Hmm. I don't think we should drag them up from the gutter. They both need to flow through, down the drain and into the dark depths of the damned (not The Damned). Their peers/colleagues say nothing as they possibly recognise themselves, their own secrets and lies, and are scared that the spotlight will turn on them. Reeves - it's amazing how far people can go, bullshitting (couldn't think of a more appropriate word) their way through life. As for Welby, not sure how he can bear the shame of allowing the suffering of the innocents. There is, I fear, much more to come. And congratulations Michael, for being a failure.
Your definition of “failure” is an odd and depressing one. Or rather your definition of “success”. Success isn’t measured in fame or money or distinctions. You’ll die and all that will fade and be forgotten. Everyone is forgotten ultimately. Did you live your life well? Did you use your talents to the best you could? Were you a good and loving son, husband, father, friend, colleague? Did you try unselfishly to make the world a better place in however small a way was open to you? Did you keep the most important commandments: to love God, which since God is unknowable means loving creation, loving life, loving good and to love your neighbour as yourself. It is impossible to keep to these ideals all the time but they are the goal. Bad people have always had fame and material success. What bothers me nowadays is the mediocrity of the establishment, both intellectual and moral. Bothers but does not surprise. When a society abandons its gods and when people elevate themselves into the vacuum that is left and give their own desires priority, that society will die. Because it has lost any common purpose. “Because I’m worth it” a hair care company slogan, sums up what is wrong with us.
Well said Michael. Were any of us regulated by Ms Reeves’s entities to lie in our CVs we would be fired. Perhaps even more interesting is the reason she left HBOS….
Welby is probably okay with the idea of fucking children. He might even think it kinda hot.
And Reeves, well she'd be under the impression that it's okay to lie if you can get a really cushy job. Money and power are the new virtues. Gone is honour, integrity, justice, goodness... that's for failures. Thank god I'm a failure too.
So why do we repeatedly vote for, and allow ourselves to be governed by, people of such limited talent and integrity? I suggest that the root of the problem is cultural. Complacency, inertia, selfishness, and dishonesty are too prominent, across the full social spectrum. There is also a dangerous general insensitivity to national risk and a preoccupation with trivia.
My second assertion is a corollary of the first - that the majority of people have become a bit thicker. How else to explain those destructive behaviours and the almost wilful negligence (indeed, disparagement) of the factors that made our country successful, such as strategic vision, creativity, productivity, integrity and collaboration?
Nothing will change until there is either a natural or an induced crisis - one which cannot be resolved through yet more taxation, borrowing and printing of money.
Excellent post but needs more failures. Most of the British state is run by three types. Failures. Those complicit in failure. And a small number trying to keep the whole thing falling apart.
What happened which found her dumped from being an ambitious Oxbridge graduated starter at Bank of England to handling retail banking complaints at a back office in HBOS in Leeds?
Fascinating Michael. We should set up a sleuth unit to find out what went wrong in Reeves Career. If she and Starmer weren't so sanctimonious they might just be bearable
Hmm. I don't think we should drag them up from the gutter. They both need to flow through, down the drain and into the dark depths of the damned (not The Damned). Their peers/colleagues say nothing as they possibly recognise themselves, their own secrets and lies, and are scared that the spotlight will turn on them. Reeves - it's amazing how far people can go, bullshitting (couldn't think of a more appropriate word) their way through life. As for Welby, not sure how he can bear the shame of allowing the suffering of the innocents. There is, I fear, much more to come. And congratulations Michael, for being a failure.
Your definition of “failure” is an odd and depressing one. Or rather your definition of “success”. Success isn’t measured in fame or money or distinctions. You’ll die and all that will fade and be forgotten. Everyone is forgotten ultimately. Did you live your life well? Did you use your talents to the best you could? Were you a good and loving son, husband, father, friend, colleague? Did you try unselfishly to make the world a better place in however small a way was open to you? Did you keep the most important commandments: to love God, which since God is unknowable means loving creation, loving life, loving good and to love your neighbour as yourself. It is impossible to keep to these ideals all the time but they are the goal. Bad people have always had fame and material success. What bothers me nowadays is the mediocrity of the establishment, both intellectual and moral. Bothers but does not surprise. When a society abandons its gods and when people elevate themselves into the vacuum that is left and give their own desires priority, that society will die. Because it has lost any common purpose. “Because I’m worth it” a hair care company slogan, sums up what is wrong with us.
Well said Michael. Were any of us regulated by Ms Reeves’s entities to lie in our CVs we would be fired. Perhaps even more interesting is the reason she left HBOS….
I don't know why she left HBOS. Is there information out there?
There's a screenshot of a LinkedIn post doing the rounds on x search for "rachel reeves linkedin". Not sure if true however.
Welby is probably okay with the idea of fucking children. He might even think it kinda hot.
And Reeves, well she'd be under the impression that it's okay to lie if you can get a really cushy job. Money and power are the new virtues. Gone is honour, integrity, justice, goodness... that's for failures. Thank god I'm a failure too.
So why do we repeatedly vote for, and allow ourselves to be governed by, people of such limited talent and integrity? I suggest that the root of the problem is cultural. Complacency, inertia, selfishness, and dishonesty are too prominent, across the full social spectrum. There is also a dangerous general insensitivity to national risk and a preoccupation with trivia.
My second assertion is a corollary of the first - that the majority of people have become a bit thicker. How else to explain those destructive behaviours and the almost wilful negligence (indeed, disparagement) of the factors that made our country successful, such as strategic vision, creativity, productivity, integrity and collaboration?
Nothing will change until there is either a natural or an induced crisis - one which cannot be resolved through yet more taxation, borrowing and printing of money.
Great piece and you can find the likes of Reeves and Welby in every Western country. The rot runs deep.
Excellent post but needs more failures. Most of the British state is run by three types. Failures. Those complicit in failure. And a small number trying to keep the whole thing falling apart.
What happened which found her dumped from being an ambitious Oxbridge graduated starter at Bank of England to handling retail banking complaints at a back office in HBOS in Leeds?
Fascinating Michael. We should set up a sleuth unit to find out what went wrong in Reeves Career. If she and Starmer weren't so sanctimonious they might just be bearable