OT: George,
Interesting article, but in the end, so what? A British liberal, a Cambridge don, a Yale intellectual--who in his right mind would listen to any of them? As Stalin once said of the Pope, "How many troops does HE have?"
I found particularly amusing the reference to American investment banks trying to "sell" the LSE to the Frankfurt stock exchange. Yes, just like real estate agents coming around for a listing. Does anyone think the tottering LSE is the crown jewel or a strategically vital piece of the Empire? Who would you want to try to dress up and sell that rusting shed in the backyard, Barclay's or Goldman Sachs?
Let's recall that these are the same Brits who can't even run British rail without frequent head on collisions (Oh, well, let's just muddle through) while France and Spain, for goodness sake, are modernizing their rail systems.
The sun has set on the British Empire, and except for mailed in performances from an increasingly annoying (and limited) Hugh Grant and the gowns/legs/cleavage of Liz Hurley, what can we really expect of value as an export from the Isles? Buy British? What's left? Rover? Jaguar? Read the Economist (which supports Bush), but steer clear of their economic predictions, and fuggetaboutit. |
