Thursday 24 May 2018

All Politicians are liars

"Epimenides the Cretan says, 'that all the Cretans are liars,' but Epimenides is himself a Cretan; therefore he is himself a liar

Epimendes lived around 600 BC. His statement is  a logical paradox to which there can be no  answer. His statement was quoted by St Paul and has come down to us via St Paul..

The modern version of the lying Cretan is a lying politician on QT. I remembered this paradox whilst listening to Soubry on last night's QT telling the audience that they had been lied to by the other side during the Referendum campaign. Soubry is herself a politician so the Cretan paradox applies.

Soubry's trick is to make her eyes glisten with sincerity whilst feeding this to the audience, a trick Anthony Blair  excelled at and still does.

The QT audience is packed with young people who lack the experience of life to see the paradox of Soubry. That is why dear beloved (Kipling) old people still should be allowed the vote.

17 comments:

Stephen Harness said...

These people are being given high profile political platforms by the media.
Interesting article in the Mail yesterday highlighting how the guests on Peston last Sunday were all Remainers...Mandelson, Sturgeon, Woolaston, McCluskey, Hancock and Drechsler.
The remain bias is becoming more blatant.
Also in the Mail we had details of Operation Sabotage Brexit and hideous photographs of Soros.
Soubry can moan all day about the Leave campaign which was in truth a dreadful campaign, but the Remain campaign was worse and was based on one topic, fear.

Eric Edmond said...

Yes I noted that Remainer bias on Peston last Sunday. The bias is definitely getting worse. North London Jews have dominated the BBC since the early 60s. Why I do not know given the descendants of the SS are well represented in the EU high command

Niall Warry said...

I don't usually watch QT but did last night and Soubry for balance should certainly have pointed out how bad the Remain campaign was but she was quite correct that the £350 million pledge for the NHS, on the side of the Leaver's battle bus, was not true.

As to her point that de-coupling ourselves from the Single Market too quickly without a comprehensive trade deal in place (which to be as comprehensive would take many years) would damage us our economy was true. She also mentioned the EEA which is certainly my preferred route via Efta and ticks all the boxes.

Efta/EEA allows us to continue our trade with the EU 27, as we do now, once we sign up to the EEA agreement. This frees us from the politics of the EU and most of their laws only keeping those applicable to maintain frictionless trade. We would also be free from the jurisdiction of ECJ,

Those concerned about the four freedoms should be asssured that in the EEA we have far more autonomy than we do now and on F of M specifically we could invoke Article 112 and registering our specific reasons for doing so which we can not do now.

Efta/EEA is the solution.

Eric Edmond said...

Sorry Major you are leading your troops into the same old trap by talking about trade deals etc.The vote was we want to run our country ourselves. You want to sign up to the EU Wehrmact/Grande Armee. What casualty rates do you expect in British regiments and what rates in Franco German units? The coming war will be fought in the UKraine, EU versus Russia until the Yanks step in and stop it.

Niall Warry said...

Dear Eric you are still in a redcoat carrying a musket and forming into square while I'm in camouflage, carrying a rifle and skirmishing.

Trading with any one country, let alone 27 others, involves obeying rules and mostly worldwide regulations, associated costs and abiding by an adjudication process.

If you want this country to successfully trade with other countries without importing inferior and dangerous goods, deseases etc we have to abide and sign up to detailed and complex deals.

There is no such thing as a free lunch so now put away your old fashion ways and ideas and get with it!

Eric Edmond said...

Tell me Major why was the noble princeling wearing Major's epaulettes at wedding? I thought he had left the army as a Captain. Will it increase his pension that we have to pay for?

Devalues your hard earned rank.

Niall Warry said...

Yes I noted that as well and I guess he may still technically be 'IN' the Army in which case, because of who he is, the rank came up with the rations and I doubt he had to take part in the Captain to Major promotion assessment which for me, by then in the TA invloved a two week mainly practical assesment/course at Warminster.

I'm still a supporter of part of the Royal Family, as I certainly don't want a President Blair, in which case I accept the fact that they all increase in rank as they age! Charlie boy was given five star rank by the Queen in 2012 which makes him a Field Marshal,Admiral of the Fleet and Marshal of the Air Force!

PS Eric, rest assured we still need other ranks to do the donkey work so you are still very much needed :-)

Eric Edmond said...

Strange Captain Philips was not promoted Major for marrying Big A I guess because he was not a proper Royal.

Donkeys are now called Sherpas in political speak. Do try to keep up Major or it will be more square bashing for you.

Eric Edmond said...

Double strange as big A's second husband was promoted Vice Admiral, Nelson's rank at Trafalgar.Obviously his face fitted and Cap'n Philip's did not although the Cap'n did his duty and successfully covered big A,twice. No fairness there.

Niall Warry said...

Covered big A - do you mean had two children?

This from Wiki :-

'Upon passing out from Sandhurst, Phillips was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant into the Queen's Dragoon Guards in July 1969. After the expected period, he was promoted to Lieutenant in January 1971.By the time of his wedding to Princess Anne in November 1973, Phillips was an acting Captain.In January 1974, he was appointed a Personal Aide-de-Camp to Queen Elizabeth II. Phillips was substantively promoted to Captain in July 1975, and retired from the Army on 30 March 1978.

He continued to style himself Captain Mark Phillips;retired cavalry captains are (unusually) allowed to use this honorific rank, if their job had mostly involved horses.'

Eric Edmond said...

That's the phrase the horse people use for copulation. I did not mind Cap'n Philips or his best man Cap'n Grounds. He was a good horseman and did his duty. For that he deserves praise.

I do not understand your reference to redcoats. I thought your lot wore Green Jackets

Niall Warry said...

The Green Jackets, from as early as the 1760s, were ahead of their time using camouflage, rifles and skirmishing while all other regiments still wore redcoats, used muskets and formed squares.

So what I was saying was that your reluctance to embrace Efta/EEA put you in the 'redcoat' brigade where as I and others, in the manner of Sir John Moore's 'Thinking Rifleman' were more advanced in our thinking of how to leave the EU but maintain frictionless trade.

Advanced thinking needs an officer class! :-)

Eric Edmond said...

You mean like Douglas Haig?

Eric Edmond said...

When the Princeling was posted to a cushy job in Afghan he had to have a Ghurka squad as a body guard. How many men would be in such a squad?6,8, 10 or what?

Some of his men saw him as more a danger to them than the Taliban. Ginger bullet magnet was the phrase I heard some squaddies use on TV

How many days did he serve in Afghan? What was the normal tour for non-royal officers?

Niall Warry said...

Eric, you really must try and cure your prejudices.

With regards Haig his side won. He supported the use of tanks and the great military writer Major General JFC Fuller found handsome vindication for Haig's strategic principles in one of his profoundest treatises, The Conduct Of War 1789-1961 published in 1961.

As to Harry I support the monarchy down to his level, for fear of the alternatives, although the jury is out on Meghan. However what is very clear is that squaddies like Harry and the flag waving Royalists like Meghan.

As a senior civil servant of officer status you really should try and be supportive of your brother officers!

Eric Edmond said...

How many died as a result of Haig. We did not win, nobody did but millions of squadies lost their lives.

WWI destroyed our nation morally and economically thanks to Haig and the military elite.


We have no shortage of Royals, they go on for ever to the crack of doom and as G&S said they never would be missed.

Niall Warry said...

Really Eric, Haig as a product of his time is not personally to blame for the millions that died anymore than any other war leader is personally responsible for the dead that occur under their command. This not to say some war leaders don't make mistakes but war is a nasty business and whether you are a good or bad leader people are going to die.

Our Royal exists by popular demand so although you would wish them gone I for one prefer them to the alternatives.

Your prejudices are bad for your health and as I said as a senior civil servant of officer class you should be more supportive of your brother officers!