To Read or not to Read

'Shattered' very good. Have downloaded 'What Happened' to see how Clinton's perspective lines-up against an independent assessment.
 
To be perfectly honest, PJ, it's not one I would have recommended.

I find books about punters - and Jockeys and Trainers for that matter - to be generally pretty tedious, and it was a really a last-shot-deal, to see if this one by Veitch was any better (it wasn't). I downloaded Sure Thing (about Barney Curley's coup from a few years back) at the same time, and didn't actually finish it. It's basically why I won't bother with the Harry Findlay book either.

Of the ones I listed earlier, All Out War and Trump Revealed are by some way the best/most informative/illuminating.
 
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Starting the Enron book tonight

Just finished the below - worth a quick read but not compelling

[h=1]The Stranger in the Woods : The extraordinary story of the last true hermit[/h]
 
Still struggling through the Hillary Clinton book - extremely tedious, and largely an exercise in denial, as far as I can tell.

To alleviate the boredom, I downloaded Jenson Button's auto-biography. Strictly for the F1 fan, I reckon.


PJ, if you fancy a bit of fiction, then I can heartily-recommend you getting hold of one (or more) of Damon Runyon's collection of short-stories.

Written in Runyon's unique and wonderfully-descriptive prose, they are highly-amusing tales of skullduggery and derring-do and all this-and-that, during Prohibition-era New York City. I'm sure you will find them more than somewhat enjoyable.
 
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Just read JP Donleavy's (RIP last month) "The Ginger Man" for the umpteenth time - must be just about my favourite book
 
Grasshopper said:
PJ, if you fancy a bit of fiction, then I can heartily-recommend you getting hold of one (or more) of Damon Runyon's collection of short-stories.

Written in Runyon's unique and wonderfully-descriptive prose, they are highly-amusing tales of skullduggery and derring-do all this-and-that, during Prohibition era New York City. I'm sure you will find them more than somewhat enjoyable.
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Seconded.

I found myself reading a number of bits of his stuff about 40 years ago. I still smile when I think back on some of it!
 
"Corbyn, Strange rebirth of radical politics". I got this from my local library recently. I cannot recall the author right now as I'm not at my place, but I thought this was a interesting and entertaining read. I agreed with the author on lots of stuff. However, the bits suggesting Blair and New Labour were against single parents and Black kids, I'm not entirely sure about. The Blair government introduced the minimum wage which actually helped single parents. The authors supposition is that, in trying to solve crime in inner cities like London, Blair was against black kids and single parents. I just think this was a bit vague and a over-generalisation tbh. Other than that, this was good read.
 
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It’s by Richard Seymour, Marb......a self-confessed “Marxist writer” so no huge surprise he would have issues with Blair. Also, he - like most on the far-Left - is seeing only that which he wants to believe.

In my view, there has in fact been no return to radical politics whatsoever, and Corbyn’s success (moderate as it was) in the last election, was down to tactical voting, intended to deny the repellent Tory Government a majority. It was an anti-Hard-Brexit vote, rather than an endorsement of Corbyn’s brand of socialism.
 
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Interesting points, Grass,

I will have to look more into your analysis in terms of researching what you have said, especially on the tactical voting and the anti-hard Brexit vote, before I can really say much back.

I did read the authors page. I know he's a hardened leftie so you've definitely confirmed that.
Historically I'm not a massive book reader I have to admit, but I'm well in my thirties now, so book reading is something I'm trying to do more of!

For what its worth, I was 12 years old when Blair got in and 23 when he went, so much of Seymour's take on New Labour I can understand (I believed most it myself at some point).

Apart from the Black people/Single parent stuff which I mentioned above which does seem wishful thinking as you've alluded to..


To summarise or talk more broadly about politics for a sec....If this Austerity carries on which it looks likely to, with the NHS completely out of money to care for anyone properly, social care at crisis point, (never mind the patients), a huge lack of social housing stock, etc, then I reckon the political cycle is going back to that of the early 1990's.

Where after nearly two decades of Tory government underfunding into public services, and a weak leader of John Majoresque proportions, (similar to what we have in Theresa May now), then I reckon a centre left government, (how far left I don't know), will at some point win in the next 5-10 years, or 1-2 elections.

This is most likely to be Labour, unless they tear themselves apart and collapse, (should Jeremy Corbyn lose the next election).

The chronic need for social care for the ageing population in a few years will need real investment, and right-of-centre goverment austerity will be incompatible with the pressures on public services in the U.K by this time. (In the E.U, or out of the E.U.)

Does this make any sense?

Hope so.

Ps, sorry about so many edits, I can't knock out more than 75 words without major edits. ;) You have obviously got me thinking.
 
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It's really the wrong thread for this, but.........


Brexit is going to make the Tory austerity years look like unbridled profligacy.

Corporations and jobs will move out of the UK jurisdiction in droves, which will massively impact tax receipts. We won't be able to afford shi*t. The UK credit-rating will tank even further, meaning any money we try to borrow from the markets to prop-up the State will be at a huge mark-up, and Government bond yields will need to be massive to attract any investment. End result is that we can only kick the can down the road a bit, before payback cripples us further.

We are going to be utterly, utterly fu*cked when Brexit comes to pass, and as a country, we will eventually look back on Osborne's parsimony with misty-eyed nostalgia about how good we had it.

To counter this inevitable calamitous outcome, we have the intellectual and persuasive might of May, Johnson, Davis and Fox going to bat for us. What have we to worry about?

We won't need any social-care in a few years. We'll be shooting each other in the streets over loaves of bread.
 
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So your kind-of saying what Nick Clegg has said at some point, that we can't leave The E.U and invest more into public services?

I'm starting to get this a bit more now.
 
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A surprisingly coherent and honest blog, considering he supports Brexit.

This is Brexit in a nutshell:

"[FONT=&quot]The time and effort required to refute bullshit is a magnitude larger than it takes to produce it. "[/FONT]
 
Might have to hook myself up with that one, PJ. Off to Oslo for the first time with Mrs Grass in January.
 
Grasshopper said:
Bernie Madoff: Wizard of Lies
Santo Trafficante Junior: The Silent Don
The Curse of Brinks-Matt
One Last Job: The Hattons Garden Heist
Putin's Russia
A Colossal Failure of Common Sense: The Collapse of Lehman Brothers
Making It Happen: Fred Goodwin, RBS and the Men who Blew-Up the Economy
Enemy Number One: Patrick Veitch
All The Devils Are Here: Unmasking The Men Who Bankrupted the World
The Fix: Rigging Libor
The Smartest Guys In The Room: Enron Scandal
Broken Vows: Tony Blair - The Tragedy of Power

I've just downloaded 'Devil's Bargain; Bannon, Trump & The Storming of the Presidency'

To provide a little bit of balance, I also have Daphne Du Maurier's 'House on the Strand' (paperback) ready to go, but haven't started it as yet.
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Have added a few more to my list:

Shattered: Inside Hilary Clinton's Doomed Campaign (Allen/Parmes)
Who Rules the Word (Noam Chomsky)
Trump Revealed (Fisher/Kranish)
What Happened (HR Clinton)
Brexit: What The Hell Happens Now? (Ian Dunt)
Fire & Fury (Michael Wolff)
Inside Story: Politics From Thatcher To Brexit (Philip Webster)
Collusion: How Russia Helped Trump To The White House (Luke Harding)
Shadow World: Inside The Global Arms Trade (Andrew Feinstein)
ISIS: The State Of Terror (Stern/Berger)
All Out War: How Brexit Sank Britain's Political Class (Tim Shipman)
A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies & Leadership (James Comey)

Still haven't read House on the Strand!
 
granger said:
Which gets the best rating of that lot?
Click to expand...

I've removed the ones you probably don't have to bother with, and left these in play:

Shattered: Inside Hilary Clinton's Doomed Campaign (Allen/Parmes)
Trump Revealed (Fisher/Kranish)
Fire & Fury (Michael Wolff)
Collusion: How Russia Helped Trump To The White House (Luke Harding)
All Out War: How Brexit Sank Britain's Political Class (Tim Shipman)
A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies & Leadership (James Comey)




I read 'Trump Revealed', 'Fire & Fury', 'Collusion' and 'A Higher Loyalty' in reasonably quick succession, and it's surprising how they all seem to prop one another up. Could practically have been four volumes by the same author, and together they really paint a picture of just what a colossal fu*ck-up Donald J Trump really is.

Read them in that order, would be my recommendation.

 
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