In all our sanctuaries we sit at risk
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The Parrot and the Lie
This stanza was written late on the night of January 30th, when the Commons debated a series of amendments, at least one of which might have resulted in Parliament wresting control of the Brexit process from May’s Tory government. That result failed to materialise.
Instead, the Tories enjoyed some rare moments of apparent unity. They came together around a puerile fantasy that, out of the blue, the EU would agree to make a change that the EU has said all along and repeatedly that it would not. But that’s all right. Their own unity comes first and delusion is acceptable so long as it brings the family together, if only for a few hours. And Yvette Cooper’s sensible and adult amendment that would have prevented No Deal was voted down – due partly to a fear among some of her own party’s MP’s that by thus disturbing the suicidal delusions of their constituents, they might lose their seats.
Quote from “Speak, Parrot” by John Skelton : “Parrot is my own dear heart and my dear darling.”
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Plain Words from the Cage
The balloons are a Bristol image, since hot-air balloons often appear above the city. I ought to say, though, that whatever fills the Bristol balloons does not appear to be foul.
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Jez Labours
Did the young see Jez aright ? Or, in their disillusion with the status quo, were they projecting all their hope onto a blank screen, seeing Jez wrongly as somehow an answer, seeing colour on the screen, which is actually not there ? For Jez is not very colourful.
And perhaps he needs that status quo which has so betrayed the young. He can sit around the table being the rebel, the maverick, the awkward squad. He can say, “On a point of order, Chair…” It feels good, to make the Chair wriggle a bit. He’s done it all his life. He sits at the table and watches those who act, and again and again he says, “On a point of order, Chair…”
He knows what yearning there is among his young supporters for a second referendum, a “final say”. Their future lives are at stake. He owes his present heady position to these same young people. They put their faith in him. Will he raise the torch for them ? Or if he won’t, will he explain to them the reasons for his failure to do so, now that it is becoming clear that it was never his intention ?
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Maybot in Harness
Headline in “The Guardian” January 21st : “May claims EU second referendum would threaten ‘social cohesion’ ”
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Cage Alight
We in Britain are groping about in a strange country, which just happens to be our own. What next ? Where next ? And what has just occured ? Two days ago, May’s deal was voted down by an enormous margin. Yesterday, she survived (not by that much) a vote of no confidence. Has anything changed ? Has anything really taken place ? Perhaps not. She’s still mouthing the same failed formulae. Corbyn keeps mouthing the same hollow fantasies…
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The Gods at War, Following a Murder
May’s “deal” was voted down last night after the heaviest governmental defeat in history. Released from the ghastly, grinding and disgraceful progress of her inadequate deal, are we freer now to resolve things a reparative way, or will the hopeless nonsense of this poisonous issue merely change its shape, and muliply its warring elements ?
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