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Sam and Rod: How it all began

Sam

Originally posted 2023-10-21 15:26:12.

This is the story of Sam and Rod.

I want to update all of you as to what as happened recently. As you may know, Samantha, my long-time partner, my lover and friend, died on the third of October after and illness. Her actual cause of death was severe pulmonary tuberculosis. However this was really a complication of HIV, in which her immune system had been compromised. It was what is commonly known as AIDS.

I was under no illusions. Sam had in fact told me that she was HIV positive in 2017. I was in the airport at Paris Charles de Gaulle with my baggage checked, when she texted me to say she ad just had a test and this was the result. She said that the cause was receiving a tattoo with an unsterilised needle.

books by rod fleming

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Labour’s moral authority

Originally posted 2016-08-13 13:33:11.

The UK’s official Opposition is the Labour Party, though on present showing you might not guess that. On one hand it has at once been utterly and indefensibly useless at challenging the Government over the EU referendum. On the other, internecine fighting and political blood-letting over its own leadership has gone out of control. These pose serious questions about Labour’s moral authority and its fitness to govern.

First the party’s ruling body, the National Executive Committee, decided to prevent members who had joined within the last six months from voting. This was because the NEC is currently filled with Blairites. They want the elected leader, Jeremy Corbyn, out and think that all the new members are Corbyn supporters. That should speak volumes about how they regard democracy.

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The Brexit Mirror — cracked from side to side

self-ideation

Originally posted 2016-08-12 19:01:00.

The Brexit mirror cracked from side to side under the weight of simple, sheer reality this week.

The fissure in the Brexit mirror began to appear when Norway’s Foreign Minister told the world that no, the UK could not re-enter the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) just because it fancied the idea. The UK was a founder member of EFTA but left as a condition of joining the then EEC in 1973. Re-entry, however, would require unanimous approval from the remaining members and Norway is agin the idea. It’s not the only one to show reluctance.

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Swivelly-eyed Brexit panic.

Originally posted 2016-07-29 12:56:04.

The first signs of widespread panic amongst the UK’s hard-right, swivelly-eyed Brexiteers have begun to appear.  In our last Friday Politics we pointed out that Brexit, as promised by the triumvirate of swivelly-eyed-ness, Johnson, Gove and Farage, is dead. It can’t happen. Now that realisation has got through to those whose eyes  are usually so swivelly they can’t read a Daily Mail headline.

They’ve figured out that they were blindsided (it’s the swivelly eyes) and they’re livid. Beside themselves. Last Friday, probably after he had read my piece,  Bill Cash, a person whose eyes are so swivelly we wonder how he drives to work, broke the ranks. ‘Brexit must happen,’ quoth he.

B-b-b-but Bill, is there any doubt? Surely…I mean it’s only been a month since the Phony Referendum…

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Brexit is dead.

Originally posted 2016-07-22 12:20:01.

brexit-dead
Last month the UK voted to ‘Brexit’. It will never happen. Here’s why.

Tweet: A month ago, the UK went to the polls and voted to leave the European Union. Today, #Brexit is dead. What happened?

The reality that Brexit could not be delivered became apparent even in the hours after the result. Why did David Cameron, the then Prime Minister, resign? He didn’t have to. He had fought a solid campaign and had been honourably beaten. He had said that he would not resign whatever the result.

Cameron probably realised that he could not deliver the result that had been asked for. His departure was the first indication that Brexit was already on life support. Continue reading “Brexit is dead.”

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Who Governs Britain?

Originally posted 2016-06-30 12:02:50.

Who governs Britain is the question we must now answer.

One week ago, the British people voted in favour of leaving the European Union.

The voters gave their opinion. That is all they did. But by doing so they provoked a Constitutional crisis for the United Kingdom, which may yet turn into an existential one. The question is no longer about Europe; the question today is simply ‘Who governs Britain?’

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EU Referendum

Originally posted 2016-06-20 11:42:53.

On Thursday this week, the people of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland  will vote in a crucial referendum. For the first time in over 40 years, they will have the chance to express a view about the European Union (EU). To decide, in fact, whether they wish to remain a part of it or not.

(This post was updated on 24 September 2018. It seems just as apposite today, even though the Referendum this referred to was held and the UK voted to leave the EU. But the grasping tendrils of this thoroughly undemocratic, bureaucratic organisation still attempt to stifle our freedom.)

At root the question being asked in the referendum is this and only this: do the benefits of being a part of the EU count for more than the loss of sovereignty that it has entailed? Has it delivered democracy, powerful economic growth and security in sufficient measure to make up for its centralisation of power?

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