Down on Baker Street
Posted on
January 14, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
John Crace, the Guardian, 14 Jan 2014:
British politics: elementary.
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A tall tale
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Transphobia
Do you mean the blind leading the blind then?
I would say Blairs government was to the right of Thatcher.
Labour hasn’t been a left wing party for decades.
*** Sherlock episode three spoiler alert***
Sherlock: Who needs me this time?
Mycroft: England.
SLAB WESTMINSTER MPs have decided that their electorate doesn’t need or want any new powers for Holyrood, So there you are. Job done rebellion put down! Just need to bayonet a few stragglers. Can a claim them own ma expenses.
SLAB WESTMINSTER MPs have decided that their electorate doesn’t need or want any new powers for Holyrood, So there you are. Job done rebellion put down! Just need to bayonet a few stragglers. Can a claim them own ma expenses.
*** Sherlock episode three spoiler alert***
Sherlock: Who needs me this time? Mycroft: England.
I choked on my drink when I heard that. Says it all really…
Ok, the formatting looked fine when I clicked submit. Apologies if I’ve caused you extra work Rev.
“Ok, the formatting looked fine when I clicked submit.”
Yes, it always looks fine in the comment box. That’s why I keep saying “Hit Return either twice or not at all after a sentence, NEVER once.”
Conan Doyle, Scottish born but of Irish origin, was a Liberal Unionist, a political group opposed to Irish Home Rule.
I keep looking to see who picked up Labours old hat (you know, the one about being for the labourers, workers, and generally bottom-class)
Has anyone seen it in Wesminster in the last 20 years?
No surprise at Sherlocks “English” patter….after all episode 2 told us how John Watsons hated his middle name of Hamish….but i think Mark Gatiss and Stephen Moffat are always working with their tongues firmly in cheeks to be honest
I see the Guardian has been reduced to regurgitating articles that first appeared in the Scottish Daily Mail.
link to theguardian.com
Now that the unionists have run out of economic arguments they are now resorting to morality. LoL
We really can’t blame the Daily Mail, they still haven’t got over the demise of fascism. I have a workmate who reads the HateMail. It’s really quite amusing, you just have to mention the SNP, wind farms, immigrants or people on benefits and he starts frothing at the mouth.
For those who who got annoyed at the England needs you bit of Sherlock, I suggest looking up up a book called Anglomania. There’s a rather nice three star review of it on Amazon.
“I choked on my drink when I heard that. Says it all really…”
“I think Mark Gatiss and Stephen Moffat are always working with their tongues firmly in cheeks to be honest”
It’s no doubt very deliberate, and probably for a number of reasons – one of them is, perhaps, acceptance.
Labour seem to be missing something like this;
link to marxists.org
Hard to place Moffat politically on the Scottish issue. In an earlier Doctor Who story of his, The Beast Below, he had a Starship UK which Scotland had left before the Doctor turned up. And he seems quite determined that Capaldi use a Scottish accent. I suspect he doesn’t have strong political views, overall.
The biggest political lie at the present moment would be, “Labour represents the working class of this country”.
The next biggest lie would be “Labour will protect the poor and under-priviledged of this country”.
Everything good the labour party so-called and I mean so-called used to represent, appears to get thrown out of the window in the hunt for power. We now have the Labour leader Ed Miliband showing crocodile tears for the english middleclass, which could only be because of the middle england vote.
Labour support for the poor, under-priviledged and ordinary working class, nae today.
Labour support for the england middleclass (vote), yes 100% how can we help you.
Yep, a labour party without the morals of a dungbeatle.
JasonF
I think most people would view Sherlock as an English character and the Mycroft line of “England” is perfectly apt really in the context of the Sherlock canon.
IMHO theres more danger of people reading too much into throwaway lines rather than a Paisley man publically heralding his thoughts on the Union
O/T
Cameron and UK state playing fair ?? (Ref is for Scots alone ? really ??)
link to nationalcollective.com
Latest ICM
link to archive.is
Support for Labour shrinks as faith in recovery grows, ICM poll finds
Labour 35%
Con 32%
Lib 14%
UKIP 10%
SNP 4% (48%).
Labour used to have an 11 point lead back in early 2013. It’s 5 points now at best across all the polls.
Chris Mullen on Daily Politics now “Britain is middle class”
I think most people would view Sherlock as an English character and the Mycroft line of “England” is perfectly apt really in the context of the Sherlock canon.
Quite. What’s the problem here?
@ Atypical_Scot
You may not be aware of this is as it is ‘suppressed information’ (conspiracy theory?), but one of the west’s most highly regarded academic historians of the 20th century, reckons the Bolshevik power-grab was only made possible by western finance and food aid. Individuals, such as former President Hoover, contributed millions of dollars to the Bolshevik cause (a bit like Washington supporting the Free Syrian Army today). The western bankers and industrialists did this in order to destroy Russia’s economic potential and to ensure a centralised system of government that would be incapable of innovation and so be dependent on the west for technology and finance.
Communism was an imperialist weapon against the people, IMO. We need it like the plague in Scotland. A bit like the Union then. 🙂
Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution: The Remarkable True Story of the American Capitalists Who Financed the Russian Communists
link to amazon.co.uk
I think most people would view Sherlock as an English character and the Mycroft line of “England” is perfectly apt really in the context of the Sherlock canon.
Absolutely, and there’s nothing wrong with it – far from it; it’s good to get away from the idea that everything has to be ‘British’ on the BBC. Though it’s probably not a throwaway line – the writing/dialogue generally seems to be very precise.
The first part of that last comment should have been in quotes.
Doesn’t that quote just sum the situation we now find ourselves in?I came into 2011 still vaguely a Labour supporter, still supporting some solution that would see real autonomy for Scotland within the union. As it turned out I voted SNP, not tactically this time to keep out the Tories, and I soon realised that my vision for self-government was an illusion.Labour has been neutered. New Labour started out as a fairly cynical attempt to market the party to the right, and make it electable. The problem now is that they actually believe the neo-liberal conservatism they have been marketing for the past couple of decades.Of course they are no longer a threat to the rich and powerful, they now work in their interests!The real threat to the British establishment at this time is the Scottish independence movement, which explains the millions spent by the state to combat the campaign, the secret attempts to involve foreign governments, the press and broadcasting bias and the anti-Scottish hysteria.We must be doing something right!
Hi Cameron;
Interesting – that misinterpretation of 1860’s German socialist philosophy as the Bolshevik revolution.
The preface of Das Capital is exquisite and purely philosophical.
It is the foundation on which all socialism since is based.
The SNP are a Social Democratic party.
Social democracy is a development of Marxism.
The other option is Tory capitalism or a version of it.
Take your pick.
🙂
@ Atypical_Scot
Ironically, I posted the Slavoj Zizek interview from the New Statesman the other day, the main thrust of which was Slavoj’s concern about the lack of empirical theoretical analysis of our political economy and the lack of ideology to counter the neo-liberals.
Think I’ll go and hide. 🙂
I never watched that show really.
I have read all the books though, and Sherlock Holmes was living in an era where the capitalist establishment was at its most firmly… “established”! So yeah, I can go along with the idea that it was just the way people thought back then.
But given the way the character was described as not being given to emotional reactions but merely analysing every detail of a situation, I’d like to think he’d be smart enough to realise that the Yes Campaign have the most logical and convincing argument in this case.
“Simplicity itself, my dear Watson!” 😉
Sherlock: Who needs me this time?
Mycroft: England.
Just the usual, really. Sure, on its own, this is perfectly in line with Holmes’ anglo-centric character, and certainly appropriate for the time, where England was interchangeable with Britain and practically no-one complained. But taken in concert with everything else, it starts to get grating.
“Who do you think you are kidding Mr. Hitler… if you think old England’s done?”
– Dad’s Army
“For England, James?”
– Goldeneye
What you are about to witness, Ms. Lin, is not so much a missile attack, but the launch of a new world order. In precisely five minutes after your countrymen have attacked the British fleet, I shall retaliate for dear old England…
– Tomorrow Never Dies
Doctor Hall: I’d like to start with some simple word associations. Just tell me the first work that pops into your head. For example, I say, “Day” and you might say…
James Bond: Wasted.
Doctor Hall: Agent.
James Bond: Provocateur.
Doctor Hall: Woman?
James Bond: Provocatrix.
Doctor Hall: M.
James Bond: Bitch.
Doctor Hall: Gun.
James Bond: Shot.
Doctor Hall: Murder.
James Bond: Occupation.
Doctor Hall: Country.
James Bond: England.
– Skyfall
“Men in black? Vanishing police cars? This is Churchill’s England, not Stalin’s Russia!”
– Doctor Who, “The Idiot’s Lantern”
Whatever else he may be, Paige has been a great supporter of this country. The American allies of England have made a huge difference.
– Foyle’s War, “Fifty Ships”
Etc. etc. It’s fine, of course, to refer to England the country and England the historical nation, but it gets a bit irritating when people talk about America as an “English colony” and “England declaring war on Germany in 1939.” And unfortunately, that’s as common in British tv dramas as it is in Hollywood blockbusters.
RE: Sherlock
The programme is a work of fiction and I would imagine that the wording is based far more on artistic aesthetics than politics. “England” has a much more resonant history than Britain when it comes to matters of being required to help your country in time of need; “England expects” and all that. It didn’t particularly bother me, personally.