What Happened To Scathing Reviews?

Martin Kettle in 'The Guardian':

There is nothing wrong in principle with protesting at the opera. I’ve very occasionally booed shows I hated, and I want to be free to do so again if I choose.

Why..? You've a column in the 'Guardian' to rip it to shreds the next morning, why ruin everyone else's enjoyment? 

Booing and whistling at the opera or theatre can sometimes be healthy and necessary protest.

Really? I'm not an opera goer, so it never even crossed my mind that this might be a thing. I've been to theatre performances I thought were rubbish, but I just left before the end... 

What happened at Covent Garden on Tuesday evening, however, wasn’t booing but heckling.

Oh, really? Trust a 'Guardian' writer to be able to draw a distinction... 

The target was Malakai M Bayoh, a 12-year-old boy soprano...

That's not the most stand-out thing, though, is it, Martin? 

I’d add for the record that, as far as I could tell, the heckling was not racist (Bayoh is a black boy from south London), although it may have been.

Maybe the chap should be given his own column in the paper to tell us why he did it? 

But there is a wider issue to consider here. Expressing one’s dissent against a production or a performance is often unattractive and sometimes (as here) unmerited. But it can have its place. Not always, but sometimes. It’s a tricky line to draw and to police. But I hope theatres do not start making it a requirement of attendance not to boo or protest, let alone make booing punishable by a lifetime ban.

"If I do it, it's necessary and needful. If you do it, it's wrong!" That ought to be the 'Guardian's' new strapline. 

This sceptr'd isle

... this seat of Mars, this other Eden, demi-paradise, this fortress built by Nature for her self ... that was wont to conquer others, hath made a shameful conquest of itself.

An occasional post through our eyes on this island.  These were in the inbox this morning:

Where to start?  I started here, replying to Laura Perrins:

It might be an idea, Laura, to spare a thought as well for little boys, having their crown jewels cut off.  Best not to narrowly focus too much on just the one gender, horrifying though it is and requiring all to cry out about it.  Both genders though are facing this from "parents" who've taken leave of their senses and have embraced sheer evil.

Obviously, looking at Westminster, and no one sane being able to vote for the LibLabTory uniparty, nor the Green Marxists ... the only other choice is Tice's lot, should one even be inclined to vote any more.

With the best will in the world, Tice hardly inspires.  Everyone in the country knows who it must be.

April 1st Gets Earlier Every Year...

I mean, this must be an April Fool? Surely?

Assistant Commissioner Matt Jukes, the Metropolitan Police's new 'HeForShe Gender Equality Lead'...

Wait, what? That's a genuine post? FFS! 

...wore the 'Menovest' garment in a meeting to mark Menopause Awareness Month.

Couldn't he just mark it without a stunt? 

For instance, by getting his PA to write something cobbled together off Internet articles, like normal people who want to get shot of this pointless task so they can get on with real work? 

... as the heat came to him in 'waves' while he attended the force's Environment and Sustainability Board, he had a feeling of 'Oh no, not now' and 'an anticipation before really losing my train of thought'.

I think that particular train left the station a long, long time ago... 

Mr Jukes' Menovest experience was headline news on the Met's intranet this week.

And if they have a Yammer network, I bet it was humming... 

This may be of interest to UK taxpayers

In the interest of UK taxpayers, income and corporation rates were stated this way by reader Dearieme:

On the principle of don't invest in what you don't understand I wouldn't invest in Twitter, Meta, or "crypto". Amazon, though, looks like a conventional business. I could imagine investing in it. I'm amused by its policy that paying corporation tax is fruitless so instead it pays high salaries so it can attract good people. Which results, of course, in more tax revenue for HMG because income tax rates are higher than corporation tax.

Let’s look at that:

Feel free to tear that apart.

“No King of Mine?”

I watched the first episodes of ‘The Crown’, the drama series on Netflix. I found it watchable, interesting in the exploration of motives, or rather scripted motives, of the key players in this expensive ’Reality Show’ version of the real Royal Family. 

Without revealing too much of any of the plot strands depicted; possibly the most revealing segment of the thinking behind the writers’ was depicted with the ill-named ‘second honeymoon’ on a billionaire’s yacht in the Mediterranean. On the ‘honeymoon’ with Diana, Charles and their two sons, were all of Charles’ friends, hangers-on and supporters. 

Depicted seated at a table set on the deck at the stern of the yacht, Charles was detailing ‘his’ ideas for the trip, which was composed of visits to various ancient Roman sites full of statuary and knocked down pillars, and smaller versions of Rome’s Colosseum: and Diana asks when would there be time for shopping, beaches, and just fun for their sons? 

The reaction of the heir to the Throne, as depicted in the Netflix drama, would probably have been reflected in reality: which was an accurate assessment of the difference between the two people at the head of this drama.

But, strangely, in this screen version of reality; as well as in the superb Oscar-winning film, The Queen, the reality of the Third member of that Royal Marriage is just hinted at, at least in the episodes viewed so far.  The woman to whom Charles really was devoted to for the best part of his life, the married woman, with whom the heir to the British Throne was extremely regularly committing adultery: she hardly ever appears, but is seemingly always there. 

He could have remained single until the cuckolded husband, Andrew Parker-Bowles, finally got fed up with Charlie’s leavings, and divorced the cow; but he was under more and more pressure to marry, and to produce the Heir, and the Spare! So he lied through his teeth, deceived that beautiful girl who became his wife, and continues his adulterous liaisons with Camilla throughout the whole of his sham marriage to Diana. 

I will watch the rest of this drama series with interest, but, knowing the reality of how that beautiful wife and mother were treated in real life; can never forget how she was treated by the Royal Family, because she just would not stay quiet because she learned how badly she had been deceived by her husband, she just would not accept that ‘that was the way things are’: 

I have more than a little sympathy for those people with the placards which read “No King of Mine!”

Two countries ... similar issues

Colleen@BornCynical:

Companies always over-hire then fire extensively but seldom look at the mismanagement from the top that created the problems. HR depts are a major factor in poor management by using ridiculous "standards" for hiring, promoting those resumes that have the right buzzwords while weeding out the better qualified candidates because their cover letters weren't "good enough", as well as posting jobs that have already been filled by the boss's nephew because policy dictates the job must be posted.

The over-reporting by depts means that management relies heavily on spreadsheets that have been thrown together sloppily, never double-checked, with the old "garbage in, garbage out" adage fully in play. Bad information leads to poor decision-making.

Tech companies are over-priced, dictatorial playgrounds for the new billionaire class in this country. Top management has promoted censorship while pushing their pet causes & political viewpoints. It has to end.

IanJ from N.O.:

The prescription in the title triggered this - has your 'surgery' or pharmacy been difficult to collect prescriptions from lately? 

Mine has - even when sent electronically from the surgery, prescriptions were not being printed until one went into the shop - followed by a wait of .... or a second visit to collect.... then maybe a third if something was n/a. 

Could they check when the prescription was issued? (computers are good at this!)  No, we have a new system..... My answer was to ask to collect prescription at the surgery, deliver to pharmacy, then wait for items. 

But ... the surgery wants to be paperless and is using (guess what) a new system... OK... 

But ... the pharmacy doesn't use this system and now has to search online for the prescription, find it, then process. I'm still experimenting with this, but for >10yrs, there has been a working, reliable system, until someone (?), jobsworth, Hunt saboteur or whoever, whether in the pharmacy or the surgery, has found a neat way to wreck it while throwing blame onto everyone else. 

Am I a conspiracy theorist?  Too right, I don't trust the buggers as far as I could throw them!

There've been better, more stable times than these.

Armistice Day … 11th of the 11th, at 11 a.m.

For those across the world still observing this Remembrance, please be upstanding at 11 a.m.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: 

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

Yes, Because The Laws You Demand Apply To You Too...

The President of the National Union of Students, who was sacked following an investigation into allegations of antisemitism, says she was 'discriminated against as a black Muslim woman'.

Is there some sort of clause that says it's OK for black Muslim women to be anti-semitic, then? 

Shaima Dallali, 27, became the first president to be fired in the 100-year history of the NUS after 'significant breaches of policy' were found. It came after she was suspended from her role at the end of August, just a month into her two-year term.

But she has rejected the findings of an independent disciplinary panel and is considering taking legal action after her contract was terminated yesterday.

Hah! What sort of law firm would take on such a... 

In a statement released on her behalf today, law firm Carter-Ruck...

Oh. Right.  

...said she had already 'apologised fully for an inappropriate Tweet which she had published in 2012 (that is, a decade before becoming President)'.

Didn't you get the memo? It doesn't matter how long ago transgressions were made... 

Lawyers added that she had also made clear her position that other tweets which faced criticism and which pre-dated her election to her NUS role 'were not antisemitic'.

Didn't you get the memo that says 'it's what those offended feel that matters' either..? 

Entire Voting Audience Awarded Eye-Sight Tests

There was a story, in the Breitbart News, regarding the contest to select the Miss Greater Derry 2023 in New Hampshire, part of the Miss America organisation.

My headline? View the picture of the Winner, and then maybe you will understand my immediate reaction, which was to wonder what all the other young women were thinking about, when they decided to remain in the contest, after realising what the Opposition actually was.

It's the sources which really count

This post will appear in two places, it also cross-refers, as there's little point just transferring graphics from one place to another.  It's about sources, multiple sources, plus things triggered in our heads when we see something which adds to something we saw earlier.

This is not even up yet at our place yonder but it will be this afternoon:

It Feels Like We Are Watching the First Wholly Manufactured Election in Our History in Which All Key Competitive Races Were Programmed By Langley.

There's a different source which says much the same thing and I saw similar yesterday.

The US midterms that was and four specifics I'll refer to now, from a virtual torrent of information, including that quote, also Trump conceding so quickly, by saying, "We can lose the battle but learn much in order to win the war."

Really?  In Kari Lake's case in corrupt Maricopa, a firebrand MAGA went into an election run by her opponent Kate Hobbs, Secretary of State, in which the machines suddenly stopped working and Lake's voters in strong GOP precincts were told to stay in line for hours. If you could not, you left the ballot for later sending downtown to Hobbs's counting centre.  There was footage of ballot dumping as well and, "Here we go again." Hobbs had refused to debate, plus she has a strong Soros connection.

There was a brain damaged vegetable sent to the Senate and the memes of course featured Biden and him attempting to converse.

All that was ignored by Mad Cow Maddow on skeleton CNN whose faux outrage was over armed "thugs" standing over ballot boxes to prevent Demrats voting. Quite ignored.

Back over here, Yvette Cooper flat out lies about no plans for digital ID and this item from Wales completely ignores the bellowing elephant in the room. If you still resolutely do not understand the propaganda job being done on Welsh people, even in the url, then there is no chance you'd ever understand.

This comment very much sees:

I saw this on the *** today and wondered why our 'conservative govt' are still letting them land - surely Border force and RNLI are commiting offences too! 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63555323 

Since 28 June 2022, it has been a specific crime to knowingly arrive in the United Kingdom without proper permission. The penalty is up to four years in jail. This offence of illegal arrival was created by the Nationality and Borders Act. Tom Pursglove, the then junior ministers for tackling illegal immigration, explained to MPs that the proposed new offence aimed to tackle small boat migrants. "They arrive in, but may not technically enter, the UK," he said.

It speaks of "committing offences", which also takes us back to Arizona, plus the southern border. 

What was the one resounding "MAGA" success by the way?  De Santis on 60%, a race allowed to be free because he took steps, plus he was allowed to by the Feds.  Why?  Pundits point to kicking out Zuckerbucks, plus laws tightening voting method, plus a task force overseeing voting in key places, e.g. Broward. Plus he's the only real chance to stymie Trump in '24, plus his wife is WEF.

We now come to sources.  Quite gone as far as reality goes are those whose sources are MSM and office talk, plus talkback radio. We're not even on the same page to begin with. Even we over yonder have been hotly debating sources of late ... contributors have been putting cases and backgrounding sources, ferreting, which has seen certain exposers of controlled opposition spammed and even refused the right to comment.  By whom?  Not by me, that's for sure.

Censorship ... big tech censorship. On the other hand, there is one Demrat troll here, a leftwing academic from the States whom I'll openly block ... if you're a political blogger, tweeter or gabber, tell me you have never had to deal with trolls or censorship?

Why does Toby Young ignore the very real reticence on many MAGA's parts to roundly endorse De Santis?  Simple ... Toby's politics are M25 bubble conventional, LBC stuff, even GB News.  The sources sent by others on De Santis he's not seen because he's never looked because he doesn't know how, because he's so busily off on his own white charger.  Worthily, yes, but ignoring most of the minutiae.  Thoroughly decent chap and all that.

Sources, people ... sources ... in the final analysis, we are but our sources in the political conversation.  And no one has accessed all possible sound sources ... plus too often they start off soundly but then branch off into trollery.