Sunday 21 September 2008

I like it!

In a comment on a Guardian CiF piece, 'Fairness is still our guide', allegedly written by our Dear Prime Minister, smellthecoffee observes:


"Labour began with Keir Hardie and ended up with Laurel and Hardie."


Saturday 20 September 2008

Mr Otis regrets.....

Another “weepie”, this time from the ‘Telegraph’. Otis Ferry, the high-profile pro-hunting campaigner, has been remanded in custody ahead of his trial on charges of robbery, assault and perverting the course of justice.


Speaking outside the court, his mother said: “"I am worried about him being in prison without any clean socks or shirts. For someone who loves the outdoors so much it's very difficult to be in a cell without windows. I have been in a police cell and it's not a pleasant place to be."


Whether you love the outdoors or not, being banged up in a police cell is never a pleasant place to be.


Poor Otis! Maybe his dad, the warbling Bryan, is even now crafting an update of Cole Porter’s celebrated song:


“Mr Otis regrets he’s unable to hunt today……….”



How the other half lives

The 'Guardian' has started serialising extracts from “Tony’s Ten Years: Memories of the Blair Administration”, by Adam Boulton, a TV journalist who is married to Anji Hunter, Blair’s “close friend and long-serving amanuensis” [and non persona grata with Cherie Blair]. Here is the opening paragraph:

“Tony Blair's earnings from British politics plummeted when he left parliament. As prime minister his final salary had been £187,611 per annum, plus the Downing Street flat, Chequers, and full administrative support. On quitting, he was immediately eligible for a pension of £63,468 a year and £84,000 towards the expense of running a private office. It would have been hard to make ends meet without the £4.6m book deal, or the £1m he earned from public speaking the first year after he left office…..” and so on and so forth.


Oh, dear! This has quite spoiled my day. My heart bleeds for the impoverished Blairs, and I shall be weeping intermittently for them over the weekend.


And I won’t be reading any more ‘Harry Potter’ books – not that I ever managed to get through any of the drearily turgid tomes. I see that J.K. Rowling has just given £1 million to the Labour Party. Presumably she will soon be something like a Dame.


O tempora, O mores!

Monday 8 September 2008

President Palin

Read Atheist Ethicist's scary post on this gruesome possibility here.