pumpkinstrokemarrow

The following day I was rather struck by the picture of Mrs. Tymoshenko in the dock, looking very demure, dressed in virginal (or sacrificial) white and pigtails, being told by a warder not to interrupt the Lord High Judge while he was reading his four hour verdict. They really like to rub it in at these show trials. But my sympathy for poor little Tymoshenko was rather tempered by her having managed to get her snout in the trough to the tune of a couple of hundred million at the time that the Soviet Union was being dismembered. Not in the same league as the Russian oligarchs, but not a bad effort for a Ukrainian lady. Perhaps some Ukrainian voters would like some of it back.

And this morning, continuing my reading of Trollope on Cicero on Kindle, probably not the last or most reliable word on the subject but good enough for me. Very struck by the carryings on of the Roman oligarchs around 50BC. At that time it was perfectly good form for the upper classes to pillage subject provincials, only getting pulled up if they harvested out of turn or if their harvest reached unsustainable levels. Not enough left for the next chap. Squabbles about the spoils could get ugly too. So we had a debate in the Senate about the doings of four or five pillaging Senators, three or four of whom were present at the debate, perhaps even speaking in their own defence, after which they were led downstairs for execution. Trollope does not say whether their property was forfeit. Perhaps the forfeiture was disguised as wardships; a wheeze much favoured by hard up kings in our own Middle Ages. Perhaps we should get the British Council to put on lectures about Cicero for the benefit of the chattering classes of Moscow.

Might also mention that another leading lad had dressed up as a lady one evening in order to attend some ladies only religious festival. Presumably he had had intentions and there was something of a scandal. But, just as with our own gilded youth, it all blew over and he was able to go onto higher things. No salt mines for him. Or perhaps copper; I read recently of a huge Roman run copper mine in what is now Jordan. Conditions very unpleasant and required huge supplies of slaves to keep it in working order.

A rather different sort of rough and tumble at Dale Farm, where once again we have the spectacle of out-of-town protesters who are really pushing their luck, whining because they got pushed about a bit in the scuffle. What on earth do they expect? The answer to which question is that they are into provocation. They want and expect scuffles and they want and expect the rest of us to be outraged about it. They enjoy all the attention and they just love being on telly or in the papers. However, outrage a bit thin on the ground in this bit of Epsom. Except about the millions of pounds which we have to stump up to deal with it all.