Saturday 31st May & Sunday 1st June 2025

[refitman]

Morning all.

[Frog222]

Afternoon !

Cooled down to 21° , lovely day with the pollinators particularly busy on the lavender and digitalis.

I was asleep when refit posted this , definitely suspicious as to whether it was real, but it appears to be





https://bsky.app/profile/kirkmurphy.bsk ... g2w5jj3c2q

https://bsky.app/profile/kscvann.bsky.s ... h3usyh6k2n

[refitman]

It's good to see Thom Yorke getting some pushback

[Frog222]

Freedland

'Technocratic ' is putting it mildly :-

"The current PM’s technocratic instinct is to say nothing about a problem unless he has a plan or policy to fix it. But sometimes it’s effective just to make an argument from the “bully pulpit” you have as head of government. That’s what leaders, as opposed to managers, do. It’s a way of signalling to voters who you are, what you believe and, most important, whose side you’re on.

Starmer would be wise to do it more. It might mean a nod to the right, calling, say, for the return of a sense of shame to those guilty of selfish, antisocial behaviour, or a nod to the left, publicly naming and shaming, say, the water bosses who have been similarly selfish and antisocial by taking gargantuan bonuses even as they beg for bailouts.

Awkward, I admit, to have to take lessons in politics from the likes of Robert Jenrick. But this one is useful. And, best of all, Starmer didn’t even have to pay for it."
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... ir-starmer

[refitman]

It might mean a nod to the right, calling, say, for the return of a sense of shame to those guilty of selfish, antisocial behaviour, or a nod to the left, publicly naming and shaming

Well, we know which way Starmer would always nod, if he took this advice.

[Frog222]

[refitman]

I assume Truss is getting paid a lot, to write this kind of incoherent bilge?

[Frog222]

More on Hungary --

“Once you build a two-thirds majority in parliament, you are basically ruling the world in this country,” he said. “So you can introduce a monarchy or make Viktor Orbán’s uncle the champion of whatever sports competition – I’m joking, but it’s just half a joke.”**

( ** Shades of the Caligula myth of making his horse a Consul )

This majority allows Orbán and his backers to rewrite the country’s laws at will to serve their own political purposes. “This is a fully controlled country to a large extent,” said Ádám. “This is not totalitarian in the 20th-century sense, this is not a Bolshevik or a fascist system, but all the major institutional actors in the country are actually controlled by the government.”

https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-int ... p-on-power

Good luck to those online journalists , and Péter Magyar !

[Frog222]

Kiss that new computer goodbye --

" In China, three is considered a lucky number. Hong Kong returned to the fold in 1997, followed by Macau in 1999. Xi wants to complete the hat-trick before he’s done dictating. Watching Trump’s Crazy Gang White House carry on, China’s leader could be forgiven for thinking Taiwan – and its American protectors – are there for the taking. " Simon Tisdall
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... ore-likely

[Frog222]

Now, where is the next McSweeney factory trip speech on the counter-offensive against Farrage going to be ?

Wales ?

[Frog222]

[Frog222]

[Frog222]

[refitman]

They really do despise their membership. Gotta recruit some more bigots, even it out!

[Frog222]

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Evening. Been up North for the week hovering over my mother's alleged deathbed, she's stubbornly hanging on god bless her. I'm only back because I ran out of clothes. It became apparent I probably should have taken more than one pair of trousers when my parent's elderly cat puked partially digested fish skin on them.

A couple of pics here for you. First is one of the best drawings of a fox I've ever seen that was on an information board along a river with illustrations by the local primary school kids.



Second is an amusing boating disaster where some idiot sailed the wrong side of a buoy and ran their yacht aground. They had to get the life boat crew out to help refloat it with some inflatable thing at the next high tide and it's now stuck in the dock with a damaged keel.



On the housing front I spoke to the inspector who slapped the prohibition order on us and he proved to be a reasonable and genial chap. He kindly informed me that the landlord has known what was coming for months and has been lying to us all (which should prove interesting when I see him on Tuesday), then went on to explain that as a tenant I have the right to appeal and tie everything up for months, you don't have to be the owner/landlord to do so, which is good to know.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

LA di dah, just another Sunday afternoon in Russia, gonna get myself some borscht and vodka, wait what's that buzzing?

[Frog222]

Love the fox !
And the buzzing noises...
NN.

[Sky'sGoneOut]