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  THE ERICLE THE 2024 PARIS OLYMPICS  Plus ça change?     Seeing the above headlines in yesterday's  Times , Mes Lecteurs Gentils may well have come up with the French idiom,  Bien Mal Aquis Ne Profiie Jamais,  which cognoscenti of the Lingua Franca will recognise as meaning  Ill-gotten Gains Never Prosper.   Indeed these headlines reflect many of the perceived malaises of our times: escalating international tensions, pollution, celebrity, me-too-ism, self-entitlement etc; in short, demises within society and a breaking down of international order. In such a climate, the Olympic motto  Citius, Altius, Fortius – Communiter (Faster, Higher, Stronger - Together)  rings somewhat hollow. And with Russian & Belarus athletes competing as 'International', and 15 others competing as 'refugee countries'. the particular slogan chosen by France for this Olympics -  Ouvrons Grand les Jeux (Ga...
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  IT'S COMING HOME?   Have you ever tried searching the internet for an image of Keir Starmer and Gareth Southgate together? I have, this morning, and I couldn't find one! Makes you wonder, doesn't it?     ' Events, dear boy, events ' was the reply that Prime Minster Harold Macmillan gave when he was asked what was the most difficult thing about being Prime Minister. Gareth Southgate could validly have given the same answer to a similar question as to what the most difficult thing is about being Manager of the England football team. Last week he found himself being pelted with beer glasses; while 2 games later he is reportedly being implored by the English Football Association to extend his contract for another campaign. Most people agree that Southgate seems to be a 'decent bloke', whose commitment to the cause is beyond question but who is not necessarily a footballing genius nor the most exciting of personalities. Neither is there much disagree...
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  THE COUSINS   29 June 2012   My cousin, who lives in Los Angeles, is a serial re-emailer. To this end, I am the regular recipient of the odd good joke, some crusty re-treads, links to YouTube vids of fluffy animals & the like and an amount of right-of-centre political opinions. This week he sent me a link to a compilation of "wonderful" pictures of Elizabeth Windsor's Diamond Jubilee gig. To which I replied by sending him a copy of this recent front page of Private Eye; for which he thanked me warmly.  The Americans don't do irony, do they?      
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  FROM LITTLE ACORNS 21 June 2012       [This was my first Ericle post]
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  THE ERICLE HOPES & FEARS   I received a text message yesterday from 'Mein geschätzter Leser' in Niederhelfenschwil saying that he is "very much looking forward to hear the results (of the UK General Election) tonight. The future looks a bit brighter in the UK than in Germany France and the USA". Though I can fully appreciate his notion that the prospect - now realised – of a left-leaning government in the UK stands in marked contrast to where most other Western democracies appear to be heading, my reply to him was: ‘We are only one step behind the other major democracies. The Labour Party has an impossible task and come the next election the public will turn to Farage or his like. I hope I’m wrong, but I fear not’.      Hopes & Fears.  My Long-suffering Reader, will know that The Ericle is by nature an optimist, though this optimism has caught him out on some notable occasions in the past. I would really love to see the Starmer government as a sha...
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