Two Spoilt Little Rich Boys Who Both Have The Attention Span Of A Gnat, And Believe Most Of Their Audience Does Too

Europeans Are Mocking Us.
In the eyes of the wider world, the British national character has undergone a seismic shift.
Instead of seeing us as a stoic nation full of people with stiff upper lips they view us as a shower of headless chickens with loose lower bowels.
In this post-Brexit chaos where no one has a plan, and those who were supposed to have one have resigned, where racism is on the rise, and Chilcot has lacerated our politicians for taking us into a catastrophic war on a lie, Europeans are mercilessly mocking us.
( Brian Reade, 09.07.2016 )

Michael Gove and Boris Johnson are fooling no one when they claim to be on the side of British workers.
They oppose every vital EU law that protects workers’ rights.
They’ve never cared for working people at any point.
These are dangerous wolves in sheep’s clothing.
( Lord Neil Kinnock, April 2016 )

Isn’t it funny how right-wing papers have stopped printing photos of hordes of migrants trying to get into Britain now we’ve voted to leave Europe?
( Brian Reade, 09.07.2016 )

This man has done more to divide the nation than anybody else.
He’s looked after his own pocket.
( Labour MP Dennis Skinner on PM David Cameron, April 2016 )

As I have said on so many occasions, unless people like you and me retake politics from the people we have little in common with, away from a political class, then there will always be some minister who distorts that privilege into abusing other, less well placed public servants.
And does so, technically, in our name because we allowed the system to continue.
( John Bird, October 2012 )

A Very Kind, Funny And Special Woman.
I’ve interviewed, or met, six of the famous people who have died this year.
Victoria Wood, Muhammad Ali, Terry Wogan, Carla Lane, Ronnie Corbett and Caroline Aherne.
But none were as down to earth, or made me laugh as much as Aherne.
One interview was in a London house she’d moved into weeks earlier that was a tip because she hadn’t bothered to unpack.

There were BAFTAs and Comedy Awards stuffed behind mirrors still in their boxes.
A courier knocked with a case of champagne, sent for winning her latest one.
She opened a bottle, poured it into two tea mugs and said: “You’re not arsed with it being chilled, are you?”
Halfway through, she asked if I fancied writing her autobiography, which she said would be a bestseller.
I believed her and told her I couldn’t see why not, until she told me she needed total concentration so wanted to go to an Indian island for three months to write it.

Did I fancy going?
When I told her that could be a slight problem she replied: “Shame. You’ve just knocked back the best time you’ll ever have and the best story you’ll ever write because I’ve had some life, believe me”.
She had.
RIP a very kind, funny and special woman.
( Brian Reade, 09.07.2016 )

Aren’t the Tories worried that if you put together the names of their last woman leader and their likely next one you end up with a thieving prostitute called Maggie May?
( Brian Reade, 09.07.2016 )

Two Disloyal, Deceitful Narcissists.
It came as no surprise to read that today’s young people will officially be the first generation to end up poorer than their parents.
They’ll earn less money, have more debt, work longer for worse pensions and live at home until their mum’s hands are too frail to scrub their smalls.
So bad is their luck that when they are finally offered their own place it will be in an over 55s sheltered housing scheme, and their dad will have got their first.

The baby-boomer generation I belong to should hang its head in shame.
Well the men at least, because women could argue they have lifted the ambitions of their own gender.
They can claim, as Theresa, Angela, Nicola and possibly Hillary run entire countries, they’ve produced inspirational role models.
What about the boys?

Specifically, the boys of Britain and America, where the most high-profile and powerful male politicians are Boris Johnson and Donald Trump.
Two disloyal, deceitful narcissists, who are utterly consumed with their own personal ambition and willing to crush anyone, and anything including their nation’s best interests, to achieve power.
And that’s without mentioning the hair.

Outside of a serial killer, or a train-spotter, if there was one thing you prayed your son wouldn’t turn into, it would be either of these two sociopaths.
The parallels are striking.
Both are spoilt little rich boys who spin the line that they’re rebelling against the Establishment, when they are only rebelling against anyone who doesn’t buy into their belief that they were born to rule.

Both are political turncoats who feel facts only get in the way of emotionally charged lies that resonate with the disenfranchised.
Both have the attention span of a gnat, believing most of their audience does too.
That’s why they speak in populist, at times racist soundbites, with no depth too low to be plumbed.

For Trump’s walls to stop Mexicans so all Americans can have a job, read Johnson’s false pledges of £350million on buses to save the NHS.
For banning all Muslims from blowing up America, read the EU being the realisation of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi dream.
( Brian Reade, 23.07.2016 )

Do not underestimate the power of propaganda and deliberately spoken untruths by government ministers and do not underestimate the number of stubborn and stupid people who support the government and would rather believe the lies than face and admit to the truth.
( Rose Winfold )

That’s the standard technique of privatisation.
Defund, make sure things don’t work, people get angry, you hand it over to private capital.
( Noam Chomsky )

Calling 911 and waiting is no longer your best option.
You can beg for mercy, or you can fight back.
Consider taking a safety course in handling a firearm so you can defend yourself until we get there.
( Sheriff David Clarke, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin )

I love it when people tell you they are speechless.
( Charlie O’Malley )

There is only one hope for mankind, and that is Democratic Socialism.
( Nye Bevan )

Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry.
It merely astonishes me.
How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company?
It’s beyond me.
( Zora Neale Hurston )

All ‘religions’ are man-made, and some try to impose, by force, their barbaric medieval laws on others.
Female genital mutilation, honour killings, public stonings and floggings, amputation of limbs, child abuse, and other atrocities.
( Rose Winfold )

Whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do.
( Wendell Berry )

As supporters of Israel, perhaps you agree with the racist statements of Israeli government ministers such as Eli Dahan that Jews have higher souls than non-Jews?
Or Miri Regev’s belief that asylum seekers are a ‘cancer’?
Or, would this be guilt by association, as in your character assassination of Jeremy Corbyn?
( In an open letter written by prominent members of the Jewish community to the Jewish Chronicle )

When you finally realise that our leaders are motivated only by money, you will understand why they don’t care.
( Rose Winfold )

I think it dangerous to argue guilt by association and in so doing to undermine the kind of dialogue and debate that is the basis of peace, progress, and greater understanding in the world.
( Shami Chakrabarti )

The minute I started thinking it through, I realised all religions are a form of manipulation.
And I started having problems with certain beliefs, like in Africa, where people are dying of AIDS and over-population, the Catholic Church is going over to covert them and take away the condoms.
And I said, ‘Wait a minute’.
( Salma Hayek )

The more I read about and listen to Donald Trump, the more appalled I am.
Not as a Democrat, as a human being.
A genuinely nasty man.
( Stephen King )

Our own opinion is always right, but sometimes we should keep it to ourselves.
I sometimes listen to a conversation between two strangers and mentally give my own opinion.
And sometimes, the amount of self-control it takes to keep my mouth shut is so exhausting I need a nap.
( Rose Winfold )