LCD Views has spoken to a woman today who has a lot of power and is not using it to make other people happier.
“Why ever would I do that?” she asked us, even though we were conducting the interview, “what have people I don’t know ever done for me?”
That’s not the answer we expect from a vicar’s daughter!
”If bible study taught me one lesson, it’s the value of vengeance,” she smiles, not at all disarmingly, “if they disappoint you turn them to salt. If they really disappoint you it’s fire and brimstone. I’m working on that now.”
You didn’t get passed the Old Testament, did you?
”Traditional values are what I espouse. Little Englanders of my stripe traditionally support policies that make Scots, Irish, Welsh and all those ruddy continentals unhappier. Why would I break the pattern just because I have power?
”If someone looks funny to you then they are up to no good. Best to deal with it quickly,
”Especially if they were invited to the U.K. from far away, but have now finished as a working taxpayer. Retired people from other countries aren’t going to fund the corporate tax breaks of the future, they’ll just make them harder to dispense.”
While it’s nice to have a wander in the unweeded corners of your mind, why not just take No Deal off the table?
”It would weaken my negotiating hand.”
Threatening to chop off your hand and fling it at someone isn’t much of a strategy, especially if it’s only your hand that’s being chopped off.
”Ah! That’s where you’re wrong. If I’m lucky I’ll catch the top of their finger while I’m at it. Failing that, I’ll give them one bugger of a dry cleaning bill.”
You’re not convincing anyone you know.
”The EU always makes a deal at the last minute. I’ve just to look crazy enough to do the unthinkable.”
That’s a last minute deal between member states, not with a departing member who is threatening to automatically become a third country and embrace a dramatic reduction in their power.
So, why not, just take No Deal off the table and make millions and millions of people happier?
There was no response to that, it was clearly a concept that didn’t compute.
”Happier means happier,” oh hang on! “and I’m not making a success of that.”