Dear Reader,
You will have heard that David Laws reported himself to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner and resigned yesterday as chief secretary to the Treasury. While he accepts that he broke the rules, his sin is rather less serious than some who fiddled voraciously as they sacked John Lewis like Romans at an orgy. Some are still in the House, they say, and they haven’t resigned. The Telegraph will, no doubt, remind us soon enough.
For my part, given that we need the Coalition to work – whatever political dogma we believe in (and Labour really do need a bit of ‘Time Out’ to get a bit of thinking done – it is rather tragic that the country has lost a fine mind and, more importantly, one with significant experience of banking, economics and how markets work. George Osborne, as yet, does not have this expertise. He may well prove to be good – and leaving aside parody, briefly – but not for too long, I promise, he is reported to have the brains to pick experience and knowledge up.
It is a bit baffling (but understandable in Coalition terms and binding the Lib-Dems into taking the pain) that Laws has been replaced by a young man with little experience of money, economics, finance, fiscal policy and markets – he did do a PPE at Oxford, but so what..? That is just one up from A level and no match for experience and instinct. A commenter on my last serious blog post suggested that we get a petition going to have laws re-instated. I think it would be very good for the country to accept that the expenses thing has happened, we have gorged on it, stop letting The Telegraph hold people and the country to ransom with their constant drip feeding (to whose agenda?) let the country get on and bring Laws back into government quickly. I am ever the pragmatist. The MPs have eaten their porridge, even if, some say, more should have done porridge. We need to get a grip on the economy and the country and that requires a bit of talent. Here endeth the ‘lesson’.
I wasn’t going to watch Eurovision last night, but the tweets were so good that I had to watch and join in. I made a number of observations while in a fairly advanced state of grace brought on by Rioja…
I was rather hoping that Greece won. I’d have paid good money to see Greece asking Germany for the money to host Eurovision next year. But one cannot have everything one wants, can one?
Humphrey Cushion ran an amazing Eurovision avatar changing commentary on twitter… she is worth following on twitter – very amusing, if you don’t already follow her. Mea culpa for failing to mention in the first edition of this post. Honour is restored – quite rightly. I hold her responsible for getting me into Eurovision again last night!
I don’t follow football, but I was surprised to see that England beat Japan today simply because two Japanese footballers decided to kick the ball into their own goal. perhaps these are good ‘omens’ for a few weeks time? I do know that the white flags have started to appear on cars again. I have a pirate flag mounted on my glasses. Why shouldn’t people have white flags on their cars and vans? Good effort! The image to the left is ‘Sexy Soccer’..apparently. Frankly… of greater appeal to me than the real game… but there we are. That I don’t give a toss about football doesn’t make me a pariah…..
I wasn’t going to watch Eurovision last night but did…so anything is possible. I did watch England win the World Cup two hundred years ago. I watched it with my Mother. I was 12. I drank cider. My mother, then a non-drinker, was completely unaware that Somerset cider had alcohol in it. I think she suspected something was up when I suddenly leapt to my feet, tore my shirt off, shouted “WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS” and ran into the street shouting nonsense…
Briefly on Tory Education Policy…
Being interested in education, at least at the tertiatry or university and professional level, I have an open mind on Tory policy. I was lucky enough, because my parents worked abroad, to go to a very good public school in Scotland. Had my parents not been abroad, I would have been lucky enough to go to a very good state school in Scotland – but I had to board. Scotland does education well. This is not being a “Braveheart’. It just happens to be true. I would like to see everyone get the benefit of good schooling – for that lays the foundation for a happy and possibly, if you are that way inclined, a successful life in money terms. The News of The World, taking a break from outing Duchesses and droning on about tits and footballers (Sometimes the tits are footballers and the footballers have tits), had an excellent piece on the founder of CarPhone Warehouse.
The founder of The Carphone Warehouse (David Ross decided to sponsor a school in his home town of Grimsby.), along with his new headteacher Nicholas O’Sullivan – a former Dominican friar – took the comprehensive over and freed it from council control. Do, please, read it – it is quite inspiring and whether others will follow this route (and I hope they will) this was a great story.
On that uplifting note, I am orf to Battersea Square for a glass of vino in the evening sun. I may return sooner rather than later
Best, as always
Charon
Gosh, I was astonished at the Grimsby Academy. Fantastic. And as you say uplifting, truly!
I never watch the songs on Eurovision – as they are tyhe most utter dross – but the voting is a hoot and always worth a watch. Wait until the songs are over then be sure to tune in… 😀