I’m currently watching the England Kazakhstan game – a few lions on the pitch might give it some entertainment value.

Although I console myself with the thought that, to quote Adam Smith, there is a great deal of ruin in a nation, the writer is certainly correct to say that Marxists are commonplace within local government and the NHS, and have done great harm.

“Marxist want to rule every moment of the citizenrys life,craddle to grave. That way the Marxist will always be in power and have a “brainwashed” society. ”

This description of what Marxists want is badly spelled but I see little else wrong with it.

“This to my mind is proven by the “unhealthy” interest in Soccer, loosely akin to the ancient antics of ROME.”

Ah. There is, I admit an unjustified logical leap in that word “proven.” In fact that’s the one aspect of this comment that I felt justified your scorn. But the idea that sport is loosely – our writer only says loosely – akin to gladiatorial contests seems obviously true to me.

“Give the people murder and mayhem, plus BEER, to keep ‘em content, then “they” (The populace) will not bother with politics and we the government can rule in peace, with no hope of a government change. Keeping the peoples mind occupied in the trivia (Just look at the crap that is shown on TV!) and WE the government can do as we like. Bring back common sense, PLEASE.”

Perhaps “Give the people murder…” was simply an extension of his earlier mention of “Roman antics,” in which case it is merely a re-statement of Juvenal’s “panem et circenses”, a phrase which many respected authors have applied to modern politics. If the writer is pushing an outright conspiracy theory where the government either actually promotes crime or consciously puts crap on TV to distract the populace then he might be a bit in need of a lie down in a darkened room – but I could go with the no-so-very-different statement that the government that produces 80% of our laws, the EU one, is quite happy to distract people with the drama of Westminster politics so that the actual rulers “can rule in peace, with no hope of a government change.”

do stop wasting your time in the Daily Mail. It only gives you indigestion.

Cheers,
Marksany

Now, if all corner penalty-takers had to run a gauntlet of hungry lions, I might actually watch football matches…

Tim adds: No, that doesn’t logically follow. Markets mean that they get to do what they want by their own lights. Democracy means that they get to force me to do what they want by their own lights. Very different things.