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Friday 14 April 2023

Nile Gardiner - Partisan Idiot Speaks

Joe Biden has been visiting Ireland, being awarded the privilege of addressing the Oireachtas among his engagements. He also made time to visit Northern Ireland, meeting party leaders and encouraging them in the direction of restoring the power sharing executive at Stormont: The USA is, let us not forget, a guarantor of the Good Friday Agreements of 25 years ago.

Nile Gardiner. At least as stupid as he looks

So far, so routine, but in the fevered mind of partisan pundits, Biden had done something wrong. And there are few pundits more tediously and reliably partisan than Nile “Chauncey” Gardiner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Centre for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation. He was aghast at Biden’s behaviour: “Joe Biden has gravely insulted Britain” he whined plaintively.

Do go on. “President Biden’s insulting decision to prioritise Ireland over the UK on his visit to mark the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement should have come as no surprise”. The GFA is about Ireland, Nile. And it was a visit to Ireland. He will make a state visit to the UK later. And talking of state visits.

It is just as unsurprising as his decision to skip the coronation of King Charles III … His approach towards Britain, traditionally America’s closest friend and ally, has been sneering, arrogant and disrespectful”. Missed that? So did I. But then he admits “Yes, it is true that no US president has ever attended the Coronation of a British monarch. But the last Coronation, of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, was 70 years ago, in the aftermath of World War Two, in a completely different era”. And a Republican President (Eisenhower).

And Nile doesn’t say boo about the GOP. But this is lame rubbish. US Presidents don’t do Coronations. Ike didn’t, nor did FDR in 1937. Biden did attend the funeral service for Elizabeth II, but gets no credit from Gardiner. Instead, Chauncey gets out his quote generator and moans loudly.

An additional factor shaping Biden’s treatment of Britain is his intense animosity towards Brexit, and his adoration of the European Union … Biden has shamelessly appeased the EU and its powerhouses of Paris and Berlin, while often treating London with barely disguised menace and disdain”.

No citation, and none will be forthcoming. He whines at Biden because that’s what he did to Barack Obama, and what he does to all Dems. Compare and contrast with the visit to the UK in 2019 by Combover Crybaby Donald Trump: “The roaring success of Trump's state visit proves the Special Relationship is alive and well … this was one of the most effective overseas visits of the Trump presidency”. It may have been effective. But not in the way suggested.


While Gardiner simpered “But the grandeur of the state visit was matched by the force of Mr Trump’s message for the British people. His top policy priority was to advance a US-UK free trade deal which, when put in place, will be one of the biggest bilateral trade deals ever signed … the president made it crystal clear that he wants a trade deal implemented as soon as possible, ideally by 2020”, he missed the Trump gaffe that caused all the trouble.

Not that he’d admit that a Republican President did gaffes, or interfered in domestic UK politics. But Trump did just that, after he admittedI think we’re going to have a great trade deal … We’re going to have a great and very comprehensive trade deal … I think everything with a trade deal is on the table. When you’re dealing with trade, everything’s on the table”. Do go on.

So NHS or anything else … a lot more than that, but everything will be on the table”. Whoops! The Brexit Party and its Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage, who had been such enthusiastic supporters of The Donald, and who were expected to win the Peterborough by-election that took place a few days after Trump made those remarks, didn’t. They lost. It was Trump wot lost it.

But there was nothing but praise from Gardiner. “While the European Union will wait years, even decades, for a trade deal with America, Britain could have one within a year, provided it leaves the EU on October 31”. Didn’t happen. It was never going to happen. Not in the real world.

Not that Chauncey was going to tell readers of the increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph. Instead, he sneered “Joe Biden is increasingly portrayed on both sides of the Atlantic as a bumbling, gaffe-prone president who mumbles his words, and can be strikingly incoherent in public settings. This is an accurate assessment”. No it isn’t. It’s just partisan abuse.

And never forget: this is the idiot who, while he was having a sneer at Barack Obama, said “When John F. Kennedy delivered his ‘Ich Bin Ein Berliner’ speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate on June 26, 1963, 450,000 people flocked to hear him". Except that the Brandenburg Gate was on the other side of the wall, in East Berlin. JFK spoke at the Rathaus Schöneberg.

That’s what happens when you’ve never had a proper job. Sad, really.


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15 comments:

David Boffey said...

"Nile Gardiner. At least as stupid as he looks"
Indeed, and even more dishonest.

Burlington Bertie from Bow said...

That's what I like about this blog, Tim, you meet so many new and interesting people. Where do you find them?

I'd never heard of this twat and reading your account of him and his wise words I assumed he was some Fox News moron. But no, he's a UK citizen with a vote in our elections, a nice blue/black passport and the freedom to mix with normal British people.

Google even has a picture of him in Mme Tussaud's standing alongside their waxwork of Mrs Thatcher.

Every day's a school day on Zelo Street!

Anonymous said...

Nelly.... Thatcher's teaboy. One lump or two?

Mr Larrington said...

I mean, he does know that USAnia was established as a result of a rebellion against the British monarchy, no? It wasn’t just about tea, you great spud.

Anonymous said...

"...often treating London with barely disguised menace and disdain.”

Not true. But if it was Biden can't be all Yank Bad.😊

Burlington Bertie from Bow said...


I think you'll find that's synecdoche, me old Anonymous Cloggie.

Anonymous said...

Right on cue. Bound to flush you out, me old Micawber. Jellied (h)eels 'n' all. 😊

Have a nice day.

Anonymous said...

This'll be the same outfit that asked the Trussterfuck to give a speech, no?

Isn't that telling.

Burlington Bertie from Bow said...

Don't mention it, me old Cloggster, my pleasure. And if there's anything else we can enlighten you on, please ask.

PS Now don't confuse synecdoche with metonymy will you. Look up both and get back to us if there's any problem.

Every day's a school day on Zelo Street, eh?

Anonymous said...

Please don't use ableist words like "mor*n" Bertie. They are not pleasant to say the least.

Burlington Bertie from Bow said...


Clearly, Anonymous, when I call an idiot like Gardiner a 'moron', the last thing I am setting out to be is 'pleasant'.

And if you're offended by terms of abuse like cretin, idiot or moron, and believe that they constitute 'ableism', then it might be advisable for you to avoid political blogs where Tories and their apologists are regularly and robustly considered.

Anonymous said...

Bertie, they do constitute a leisure, there is no doubt about that and I'd be fired if I used those at my work.

Please reconsider using them in the future.

Burlington Bertie from Bow said...


But neither of us IS 'at your work', Anonymous, so I see no relevance to your comment. Context is all.

I have not considered and so I could not 'reconsider' using such terms in the context of this blog, though I can imagine other contexts, the company of people with cognitive problems* for example, where I would choose other terms, possibly.

However, in case your comments have persuaded others to your way of thinking, perhaps you could suggest some alternative terms which would meet the approval of you and the people in power at 'your work'.

*Please insert 'challenges', 'issues', 'diversity', 'opportunities', 'blessings' as you feel appropriate.

Mark Hayhurst said...

I know that we have had our differences Bertie, but I am in full agreement here.

These terms have existed for centuries. And, if they involve "offending" a couple of people with learning disabilities (or, more honestly, the white knights who won't let them speak) then that is a miniscule price to pay.

Burlington Bertie from Bow said...

Thanks, Mark.
I'm not sure whether the objection to my words came from the poster's actual belief or from an adopted professional commitment to whatever the current convention dictates in his/her line of business.

Whatever it is, it strikes me as absurd. Idiot, moron and cretin were once the official medical terms for certain specific neurological conditions. Through association they became pejoratives and so were replaced by more 'neutral' terms. Predictably, those replacement terms then became pejoratives themselves. The poster, and the conventions he personifies, seem to have no understanding of this or of the fact that whatever euphemism they invent will ultimately become pejorative too.

More important than that is the fact that I intended 'moron' as a term of abuse aimed at someone who was not a vulnerable person with neurological problems but a self-advertising spouter of nonsense. Terms of abuse need to be abusive. De-fanging the English language serves no one.

Thanks again.