Ridin’ the bruv train

Regular readers will know how I feel about the modern British police, particularly the leadership. Here’s a video which surprises even me:

In a different age this woman would be sent out to the forest to fetch firewood, being of little use for anything else. But in the modern era she gets to speak to us as if we’re retarded children, telling us which words we may or may not use to address people who are probably insane.

Now I’ve speculated before about how it’s only a matter of time before the British public begin to do what happens in a lot of the world, and see the police as nothing more than a nuisance to be avoided at all costs. We’re already seeing incidents of police men and women being beaten and humiliated while citizens just walk on by or, increasingly, stop and guffaw. This morning a couple of Extinction Rebellion morons thought stopping a tube train at Canning Town and preventing city boys and builders getting to work was going to be the same as lying down in the road on Westminster Bridge. They thought wrong:

What is so heartwarming about this – aside from Swampy getting a good shoeing – is the mantra in Britain has for years been “don’t intervene, leave it to the police”. Only the people on the platform knew damned well the police wouldn’t do anything about these idiots, and even if they did the station would be shut for hours. So they shook off a lifetime of indoctrination and dragged them down so everyone could go to work unimpeded. As the tweeter said, problem solved in 60 seconds.

What interested me most was when the police arrived they arrested the two protesters, not the two who climbed up after them. I suspect the police might have got a whiff of a changing wind here. Had they turned up and done anything other than arrest the two crusties, they might well have found themselves on the receiving end of a mob beating. The police leadership might be stupid, but those who have to walk into a fired-up crowd are not.

Today’s incident, coming off the back of the authorities’ decision to ban any more unauthorised Extinction Rebellion protests in London, might be a sign things are starting to turn. On top of that, it looks as though Boris might have reached a deal with the EU which can pass a parliamentary vote and see Britain leaving the EU at the end of the month as planned. While probably not perfect, it is better than May’s appalling Withdrawal Agreement and does actually represent Brexit in more than name only. That will leave an awful lot of Remain activists unemployed, and a fair few MPs staring down the barrel of a P45 cannon at the next election.

All in all, things are looking a little brighter after today, aren’t they?

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32 thoughts on “Ridin’ the bruv train

  1. I was also pleased to see the commuters laying into the two middle class twats who’d superglued themselves to a Tube train were suitably diverse , while the protesters were (to coin a phrase) hideously white, and middle class to boot.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Dv2O1wWpkI

    I think this is evidence for my theory that XR (and climate change as a whole) is nothing more than a middle class scream of anguish that there’s no religion any more and they need something bigger than sex and shopping to make their lives have some sort of meaning. And that when the reality of what they are proposing hits the real lives of the masses then the reaction (whether face to face as here, or via the ballot box) is going to be similar to the video. Its basically middle class wankers with far too soft lives playing at ersatz religion.

  2. Re DCC Cooke — Why is it so often a woman who is pushing nonsense?

    Whether ordering the shooting of innocent Brazilians in London tube stations, or inviting millions of “refugees” into Germany, or screwing up Brexit, or spouting politically-correct pablum on the evening news, these days it seems that women have to do it all.

    Where are the modern Catherine the Greats and Boadiceas?

  3. Several unconnected thoughts here.

    1) DCC Cooke tells us that people’s well-being might be affected by something. She also opines that misgendering “just isn’t right”. What she doesn’t do is tell us what this has to do with policing, so I’ll just assume that she is misusing public funds by tweeting from work with their kit.

    2) OK, DCC Cooke. My preferred pronoun is “Hitler was right”. Can I report someone for misgendering me if they don’t use it?

    3) Regarding the tube train chappies. What sort of eco-loon disrupts stuff in Millwall territory? I mean, there are stations where you would get treated less roughly, and probably get a decent latte while you are waiting for your train. And while nursing your bruises afterwards.

    4) You’re right about the police scenting a change. I hope XR are scenting it, too. I wonder what their organisers (or “facilitators”, or whatever they call themselves) are talking about tonight?

  4. “All in all, things are looking a little brighter after today, aren’t they?”

    Absolutely, I just increased my UK stock holdings by 150% this week.

    One way or another and sooner rather than later, the economic Brexit headwinds that have kept good UK firms down and their share prices depressed for 3.5 years are about to change direction.

  5. What you have to remember is, as much as you might hold the police in displeasure, those protesters have been taunting the cops with a lot more hatred/spite for days/weeks in the belief no one dare touch them. Nobody is really injured, the CCTV makes the case simple and paperwork free. I bet the cops loved dragging them in.

  6. Who (relative pronoun) would ever trust the police with an unarmed pronoun? Given that DCC Cooke of Cheshire is the top LGBT+ copper and the head of the Met herself (reflexive pronoun) is a lesbian would you look to them to consider this (demostrative pronoun) sensibly or would you be sceptical of their support for pronoun day?

    What (interrogative pronoun) is their objective here? Does anybody (indefinite pronoun) want to believe that it’s not simply about “me (personal pronoun),me (personal pronoun), me (personal pronoun)”?

  7. The request to use a person’s ‘chosen’ pronouns is just weird, because it goes against an intuitive rule of human behaviour – you can’t change around language like that; we’ve a set of conventions that we’ve agreed on and if you stuff around with it too much it doesn’t reflect reality anymore.

    It only gets annoying when you get ordered to do it – or passively aggressively bullied into it (‘it’s for my well-being!’ ‘I have suicidal ideation if you don’t call me by my chosen pronoun!’)

  8. It’s Chico.
    She is so thick that when they told her to become a Marxist in order to progress up the slippery promotion pole she misunderstood.
    Sorry your Deputy Under Assistant Chief Constableness for assuming your gender.

  9. They are now turning on each other. From the ‘Mail’:

    “Speaking to the Mirror, a senior source within the climate protest group, said: ‘We were vehemently opposed to it. So it’s really upsetting for this to happen. This was not an action we support.

    ‘Despite this, the action has gone ahead, and we feel that the actions of a handful of protestors have jeopardised our movement, turning public opinion against us, and creating a potential schism within our ranks. We are furious that this has happened.’ “

    Moar popcorn!

  10. Why is it so often a woman who is pushing nonsense?

    The fact that you’re asking the question means you already know the answer.

  11. TimT,

    It’s not about the pronouns.

    It’s about proving that they can force just these little tiny words into your mouth.

    Then they can force much bigger words into your mouth.

  12. HHhmm… I replied directly to that tweet that idiot ‘officer’ put out. It has been strangely ‘disappeared’. My tweet said “If you have time and resources to promote this bullshit then you do not have a lack of funds.”

  13. @TMB

    I think pronouns are the subject of such dispute that it would be better to replace them all by the more neutral word “pronoun”. That’s long and unwieldy compared to how short most pronouns are, so could be safely abbreviated to “pron” with further annotation when required, thus:

    Relative pron would ever trust the police with an unarmed pron? Given that DCC Cooke of Cheshire is the top LGBT+ copper and the head of the Met reflex pron is a lesbian would 2-person pron look to 3-person pron to consider demo pron sensibly or would 2-person pron be sceptical of possess 3-person pron support for pron day?

    Inter pron is their objective here? Does indie pron want to believe that pron’s not simply about “”personal pron, personal pron, personal pron?

  14. What sort of eco-loon disrupts stuff in Millwall territory?

    er…Canning Town? Original location of Thames Ironworks? Millwall territory? Granted I was a kid when we left but only if Satan has started ice skating to work. I think you’re thinking of Bermondsey 3 or 4 stops further on (I’ve lived there too).

    It always was the sort of place where disputes were resolved cough informally and there were never witnesses – yesterday just put paid to my fears of gentrification. Hopefully they’ll have the sense to target Hampstead next time where they will be subject to vigorous tutting.

  15. “Why is it so often a woman who is pushing nonsense?”

    I’m not sure it is, and I’m not sure how relevant gender is.

    Thatcher was a woman, while Corbyn is not. There may be more inadequate women in public positions due to positive discrimination, however that’s scarcely the fault of women as a whole.

  16. Thatcher was a woman, while Corbyn is not.

    You say that as if it proves something.

    The reason it is so often a woman pushing nonsense is because they can. They’re not held to the same standards, and they’re driven by entirely different motivations than men are.

  17. @Gavin Longmuir,

    “Where are the modern Catherine the Greats”

    You mean, where are the women imposing slavery on millions of peasants? Isn’t that exactly what DCC Cooke is trying to do? Or were you referring to the horse-fucking bit?

  18. Very satisfying to watch.

    XR is a death cult (Have you seen the footage of the people in red robes chanting creepily? Most definitely fits your theory on modern religions).

  19. “In her photo, why isn’t she grinning?”

    She is.

    It’s just difficult to see the difference.

  20. This pronoun (pron – love it!) business has me confused, grammatically. Aren’t the pronouns in question generally used when talking about someone, rather than to their face? So these people are demanding we use certain words when referring to them but are not actually around them? That they’ve gotten the power of law enforcement behind this is truly disturbing.

  21. Aren’t the pronouns in question generally used when talking about someone, rather than to their face? So these people are demanding we use certain words when referring to them but are not actually around them?

    Yes, but I generally don’t attribute that level of calculation and strategy to the pronoun crowd. Most are piling on to the debate because it’s a modish left wing thing – like Auden’s Unknown Citizen, ‘our researchers into Public Opinion are content/That he held the proper opinions for the time of year’.

    I was thinking about it in the context of the several transsexual people that I know, most of whom are not mentally stable. One wants to help them get peace of mind, but at the same time, it’s clear if they won the pronoun battle once and for all, it wouldn’t help them much.

  22. @MBE – Your solution is perfect and the use of pron will doubtless take root.

    I’d suggest a couple of refinements, the first of which is to abbreviate and concatenate so that we get, say, ‘relpron’, ‘indiepron’ and so on.

    How about 2p-pron and 3p-pron and may be 1p-pron-acc for ‘me’ as distinct from the more simple 1p-pron for ‘I’?

    Should there be a new edition of Fowler to bring this all up to date?

  23. Pingback: Optimism is a bad solution | Al Jahom's Final Word

  24. I note that Mahatir Pasha combines sympathy for the demonstrators AND works at ITV news.

    Boy was I surprised.

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