Or, the calm before the storm.
Not very much has happened over the past few days, save for a massive earthquake on the far side of the world, the split-up Home Office's disagreement between its two new halves (that was always going to happen) over the recent behaviour of one of a pair of individuals who committed infanticide in 1993 at the age of ten, and the death of Michael Foot, an ancient Labour 'highly principled' leader (a nutter, in other words) who wanted to redifine the shape of Europe by ditching NATO and joining the Warsaw Pact - (failing that, to disarm ourselves utterly to send a powerful signal to the USSR that we were totally 'on their side' - but for pacific reasons, naturally).
May Foot rest in peace. He had a jolly good knock, and it's clear he had admirers (lots more in death). But I think I will remember my uncle more fondly, who heroically fought in one theatre after another for six long years in WWII, and who died at the age of 90, in 1996. I'll always remember him, simply because he was a hero, but also because he was a cantankerous old cuss for whom I never could do anything right. My kind of old git.
Loud speaker and half-decent critic though he was, I can't quite muster the same level of admiration for a man -a stranger- like Foot. But I will pray for him. My upbringing informs me that that's my duty. I'm not an especially religious person, but I'm a stickler for duty, so I'll try my best.
Anyway, back to the point. This must be the calm before the political, election storm. If not, then we are in for the most boring election battle in living memory. That would be a shame, given that this is the most important election battle in living memory.
Are we, the cradle of modern democracy, really that far gone? Has the deepest battle for the nation's soul since 1979 become no more and no less than a talent contest?
Yeah, maybe. We'll just have to wait and see. If it has; if we as a nation are that far gone, then I will be joining the 300,000 people who worked that out last year, and left forever for some other, less compromised country. Three of my (very successful) cousins can be included in that statistic.
The nice thing is, I guess, is that I'll be fitting right into Labour's decade-long 'thinning-out' immigration policy if I finally decide to sod off out of it. Towards the socialist cause, every little helps, after all. Even little me.
But what about the Conservative/conservative cause?
What about Britain?
All this lionising of Foot seems silly to me. Fair enough, he was a nice man. But there's queues of people - Tories even! - lining up to pay tribute to him as though he was some sort of elder statesman who'd achieved something Churchillian. The fact is that he was an absolute failure as a politician, particularly as a Labour leader: a far left loon, a figure of ridicule.
ReplyDeleteA likeable person is not always right. And, while I never perceived Foot as likeable (when he was in the public eye I could only ever view him as a significant danger to the country and thus was unable to like him), I'm prepared to believe he was a decent chap in private, yet it strikes me as complete hypocrisy some of the people who are standing up in public and singing his praises when in private I'm pretty sure they think much as I do.
Yes I'll honour his memory in the same way as I'd honour the memory of anyone who passes away (as the old saying goes, any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind), but I'm not about to canonise him, and I'm unlikely to like him all of a sudden.
We seem to agree, Tony. But I'm still adament: unless I see some sign of life here, then I'm leaving.
ReplyDeleteBasically, I'm a really nice guy (so I've been told), but I've really had quite enough.
Foot is not the last Straw, Straw is.