Centrism Is Overrated.

As anyone who has read this blog for a while will know, I am not averse to the argument that it is often necessary to nominate moderate candidates who can win rather than more ideologically rigourous candidates. However arguing for centrist candidates by using the example of a centrist candidate who has very recently had an extremely disappointing election result shows a certain lack of interest in the real world. David Frum criticises the US Tea Party movement by invoking David Cameron:

David Cameron's Conservatism responds to local British conditions. It's not an export product. But there is at least one big lesson that Americans could learn from him when the Tea Party finally ends: yes, a party must champion the values of the voters it already has. But it must also speak to the voters it still needs to win

Why would Republicans want to learn how to blow a 20%+ poll lead? Whilst speaking to the voters concerns is one thing, surrendering the ideological argument to them is foolish. It is one thing to appeal to moderates, it is quite another to throw mud at your base in order to suck up to people who will never vote for you.

In Australia recently, the Liberal Party (the main centre-right party) deposed its moderate and media friendly leader, Malcolm Turnbull, last year and replaced him with the "extremist" and less compromising Tony Abbott. The result hasn't been what the pundits had predicted, as the Liberals have rebounded strongly in the polls.

This doesn't mean that it always right to select less centrist candidates but that it isn't always a mistake.

Very Creepy Movie Dialogue

I was watching the film Sliding Doors the other day (not my usual viewing to be honest). The film was made in 1998 when this dialogue would not have been disturbing:

Helen: Who are you on the rebound from?
James: A girl called Pamela. It was 1974. We were eight. She left me for Gary Glitter. Gary Glitter!! All the other fellows were getting left for Greg Brady and Donny Osmond. I mean, I could have come to terms with that, given time, but Gary Glitter? Oh she wanted to touch him there, yeah.

Alcohol Puritans

Any hopes that this government might be less puritanical than the last one seems unfounded:

Officials are looking at changing the wording on licence applications so that pubs and clubs wanting to extend their hours will have to prove after-hours drinking offers a tangible "benefit" to the local community.

If they didn't provide a tangible benefit then presumably people wouldn't be willing to spend money in return for goods and services from them. This is just a way of empowering busybodies to shut down pubs, if certain establishments have a problems with alcohol related violence then deal with them individually.

Movies Not Historically Inaccurate Enough Say Race Baiters

Some people really are too stupid to breathe:

Essence.com recently featured a commentary titled, “Another White Actress to Play Cleopatra?” where the writer opined, “Honestly, I don't care how full Angelina Jolie's lips are, how many African children she adopts, or how bronzed her skin will become for the film, I firmly believe this role should have gone to a Black woman.”

First of all Egyptians in general are at least as close to white people as to black people in terms of their physical appearance, in fact probably closer. Secondly Cleopatra was not a typical Egyptian as she was part of the ruling Ptolemic dynasty and would therefore have been ethnically Greek. The only thing that should disqualify Angelina Jolie from playing Cleopatra is that the queen was actually a bit of a munter to be honest.

This is what happens when the branch of pseudohistory that is Afrocentrism enters the mainstream.

Leeches

Polly Toynbee writes:

Cameron and Clegg are pre-modern leech doctors: the more they bleed the economy, the sicker the patient, the higher the deficit – so the more they apply leeches.

Leeches are actually very useful in medicine, they help patients recover if used right.

People I Have An Irrational Dislike Of- Part 3

Grown men who wear England football shirts with the name of their favourite player on the back.

It makes them look 12 years old. In fact in the pub yesterday I even saw adults not merely wearing an England shirt with "Rooney" on the back, but wearing the shorts as well!

If you call out after them "Wayne can I have your autograph..... oh sorry I mistook you for Wayne Rooney", they don't appreciate it.

It looks completely tragic.

Vuvuzelas- The Downfall

Saville

After spending over a hundred million pounds to reach a pre-determined verdict the Saville Inquiry is being treated as though it actually uncovered any new information.

We know now what we knew before, that the soldiers claim to have believed that they were under attack before they shot the protesters whereas the protesters say that the paras fired without provocation.

Nothing has changed as a result of Lord Saville declaring that he believes the latter version of events.

All the talk about whether the soldiers involved will be prosecuted ignores the fact that whilst the Saville Report is portrayed as being definitive and unarguable, it is extremely unlikely that the evidence could be considered to prove the guilt of anyone beyond reasonable doubt.

In fact official inquiries are a useful way of throwing the authority of the law behind a particular version of history without actually subjecting it to the rigour the law usually requires.

See also.

It's For Children.

Whilst I agree with whoever it was that described Stephen Fry as "a stupid person’s idea of what an intelligent person is like", he's not wrong here:

: 'It's just shocking. The only dramas the BBC will boast about are Merlin and Doctor Who, which are fine but they're children's programmes. They're not for adults.

Exactly right. I saw adults complaining that the new Dalek design was obviously aimed at children, to which the only reasonable response is "well duh". The only occasionally adult aspects to the show are when the writers try to shoehorn in unsubtle political propaganda.

There are very few high quality programmes aimed at adults on British television, particular with dramas.

Wizbit

For some reason I had an urge to look up something about 1980s TV show, Wizbit, today. I think the Wikipedia entry raises some important points about the internal contradictions of the show:

Although it was stated in the show that Wizbit's year-and-a-day mission was to find out all about planet Earth, this clashed somewhat with the events witnessed on screen. Wizbit was (apparently) to learn about everyday life on earth by solving puzzles in a town inhabited by walking, talking (and often singing) sponge-balls, dice, magic wands, playing cards and 7-foot-tall (2.1 m) rabbits.

I feel so stupid for not having spotted that 20 years ago.

Best Twitter Account Ever

The Vuvuzela Horn Twitter page. Sample post:

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Culture Clash

The BBC recalls the last time North Korea were at the World Cup, in England 1966.

North Korea played all three of their group games at Middlesbrough's Ayresome Park ground and when they travelled to Liverpool to take on Portugal, thousands of Teessiders followed.

In 2002, Pak and the other six surviving members of the squad returned to parade around Middlesbrough's new Riverside home ahead of a match against Leeds while Boro's ladies team are planning to tour North Korea in the autumn.

"They came up to Middlesbrough and because of their attitude were embraced by the local population," said Bonner.

Teesiders and North Koreans, that must have been a real culture shock, one the one hand there were people who lived in a socialist fortress where every activity was dictated to by an all powerful state who controlled the entire economy and on the other hand the North Koreans.

Sad But Almost Inevitable

The world's oldest mother is dying just 18 months after giving birth at the age of 70.

Very sad, but it does raise the obvious question as to why doctors helped a woman of that age become a mother.

'The doctor never warned me it was dangerous to have a baby at my age. But I was healthy before, and now I am very sick.'

Does anyone really need to be told that having a baby at 70 might have health risks?

Even The Butler Was Poor

There was once a pupil at Eton who had to write a short story about being poor, the opening lines of the essay were something like, "They were a poor family, the father was poor, the mother was poor, even the butler was poor.....". It's probably apocryphal but I suspect Mark Field MP would concur with the sentiment:

Many people who buy a second home outside the capital as an addition to a small London base do so not because they are enormously wealthy but precisely because they are not.

It is virtually impossible even for many of those earning multiples of the average national wage to trade up the property ladder in the capital. For those with growing families, the only option is often to buy a [second] house with garden outside London

Via Mark Wadsworth.

Gardening Tip

If you have a lawn, start mowing it sometime before the middle of June when the grass is higher than your waist, as it will clog up the lawnmower.

Unreciprocated Love

Peter Hitchens writes about anti-British sentiment in the USA something I've written about before albeit more tongue in cheek than Hitchens' column, he even quotes the same buffoonish Chicago mayor of the 1920s that I mentioned- Bill Thompson.

Of course the fact that we both have to cite a figure from the 1920s to bolster the case for US anglophobia does suggest that current examples are thin on the ground despite President Obama's posturing over the oil spill.

Whilst the political posturing of US politicians such as President Obama over the BP oil leak is undignified the fact remains that they are attacking BP because BP is in the wrong not because it is British.

However whilst the President probably has nothing against us it, his rather undiplomatic blundering does illustrate another point- he isn't much interested in the world outside the United States. For all the talk of how his background meant that he would be exceptionally astute in dealing with the outside world, his outlook is intensely insular. There is nothing in the way he sees the world that consists of anything beyond the standard positions of the company he has mixed in for his adult life. To the extent he has any interest in the outside world it extends only to the impact it has on US domestic politics.

Quote Of The Day

From the current edition of Viz:

'General Public Spoiling Planet For Stars'- Says Sting

Helpful Observation Of The Day

When the South African fans have finally deafened themselves (and everyone in the immediate vicinity) with their vuvuzelas, they can of course move them round and use them as ear trumpets.

An encouraging thought for these economically-straitened times.

- Edwin Greenwood.