Andy Burnsnoboats, The Boombust Boys featuring Janet Yellen, The Greek who never gets beyond analysis, and Sam Allardyce-Aqbar.
Andy Burnham is a snake. I just thought I’d deliver that verdict upfront, because it’s something I’ve always felt about the bloke, and I have yet to see anything in his behaviour that gives me a scintilla of doubt.
Observe this quote and retweet from the newly resigned Shadow Home Sec two days ago:
So Burnham walks the walk by waiting until halfway through his Labour Party Conference speech before quitting….giving his mayoral campaign as the feeble excuse for his departure. He was nominated as the Labour candidate for Mayor of Manchester seven weeks ago; but it took him 50 days to work out that doing that might be time-consuming.
Bollocks. He was hedging his bets: now Corbyn is back in the driving seat, he’s off like a shot to the nearest seat of power…but not before dumping on the bloke he feigned to support by delivering the coup de grace live during his Conference speech – and using immigration policy criticism as his Blairite credential, just in case the wind direction changes.
I’ve made no secret of my immigration policy: given the parlous state of the British poor, if migrants can support themselves, then fine. If not, wait in line. This has nothing to do with being “a little Englander nationalist”: it’s about representation. Our MPs are elected by British citizens of every creed, ethnicity, age and background – they come first, well before Romanians, Syrians, Iranians, Australians, or Canadians.
I agree that UK Government social and foreign policy has landed us in this mess; but then I never voted for Blair, Brown or Cameron – and I voted Brexit to protect us from idiotic EU migrant policies. I’d love it if we had the space, economic growth and public finances to have an open-door migration policy, but we don’t. So that’s my view.
I oppose Jeremy Corbyn’s immigration policy on that basis. Andy Burnham does so for tactical and populist reasons.
Like I say, Burnham is a snake.
Meanwhile, high above politics (hahaha) Janet Yellen is sticking to her yes and no with reservations shtick. One of the many things that annoys me about Boombust TV is that it covers this Fed stuff as if any of it mattered any more….even as if like, maybe, monetary policy has anything to add to its long and undistinguished history.
Janet sees solid job growth. Solid is good….solid we like. But is it just the one job – are we talking Elmer Drill, the guy who does dishes at the Crushstone Diner in Wyoming? It is indeed a solid and steady job, but it hasn’t grown a lot since Elmer started there 46 years ago. Certainly, the growth in his job is not enough to justify a hike timetable.
A hike timetable is one down from a hike recipe, which is still cooking in the Yellen airing cupboard. We’re not moving forwards here, Fed. And Boombust, perleeze stop trying to make a drama out of a fading possibility.
Over at last to the most neglected subject on the web at the moment – the country formally known as Greece, but now referred to by the Inner Troikanauts as Gross Europeanisches Reich mit alle NATO Yo! (Germany!)
There’s a Tweeter over there who goes under the name of Greek Analyst, which is I think an abbreviation of ‘Greek – needs an analyst’. His line most of the time is that Greeks are entirely to blame for all their problems, and he thinks this because – beneath a wafer-thin sneer of objectivity – he is econo-politically of the “don’t let the Left ruin everything” school. This is a recent effort:
The series (it runs to over 20 in total) is getting rave reviews….and clearly the fellow has wide appeal, given his following which approaches 30,000. But most of it – I admit, there are some honourable exceptions – is fortune-cookie stuff. There are myriad arguments to show that neoliberal economics are self-defeating (not least their obvious consumption level flaws)….which, um, is why it’s easy to construct them. ‘Absolutely no arguments’ is just playground stuff: I could insert the word ‘socialism’ in there, and the entire Left would tick the box. So what?
He gives himself away rather a lot (‘The Left in power is a problem’) and while correctly fingering Varoufartacus as a narcissist, he doesn’t let on that Yanis was right from day one about both the euro in general and austerity in particular. Mainly though, the output is old, tired and muddled – ‘Lessons from the Greek crisis (#2): “Dignity” is a catchy ethnopopulist term to feed the masses. But at some point they’ll need actual food’.
European Union imperialist hubris in Greece has turned a relatively calm political landscape into a haven for nutters. The people to blame for that are German economic crackpots and a corrupt Hellenic politico-professional élite….not the Greek people. In running this series, TGA comes across as a flag-happy linesman who’d just love one day to be a referee….but lacks the stature.
The whole world hates a smartass. Especially when it’s in a Christmas cracker.
And finally, while this one’s getting a bit stale, it’s in here for the weaselly words used more than anything else:
The politesse of press releases about people being fired used to be funny, but these days it’s actually somewhat offensive. Allardyce is and always has been a third-rate manager, and is now revealed to have been a greedy fat bastard to boot…as it were. When caught with his hands in the till, Big Sam offered the defence of being set up; what he didn’t do was immediately offer his resignation. So there was nothing mutual about the consent, which was itself not very consensual.
The journalists involved are to be congratulated for ridding England of yet another mediocre manager before he could do any serious damage. Unfortunately, the fattie control freaks at the FA will now go into a huddle and appoint Ron Knee.
My reform-based solution goes like this: fire the FA, cancel all Murdoch’s TV contracts in the UK game, cut every Premiership/Championship salary by 75%, and give 50% of all transfer monies to a mutualised centre of excellence designed to encourage, train and support young English players.
Then and only then will we get our beautiful game back….and stand a chance of winning the World Cup in 2026.
The Slog 