons only get to vote in general elections, where their choice is essentially between two brands of the same soap powder. (more…)
British MP Jeremy Hunt, whose surname is as perfect an example of Cockney rhyming slang as you could find.
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A bad month for the Iron Lady and the suffragette
There is never a good time to be a statue in England. You are out in all weathers, for a start, and on the rare days the Sun does shine pigeons seize the opportunity to take a dump on your head. But you do usually get to hang around on your pedestal or plinth for a few decades, or even centuries, before you are abused by humans. That, like much in the old country, is changing, and 2020 shall henceforth be known as the year of the great toppling. But the last month has seen attacks on statues of two famous English women, proving equality is alive and well. (more…)
Self-described Nazi Thomas Leech, who was recently convicted in the UK on terrorism charges, shows that today’s Nazis don’t really live up to their more fashionable predecessors.
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A rose by any other name
When I was growing up, or at least getting bigger, my parents were fairly liberal about swearing in the house. “Cussing” is, I believe, an American equivalent. This was not an injunction for or against swearing an oath on the Bible. But rules are rules, and there was always one word banned in our house: the dread C-word. How nice to be reminded of this childhood memory by Britain’s National Health Service (NHS), still wasting money after all these years. They have indeed banned the C-word. (more…)
Deputy PM Dominic Raab wants to assure you that free speech will be given “trump card status” under the UK’s controversial Online Safety Bill.
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Ukraine? The brochure looks nice
It is not clear that the British government quite understands the habits of the mercenary soldier. After its dithering Foreign Secretary Liz Truss indicated that British citizens were free, should they so wish, to go to Ukraine and fight against Russia, she sympathized with these would-be Lord Byrons. Her staff reminded both her and the men ‘o war of the latest travel advice on its website: (more…)
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Dr. Mark Gullick was the guest on the latest episode of The Writers’ Bloc to discuss The Best Month Ever at Counter-Currents with host Nick Jeelvy, selecting the finest articles published in February 2022, and it is now available for download and online listening. (more…)
Beloved British cartoon character Peppa Pig has been unmasked as a horrible racist after being shown doing such unconscionable things as buying fiddles and attending an Irish dancing festival during a trip to Ireland.
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Late to the party
There seems to be a political axiom whereby it is clear that a party or its leaders are in trouble when they start doing things, or at least start talking about doing things, which the majority of people actually want done. Thus, we see Angela Rayner, the blowsy Deputy Shadow Prime Minister, “talking tough” (translated from politico, that means horse-shitting) on crime. Ms. Rayner recently called Tories “scum” on social media. I don’t know where she thinks these mythical Tories are, but they certainly aren’t in the Conservative Party. (more…)
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This is the first installment of Mark Gullick’s monthly roundup of the news from the United Kingdom, which we plan to publish during the last week of each month henceforth.
Sometimes I look at the old country and wonder how we ever got an empire organized without tripping over our own shoelaces. (more…)