Theo's Blog: The Shooting of JFK and dodgy dossiers
EU Referendum barometerV13
There are just under 50 campaigning days to go until the EU Referendum and I still feel between a rock and a hard place. My Theo-EU-ometer began to twitch again (but remains unchanged; just slightly in Brexit territory), when I heard that jumping on the Obama-wagon is reportedly Bill Clinton and Tony Blair, who are happy to lend their support to the StrongerIn camp. I can’t help thinking dodgy dossier, dodgy dossier, dodgy dossier. Sounds like another Vote Leave initiative to me.
I’ve also been casting my mind back to the EU renegotiation, led by Cameron, prior to setting the date of the EU Referendum. In previous EU speeches, I recall one in 2013, Cameron said “Of course Britain could make her own way in the world, outside of the EU, if we chose to do so. So could any member state.” With all the reports coming out now from the StrongerIn camp about how catastrophic, financially or otherwise, it will be to be out of the EU, were the renegotiation terms really that good that they cemented in Cameron’s mind that IN was the guiding light for Great Britain? At what point would he have decided it was right to leave? If he knew 100% that Brexit would be so damaging for us, what sort of renegotiation could he have had in his armoury anyway, if his mind was already made up? Perhaps that’s why he didn’t get the deal of the century. And, if we all make the wrong decision on June 23rd, whatever that vote is, what kind of EU Armageddon could we experience? Always the questions, and rarely the answers we need.
Coming to the end of its own campaign trail is the London Mayoral Election race. In the blue corner we have Zac Goldsmith, another Eton educated well-to-do politician, and in the Red corner we have Sadiq Khan who grew up on a London council estate (just like yours truly) and sadly seems to be losing his high profile supporters, due to a severe case of opening mouth before engaging brain - although in the long run this setback may not be a bad thing considering the track record of some. Whoever gets this hugely important job needs to understand that London, the financial capital of the world, is about as diverse as it gets; supercars lined up outside London’s hotels and iconic retail stores and a stone’s throw away from those are food banks helping the poor and needy. Mix in a large multi-racial element and you truly have an amazing selection of ingredients with which to bake one of the finest cakes in the world. Hopefully they’re not getting into this thinking it’s all about zip wires, wiff-waff, funny hair dos and cycle routes. There’s a serious job to be done here.
It seems we are in the era of the strike. We’ve had train drivers, Junior Doctors and now getting in on the act are our six and seven year olds who have taken the lead from the adults. I’m not sure where the schools minister, Nick Gibb MP, figures on this one as he has obviously not met his potential due to the sub-standard education he seems to have received at their age. So there you have it. If you don’t know your prepositions from your subordinating conjunctions, then you’ll never amount to anything in later life.
Also in the news this week – is the thought of David Cameron apologising to Trump for calling him “divisive, stupid and wrong”, or does the chance of that happening have longer odds than Leicester City Football Club winning the Premier League? On that note…a big congratulations to Leicester City for what is an amazing achievement.
Now on the subject of Mr Donald Trump, it seems he has at long last, single-handedly solved one of America’s biggest long-standing conspiracy theories, the shooting of JFK, in one of his many rants at former rival Ted Cruz, and in this one includes Mr Cruz senior somewhere on a grassy knoll. If he only could find it within himself to use his psychic powers to solve the disappearance of Lord Lucan at the same time…maybe just maybe David Cameron might have to make that call.
May 5th 2016