A Few Lefties Make Me Laugh; Dave Miliband's Not One Of Them

Yes, one or two - but only sometimes. This effort from Guardian 'toonist Martin Rowson I thought was pretty good, although it might still be a bit too soon to include the pontiff, given the scale of the Foreign Office cluster-fluff with the email scandal. By the way, on that, isn't this a clear test of the principle of Ministerial Responsibility? "Ministerial what?" I hear you say. Yes, Ministerial Responsibility - a novel idea from yesteryear that meant ministers took responsibility for whatever happened in their own departments, warts, (23-year old, leftie Oxbridge piss artist uncivil servants) and all.

In the past - pre-Nulab, you might say - with a diplomatic incident as serious as this one, the minister would almost certainly have had to consider his position. Some would have gone and some would have tried to hang on. You know, the Carrington/Prior dilemma. Point is, all would have considered it, given the gravity of the offence. In Carrington's case, with the Falkland's in 1982, he chose to go; Prior (and in-so-doing some might say he set a precedent) on the Maze escapes in '83, refused. But both considered it, and that's the clincher.

What are the chances of that ever happening with one of this gang of undignified, amoral parasites? Miliband, resign! The thought would never have even crossed his mind. He didn't even bother to speak out about it initially - that was left to Jim Murphy (one Labourist minister I actually do - shock horror - have a bit of time for) who's not even in the department, (unless the Scottish Office is part of the FCO these days and I hadn't noticed).

But that's the point: not the resignation, but the principle. That the thought never crossed Miliband's mind speaks directly to his contempt for the principle by which he was supposed to abide as a minister of the Crown; the behaviour of the boy civil servant and his superiors to a culture of general contempt in the entire ministry, possibly the entire government.

What is more, this poisonous Labour decadence has seeped into many, many other facets of British public life, including most of its institutions. The scandal over the papal email merely serves further to highlight that tragic reality. Hell, Miliband probably thought the note was funny.

But there is an antidote to the poison on May 6th. Yeah, you guessed it: vote Conservative.