Penny Mordaunt ...
Those other nations are too busy getting on with putting one over on the UK, which has, with the wonder that is Brexit, imposed economic sanctions upon itself. But it was all about FREEM. “Have courage. Bring hope. Stand up and fight”. There was also “Stand up and fight against the odds, against the polling, against the sneering commentary, against the inevitability of decliners and the despite-Brexiters”. The latter category are your supporters, Ms M.
But she wasn’t finished. “We are the party and country that transformed the sick man of Europe into a titan on the global stage, who stood up and fought against militant trade unions and broke their chokehold on Britain". Three million unemployed, North Sea Oil money wasted, that sort of thing.
There was yet more. “A few brave people [the cops. The right-wing press. The rich. Foreigners like Rupe] with courage and conviction and love of country who thought about the long-term, not short-term popularity, who knew what needed to be done and took on bullies to achieve it. Margaret Thatcher and every single person that stood with her and fought for a better future”.
The usual highly creative reinterpretation of recent history, then. But it was the “Stand up and fight” exhortation that rang bells. It was very adjacent to the call to his viewers to “Stand up and be counted” that ultimately saw bosses at the ITV network pull host Hughie Green and his long running talent show Opportunity Knocks off the air. Green was a broadcasting legend.
... now channelling this old fascist
To quote Wiki, “in December 1976, Green recited a monologue about the state of the United Kingdom, followed by a choir singing ‘Stand Up and Be Counted’, with the words coming up in subtitles: ‘Stand up and be counted, where the managers manage and the workers don't go on strike’”. Penny Mordaunt also broached the spectre of strike action in her speech.
Green was also a stinking hypocrite who used the scandal of an extramarital affair to see off producer Jess Yates (after he had failed to get ITV bosses to remove Yates on his say-so), while carrying on a succession of extramarital affairs himself, including one brief fling with the wife of, er, Jess Yates. The late Paula Yates discovered to her horror that Green was her father.
And right now, the Tories, having been caught pursuing a scorched earth policy on HS2, putting forward a list of alternative projects, some of which have already been built and many already announced, with their party leader proudly palling up to Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s far-right PM (“God, fatherland and family”, anyone?), are echoing TV’s most infamous old fascist.
That’s on top of more hate speech from Suella Braverman, for some reason appointed as Home Secretary, equally hard-right rhetoric from Kemi Badenoch, sniffing at the idea of a US-UK trade deal because Joe Biden stands in solidarity with ordinary working people, an increasingly intolerant response to protest, and indifference to man-made climate change.
Hughie Green would have loved it. And I mean that most sincerely, folks.
https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton
I mean this bit was just chef's kiss - "who thought about the long-term, not short-term popularity".
ReplyDeleteYou've just cancelled, half way through building it, pretty much the only large, long term infrastructure project in my life time that might have benefitted the north of the country Penelope, the idea the Tory party are anything but short term is simply laughable.
And Micawbers think "something will come along" to change it all. Something like the Starmer Quisling gang. Puppets strung up to Bliar/Brown war criminals.
ReplyDeleteYou missed out the best bit: after Opportunity Knocks was cancelled it was replaced by ... The Kenny Everett Show. Okay, he was a Tory too, but his show was a hundred times better than Hughie's.
ReplyDeleteBit of a flattering picture of Rear Admiral Mordaunt, Tim.
ReplyDeleteShe's a lot more matronly now, though still with a very slight hint of mid-period Catherine Deneuve about her.
And if some members of the Zelo St community think my mentioning her appearance is trivial, sexist, inappropriate, demeaning and even misogynistic, they're probably right. But I'm actually doing her a favour in distracting attention away from the utter cringe-inducing horror of the contents of her brain, as revealed in that warm-up speech which was obviously intended to curry favour with Sunak by making his following effort seem slightly less of an utter cringe-inducing horror show.
Bring back Bessie Braddock.
If you stand up and fight for things like human rights you get arrested and thrown in jail, these days.
ReplyDeleteSexism isn't excusable Bertie. There is so much about PM that deserves condemnation
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ReplyDeleteAs ever, I welcome your input, Mark, and I will take your judgement away and quietly reflect on it over the weekend.
I regard you as my own little Jiminy Cricket and am eternally grateful that the Blue Fairy found the good grace to give you to me.