The discreet nastiness of the Four We See

It may well be that Jeremy Rhyminge-Slange equates dangerous radicalism with youth. In which case, he is decisively mistaken:

I am lonely, elderly, and stranger than most. I would also like very much to be invited into Huntstruck Towers, as I have some urgent questions to ask Mr Seeyernex-Tuesdaye on the subject of J J Lewis and his recreationally focused daughter whom, I understand, was at one time a habituée of the notorious Groucho Club.

Beyond that, however, my lips are sealed….sealed, I tell you.

One thing very biased towards young people without a job/home/enough to eat in Greece is the answer ‘NO’ to the acceptance or not referendum this Sunday. But here too, one would be wrong to see this determination as restricted to The Left or the infantile. Published last night in Athens: first poll on sectors of Greek society saying YES to slavery or NO to bullying:

As you can see, pretty much everyone is voting NO. The most worried are the public sector pen-pushers about to take a pension (imagine that) and the only pro-YES groups are…Nia Demokratia and PASOK loyalists. Together, they account for 1 in 5 Greeks.

Sadly, Nigel Farage couldn’t be there. He’s been uncharacteristically inconspicuous of late, evading any attempt to call out the Eurogroupe’s illegal session without a Greek representative, and not saying much at Westminster on account of not having won a seat, again. Being a Square Mile sort of chap, The Slog suspects that Hairgel approves of beating the Greeks to a pulp so his bondholding vulture mates could waltz off with a fat profit haircut.

But yesterday, the Daily Torynaff was looking for Farrago’s saving graces, and thus came up with this:

Nigel Farage is the leader of a Party for whom 12.9% voted last May in the UK general election. His main raison d’être is to argue for withdrawal from the European Union. So it comes as something of a bolt from the blue to me that Mr F might be ‘often right’ about EU failings. The Barclaygraph’s assertion is not so much damning with faint praise as dismissing with faux irony. A little juxtaposition of the point could’ve produced an infinitely more debate-worthy headline:

Far Right ‘often rage’ about European Union failings

Nige calls UKip the People’s Party, but of course it isn’t: rather, it’s a sort of gauche Right-of-Boris ‘leave the City alone’ Party because the Leader dislikes the idea of regulation from Brussels-am-Berlin. Farrago indeed does rage about the barminess of the EU (he’s nearly always right, if the truth be told) but his air de golf-club, beery pint-raising and silly grin drags UKip inexorably towards the Cavalry Twill Junta brigade. This is a shame because the Party as a whole is not like them. Too many of its candidates are, but the activists aren’t.

And finally, Dermot O’Leary, the personality-free ‘presenter’ of the now ageing UK telly talent contest The X Factor. The only X needed in relation to this show is excommunication, in that it feeds the fame disease from which much of the Western World suffers. Dermot thus slots perfectly into the role of host thanks to the format’s unoriginality, crowd wisdom and utterly counterfeit nature.

But he’s a loyal lad is our Derm. He won’t have a word said against the show, and this is why:

The other way to put this, of course, is ‘Young airhead silenced by bribe’, but either way, Mr O’Bleary wins this odd one out contest hands down – being the only one prepared to put his hands up and say it’s all about getting your hands on the munneeee.

Personally, I’ll never say anything bad about the NHS because it cured my daughter. On the other hand, I will say anything bad about the NHS every time I meet an agency nurse with about as much caring capacity or bedside manner as a hornet. And I will never say anything good about HSBC if the Chair of the BBC Governors pays me to do so. I’ll say everything bad I can about ‘PR’ agency Bell Pottinger because they’ve made Winston Smith’s Ministry of Truth more nightmarish than anything George Orwell imagined.

So you see, Dermot O’Logical is the odd one out: all four are lying, self-obsessed sheisters, but X-Factor Man is the only one who both knows it, and admits it.

Onwards and upwards…

Yesterday at The Slog: the broader perspective on Greece, the EU and the Universe