May is nearly out and so is May

[LMcD]

I think that many will have adopted the attitude of "a plague on both your houses" regarding the current suspension of Stormont.

It could be argued that the House of Commons is also in a suspended state even when it's sitting. It has failed to settle what it believes to be the Great Issue Of The Times while ignoring others that some folk may regard as at least equally important.

[Richard Barrett]

I'm in total shock. I can't believe you're writing this kind of stuff.

Quite. I don't think I have any more to say on the subject!

[burning dog]

BBC NI News have just used Berlioz SF (that's Symphonie Fantastique, rather than Sinn Féin) as the backdrop to their summing up of the Tory debacle. The rationale being that it was claimed to be popular the last time they (the Tories) fared so badly.

I'm guessing this was March to the Scaffold

[cloughie]

I'm guessing this was March to the Scaffold

Could be Nigel having ‘un bal’ or the ‘Scene aux Champs’ as Theresa boldly walks through a wheat field, or maybe Spells bing cast on Boris by rivals in the ‘Rondes du Sabbat’.

[Bryn]

Could be Nigel having ‘un bal’ or the ‘Scene aux Champs’ as Theresa boldly walks through a wheat field, or maybe Spells bing cast on Boris by rivals in the ‘Rondes du Sabbat’.

Most annoyingly, I can't find it via Sounds. However, as I recall, it was the Songe d'une nuit du sabbat.

[Pulcinella]

I haven't been following this thread, but I'm struggling to see how anything ff wrote in the post quoted in post #195 can have sent both SA and Richard into 'total shock'.

[eighthobstruction]

I haven't been following this thread, but I'm struggling to see how anything ff wrote in the post quoted in post #195 can have sent both SA and Richard into 'total shock'.

....on quick reading nor coiuld I....

[cloughie]

Then the time has come for me to take a break from the forum, apart from the regular samizdat on the jazz bored.

... and the board’s Michael Fish on Stormy Weather, maybe you should hang around a little longer, you usually have something for me to agree or agree to differ about which is part of what the forum is all about S_A!

[burning dog]

Most annoyingly, I can't find it via Sounds. However, as I recall, it was the Songe d'une nuit du sabbat.

4 and 5 are both apt

[Padraig]

I am sure french frank can reply and tell us if my #201 is patronising!

S_A, a bad election result is worse than being hit by a bus - and I'm thinking about the poor voter. It takes a little while to get over it. I console myself by remembering that I, the poor voter, will still be rowing the boat. And are my arms tired!

[Serial_Apologist]

S_A, a bad election result is worse than being hit by a bus - and I'm thinking about the poor voter. It takes a little while to get over it. I console myself by remembering that I, the poor voter, will still be rowing the boat. And are my arms tired!

Maybe this part-explains the tone of this debate, right now. It must have been like this in early 1930s Germany, and I just can't get my head around it all. Personally, I voted remain, while I and still feel that way on balance, I've never shared in the hothouse atmosphere of the aftermath, as (like Richard Barrett) I saw the referendum as a huge diversion from more pressing issues, for which Corbyn - and the Greens, too - were at least seeking to promulgate alternative policies to the neoliberal hegemonic point of view that has dictated economics for 40-odd years now - honestly or otherwise.

[DracoM]

I keep seething about what this will mean for the poor, the inevitably unemployed, but above all our children and grandchildren.
What on earth have we done to this nation?

[Serial_Apologist]

I keep seething about what this will mean for the poor, the inevitably unemployed, but above all our children and grandchildren.
What on earth have we done to this nation?

Indeed; and so much more than the referendum, and party politics too, is implicated and at stake. But, try extending the debate to cover what is inexcludable (if there is such a word), and you're offside as far as some on this forum are concerned.

[Serial_Apologist]

I'm in total shock. I can't believe you're writing this kind of stuff.

I've deleted all the posts I've sent since writing the above. I will try and respond point-by-point to the arguments raised by french frank.

[french frank]

I am sure french frank can reply and tell us if my #201 is patronising!

I didn't find it patronising, but when I read Richard's post agreeing with you I wondered whether some 'right-wing nutter' had invaded the discussion. I was quite surprised to find it was me

I don't know how I could be clearer: I do not find Jeremy Corbyn's policies in any way 'extreme' or in opposition to social changes that I myself would like to see. I do find his stance over Brexit to have been fundamentally equivocal; I saw the clip of his yesterday's comment about a second referendum, couched in such terms that I would not be persuaded that he was in favour (mentioned in the same sentence as a general election so it was still unclear what 'a public vote' meant; and promising to put the matter before the Labour party conference - which begins on Sept 21 and ends on the 25th: no time for a general election or a second referendum before we leave on 31 October).

This being my own view of Jeremy Corbyn as a politician, I am bewildered at how others could possibly have any confidence in him as a leader. That is a personal opinion about his practical competence as a politician. And I expressed the apparently offensive view that it must be because he professes to be - and undoubtedly is - a committed socialist, as committed as any other member of the PLP. I respect that as a political stance. But I think he is a terrible leader and his equivocations have been significantly responsible for Labour's awful performance in the EU elections.

I apologise in advance if that does offend anyone. I'm sure people will take a diametrically opposite point of view: if they explain it I'm happy to discuss it further; if they don't think it worth even bothering to respond to such comments, I respect their point of view.