Reactions!

Friday the 13th! Running in the rain to combat despair! A very grey day - literally and metaphorically. We didn’t really expect Labour to win but we were hoping it would not be such a landslide for the Conservatives.

I am not listening to any news programmes as they are full of Tory jubilation and Labour recrimination.

I notice that Mr Johnson is no longer hiding from reporters in fridges.

According to Simon Jenkins, writing in the Guardian, there is reason to hope that having a large majority might persuade the PM to be more liberal in some aspects of policy. I remain to be convinced.

A Labour activist friend of mine, who has knocked on a lot of doors recently, reported that the feeling on the doorsteps was very much that people were fed up of lack of Brexit progress and voted accordingly. Do they now expect that it will all be done and dusted by the end of January? According to this from the Independent, that may not be very likely:

“According to the manifesto, and Johnson’s protestations, we will leave the European Union by 31 January and secure a trade agreement 11 months later. That doesn’t leave much time for the prime minister to pull through this time around. And with so many other missed deadlines in his shadow, few believe it’s actually achievable. Why? Well, for starters, the EU has repeatedly poo-pooed (as he might say) the prospect, with a leak just days ago suggesting that EU leaders have abandoned their promise to finalise a trade deal swiftly. On Wednesday, a leaked recording of EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier further poured cold water on Johnson’s ambitions, admitting during a closed meeting that the UK’s timetable to wrap up trade talks by 2021 is “unrealistic” and suggests negotiations will drag on until long after the end of next year.”

I could quote other stuff from that article but I think that I have included enough.

I also give you this from leftinnewzealand:

“Britain dutifully bows down to the ruling elite.
Posted on December 13, 2019 by leftinnewzealand

Congratulations to the people of ‘Great’ Britain for voting the ruling elite into power yet again. You certainly do know your place. Now they have a mandate to treat people with disdain and contempt, for the next five years. I always thought people in the US were dumb, but there is a new kid on the block vying for the title. How can a party offering no credible policies, with a history of inflicting misery on millions, with a leader who hides in a fridge when things get mildly difficult remain in power. I could glibly say you get what you deserve, but that would be grossly unfair to the millions who can see through this charade of thinly veiled fascism.”

Meanwhile, here is something else.

On one of those sections of TV news programmes where they get pundits to talk about the next day’s papers, I heard someone the other day commenting on Greta Thunberg, who had just been named as Time magazine’s person of the year. He more or less said that all her running around the world talking about climate change meant that this “poor girl” had not had a childhood. I found myself wondering if she is having any less of a childhood than youngsters her age who spend hours glued to their electronic entertainment devices, or the ones who hang around in the park under-age drinking. Everything is relative!

She seems to me to be both older and younger than many youngsters of her age. My daughter, who has had more experience with youngsters on the autism spectrum, this is often the case with such young people. But she seems pretty well organised and self-aware to me. Just her command of English is impressive. Some have suggested that POTUS was perhaps jealous of her being crowned Time Magazine’s Person of the Year. Apparently he tweeted in less than encouraging terms that it was “so ridiculous” and said Greta Thunberg needed to work on her “anger management problem” and should chill out watching a good movie with a friend.

Young Greta responded by quoting Trump in her Twitter bio as a badge of honor. Similarly, when President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil referred to Thunberg as a brat, she updated her bio to read “Pirralha” – the Portuguese word for brat. After President Trump’s tweet she changed it again to read: “A teenager working on her anger management problem. Currently chilling and watching a good old fashioned movie with a friend.”

Either she has a very good PR manager or she is pretty clever young lady.