Showing posts with label Margaret Thatcher. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Margaret Thatcher. Show all posts

Monday, 8 April 2013

Eh-oh!



   Everything’s always lovely here in Tellytubbyland.

   Everyone’s always happy and nice to each other and no-one is ever Mean or Grumpy, unless we’ve made some silly mistake – Oh-oh! - that the Wise And Kindly Voices (who tell us what to do and when to go to bed or when a Story’s going to happen) can Make All Better by showing us all how silly we’ve been. In fact, no matter what goes wrong it never really lasts and there isn’t anything that can’t be Made All Better by a Big Hug or a Story.
   It never, ever rains or makes any nasty weather in Tellytubbyland – unless rain or nasty weather can give the Wise And Kindly Voices (who tell us what to do and when to go to bed) a reason for telling us a Story about rain or nasty weather and when they do that it’s always a lovely story and we’re all so very happy and grateful to listen to the Wise And Kindly Voices who tell us what to do and when to go to bed and when a Story’s going to happen. And the giant windmills really, really work.
   There’s always tubby toast and tubby custard from the machines to eat that never, ever run out because there’s always more from wherever tubby toast and tubby custard come from (unless we’ve made some silly mistake – Oh-oh! – that the Wise And Kindly Voices who tell us what to do and when to go to bed or when a Story’s going to happen can Make All Better by showing us all how silly we’ve been), and then usually it’s time for another Story so we never, ever have to go and find any tubby toast and tubby custard for ourselves, so we can go and play with our magical toys that come from Magicland and that never break or go wrong and that we never have to fetch for ourselves.
   And when the sun always shines and the bunny rabbits hop around, the Wise And Kindly Voices (who tell us what to do and when to go to bed) show us a Story about all the little children of the world who are nice and lovely and who are (almost) exactly like us and who only need a Big Hug and tubby toast and tubby custard and magical toys that come from Magicland and that never break or go wrong just like us - which is why everything always ends up All Better.
  And if we are ever extra silly and make a mess – Oh-oh! - then the Noo-Noo comes along to clean up the mess and it looks a little bit cross but we don’t mind and we never have to be upset or scared because we’ve made a mess because the Noo-Noo is never really Grumpy and Mean to us. It just cleans up our mess and we can play with our magical toys that come from Magicland and that never break or go wrong and that we never have to fetch for ourselves.
   In fact, there really isn’t anyone in the whole wide world who’s Grumpy and Mean, because being really and truly Grumpy and Mean is IM-POSSIBLE – except for the Grumpy and Mean people who pretend that there are in fact Grumpy and Mean people, but they’re just silly.

  So if we never, ever listen to the Grumpy and Mean people who say that there are in fact Grumpy and Mean people somewhere, everything will be All Better and we can go on listening to lovely stories and eating tubby toast and tubby custard from the machines to eat that never, ever run out and go and play with our magical toys that come from Magicland and that never break or go wrong and that we never have to fetch for ourselves and we’re all so happy and grateful to listen to the Wise And Kindly Voices who tell us what to do and when to go to bed and when a Story’s going to happen.
   And if we believe it really, really hard, then nothing bad will ever, ever happen and it will always all be lovely and all the little children will always be loved and safe and happy here in Tellytubbyland because there are in fact no Grumpy and Mean people in the whole wide world at all.






In fact, we think that the last Grumpy and Mean person (who does not exist) has just gone away and no-one will ever, ever tell us that it isn’t going to be All Better ever again.

Big Hug.
By-Bye.

Monday, 2 March 2009

New Blog on the Grid and Ksifing.

It's refreshing to find a new blogger doing interesting stuff...who knows; will this one be the next Guido or Muffled Vociferation, Ambush Predator or House of Dumb...?

IUnknown blogs at Beware Of Geeks Bearing Gifts. Take a look if you like.
The thing that got me going was this post, in which he quotes Mrs. Thatcher (pbuh), and makes some comments of his own, which I also recommend. Now, here's what he quotes her as saying:


"I think we've been through a period where too many people have been given to understand that if they have a problem, it's the government's job to cope with it. 'I have a problem, I'll get a grant.' 'I'm homeless, the government must house me.' They're casting their problem on society.

And, you know, there is no such thing as society.

There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first. It's our duty to look after ourselves and then, also to look after our neighbour. People have got the entitlements too much in mind, without the obligations. There's no such thing as entitlement, unless someone has first met an obligation."

Hoo-rah!

Now look how this old quote - old by today's sound bite 'standards' - works as a perfect example of conservative philosophy, by going straight to the heart of human nature. I'm going to big it up as I go, pointing out how right I think it is.
I call this process 'ksifing.'



And, you know, there is no such thing as society. Okay Maggie, basic anthropology here. Nnobody here on Earth but us dumb apes; naked and clawless with a taste for carrion. Any political arrangements are going to have to deal with what we are; which is where we come from.There are individual men and women,.. "solitary mean, nasty brutish and short" (okay so that's Hobbes' State of nature but that was us, too: on the savannah and crossing the Nile into Asia and Europe and so she's off to a great start conservative philosophy-wise with the way our species actually lived for scores of millennia. Human nature is deep) ...and there are families. And sex! Babies come from somewhere, and we are instinctually predisposed to small family groups; not harems of Heinlein cluster marriages but families! And no government can do anything except through people, - not only does that recognise there is no numinous will of nation or species or class or race but she's reduced government down to the essential ingredients - and people must look to themselves first. The survival mechanism Daddy-O; live to love another day and pass on those selfish genes! First instinct; rooted deep in our nature, and impossible to overcome in healthy adults. ''Emotions are social constructs', my arse. It's our duty - deep down duty - at the chromosomal level - to look after ourselves and then, also to look after our neighbour. The others after: not first; nor instead of ourselves; nor equally with ourselves, but after. It's getting to be a bit Life of Brian here, but, well, we ARE all individuals. People have got the entitlements too much in mind, without the obligations. See almost all Right-wing blogs passim. There’s no such thing as entitlement, unless someone has first met an obligation."


Rights and duties: duties and rights. And duty is created first. Out of custom and agreement and probably originally out of parental love and small-family survival – that would be the first duties imaginable to pass from one generation to another.


So there you have it.

She draws her conclusions about what is wrong (which she typically leads with the plan; the Line; the policy which must follow) from things that are so simple and so mind-blowingly old and insights so valuable that they can scarcely be repeated too often.


Plus I didn’t have to work too hard to publish something positive from conservatism; not just what’s wrong but also what we need to look at and deal with: family, duty, and good government recognizing the two and treating them both right.


But don’t worry; faint–hearted liberal reader.

All will be well when she’s gone, and New Labour come to save the day. Because they care…


Home

Monday, 23 February 2009

BBC publishes something nice about Mrs Thatcher

Here.

Weird, isn't it? like some kind of alternative reality...


'She does not look like a career woman'

Margaret Thatcher with her children Carol and Mark in 1959

DUSTED OFF
The Magazine delves into the archives

Thirty years after Margaret Thatcher entered Number 10, the BBC Archive has released documents and broadcasts offering glimpses into its early dealings with the future leader, and through them an insight into her path towards Downing Street.

Her main charm to me was that she does not look like a 'career woman'
The BBC's Joanne Symons notes her impression of Mrs Thatcher in 1957

The collection includes memos and production notes not intended for publication relating to Lady Thatcher's early appearances on radio and television.

The earliest known reference to Margaret Thatcher in the archive is from 1957, pre-dating her election as a member of parliament in 1959, and is a typed memo (see below) written by Joanne Symons, detailing a meeting between herself and Mrs Thatcher.

Sent to Joyce Pullen in the women's programme department it recommends the then barrister as someone suitable for broadcast.

Ragout of Joanne Symons memo

"Mrs Thatcher is 30 ish I suspect tho' she could pass for much younger, very pretty and dresses most attractively. Very 'feminine'!" Symons reports.

She compliments the future prime minister's clear thinking and offers a conclusion that would be unthinkable to many now: "Her main charm to me was that she does not look like a 'career woman'!"

Symons' comments were evidently listened to, as some weeks after the memo, Mrs Thatcher appeared on Your Own Time, which the Radio Times billed as a "light-hearted programme for younger women".

She spoke in her capacity as a barrister in a discussion entitled It's a Woman's World.

Unfortunately this programme was not kept by the BBC, but visitors to the archive can explore clips of other key television and radio appearances which have survived.

The earliest is an edition of Any Questions? broadcast in 1960 in which Mrs Thatcher made a witty appearance as a panellist in her first year as an MP.

The broadcast took place long before the voice coaches went to work to lower the tone of her speaking voice.

Iron lady

"Excellent feminine voice. First class broadcasting manner," remarked a producer in production notes two years later in 1962 following another appearance by Mrs Thatcher.

Over the series of video, audio clips and documents, readers can follow her transformation into the "Iron Lady" who would eventually enter number 10.

Yet speaking in 1972, on the radio programme Women in Politics, she felt that was one door a female politician was many years away from breaking down. She said the prospect of a woman becoming prime minister was something she would never see in her lifetime.



Home.
 

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner