h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Informative aside there TB. What the hell was it referring to?

it was referring to the

>>The second one was better. We modelled it on those bog-bodies with squidged faces. Someone had the brilliant idea of making it a Scotsman this time. As any psychologist will tell you, all intelligent people stop paying attention an average of 0.08 seconds after discerning a Scots accent.<<

bit in pinnipeg's post

I don't understand. Blair wasn't a Scot at all. He was a robot.

(And "pinnipeg" is kind of a hybrid between a seal and a place in Canada, making it a somewhat provocative form of address for a phoca)

I'm sorry, I have a cold.

Anyway, I wish to register a complaint about this socialist politian what I bought from this very boutique not half hour ago.

What's wrong with it? I'll tell you what's wrong withit my lad, it's a bleedin' monetarist, that's what's wrong with it......

As a Texan, I know little of your politics, but I'm enjoying this.

As a Brit living in Texas I'm a little more familiar with the details and I'm enjoying this too, although what worries me is that Labour (Labour... that's a good one ) is now pretty much unelectable and looks more like the Callaghan government of the late 70s every day (rudderless, hopeless, out of touch, facing mounting pressures from unhappy workers and unions, and with a leader and cabinet who no-one can take seriously any more), so it's going to be back to the Tories come election time. Let's just hope they don't have another Thatcher up their sleeve.

No. The real right-wingers are joining UKIP.

B

As I see it, we've currently got a loss of focus in world politics, with the end of the Cold War, many persist in its values on account of inertia, the anti-terrorism campaign though it's addressing real issues amounting only to tidying up in the aftermath of the colonial era. Meanwhile, despite some hangfire situations, its no longer Nation on Nation so much in conflict politics as a problem of the piratical multinationals exploiting international boundaries to keep their operations and assets out of reach of injured Nations and persons and the piratical multinationals have become our current worst threat to world peace and have been that since about 1980.

I recently watched John Oliver's comedy special on TV. John Oliver is the featured Brit on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. On his special he very succinctly summed up the strategy behind our "War On Terror".

It's the Wasps' Nest strategy. This is how we make the world safe from terrorists.

Here it is in a nutshell:

If a wasp stings you, you follow the wasp home to find its nest. Then you hit the nest repeatedly with a stick.


That's our strategy.

No. The real right-wingers are joining UKIP.


Not quite. Whilst, despite its pretences of being a wide-spectrum party united over a single issue, UKIP is basically an anti-EU gathering for disgruntled Conservatives it's not true that all the anti-EU torys are decamping to the party. Many conservative party members who are sympathetic to UKIP's agenda won't leave the conservatives because it would be leaving a major party with a good chance of being in government for a fringe party lead by and consisting largely of kooks. David Cameron seems to have attempted to control this element in the party by using the "inside the tend p***ing out" tactic (think John Redwood , a staunch anti-European who also happens to be in the shadow cabinet which I'm guessing is no coincidence). If the conservatives get back in there will be a lot of Thatcherites on the government benches and in cabinet; the question is whether the Cameronite "new tories" can control them.

I meant "inside the tent..." of course.

On Post 29: ...And then, considerably later, one comes upon Major Payne still beating where the wasp nest used to be with the same old ugly stick, the surviving wasps having relocated and established new nests elsewhere...

Pin - you do realise you'll be had up for revealing state secrets don't you ?

Still, whilst we're doing it.

The new ploy of creating a petrol shortage is of course cribbed from the Heath days but this time with a new twist - your petrol ration card will double as your biometric ID card to make sure nobody steals your petrol !

Sheer genius - Gordon's barrelling round Parliament slapping MPs from marginal constituencies and saying "who's the baby eh?"