What Goes Around Comes Around

The original "Thucydides trap" was Sparta (a land power) fearing the rising (sea) power of Athens. Sparta's King Archidamus urged restraint rather than war. He was cited in Britain's House of Commons on 18 March 2003 by an MP who opposed the invasion of Iraq. But in the 5th century BC Athens' democratic leader Pericles argued that concessions would be interpreted as weakness. Athens lost the war.
The early years of the 20th century were an example of Thucydides' (an Athenian general) theory. Germany (a land power) was rising. Britain (a sea power) was afraid.
Today the rising power, China, is building airfields on islets in the South China Sea and claiming the Sea as its own.
Only the existing power (the US) can stop them.
Both Athens and Sparta had allies. So did Britain and Germany 100 years ago.
Weaker countries bordering the South China Sea look to the US to help them....
Thucydides believed that war in one place caused a movement of people and so another war....

Good and Bad

Socrates said few are the good things in life, many are the bad. For the good things we can thank God, for the bad we have to look elsewhere. When asked to define Good, he replied "I'm afraid it's beyond me".
Hamlet famously said "There's nothing either good or bad but that thinking makes it so."
Enoch Powell said immigration to the UK was a "preventable evil".
It's certainly good for lawyers....

Atrocious Misuse of Language

In one fell swoop Mr. Cameron has taken the UK out of the EU and probably broken the UK.
In his speech to the Commons yesterday he described hostility to Poles living in Britain as "despicable" and the perpetrators as "racists".
My beef is not with the word "despicable" (although yesterday I had the misfortune to meet a woman who once said to me "You are despicable"). It is with the word "racist" (which I have also had directed at me).
The usual word for people who don't like foreigners occupying their territory is "patriot" or "nationalist".
Patriots are usually admired, so Mr. Cameron avoided that.
Nationalists are identified with Scotland. Ditto.
On this day in 1914 a Serb nationalist (no one calls him a racist) committed an atrocious assassination. (He told his captors he hadn't meant to kill the wife.) Archduke Ferdinand was killed not for being a bad man but for being a good man who wanted to smooth things over.
(P.S. To cap the above, England lost at football to Iceland! in the European Cup yesterday.)

Good Grief! From Goodwill to Goodbye!

Tony Blair recently received an award from the Polish Government because in 2004 when Poland and other East European countries joined the EU he allowed their citizens to live in the UK though other EU countries prevented them from moving there.
It is now extremely ironic that this moral act may well have been a major factor in the UK leaving the EU.
Politicians over the years have said EU citizens could not be stopped from coming here. That was not strictly true, because other EU countries stopped the East Europeans while the UK did not.

Hope and Understanding

There has been a lot of praying ("flopping" as Dickens called it in "A Tale of Two Cities") recently. A frequently quoted passage from the Bible says: "Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do." The people who caused unhappiness to Mr. Mair (and others) know fine what they do.
My local vicar says "sisters and brothers". I pointed out that if Jesus did not say it like that (in Aramaic) then that version is unChristian.
The Church would do well to pray for Mr. Mair. Not for forgiveness (leave that to God), but for Hope and Understanding.

The Moral High Ground

In one of the most prominent debates, just 2 days before the late, much-to-be-regretted EU Referendum, the Mayor of London accused people who want to restrict immigration to the UK of hate. This strong word is effective in claiming the high moral ground for the speaker.
London's Covent Garden used to have this graffito: "Hell hath no fury like a vested interest masquerading as a moral principle."
The Mayor of London is Labour and most immigrants vote Labour.
Immigration causes ill feeling. That is what the Referendum was mostly about.
Provoking ill feeling is morally wrong.

Hara-kiri!

National hara-kiri, leaving the EU, has been driven largely by the illusory notion that it will solve the UK's immigration problems.
If causing Scotland to separate and causing Northern Ireland problems is not hara-kiri I don't know what is.