The Playing Fields of Eton

In British political mythology the Duke of Wellington is reputed to have said that "The Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing-fields of Eton."  If one accepts this dubious proposition, then I submit it is equally valid to suggest that the Battle of BREXIT was lost on those very same fields.  Messrs.  Cameron, Johnson and Gove were all school mates together at the exclusive boys-only boarding school and whatever games of slap 'n tickle they played at Eton have not translated into the manly qualities of character the Duke so highly esteemed in the early 19th century.

As I noted previously,  Mr. Cameron bears the lion's share of blame for this tragedy.  It was the height of irresponsibility to offer the BREXIT referendum in the first instance - as a cheap political ploy to wrong-foot the right-wing UK Independence Party and shore-up the Tories during the last election.  Not very manly, ol' chap.

Once the BREXIT campaign got underway, Mr. Johnson, the former Mayor of London,  promptly betrayed his Eton school chum and took the lead in the "Leave" campaign.  

And then the unthinkable happened and the Leave campaign prevailed.  And I say unthinkable because today it is self-evident that the leaders of the campaign to exit the European Union had absolutely nothing to offer other than a set of largely misleading or flat-out fraudulent talking points to back-up their position.  Mr. Johnson was as surprised as Mr. Cameron at the outcome and neither one of them had a plan as to what happens next.

Well, that's not quite true.  Mr. Cameron improvised a plan.  He announced his resignation as Prime Minister and has made it clear that BREXIT is no longer his concern.

So...the path was open for Mr. Johnson to succeed Mr. Cameron as Prime Minister - probably four years earlier than he had expected.  He was no doubt euphoric - for about 48 hours. 

Enter Mr. Gove.  The third Etonian stooge.  Far less charismatic than the not-so-vaguely Donald Trump-like Mr. Johnson, Mr. Gove had served as Justice Minister under Mr. Cameron and also as a leader of the Leave campaign.  Mr. Gove gave every indication he looked forward to serving in a Mr. Johnson led cabinet.  But hours before the deadline for nomination for the new Tory leader Mr. Gove had a change of heart.  Mr. Gove announced that he would stand for leader.

Exit Mr. Johnson.

And today, it appears that the Conservative Party has had about enough of the Three Etonian Amigos.  Support for Mr. Gove among Tory members of Parliament is dropping faster than the value of the Pound.

Manly virtues ain't what they used to be...

On the other hand, members of the British Labour Party have nothing to cheer about. It's not just the toffs who are incompetent.  Mr. Corbyn, the leader of the Labour Party was, at best, tepid in his support to remain in the European Union.  Mr. Corbyn is a member of the left-wing of the Labour Party and is now viewed as a slow-motion disaster by the majority of  labour parliamentarians who this past week passed a measure of no confidence in his leadership.  He vows to fight on and may well prevail insofar as ultimately it is the entire party membership - not just labor members of parliament - that will determine who is leader.

The bottom line is that the two major political parties in the United Kingdom are paralyzed at a time of great danger to the country.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer just announced that the goal of putting the budget of the UK into balance by 2020 is no longer achievable.  The not-so-subtle subtext is that the UK is headed into a recession.

The veneer of civilization is quite thin.

In western liberal democracies we depend on competent leaders to maintain the veneer.  Sometimes they can even make it deeper. 

And in the United States we now have Donald Trump

And now for some garden pictures.

Gonna get a new neighbor.  An old high school friend.  I will get more sunlight and a better view to the southeast.  And I will get more wind... 

 Pyrethrum 'James Kelway' started from seed in 2014.

An Alium bulb I planted a couple of years back - it blooms!

Rock garden is filling in...

Painted daisies on the way out...delphinium rising!

 Started these babies from seed in 2014...

...and this is their third year of blooms.

Honeysuckle madness