“In Brussels, EU ambassadors were sufficiently worried to convene an ‘emergency’ no deal meeting at the European Commission, with a rejection by British MPs of any Brexit deal being openly discussed for the first time. There is also a nagging fear that the European Parliament, always eager to muscle into the political arena in Brussels, could reject the deal.

“As with any negotiation, posturing plays a big part in trying to win the other side around to your position. However the economic shock from a genuine no deal would be a catastrophic for all sides, with global repercussions.

“The UK is producing a series of notices on the effect of no deal on the UK and the challenges that it will pose. On the EU side Ireland, France and Belgium would be the worst hit and if no aviation deal can be struck that contamination would be far more widespread. The UK government hinted this week that flights to the Continent would be affected. Cyprus, Malta, Spain & Portugal potentially face a summer holiday season without British tourists. For Malta, nearly 90 percent of their summer visitors come from the UK so such a scenario could be economically devastating.

“Yet no deal is certainly a possibility, given the challenging parliamentary arithmetic in the House of Commons and the splits on Brexit that run deeply within both major UK parties. So getting a withdrawal agreement that MPs will back looks to be a real challenge. Westminster passed an amendment in July that effectively renders the EU’s backstop plan for Northern Ireland illegal as it would create an internal border within the UK. Any deal would need to avoid impinging on this point, even though the EU is currently insisting on it.”

(I receive Brexit update newsletters from Mr.Daniel Dalton, a British Member of the European Parliament. The above is a short excerpt from the latest newsletter, which reflects the view from Brussels. Information only)

The Comma

I’d like to take a bomber
And drop bombs upon the comma,
Whose phrase attenuation
Is the bane of punctuation.
I always use too many;
In my prose they’re ten a penny,
While a lawyer, rather direly,
Has abolished them entirely.
A comma alters, meaning
Is the goal to which I’m leaning.
The comma’s like a word or tense,
Change it and you change the sense.
Omit it and you must work out
What the prose is all about.
The semi-colon is a snare:
How to use it, when and where?
But I am truly disconcerted
When the comma is inverted.
Use the single or the double?
Bound to get you into trouble.
To place quote marks within quotations
Can cause a war between two nations.
It’s all a little much for me.
And so I’ll let the reader pout
And grimace, and just sort it out.

By Robert Hanrott, from “The Rueful Hippopotamus”, available
from Amazon in the US and Europe

While thinking of a theme for today my first inclination was to join just about every news and media outlet (possibly) in the world, and comment on the Kavanaugh hearings. Then I read the Washington Post and realized that practically all the journalists on that paper had commented, and that about 95% of the edition was given over to the hearings. Overload!

So instead I want to raise the issues of love, tenderness, consideration, generosity, empathy and friendship. In short, modern Epicureanism.

Fearing a very bad long-term outcome of the current divisions all over the world, and especially on my own doorstep, I want to put in a plea to the small knots of still-sensitive people, whom I am confident still exist, even if they feel demoralised. I am not necessarily suggesting some sort of commune, or gathering in literal Epicurean gardens. What I am advocating is living one’s life constantly conscious of setting a good example to children (especially), but also to friends and to everyone one comes across, whatever their station in life, thir origin or their income:

* Politeness at all times
* Interest in other people and an opportunity for them to talk about their problems
*. Consideration for their difficulties
*. Generosity both of spirit and in terms of gifts of worldly goods to the less fortunate
* Empathy for other people
* Treating others as human beings, not just “employees”, “contractors” or “consumers”
* Rejection of greed, careerism and ambition
*. the cultivation of a sense of humour.
*. A commitment to treat everone as an equal, deserving respect.

Aim for the idea that, when you have visitors for whatever reason, they leave thinking, “Yes, there is love in that house”.

Please write and suggest additions that will help ensure that civilised, kind and thoughtful behaviour survives the current culture. We must stay positive!

Epicureanism was the world’s first ‘green’ philosophy. When people turn to the ancient therapeutic philosophies, or arts of life, they tend to look to resolute Stoicism for succor. But Epicureanism, which insists that we learn to be happy with less, is a better fit with the anxieties du jour.

The reason Epicureanism is not often mentioned in this context is that for more than two thousand years it has been misunderstood. Today Epicureanism is regarded as a form of gastronomic connoisseurship. In antiquity it was the exact opposite.

Epicurus (341-270 BC) abandoned the city of Athens for a house and garden outside its walls. The communards who followed him adopted the pleasure principle as their guide: the purpose of life is to maximise pleasure. But they understood pleasure not as the fulfillment of desire so much as its rational mastery. The richest pleasure of all, Epicurus believed, was freedom from suffering. “By pleasure,” he insisted, “we mean the absence of pain in the body and trouble in the soul.”

(Part of a paper by Luke Slattery, a Sydney-based writer, and an honorary associate in the University of Sydney’s department of Classics and Ancient History)