And the lesson for today is: who wears out whom

Unlike in the US, over here there is an established church, headed by the Queen, with established gospel readings for each Sunday in the liturgical year.

The appointed reading for today is a parable.

Jesus said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for the people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, `Grant me justice against my opponent.’ For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, `Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.”

In other words, the ‘elite’, ‘enlightened’ judge, who was very wise in his own eyes and prudent in his own sight, thought that if he kept delaying the unimportant old widow’s case, she’d give up – he’d wear her out – but in the end, he was the one who wore out. 🙂

A majority of our MPs have no respect for the people (and, it goes without saying, no fear of there being any power greater than the EU or any wisdom greater than their own). They think that if they can keep delaying, they’ll wear us out.

I think they could wear out our patience (I fear they don’t fear that enough). I think they have worn out our trust (and they don’t fear the consequences of that enough either). But as regards making us go away and not come back, I think they’re going backwards.

Updated: 21st October 2019 — 9:31 am

5 Comments

  1. Did anyone else notice the irony of the present situation? The next move in the Brexit drama is to see if the EU will allow the UK an extension. If they say no then Brexit happens (possibly with, possibly without the deal.) If they say yes parliament will decorate the deal like a Christmas tree, there will be an election and most likely a second referendum.

    Why is to say the remainers have put the future of the UK into the hands of a bunch of unelected EU bureaucrats. Like I say, the irony is thick.

  2. “I think they have worn out our trust (and they don’t fear the consequences of that enough either)”

    After 3+ years of embarrassing stupidity, one would expect that confidence in the entire UK Political Class would be tending towards zero. Yet polls suggest that lots of people will vote for the same old Parties in the next General Election. There seems to be very little recognition of the reality that most of the UK’s problems always were rooted in the UK, not in the EU. Thus it is quite possible that the Westminster Political Class will sacrifice the trust of the people while still keeping their comfortable sinecures.

    However, it also has to be said that politics — especially politics as practiced in Europe — is inscrutable. All those people who get so excited when China turns the screws on protestors in Hong Kong don’t seem to pay much attention when Spain turns the screws on protestors in Catalonia. It is very tough to make reasonable predictions in that kind of unreasonable world.

  3. From Twitter, for your consideration:

    Paul Joseph Watson Retweeted
    Julian Popov @julianpopov

    The year is 2192. The British Prime Minister visits Brussels to ask for an extension of the Brexit deadline. No one remembers where this tradition originated, but every year it attracts many tourists from all over the world.

  4. After 3+ years of embarrassing stupidity, one would expect that confidence in the entire UK Political Class would be tending towards zero. Yet polls suggest that lots of people will vote for the same old Parties in the next General Election. (Gavin Longmuir, 20th October 2019 at 9:05 pm)

    1) We’ve had much more than 3 years of merely embarrassing stupidity here. Brexit has exposed a level well beyond that. “You will keep voting till you get the ‘right’ (i.e. our) answer” is what the EU does in other countries and what their UK supporters are now trying to introduce into the UK. While we hope for more, Brexit was always in part about just not descending further – about making visible the fate to which we were being dragged.

    2) Lincoln’s famous aphorism includes the phrase: “You can fool some of the people all of the time.” That “lots of people” will vote for the same leaders and parties should occasion no surprise.

    3) If those same old leaders and parties did not think that the other shoe of Lincoln’s aphorism was ready to drop, they would not be so un-eager to have an election.

    Fraser Orr (20th October 2019 at 5:56 pm), that “the remainers have put the future of the UK into the hands of a bunch of unelected EU bureaucrats” would not strike me as ironic in the least, since removing rule of the UK from effective voter control was always the project, but while wholly-unelected EUreaucrats may have far too much influence, IIUC it is formally the leaders of other countries, elected (but not by us), who must approve (unanimously, IIUC) for extension to be granted.

  5. “I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.”

    That is pretty much how one of Samizdata’s commenters got out of the Soviet Union.

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