hail the year of the metal ox! (big fish in a little pond).

morning horsemouth! morning paul! hail the year of the metal ox!

yes hail the year of the non-timorous, non-cowering beastie. 

bull. china shop. china shop bull. 

horsemouth works this morning almost immediately (he almost doesn't have time to eat breakfast). 

and then he's done for the week.  (he has his next week bookings). 

yesterday it was thursday (thus LRB podcast day). 

the actual david (aka. viscount) runciman podcast (on how well the government has dealt with covid) was dull - people will be grateful to the government that got them vaccinated, recency effects mean they will forget that it was the same government that got them slaughtered by not  following the scientific advice and locking down when needed. (similarly covid hides the sins of brexit). 

or at least this is what the polling tends to indicate. 

the david runciman versus jeremy paxman podcast (as if down the pub) was a more interesting. 

jeremy thinks the political class are fecking useless and the voters are stupid (fair points), david wants to reform democracy and become more experimental with it because the system is stuck. traditionally such stuck moments would be dealt with by expanding the circle of political representation (but other than kids there are no obvious candidates). 

david forsees more referendums (horsemouth forsees that they will never be allowed to happen again). maybe david is right, there certainly seem to be at least two on the horizon  (scottish independence, northern irish reunification with the south) and after that constitutional arrangements for the former great britain (the english rump). 

maybe enthusiasm for referendums will increase as the political and economic advantages to wrecking the economy (and , for once, being able to blame it on the people) become more obvious. horsemouth remembers his friend johnny's diagnosis of brexit (that the british ruling class had decided to become big fish in a little pond). 

jeremy can't stop himself from barracking. david can't stop himself from being reasonable. jeremy wants to curmudgeon, he doesn't want to have to commit to a position. 

soon enough the metaphorical 'beer' is gone and they are on their way.