Monthly Archives: July 2010
The I.b.B.* thread
The Pert Young Piece sends a message: I blame Boris* for the hundred of impending head injuries, because his bikes don’t come with helmets. Sent from my iPhone
Filed under Boris Johnson, health, London, travel
Furst and foremost
Malcolm has been a fan of Alan Furst these twenty-odd years. He knows that because he has a copy of Night Soldiers from 1988, and then each of the next ten in the series. All in hard-back, acquired as soon … Continue reading
Filed under Literature, Paris, reading
Return of the B-men
What makes a marriage (as that between the Lady-in-his-Life and the curmudgeonly Malcolm) persist well into a fifth decade? Perhaps the answer partly lies in the symbiosis implied in the following. Yesterday, the Lady-in-his-Life had spent the day traipsing (or … Continue reading
Justice deferred
Here comes another report of a small-claims Court case being adjourned for the second time. The Judge and his Court were present-and-correct. However, the two parties, one a litigant-in-person, the other with a legal representative, were like those unfortunates at … Continue reading
Filed under Britain, civil rights, politics
Pigs grunt, camels spit, Tories cut
Melopsittacus undulatus chirrups: We listened to the glib and easy presentation of George Osborne’s diktat that we now have the “Office for Tax Simplification”. This is needed, it seems, to entice foreign business to export UK profits. It is also, … Continue reading
Filed under George Osborne, politics, social class, Tories., US politics
Guido Fawkes around the cuckoo’s nest
Hommage à Hogarth It is little Malcolm repairs to the Paul Staines Home for the Hopelessly Paranoid. He finds it an avoidable delight, wholly akin to the gentility day-tripping to mock the Bedlam lunatics. Now, though, is a good time … Continue reading
Filed under Channel 4 News, Paul Staines, sleaze., Tories.
That Paxo stuffing
Malcolm has just watched Zac Goldsmith (worthy son and heir of Sir Jams) try to shout down Jon Snow on Channel 4 News. Bad mistake. Three things: Goldsmith seemed to say that every expense had been previously signed off by … Continue reading
Is Cameron losing it?
At first sight the incumbent Prime Minister has every advantage. He comes briefed by the famed Westminster mandarins, the hand-spun, silky-smooth Rolls-Royce of the British civil service. He arrives equipped with a tagged, cross-referenced folio (doubtless produced weekly, regardless of … Continue reading
Filed under David Cameron, health, Labour Party, politics
The natural party of Opposition
Just a sentence in the Ward Labour Party summons: The 158 new constituency members in May could be the start of this. Within hours of the ConDem coalition being announced, the membership applications to the Labour Party surged: Almost 10,000 … Continue reading
Filed under Britain, British Left, broken society, Labour Party, Lib Dems, politics, polls
In the pink
There was bound to be a hiatus The kissy-kissy phase of a honeymoon is no time to snipe: the happy couple are too preoccupied, and too many onlookers go gooey-eyed anyway. Even so, Harriet Harman has landed the odd low … Continue reading
Filed under Britain, education, Financial Times, Guardian, health, Labour Party, politics, Tories.
