last night I went to see Daniel Sloss and his show, X.

Brilliantly funny and a really, really interesting look at toxic masculinity and everything that comes with it.

I believe it's on HBO in US/Canada so you can probably find it online somewhere. Highly recommended.

Great diarying Huzzy and the pics add so much.

I have one request. Could you explain your avatar please?

the avatar is a picture of me, dressed as an Oompa Loompa and is probably 10 years old at least.

Bohemka fans having fun in the cold.

Singing songs about kangaroos and threatening to destroy their stadium (in jest) if the team don't score 'one goal, and then another one...'

Click to see full-size image.

this week has been pretty mental.

I've (finally) got a permanent desk in the office, having been  'hot-desking' (urgh - both the terminology and the practice) for the better part of 18 months.  Usually that would involve plonking my laptop somewhere, scramble about to get stuff plugged in and then hope whoever's desk I'd purloined for the day/week/month wouldn't suddenly turn up unexpectedly. Sometimes they would, and then I'd smile sheepishly, scrabble around and extricate myself and apologize for interrupting their day.

Whilst I am excited to finally have a place where I can relax and not worry about being kicked out, I must admit that I'll now, at any given time, be capable of being located, and with that, have flow interrupted. Still, at least I can put some pictures of my non-existent kids and pets up. That's what people do in offices, isn't it?

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Last week saw the mighty Zizkov return to winning ways in a rare televised game against FC Zbrojovka Brno, the leading club from the second city. Quite a scrappy game was punctuated by one belter of a freekick from our centre-back from about 30 yards. Up to 7th in the league and next up this weekend is a trip perennial strugglers FC Vlašim about 70km to the South-East of Prague.

I've never been to Vlasim and have heard good things, especially about the castle park -  said to have inspired Gustav Mahler to put chinese poems to music in Das Lied von der Erde and the Château - but unfortunately, on account of both a friend's birthday and the small matter of the RWC Final, I won't be able to make it this time and so will content myself with a couple of photos from the internet. Perhaps I'll make it there next season.


The Château


The entrance to the Castle Park.

After that, we close out the first half of the season with a home fixture against Usti Nad Labem ('Usti-upon-Elbe') before the lack of undersoil heating at most second division grounds enforces a winter-break until probably the second or third week of Feb. The top division tends to run a little longer, so I'll probably get my fix by heading to Bohemians 1905 who are probably the most fun fans in the top division, in Prague at least.

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As for next week,  a pal will visit me and we'll head into the mountains in the North for the weekend after a couple of days showing him my favourite spots in Prague. I might even remember to take some proper photos to share.

they won't win seats

but in marginals a few percent of the votes from CON to BXP matters, a few less Con seats reduces the likelihood of the necessary majority to deliver Brexit

the fact that it is not a 100% clean break no deal brexit, (but still pretty hard with a no deal out at the end of 2020 anyway) is a complete red herring compared to the risk of another hung parliament (if you want Brexit)

Farage can't see the wood for the trees!

or maybe he can and his incentives aren't what we suppose. Maybe he wants delay to continue trousering money whilst being in the spotlight, or maybe he wants a hung parliament because it will lead to a second referendum (potentially, depending on how hung it is...) which gives him the opportunity to put the issue to bed forever. Vote once when you don't know what you're voting for, vote again when it's clear what Brexit means on a more tailored, specific question and the issue is dead for a generation or more. Maybe he thinks that this Brexit (or indeed any Brexit) is likely to lead to a campaign to rejoin the EU, and maybe he wants to put that to bed before it's even got off the ground.

Farage promises a national campaign to convince the British people that Boris Johnson’s deal is a sell-out and to contest every seat in the country if the Tories do not embrace his clean break Brexit.

Writing the Conservative Party manifesto just got a whole load trickier.

Farage gives Johnson until the close of nominations on November 14th to row in with him

Johnson can't campaign against his own deal lol, as well many Tory MPs wouldn't stand on a no deal platform

All Farage has done in his speech is make a Con majority slightly trickier and without that Brexit is at risk of at minimum further delayed in another hung parliament

Odd tactcis.

Sometimes you can't avoid the impression that he likes his MEP sinecure too much to give it up without a fight

quite so. very odd. Surely they don't have the resources to contest every seat, anyway...

glad I asked. fascinating replies

what was so special about billet ends that they were the holy grail?

(forgive the ignorant question...)

So when you call me rotund, you're actually just saying I'm built like a building?

Sweet.

You might be rotund but I’m rotunda.😂

[at least]

on the subject of rotundas, perhaps you might enjoy this one:

Click to see full-size image.

That's the 'Romanesque Rotunda of St George' (Rotunda svatého Jiří) which is one of the oldest buildings in the Czech Republic, being at least as old as 1126 when the first mention of it is found.

It's situated at the top of Říp Mountain, which is a pseudo-mythical site in the Czech Republic, said to be where the first Czechs settled. At the confluence of three rivers and rising 459m out of the Bohemian flatland, legend tells that 'Forefather Čech' (the mythical figure who founded the Czech nation..) and his people climbed Říp Mountain, he looked upon the landscape and told his brothers that they have reached the promised land: "We have a country at our will, here will be our tables always full, enough of wild animals, birds, fishes, bees and hardness against enemies." (source)

The mountain is the remnant of an old volcano and it's said that each Czech should make pilgrimage to Říp at least once. The parallels with Mecca don't end there either, at a little tourist hut adjacent the rotunda from the early 20th century there is a little dedication with a Czech prover:. "Co Mohamedu Mekka, to Čechu Říp' -- what Mecca is to a Mohammendan, Říp is to a Czech. Mohammedan is apparently an 'oldy worldy' word for Muslim, since fallen out of favour as a misnomer, it seems.

And here's Říp as seen from the South:

Click to see full-size image.

[Chances are they won't do so, as they're too mired in their own internal politics]

If the Tories do decide to put the government 'on strike' then there seems to be a huge amount of political capital for the opposition to exploit if they work together effectively.

For one, the Tories have just insisted on prorogation of Parliament to bring in a new Queen's speech which they argued was to deliver their domestic agenda and unrelated to Brexit, which we all knew was bullshit, but it happened anyway.  The Parliamentary arithmetic is no different now to when they did this, so by not attempting to move any of this legislation forward they'll be exposing themselves further to their own lies.  I'd be inclined, as an opposition MP, to hold their feet to the fire on this for as long as possible.

If the government effectively refuse to bring any meaningful business forward, then the opposition should use the opportunity to take over the order paper whenever it could.  They could do this for both Brexit related issues, or for progressing other issues specifically to highlight Tory policy weaknesses (e.g. some sort of NHS related debate/bill).  Doing so would either force the government to bring meaningful business in place of this happening, or keep them occupied in preventing whatever business is brought forward being moved forward.  Ideally, they should work on some sort of bill to commit to a 2nd Referendum taking place ahead of any GE and cut off BoJo's intended way out.

Presumably, this would also free up BoJo's time enough for him to turn up to the Parliamentary committee meeting he's cancelled 3 times already, given that he's no longer 'too busy delivering Brexit'.

If they are smart about this, the opposition parties working together could use the government's tactic to their advantage.  Chances are they won't do so, as they're too mired in their own internal politics, but they really need to highlight the Queen's Speech fallacy at the very least.

would love to see this, but I agree particularly with the bold bit.

Failure? He’s made it to prime minister.....hardly a failure. What have you achieved in life other than being good at whining on the Internet?

I don’t quite know what your problem is with me, but that’s the second totally unreasonable attack in the space of hours.

If you disagree with my politics, challenge them. Debate them.

If you don’t like me personally (even though I’m quite sure we’ve never met), then feel free to block me and don’t read what I write.

If, on the other hand, you’d prefer to do neither and continue the ad hominem attacks, then might I suggest you shout them into the void outside your window instead, because I’m not interested in reading them on this forum.

All of this is just Lakhoffian framing.

Johnson’s big pledge was ‘do or die, out by 31st’ (presumably he’d choose to die in a ditch)..and he has failed miserably.

By almost any standard you’d care to think of, he’s the worst PM ever.

This bickering over the timing of the election just serves to re-frame and distract.

All he had to do was act like an adult when he won on second reading but lost on the programme motion and resolved that WAB will take a few more weeks to pass and get on with it. But because Parliament, given time for the proper scrutiny might exercise a bit of sovereignty and make amendments which may not be totally helpful to Johnson winning a majority at the next election (even though a WAB would, in some form, have been passed) he’s decided to withdrawal the bill and threatens to go on strike.

Well fine, go on strike then you child. The absence of a PM is likely to be more effective than your Premiership, you abject failure.

Peston

It’s done. Labour has instructed its MPs tonight to block @BorisJohnson’s attempt on Monday to have 12 Dec election. So @BorisJohnson will shelve the Withdrawal Agreement Bill. He will cancel the budget. There will be no government worth the name. Parliament will become...a zombie Parliament, unless and until the opposition find a way to wrest control from @BorisJohnson or hold an election. This deadlock is without modern precedent.

If we ever get back to a functioning Government, do you think the FTPA might be the first thing to go ?

Nah, it’s fundamentally a good piece of legislation and when govt functions you don’t need it.

It removes from the executive a power which is better given to the legislative, and basically all such prerogatives should be more limited.

Brexit has done a mischief to Britain’s body politic by having a referendum which wasn’t legally binding but is politically but without the requisite level of detail. In effect Britain’s constitution always required either legislative limits (which eg don’t exist in eg case of prorogation or calling GE pre FTPA) or political limits that politicians wouldn’t test the limits. With the new world created by Brexit and the lack of direct accountability to Parliament, bad actors were able to start to test those limits.

As a result; legal limits are much easier to have a court enforce than ‘political conventions’ and thus I think we’ll see more abrogation of perogatives than returning to them.

if "maturity" (whatever that means) means you need to be 25 years old to vote, how about we disenfranchise those with dementia and similar illnesses, Daily Mail readers and anyone else who can reasonably said not to be of sound mind. How about an IQ test before being allowed to vote? Menstruating women are out because they could be hysterical and can't be said to be 'mature' enough.

The only reason people don't want to enfranchise the young is because they think they'll vote the 'wrong' way. Take that argument to its limit and then ad absurdium and you come up with something like the above.

Ridiculous. If you're taxable, you should be represented. Simple as that.

Taking your argument to the limit and ad absurdism we give the vote to babies...

I’m sure we agree that there is an age, below which people aren’t ready to vote. Is your line firmly drawn at 16?

my line would be broadly similar to the well established principle in the law surrounding medial procedures, Gillick competence.
It doesn't have to be 16, it could be 14, or 10, or whatever.

And I do believe that if politicians were forced to engage with younger votes (because they vote) then they'd have more competence.

fwiw, the conservatives allow those members 15 and older to vote in their leadership elections.  but they won't allow the general public to do so. I wonder why that is.... :rolleyes:

I am agnostic to if 16 year olds vote to be honest.  But the driver is from the left who need more votes.  The Left have largely been rejected by the adult electorate over many decades.  It’s no surprise they seek more voters with a more childlike idealistic outlook.  I’m fine with letting them vote but the Left shouldn’t disguise their intentions here.

fine with that if you also insist that 'the Right' (or very specifically, Boris Johnson/Dominic Cummings) shouldn't disguise their intentions in bringing forward legislation to insist on ID to vote in order to tackle the totally non-existent issue of 'voter fraud'.