Boris Johnson has resigned. Jonathan Freedland writes that there is a symmetry to his rise and fall: Lies and a brazen contempt for the rules powered his rise; lies and a brazen contempt for the rules brought his fall. Which means the political odyssey of Boris Johnson has a
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Cathie from Canada: Today’s news: Comments on the passing scene
Its been a crazy day, eh? Patrick Brown is out: So arrogant he doesn’t even show up to debate other #CPC hopefuls, this after likely eliminating Patrick Brown. @PierrePoilievre so confident he’s got the #CPC Leadership, he is skipping the Calgary leadership debate, will attend party with Brett Wilson.https://t.co/SbrOV0jZMc —
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Line Of Inquiry
If you are as much a fan of Britain’s Line of Duty (available on Netflix) as I am, you will enjoy this lacerating parody as the team interrogates Boris Johnson over partygate. Led By Donkeys, the collective that created it, worked with Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice to create a memorial wall
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Costanza Defence
I think there can be little doubt that Boris Johnson, whatever his shortcomings, is a student of Seinfeld. Here is what he had to say about the drink fests he hosted during Covid-19 lockdowns. And here is what George Costanza offered as he faced termination after having sex with the
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: BoJo’s Troubles
Boris Johnson is in trouble. Andrew Mackasill and Guy Faulconbridge report that: Johnson has repeatedly apologized for the parties and said that he was unaware of many of them. However, he attended what he said he thought was a work event on May 20, 2020 which revellers had been told to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Umair Haque is rightly frustrated that we haven’t learned and applied obvious lessons about how to fight COVID after two years, while also warning against any assumptions that the Omicron variant will go easy on us. Ian Bogost writes about the realization that
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Robert Booth and Heather Stewart report on Boris Johnson’s insistence on lifting COVID-19 protections even as case counts rise in the UK. And Annette Dittert discusses how Johnson’s government has relied on being able to dispense with concepts such as the rule of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Why post-Brexit, post-Imperial Britain should build Yachty McYachtface, and build it now!
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s big idea to spend hundreds of millions of pounds building a new royal yacht to serve as a floating trade show venue is an excellent project for the new post-Brexit “Global Britain.” It would be an utter waste of money, of course, and not even the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to start your week. – Bartley Kives discusses the Pallister PC’s failure to respond to warnings about a new COVID wave (which of course reflects a pattern among conservative provincial governments). Julia Wong exposes the Kenney UPC’s utter failure to organize the contact tracing needed to avoid additional waves
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Social media abuzz with reports of UCP staffers, MLA vacationing abroad despite pandemic travel warnings
Social media is abuzz with reports of United Conservative Party staffers and at least one UCP MLA enjoying vacations abroad notwithstanding the federal government’s pleas for Canadians to cancel all travel during the coronavirus pandemic. Most mainstream media in Alberta, however, seem to be engaging in an anguished internal debate
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Jonathan Aldred highlights how COVID-19 has laid bare the folly of a neoliberal economic structure which encourages insecurity, fragility and illusions of control over the unforeseen. And Merran Smith and Michel Letellier discuss how a rebuilding program centred on clean energy will
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Josh Eidelson writes about the fleecing of American labour in general over the past five decades, while E. Tammy Kim discusses the systematic exploitation of workers in the U.S.’ nursing homes in particular. And Robyn Urback writes that the Ford government is only
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Village Idiot
I suspect few regard British Prime Minister Boris Johnson as anything other than a village idiot. If you have been following the scandal surrounding his Chief Adviser, Dominic Cummings, you will also see that like attracts like. Boris has been twisting himself out of shape defending the hypocritical Cummings; after
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Boris Johnson, Covid -19, and the Verdict of History
Because my parents live in Scotland, I'm forced to worry about the fight against Covid-19 in the UK where the Con clown Boris Johnson rules.Who after surviving his close encounter with Covid-19, has been praising the NHS for saving him. "I can't thank them enough. I owe them my life," he said
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Trans Mountain Pipeline court ruling looks like a win for Alberta — as the world drives away in an electric car
You win some, you lose some. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney won one yesterday with the decision of the Federal Court of Appeal to strike down a challenge by a group of four British Columbia First Nations and allow the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project to take another lurching step toward
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Taylor Scallon discusses how GDP numbers fail to capture the precarious circumstances facing far too many Canadians. Kerri Breen reports on Ipsos’ polling showing a majority of Canadians seeing the political system as being rigged in favour of a privileged few. But in
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Why Canadian media won’t call post-Brexit protests ‘pro-democracy demonstrations’
If there are riots in Britain after the hard Brexit Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Conservative Party cronies have scheduled for Halloween, will mainstream media in Canada describe them as “pro-democracy demonstrations” as they do when similar violent outbursts take place nowadays in Hong Kong or Moscow? On the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Noah Smith comments that while we shouldn’t necessarily try to adjust GDP for other necessary elements of individual and social well-being, we should avoid treating it as a catch-all measure in assessing policy choices: GDP does have plenty of flaws, even as
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Kate Lyons points out the health effects of our climate breakdown, including childhood deaths and the stunting of growth. Pheobe Weston reports on research showing that new heat waves are pushing temperatures past what the human body can handle. And Matthew Yglesias
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – CBC News highlights how cost-of-living issues look to play a key role in Canada’s federal election. And Jerry-Lynn Scofield points out that current asset valuations and economic assumptions are based on an entirely unsustainable combination of public, private and corporate debt loads.
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