The Political Thread

[Frank]

I think it's only a matter of time before there will be a full blown revolution in a major European country. Turkey seems to be the prime candidate at the minute, but I wouldn't be suprised if either Greece or Spain had a revolution. Of course if one troubled country started it's own revolution then that could be the catalyst for others to join suite.

Doesn't seem likely now, does it? There's a general election coming in Turkey in less time than it takes to make a baby, never mind put together an armed insurgency, and if Greece or Spain were going to build to a critical mass you would imagine that would have happened at the height of their worries. If you read or listen to reports from those two countries the mood seems to be of wearied resignation and noses pushed firmly to the grindstone, rather than angry determination to make someone else pay.

Some other major catastrophe could always throw things back into flux, but even if that's the case I think the character of a revolution within the cosy confines of the European family is going to be qualitatively different than even the relatively peaceful transition of power seen in Tunisia. If you think about it, Italy has already kind of undergone a sort of revolution, in that the voting public unseated a plurality of sitting parliamentary representatives and replaced them with folk with absolutely no connection to any existing political party.

Italy being Italy, it's all being sorted out by horse trading but I think that's what revolution in 21st century Europe looks like - one lot of liberal democrats coughing politely as the previous liberal democrats incumbent give up their chairs and move on to well paid positions in Brussels. Everyone wants change, but no-one wants to miss a paycheck, and the public have lost faith in the big ideologies. If I'm wrong you can always taunt me with cries of "Francis Fukuyama, Francis Fukuyama" every time I raise my head above the parapets.

[Taryn Tailz]

Well they do say "Any society is only three meals away from revolution".

Or was that Red Dwarf? 

[JOE SOAP]

If I'm wrong you can always taunt me with cries of "Francis Fukuyama, Francis Fukuyama" every time I raise my head above the parapets.

That Francis Fukuyama, always waiting for the End of History, I just wanted the bell to ring so I could go home.

[JOE SOAP]

There is a well-known if dubious story that claims that at a concert in Glasgow Bono began a slow hand-clap. He is supposed to have announced: "Every time I clap my hands, a child in Africa dies." Whereupon someone in the audience shouted: "Well fucking stop doing it then." It's good advice, and I wish he'd take it.

[Frank]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/17/bono-africans-stealing-voice-poor

The ONE campaign looks to me like the sort of organisation that John le Carré or Robert Harris might have invented ...

... or the kind of scheme that the Quantum organisation would be involved in; that could provide the basis for the most interesting Bond villain scheme since License To KIll's drug kingpin televangelist or Tomorrow Never Dies's Rupert Murdoch analogue. Fassbender to play the preening rock star frontman who Daniel Craig defenestrates for funnelling funds from charities to buy up land in Africa and control the world's food supply.

[M.I.K.]

There's an article popping up all over the internet with the heading 'Snowden faces execution...'

This is apparently causing loads of anger and hysteria, incitements to revolution, etc; and it doesn't seem to have occurred to many people that maybe it's meant to say 'Snowden faces extradition...'

Seriously... I've seen like two other folk that've noticed the words are similar.

[TordelBack]

The Espionage Act provides for the death penalty (just ask Ethel Rosenberg), so it's true, if unlikely. 

[Stan]

As corrupt and out of control the US government increasingly gets, I think they'd have a pretty hard time justifying Snowden's execution to the masses.

[Stan]

Add to the fact that this is the same gang of crooks constantly petitioning for Jonathan Pollard's release. Snowden's mistake was that he didn't specifically drop the information at Israel's door, apparently.

[TordelBack]

Listening to BBC's Question Time as I work, for the first time in ages (more of an Any Questions man meself).  I was puzzled to see Russell Brand on the billing (until I saw he was promoting a new tour), but he turned out to be the most rational and coherent of the lot of them.  Boris Johnson, Melanie Phillips and Tessa Jowell: three of the most foolish people I've ever seen in a room at the same time*.  It was like the bit in The Return of the King film where the orcs at Cirith Ungol turn on each other, each more stupid and pig-headed than the last.  I woke next door's baby shouting 'FOR FECK'S SAKE!' at the computer.  Who books the guests for these things?

*Ed Davey was there at the same time, but he's the audio equivalent of tope.

[Frank]

Listening to BBC's Question Time as I work, for the first time in ages (more of an Any Questions man meself).  I was puzzled to see Russell Brand on the billing (until I saw he was promoting a new tour), but he turned out to be the most rational and coherent of the lot of them.  Boris Johnson, Melanie Phillips and Tessa Jowell: three of the most foolish people I've ever seen in a room at the same time*.  It was like the bit in The Return of the King film where the orcs at Cirith Ungol turn on each other, each more stupid and pig-headed than the last.  I woke next door's baby shouting 'FOR FECK'S SAKE!' at the computer.  Who books the guests for these things?

Aye, if you can get past his (understandable) vanity Brand's actually a cogent, articulate and very entertaining character. Here's the link to the Question Time appearance, and he was on even better form earlier in the day on Radio Five. They talk about his recent destruction of MSNBC's Morning Joe news bunnies, which has been a big viral hit.

[TordelBack]

They talk about his recent destruction of MSNBC's Morning Joe news bunnies, which has been a big viral hit.

Oh that is good.  Holy crap, are those three complete simpletons?  Do they normally live in some kind of nature preserve where no-one ever deviates from a prepared script?

[SuperSurfer]

...his recent destruction of MSNBC's Morning Joe news bunnies, which has been a big viral hit.

Brand demolished them. Must say I do find that some US tv interviewer/presenters can't relate to people from the arts they interview. Not a UK/US thing as I recently watched some interviews with Janis Joplin which are similar to the above interaction with Brand. They can come across as rather condescending.

[Frank]

Thursday's Question Time is the first time I've seen Mad Mel Phillips in action, rather than just hearing her on the radio - what a fucking nutter. The weird body language when she was trying to silence and brow beat the guy who objected to her reduction of the complexities of the Syrian civil war to we have to take Assad out to confound Iran's faith-based determination to bring forth The Apocalypse was very illuminating.

The behaviour of her, the blandness of the others, and the aimless rambling of Bojo meant the whole thing was utterly useless as a way of understanding the issues or the approaches of the various parties to addressing them, and reminded me why I don't watch it.

[TordelBack]

Thursday's Question Time is the first time I've seen Mad Mel Phillips in action, rather than just hearing her on the radio - what a fucking nutter. The weird body language when she was trying to silence and brow beat the guy who objected to her reduction of the complexities of the Syrian civil war to we have to take Assad out to confound Iran's faith-based determination to bring forth The Apocalypse was very illuminating.

For a lasting memory I was torn between Philips' palpable insanity, Johnson's incoherent mumbling and babbling, and Tessa Jowell's staggering (and repeated) assertion that the global financial crisis would never have happened if there were more women bankers. Not rapacious greed, not a failure of regulation, not political croneyism: gender.