Chicken Pox: Han came home feeling very poorly and we are concerned that she may have picked up Chicken Pox which is doing the rounds at school (Josh, Han’s friend already has it). We thought that she'd already had a mild case of it a few years back but we could have been wrong. Hopefully she's just coming out in sympathy with Josh, if she has got it that will be wonderfully bad timing because it’s half term next week. Both Deb and I have booked the week off so that we could take the kids out and about and visit lots of places. Looks like it’ll be Deb and Nat on the road while daddy stays home with The Poorly Princess.
Captain Bertorelli
We are spending much of our time, this week, listening to Nat saying "What a mistake-a to make-a!" “Beautiful ladies a”, slapping his forehead and kissing every available hand. Why, because the school is putting on a modern version of Cinderella featuring characters from film and TV. One of these characters is the afore-mentioned Capt. B. I’ve been busy finding clips from Ello Ello (and any others featuring Italian caricatures) on YouTube for Nat to watch.
The Six O’clock News – What a To Do
Well, who would have believed it, Mr. Speaker has been forced to step down. This is quite incredible. I think almost everyone had come to the conclusion that Gobbles Mick
(Michael Martin MP) was one of the worst Speakers that there has ever been (whether this opinion was justified is another matter, but it seems to have been widely shared) but I very much doubt that almost anyone, 12 months ago, could have conceived of the possibility that within the year he would be hounded out of office. To be perfectly honest, I’m not entirely sure why he has ended up carrying the can for the whole expenses debacle. “Mr Martin's critics say he was the driving force behind repeated attempts by Commons authorities to block details of MPs' expenses from coming out under Freedom of Information legislation.”*
“But his supporters say he has long been the victim of snobbery and has been made a scapegoat for a scandal that has affected all the main parties.”*
In all events, it appears he has been sacrificed in order to try and make this story go away. I don’t think that’s going to happen any time soon. There appears to be a widely held feeling amongst the general public that we’ve all been played like a good one and taken for a bunch of complete mugs. That’s a humiliating situation to find ones self in and it’s not the kind of thing that people forget quickly.
This story is going to run and run until the election and no one’s going to come out of it smelling of roses, in deed it’s far more likely that they’ll all come out smelling of the stuff you use to help them grow. The Telegraph may come to regret its exclusive expose, certainly, in the short term, it helped it move newspapers but it could well prove also to be a catalyst that triggers a process that leads too long lasting, far reaching and fundamentally damaging change, to the current political system, as a whole. During a time of severe worldwide economic crisis (no; it hasn’t gone away) and in the face of the long term environmental challenges facing the UK and the rest of the World it’s perhaps not the best idea to tear apart your existing political structures in an orgy of self-righteousness until you know that you definitely have something better to put in their place.
Any Suggestions…please? Let’s have a look at the Runner and Riders shall we:
Poor Old Gordon
what can you say about him that hasn't already been said? The man has a mouth with a foot magnet in it. Ever since Tony handed him the poisoned chalice that has become his Premiership it’s been one disaster after another, to be fair some of the disasters weren’t even his fault! By now, I think, even he thinks that it would have been better for him if he’d gone down in the history books as, the Greatest Prime Minister Britain never had; that would seem preferable to the legacy he now looks likely to leave. His problem, it seems to me, is that all through his life he’s been told by all those around him that he’s cleverer than everyone else and it seems that he has, over time, bought into this idea big time. As a result it’s never his fault, he’s never wrong and he never needs to apologise: inevitable destruction follows such hubris. In a strange kind of way he has saved Tony Blair’s reputation; some people, it seems, are beginning, to look back on the Blair years nostalgically.Gordon Brown (1951 - ) was born James Gordon Brown in Glasgow, the son of a Church of Scotland minister. He won a scholarship to Edinburgh University and subsequently worked as a college lecturer and television journalist and editor. He was elected as Labour MP for Dunfermline East in 1983, became Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry in 1989 and Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1992. After Labour's 1997 general election victory, Brown had control of the Treasury for ten years. In June 2007 he succeeded Tony Blair as Leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister.
Tory Boy Cameron - The Man of the People
With the Smug Certainty, that’s only available to those foetuses’ blessed with the uncanny ability to unerringly pick the richest parents, he reassures us that he’s really one of us, that he’s an “ordinary guy” Yes, one of us + 30 Million quid. He’s had a handicapped child, and, because of this, he appreciates the importance of the National Health Service in the lives of “ordinary” people; he empathises with their problems. Bollocks; he’s just another privileged Eton boy who understands the lives of “ordinary” people about as well as a Martian would. He’s lived an extraordinary life of privilege that few of us could dream of: I’m sorry, no matter how many times he tells us differently, I’ll never see this privileged son of the inbreed gentry as anything other than the more acceptable face of Harry Enfield’s Tory Boy
. David Cameron (1966 - ) was born in London and educated at Eton. He studied politics, philosophy and economics at Brasenose College, Oxford, graduating in 1988. He worked in the Conservative Party Research Department and acted as an adviser to the Chancellor and the Home Secretary. He was elected MP for Witney in Oxfordshire in 2001, became Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party in 2003, Head of Policy Coordination in 2004 and Shadow Secretary of State for Education and Skills in 2005. In December 2005 he succeeded Michael Howard as Leader of the Opposition.
The BBC biography appears to have missed out the period of his life when he worked as a Bin man (sorry Refuse Disposal Officer) on a Council Estate in Peckham and lived in a one bedroom flat in Nelson Mandela House.
Nick Clegg - A Man of Principle?
On the face of it yes, after all you don’t choose to become a Lib Dem politician if you’re desperate to get your hands on the reins of power; but then again, why do you join a party that has absolutely no chance of gaining power if you genuinely want to make a difference and get public policy changed for the better? Is being a Lib Dem a safe way of achieving public standing without assuming the risks and perils that accompany the exercise of real power? Here, have your cake and eat it.
Nick Clegg (1967 - ) was born in Buckinghamshire, educated at Westminster School and studied anthropology at Cambridge University. He has worked as a journalist, university lecturer and EU aid and trade adviser, and was from 1999 to 2004 a Member of the European Parliament. In 2005, he was elected Liberal Democrat MP for Sheffield Hallam and subsequently served as the party's spokesperson on both Foreign and Home Affairs, before becoming party leader in December 2007.
Another public school boy, but at least he’s had a real job – sort of!
Well, the next election might be the first in my lifetime where there’s an actual possibility that the Lib Dems might hold power so everything’s up for grabs. Can principle survive the day to day twatting it’s going to receive from reality? That’s the very question Barak Obama has to struggle with; it might be good idea to keep an eye on how he does.
That’s enough for tonight, my brain's hurting.
*http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8057203.stm
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