Burlesque
worthy of
Lewis Carroll
THE Brexit burlesque gets just crazier and crazier. Prime Minister Boris Johnson declares that Bexit will happen on October 31, with or without a deal, do or die.
Parliament – and that means the House of Commons, the House of Lords and Queen Elizabeth – has passed a law that no such thing will happen. If no deal is produced like a rabbit out of the hat before then, Johnson is obliged to ask the EU for an extension of the deadline.
But Johnson has said he will not do it. He would rather be dead in a ditch.
Is he somehow above the law? MPs are talking about prosecution, impeachment. Hey, real drama!
Meanwhile, Bojo has lost his sixth vote in parliament – unprecedented, Theresa May resigned after losing three – and this was to hold a snap election in October, no doubt to whip up a frenzy of "people versus parliament" sentiment in tandem with Nigel Farage and his Brexit Party.
But hold on. A senior Tory adviser (who has now lost his job since his minister resigned from the cabinet in protest at the purging of 21 senior MPs) says research, seen by the inner circle, suggests that the Tories would not get a majority in an election anyway. Is Bojo running out of road?
Who could have scripted all this? Lewis Carroll?
Meanwhile, the BBC reports from America that weather forecasters were threatened with losing their jobs unless they supported Donald Trump's statement on TV that Alabama was threatened by Hurricane Dorian.
The Russians protest that Google and Facebook interfered with their recent provincial and local elections. (Hollow laughter from the security agencies who say the Russians did precisely that with the British referendum and the US elections).
Zany, to be sure. But the Brits are still way ahead in the Silly Season Stakes.
Boks and All Blacks
THE clock ticks toward the Big 'Un in just 10 days' time in Japan. And this World Cup pool match between current holders, the All Blacks, and the resurgent Springboks could well turn out to be just a foretaste of the final.
The rugby rivalry between South Africa and New Zealand goes back a long way. The Test series of 1921 and 1926 were drawn. Nobody was top dog.
Then in 1937 the Boks won on New Zealand soil, and since then it's been a seesaw.
Tomorrow night that '37 tour will be revisited in a talk in Kloof by raconteur Michael Charlton, who has made a study of it and the vivid characters involved.
Titled "The First World Champions: The Untold Story of the Legendary 1937 Springboks in New Zealand", it is organised in aid of the Youth Education and Support Trust.
Danie Craven, later to become an organisational mainstay of our rugby, was on that tour as scrumhalf. Skipper was Phillip Nel, a Greytown farmer who used to come to Maritzburg College (of which he was an old boy) at the start of every rugby season to give the fellows a pep talk. A lovely, sunny character Nel was. His son and a nephew were at the school.
I look forward to this talk. It will be in the St Agnes Church Auditorium, Abelia Road, Kloof, and tickets (R150) are available at www.webtickets.co.za
Tailpiece
THIS contortionist went bankrupt. He couldn't make ends meet,
Last word
I loathe people who keep dogs. They are cowards who haven't got the guts to bite people themselves.
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