Saturday 3 May 2008

March on Berlin

The Guardian is claiming one Tory compared Boris Johnson's London Assembly election victory with Mussolini's march on Rome in 1922.

After Bush's election, Berlin saw an influx of abhorred Americans. Apparently, there are now 12700 US citizens living here (and 9300 Brits).

So I'm expecting all those people who are worried at the prospect of London experiencing its very own Il Duce will soon be moving away. And what better place than here? Surely most of them know someone who's bought into the local housing market already - although prices will no doubt take a further leap now.

I hope at least some wily entrepreneur will open a decently-priced Marmite and PG Tips shop like there used to be here back when Berlin was full of British builders.

Despondently yours,

kjd

10 comments:

Bowleserised said...

Immigrants, eh?

Bela said...

Hi, B above says we should meet, but she keeps forgetting to introduce us.

I, for one, am ecstatic: anyone, but anyone, rather than Ken Livingstone! Hooray! I would still vote Labour (probably), but that man had to go.

Thought you might be interested in this: http://meandmybigmouth.typepad.com/scottpack/2008/05/lost-in-transla.html

kjd said...

Bowlie - Gawd, now you mention it, I sound as bad as Boris, don't I?

I'm a bit like an indie music fan, I think. A band/place is only cool as long as not many people know it. Once HMV/Easyjet cottons on, that's it...

And Bela - hi! But Boris? Boris? I have to admit I'm a bit of a Ken fan, as I have fond memories of the last year of the GLC, when they had loads of free events on the South Bank and I got a free hot pink hula-hoop which had a scary pepperminty taste when you sucked on the holes in it. My memory may be playing tricks on me there, actually - it doesn't sound very plausible, does it?
But I don't have to put up with what Ken or Boris actually do, so I'll shut up now.

Bela said...

I too remember the GLC and, yes, it wasn't a bad thing at all (obviously, otherwise Thatcher wouldn't have got rid of it), but Ken is loathsome. Most Londoners are fed up with his antics. (Of course, there's also the general dissatisfaction with Labour and its ghastly policies - I'm one of the losers in the 10%-tax-band cancellation.) Good riddance to you know what!

Boris is not the buffoon he appears to be.

We're in the same position: I can't comment on Sarkozy since I don't live in France any longer.

Bowleserised said...

I don't think Boris is a buffoon, but that makes it worse. And the story of him letting Darius Guppy know the address of a journalist who then got beaten up:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2007/aug/21/conservatives.london

Oh and the Picaninnies. Do. Not. Want.

Bela said...

Well, I didn't want an antisemitic mayor who made outrageous remarks and shook hands with Hamas sympathisers, but I got him. Let Boris prove himself as repellent an individual as Ken did - for eight years - and I'll be prepared to vote differently next time.

Bowleserised said...

I'm not a Ken fan either, but I can't see BJ as an improvement, I'm afraid.

kjd said...

Me neither. Except perhaps to the culinary delights of Berlin.

Karl-Marx-Straße said...

Luckily the current pound-euro exchange rate will mean that those Englishmen and women won't all be trying to buy a "cheap" flat (or why not the whole block, eh) - they're welcome to rent like the rest of the population though!

kjd said...

I'd forgotten all about that, kms. All the better for someone to open an imported food shop...