Liberal Burblings

Archive for July, 2006

After reading Andrew Rawnsley’s article in the Observer today, I suspect that now is the time for newspapers to prepare their political obituaries of A.Blair, if they have not already done so.

Thinking strigently, if only he had followed up his promise to properly reform the House of Lords – if only he had made it 100% elected – he would not be in this mess. By the way, if he had agreed to public funding of political parties, which I think will come, he would also not be in this mess either.

One the of the most staggering things about the loans for peerages affair, as Rawnsley points out, is that Jack Dromey, Treasurer of the Labour Party, knew nothing about the loans. The fact that Mr Dromey is the husband of cabinet minister and Attorney General, Harriet Harman, makes this fact even more gobsmacking. It was an act of incredible stupidity and arrogance that Tony Blair took the Labour Party’s finances (insofar as arranging those huge loans) into his own hands and those of his appointed envoy, Lord Levy.

From Rawnsley’s article, it seems that the police may well be onto something. Of course, the huge crossover between peerages and donors to the Labour party is one thing. Proving a connection is another. But it seems that Terrier Plod is scenting a bone, in canine terms.

The fact that the trail allegedly leads to Number 10 Downing Street makes the whole thing incredibly incendiary . It promises to be possibly far worse than the sleaze of John Major.

I think we are seeing the exposure of Tony Blair’s Achilles heel. He is basically a “toff” and he is impressed by money. It could be his undoing. The Bernie Ecclestone affair was the first crack in the Blair facade and now we may be seeing the whole thing crack up.

If he has any sense, A. Blair should have an exit strategy ready, measured in days. I suspect that he doesn’t have any sense, so the Labour party ought to have an exit strategy ready for him. If that exit strategy is measured beyond the party conference this autumn then they may well have done their calculations wrongly.

In the Guardian yesterday, Marina Hyde described the National Lottery as a “tax on stupidity”. Fortunately, I have never taken part in the lottery, so I could laugh at this.

Mind you, the reason I have never taken part is not a question of stupidity or otherwise. If you have a faith, I don’t see the reason to take part in a lottery. I am sure that sounds sanctimonious, but there it is.

Yesterday was Saint Swithin’s Day. If the traditional rhyme is anything to go by, we are in for a good spell:

St Swithin’s Day, if it does rain
Full forty days, it will remain
St Swithin’s Day, if it be fair
For forty days, t’will rain no more

I also noticed about eight flying ants while I was walking around. I was always told that they come out for one day a year. I think this is, perhaps, a localised thing. So they have chosen today in Newbury but not in Cornwall, according to my mother, who was the source of the theory.

I have often wondered how all the flying ants decide that it is their day to come out. But presumably it has something to do with localised weather conditions.

Yesterday was Saint Swithin’s Day. If the traditional rhyme is anything to go by, we are in for a good spell:

St Swithin’s Day, if it does rain
Full forty days, it will remain
St Swithin’s Day, if it be fair
For forty days, t’will rain no more

I also noticed about eight flying ants while I was walking around. I was always told that they come out for one day a year. I think this is, perhaps, a localised thing. So they have chosen today in Newbury but not in Cornwall, according to my mother, who was the source of the theory.

I have often wondered how all the flying ants decide that it is their day to come out. But presumably it has something to do with localised weather conditions.

We have just done our Sports Relief mile at St Bartholomew’s school Luker athletics field, Newbury.

It was great fun. Very well organised. We had to do our warm ups (which were more aggressive than I am used to!) under the direction of Mike Hart, the PE teacher.

It was wonderful to see people there of all ages. There were lots of costumes including some lads going round dressed for golf with their clubs in their bags. Rather them than me.

We were divided into two sections: “Fun runners” and “Elite athletes”. I think they should have had a “mildly aspiring athlete” section, which I would have naturally fallen into. As my daughter was in the elite athletes, I had to join her. I regretted it after the first fast (for me) lap, but managed to settle down and save some puff for a fastish finish.

My nine-year old daughter beat me by about half a lap, which she has already reminded me about three times. In my defence, she is a member of an athletics club and has competed at national level.

All in all, a wonderful event. Well done St Barts for organising it.

At the Newbury Comedy Festival I went to see “Rebus MacTaggart” , a one-man show by Richard Thomson. It was one of the most original and funny things I have seen for years.

Richard played a detective giving a talk to police cadets (us – the audience) on the business of policing. The talk also involved other “guest speakers” such as a Hungarian psychologist and “Margaret Stewart” (my favourite character), an artist specilising in identification drawings.

Being of a certain age and living in the home counties, one gets used to certain brands of humour. But I have to say that Richard’s brand of humour strikes me as different and new. I suppose it is because he is young and comes from Scotland. There were a whole new range of jokes and funny angles which I wouldn’t normally come across.

Richard has an extraordinarily skilful ability with impromptu asides. He thrives on heckling and audience participation.

At the end of the show his laptop died (I had noticed that it had closed down 10 minutes earlier), depriving him of his big finish. However, he blagged his way around it without batting an eyelid.

The highlight of the evening was Richard’s little sketch where he plays a policeman reciting the technical details of the various speed cameras, while displaying……er…..obvious arousal. It was hilarious. It has to be seen to be enjoyed.