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The Boy Who Would be King…

Brown is undoubtedly a total disaster as Prime Minister following a pretty rubbish 10 years as Chancellor where he did one thing good albeit just to spite Blair, which was to keep us out of the Euro. But we in the UK really do need an Autumn election and whether that comes about by disaster hitting Brown personally of the Labour Party itself, no longer matters, the Country needs to move on.

I’ll be glad to see the back of him and his gang, time for a change and a fresh start without all the political blather from the Government which is to post rationalise past mistakes. Watching Brown announce “New Initiatives” is painful for most of us because we all know their time is up, 12 years is enough of a “turn at the wheel” whatever party you support.

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Pay Back Time for Bercow

It really didn’t take too long did it ? Bercow’s election promise that he would “rebuke ministers” if they made announcements outside the House was crap or a downright lie. It is quite funny just how quickly Bercow has failed in the Speaker’s job and settled into Labour business as usual.

Lord Adonis announced a rail nationalisation of the East Coast route on the Today programme, 12 hours before the House was to hear an official announcement. Then there was Ed Balls on federating schools and Alan Johnson’s ID cards back-off – both announced first in the media and not before the House.

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If Not This Year…

I am a great Andy Murray fan. Not because he might have a chance of winning Wimbledon this year, that frankly is not that important, at 22 years of age, another year will do. The reason that I love Andy Murray is quite simply that I don’t have to watch him, eyes half-closed from behind the sofa as I do any “England Team” in whatever sport.

Andy does not have to win Wimbledon this year or any other because I know with a ‘certainty’ that he will win a number of Grand Slams during his career and as a consequence, I can happily watch every game he plays and, accept the result. By the same token it is irrelevancy whether he is seen as Scottish or British, he is quite simply a great Tennis player and it is a pleasure to watch him. Yes he is a ‘Brit’ and you want him to win but more than that, he is a young man with talent who has taken control of his life and drives forward to where he wants to be.

All I can say is Go Andy Go and for as long as it lasts, enjoy. For what it is may be worth, my best wishes go with you…

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Ayatollah Brown

As I have watched the events in Iran, it becomes ever clearer to me that what we are witnessing is a simple power struggle within the Iranian Establishment with the crowds on the streets little better than cannon fodder. What one is witnessing is one group determined to cling to power set against another who want to take it from them, in the end what will be the outcome ? Probably not a lot of difference to the outside world, pretty much the same old stuff in the end.

In this Country too we have an Ayatollah who is desperate to cling to power by any means possible, by fair means or foul.

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And So to Death…

As individuals, there are some things we never think of and yet, for others those same topics are virtually all consuming. I was reminded of this the other week reading someone writing on the web about death and saying that his Father who appeared to have died in his early 70’s telling him that he would have liked perhaps 5 more years. Why I asked silently…as I contemplated my childhood.

As a RC boy who served on the altar in the 1950s, I loved funerals with a simplicity of view that nowadays is long forgotten, an acceptance of reality and a natural leaning to what works best for you personally. As a 7 year old junior altar boy, weddings where the “MC” altar boy copped the cash from the Best Man, the “trickle down” was little short of disgusting.

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Keeping the Monarchy

I’m not quite sure what point Matthew Norman was trying to make in today’s Independent because he did seem to wander all over the place, you can judge for yourself: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/matthew-norman/matthew-norman-a-prince-and-his-indulgent-public-1717971.html

I think the starting point was the “extra £3 million that the Prince of Wales cost the taxpayer last year simply because the Government wanted him to carry out a number of overseas visits on their behalf, which therefore seems reasonable that they should cough up for the expenses incurred.

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Rachel Delivers Sense….

The following link is just far too good but, totally correct :

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/rachel_sylvester/article6557730.ece

You may have to cut and paste this into your browser.

Happy Holidays !

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A Presidential System

Following the election of Bercow as Speaker, Steve Richards writing in the Independent today was speculating about “real reform” and the Separation of Powers.

“A few years ago the Labour MP and ardent constitutional reformer, Graham Allen, put forward a proposal for a presidential system in Britain. I thought at the time he was living in a fantasy world, but we are almost there in terms of our preoccupation with leaders, the decline of parties and the growing demand for Prime Ministers to be held to account.”

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I Don’t Think They Have Learned…

I may be proved wrong and hope I am but my gut feeling is that Bercow is a mistake that will need to be rectified after the next General Election, the man just does not look right, just another politician on the make. Replacing Michael Martin seems to have produced yet another dud which reflects a very dull House of Commons in dire need of a cull.

It was interesting watching the brou ha ha going on and it struck me strongly that these MPs had still learned nothing from the events of these past few months, if they had, Widdercombe would have been the public choice by a clear margin. The Commons really needed to show that it was serious about reform and transition and a Speaker prepared to take the job on a tempoary basis, to the next election, would have set the right tone.

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Other Things To Do…

Whilst I will no doubt feel inclined to comment on the election of a new Speaker which will I am sure, be a total cock-up with the bookies putting Margaret Becket as the current favourite – “You Really Cannot be Serious…” on that one, as politics crawls uneasily towards the Summer Recess, there is not that much to comment upon.

I have been writing this blog since November of 2007 and have published over 300 articles. For various reasons because I am working on a new project running in a development environment, I needed to feed some data in so copied over essays from this blog to there. I was quite amused looking back over some earlier stuff just how there are really very few themes or major topics in ‘play’ in the political arena over that time.

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