Poor Man About Town

I was listening to Nick Ferrari earlier this week, he did a review of the past year; one of the topics of discussion was Blair, he had a retinue of several political pundits commenting on his tenure in office. All said he did not do enough Thatcherism but fucked up big time in Iraq. Hang on, what are these bozos on about - not doing enough Thatcherism, that's a bit like a trio of junkies commenting on a friend who died of a drug overdose not doing enough heroine. Fucking marvelous. Then Nick Ferrari invited people to phone in to comment, hardly any supported Blair and Nick put paid to their detractions fairly quickly. I think the topic came quickly to a close. It seemed as if the production team were expecting loads of people to phone to say what a swell guy Blair is.

Labels: Blair, British Politics, LBC, Nick Ferrari, Radio

There was a great cartoon of political whizz kid, David Miliband, in today's Guardian. It was done by Martin Rowson - great likeness, great parody.

Labels: British Politics, David Miliband

I was listening to Jenny Eclair's programme on LBC today, she was talking about David Miliband with one of her guests - this appeared to trigger off Jenny Eclair into quoting "Politics is show business for ugly people". Quite a neat remark

Labels: British Politics, David Cameron, David Miliband, New Labour

To my complete and utter amazement Gordon Brown has been elected leader of New Labour. In his maiden speech he said that he would address issues such as health, education and affordable housing. Given that the definition of "affordable" has been hijacked by property developers to mean "You must be having a laugh if you think you can afford this".

It is heartening to know that there are thousands of people out there earning more money than the rest of us but paying only 10% tax. Alongside the pensions bombshell, this is another fine achievement by Gordon Brown.

Labels: British Politics, New Labour, Property Developers, taxpayers

Some commentaries remain timeless and classic. I was flipping some old notes which I have made from books which I have read. There were several quotes from John Braine's Room at the Top which appealed to me.

This could easily be applied to Blairism and the Primrose Hill Gang a la Miliband and James Purnell and Andy Burnham, likewise David Cameron and George (aka Gideon) Osborne of the Tories - the new of Designer Politicians.

"Whatever the suggestions were, Heylake would listen to them. He was a great improvement on the efficient zombie. Even now, I don't like to remember the efficient zombie. He had a large head with short-oiled hair and an absolutely immobile face. It was not even dignified or stony, it was dead, he seemed to take out the oxygen out of the air around him"

Check this out on charm - can easily be applied to politicians re: the above.

"The possession of charm wasn't in itself a guarentee of success but it seems to follow our bits like a pilot fish"

Labels: Blair, British Politics, David Cameron, literature, New Labour, Tories

I love Steve Bell - he carried me through the dark years of Thatcherism, I've bought many of his cartoon collections from those years.

Here we have a superb summary from Steve of the Blair years.



Dp you think Blair will make a quiet departure?

Labels: Blair, British Politics, Cartoons, Steve Bell

This episode regarding the fifteen British Sailors has brought home to me one startling and enlightening point.

THERE IS A GROSS LACK OF SOPHISTICATION IN BRITAIN'S POLITICIANS - yep, they have dumbed down themselves to celebrity status. They have shaped themselves to suit the media and tabloids by becoming flesh made into television trash.

Rather than taking the usual line of debriefing the Sailors and making their complaints and concerns about their treatment through the usual diplomatic channels, the government allowed the media circus to be turned loose on them, cheque books in hand. Because of this, it would seem that people are doubting the veracity of the sailors' statements about their treatment because it has become tainted. Why, Blair wanted to score some propaganda points on the Iranians. He was clearly not following the reliable strategic dictum keeping your friends close but your enemies closer. Somebody on Nick Ferrari's show today pointed out that if further military personnel were captured by Iran, the climate could well compromise them.

Gordon Brown has done a splendid in buggering up pensions. How he lives this down will require a fair degree of sophistication and wit.

Then we have possible contenders for the leadership.

John (Dr) whizz-bang Reid who is delivering on crime with an arsenal of gizmos, gadgets and toys.

David Miliband - gosh! this man is completely incapable of writing and speaking plain English. For some reason, he has become the darling of the press and media and has a nasty tendency of attracting a swarm of them as if he were Britney Spears slashing her wrists in Trafalgar Square.

Now, let's come to the Tories

David Cameron, Charlie Brooker has pointed out that this man has very little history prior to him entering Parliament. We have snippets, alleged dope smoking when aged sixteen. A photo of him as member of "The Smash it Up - Bullingdon Club". The gap between him leaving College and entering Parliament, as Brooker points out, is all too obvious. There is not enough substantive information on him.

He demonstrates his gross lack of sophistication by

a) Eco-conscious, he cycles to work with his gas guzzling four wheel drive vehicle in tow.

b) He has set up that extremely silly web cam to show that he is a family man at heart. Surely, politicians resign because they want to spend more time with their families.

c) He and his party vote with New Labour on policy contentious to New Labour's backbench.

He's not making a very good as leader either, I remember in times past - opposition leaders would make attempts at occupying the higher ground by going to press and commenting on how the government has fucked up - they would issue statements and even be interviewed TV news programmes, but like Blair his unsophisticated counterpart, Cameron lacks the sophistication to directly face the press.

As for his shadow chancellor, George Osborn, he is certainly a shadowy figure, recently outed by the Daily Mail as a Bullingdon Club member. We know that he has the credo of Britain being a classless society. In looking at his background, he does not seem to have any tact or diplomacy, he was brought to task by the National Autistic Society, Gordon Brown and the Speaker of the House. No sophistication whatsoever, comes accross as bombastic and unsubtle.

The Liberal Party

I bet most Liberals are regretting their election of Ming "the Merciless. Need I say more?

As for David Cameron, George Osborne and David Cameron, they are all of the same age of twelve years. Look at this cosy fireside chat between Cameron and Miliband





So there you have it, British politics smells funny like not quite off milk, its politicians are uncouth, inept and unrefined - don't we deserve better than our current shower?

Vote for a hung Parliament!

Labels: British Politics, David Cameron, David Miliband, George Osborne, inept, John Reid, uncouth, unsubtle

I read Catch 22 a number of years ago, there was a character called Milo Minderbender who had managed to privatise an entire airbase along with its equipment. At the time I thought this quite bizarre and surreal, something that was woven into the tapestry of this fantastic novel. A couple of decades on, Milo Minderbender has become quite real, he is alive and kicking in the UK, his name is Blair. Yes this man is selling everything in sight, he will even sell your identity as well as your arse. This road-pricing thingy on the agenda is not really about congestion but yet another wheeze to help his bloated big business to make more fast bucks - it will no doubt lead to the privatisation of the motorways.

One of the most salient symptoms of this administration has been the closure of hospitals, schools and police stations and flogging off the property to greedy property developers. Greenwich District Hospital was closed and the Queen Mary Military Hospital lost its military specialism to become the local hospital. The result has been many service personnel have lost the right to specialist treatment - they have to make do with NHS provision. Military medicine is such a specialised area of treatment that a civilian friend of mine had to be admitted to a military hospital because he had burns so severe that a General Hospital was unable to deal with them. In fact military medicine has informed general medicine throughout the years - Florence Nightingale and nursing comes to mind in this instance. Sadly, we seem to have lost the medical arm of the armed forces.

If my memory serves me right, I can recall Yossarian looking in the first aid box bandages etc, only to find a receipt that he is now a happy shareholder of the proceeds of the sale of the contents of the said box.

New Labour has become quite adept at doing things like that.

Labels: British Politics, Catch 22, Joseph Heller, Milo Minderbender, PFI