Straw poll

Via Telegraph – Channel 4

To suggest that Jack Straw and Malcolm Rifkin are anything other than fine upstanding, honest and highly respected parliamentarians is merely cheap political opportunism in the middle of a toxic and seemingly endless election campaign. The Right Honourable Jack and the Right Honourable Malcolm have broken no rules and done no wrong according to the Right Honourable Jack and the Right Honourable Malcolm. Bellowing indignant outrage or even mild disquiet at an occasional honest mistake or slight lapse of judgement is nothing short slanderous spite and libellous envy. These fine, upstanding and rather gorgeous MPs have devoting years of selfless public service and are entitled to an occasional big, fat juicy cheque over and above their meagre £67 grand basic salaries plus allowances and expenses. It is not as if they are doing anything immoral or even illegal.

Give my regards

Diversity

The relief at returning home after a few days away to find that the house has not actually been burgled is usually tempered by having to force open a front door barricaded by a mountain of junk mail. The urge to sift through the pizza delivery leaflets would be a treat for later once the kettle was on, the washing machine loaded and the children safely back on their tablets.

On this occasion, however, the sorting of the privatised Royal Mail unearthed some treasure. Firstly, the bank had admitted to making a mistake in debiting an account (surprise surprise) and a long overdue invoice for a lucrative if difficult commission was finally paid. This good fortune covered the cost of parking in York for the day and still left change to rent the holiday cottage for five days. Mr Micawber knows more about economics that George Osborne.

Half term

Castle Howard image via Mike Kiping

The prospect of yet another half term holiday has, until fairly recently, provoked little more than dreadful resignation. After years of forcing unwilling children into art galleries, museums, willow weaving workshops, face painting and truly awful organised “creative play experiences”, the endeavour to inform and equip young minds has always been an uphill struggle in a non-school setting.

Amazingly, even after inflicting the horrors of camping or enduring nights in freezing, derelict farm outbuildings described in the brochure as “luxurious holiday rental cottages”, the children do not seem to harbour any malignant hatred toward us. Even more astonishing is that after dragging them across barren fells in horizontal rain, so far at least, they have not attempted to kill me. Of late, though, things have changed; they have become older and frighteningly independent.

Marbles

Via greece.greekreporter.com

There are elements of Europe`s small but supremely powerful ruling elite that are of the opinion that by electing Syriza, the people of Greece have gone stark, raving bonkers. Universally described as “far-left” or “radical far-left”, the leader of Syriza has been given a new first name by almost all European media. Prior to being elected Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras was known as “Alexis Tsipras” but now in the spotlight of media ubiquity he is known by his new, full name; “Ex-Communist Alexis Tsipras”.

The Greeks are obviously flirting with this crazy fad called Democracy that is certain to result in tears before bedtime. After all, it was the Greeks who cooked up all this nonsense about representing the will of the citizenry and the preposterous notion that the populous should have a say in how a nation is run.

Has Something Become Critical

Anonymous

Perhaps the most surprising, shocking and outrageous reaction to the escalating HSBC scandal is the surprise, shock and outrage expressed by folk previously unaware that this kind of thing has been going on since the Book of Genesis instructed forced labour to give one fifth of the crop to the Pharaoh. Tax for the wealthy has always been optional; so stop bleating that it is unfair or immoral. The rich did not become rich by being fair or ethical.

The worship and preservation of money is as old as the hills and we mere mortals must pay the tithe in order to keep the machinery of society in good working order. Our wealthy Gods, however, must be allowed to generate wealth and if the machinery of society suffers some catastrophic breakdown, then it is the poor who will be required to pay for the repairs. The Gods are above any thoughts of fairness, morality, responsibility or resultant poverty.