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Leamington Letters #124: Compulsory games

14/3/2017

11 Comments

 
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Who would have thought that a referendum could be “divisive” and “cause huge economic uncertainty”?
 
Those are the terms used by Theresa May to describe a second referendum on the issue of Scottish independence. It is of course completely different from the Brexit referendum which was clearly and unequivocally “decisive”; not to mention “the will of the people”, and certainly not to mention “a clear mandate”.
 
As anyone who saw me punching the air as England scored their final try against the hapless Scots last Saturday will confirm, I am English (albeit with a weird mélange of international DNA). But as the shambles of the Brexit process unfolds, Nicola Sturgeon’s announcement yesterday gave me hope.
 
Is it, as our Prime Minister stated, “playing politics”? Or is it a perfectly reasonable response to what is going on in Downing Street and Parliament?
 
It’s the latter. Because, as that exceptional woman Mhairi Black, our youngest MP, has claimed, Westminster is “depressing”, “a waste of time”, “so old and defunct in terms of its systems and procedures”. It can drag down the best of us and raise to the heights the worst of us.
 
In my last post, I remarked that Corbyn is devolving from a man of principle into a politician. Black has intimated that she will not stand again: she is apprehensive about becoming institutionalized or helpless. This, I fear, is happening to Corbyn. 
 
No, Mrs May, politics is a game, and Corbyn and so many others are being forced to play it.

In this parliamentary hangover from the worst of the public school system, games are compulsory.
 
I suspect and hope that Nicola Sturgeon’s determination to allow the Scottish people an opportunity to remain in the EU is the equivalent of the apocryphal action of William Webb Ellis at Rugby School back in 1823.
 
I believe it demonstrates “a fine disregard for the rules of the game”.
 
Today from the everysmith vaults: I'm listening to an old (1967) John Peel show, featuring Pink Floyd, a band by which I have never been totally convinced, even though they played a great free show for The 1/- Paper at the Cambridge Corn Exchange in ... probably '68 or '69. Anyway, in the middle of the show, randomly, Peel plays a great song called The Red Sox Are Winning by a band called Earth Opera. There's some stuff on YouTube. Anyone got anything else? They're good.

11 Comments
MikeT
14/3/2017 10:11:17

Yes. If the Scots vote for independence and are accepted for Europe, I and many others will move north. As will hundreds of major companies.

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Thom
14/3/2017 10:21:37

It was an interesting choice of words from May because politics is nothing if not a game and the analogy with rugby is neat. The telling stuff is from Mhairi Black. It is clear that Parliament is no longer attracting the brightest and the best but the dross, which means that ministers are recruited from a load of bottom feeders and smart arses. See Fox, Davies, Johnston leading the negotiations. We can't afford to lose the likes of Black, nor to see the Corbyns of this world give in.

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Simon
14/3/2017 10:32:04

My worry is that the Scots will lose again, which will be taken as a mandate for yet more hard Brexiteering.

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Richard
14/3/2017 10:42:58

Speaking of the Sox, isn't it time you posted your projections for the year? The baseball desert seems pretty arid at the moment.

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Max
14/3/2017 10:46:04

It is. Next time, promise. It's just that politics keeps taking over and I know that, unlike baseball, politics is only a game.

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Geoff Stear link
14/3/2017 13:33:51

Yes Max and definitely a YES from me. We are lucky up here to have Nicola and a forward positive looking outlook for the future and remaining with the EU. A week ago I was invited and attended a breakfast with Nicola at our Arts Centre, An Lanntair in Stornoway. It was to launch Women's week so non political but she was very impressive on the subject along with her own struggle over many years to get to where she is. Very encouraging in getting more women into local politics (sadly needed) and all ventures and stopping on her departure from the stage to speak one to one to a number of sixth form girls there! She had me but then I am a paid up member of the SNP.

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Jeff
14/3/2017 20:22:08

I joined Labour because of Corbyn. I voted for Corbyn. I am resigning because of Corbyn.

This is not because of who he is but because of what has done, or not done. He has failed to offer an opposition, an alternative. He has given us no alternative.

But he has given the Tory hard right leavers a ride so easy they cannot believe their luck.

Another chance for the Left blown.

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Léon
15/3/2017 19:21:05

Spot-on, Max.

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Allan
15/3/2017 21:01:40

I understand where you're coming from, Max - been reading you stuff for years. Not sure though about this recent turn against JC. Why would have voting against the A50 bill made any difference? It wouldn't have changed the result, that's for sure. An if politics is 'the art of the possible', copyright Rab Butler, why waste energy on things that are impossible. You will argue the primacy of principle. I argue for results.

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CJ
19/3/2017 09:18:25

Earth Opera featured David Grisman. Yes, the David Grisman!

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Simon
4/4/2017 17:19:31

Earth Opera....... check out their album 'Great American Eagle Tragedy'

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    Max Smith

    European writer, radical, restaurateur and Red Sox fan. 70-something husband, father, step-father, grandfather and son. Resident in Warwick, England.

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