Thursday 21 March 2019

Existential Questions


Why is Paul Weller called the Modfather?




He was part of the Mod revival and not the original Mod movement - he's simply not old enough. He should be called the Modson.

Why do crumpets take forever to toast?


I like mine with a sprinkle of salt.

Why is the right wing press turning on MPs when all they want is what's best for Britain? No Deal is terminally bad and May's deal is marginally better, but the best deal, by a country mile, is Remain, and most politicians know that even if some sections of the electorate don't..

Someone referenced World War II again to me yesterday in regard of the EU owing the UK a living, however, these events were many years prior to them even being born. Anyone alive today who took part in the Normandy landings must be at least 90 - and there can't be too many of those heroes still alive.

In the Glorious Revolution of 1688, Dutch forces saved England from Catholicism, but I take no personal credit for this, so why should Brexiteers take personal credit for saving Europe from the Nazis? If they do take personal credit for this, then they must also, logically, take personal credit for the slave trade and make reparations.

The French government has been awarding the Légion d’honneur to D-Day veterans from many different countries for many years, as a way of honouring and thanking those who fought and risked their lives to secure France’s liberation during the Second World War. Brexiteers conveniently forget this fact. The corollary of that is that the Europeans should thank the very people who liberated them and not their descendants, which is what they did when they invited Britain to join in their economic prosperity. Of course there was that fly in the ointment called de Gaulle, but that was overcome. Now some Brits have thrown their toys out of the pram in an orgy of hubristic self-destruction and pique, unhappy that they can't rule the EU as they did the Empire.

Additionally, Britain did not defeat the Nazis single-handed; America and Russia played a massive role. Without America or Russia Britain would have been toast. Brexiteers need reminding who was Supreme Allied Commander in Europe.

The old canard of NATO being the cause of peace in Europe since 1945 was used too, but NATO was created as a foil against Russia, not to prevent war between NATO members, for which it has no mechanism to act. It was formed as an alliance against external threat, not internal. What has stopped Germany and France engaging in a war against each other, on average every 23 years since the 1700s, is the fact they're  now in an economic and trade union, which acts as an existential barrier to war between them (there - I knew I'd get back to existentialism).


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