THE U.S.A. SUFFERED TWO COWARDLY, UNEXPECTED ATTACKS OF GARGANTUAN PROPORTIONS IN THE LAST 75 YEARS - BOTH WHICH NOT ONLY STUNNED, BUT COMPLETELY CHANGED THE WORLD

ANNE'S  ARCHIVES

RICK

RON

NEWT

The Rick Santorum election organization has an ad out that depicts Mitt Romney as a machine-gun toting nutter. Using similar tactics that Newt Gingrich used to attack his opposition in the quest to become the chosen Republican Representative against Obama in November. Ron Paul also wages a massive assault on Newt's moral compass. In the end, will any of this negative, 'shoot from the hip' advertising help any of these guys beat off their opponents. And, as it shows in Santorum's video, possibly backfire in all of their 'Two Faced' faces?

Personally, I find this sly process of simply attacking one's opponent, rather than laying out what policies they might have up their indelicate sleeve in order to help the American people, to be an appalling way to play the political game. But, this is how it's being fought on the stages of the various states and the process is not going to change any time soon. It's simply the American way and I'm not sure I will ever get used to such dirty tricks.

Newt Gingrich ran a TV ad against Romney in January which might make some cry with laughter at it's rank and corny stupidity, however, it appears to have had the opposite effect, as - except for one state - Romney (In good old American terminology) has 'whupped' Newt's ass in the polls to date and no American seems to be ruffled by Mitt's ability in handling a gun or indeed his desire to use it. Perhaps the US masses enjoy this kind of cruel oneupmanship, but many that I have spoken to since being here in the land of 'Big Hair, Long Nails and Broad Bottoms' find this kind of TV advertising to be extremely

MITT

With Russia's navy sinking almost as quickly as the Costa Concordia, not only is Syria the only sea base that Russia has in the area, but the income from munition sales to that troubled country, is extremely important to the former Soviet  super-power, and therefore, is a bank not worth tampering with. When you add to this rewarding truth that one of Putin's last claims to popularity amongst his people, is the fact, he has always stuck to his - 'We don't need the west' - attitide. In fact, by vetoing any interference by the west in Syrian internal affairs, he is more than likely to win considerably more votes in the coming election.

Putin has been in power now since the Millennium and along with his 'personal puppet,' Dmitry Medvedev he's been chopping and changing his political role to fit in with Russian Electoral  laws, therefore, becoming President again must symbolise a really big deal for Putin. He must have chess moves galore stacked up to play coming out of his Russian Balalaika. Perhaps even an intricate Russian version of the time honoured 'Nutcracker,' because he's a hard one to crack.

The world must never forget that dear Pal Putin is from the old school KGB - (Kremlin  Get'em Brotherhood) school of poisoned darts and even more potent beverages and
after he left university in 1975, he joined that august institution. 

older brother David's back. You may well think this is all water under the proverbial bridge, because, as we all know in politics, war and love, there's very little conscience. But, while the new Coalition Party had a plan. One to make deep cuts in order to recover from the damage done by the Labour  Party, to wit, Gordon Brown and his cohorts. Beginning, of course, with Brown  selling off the hefty British Gold  reserves for a pittance.

Ed Miliband has been merely a 'tiny terrier' snapping at the steely, high heels of Prime Minister, David Cameron without really having the 'way-with-all' or the oratory skill to argue on many issues. Nor, without a clear and co-hesive plan for positive advancement of his own. Had Labour regained power, undoubtedly, they'd have had to make similar cuts to the current government - "Lord knows, the well, she had dried up." Which, in a way, makes it hard to have an alternative plan for poor young Ed. So, barking out objections to every move the Coalition made, was, perhaps, the best Miliband  thought he could do...But, some plan, ANY PLAN. There has been no scintillating, constructive alternative to offer the people who had voted Labour.

Besides, if the good of the country is at stake, isn't a bi-partisan approach a sign of common sense? After all, one does beg the question, on who's watch did the bricks start to tumble?

Anyway, as history tells us, hard core Labour voters, once they know the country is back on track again, will always follow in the steps of their forefathers. But, is Miliband taking this advise? No. Just as Al Gore declared he had created the internet. A rather 'Dumb Galoot' claim. Ed Miliband is puffing up his chest exclaiming that he should be recognised as the man who took on Murdoch! This statement alone tells one that kudos in his corner are obviously hard to come by.

Obviously, Murdoch's not a great example. To slow down an 80 year old geriatric who will always have power - as well as to deny that a huge, gaping hole deficit exists in the UK, regardless whether we're bosom buddies with our European  neighbours or not, sounds like the old Red Ed barks on cue yet again. This time more like an insipid poodle than a feisty terrier.

Clearly, there's a slight glimpse of a would-be, latter day Rasputin  in this unusual cleric. Obviously, not the kind of psychosis that haunted the Mad Monk of Nicholas the second of Russia, but nevertheless a man with disturbing radical beliefs that have no place in anyone who is supposed to be the leader and head of a religion.

This is also a man who once suggested that Sharia Law should be adopted in Britain, which shows his strange and unfathomable mind, seemingly with desirous notions of ingratiating himself to our Muslim brothers - by way of taking us back into Britain's past. A past we respect and have learnt from, but we must leave well and truly behind.

There is only one rule of law in the UK and while it is based on Christian values, it is a secular law upheld and interpreted by secular judges. To have produced a single body of law, observed and respected by the great majority of people, is one of the great triumphs of British civilisation and is unquestionably the cornerstone of what has made Britain what it is today.

So, something not to be torn apart by a man who apparently, not only craves publicity and has views diametrically opposed by millions of British subjects, but a man who seems to have an agenda befitting the Prime Ministerial office. Maybe he feels he could do a decidedly better job? A quaint thought for one who obviously saves an awful lot on razor blades.

RASPUTIN

Overlooking the Seine and facing the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, the store appears, now, like the old shops of the famous Charing Cross Road in London, a somewhat character filled store with a Dickensian flavor and over three floors is a mixture of open house and writers commune.

For countless years George Whitman provided food and makeshift beds to aspiring novelists letting them spend a night, a week, or even months living among the crowded shelves and alcoves. Even more remarkable is, this great man was an American – born in 1913 in East Jersey. His early life saw him moving around the globe something that he continued to do into adulthood until he arrived in Paris and although without much money but with a great love and desire to open a book shop. He did just that in 1951.

When you look at another incredible thing is that the original owner of that first Shakespeare & Company was also an American – Sylvia Beach who was born in 1887 in Baltimore, USA and in moving to Paris also dreamt of opening her own book store which she did in 1919 calling it Shakespeare & Company. (George inherited this title upon her death in 1962 and again applied this name to the current book shop as a homage to her.)

Sylvia Beach, sadly had to close her doors to S&C during the German occupation in 1941. Rumor had it the Gestapo thought it was being used as a meeting place for Secret Agents for the allies.

That aside, here we have two Americans bringing the English language together – and not an English man or woman in sight.

When you see the English Prime Minister, Cameron, French President Sarkozy and German Chancellor, Merkel all speaking together they use, what in France and Germany is known as ‘Shakespearean English.’ That is not to say, that Sarkozy cries, ‘Ah, where art thou with thee economy, thou roguish Cameron?’ Nor does Merkel disappointingly say to Sarkozy, ‘What hast thee hidden up thou vast proboscis?’ No. Of course not!

The term is merely applied to a preciseness of ‘Business English,’ and given the term ‘Shakespearean.’ Perhaps because it is more colourful and visual. An articulated sense of the word. Maybe it is the English that many of us would prefer to see at times, even though preciseness can often deprive us of one of the idioms of indigenized English, for without that idiomatic 'street' colour and flavour, TV drama and film would be somewhat dreary and very lacklustre. So we compromise. A bit of this and a bit of that!

George saw himself as patron of a literary haven in the lean years after World War II, and being the heir to a small inheritance of his Aunts, as well as the heir to a lot of Sylvia Beach’s fine books, plus the name of her store Shakespeare & Company. And, as a gracious nod to her, when George’s daughter was born, she was given the classical name of Sylvia Beach Whitman.

So, let us just say, that while the great and wonderful man, George Whitman helped keep English intact, while he may not have been part of the evolution of English as a language, he kept its purity enshrined for those of us who like it that way!

We all know that languages evolve and often dramatic change can even come about in merely a generation or two. We only have to look at how abbreviations have become popular in text as well as internet hip hop cyber-jargon. Sometimes quite daunting,
even to a professional decipher expert in an Intelligence Agency.

Nevertheless, whether the language is English, French, German or even Urdu there remains the purists who pride themselves on using their criteria at a point where they feel their own particular language has reached its peak in terms of perfection.

Shakespearian English - although not in its lyrical form - is a yardstick that is often referred to when we speak of the purity of the language. In fact, in most parts of the Euro-zone areas where English is taught as a second language, it is somewhat more precise than taught in the home counties of England – as it also is in many parts of the north-west areas of the USA. Many might say, Bostonian English can often be easier to follow – in its written and spoken form – than the English taught at Wallow-on-the-Marsh in rural England. So why do I make this initial point?

People who had the great pleasure of reading Helen Hanff’s modern classic, 84 Charing Cross Road where a Philadelphia born New York based writer – first published in 1970 – where it shows her 20 years of correspondence with Frank Doel, a buyer for Marks & Co, a London bookshop, on which she depended on obscure classics and British literature titles, which her passion for self-education revolved (The book was made into a film with Anthony Hopkins and Anne Bancroft, and a must for all lovers of fine literature) They will appreciate why, when George Whitman, the owner of Paris’ famous English language bookshop, Shakespeare & Company died last week aged 98 and that he was mourned around the world by great writers, would-be writers and millions of readers alike.

The remarkable longevity of this eccentric, but much loved man – and the fact that through books – fantasy and fiction – his life probably took on wonderful disguises, brilliant adventures, time travelled and had altogether unremitting romances – that always ended well – and endured battles and mayhem, yet came out of it all totally unscathed. His entire life was books – books that could quite literally take your breath away. And, wonder of all wonders, they were all in English – IN PARIS!

When I first visited this amazing shop I was into my second year at Oxford and enamoured by a language that was not my original mother tongue, but having already absorbed the great writings of Madame de Lafayette, Voltaire, Alexandre Dumas, Théophile and Jean-Paul Sartre my mind was drawn to the great English writers.

George Whitman had by then, expanded his small shop to house 13 extra people if required to do so. Either the accomplished high and mighties, or aspiring would-bees if they could-bees and even just the lowly book lovers could stay when in town – free of charge. Oh, yes, George had strong socialistic leanings and he had kept acquiring more portions of the building he was in to house his great loves. Books and the people who also loved his books.

In those days – myself, the usual struggling student of the times – spent a night talking to George surrounded by his books, plays and anything that he thought was a great work of art in the written English word. These works swallowed up George’s life - was his life - and if you couldn’t afford to buy something that was required reading, George would lend it, again free of charge. George saw himself as patron of a literary haven, and in the lean years after World War II, and the heir to Sylvia Beach, the founder of the original Shakespeare & Company, the original shop became a haunt of Ernest Hemingway and James Joyce in its early days.

Most years my Editor sends me off to cover the fashion and social side of the Melbourne Cup in Victoria. Perhaps that is because I know Melbourne and it's people exceptionally well and find Australia's  cultural capital far more to my taste than it's brash arch rival, Sydney.

The results of my Fashion experience can be found in our newspapers and my weekly fashion column. Needless to say, I find the Australians who dress up to go to 'The Race that stops a Nation,' far more adventuous in their dress sense than those who attend Royal Ascot, but with slight fear of an expoding Yorkshire Pudding arriving by snail mail, I will say, the Victorians actually are far more Fashion aware than their British cousins and, consequently, appear more confident, glamorous, fun-filled and flirtatious.

As I am now in Churchill Downs in the USA for this weekends Breeders Cup meeting, my above words will probably be forgotten soon and with luck and fingers and legs crossed, that C4 laced pudding will be opened by my Editor.

If my European readers have never seen a Melbourne Cup, then they have never seen a real race meeting. The Aussies spare no expense to make this the greatest race day spectacle in the world - and that's apart from the huge prize money on offering.

European owners and trainers have become more and more aware of this fact in the last ten years. In fact, this year, for the second year in a row, the winner was a French horse. One could even rub salt into the locals wounds by saying that the first seven horses home in this gruelling two mile race of share courage and stamina were European horses.

It's not only the huge crowd who turn out each year - always in excess of 100,000 - nor the champagne that flows freely from 10am from the carefree parties in the car park, it is the hedonistic fun loving Aussie's attitude to life that make the day just as much as the graceful thoroughbred horses. Friend or foreigner, their 'Gday mate' to all and sundry is as genuine as the bright skies in that marvellous 'sun-burned country!'

There was never any doubt at all that when I arrived in the city where Sarkozy and Merkel - the architects of a new EU treaty - felt they could bring Britain on board with their 'New Treaty Proposal.' And, at the beginning - as foreign Ministers always do for the press - they smiled at each other, hugged and shook hands. Nothing changed yesterday, until last night, when the dealing of the cards began, the airhostess smiles were cast aside. For in this game, no one held a Joker up their sleeve. Not even a 'get out of jail free card.' All could be winners, or a few could win. Or... all could lose.

For such high stakes - the stability and survival of the Eurozone and the Euro itself - was sitting on the table.

All of the players were nervous, not because their own political careers were at stake, but because they all had a dream. The main dream many shared was simple, unity. Unity is always a force to be dealt with. The United States stands alone financially, but still with 50 States to back it up, it has never been a walkover and has survived tough times before.

Oceana, while they have no formal agreement, which includes, China, Indonesia - and most parts of the East and Asia, have an unwritten trading agreement brought on by mutual need of each other's products. Russia, the other world power, although broken up, still, nevertheless, is a very wealthy force and have always been happy keeping their own counsel.

The Middle East is in transitionary chaos and while there is great wealth there, autocracy still stands supreme and mostly the general masses there are poverty stricken and all the Arab League has to offer the world is oil. Not a commodity to be scorned at, but only while they have a market to sell to.

The point is, even though the brave Cameron stuck to his guns and gave a virtual veto to the new treaty, the question remains long term. Given that Britain - a shadow of its former self - without even an Aircraft Carrier or many war ships to defend itself, could at some future point stand alone in total islolation, with little to offer the world in commodities, financial services or exports.

And, would the United States ever come to its rescue again, taking in its own debts? A big doubt there. So, hypothetically, if Argentinia suddenly decided it was time to re-take the Maldives, Britain would be virtually helpless to stop it. So, does Merkel's comment on 'United Europe stands, divided it may fall' auger well for the future survival of Britain and its standard of living? No one can answer this. It is, nevertheless a question worth pondering over.