How to Make Yourself Popular

[Bryn Mawr]

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-54239180

Eighteen months? It should not have taken that long.

[spot]

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-54239180

Eighteen months? It should not have taken that long.

That was my first thought yesterday when I saw it too!

[magentaflame]

If a simple electrical device can take out an entire broadband distribution network we simply don't have to worry about hackers or spy agencies interfering with it. lol

[spot]

Perhaps I could borrow the thread title?

The education secretary, Gavin Williamson, has claimed the UK was the first country in the world to clinically approve a coronavirus vaccine because the country has “much better” scientists than France, Belgium or the US.

Williamson said he was not surprised the UK was the first to roll out the immunisation because “we’re a much better country than every single one of them”.

Asked whether Brexit was to credit for the world-first, Williamson told LBC radio station on Thursday: “Well I just reckon we’ve got the very best people in this country and we’ve obviously got the best medical regulators.

“Much better than the French have, much better than the Belgians have, much better than the Americans have. That doesn’t surprise me at all because we’re a much better country than every single one of them, aren’t we.”

https://www.theguardian.com/society/202 ... ll-of-them

What a cringe-making embarrassment Gavin Williamson is.

[Bryn Mawr]

Perhaps I could borrow the thread title?

The education secretary, Gavin Williamson, has claimed the UK was the first country in the world to clinically approve a coronavirus vaccine because the country has “much better” scientists than France, Belgium or the US.

Williamson said he was not surprised the UK was the first to roll out the immunisation because “we’re a much better country than every single one of them”.

Asked whether Brexit was to credit for the world-first, Williamson told LBC radio station on Thursday: “Well I just reckon we’ve got the very best people in this country and we’ve obviously got the best medical regulators.

“Much better than the French have, much better than the Belgians have, much better than the Americans have. That doesn’t surprise me at all because we’re a much better country than every single one of them, aren’t we.”

https://www.theguardian.com/society/202 ... ll-of-them

What a cringe-making embarrassment Gavin Williamson is.

I could approve a vaccine in ten seconds and I’m certainly not the best man for the job.

[spot]

Perhaps I could borrow the thread title?

The education secretary, Gavin Williamson, has claimed the UK was the first country in the world to clinically approve a coronavirus vaccine because the country has “much better” scientists than France, Belgium or the US.

Williamson said he was not surprised the UK was the first to roll out the immunisation because “we’re a much better country than every single one of them”.

Asked whether Brexit was to credit for the world-first, Williamson told LBC radio station on Thursday: “Well I just reckon we’ve got the very best people in this country and we’ve obviously got the best medical regulators.

“Much better than the French have, much better than the Belgians have, much better than the Americans have. That doesn’t surprise me at all because we’re a much better country than every single one of them, aren’t we.”

https://www.theguardian.com/society/202 ... ll-of-them

What a cringe-making embarrassment Gavin Williamson is.

I could approve a vaccine in ten seconds and I’m certainly not the best man for the job.

Gavin Williamson is sufficiently often foot-in-mouth that I occasionally suspect him of starting life in the SAS but no, that's one of the others. Looking down the ministerial Front Bench I can't find any I feel sympathy with or even sympathy for, they are an uninspiring bunch of self-centred clods with, in some instances, predilections toward bullying, back-stabbing and evangelical motherhood. As a class they could be described as insensitive, pitiless, callous, heartless, inhumane, unfeeling, unmerciful, compassionless, desensitized, unsparing and, in Gavin Williamson's case, inescapably attracted to inept utterance. Rather like Michael Gove in that regard, on reflection.

[spot]

America finds itself with a home-grown prat of the decade, one Joseph Epstein.

I do not yet know who Joseph Epstein is, all I've seen of his public persona is an Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal which begins

Madame First Lady—Mrs. Biden—Jill—kiddo: a bit of advice on what may seem like a small but I think is a not unimportant matter. Any chance you might drop the “Dr.” before your name? “Dr. Jill Biden” sounds and feels fraudulent, not to say a touch comic. Your degree is, I believe, an Ed.D., a doctor of education, earned at the University of Delaware through a dissertation with the unpromising title “Student Retention at the Community College Level: Meeting Students’ Needs.” A wise man once said that no one should call himself “Dr.” unless he has delivered a child. Think about it, Dr. Jill, and forthwith drop the doc.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/is-there-a ... 1607727380

This is among the most filthy and deliberate instances of misogyny in public print. It is a shocking and personal attack and I don't give a damn whether Joseph Epstein ends up apologizing for it or not. This is a spectacular own goal, and not one to brush under the carpet or forget. Why the Wall Street Journal (Rupert Murdoch, prop.) thinks it can just wash its hands of the piece I have no idea, but - "a bit of advice on what may seem like a small but I think is a not unimportant matter" - they can "forthwith drop" their contributor and deny him further use of their pages for his debility. The article is as bad as anything News Corp has previously foisted on the world, it confirms the Wall Street Journal occupies the same gutter as the National Enquirer and the News of the World. In a word, it stinks.

The author "currently serves as an emeritus lecturer of English at Northwestern University", according to the Internet. One can only hope Northwestern University terminates the embarrassing connection before next term starts. I suspect Joseph Epstein, whose sole previous claim to notoriety was a scandalously homophobic outburst in Harper's Magazine fifty years ago, has joined that select group of indiscreet show-offs who have bungled so badly that they're remembered only for their folly and for nothing else - Cornelius Rhoads springs to mind as an earlier example.

[spot]

Gavin Williamson is sufficiently often foot-in-mouth that I occasionally suspect him of starting life in the SAS but no, that's one of the others. Looking down the ministerial Front Bench I can't find any I feel sympathy with or even sympathy for, they are an uninspiring bunch of self-centred clods with, in some instances, predilections toward bullying, back-stabbing and evangelical motherhood. As a class they could be described as insensitive, pitiless, callous, heartless, inhumane, unfeeling, unmerciful, compassionless, desensitized, unsparing and, in Gavin Williamson's case, inescapably attracted to inept utterance. Rather like Michael Gove in that regard, on reflection.

And that was two years ago.

Gavin Williamson's tendency to bully has not gone away...

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... the-moment

I'll not quote.

Gavin is just plain insanitary and always has been, the idea that he's even in Parliament much less the Cabinet is embarrassing. Perhaps his constituency party could just deselect him.

[spot]

Gavin is just plain insanitary and always has been, the idea that he's even in Parliament much less the Cabinet is embarrassing. Perhaps his constituency party could just deselect him.

The noisome chappie has now resigned from the Cabinet, and good riddance. He claims he intends to "clear his name" and "refutes the characterisation" of claims against him, a doubtful ambition since he's already conceded he did what he's been accused of. He contends it wasn't bullying, which speaks volumes for his temperament and moral incompetence. Why he isn't simply retiring from public life I have no idea. He doesn't even claim he can refute the allegations. What is alleged cannot be the behaviour of any public servant, the man is clearly Malcolm Tucker made flesh.

During his career he's been dismissed in disgrace as Defence Secretary, dismissed in disgrace as Education Secretary, and now this. He has a track record for unstable decision-making and behaviour.

As a political epitaph perhaps the best came years ago when Major-General Igor Konashenkov said: "The market wench talk that British defence secretary Gavin Williamson resorted to reflects his extreme intellectual impotency". I think he meant the ex-minister is uncultured rather than thick, I know I would.

Gavin Williamson dramatically quit Rishi Sunak’s cabinet on Tuesday night after the Guardian revealed claims that he told a senior civil servant to “slit your throat” while he was defence secretary.

The Cabinet Office minister stepped down after the former Whitehall aide put in a formal complaint to parliament’s Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme (ICGS), piling more pressure on Sunak over his decision to reappoint his ally.

Williamson’s fate appeared to be sealed after further bullying allegations from his former deputy chief whip, who criticised his “unethical and immoral” behaviour and claimed he used “leverage” and threats to control MPs and instil a culture of fear in Westminster.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... williamson

[Bryn Mawr]

Why he isn't simply retiring from public life I have no idea

Money

[Betty Boop]

Maybe Gavin could join his mate...

[Betty Boop]

He's trying to fit in and be popular

[spot]

“Civilised debate is vital to democracy, and it is the best of America,” Winfrey said.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/art ... rris-vance

Good lord, what planet does Oprah live on. I wonder whether I could buy a shirt saying that.

Women offended by JD Vance’s contention that the US is run by “childless cat ladies” should realise it was merely a “quip”, the Republican vice-presidential nominee’s wife, Usha Vance, claimed in an interview broadcast on Monday.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/art ... es-defense

Well, no, not really. The “childless cat ladies” comment was what we in the trade call misogyny on a grand scale, it would not have been out of place in The Handmaid's Tale. The sector of the electorate it was meant to enthuse is pretty obvious.

Kamala Harris seems to have settled on mocking her opponent. Not before time, the rest of the world has been doing that since for ever. That doesn't mean I don't want him elected, far from it, but then I'm not an American and I do not hold its interests dear to my heart.

The full quote, for those who never saw it, is:

Vance told the then Fox News host Tucker Carlson that the US was run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.

“It’s just a basic fact – you look at [vice-president] Kamala Harris, [US transportation secretary] Pete Buttigieg, AOC [congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] – the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children. And how does it make any sense that we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/art ... es-defense