Blimey
So, we were close. He's gone for the country.
Someone remind me of Japan's revolution? South Korea's? Switzerland's? Come to think of it, did Germany ever have one? (Hitler was elected, after all.) And I wouldn't call Russia rich.
[Slams head into desk repeatedly, until it bleeds.] Er yes, Nick. The Forestry Commission and the National Trust took lots of land off private landowners, not unlike the Russian revolution. (Now he's defending the peasants -- in the name of the revolution! Thank Christ I never went to Oxenford also.)
Oh God, I've been saying this for so long. Good for Nick.
Good for Nick. I don't know who you've been talking to, but keep the anti-New Labour stuff up at all costs, man.
Hey, I said he'd go for BMWs and Chris Huhne. This is like winning the lottery. Without the money part, obviously.
Lord knows, I find the class hatred behind the hunting of the hunters easy to understand. Britain is the only rich country not to have had a modern revolution.
Someone remind me of Japan's revolution? South Korea's? Switzerland's? Come to think of it, did Germany ever have one? (Hitler was elected, after all.) And I wouldn't call Russia rich.
The typical continental smallholding, with a few acres on which the owner can do as he or she pleases, is a rarity here. This land is not our land but the property of great families or the Forestry Commission and the National Trust.
[Slams head into desk repeatedly, until it bleeds.] Er yes, Nick. The Forestry Commission and the National Trust took lots of land off private landowners, not unlike the Russian revolution. (Now he's defending the peasants -- in the name of the revolution! Thank Christ I never went to Oxenford also.)
In the past decade, the league has lost two chief executives, two chairmen, one treasurer and one regional head. All of them concluded that an effective ban would lead to the slaughter of foxes by farmers with guns who no longer wanted to keep them alive for the hunts to chase. I cannot think of another protest group that has seen so many of its officers go over to the other side. It is as if senior staff of Greenpeace regularly joined the board of Texaco.
Oh God, I've been saying this for so long. Good for Nick.
The people who are at the league, for the time being at any rate, told me they expected the police to collect evidence that the hunts are intentionally breaking the law and bring prosecutions soon. If they don't, their ban will join Margaret Thatcher's prohibition of the promotion of homosexuality and Jack Straw's curfews for children in that list of fatuous legislation that was designed to make vocal minorities feel good and succeeded only in bringing the law into disrepute.
Good for Nick. I don't know who you've been talking to, but keep the anti-New Labour stuff up at all costs, man.
Hey, I said he'd go for BMWs and Chris Huhne. This is like winning the lottery. Without the money part, obviously.
posted by The Rioja Kid at 2/26/2006 01:51:00 AM
4 Comments:
Oh, Christ: he thinks that the resignation of Larry Summers "throws a little light on the cowardly response to the threats against Danish cartoonists from murderous tyrants", as even "intellectuals whose livelihoods depend on free thought won't stand up for it".
For anyone in the grip of this particular delusion, start here, with a post from someone who knows something about the institution; go here for a bit more relevant background, and if you still think there's an academic freedom issue here, finish up with this.
The claim that Britain is the only rich country that never had a modern revolution is utter crap since (a) England did have a revolution in modern times (in the C17) and (b) there are lots of countries that undeniably rich that never had one: Iceland, Canada, etc etc. I guess that in Nick's mind "modern" and "revolution" are both defined in special ways so as to deal with all potential counterexamples.
Why is he lining up behind the Alan Dershowitz narrative on Summers? Is he just ignorant?
I think he is wrong on the class hate angle as well as on the ineffectiveness; one of the other effects of the Hunting bill was that it has effectively wiped out the genuinely working-class (and genuinely horribly cruel) sport of hare coursing, and I've seen nobody claiming that it has been ineffective in achieving this aim.
oh and the proportion of the country which wanted foxhunting made illegal was not a "vocal minority".
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