Wednesday 15th July 2026

[refitman]

Morning all.

[Frog222]

Over the past decade, no prime minister has served more than three years in power. None has left any deep legacy, aside from Boris Johnson who will always be remembered for taking Britain out of the EU, even if that was the consequence of a referendum called by someone else. Keir Starmer is far from the most disastrous of this bunch of prime ministers, nor is he the shortest-serving. But of all of them, it is he who already seems the most non-existent; the most ghostly in his presence, somehow still there and already not.

Here is a man who has been part of our public life for almost 20 years, rising to the top only to be removed in a carefully orchestrated coup that, in normal circumstances, would be a moment of explosive drama and repercussion. And yet, instead, Starmer departs the public stage in a scene of deep, tepid bathos, with no obvious emotional reaction either personally, politically or even nationally. He leaves behind no band of vengeful loyalists or uncontrollable swells of rancour. The country appears to have shrugged and moved on. And so, the Prime Minister departs as he served, removed and distant, a foreigner to politics, forgotten before he has even left.

Morning !

[Frog222]

I spent nearly all yesterday with legs horizontal and quite often a few minutes with them pointing upwards . Three weeks ago today the hospital doc sent me for an ultrasound, swollen calf -- DVT ? Well it wasn't that, but 'lymphodemia', which they usually counter with (to me) rather dreadful compression stockings ...

So I consulted Dr Youtube who recommended a few exercises , which helped so much that this morning I was just about back to normal !

Being on my back, and Radio4 LongWave being cancelled for ever, I had to turn to FM .

French Public Radio had a whole hour on the Scottish Enlightenment .

You wouldn't get that on Fox or similar !

https://www.radiofrance.fr/francecultur ... es-7776983

L’Ecosse a été unie à l’Angleterre en 1707, mais elle a gardé des spécificités. Des traces de sa propre Réforme protestante, sous l’impulsion de John Knox au 16e siècle, fondateur du presbytérianisme écossais. Un système juridique ayant un lien au droit romain plus net que l’Angleterre. Et puis, des universités pleines de vitalité et d’originalité, avec des chaires spécialisées et une curiosité portant sur tout ce qui crée du lien social. A certains égards, les Lumières écossaises, dans le sillage du penseur Francis Hutcheson, et battant son plein avec les figures de David Hume, de Adam Ferguson, de Adam Smith, ou encore de Thomas Reid et Lord Kames, préfigurent la démarche de la sociologie – et de la sociologie américaine en particulier, au 20e siècle, si attentive aux interactions entre les individus, et aux émotions qu’elles abritent.

Qu’est-ce qui nous unit et nous permet de créer une "société civile"– expression qui, de fait, se développe au 18e siècle ? Est-ce une affaire de passions ou de raison, ou des deux à la fois ? Les philosophes écossais réfléchissent à cela – à ce mélange d’intérêts communs, de sentiments de sympathie, de sens du devoir, et d’autres ingrédients encore. Ils sont loin d’être d’accord entre eux. Mais tous essaient de penser la société indépendamment de l’Etat, autrement dit à distance des philosophies du « contrat social » qui, au même moment, triomphent ailleurs en Europe. C’est une de leurs spécificités.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Rejoice!

Oh sorry, I meant oh how sad England are out of the World Cup.

In the most hilariously bizarre fashion.

They've got some of the best players in the world, from the richest league in the world, yet played like they were non-league underdogs after scoring from their one single shot on goal.

Rarely have I ever seen a manager suicidally scupper his own team so successfully.

It was wonderful.