Westministenders: The Truth Isn't A Made Up Concept

[RedToothBrush]

“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

Not George Orwell but often attributed to him. But a powerful statement with resonance nonetheless

'DUP are calling the new NI Abortion regulations "an imperialist imposition by an overseas parliament."'
😂😂

Amused to notice "Roger Daltrey" trending on Twitter after he expressed his opinions on Brexit ... (although as usual, the comments make it worthwhile )

Thought people knew that sometimes the clothes do not make the man ...

a) BJ had had Corona virus and should therefor be immune at least for a short time - or is the Government idea of "herd immunity" a pile of crock?

We don't actually have the evidence that if you've had it, you are immune and can't catch it again.

There is an assumption that you can't, but we don't KNOW this, and the government advice certainly does not have a clause which says you don't have to self isolate if you have previously tested positive for the disease but have now recovered.

Its entirely possible that if you have some immunity you might catch it again but be asymtomatic because you have some level of immunity.

We just don't know at this stage.

I do recognise that Red - I was being slightly very facetious when I wrote that

At the weekend, when we were delivering some wine (off-sales are allowed ) to some friends on the way over to my dad's for afternoon tea (in the garden), they invited us in and said it was ok because they'd had CV (he - a surgeon - really badly with nasty pneumonia and he'd not long had part of his lung cut out due to cancer ). We refused - for the very reasons you state.

But it's obviously one set of guidelines law for them and another one for us again

We don't actually have the evidence that if you've had it, you are immune and can't catch it again.

So (as I suspected) talk (from some quarters) of a covid "immunity pass" are quite high on the bollocks scale ?

If it wasn't for the fact the few clips I've seen of post-covid Boris show that he has clearly suffered something, I'd still be questioning whether he really had it. That said, has he ever been known to be a cokehead ?

We just don't know yet about immunity.
I think it's very likely there will be some amount of immunity, but it may not be absolute, and it also may be temporary.

So (as I suspected) talk (from some quarters) of a covid "immunity pass" are quite high on the bollocks scale ?

Yep

If it wasn't for the fact the few clips I've seen of post-covid Boris show that he has clearly suffered something, I'd still be questioning whether he really had it. That said, has he ever been known to be a cokehead ?

www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/breaking-boris-johnson-finally-admits-16517649
Boris Johnson finally admits using cocaine in 'inconclusive' event aged 19

The Tory leadership frontrunner appears to have finally admitted taking the Class A drug - and insisted he'd not taken it since

The Tory leadership frontrunner appears to have finally admitted taking the Class A drug - and insisted he'd not taken it since

One the one hand, I really could not care less what drugs anyone may or may not have taken. And I would be happy to maintain that stance for all. The problem is you get grade-A twatbadgers like Gove who rather than admit "yes, the UKs drugs laws are a crock'o'shite and could be improved by brainstorming a few preschoolers" we get the conveyor belt of hypocrisy (see also:censorship) about whatevers whatifs and whatabouts (I may have never been able to listen too far in ...).

That said, I don't think Johnson (or Trumps) narcissistic personality is compatible with addiction. Or rather the only substance both are addicted to is power and themselves in that order. Which is why I doubt Johnson is snorting his way through the press briefings.

There's a history question ... what dictators have also been addicts ? Given the Great Binge of the late 1800s and early 1900s (Fortnum and Mason goody box anyone ) you'd have thought there must have been. But my recollections of Mussolini, Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, Castro, Pinochet, Amin et al doesn't feature mind altering drugs.

Churchill was pretty much a functioning alcoholic admittedly. But he doesn't count as a dictator, and we aren't allowed to call alcohol a mind altering drug anyway.

I recall when Anne "Widdy" Widdecombe tried to suggest that hanging was too good for anyone who could even spell marijuana, only for the (then) entire shadow cabinet to admit various high jinks when younger.

No idea how accurate this is, but this author thought that a large part of the Third Reich leadership were coked up:

The book in question is The Total Rush – or, to use its superior English title, Blitzed – which reveals the astonishing and hitherto largely untold story of the Third Reich’s relationship with drugs, including cocaine, heroin, morphine and, above all, methamphetamines (aka crystal meth), and of their effect not only on Hitler’s final days – the Führer, by Ohler’s account, was an absolute junkie with ruined veins by the time he retreated to the last of his bunkers – but on the Wehrmacht’s successful invasion of France in 1940.

www.theguardian.com/books/2016/sep/25/blitzed-norman-ohler-adolf-hitler-nazi-drug-abuse-interview

Call me a cynic, how convenient that the news about the Madeleine McCann suspect has bumped the story about the shambles the Government is making of Covid-19 and Brexit down the front pages.

Much nicer to have pictures of blond three year olds on the front pages. Pity they can't resurrect Princess Di too.

No idea how accurate this is, but this author thought that a large part of the Third Reich leadership were coked up

I know Hitler used amphetamines - and that a lot of the German Army relied on them (US targets for bombing 1943-45 were factories making the supplies). However I don't class amphetamines as mind-altering in the same way as cannabis, cocaine opium/morphine/Heroin(™) and the psychedelics ... although I've not taken them all for comparison, so can only go on reporting.

Pity they can't resurrect Princess Di too.
She's dead [wow]

I was a slightly amazed Peregrina that the McCann news was the lead story on the French lunchtime news.

I was a slightly amazed Peregrina that the McCann news was the lead story on the French lunchtime news.

To be fair her disappearance was/is a worldwide mystery, and if there is real progress in the case rather than the usual "quick they'll close the inquiry if there's nothing to show" the Express pumps out) then it's hardly surprising. But that's for a different thread, if not board ...

Didnt one 9f the prime ministers, forget his name, Suez canal guy, take loads of drugs? And that's one of the reasons Suez went down the canal, as it were?

I’ve got that book Sabrina i thought it really was excellent, would recommend to anyone. Indeed I think you draw our one of the major points, not just that Hitler and other high rankers were taking all sorts but that the ordinary soldiers were given meth as well. Pervatin I think they called it.

Eden. Don't know whether he took drugs though, or if he needed to take shedloads of drugs for a medical condition.

Didnt one 9f the prime ministers, forget his name, Suez canal guy, take loads of drugs? And that's one of the reasons Suez went down the canal, as it were?

But not a dictator - possibly reinforcing my theory that they don't mix.

The main reason Suez went down the pan, so to speak, was because Eisenhower had fuck all time for the British Empire (setting the US default setting regarding Britain). Keeping Egypt and Nasser (who ran rings around the UK) away from the USSR was much more important.

The interesting thing is the UK seemed to take one message away from the Suez experience, and the French another. Which is why the UK quietly went back to the US when the shouting had stopped, after all, they love us really. We probably deserved a bit of a slap anyway. They won't do it again. They promised.

We got our own back on the US over Vietnam.
Wilson refused Americas suggestion that we might like to get involved, like Australia and New Zealand.
Best thing he did.

We got our own back on the US over Vietnam.

Not really. Why do you think they are lubing up that trade deal, and Boris is having to get the entire country to bend over.

Wilson might have been clever (he was a genius in some ways). But being followed by Prime Ministers of ever decreasing intelligence has meant there's a tinge of cold revenge being prepared in the US. Doubtless to go.

Still who knows ? We might like chlorinated chicken.

However I don't class amphetamines as mind-altering

Amphetamine (and especially methamphetamine) abuse causes changes to the structure of the brain, so I’d class that as mind alternating.

This HoL committee will have its work cut out
committees.parliament.uk/committee/448/eu-international-agreements-subcommittee/membership/

We might like chlorinated chicken.
With a good sauce maybe but on its own it tastes of nothing
US food is quantity over quality

Amphetamines ....
www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2016/2/crossheading/psychoactive-substances/enacted

Eden was on high-strength Benzedrine, highly addictive and causing paranoia.

He was part of a whole era of booze-soaked politicians from Squiffy Asquith who gave his name to the condition right through to Thatcher with her two whiskys a night. Major was sober. Brown was a boozing throwback, as was May who was well-known as a conference barfly. Blair, Cameron and BJ are/were notorious weedheads.

Something the NFT's This House doesn't really make enough of is the way British politics in that era ran on hard liquor. The drinks cabinet, or more likely the bottom drawer of the minister's desk, was the focal point of all discussions. And it was the failure of tight Yorkshireman Roy Mason to pay for bottle of Paddy to keep Frank Maguire happy that ultimately cost Labour the vote of confidence in 79 as much as any other reason.

Amphetamine (and especially methamphetamine) abuse causes changes to the structure of the brain, so I’d class that as mind alternating.

So do benzodiazepines. Sadly, 33 years ago no one thought to tell DW, until she became physically dependent. Which is why I am not really a fan of the UK shit drugs laws. Benzos are my speciality and I could easily write a book about them (certainly know more than most doctors). But all I've learned is they are impossible to quit once you've gone past a certain point. Even if you end up not actually taking them, the physical and chemical changes they cause in the brain are permanent.

Oops, I was starting off ...