{"id":9932,"date":"2021-06-14T13:41:45","date_gmt":"2021-06-14T13:41:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xislblogs.xtreamlab.net\/slwoods\/?p=9932"},"modified":"2021-06-14T14:24:05","modified_gmt":"2021-06-14T14:24:05","slug":"the-art-of-the-studied-insult","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/?p=9932","title":{"rendered":"The art of the studied insult"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-9960\" src=\"http:\/\/xislblogs.xtreamlab.net\/slwoods\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/sites\/23\/2021\/06\/G7-Logo-150x150.png\" alt=\"G7 2021 logo\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/sites\/23\/2021\/06\/G7-Logo-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/sites\/23\/2021\/06\/G7-Logo-144x144.png 144w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/>The outcome of the now-concluded <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/topical-events\/g7-uk-2021\">G7 summit in Cornwall<\/a> was to have been so different. Flying in the Red Arrows to impress the forrins with high-speed aerobatics, wheeling in Elizabeth Mountbatten-Windsor and her family in to schmooze and press the flesh; even the notoriously fickle English weather behaved itself.<\/p>\r\n<p>Yes, the impression part-time alleged prime minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson and his organising committee wanted to do was show a reinvigorated English Empire, confident and occupying a major place on the world stage now Brexit had been done and the country had broken free of the shackles ostensibly imposed upon it by the Brussels Eurocrats.<\/p>\r\n<p>However, what has emerged is the English Empire&#8217;s diminished role and importance in the world as a consequence of Brexit. The G7 media headlines have been dominated by the problems caused by Brexit and in particular the UK&#8217;s failure to implement the <a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/info\/publications\/revised-protocol-ireland-and-northern-ireland-included-withdrawal-agreement_en\">Northern Ireland Protocol<\/a>, a binding international treaty signed as part of the divorce agreement between the EU and the English Empire, a matter which earned the part-time alleged prime minister a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mirror.co.uk\/news\/politics\/joe-bidens-furious-rebuke-boris-24286992\">rebuke from US president Joe Biden<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<p>However, Biden&#8217;s was not the only reprimand earned in recent days by Johnson&#8217;s government of none of the talents. On social media <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/David_Frost,_Baron_Frost\">David Frost<\/a>, the English Empire&#8217;s chief Brexit negotiator, who is also known as <em>Frosty the No Man<\/em> on account of his negotiating style, earned the displeasure of those on Twitter who can see further than the White Cliffs of Dover for turning up to a crunch meeting with the EU wearing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenational.scot\/news\/19370788.uk-minister-wore-union-jack-socks-stand-off-eu-leaders\/\">tacky Union Jack socks<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<p>In addition, Frost and other members of the alleged government have been widely quoted in the right-wing British media as calling on the evil EU to be less <em>purist<\/em> in its interpretation of the Withdrawal Agreement and Northern Ireland Protocol. Consulting an online dictionary, one of the definitions of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dictionary.com\/browse\/purist\"><em>purism<\/em><\/a> is a <em><span class=\"hvr\">strict<\/span> <span class=\"hvr\">adherence<\/span> to <span class=\"hvr\">particular<\/span> <span class=\"hvr\">concepts,<\/span> <span class=\"hvr\">rules<\/span><\/em>.<\/p>\r\n<p>That&#8217;s right. The EU is and always has been a rules-based, whereas Britannia has long preferred to waive the rules.<\/p>\r\n<p>The above-mentioned meeting between the EU and the English Empire did not end well, with EU officials clearly exasperated by the attitude of the English Empire government.<\/p>\r\n<p>In particular, the words attributed to on EU official quoted have been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/news\/politics\/1449254\/Brexit-news-Ursula-von-der-Leyen-EU-G7-Summit-Boris-Johnson-latest-news-vn\">interpreted<\/a> as <em>patronising<\/em> by the Daily Brexit, which some still call the Express. <\/p>\r\n<p>According to the Daily Brexit:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>An aide to the EU chief told Channel 4 News that the tweet &#8220;was in English so that the British can understand it&#8221;.<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>This anonymous quote clearly falls into the definition of a <em>studied insult<\/em>.<\/p>\r\n<p>In this context <em>studied<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thefreedictionary.com\/studied\">denotes<\/a> an insult that is either the result of deliberation and careful thought or is based on learning and knowledge.<\/p>\r\n<p>The quote is clearly aimed at the monoglot Brits&#8217; ages-old reluctance to learn foreign languages (<em>apart from Latin and classical Greek.? Ed.<\/em>), even though a properly global Britain will need all the linguists it can get, but shows no signs of producing, with both the <a href=\"https:\/\/universitybusiness.co.uk\/news\/modern-languages-seven-more-universities-drop-degrees\/\">number of British universities still teaching degree modern language courses in decline<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.researchprofessionalnews.com\/rr-he-student-trends-2021-2-students-lose-interest-in-modern-foreign-language-degrees\/\">number of undergraduate linguists also in decline<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The outcome of the now-concluded G7 summit in Cornwall was to have been so different. Flying in the Red Arrows to impress the forrins with high-speed aerobatics, wheeling in Elizabeth Mountbatten-Windsor and her family in to schmooze and press the flesh; even the notoriously fickle English weather behaved itself. Yes, the impression part-time alleged prime [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,32,15,34],"tags":[16,22,33,20,35],"class_list":["post-9932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-translation-and-language-related-matters","category-media","category-politics","category-social-media","tag-english-usage","tag-language","tag-media-2","tag-politics-2","tag-social-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9932"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9967,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9932\/revisions\/9967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}