Brexit - "Are we there yet?" No, of course we aren't!

My main aim this year was to still be here for Brexit Day - i.e. 29th March. Last Thursday. Well, I made it, but - as you may have noticed - no Brexit. Thank you, Theresa May. I don't have the strength - or, to be honest, the inclination - to follow the current comic...

I second the suggestion that Dominic Frisby's brilliant song should be the UK's next Eurovision Song Contest entry

Yup! Being a Brexit supporter with Theresa May in charge reminds me...

Mark Carney's new book...

"What have I done?" - is Theresa May channeling Lieutenant Colonel Nicholson?

In Bridge on the River Kwai, Lieutenant Colonel Nicholson accepts the challenge of building a bridge in order to improve the morale of his men, to demonstrate British efficiency to their Japanese captors, and out of pride:...

Don't these identity politics pillocks realise how mad they sound?

Let's hope Tyler Cowen, writing for Bloomberg, is right...

Tears of Rage - starting with Quentin Letts's splendid evisceration of Theresa May in the Daily Mail

The Mail's political sketch-writer started Wednesday's article this way:

Prime Minister’s Questions left me hoping the Conservatives lose the next election – lose it so badly their buttocks sting – and that Jeremy Corbyn, with whom I disagree on almost everything, becomes Prime Minister.

Having summed up Mrs May's wretched performance as "No fun. No verve. No imagination..." Letts ended his piece with this stirring call to arms:

The fact that referendums aren't elections means that Brexiteers aren't responsible for the mess Theresa May's government has got us into

One of my many sensible Remain friends asked me the other day why what he called "the Brexit camp" still "don't seem to have any idea of how to manage a graceful, coherent and productive exit from the EU.  There's absolutely no leadership.  You'd think that after all these years of opposition someone would have put some thought and work into a proper hard Brexit plan - something comprehensive and practical.  Perhaps even something attractive and inspiring?" He asked if he was missing something, and it took me a while to figure out what that something was. For the past two years, practically every Remainer and an alarming number of Leavers have been treating the referendum as if it had been a general election (I've found myself doing it occasionally). The difference is crucial...

If Jean-Claude Juncker stumbles because of sciatica, why doesn't he use sticks?

I've suffered bouts of sciatica over the years, and...

Now that's what I call a resignation! The week Brexit got interesting again...

If that was the response to David Davis's announcement, I expect the "operation area" was...

If you don't support Mrs May and/or the Chequers proposal...

If you don't support her/it, you'll be handing the keys of No.10 to Jeremy Corbyn. 

- No, your blithering incompetence, lack of political judgment, and pathetic inability to control the narrative will be to blame for that.

If you don't support her/it, you'll destroy the Conservative Party for a generation. 

- If this is the best the party can do, it deserves to be destroyed. Besides, it's now a quasi-socialist, big state, high tax, politically correct, social justice outfit - no longer either traditionally conservative or classically liberal - so what's the bloody point of the thing?...

Why do pro-Brexit Conservative constituencies put up with disloyal, treacherous Remainiac MPs?

I've been wondering about this ever since the referendum. For instance, a healthy majority of Anna Soubry's Broxbourne constituents - 54.6% - voted to leave, and she retained her seat at last year's general election by a mere 836 votes, or 1.6% of the total. The UKIP vote dropped by 8%, while Labour's increased by 8.1% - I've no idea whether all those voters switched directly from UKIP to Labour, but I can't for the life of me imagine why anyone who had previously voted for UKIP would be inclined to support the country's most brazenly pro-EU MP. Given that this ghastly woman seems to have spent every waking moment conniving with Britain's enemies - i.e. the unelected gauleiters of the EU - insulting Leave voters, and trying to derail the Brexit process while doing her level best to destroy her own party's already damaged credibility, I can't for the life of me imagine why her constituency association would countenance the idea of fielding her as their preferred candidate at the next election. Well, maybe they've finally had enough!

Angela Merkel's reaction to Donald Trump's latest tweet...

Here is that tweet:

Andrew Neil and Michael Portillo beat up a befuddled old man (AC Grayling) on live TV - why did no one call 999?

The elderly philosopher somewhat redeemed himself...

"Mandate" - democracy in action, EU-style

Mandate = the President of Italy gets his orders from Italy's actual rulers:

Theresa May - the "nanny state" social justice warrior in No. 10

I suspect many - perhaps most - right-wingers and conservatives (and quite a few centrists and left-wingers) are so horrified at the thought of the Four Horsepersons of the Apocalypse (Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbott, John McDonnell and Angela Rayner) taking charge of the country...

Modern politics is like The Archers - you take a break from it, only to discover that nothing has changed

I'm hoping someone turns this parody cover into an actual book in time for next Christmas - what a brilliant stocking-filler!

After a three-day hiatus...

A European Superstate? Where did silly old Boris Johnson ever get such a ridiculous notion!

Honestly! These Brexiteers really do make the most ridiculous claims!...

The Today Programme has lost 300,000 listeners - a mix of Brexit, John Humphrys, and its editor, I reckon

It was recently announced that the BBC Radio 4 flagship current affairs programme, Today, had shed 300,000 listeners over the past year. Not a disaster, as it still boasts an average audience of 7.15m - but embarrassing, given that Chris Evans's Radio 2 morning show added 200,000 listeners during the same period.  Before I expatiate on the possible reasons for Today's appeal becoming more "selective", I should admit that I haven't listened to it for several years. I'm rarely up early enough these days, I loathed it back when I was routinely conscious at that time of the day, and John Humphrys's personality brings me out in hives.  Having admitted all that, I'd be very surprised if the following three factors weren't playing a major role in driving listeners away:

A round-up of this week's wit, wisdom, stupidity and hysteria Pt.1

I've been too distracted by hospital and GP visits this week to read anything intelligent or write anything coherent this week - but I've been saving up snippets that caught my eye... and now it's your turn to suffer. I'll start with some examples of the Left's propensity for pomposity, hypocrisy, lack of perspective and sheer mendacity:

It's no good - I literally have no idea what...

Blimey! What sort of state is Jean-Claude Juncker going to be in by Christmas Day!

Meanwhile, proof that you don't have to be all that bright to...