Chancellor of the Exchequer

The UK has a new Chancellor of the Exchequer. The last guy, Rishi Sunak, resigned as the Johnson government teeters due to accumulated scandals that center around drunken stupidity and general boorishness.

The new Chancellor (for now) is Nadhim Zahawi, who was born in Baghdad. Let’s see what wickedness lurks on his Wikipedia page:

In late January 2018, it was reported in the media that Zahawi was one of the attendees at a men-only dinner event organised by the Presidents Club at the Dorchester Hotel in London. Media reports alleged that female hostesses were subjected to sexual harassment and incidents of groping and inappropriate touch. Following the revelations of his attendance at the event, Zahawi posted a tweet condemning such behaviour and stated that he felt uncomfortable at what he saw happening.

Wow! The Financial Times sent some undercover operatives to the event disguised as hostesses:

At their initial interviews, women were warned by Ms Dandridge that the men in attendance might be “annoying” or try to get the hostesses “pissed”. One hostess was advised to lie to her boyfriend about the fact it was a male-only event. “Tell him it’s a charity dinner,” she was told. “It’s a Marmite job. Some girls love it, and for other girls it’s the worst job of their life and they will never do it again . . . You just have to put up with the annoying men and if you can do that it’s fine,” Ms Dandridge told the hostess.

I read further on the event:

Some MPs called for the resignation of children and families minister Nadhim Zahawi, who had been among the guests, as well as for a police investigation of the event. Presidents Club co-chairman David Meller resigned from his Department of Education directorship. Jonathan Mendelsohn, another of the guests, was removed from the Labour frontbench in the House of Lords. Several bookshops stopped the sale of books by the comedian David Walliams, who had hosted the event and put up the right to name a character in his next book as a prize. All of these men said to the media that they had neither participated in nor witnessed any misconduct.

Who is David Walliams?

Walliams has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and he described his 2006 swim of the English Channel as “some sort of redemption”.

You see this everywhere in the UK character: the desire to escape their island taking absurd form. Joining the Navy, invading India, looking for the source of the Nile, whatever it takes to flee. Swim if necessary. The sad fact is the British are stuck on a wet island, and not only that, but stuck with each other. Aside from alcoholism, the Irish solutions to the same wet island problem, namely indulging in poetry, historical brooding or music, only sometimes occur to the average Englishman, though many an Irish transplant trapped in Britain has demonstrated this method successfully (see Paul McCartney for example, or Morrissey).

Thrice worry

Moment I happened to see on British TV that stuck in my craw, occurs between :45-:55:

When Prince William says “thrice worry” about his children.

Is Prince William not a throwback fantasy of conservative manhood?  (suspect Jordan Peterson, a Canadian, may be a secret monarchist).  Even the graceful acceptance of the balding.

Longers for the past vs yearners for change, are these the main political groups? The rare few who can find the balance.

The comparison to the UK’s elected politicians at the moment:

Let Commons do the actual work, maybe that’s the trick.  You just handle the fairy tale.

The endurance of the royal family.  Incredible.

This portrait originally and now identified as Catherine Parr was wrongly identified as Lady Jane Grey for decades.  (Master John for the National Portrait Gallery, from wiki)