National Intelligence! Oxymoron shenanigans, I’ve called it.

It is, they have hooves.

Codswallop

deleted by creator

My wife is a doctor, and dragged me to her proctologist friend for inspection. Midway through, my wife waltzed in, and they had a lovely chat about their CEO’s BBQ the previous weekend, all the while he was wrist deep in. On the journey home, i requested that next time, one intrusion is the most i can manage at any one time. She considered me an antisocial whinger. Medical people are really weird.

As someone heading into retirement, after a long career in corporate and governmental stuff, my advice to the young man is to take the money. 250k will put a roof over his head for life, and the humiliation will be far less than the grinding, soul destroying, principle compromising reality of being a suit. If someone wants to pay you good money to look at your cock, they’ve got the problem, not you, take their money!

There’s this fella that owns a golf course in Scotland. Just recently he was one inch away from being available. People say he’d be the best cadaver. I think he’s the best candidate for it.

Thank you. I increasingly appreciate what you and the other mods do.

some years back I was the ‘Head’ of systems stuff at a national telco that provided the national telco infra. Part of my job was to manage the national systems upgrades. I had the stop/go decision to deploy, and indeed pushed the ‘enter’ button to do it. I was a complete PowerPoint Manager and had no clue what I was doing, it was total Accidental Empires, and I should not have been there. Luckily I got away with it for a few years. It was horrifically stressful and not the way to mitigate national risk. I feel for the CrowdStrike engineers. I wonder if the latest embargo on Russian oil sales is in anyway connected?

Thank you so much for your reply, it’s greatly appreciated, and has removed enough fog of doubt to propel me to register to vote.

Regarding a dedicated overseas MP, this grows in attraction. Having support and representation would be beneficial for me, but I equally believe that feeding back the experiences of us overseas would enrich and inform the UK parliament. I have participated in a fair few trade missions, inter-institutional and cultural/soft-power events, especially under the remit of expanding British business overseas. The UK is still held in the highest regard, and with good reason. The policy of our institutions and government to publish their data, procedures and processes is of immeasurable help. If you’re a medical doctor in a foreign country wanting to draft hospital wide procedures, the first stop is the NHS (and then copy-paste). If you’re developing processes for the adoption of industry digitalisation, the UK institutions are amongst the finest (copy-paste). These should be enriching, or at least empowering, the UK, but are missed at High Commissioner/Ambassador level.

In this globalised world, and we have form in this, having one overseas MP to stand on their hind legs in the House of Commons and act as a conduit seems like a sensible investment.

Time to give some thought to action it.

I’m stuck in this dilemma. I’ve lived abroad for seventeen years. Strangely, it makes me much more aware that I am English, also British, but undeniably English. It also makes me incredibly grateful to be English - it’s about the least worst country on the planet. I could bang on about doing ‘stuff’ for the UK overseas (intergovernmental and trade stuff), and that how my foreign wife’s career would take a huge hit if we moved back to the UK (she’s a senior medical doctor, but would be made to start from the lowliest grade should we return). But that’s contextual and circumstantial. I’ve been painfully deliberating the principles for years, and fully appreciate the ‘not here, no vote’ sentiment. But, I am English and under the governance of the UK gov. I look to the year 1647, the Putney Debates, during the civil wars. The debates considered the rights of people (men) under governance. Colonel Thomas Rainsborough stated, “I think it clear, that every Man that is to live under a Government ought first by his own Consent to put himself under that Government.” I am under the UK government, so doesn’t that give me the right to vote? I want to vote now because I hate the tories. How much? A lot. I think a dedicated overseas MP is a great idea. We are global now, and it could feed useful information back into parliamentary debate. I’d appreciate any comments, constructive or abusive, they all contribute. Thanks.