The Evil Empire of the Internet must be broken up.
At the start of this year, I said that I was getting out of the climate wars because in my opinion we’d won and the election of Trump would finish it off. I knew as a no-nonsense businessman who recognised a scam when he saw one, he’d cut directly through the oxygen line of government … Continue reading
Find them, fix them and then destroy them.
In general, you arrive in an open conflict situation in one of three ways. Someone unexpectedly comes after you, someone you were expecting to come after you does so or you decide to to go after someone yourself. The term conflict situation as used here covers all the sins; interpersonal strife, business rivalry, trade wars and … Continue reading
On Easter eggs, old boilers, food, batons, youth and old age.
It’s Easter and all our children and their partners will be back here for it. It’s a long weekend off with a national holiday both on the Friday before it and the Monday afterward. On the Wednesday just on the cusp of our visitors arriving, our boiler decided with perfect timing to go on the fritz. These things are sent … Continue reading
Dropping the hammer on the lot of them.
The British Prime Minister Theresa May has just decided to call an early general election at the start of June. She stated her main reason for doing so rather than serving out the next three years of her premiership, was the unreasonable resistance she was encountering with the political establishment in London in her attempt to … Continue reading
Islamic terrorism.
In the light of the latest Islamic terrorism atrocity in London, you can watch the same tired old excuse machine cranking up. First off, it wasn’t terrorism but an unstable person, then maybe it was, then while the names of the dead and the injured are filtering out, the name of the terrorist mysteriously doesn’t … Continue reading
The lawnmower boy.
As a kid and like the vast majority of my generation, I knew the family worked on a tight budget. If you wanted something extra, you got some kind of nickel and dime part-time job and after a kickback into the family pot, you had some money of your own in your back pocket. I … Continue reading
Trump begins to bitch slap Obama around.
A couple of months back I wrote a Foxtrot Oscar type of farewell to Obama, which in passing mentioned my opinion that he wanted to do a comeback for a third term at the end of the Trump presidency. The main point of the piece was that I thought Obama was arrogant and since he’d … Continue reading
Goodbye and good riddance Obama.
Obama was a president who came in with a large popular mandate but who managed to squander it within a few short years and with it legislative control of Congress. I don’t intend to go into the exact process of incompetence, blunder and giving offence in all directions by which he did it, but he set … Continue reading
The American election of 2016.
“A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of communism. All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: Pope and Tsar, Metternich and Guizot, French Radicals and German police-spies.” That is the opening sentence of the introduction to the Manifesto of the Communist Party by Karl Marx and … Continue reading
Betrayal by those you once trusted.
If you’ve ever been inside electoral politics or have learnt to leave aside whatever doctrinal leanings you have and actually take a hard look at whatever candidate you fervently support, you soon realise that whatever the political stripe they are, they all share the common attribute of having a public persona and a private one. … Continue reading
The life, and death, of a party.
In a previous article, I discussed in general terms how a mainstream political party can die. There are always several contributing factors to this rare phenomenon, but the main one is that it becomes too inward looking and disconnected from both its power base of voters and too many of the representatives its voters have … Continue reading
A stay in hospital.
I’ve always been blessed with rude good health, which means I unthinkingly relied on it or in other words abused it. I’d never had a cramp until I was over fifty and I’ve never had a headache in my life. Sure, I’ve had the occasional bout of flu, a skin cancer souvenir of warmer climes … Continue reading
Talent and transferring it.
My wife is a very good cook with the added cross to bear of having had three sons all of whom have man-sized appetites for food and a hollow leg. Not an extra pound on them, but they all could really eat their own bodyweight on a daily basis if given free rein. That sorta stuff … Continue reading
To a child, a birth poem, from his grandfather.
I held you in my arms a few days after your birth. Five visitors all got to have a hold of you, And despite all the passing around, You never made strange. Five day old eyes, The eyes of the ages, Squeezed open to see who held you, And then retired back … Continue reading
About fighting evil.
My woman is home and safe. She’s been off for the weekend with her posse to a music festival. It’s a women only group, there’s a whole bunch of them and it’d be a very brave man who’d get anywhere into the middle of that jaunt. They’re just having a great old time judging from … Continue reading
The importance of playing.
“Uncle Pointy, never mind them, come and play with me.” She’s my niece and just crested five years old. I’m sitting around a picnic table in the garden with extended family after consuming a leisurely BBQ and having a good old gab in the sunshine which is splitting the trees, but she grabs my hand … Continue reading
A Berlin story : Fast Eddie, the dog’s bollocks and there’s always more pieces to the story.
I’m a people person and when working away from home I’d miss some company, so I usually sorted myself out a relaxed bar where I could occasionally pop in and have a couple of drinks after work and a chat with the locals. A smart etiquette when you’re new to the joint, is to sit … Continue reading
They’re not fit to rule us.
Britain will be voting this coming Thursday on whether it wants to leave or stay in the European Union. The respective campaigns are called Brexit and Remain. A few months ago, it looked to be a David versus Goliath situation, with the Remain campaign supported by all the major parties. Basically, it was the big … Continue reading
A Berlin story : Beate.
I’ve never had what’s called a local; I’m too antsy to spend most evenings in a bar. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not sniffy about that pleasant bracket of society and I’m partial to a drink and a laugh in company, but only once in a while. Every night would be too much for me. Turning … Continue reading
Birthday musings.
It’ll be my birthday this weekend. I don’t like a lot of fuss over it. Nothing’s been mentioned – always a bad sign – and there’s a lot of furtive scurrying going on around me which I studiously choose to ignore, so there’s some plan afoot and events will unfold as is their wont and … Continue reading
Pointman's 
My belated condolences. I always enjoyed reading his posts and will miss his insight and wide ranging views. May hew…