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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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Best Returning British TV Shows from 2020

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2020 brought many things with it. Brexit. Another iPhone. The 30th anniversary of Fresh Prince Of Bel Air. A Crackerjack revival, the increasingly critical state of our burning planet, the inauguration of a Gangsta Granny rollercoaster at Thorpe Park, and a global pandemic that shut down life as we know it.

A mixed bag, all told.

One thing you can largely rely on in worrying times is television, and below are the top returning British shows that fought their way through the Covid-19 lockdown to come back in 2020.

After Life series 2

Release date: Friday 24th of April, Netflix

Ricky Gervais’ emotional Netflix comedy about a misanthrope widower (Gervais) struggling to cope after the death of his wife (Kerry Godliman) will return for a second six-episode run. Filming began in September 2019, and it arrived on Netflix in April. Diane Morgan and Mandeep Dhillon co-star.

Read more:the best stand-up specials on Netflix here.

Blood series 2

Release date: Monday 27th April, 9pm, Channel 5

2018 welcomed the arrival of Sophie Petzal’s award-winning Irish domestic thriller Blood, which starred Line Of Duty‘s Adrian Dunbar as a widower under suspicion when his estranged daughter Cat (Carolina Main) returns to the family fold. It was tightly scripted with a great cast and told a satisfying and emotional story. Read our interview with its creator here. Over in Ireland, Virgin Media One aired the second series in February 2020, and it’s available on-demand on My5 in the UK here.

Brassic series 2

Release date: Thursday 7th May, Sky One

Shameless’ Danny Brocklehurst and This Is England’s Joe Gilgun worked together on rambunctious Sky comedy Brassic, which is inspired by Gilgun’s own misadventures as an errant youth trying to make a few quid. Michelle Keegan and Damien Molony co-star. NOW TV subscribers can watch the first series here.

Read more: the British comedies on their way this year.

Call The Midwife series 10

No, we don’t have much call to talk about it here on Den Of Geek, but Heidi Thomas’ Call The Midwife remains a terrifically warm British drama with a spine of steel when it comes to standing up for the NHS and wading (often literally) through the blood-soaked reality of life for women and children. Series nine finished airing on Sunday nights on BBC One in February, and it’s already been renewed for a 10th and 11th series, taking it into 2022.

New British TV Series from 2020: BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Sky Dramas and More

By Louisa Mellor

New British comedy TV series for 2020: BBC, Channel 4, Sky, Dave, Amazon, Netflix

By Louisa Mellor

Famalam series 3

Comedy sketch show Famalam will be back for a third series and a Christmas special in 2020. Series two, which arrived on BBC Three in June 2019, brought more inventively absurd satire with it, and run number three will comprise returns to existing sketches and characters alongside new creations from Samson Kayo and the gang. Stream episodes on BBC iPlayer here.

Friday Night Dinner series 6

Release date: Friday March 27th, 10pm, Channel 4

Robert Popper’s family sitcom starring Simon Bird, Tom Rosenthal, Tamsin Greig and Paul Ritter is making an imminent return to Channel 4 in 2020 for series six. It’s about the Goodmans, a Jewish family who gather every Friday evening for, well, the name says it all. Absurd, funny and silly, it’s a lovely bit of squirrel.

Ghosts series 2

This tremendously fun comedy arrived in 2019 from the cast of Horrible Histories and Yonderland. Happily, it’s been renewed by the BBC for both a second and third series, which guarantees us a dozen more episodes of spectral shenanigans as Alison and Mike (alive) try to keep the ancestral family home going while dealing with an influx of housemates from history (dead). Filming wrapped on series two in March 2020. Stream Ghosts series one on BBC iPlayer.

His Dark Materials series 2

The first series of BBC One/HBO’s Philip Pullman fantasy adaptation took us on an epic journey north as young Lyra (Dafne Keen) travelled in search of her missing friend, and discovered a great deal more besides. A second eight-episode series adapting The Subtle Knife, book two in Pullman’s original trilogy, is in the works and expected to arrive at the end of 2020. A third potentially longer run adapting The Amber Spyglass is yet to be confirmed but that’s almost certainly just a formality at this stage. Read our spoiler-filled series one reviews and more here.

Home series 2

Aired in: February 2020

Rufus Jones’ timely comedy about a family who inadvertently smuggle a Syrian asylum seeker into the UK returning from a French holiday was recommissioned in August 2019. This warm-hearted sitcom starring Jones, Rebekah Staton and Youssef Kerkour was a little bit drowned out in the schedules (it aired the same week as series two of huge hits Fleabag and Derry Girls) and deserves more applause.

Inside No. 9 series 5

Aired in: February 2020

Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton continue to produce excellence in their inventive, ambitious comedy-drama anthology series Inside No. 9, and its fifth run was no different. Six new half-hour episodes, in which Shearsmith and Pemberton were joined by a raft of co-stars including David Morrissey and Jenna Coleman, aired this spring on BBC Two. Read our spoiler-filled episode reviews here. And listen to the creators’ deep-dive on each episode in their ‘Inside Inside No. 9’ BBC Sounds podcast here.

Keeping Faith series 3

Celia Imrie has joined the cast of BBC Cymru Wales/S4C’s bilingual Welsh drama Keeping Faith (Un Bore Mercher in its original language) for its third and final series. Imrie will join lead Eve Myles as solicitor Faith Howells in an as-yet undisclosed role. The domestic thriller’s first series, if you remember was a huge word-of-mouth hit, eventually making its way to BBC One after unprecedented public interest. The third series will air in 2020 on S4C, and then arrive across the UK on BBCiPlayer from February 2021. Here’s our series one, episode one review.

Killing Eve series 3

Release date: Sunday April 26th.

Well, it had to come back after that cliff-hanger, didn’t it? Based on Luke Jennings’ Codename Villanelle series of novels, international spy thriller Killing Eve has been renewed for a third run. As is now traditional, there’s a new showrunner in charge for the third time around; Phoebe Waller-Bridge handed over to Emerald Fennell who has handed over to See and Fear The Walking Dead‘s Suzanne Heathcote. Jodie Comer and Sandra Oh star. Read our reviews and more here.

Last Tango In Halifax series 5

Aired in: February 2020

Happy Valley and Gentleman Jack creator Sally Wainwright returned to the series that really made her name – BBC One’s Last Tango In Halifax – for a fifth series. It’s the story of former childhood sweethearts Celia and Alan (Anne Reid and Derek Jacobi) who reconnect in their seventies and remarry, knotting together their families led by Sarah Lancashire’s formidable Caroline and Nicola Walker’s hot-headed Gillian. (See our series one to four recap here, and our episode one review here.)

Liar series 2

Release date: Monday 2nd March, ITV1

ITV rewarded this Jack and Harry Williams psychological thriller starring Downton Abbey’s Joanne Froggatt and Horatio Hornblower’s Ioan Gruffudd with a second series renewal in 2018. Expect more twists, turns and talking points.

Man Like Mobeen series 3

Aired in: January 2020

Guz Khan’s terrific Man Like Mobeen returned for a third series on BBC Three this January. It stars Khan as a reformed Brummie drug dealer trying to make an honest living while raising his little sister and boasts a hilarious ensemble cast. Stream all three series now on BBC iPlayer.

New British comedy TV series from 2019: BBC, Sky, Channel 4, E4, Dave, Gold

By Louisa Mellor

New British TV series from 2019: BBC, ITV, Channel 4 dramas and more

By Louisa Mellor

Mortimer And Whitehouse: Gone Fishing series 3

A fishing show may seem like a strange choice for this list of mostly high-profile dramas and comedies, but Gone Fishing deserves as much celebration as any of them. That’s thanks to Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse’s natural chemistry as two long-time friends, both of whom have been forced to contemplate their mortality in recent years due to serious heart problems. It’s fishing, yes, but it’s also chat, silliness and genuine human warmth.

Red Dwarf feature-length special

Release date: Thursday 9th April, 9pm, Dave.

Official confirmation from Dave that the boys from the Dwarf were returning for a 90-minute special in 2020 arrived in October 2019. Titled ‘The Promised Land’, it sees the boys from the Dwarf deal with a tyrannical cat leader and three breakaway cat clerics who worship Lister as a god. Along with the special, which is due to air in April, Dave will also be airing retrospectives celebrating the show’s long history on the BBC and since its revival. Here’s what we know so far.

Save Me Too

Release date: Wednesday 1st April, Sky Atlantic and NOW TV

Written by and starring The Walking Dead and Line Of Duty’s Lennie James, Sky Atlantic’s Save Me was one of 2018’s top shows. The crime drama set in a South London estate among a cast of lived-in characters played by the likes of Suranne Jones, Jason Flemyng, Susan Lynch and Stephen Graham, was such a critical success, a second series commission arrived hot on the finale’s heels. Lesley Manville has joined the cast this time around, which is a real treat. Read more about it here.

Tin Star series 3

This will be the third and final instalment of the Jim Worth story on Sky and Amazon. Creator Rowan Joffe will wrap up his tale of an English police officer (Tim Roth) who relocates his family to the Canadian Rockies for a fresh start, but who finds that he can’t stop his old life bleeding into the new.

Read more: Tim Roth interview: Tin Star, Reservoir Dogs and more.

The Crown series 4

Release date: Sunday the 15th of November, Netflix

Olivia Colman took over from Clare Foy as HRH Elizabeth II in The Crown series three. The time jump saw Matt Smith replaced by Tobias Menzies as Prince Philip and Helena Bonham-Carter take the reins from Vanessa Kirby as Princess Margaret, with Gillian Anderson playing Margaret Thatcher. Series four is expected to arrive in late 2020. Read our spoiler-free series three review here.

The Last Kingdom series 4

Release date: Sunday 26th April, Netflix

Filming started on season four in April 2019 and the first look images were released back in July 2019, and now it’s finally here. The Last Kingdom series four adapts the next two books in Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon Stories series, The Pagan Lord and The Empty Throne. Starring Alexander Dreymon as Viking-raised-Saxon Uhtred of Bebbenberg, it’s an action-packed historical drama filled with wit and characters to love. Read our spoiler-filled episode reviews and more.

There She Goes series 2

After receiving critical acclaim for its first run and a Bafta for Jessica Hynes (who is brilliant in this, as she is in most things), There She Goes is returning. Shaun Pye’s excellent family comedy-drama has been renewed for a second series that will air on BBC Two instead of its original home on BBC Four. David Tennant and Jessica Hynes play the parents of Rosie, a little girl with severe learning disabilities in Pye’s unsentimental and honest autobiographically inspired series. Read more about why we loved series one here.

The Split series 2

Aired in: February 2020 (all episodes on iPlayer)

Abi Morgan’s legal family drama starring Nicola Walker (Unforgotten, Last Tango In Halifax) returned for another six episode series early this year. It saw Hannah deal with the aftermath of her night with Christie, while at work she handled the divorce of a high-profile couple with an abusive husband. There’s no word yet on whether a third series has been commissioned, but series two certainly didn’t leave things resolved for the characters.

The Trip series 4: The Trip To Greece

Release date: Tuesday 3rd March 2020, Sky One

Filming began on the fourth series of Michael Winterbottom’s The Trip in 2019, and the new series sees foodies Steve Coogan and Rob Bryden travelling around the dining establishments of Greece while they swap impersonations and provide a glimpse into fictionalised versions of themselves. While the first two series aired on BBC Two, from series three onwards The Trip made the move to Sky Atlantic.

Taskmaster series 10

Joining the Taskmaster and little Alex Horne for series nine of Dave’s excellent Taskmaster were Jo Brand, David Baddiel, Katy Wix, Rose Matafeo and Ed Gamble. It’s all change for series ten onwards as Taskmaster moves from Dave to Channel 4. The new series is expected to air in October 2020. Read more about the move and the new series commissions here.

This Country series 3

Release date: Monday 17th of February, BBC Three 7pm

Following 2018’s one-off special, the Mucklowes are back for a third and final series of mockumentary comedy This Country. That’s another six episodes from creator-siblings Daisy May and Charlie Cooper, who are back starring as feckless cousins Kerry and Kurtan in the “typical Cotswolds village” they call home. Series three might be its best yet.

Read more: the new British comedy series of 2019.

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bountyofbeads · 5 years ago

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Who is Kurt Volker, and why does his public testimony matter?

By Amber Phillips | Published Nov 18 at 4:12 PM ET | Washington Post | Posted

November 18, 2019 |

On Tuesday, former diplomat Kurt Volker will publicly testify in the impeachment inquiry about his role as one of Trump’s point people negotiating with Ukraine.

[Read his private deposition on website]

WHO HE IS:

Volker was the State Department’s special envoy to Ukraine until he resigned abruptly the weekend before his private deposition in the impeachment inquiry.

WHY HE MATTERS:

He was one of three men designated by Trump to steer Ukraine policy. Volker, European Union Ambassador Gordon Sondland, and Energy Secretary Rick Perry dubbed themselves the “three amigos.” Other diplomats such as the acting ambassador to Ukraine said the trio formed the core of an underground diplomatic channel on Ukraine that usurped the regular diplomatic channel and at times ran counter to U.S. interests.

Volker was one of the first in this group willing to testify to Congress, and he testified that he knew Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani was pushing unsubstantiated theories about former vice president Joe Biden in Ukraine.

WHAT WE LEARNED FROM HIS PRIVATE TESTIMONY:

Volker said he didn’t like working with Giuliani but knew he had to. To that end, he handed Congress text messages between the “three amigos,” Giuliani and a senior official in Ukraine that show the Americans asking for investigations in exchange for a meeting with Trump. “Most impt is for Zelensky to say that he will help investigation,” Volker texted his American colleagues at one point, referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Here’s another eyebrow-raising text he sent to an Ukrainian official: “assuming President Z convinces trump he will investigate / ‘get to the bottom of what happened’ in 2016, we will nail down date for visit to Washington.”

Volker also testified that even though he engaged regularly with Giuliani, he was suspicious of Giuliani and tried to warn him off some conspiracy theories about Ukraine, though they eventually made their way to Trump.

KEY QUOTE FROM HIS PRIVATE TESTIMONY:

“I believe that Giuliani was interested in Biden, Vice President Biden’s son [Hunter],” Volker said.

WHAT HE DOESN’T SAY IN HIS PRIVATE TESTIMONY:

That there was an explicit quid pro quo, at least not one he knew of. Though other diplomats have testified that Volker said he was going to tell Ukraine’s president what he needed to do to get a White House meeting.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR IN HIS PUBLIC TESTIMONY:

Volker’s testimony was at odds with those of several key officials who sketched out a clear quid pro quo of aid and an Oval Office meeting for investigations. Volker could face intense pressure to amend his remarks or change his story.

Greg Jaffe contributed to this article.

______

5 takeaways from the Gordon Sondland and Kurt Volker testimonies

By Aaron Blake | Published Nov 05 at 3:18 PM ET | Washington Post | Posted November 18, 2019 |

We got two of the most important transcripts of the Ukraine investigation Tuesday, with the House releasing the depositions of Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland and former special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker. Both were instrumental in managing President Trump and Rudolph W. Giuliani’s insistence that Ukraine launch investigations that could benefit Trump politically. They formed two of the “three amigos” in charge of that process, along with Energy Secretary Rick Perry.

BELOW ARE SOME KEY TAKEAWAYS:

1. SONDLAND STRONGLY CONFIRMS A QUID PRO QUO — BUT DOESN’T CONNECT IT TO TRUMP

We knew that Sondland’s lawyer clarified his testimony to the Wall Street Journal, saying Sondland did in fact confirm a quid pro quo.

And now we see that clarification was apparently sent to the impeachment inquiry, too — on Monday. In it, Sondland says there was no other “credible” explanation than a quid pro quo and confirms the testimonies of acting Ukraine ambassador William B. Taylor Jr. and National Security Council aide Tim Morrison and the public comments of Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), all of whom said Sondland had described an explicit quid pro quo.

Sondland said that in “the beginning of September 2019, and in the absence of any credible explanation for the suspension of [hundreds of millions of dollars of military] aid, I presumed that the aid suspension had become linked to the proposed anti-corruption statement” that the Trump team asked Ukraine to make about the investigations. He added that “it would have been natural for me to have voiced what I had presumed to Ambassador Taylor, Senator Johnson, the Ukrainians and Mr. Morrison.”

Sondland also says, as Taylor and Morrison testified, that he told a top Ukrainian official that the “resumption of U.S. aid would likely not occur until Ukraine provided the public anti-corruption statement that we had been discussing for many weeks.”

Importantly, though — and this is key — Sondland doesn’t say this directive came from Trump. He instead says he was acting on his presumption. That could provide Trump a layer of insulation.

At the same time, though, even as Sondland has said Trump insisted to him there was no quid pro quo, everything about the situation he describes indicates there was a quid pro quo in everything but name.

2. SONDLAND THOUGHT THE BIDEN SETUP WAS ILLEGAL

Sondland, a Trump appointee and Trump donor, too, clearly wasn’t exactly looking to blow the lid off this scandal. But at certain points, he did suggest that the kind of quid pro quos that have been the subject of much debate — and have been confirmed by no fewer than six people, including him now — would indeed be bad and probably illegal.

Sondland’s main defense has been that, while he did push for an investigation into the company that employed Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden, Burisma Holdings, he didn’t know the situation involved the Bidens.

When he was asked why he was drawing that line, he acknowledged it was because that setup was bad.

“Because I believe I testified that it would be improper to do that,” he said.

A member then asked him, “And illegal, right?”

“I’m not a lawyer, but I assume so,” Sondland said.

Sondland added: “Again, I’m not a lawyer. I don’t know the law exactly. It doesn’t sound good.”

Whether Sondland thinks this was illegal doesn’t mean it is — just as Morrison saying Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wasn’t illegal doesn’t mean it wasn’t. But the fact that even Sondland, a Trump ally, is acknowledging the gravity of this is telling. And it makes it much more difficult for the Trump team to argue there’s nothing to see here.

This is a central figure saying what we’ve learned actually happened was something he believed was illegal.

3. SONDLAND’S DEFENSE OF HIMSELF STILL MAKES NO SENSE

We already knew based on Sondland’s opening statement that his defense was ignorance on the Biden-Burisma stuff.

As I wrote though, that badly strains credulity. Giuliani’s effort to obtain such an investigation was reported publicly in early May, and he said at the time that this was explicitly about the Bidens. Trump himself also floated all of this publicly on May 19. Yet Sondland said in his opening statement that he was unaware of the connection May 23 and even as late as August.

The idea that someone intimately involved in Ukraine such as Sondland wouldn’t know why there was such interest in Burisma — and didn’t care to find out — seems impossible. And when pressed on this, Sondland didn’t really have good answers:

Q: Well, but Mr. Giuliani was talking about Burisma and the Bidens. And it’s your testimony today you had no idea of any Biden connection to Burisma, it came as a complete revelation when you read the call record in September?

SONDLAND: I don’t recall when I finally—when the light finally went on that Burisma and the Bidens were connected, but certainly not early on at all. I can’t tell you the day that finally I said, oh, Burisma equals Biden. I have no idea when that was.

Q: But I think you suggested in your opening statement that you didn’t know until you read the call record, and it was an epiphany that the president wasn’t simply interested in this energy company — which, by the way, he doesn’t mention in the call record — but he was really interested in an investigation involving the Bidens.

SONDLAND: No, I think I said that I didn’t know what was in the call until I saw the call record. I had no idea that he had brought up the Bidens in the call until I saw the call report.

Q: But I think you were also suggesting that until you read that call record — and correct me if I’m wrong — until you read that call record, you never put two and two together that actually Burisma involved the Bidens, correct?

SONDLAND: I don’t recall when I finally put it together. I don’t recall what the date was or the place was or the time was. I don’t recall.

At another point, Sondland was pressed on whether he had specifically missed those Giuliani stories, despite the controversy they caused. He said he did. He also admitted he gets press clippings from staff but said he doesn’t read them all.

Sondland had to clarify on the quid pro quo, and he might need to clarify this, too. There’s just no way this is true unless he was burying his head in the sand.

4. VOLKER UNDERCUTS SONDLAND’S DEFENSE, SAYS GIULIANI PUSHED ‘DEBUNKED’ CLAIMS

While that may be Sondland’s defense, it’s clearly not Volker’s. Volker testified that it was clear as day what Giuliani was up to.

He also agreed that theories pushed by Trump and Giuliani had been “debunked” and weren’t credible:

Q: So is it your testimony that you understood that Rudy Giuliani’s desire for the Ukrainian government to investigate Burisma had to do with potential money laundering or other criminal conduct by the company itself, and not in connection to either Joe or Hunter Biden?

VOLKER: No. I believe that Giuliani was interested in Biden, Vice President Biden’s son Biden [sic], and I had pushed back on that, and I was maintaining that distinction.

Q: So you were maintaining that distinction, because you understood that that whole theory had been debunked and there was no evidence to support it, right?

A: Yes.

At another point, Volker says he urged Giuliani not to investigate the theories pushed by former Ukrainian prosecutor general Yuri Lutsenko because they were specious.

“I reached out to him to brief him, a couple of key points: Lutsenko is not credible. Don’t listen to what he is saying,” Volker said.

Yet more Trump team arguments undercut by sworn testimony.

5. GOP HAS NO GOOD REBUTTAL, EXCEPT ARGUING THE QUID PRO QUO WASN’T EXPLICIT

When Volker was the first witness to submit to a deposition, Republicans insisted that his actual testimony — rather than the select text messages Democrats released — was actually good for Trump.

There is, quite simply, little sign of that here. Volker does say that he didn’t have a quid pro quo communicated to him, but he doesn’t say there wasn’t one.

“Well, you asked what conversations did I have about that quid pro quo, et cetera,” Volker tells a member at one point. “None, because I didn’t know that there was a quid pro quo.”

He adds at several other points, under questioning from Republicans, that a quid pro quo had never been expressly communicated to him by either U.S. or Ukrainian officials.

Q: That message that I heard you very loud and clear today is that there was no quid pro quo at any time ever communicated to you. Is that correct?

VOLKER: Not to me, that is correct.

That’s significant because it suggests this perhaps wasn’t so overt. But Volker has an incentive to argue he didn’t explicitly participate in a quid pro quo that Sondland suggested might be illegal. And as Sondland’s testimony makes clear, it was pretty evident what the arrangement was.

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) tweeted after their testimony was released, “The Volker/Sondland transcripts lay it out: @realDonaldTrump wanted to clean up corruption in Ukraine, and ensure taxpayer funded aid wasn’t going to corrupt causes."

The transcripts, in fact, show both Sondland and Volker believed Trump was interested only in investigations that carried personal benefits. Sondland even concedes how problematic the specific investigations were.

______

‘Extremely unfortunate’: Why officials like Kurt Volker seemed to find Trump’s Ukraine policy so troubling

By Amber Phillips | Published Nov 05 at 4:14 PM ET | Washington Post | Posted November 18, 2019 |

A recurring theme among those who have testified in the House’s impeachment inquiry into President Trump is that his administration was politicizing Ukraine foreign policy.

But why does that matter? It can be hard to grasp if you’re not involved in or don’t have a fundamental understanding of foreign policy and national security principles.

Transcripts of testimony released this week from two former Trump administration officials, both of whom resigned right as this inquiry was heating up, explain why they were troubled by what was happening around them in ways that get at the heart of why the House has launched an impeachment inquiry. Like:

Why Trump’s call with Ukraine’s president was troubling to those in the know on Ukraine policy:

Former envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker was at the center of U.S.-Ukrainian negotiations with Ukraine’s new president this summer. He testified that he knew Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, was pushing unsubstantiated theories about former vice president Joe Biden helping out his son in Ukraine.

When Volker read the rough transcript of Trump’s call with Ukraine’s president, he said was surprised to hear the president bring this up, too. Volker testified that it was “extremely unfortunate” for U.S. policy on Ukraine, a country that helps the United States strategically counter Russia, because it puts Ukraine in the middle of America’s 2020 election.

It forces the Ukrainians to choose sides between the current U.S. president and a potential future president. And Volker said he thought the request overshadowed everything else Ukraine actually needs — like help countering actual corruption and Russian influence, including fighting Russian-backed separatists in their own country.

VOLKER ON TRUMP’S CALL:

It creates a problem again where all of the things that we’re trying to do to advance the bilateral relationship, strengthen our support for Ukraine, strengthen the positioning against Russia is now getting sucked into a domestic political debate in the U.S., domestic political narrative that overshadows that. And I think that is extremely unfortunate for our policy with Ukraine.

… [A]sking the President of Ukraine to work together with the Attorney General and to look into this, you can see, as it has now happened, this becomes explosive in our domestic politics.

Later, he said: “I agreed with the Ukrainians they shouldn’t [issue a statement mentioning the Bidens and 2016], and in fact told them just drop it, wait till you have your own prosecutor general in place. Let’s work on substantive issues like this, security assistance and all.”

So Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine says he was so troubled by what Giuliani was pushing that he urged the Ukrainians to drop it. That’s a pretty remarkable indictment of what Trump wanted Ukraine to do.

On why diplomacy matters to the United States in the first place

Much of the impeachment inquiry centers on the State Department and specifically the Foreign Service, which stations U.S. diplomats around the world.

Former top State Department aide Michael McKinley got basic in his testimony about why these officials’ jobs matter so much to everyday Americans, whose paths don’t cross with the Foreign Service. He’s been referred to as the dean of the Foreign Service after serving for 37 years, and he had this to say:

Being a diplomat for the United States means supporting millions of Americans overseas. It means supporting our companies to create jobs at home. It means resolving conflicts that impact the United States. It means keeping the homeland safe. It means working with our military, the agency, all of our civilian agencies on projecting our interests and influence overseas. It means projecting American values. … I’ve worked in conflict areas the world over. And by diplomats doing what they do overseas, they help keep this country secure and prosperous and also offer us the possibility of being linked to the outside world. In terms of supporting our values, we’re also the front line in promoting issues of human rights, democracy, and cooperation internationally.

All of that was a setup to explain why he resigned in protest as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s top aide: He didn’t think Pompeo was helping support these diplomats as some of them were threatened to be drawn into the Trump administration to help Trump’s reelection:

In this context, frankly, to see the emerging information on the engagement of our missions to procure negative political information for domestic purposes, combined with the failure I saw in the building to provide support for our professional cadre in a particularly trying time, I think the combination was a pretty good reason to decide enough, that I had — I had no longer a useful role to play.

ON POLITICIZING THE FOREIGN SERVICE

McKinley also testified that diplomats serve an administration that is inherently political, of course, but they try to maintain their distance from all that.

He talked about why that nonpartisan appearance matters and even somewhat paradoxically helps the president achieve his goals. If they were seen as a partisan diplomatic corps, other countries might not take them seriously:

I have seen other Foreign Services where it’s very clear what people’s political leanings are and, the more senior those bureaucrats are, how they play the game with different governments that are elected in their countries. The beauty of the Foreign Service, the Foreign Service that I’ve known through some incredibly difficult moments for our country and in bilateral relations with different places, is I don’t know the political views of the vast majority of my colleagues. They certainly don’t know mine. And we are able to work together and project working for the administration of the day. That’s absolutely central to our work. The day we begin to identify ourselves as partisan, that capacity to project support for the interests of the United States and to do our work for administrations we are bound to work for the administration that has been elected by the American people. But you begin to break that down if you begin to inject politics into the equation.

🍁☕🍂🍞🍁☕🍂🍞🍁☕🍂🍞🍁☕

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gobrandrootweb · 7 years ago

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Bottle Digging • bottle digging adventure part 1

As my farm permission will soon be in crop my attentions will turn to my other passion which is bottle digging .It has been a much overlooked hobby mainly with the difficulty in finding decent accessible tips and of course my age . The mind wants to do it but the body doesn't always play ball . Digging holes 8 - 10 feet down is fine at the time but not so good the next morning but the passion spurs me on . One tip I dig on a semi regular basis has just about had its day and soon I began to wonder if I would ever get lucky again .My fortunes though were soon to change while scouring the stall of a local rural carboot sale one cold grey morning .I love these places and have purchased many spades , shovels and forks , all good decent bits of kit most likely ex farm workers tools. These will last a lifetime unlike the cheap mega store offerings which have a tendency to suddenly snap without warning leaving the unwary shocked and bewildered while holding the handle in one hand while the business end is stuck firmly in the ground . These are some of the typical bits of kit purchased at various car boots , all good strong stuff , just the job for digging holes . The bottle probe is one I made from sprung steel and the cross bar is an old tube of aluminium .

bottle dig spades.jpg

This mornings carboot foray was a little different , more of a nosey around and soon proved to be a good move . I spotted a seller with a tidy array of bottles and ignoring the wifes heavy sigh I soon hot footed it over to get a closer look .We got chatting , I couldn't resist the three poisons and at a couple of quid each , they were too good to decline .

3 poison bottles.jpg

Part of the ever growing collection bottles shelf.jpg Still ignoring the wifes raised eyebrows as yet another purchase of even more bottles the conversation soon turned to tips . Bemoaning the fact that they are getting hard to find I was taken aback when the seller very kindly told me of another not too far away . A rough sketch was soon doodled out and he handed me the bit of paper. In kindness I bought another bottle ! The wifes glazed expression , bordering on utter fury was soon quelled to a relative comfortable degree when I at once purchased her a much needed cup of tea , it was the least I could do under the circumstances . The Tea must have done the trick because a more friendlyish expression was now more prominent . I am not sure whether my next move was down to pure excitement at the prospect of a new tip , Bravado or plain old foolishness but I tentatively asked if we could possibly go and have a look and find this new tip . I do recall whincing ever so slightly while waiting for the inevitable fury to erupt so I was mildly taken aback when when a semi sigh and an OK was forthcoming . Off we went and mateys map was spot on . We arrived at the track with a vehicle barrier to prevent access by car so it was an on foot job . There was no way she was coming with me so I was on my own .One thing bothered me , there was some stables at the end and I could quite clearly see a woman loading up a 4x4 . Now not wishing to make anyone feel uncomfortable but a man , walking down a dirt track in the middle of nowhere doesn't bode well . If I had my dogs , then I am seen as just a dog walker , if the wife was by my side , no problem , just a couple out for a walk but it was way to slushy and she did not have the right footwear anyhow . The wife saved the day with some quick thinking ." here , take these " and offered me her binoculars which she uses for birdwatching " tell her your looking for Marsh Harriers "! Good thinking , so off I went . All was good with the lady , I wasn't trespassing and yes there are plenty of Marsh Harriers although I didn't see any ! Through the woods as scrawled on the map , through some old gates and there I was in the new tip . Had a good look around , some remnants of bottle digging but good to see the huge craters filled back up . So , my new venture begins this Sunday !

Statistics: Posted by kenleyboy — Thu May 03, 2018 5:44 pm

Bottle Digging • bottle digging adventure part 1 published first on https://pickmymetaldetector.tumblr.com/

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simonplays28 · 7 years ago

Text

Day twenty-five: Five short moments of rebellion

ACT 1

Scene 1

SETTING: A dining room in a 21st Century suburban home. THERESA, a young woman in her twenties is sitting with her parents, HENRY and JONATHAN. They've just finished dinner. THERESA looks nervous.

THERESA: (nervously) I... I need to tell you something. I'm running away to become a content creator.

(HENRY and JONATHAN look at one another, shocked.)

HENRY: But, darling, you've only just as started as the Junior Fiduciary Analyst at PPQ. You've only been there, what six months now?

THERESA: It's not enough for me, Dad.

JONATHAN: (to HENRY) We should have known, darling. The Kickstarters. The ear piercing. The video recording studio in the spare room.

HENRY: Have you perhaps considered the circus instead? Children of my generation loved running away to join the circus?

THERESA: Dad, it's not enough. The market for my generation is very different than it was for yours. Grease-paint, face makeup, it's all way more expensive for us than it was for you. Everything you enjoyed about the circus, I can enjoy on YouTube.

HENRY: Oh, Theresa. This is because of all those newspaper stories, isn't it? Millennials running away to become freelance artists, Vimeo short film directors, tweeters, and I don't know what else. Kids these days have no patience for the circus. In my day, we had to research the route, track down the Ringmaster, and dazzle them with our hitherto hidden feats of talent. Millennials today are only focused on content generation.

THERESA: Dad, financial analysis is boring. The circus is boring. I want to generate original content. I want to do some consciousness-raising. I can do all that on YouTube without having to live in a tent. Didn't you two ever want to do anything fun when you were young?

(HENRY and JONATHAN look at one another.)

(BLACKOUT)

(END OF SCENE)

Scene 2

SETTING: A dining room in a 1980s suburban home. HENRY, a young man in his twenties is sitting with his parents, GEORGE and MAUDE. They've just finished dinner. HENRY looks nervous.

HENRY: (nervously) Mum. Dad. I'm running away to join an ITV late-night sketch troupe.

MAUDE: (visibly shocked) Oh, Henry, no!

HENRY: I have to, Mum. I don't want to work at the building society anymore. Some of my mates from Oxford have been approached by ITV executives. We're going to be the next Monty Python.

GEORGE: Son, there's hundreds of late-night sketch troupes across the country. You can't possibly make it in that business. Every young man in England is writing satirical jokes to be played after the watershed. This is because you've been watching Not the Nine O'Clock News, isn't it? I knew we shouldn't have let you watch that.

HENRY: This isn't... This is a real opportunity for us, Dad. We can break into late-night comedy while it's popular.

GEORGE: We wouldn't had this in my day. If you want creativity, why don't you go become a decorator? That's what we did in my day. Buy a ladder, buy yourself some paint, and ask people around town what colour they want their house painted. You can work with your mates, have fish sandwiches every day, that's the life.

HENRY: No, Dad, it's different for our generation. We need to be on the telly. We can make a real impact here. Didn't you ever want to make an impact?

(BLACKOUT)

(END OF SCENE)

Scene 3

SETTING: A dining room in a 1940s suburban home. GEORGE, a young man in his twenties is sitting with his parents, ERNEST and BETTY. They've just finished dinner. GEORGE looks nervous.

GEORGE: Mam. Dad. I need to tell you something.

ERNEST: Go on, lad.

GEORGE: I'm running away to join a brass band in Hebden Bridge.

ERNEST: Oh no, you're not. You're going to stay in the mines with me and your Uncle Eric and you're going to like it.

GEORGE: OK, Dad.

(BLACKOUT)

(END OF SCENE)

Scene 4

SETTING: A dining room in a 1900s suburban home. ERNEST, a young man in his twenties is sitting with his grandmother, TIFFANY. They've just finished dinner. ERNEST looks nervous.

ERNEST: Nan?

TIFFANY: Yes, dear.

ERNEST: I'm running away to join the Army. I want to fight in the war against the Boer.

TIFFANY: Oh, Ernest, I won't try to stop you. It might do you good to travel and learn a trade. Please do take care.

ERNEST: Thanks, Nan. I was going to go to the recruitment office tomorrow morning.

(BLACKOUT)

(END OF SCENE)

Scene 5

SETTING: An atrium in an Ancient Roman home. HORATIUS, a young man in his twenties is lying down by his parents, HADRIANUS and PRISCA. Slaves are busily removing empty plates. HORATIUS looks nervous.

HORATIUS: Mater? Pater? Amen dico vobis quia non opus est.

HADRIANUS: Quid est hoc, Horatium?

HORATIUS: Im 'currentem ad iungere ludos circenses.

(BLACKOUT)

(END OF SCENE)

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