{"id":6291,"date":"2012-05-27T00:05:54","date_gmt":"2012-05-26T23:05:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alfiedog.me.uk\/?p=6291"},"modified":"2012-05-27T00:05:54","modified_gmt":"2012-05-26T23:05:54","slug":"sunday-27th-may-2012-a-subtle-ploy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alfiesdiary.uk\/index.php\/2012\/05\/27\/sunday-27th-may-2012-a-subtle-ploy\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunday 27th May 2012 &#8211; A Subtle Ploy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In this country we have a programme called \u2018Britain\u2019s Got Talent\u2019. For the most part the competitors are singers. We also have \u2018X Factor\u2019 and other similar shows. So why did we have a 76 year old pop start with a name that\u2019s even more unpronounceable that my breed (although fairly similar if said quickly) singing our entry in the Eurovision Song Contest? I have a theory. I think it is a complicated political decision. You may have to bear with me on this one. I think that because we are concerned about the possibly future break up of the European Union, or even just the collapse of the Euro, we are worried that lots of people from other countries are going to want to come and live in Great Britain. By having Engleburt singing for us, we are sending out the message that we are a large retirement community and shouldn\u2019t be in any way attractive to young people who might be looking for an exciting life. It\u2019s either that or we are now treating it with the same degree of derision with which other countries have treated voting for us for many years. Let\u2019s be honest, there are a lot of European countries which simply do not like us. They vote for their friends and we don\u2019t have any friends!<\/p>\n<p>The reason I was left watching it was because I was the odd dog out yesterday. Megan and Shadow went for a lovely walk in the Yorkshire Dales, while Ari and I stayed at home and then Ari went to the pub in the evening leaving me to sit quietly at home. He said he missed having me there, but he did enjoy the adoration he received for the evening and it looks as though someone locally might actually now want to join the puppy waiting list as a result. Good lad, Ari. You did us proud. Mind you for a bit of steak and a few chips I\u2019d have done everything asked of me as well!<\/p>\n<p>Alfie Dog with a little help from Rosemary J Kind&nbsp;<a href=\"mailto:alfie@alfiedog.me.uk\">alfie@alfiedog.me.uk<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Alfie\u2019s Diary \u2013 the Book is available at Amazon UK &#8211;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/dp\/B00583ZGSA\">https:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/dp\/B00583ZGSA<\/a><\/p>\n<p>You can find short stories to read at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.alfiedog.com\/\">www.alfiedog.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>In this country we have a programme called \u2018Britain\u2019s Got Talent\u2019. For the most part the competitors are singers. We also have \u2018X Factor\u2019 and <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/alfiesdiary.uk\/index.php\/2012\/05\/27\/sunday-27th-may-2012-a-subtle-ploy\/\" title=\"Sunday 27th May 2012 &#8211; A Subtle Ploy\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22230,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[63,50],"class_list":["post-6291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-day-to-day-life","category-wisdom-and-experience","tag-aristotle","tag-entlebucher","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alfiesdiary.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alfiesdiary.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alfiesdiary.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alfiesdiary.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alfiesdiary.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alfiesdiary.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alfiesdiary.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alfiesdiary.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alfiesdiary.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alfiesdiary.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}