Are UKIP bonkers, or just thick?

This from the website of UKIP's Yorkshire MEP, Godfrey Bloom: "Foreign MEPs, i.e. the vast majority, like the EU Commissioners, over half of whom are communists..."

Note to ALL 13 UKIP MEPs, there are 736 Members of the European Parliament, of whom 72 represent the UK.

736-72 = 654

Therefore, the vast majority of MEPs (representing the other 26 countries of the EU) are by definition going to be "foreign".

As yet, there's no crime in being "foreign".

It puts me in mind of that wonderful Not the Nine O'Clock News sketch where a police constable is reproved for repeatedly arresting one Mr Vincent Kodogo for such offences as "wearing a loud tie in a built up area", "smelling of foreign food" and "possession of curly black hair and thick lips".

Happy Birthday Tony Benn

Today one of the most remarkable politicians of our age turns an incredible 85.

Despite being in different parties, and disagreeing with some of his policies, notably his assessment of the EEC (now EU), I have never doubted Tony Benn's sincerity and his willingness to engage in debate.

He is a principled and passionate person who has never been afraid to argue his cause. The progressive elements of British politics have been much enriched and strengthened by his contribution, dedication, and effort.

There is one quote that I believe best sums him up, and indeed should be at the forefront of any true democrat:If one meets a powerful person... ask them five questions: "What power have you got? Where did you get it from? In whose interests do you exercise it? To whom are you accountable? And how can we get rid of you?" If you cannot get rid of the people who govern you, you do not live in a democratic system.
(Speech to the House of Commons, 22 March 2001)

From one progressive to another, many happy returns Tony.

Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb

Three cheers for that wonderfully pink, sweetly delicious, fragrantly sublime produce grown up and down the 'West Yorkshire Triangle' of Leeds, Bradford, and Wakefield.

I refer of course to rhubarb.

Earlier tonight I made a lovely rhubarb and apple crumble, even if I do say so myself.

Even more wonderfully Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb is Britain's latest addition to the EU protected names list.

Three cheers for Yorkshire, and three cheers for Europe.

Simon Singh wins libel court battle

Good news from the High Court, where the science writer Simon Singh has won his court of appeal battle for the right to rely on the defence of fair comment in a libel action.

Dr Singh had been accused of libel by the British Chiropractic Association (BCA) over an op-ed piece he wrote in the Guardian in April 2008.

All he suggested was that there was a lack of evidence for the claims SOME chiropractors make on treating some childhood conditions like colic and asthma.

This sort of bullying behaviour by big organisations and wealthy individuals shows them all too willing to use Britain's draconian libel laws to stifle free speech, and the decision, although welcome, does not go far enough.

After the poetry... passion and politics

I know those of you reading the last few postings have been thinking "Aye, Aye, Fekri's being all Fotherington-Thomas with his 'hullo clouds, hullo sky' offerings, but where's the politics?"

Well, gentle readers, I hesitate to jar your gentle nerves, but may I remind you that it is exactly twenty years ago since we had the great "Anti-Poll Tax" demo in London.

The tax was a fixed payment for all adults to the local council. It was unpopular, regressive, and ultimately punitive.

It had the beneficial effect of leading to the downfall of then PM, Mrs. Thatcher in the November, but because of the huge campaign of non-registration, it seriously affected the Census in 1991 (with some 1 million adults missing) and more importantly that same number becoming effectively disenfranchised in the 1992 General Election.

So despite the myth, it wasn't "The Sun what won it" in 1992. In fact, it was Kenneth Baker, William Waldegrave, Lord Rothschild, and the Dept. of the Environment with their 1986 Green Paper "Paying for Local Government" which set in train the chain of events that led to the ghastly Tories remaining in office a further five miserable years when they should have been kicked out.

So if you're thinking of voting for the Tories just for a change, "Woe, woe, and thrice woe!" as Senna the Soothsayer used to say in Up Pompeii!

Je n'aimais qu'un seul être et je le perds deux fois!

The line above is spoken by Roxane towards the end of the play Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand and translates as "I loved but once, yet twice I lose my love!"

It's a beautiful play full of charm, derring-do, and panache but ultimately about unrequieted love which although seemingly downbeat is reaaly quite life-affirming.

Kniha smíchu a zapomnění

When I lectured at Palacký University in Olomouc in the 1990s, I co-taught a class in translation with my good friend Václav Řeřicha.

One of the authors we used to study was Milan Kundera, whose birthday it is today, mostly his short stories from Laughable Loves (Směšné lásky).
However, I had come to Kundera in my late-teens through his book the Joke and after that I devoured everything he had written.

I suppose my favourite is the Book of Laughter and Forgetting wherein he describes a famous/infamous Czechoslovak photograph from February 1948, where Vlado Clementis (Foreign Minister) stood next to Klement Gottwald (Prime Minister).
It was snowing and cold, and Gottwald was bareheaded, in an act of generosity, Clementis took off his fur hat and gave it to Gottwald to wear.

A few years later, Clementis was charged with treason and hanged.

The propaganda section erased him (along with Karel Hájek) from the photograph.Ever since, Gottwald has been alone on the balcony. Where Clementis stood, there is only the balcony... Nothing remains of Clementis but the fur hat on Gottwald's head.

This all too brief vignette underlines the motif of forgetting, and I suppose acts as a warning to us all, lest we forget.