Category Archives: Whinge

Elizabeth the Useless: Sixty Years a Rubber Stamp

Posted on by 15 comments

Thoughts on the Diamond Jubilee:
Sixty Years a Rubber Stamp
By Sean Gabb (2012)

Those of us who pay attention to such things will have noticed a difference between the BBC coverage of the Golden Jubilee in 2002 and of the present Diamond Jubilee. Ten years ago, the coverage was adequate, though reluctant and even a little stiff. This time, it has been gushing and completely uncritical. There are various possible reasons for my observation. The first is that I was mistaken then and am mistaken now. I do not think this is the case, but feel obliged to mention it. The second is that Golden Jubilees are rare events, and Diamond Jubilees very rare events, and that extreme rarity justifies a setting aside of republican scruples. The third is that the BBC was taken by surprise in 2002 by the scale of public enthusiasm, and does not wish to be caught out again. The fourth is that, while not particularly conservative on main issues, we do now have a Conservative Government, and this is headed by a cousin of Her Majesty. There may be many other reasons. Read more

I hate Air Conditioning

Posted on by 11 comments

August is about the only month in the year when you can be warm without having to spend money. Yet every building I go into nowadays is provided with blasts of frigid air, supposedly for my convenience.

Something else, I suppose, for which I can blame the Americans.

Some people might be wondering and trembling in their boots

Posted on by 2 comments

David Davis

Lately, this bolg has been talking about things such as “The British Empire”, “England”, and “nations” and who owns which one, and whether such a thing was “good” or not. The British Empire was simply an accidental vehicle, and perhaps arguably not the optimal one (but merely the noe that was there at the time) for transmitting to All People the hardly-learned (and it was quite hard sometimes) lessons about “How To Live”.

For the avoidance of doubt, I just wanted to say a couple of things which might help to calm people.

Firstly, the Libertarian Alliance is committed to following the Letter Of The Law regarding equality, diversity and vibrantness in Vibrantly-Mutliculturalist New Britain, a Young Country. This country is Vibrant. We speak the truth here. You are all vibrant now, whether it pleases you or not. In the interests of full vibrancy, those of you who have nowt to hide have nowt to fear.

Secondly, when it comes to matters of right of course, we have to decide to decide to say what we think is right. This doesn’t mean that we here vibrate at the wrong wavelength. We do indeed vibrate; really, honestly we do. But our vibrations might be potentially mis-quotable by the quotationably-strategic-focussing-and-quotating-people. But don’t worry, for even when we are wrong, we are right. Read more

The Gutting of the Natural History Museum

Posted on by 5 comments

Sean Gabb

Went with my women today to the Natural History Museum. A sad disappointment. It has been turned from a place of research and education into a vulgar tourist attraction. Most of the exhibits have disappeared, and we had to queue to get in, and then to see what remains of the dinosaur exhibition.

When I come to power as front man for a military coup, I will impose a loving recreation on all funded museums of how they were c.1960. Until then, I recommend charging foreign tourists £25 a head to get in, and refusing them access to the toilets.

I was reminded of “The Final Solution”

Posted on by 4 comments

David Davis

Driving near Bootle this morning, I spotted a van of “some firm or other” (I can’t remember sadly what – and there was a police car nearby so I couldn’t lift my phone and photograph it) that said on its side:-

WORKING  WITH  COMMUNITIES  TO  DELIVER  SOLUTIONS

Since we have “Fake Charities”, whose site is at http://www.fakecharities.org ,

then perhaps someone should set up a site called

http://www.fakecompanies.org

I bet you all 5p that “WORKING  WITH  COMMUNITIES  TO  DELIVER  SOLUTIONS” gets about 100% of its revenue, to a first approximation, from the State.

Very Brief Reflections on Welfarism

Posted on by 19 comments

Sean Gabb

My women and I spent yesterday with some friends who live in South East London. They gave us chapter and verse on a thoroughly dispiriting symbiosis of financially corrupt bureaucrats and quasi-bureaucrats and an underclass almost too radically degraded to count as human. To do justice to what I heard would take a long essay that I don’t currently have time to write. But I will give the instance I heard of an illiterate youth admitted to a college. He was let in so the college could get funding for him. Because of his illiteracy, he was provided with a “reader” and a “scribe,” presumably at further cost to the taxpayers.

It’s clear that, even if seriously intended, the Government’s welfare reforms are misconceived. I suspect that the only answer, short of cancelling all welfare entitlements without exception, is something like this: Read more

« Older Entries