Britain’s supreme court ruled unanimously on Tuesday (the day I’m posting this) that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s suspension of parliament (called, in case it shows up in a crossword puzzle, a prorogation) was illegal, and before the pixels of the online news stories were dry the speaker of parliament had announced that parliament would be back in session on Wednesday.
But even before that happened, some members of parliament were already sitting on the House of Commons green seats, just to make a point.
As the BBC put it, the court ruling said the serving prime minister broke the law and gave unlawful advice to the queen.
“Short of the inscrutable Lady Hale [president of the court], with the giant diamond spider on her lapel, declaring Boris Johnson to be Pinocchio, this judgement is just about as bad for the government as it gets.”
Okay, we’d better take a minute to talk about the spider. It’s a brooch–or in Ameri-speak, a pin–and within hours had been printed on a tee shirt that was being sold online, with some of the profits promised to an organization for the homeless.
#SpiderBrooch was trending on Twitter when I checked and a sampling of tweets (a whopping two out of two) shows that it’s driving people to poetry: “Oh what a tangled web we weave, when Cummings tries to make us Leave” and “Spider-Brooch, Spider-Brooch, / Deals with how the law’s approached. / Heard a case, huge in size, / Caught the PM telling lies. / Look out! / Here comes the Spider-Brooch.”
Brooch (I had to check) is pronounced to rhyme with approach, even though it looks like it rhymes with mooch, although it can also rhyme with hootch, pooch, and other elevated nouns that don’t rhyme with approach. English. I love it, but it’s a mess.
So much for the fun stuff. What happens next? A majority of parliament agrees on exactly two things: 1, They don’t want to no-deal Brexit, and 2, they don’t want to be locked in the broom closet during this crucial period when the Brexit deadline is looming and Johnson is trying to avoid asking for an extension.
After that, the cracks in the Rebel Alliance begin to show. Some of its MPs want to remain in the EU. Some want to leave with a deal (ask what kind of deal and more cracks show up). Some want a second referendum as a way out of this mess. Some, I’m sure, want to go back to the broom closet and hide while the crucial votes are taken so they can say, “It wasn’t my fault.”
Parliament could hold a vote of no confidence and, if it passes, replace Johnson with someone else, but that involves agreeing on who that should be. That’s another thing they don’t agree on, or at least haven’t so far.
The general belief is that Johnson will try to hold an election and run as a champion of the people against the government. Which has a certain irony, since right now he is the government, but never mind. Whether he’ll be able to hold his party together is anybody’s guess. He’s lost six out of six votes in the House of Commons, lost a major challenge in the courts, and been judged to have misled the queen. Folks here take that last offense seriously even if I can’t manage to.
On the other hand, he’s already thrown his most visible opponents out of the party, so it’s hard to know if anyone’s left to oppose him. As I’m fairly sure I keep saying, stay tuned.
*shaking my head have nothing to say*
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A reasonable response.
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In Virginia, out pronounced oot, so I had out rhyming with brooch when I read it. Never thought to try to rhyme it with approach. Really enjoy the grammar and pronouncement lessons you give us.
British system is interesting. Or is it a system or a make it up as you go, based of course on tradition.
Looking forward to the next installment.
Now, I have to go oot yo the hoose.. (Out to the house)
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The non-Scots here seem fond of joking about the Scots rhyming “There’s a moose loose in the house.” I wonder if that’s what the Virginia pronunciation’s related to.
The system? We-e-ll, when you have an unwritten constitution, it’s a little hard to know what you’re working with.
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OMG! 😆
Quite possible… There is a very strong Scottish concentration here in NC. I am a direct descendant of the MacPherson clan and my small town has this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayr_Mount
A lot of coastal Virginians are indistinguishable from Coastal North Carolinians. The dialect changes when you get into Charleston. They start to blend with the “Georgia Peaches” sound.
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This reminds me of a time, many years ago, when I was sitting around with a group of white southerners, drawn from all over the south, who were teasing each other about the differences in their accents. They were laughing hysterically. I was doing the same, but not because of the differences but because, northerner that I am, I couldn’t hear most of them.
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LOL! We all sound the same, huh? Just “southern”. I feel the same about northern accents…and Brits, for that matter. A Jersey accent & a Boston accent does stick out but, the rest? And, I can’t tell a Londoner from someone in Manchester but, the Irish brogue & the Scottish version of the English language definitely sticks out.
The NC mountain folk sound completely different from the coast or the Piedmont, where I am. After spending nearly a decade in Texas, I lost my NC accent. When I moved there, I was told “you’re southern but, not Texan.” When I would visit NC, I’d hear “you ain’t from around here, are ya’?” Uh…I was.
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What I’ve sorted out about English and Scottish accents is that the further north you go, the longer the O gets until eventually you fall into the North Sea. Beyond that, I hear differences now but can’t tell you where they’re from. It takes a special kind of ear to be good at it, and I’d love to have it but I don’t.
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😆
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I started talking today in the doctors waiting room, we were both born in 1942 so we had something in common. She was from New York and recently moved south. Said said I did not have s southern accent. One of the few times I have been told that. Must be something about New Yorkers ears.
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I started talking today to a lady . . .
Words just disappear after I type them for no apparent reason.
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Well, that’s not as bad as the people who claim they don’t have any accent.
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The displaced Scots after the Highland Clearances in the 1700’s settled in Virginia, and a couple of other places.
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Aha!
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We got a lot of them.
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Are you by chance in Eastern VA? That accent is also here in NC on our coast & some VA border counties. “Out the house” sounds like “oat the hose” to me. Then, there is the “Hoi Toider” crowd…
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I grew up in North Georgia , Blue Ridge mountains, but I have known and worked with a number people from Virginia who spoke with that accent. One was a Methodist minister and liked to joke about it. It was so obvious he could not ignore it. One of my ancestors was Scottish,
from a town in eastern Virginia that was settled by people from Scotland. She married one of my English Maryland ancestors and they son moved to South Carolina in 1780.
I should have said “In parts of Virginia” instead of just Virginia.
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Sounds like you’ve done some genealogy work.
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One of my uncles did. He worked on our various lines for years and said it was a disease with him. Now one of his granddaughters and I enjoy it.
Now I can get on line and read about the lives of ancestors. A cousin on my mothers side did a lit of work of history on her side.
Very interesting. One ancestor in Virginia was hanged for stealing tobacco. He wanted to speculate on land and become wealthy. Advance in class. He was a judge. Townspeople were really ticked off. His son moved further south after that. Another was a witness in the Salem witch trials when she was a teenager. I use geni.com a lot.
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Wow.
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Is that site better than Ancestry or, are they all tied together?
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I don’t know which is better. They must be somehow connected. Advertisements for ancestry keep popping up on geni.
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Gotcha. Thanks.
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Bravo. At least you’re trying to get rid of your clown. We, on the other hand… will probably re elect ours. If only we had a queen he could lie to….
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Oh, surely not.
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I…. and every poll in the country…. didn’t give him a chance in Hell of winning last time. And look how that turned out.
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I’m digging a hole and crawling in.
And it’s raining.
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What the hell are we going to replace him WITH? We have the same problem the UK has…sans Brexit.
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Over here, the replacement process is clear (in an opaque, British sort of way), but the replacement isn’t. In the US, the replacement is fixed–and not someone who fills me with hope.
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Me, neither. *sigh*
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Do you stay with the crook or go with somebody who is really insane?
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Yeah, this is difficult. My best guess, though, is that this’ll drag on until the election.
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At this point, I’d take virtually anyone.
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We’d be better off without any of the current candidates. But, then again, we are talking about politics and that vein of human existence is top heavy with psychopaths.
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It is, but I’ve been quite impressed with Sanders–both his policies and the fact that he seems not to be one of the psychopaths. He’s just been quietly advocating what he advocates for decades, regardless of how out of fashion it was.
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He has, indeed, been resolute, agree or disagree with him. The same could be said about Ron Paul, tho opposite end of the spectrum. Austinites loved him.
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Fair enough. I wouldn’t say that resoluteness alone is enough to win my support.
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[will probably re elect ours]…it is forbidden by all the gods to even use these words in jest
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It’s a frightening thought, I know. But I was blindsided last time and need to prepare just in case…
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Interesting, so a brooch can get a t-shirt in England. When I was there, just months before England hosted the Olympics, I couldn’t find a single Olympics t-shirt. I even approached a t-shirt printing company and they looked at me as if I was nuts (which I am, but that’s another story entirely).
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Ah, the tee-shirt companies know all. One look at you and they just know.
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That’s because the Olympics committee (of whoever the governing body of the Olympics are) are extremely precious about their logo, they were even making shops in small viallges take down the rings logo because it is copyright. I guess they make a lot of money selling licences to what they consider to be official merch people.
spider brooches don’t have a governing body to do this…
yet…
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Emphasis on yet.
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It’s only a matter of time…
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Her brooch is awesome
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She apparently has an amazing range of them.
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Awesome, I stopped caring what she was saying and just sat there wondering if it was going to start crawling
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On Twitter, it’s crawling.
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And the Thomas-Cook drama no good omen!
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Yup. That too.
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A brooch, a hooch and a pooch…sounds like a drunken circus.
Sadly, both of our countries are screwed.
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I haven’t surrendered my small stock of hope yet.
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I’m struggling with mine. 😖
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Same day Pelosi decided it was time for impeachment since most, if not all, those first-time Representatives she was trying to protect from their mad dog constituents in the 2020 election have been clamoring for it. Both nations are at crucial moments of decision. I’m hoping for two days of rest from it all when I visit Much Ado Bookshop and as many pubs and tea shops as possible in tiny Alfriston before arriving in London on the tenth. I shall be awash in fortifying British liquids. Oh, and some scones, clotted cream, jam and maybe even spotted dick.
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Have a wonderful visit. And yes, definitely a cream tea (that’s the scones/clotted cream/jam–a specialty of the southwest.
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Well, this would be laughable and entertaining if we didn’t have our own colossal idiot trying to turn our government into a criminal enterprise…But still, someone said no, so that gives me some hope.
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And not long after I posted this, I heard the Democrats are moving to impeach. I can’t imagine it’ll get through the senate, but they may dig up some interesting dirt.
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Yup. Unless something really blatant comes out, I don’t think it’s going anywhere.
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By Neddy-Dingo, the silly Americans have DONE SOMETHING !
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Neddy-Dingo???
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Ah – the comic strip “Pogo” by Walt Kelly used a few expressions I picked up during it’s heyday – some of us even know all the verses of the Christmas favorite “Deck us all With Boston Charlie.” Pogo was a possum who lived in Okefenokee and his friends included Albert the Alligator, Churchy La Femme (a turtle) and a Porkypine whose name escapes me. Even if you didn’t know of the strip during your days in the U.S. you certainly know his famous remark “We have met the enemy – and he is us.”
https://okeswamp.com/your-visit/pogo-and-walt-kelly/
But “by neddy-dingo” certainly sounds Australian. I didn’t think of that until I had already hit “send”
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I asked Lord Google for the origin of the phrase and found (a) articles about dingoes and (b) a mention of something by someone called (improbable as it sounds) Neddy Dingo. Then I gave up. But I do remember Pogo.
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“Nora’s freezing on the trolly.” Sad about that.
I always wondered why “Polly Molly don’t love Harold” Felt sorry for Harold.
“Close, but no Cigaar”
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Brooch comes from the French “broche”. Same meaning. Let’s remember that 70% of English vocabulary comes from French. (Just made that up, but I’m not too far.) (Vocabulary came with the Normands who were relocated Vikings which makes little sense does it?) :)
Another “emprunt” from French: Tally-ho comes from Taïaut. (Same meaning and usage).
Thus: Thaïaut on the Blonde mop!!!
;)
Take care
Brian
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I’m told that 76.3% of all statistics are made up on the spot, so you’re right in the spirit of things. I’d say tally-ho in French but don’t have the oomph to go looking for an umlaut just now.
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I use a QWERTY keyboard. So used to it that when in France I have to use an AZERTY keyboard, it is complicated. But for some strange reason this keyboard has the right accents: â, é and è, useful when I write in French. ë is a treat, and so is the cédille: ç.
And Hurray for Pelosi, she finally launched Impeachement! Yes!
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We do indeed live in interesting times.
Keyboards: I’ve gotten used to the British one, which relocates the quotation marks and a few other bits and pieces. A techy friend gave me an American keyboard that had wandered, uselessly, into his life and I find I hesitate to change back since my fingers have learned this one. When I lived in the US, it never occurred to me that keyboards could be anything other than the one I was used to. We really can be provincial.
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I et you many French don’t even consider the possibility of a different keyboard. ;)
Worst keyboard I ever used was in Prague, c.2003. I needed to communicate back and forth with the office to solve a few issues. Used the computer at the hotel’s business centre. All the consonants on the keyboard had accents! On consonants! Not vowels. Above, below. Crazy. Almost Cyrillic. My staff would answer my mails saying: “We think you meant that?” ;)
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I once used one that, when I hit I have no idea what key or combination of keys, would break into Chinese characters. I not only didn’t know what it was saying, I didn’t know how to change it back.
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Haha! Did you send the mail or message?
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It was–or would have been–an email. What I remember best is that I backspaced a whole lot. I think I finally came up with something–something short–that I could send, but I don’t remember that as clearly, just the bafflement of finding strings of print that I couldn’t even begin to understand storming from my fingers. It seemed to me that it was saying a lot more than I was.
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:)
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I’m all “tea-ed” out reading about our duo government shenanigans. Turning off the kettle and approaching the liquor cabinet not only with serious intent but gusto. Cheers!!
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You’re saying this has gone way beyond anything tea can address? I don’t drink anymore, but I do understand. I’ll have to manage this on tea alone.
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Ahhhh, the world of social media! :-)
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Indeed. There’ve been calls for the brooch to have its own twiiter whatsit and for a few seconds I thought about stepping in and setting it up. Then what passes for sanity returned. It’d be fun briefly, then a lot of work.
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I hate to say it, but although we have an unwritten constitution, it seems to have just about worked this time (although we’re not out of the woods yet!), whereas a certain wannabe dictator who shall remain nameless seems to still be, somehow, running rings around the written US one.
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Neither system is foolproof, as assorted fools have proved.
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Fools are so devious!
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The word brooch has lost all meaning to me now, and I am slightly unclear as to how to pronounce it…
My brain keeps trying to make me thing brooooch (with the oooo like a ghost).
I am pretty sure I used to be able to handle this word…
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Oh, just go American and call it a pin.
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I might just do that…
Does it apply to everything you pin in yourself?
In my world fancy dressed up grown up lady ones are brooches and all other ones what ever their material or pinning mechanisms are badges…
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In Ameri-speak, badges are things cops wear. Those big, strange ribbony political things don’t exist. Round things with political or wise-ass slogans are, um, yeah, pins, I think, but damn I’ve been gone a long time. No, no, wait, they’re buttons. And dressed-up gown lady things are still pins.
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Hmmm
I don’t know about those strange running things… are they just called ribbons…
I might just call everything a pin and if someone challenges me on it I can where my “never judge a book by its movie” badge/pin/button with grown up lady clothes…if I can find any…
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I’ve gotten two great phrases out of this: Never judge a book by its movie and dressed-up gown lady. Thank you. It’s been a good day, suddenly.
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I am glad I could help :-D
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Roooach?
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“…gave unlawful advice to the queen.”
Can she throw him in the tower, or clip his head off, or something?
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I think those days are gone.
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Damn
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Lying to the Queen. If only…
What’s next?
How about calling up the Ukraine to give you some dirt on your Parliament members?
Now that’s a great idea.
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Gee, why didn’t anybody think of that?
Oh, wait. Someone did, only it wasn’t parliament.
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Rellik is ‘killer’ backwards and ‘Tixerb’ is Brexit backwards and for some (unknown) reason that notion pleases me.
Juliancole1
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Listen, that makes as much sense as a lot of what’s flying around these days.
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A comedy of errors, says everyone on the other side. I wonder if I should wear my spider pin. 😀
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Absolutely! A tribute to a quietly determined woman.
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Yes!
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Ooh, I never saw the spider brooch. But then again, I tend to shy away now from anything Brexit related. It’s an absolute farce.
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I understand the impulse, but it’s also incredibly important.
Apologies–I went all serious there for a moment. I think one way I can face it is to see the absurdity, even while I take it entirely too seriously.
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Those things that politicians wear when campaigning in UK are called rosettes. Animals that win “best in breed” or some such accolade wear them too. I refrain from further comment.
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I’d noticed the parallel myself.
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Thanks to Brexit, I’m getting a better, long-awaited understand of British government. Not like ours, I come to find out!
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As far as I know, it’s one of a kind–intricate, convoluted, and dressed up in arcane traditions that make it easy to laugh about, even when I tearing my hair out.
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What strange politics–almost as weird as the U.S., although we’re trying hard in Canada too…
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We’ve set the bar stratospherically high.
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You made me smile and snicker – ah, Ellen, thank you! (I would like to see this brooch)
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Well of course. Follow the link and you’ll find not only the brooch but the judge herself. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/10/04/lady-hale-accused-bias-appearing-attack-boris-johnson-praise/
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Why thank you darling! That is HUGE!
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Yup. She left nothing to chance. There were calls for the brooch to have its own twitter account and now it does (I just checked): @spiderbrooch1.
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As long as we’re chatting here: I found this today on rabbits! https://historydaily.org/the-paradox-of-the-lucky-rabbits-foot-using-bad-omens-to-create-good-luck?utm_source=pinterest&utm_campaign=pinterest_paradox_lucky_rabbits_foot&utm_medium=pinterest__paradox_lucky_rabbits_foot
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Interesting. Thanks.
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I wish the world would stop scaring me…
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You and me both.
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