Eighty years on –
no place for
complacency
SOUND the Last Post. Eighty years ago yesterday, Britain and France declared war on Nazi Germany. Almost every other country in the world got sucked into the conflict, this one included. The devastation was enormous, it ended with nuclear bombing. Horror upon horror. Recovery was gradual. But Europe discovered a new cohesion and eventually a joint prosperity. The peace has lasted 74 years.
Today there's a new line-up. It's France and Germany against Britain – though not militarily, of course – as the British try to break away from the EU. The EU would be seriously weakened by such a breakaway. Britain would probably be weakened even more.
What's behind all this? Do we see a resurgence in Europe of the social forces that morphed into Nazism and Fascism? The acknowledged baddies of that era, Hitler and Mussolini, were, it must be recalled, democratically elected. France and Germany themselves – also Italy – show internal stirrings of ultra-nationalism.
It's a sobering thought. And what are we to make of a British prime minister who is hell-bent on breaking away from Europe and appears ambivalent about the sovereignty of parliament?
To take it further, what are we to make of an American president who appears ambivalent about Nato – which has kept the peace for 74 years – and hostile to internationalism generally?
Eighty years on. Sound the Last Post. But learn the lessons of the past, don't take anything for granted.
Has it all
Overheard in the Street Shelter for the Over-Forties: "What do you give the man who has everything? A woman to show him how to work it."
Who'd be a trader?
INVESTMENT analyst Dr James Greener commiserates in his latest grumpy newsletter with stock market traders who have a new irritant entering their calculations.
"It requires a very special talent to drive a trading desk surrounded by screens ceaselessly delivering numbers, words and pictures of talking heads. One must respond to anything that's just the slightest bit different from what it was seconds earlier.
"Currently a new fearsome hazard to prudent decision-making has turned up: a garrulous, omniscient, media-wise US president with an opinion on everything.
"Last week he seemed to be baiting the Chinese and there must be some dealers who considered early retirement, growing turnips on a smallholding.
"Even from a disinterested distance it looked very messy as Trump apparently changed his stance regularly."
Parental phrase
A WOMAN in New Hampshire, in the US, is fighting to keep her personalised car licence plate, which displays a common parental phrase.
Wendy Auger's personal plate reads "PB4WEGO." She's had it for 15 years.
The state's motor licensing authorities now say phrases related to "excretory acts" are not permitted. Wendy's is one of 92 plates to be recalled in New Hampshire, according to Huffington Post..
But she's appealed against the ruling. She asks: "Who has a mom or dad or parental figure who hasn't said that to kids before leaving the house?"
It would be interesting to know what the other 91 recalled licence plates say. It could be pretty entertaining.
Tailpiece
TWO army veterans are chatting in their club.
"When did you last make love to a woman?"
"Er, it was 1955."
"I say, that's a long time ago."
"Not really. It's only a quarter past eight now."
Last word
Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy. - Isaac Newton
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