Posted 5:45 AM by Paul
Tom Watson Makes History


A couple of weeks ago Tony Blair finally announced what we had all been waiting for. We would only have to put up with his endless hectoring for one more year. This would be his last Labour Party Conference. HURRAH!

The move was prompted by a letter from Tom Watson MP. As a Junior of Defence Minister he wrote a letter saying that Blair's continued presence as Leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister "was not in the best interests of the Labour Party or the UK" This would have had no effect at all had it not been for the fact that Tom is the epitome of party loyalty. He voted for the Iraq war had never rebelled and was even a Whip. . He then resigned his post and was followed by 5 junior ministers including the MP next door to Blair and Wayne David ex-Leader of Labour MEPs who I took round Managua on a trip to see the Sandinistas many years ago.

The game was up. Blair responded by saying that he was "going to sack Tom Watson in any case". This is a bit like a jilted boy saying that he didn’t care because he was going to pack his girlfriend up anyway as soon as they met at McDonalds on Tuesday night after youth club.

Tom is an old fiend who I worked with during the Red Wedge days. Both of us were convinced Militant had to be chucked out but both of us were still committed to something called Socialism.I texted him a supportive message which he found the time to respond to ( reply is confidential) and I felt a bit like the Woody Allen character Zelig who never really does anything but has a walk on part in important bits of History.

So I was pleased for Tom and pleased for the World. Blair would not hang on for ever and then full a fast one" Oh I was going to stand down but because of the present turmoil in the Labour Party, for the good of the country I will stay on and fight the next election on a platform of national unity."Two weeks later and Labour Party conference is under siege by tens of thousands of antiwar demonstrators. The New York Times has published a leaked report form the US Intelligence Services saying that the invasion of Iraq has increased terrorism and strengthened Al Quaida and the knowledgeable Defence correspondent of the Evening Standard was on radio agreeing with Tony Benn. The war was un-winnable unless we poured in thousands more men and billions of pounds and of course Bush had decided to invade Iraq in a "war of choice" before he was even elected and Blair went along with it.

But what will always perplex me is why did so many good, decent and intelligent Labour politicians like Tom go along with this madness when every cab driver in London seemed to know that no good would come of it. But with Blair gone. Aznar and Berluconi committed to the dustbin of History and Bush sinking fast maybe there is a way for the Labour Party to say

"Sorry we got it wrong."

If they do, my old friend Tom Watson should get some of the credit

Posted 1:54 PM by Paul
Lebanon

Heather and the kids are away in Canada whilst I look for a new job. So I am alone in the house with the cats. It is like being single and 50. OK for a few days but thereafter... Crap. I join them on the 16th.

In Lebanon the Israeli airforce is reducing Beirut to rubble, creating the ideal enviroment for hardline Islamic militancyto take thrive. If someone killed Heather and the kids I would team up with anyone who was hell bent on destoying the killers of my family. Even if they were crazy terrorist theocrats lobbing missiles who believed that if they died in holy war they would be rewarded by a night in heaven with 12 virgins.

p.s As a young man I never dreamt of sex with a virgin. I was always looking for a woman who had done it before and knew what she was doing

Posted 2:16 PM by Paul
Christmas 2005

I have not blogged for what seems like an age for two reasons

- I have been very busy at work putting in the hours for a subsidiary of a US marketing services multinational who threw the best office party I have ever been to. Exceptional. Great food, great drink, fine live jazz music and great company.

- Politics just winds me up and I prefer to concentrate on personal, family and social life. It's a cop out I know but it suits me fine particularly now that 50 approaches.

Am I becoming "apolitical" ( a synonym for conservative) ? Quite possibly. Hedonistic more like.

Christmas Day is now nearly over and the highlights were:

- Emily's face when she saw the gold radio controlled Dalek.. Unrestrained joy.

- Alice's first documentary. A cooking programme following Heather making Christmas dinner filmed on her new video camera.

- Christmas dinner. Paella followed by Angel Cake ( to a Canadian recipe involving 8 cups of sugar and 10 egg whites) and strawberries. Non traditional and totally delicious. The result is that I don't feel about 16 stone which is my usual state on Christmas night after repeated visits to the fridge to tear of strips of beef and turkey.

- Space Race a book Heather bought me following the Soviet and American space programmes.

- The cable TV service breaking down. At first we all thought that this was a real disaster because we would miss the Doctor Who Christmas Special. Instead it was our saving. No
arguments over which cartoon chanel to watch. We had a game of Cluedo, read books, talked, ate and generally had a better time for it. OK. there was a bit of shouting and mild arguing but it wouldn't be Christmas without it.

So a very merry Christmas and greetings to each and every one of you.

Ho..ho...ho

p.s The film version of Lion Witch and the Wardrobe is rubbish.

Posted 1:38 PM by Paul
Brand America

Brand America

McDonalds have launched a new line called "Toasted Deli Sandwiches" to counter the rapid decline of the Big Mac. They get lead billing on the menu and in the windows. They are a bit soggy but a marked improvement on their hamburgers.

Profits have been falling at the Golden Arches and they needed to respond to the growing threat of Subway, who now has more outlets in the USA, who lead on the freshness of their ingredients and lower fat count. The move towards healthy eating, particularly amongst young girls has really hit McDonalds hard.

Alice is convinced that Big Macs are 99% fat and her cousin chipped in that McDonalds was "really unhygienic". Both these claims are untrue but it's perception that counts. These two girls' comments would have given any McDonalds marketeer heart palpitations because they are not untypical of what many young people think. McDonalds tried to counter these arguments with a multi million pound campaign trumpeting their 100% ground beef, free range eggs and fresh lettuce "it's McDonalds - but not as we know it." but it didn't work. So they created a new line and a new approach

What was most telling about the new TV campaign for the Toasted Deli Sandwich is that it is a celebration of the Great British Sandwich, voiced by British regional accents and without a milligram of Americana in it. Not even the ersatz mid Atlantic type typified by all those people who took up watching American Football in the 1980s and banged on about how great it would be to live in Texas. No - the new toasted deli sandwich was positioned as the proud successor to the sarnie, the buttie, the stottie. McDonalds is now covering up American origins because they have become a liability to the bottom line.

Posted 3:12 PM by Paul
London Stuff

A few thoughts on London over the last few weeks

- London Zoo. The elephants may have gone to Whipsnade where there is more room but it's still a great English day out. Last week we learnt that the only way sure you can tell a penguins sex is by sending a feather off for DNA analysis. We also discoverd that alliagtors used to live in Alaska 110,000 years ago. On the way home on the tube I noticed Emily muttering under her breath " Bad has not defeated me" as she approached the train door. I wonder how many other kids are still struggling to cope with the fear of the bombings. She told me that the bombers had done their worst. We all hope she is right.

- Hundreds of people have taken to cycles to avoid going on the tube. An understandable emotional reaction but not really a sensible risk analysis given the amount of accidents on the roads. Many of these are caused by motorists but others are caused by people like the young woman I saw cycling at speed over Waterloo Bridge. One hand on the handlebars, the other on her mobile phone.

- We spent the morning in Covent Garden whilst the kids were at a club at the Theatre Museum just off Drury Lane. It reminded us just how lovely London can be on a sunny day.

- Most weekday monrings I walk from Blackfriars station along the Riverside Walk to the Strand where I work at a job I enjoy. It's a beautiful start ot the day when the sun is shining. Rough sleepsers are often sheltering under the war memorials along the banks of the Thames. I wonder how many of them are ex-soldiers.

Posted 1:12 PM by Paul
Globalisation

I came home at 10.30 p.m. (working late) to find Alice on the internet. She was listening to the music of the South Pacific live on internet radio from Kiribati.

Now that's what I call globalisation.

Posted 1:55 PM by Paul
Robin Cook

Robin Cook MP died two days ago. A heart attack seems to have caused a fall whilst he was out hill walking and the resulting injuries may have broken his kneck. He was 59.

He will probably be remembered best for his brilliant resignation speech rather than his distiguished political career. In the speech he subtly demolished the case for invading Iraq, not with high blown rhetoric but with quiet reason. It was listened to in hushed silence and greeted with something almost unheard of in parliamentary history. Respectful applause.

Everything he warned of turned out to be true. But you always got the impression from his later speeches and comments that he would have preferred to have been proved wrong. He spoke in sorrow rather than anger.

It would be foolish to claim that he was some kind of anti-war secular saint. He wasn't.

On the night he made the speech I ( and I suspect many thousands of people aocrss the UK and byond) briefly believed that Parliament had some value. For a short time it seemed to be more than a super annuated school debating society.