Only problem is he thinks Hezbollah are great, but other than that nothing wrong with him.
Does this sort of thing have the same resonance in the UK as, e.g., an American pol refusing to say the Pledge of Allegiance, or leaving “under God” out of it, or objecting to “The Star Spangled Banner” as too warlike? (Any of those would be career-killers over here.)
Not really, people don’t care very much about that sort of stuff.
None of the Press Barons are monarchists except for temporary expedience, whilst His Excellency is a devout republican who wants to eliminate royalty everywhere.
None of them will hesitate for a second to exploit royalty to sell papers — either in a sickening obsequious way regarding their public duties or in a prurient moralistic way regarding their private life — or to faux-condemn anyone in the way of the Conservative party.
Fortunately the Press is dying.
Hm. I’d characterise it as raving, myself.
It’s drivel from start to finish. I personally never stand for the national anthem at concerts, and when I look around I see plenty of others who can’t be bothered with it either.
The frothing over whether one bloke sings a crap song or not shows the fear and fragility of millions of English egos.
Keep calm and don’t sing for the Queen.
I do like the American anthem, though, it’s rather jaunty. Don’t know about the lyrics, but the tune’s a cracker. I might be tempted to sing along with that one just for fun.
This is about Bernie Sanders but it’s worth a laugh:
David Cameron’s press officers are probably having a bad night.
“The PM categorically did not stick his penis in the mouth of a dead pig”
Yeah, yeah, it’s from a book serialised in the Daily Mail, but still
Man, do I want to read what Charlie Brooker has to say about that … 
I never knew Mao was in to cycling. But if Corbyn swam across the Thamesto work on the papers would have a point.
He said
This should liven up PMQs this week, although Corbyn will probably deliberately eschew any pig jokes. Too bad for Cameron that the other parties get questions too…
Well, on the whole, as Tony Blair’s press secretary once said, “We don’t do God”. Periodically, there are republican objections to the wording of the usual oath of public office that MPs take (not on the religious aspect, since it’s perfectly to just affirm instead, but because it’s worded as personal allegiance to the monarch and her/his heirs), and various bits of (actually nowhere near as longstanding as is often supposed) traditional ceremonial involving the monarchy. Whether or not that really has much political impact, as opposed to getting an opportunist press in a froth, is an open question. If the current ongoing narrative is “weirdo loony left naive pacifist not in touch with the real world and what normal people think” then any stiff-necked departure from convention is likely to be presented as part of that - hence the hooha about Michael Foot wearing what they called a donkey jacket to the Remembrance Day service, and I expect there would be similar one if Jeremy Corbyn were to wear a white poppy to it (as already floated somewhere in the papers, whether as a smear-in-waiting or seriously, I don’t know). Come to think of it, some sort of supposed or invented dissent/disrepect in relation to Remembrance Day or similar events is the most likely to cause the kind of outrage you’re thinking of.
There are times when a certain hypocrisy is expected, in terms of observing convention even if you don’t really believe in it - think Elizabeth I “not making a window into men’s souls” or Henri IV’s “Paris vaut bien une messe”. If someone chooses to wear their soul on their sleeve, it does make you wonder about how they choose their priorities, and whether it’s more important to them to be seen to be self-righteously different or to get things done.
As for the words of the National Anthem, there are plenty of countries whose anthems are, if taken literally, nonsensical, out of touch with the times, or whatever. The Dutch still cheerfully sing about always honouring the King of Spain. The interesting thing about ours is how conditional the second verse is: “May she defend our laws/And ever give us cause/To sing with heart and voice…” There’s a veiled warning in there.
Alas, no PMQs until the end of conference season.
Whereas when Conservative politicians rather ostentatiously regularly ride bicycles to the Commons to show their common side, as one remembers Boris and one of the Hoggs — not one of those whom Cameron used sexually, but a political dynasty of the non-porcine persuasion ( that may be dubious — agreed ) — did; and that horrid little fellow who recently had a run-in with the cops when one of them used the word ‘plebs’ was on his bike at the time, it is all perfectly good.
That’s actually the third verse. The second is the one that tries to rhyme “arise” with “enemies”, but has the great couplet, “Confound their politics/frustrate their knavish tricks”.
The fourth verse is about how all men are brothers, the fifth verse is about how we hope the queen doesn’t get assassinated, and the sixth verse is about how terrible the Scots are.
Some of the stuff today is very funny; people openly laughing on tubes and busses.
Social media has gone photoshop crazy.
Of course the main point is the non dom claim, but things need to calm down a bit first.
I can’t believe life can be this perfect but it is apparently true that Disco Dave is meeting the Danish PM today #makeitstop
In it’s online edition The Independent has 10, yes 10, stories dealing with todays “allegations” about Cameron. The Guardian has a similar number.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/
http://www.theguardian.com/politics
Can we now assume the new era of politics is over? We are back to dealing with sleaze, titillation and insinuation. Playing the man(or pig) is back; playing the ball was *so *yesterday.