WE WON WE WON WE WON!!

I always thought it was going to be France’s year . I fancied their pack to give the All Blacks trouble up front and thats the only way to beat them .When they came off that astonishing win , I just thought , …at home , strength class and some terrific impact players on the bench , I think they are going to take this one.
I didn’t even feel bad about it . The way England came into this tournament a noble exit at the semi final stage would have been more than you hoped for . We had improved with every game true, but my money was on France to carry the momentum through, and win the world cup . It was not to be; and how England have turn this around since losing by 36 points to the Boks is a sporting legend playing out in real time .

Its starts up front with Sheridan and co. and if there is one thing that has propelled England it has been their brutal efficiency in the tight and line out time maul. The line out has been effective with the throw in a great improvement on the days of Thompson and the fitness throughout a revelation. Behind ,the technique of Andy Gomarsall has been a joy to watch . My brother in law knows him quite well and I have watched him stuck behind Dawson for years , always ,always, a class act . It was his bad luck to be in a queue behind the best English scrum half we have had , but in many ways he has a lot more to offer .His service is far better than Dawson’s , his kicking infinitely ahead and all round linking play very good indeed.
Wilkinson has not been kicking at his very best, especially out of hand ,but he seems to galvanise the rest with his decision making and solidity. Sackie has been magnificent and I have just loved the old man Jason Robinson showing he is still a sportsman from another dimension. Surely the outstanding player in both codes of our generation . He managed a marvellous run tonight England should have capitalised on.
Tonight was the night that Mathew Tait fulfilled the promise he has long shown. Always quick he showed how a lighter centre can flourish by getting the man down and getting back into the line at breathtaking speed. England were not once short of numbers . Ipkiss came on to great effect as well.

The defining moment of the night , apart from Wilko`s kicks , was Worsely tapping the froggie winger when he was in for a try . The ensuing support keeping Chagal away from that precious line showed all the qualities that have made this team of written off no - hopers into potential champions.

What now ? They have to have a chance . They have played and beaten better teams than either of those in the other semi ,., in my view, but this sort of thinking is not needed. Somehow they have to maintain the awesome test rugby mental zone they are in. In the next week , think about nothing but what you can do better ,what your job is , do not think about what it means and how close you are . It will take superhuman concentration but only now do I start to think we might just win it .


Come On England You Have Made Us Proud History Awaits !!!

England Expects

Andrew Sheridan

Age: 27 Caps: 17
Measures: 6ft 5ins/19 stone
Nickname: Big Ted




I realise of course, that there are far more important thing than Politics namely the chance that England can come together as a Team and beat France . I predicted as long time ago that France would give the All Blacks scare . They have a mighty pack and class from 1 to 15 .. With England’s perceived strength in the pack as well we can expect a titanic clash of the big men this weekend and Sheridan has to dominate .





Josh Lewsey will be qualified to give the team talk. He has demonstrated a subtle grasp of team dynamics as we see in this discussion of ‘ having a settled side’ in the Sunday Times

“.....in the absence of a settled society history has shown law and order break down, the social hierarchy constantly changes , organisation disintegrates and eventually the tribe fragments ( This is rugby he`s on about ).In desperate time humans will call ,for desperate measures so the quickest and most natural successor to a time of chaos is usually in the form of one voice – a sole decisions maker with a clear and precise vision for the people to follow ( still on rugby remember...)1790s France and 1920s Russia spring to mind ...( ..and the rugby ?)”
...Yeeeuck. Lets hope he is a little more focussed tomorrow . We have won the adolescent poseurs world cup at least



PS and I am not having a semi naked man without some babe action as well . Football related actually but England supporters at least

Rule One...No Cheating

You might wonder if there was a politician anywhere who looked more pitiful than newly duffed up Judy Brown who was so amazed that Mr. Punch out in a appearance ate HOP.
“That’s the way to do it “. I believe I have found one ....


'A former Mexican presidential candidate who was disqualified from the Berlin marathon for taking a short cut denies cheating. Roberto Madrazo clocked the best time for his age but officials found he had skipped a nine mile section of the course. But Mr Madrazo, 55, says he never claimed to have finished the race and walked to the finishing line after having to stop running. He blamed political opponents for the furore surrounding the incident, which has seen him lampooned in his home country' - Ananova.


Reeeb a reeeba Caaaarnival!!!!

Kill The Pig .....humanely

“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning"

Mr.,has-to-be-first-with-everything Dale has blogged about the Polly volte face already today and sure enough she tears into Brown , like a posh hypocritical tigress in this morning’s Grauniad..

“ When Cameron threw phoney at him in PMQs it stuck like napalm , he can duck the bottles but phoney will stick....his comprehensive spending review smacked of panicky comprehensive cowardice “ she shrieks .


Can this be the same woman who with unerring political instinct summed up the forthcoming Age of Brown in the following gushing and now hysterically funny terms .? ...I think it can(* barely restrained giggling fit *)......

“Change will not be cosmetic, not just swapping a dapper smile for an old sobersides . There will come a main of conviction , of brain, intensity and seriousness , a strategist not a mere tactician; a long termist , not a quick fixer, a man on a moral mission....”

The Metropolitan University of Toynbee( previously Toynee Polly) is an important figure for the left. He true wish , often stated , is to see taxes rise to Swedish levels at about 70% of GDP . In this she is typical of the Labour activist. They has been happy to look the other way while Brown has fostered a Nationalist ( almost racists) small c Conservative relationship with the Mail as long as he was free on taxation . This constituency has chuckled quietly as brown has spun successfully, concealing his true mission “ Labour at its best when it is Labour “
. Now she has realised that by continuing dishonesty Blair and then Flash have succeeded in surreptitiously nudging the state forward but have forfeited the debate, which they have lost. Her terror now is that the Conservatives will push another Pawn forward and that’s why she signals a 'Grande Non'.... "Your licence to deceive has expired Flash, you must get back in the game and justify tax rises.”

This will be suicide for Brown. Go on Dave ...... he cannot follow you any more , how about a tweak on income tax at low levels. Why not ? Gord –help-us has just borrowed another £4 billion , use that for a fig leaf..
Poor Brown , trapped blind and helpless... ....ooer a strange violence is clouding my brain

“ Come away There's going to be trouble. Kill the beast! Kill the beast!
Kill the pig! Slit her throat! Bash her in!”

‘Lord of the Flies’ ?....I don`t condone it ...I do understand it

Immoral Compass

Moral Compass


Interesting isn’t it how selectively outraged some folk can be. As we know Councillor Miranda Grell was convicted under the Representations of People Act 1983 when she invented a story that her Lib Dem rival was a paedophile .The ruse worked, allowing her to overturn a 6oo majority in the Leyton ward. The fiction was all the more disgraceful, becaus her rival , Barry Smith, is openly gay and has lived with his Malaysian partner for 13 years .

She said:

“ Don`t vote for barry because he is a paedophile “

And .....

“Have you heard about him sleeping with Thai boys ? His boyfriend is sixteen and he is dirty”

Lovely......

She has lost her job working for Ken Livingstone’s aide Nicky Gavron but remains on the board of that estimable collection of 70s refugee lefties Compass They are ”Standing by her”. We recall that Compass published a nasty dossier branding Boris a racists on the basis of limericks written when he was six but obviously homophobic and vicious slurs in the real world are quite alright . I have speculated at the close links with the GLA this body seems to have .We are unable to track its funding which is swathed in mystery .We can only guess ; but if the activities of Compass are anything to go by , her fall from grace will not last long .


Head of Sleazy Lies ? ...probably pays a bit in the GLA. I look forward to congratulating her on promotion

He Towers Above Us

The news that David Cameron is picking the wings from Brown like a ruffianly boy with an insect at PMQs does not improve my mood as the odour of mendacity permeates everything while this toxicity infects the country.. You almost start to believe anything can be good and true.....I `m sick of it


I did, however, see a really heart-warming programme last night, about the oddly unlikely subject of tall people . Chris Greening has been the tallest man in the UK for about 40 years , or at least until recently he was, and he was just one of those delightful characters that restores your faith in Televisions ability move and entertain.


There are now 25 people over 7 ft in the UK but when Chris hit his colossal top out, in the 60s , there were none except him . He suffered from a tumour on the pituitary gland which has hurt his health and bones as well as supercharging his growth ; life must have been difficult . When you saw this giant smile ruefully at his inability to get out of a car you immediately warmed to him.
He has turned his difficulties to his advantage and has made a living from adverts .A lonely life in some ways, but he had a marvellous gentle self effacing sense of humour about it.

The day came when his agent , himself a “ small person” of similar vintage turned up to reveal his tallest man title was gone . He took the news with equanimity and the two friends wandered off into a wood chatting about the future.

The sight of this most odd of couples was straight from Tolkein , and their obvious liking for eachother informed one of the most affecting scenes I can recall. The agent hopped on crutches enthusing, while the gentle giant boomed lugubriously down at him .An elegiac picture of extraordinary and surprising beauty

What a nice bloke . Good luck Chris a big man in more ways than one .

Drowning In Lies

Am I starting to become psychotically obsessed? It is a distinct possibility; or is that every time I turn around a new autumnal offering of freshly fallen Brown lies wimples tremulously in the wind and settles on me ,as if I were a babe in the wood ?

ABUSE OF POWERS
Alistair Darling, he if the eyebrows that waggle like mating catepillars, confidently asserts that there is nothing like the £3.5 billion claimed by Osborne for the IHT revolution. £650 million he knows, as a fact , is all the Piggy bank contains .
How does he know ? Nicholas McPherson , the permanent secretary, has been refusing access to the estimates he has of this windfall for months, on the basis that it would deny the government the, “ Opportunity to present its polices in a coherent fashion” and that it would “weaken the governments decision making “... . This may strike some of you as like denying a fish its right to Pole Vault but that , oh best beloved , was the story..

This noble posture was abandoned within minutes when the government ordered him to spit it out so they could use figures against the Conservatives in time for the Evening news. As we see , this is the new politics in which the politicisation of civil servants will not continue ..... grrrrrrrr.

LYING ABOUT MOD MONEY
One of the many areas of disgraceful incompetence we have “ enjoyed “ is the appalling state military accommodation has been allowed to fall into. Here, once again, we meet that increasingly commonplace beast, the ‘free floating number’ .With the political integrity, which has become this governments ‘leit motif’, Darling responded belatedly to outrage of our brave lads and lasses were living in badger sets He promised of £80 million of brand new shiny unaccounted-for money. It becomes like the wearying 69th refrain of “On The Good Ship Venus “, does it not ? Turns out, this £80 million is not for repairs but is in fact going into SLAM the pot for new accommodation for singles . Furthermore, the money was not new but was netted from the sale of Connaught barracks for development.

In fact family accommodation is owned by Annington a subsidiary of a Japanese Bank and the MOD keeps only 25% of the profits when they sell the homes which they do not recycle into upkeep. Darling posed in front of the irrelevant SLAM beds waffling about this, “ free floating number” , avoiding the dosser hovels they stuff heroes into , the family accommodation.

HIDING DEBT
Every paper , looks askance at Brown’s bid to solve debt by further borrowing . behind the scenes he is keeping up the fight to keep £30 billion private finance initiative borrowing off the balance sheet and create increasingly elaborate fictions to save his 40% rule . We thought that when the treasury agreed to adopt international accountancy standards the news would be out but the Treasury are now sating these rules do not apply to them . Thus Darling continues to use the flattering old figures keeping the corpse tucked none to subtly under the carpet. It stinks .

THE MIRROR

Did I say every paper ? Sorry the Mirror is going with McAnn story...

WHATS GOING ON ?


My next post is going to be good news story. I `m just sick to my stomach of this endless miasma of half truths lies and cynical disrespect for the electorate . What the hell is going on brown

Like Wilson he could justifiably answer “ I `m going on”

PLay The Brown Game

This is good game for the car . Who is the first to run out of valid criticisms of BROWN....

1 Selling our Gold reserves at half price
2 .Let Westinghouse -together with Britain`s leading edge nuclear power base- be sold to Toshiba weeks before he decided we needed nuclear capacity after all..”
3 The delivery and conception of tax credits which have got no one into work and have caused endless misery
4 Sabotaging Frank Fields proposed welfare reforms and thereby causing unimaginable social degradation
4The handling of the NHS Computers overspend and impossibly incompletion delivery
5 The Doctors Contracts
6 the electorus interrruptus …of course
7 The attempt to fool us with a ludicrously obvious conjuring trick over income tax
8 the attempt to do the same again with the non tax cut of IHT
9 The attempt to use British troops to disrupt a Conservative Party Conference and to misrepresent the cut
10 Alienating the Press by announcing his electoru interruptus to Andrew Marr only , his pet Poodle
11 Flirting with Public sector Unions on better deals to calm them before his abortive election and thereby creating unrest .( Strikes now to follow)
12 Continuing to employ discredited Chime Research group headed by Deborah Mattison despite her association w with the Smith Institute and NHS contracts won coincidentally to her free survey work
13 Reheating all that old Blairite crap about a big tent and “ above the fray” with Mercer and Bercow and others none of whom are more than pygmy sized
14 .Omitting to foresee that he would be claiming to be an admirer when he said of Margaret Thatcher “There simply aren’t enough City speculators without a conscience to keep her in power”
15 Neutering Academies whilst pretending to support them by handing control back control to the LA
16Dropping experiments in privatisation for the NHS
17 Creating a target for targets


Wow there are just hundreds …… You are welcome to augment but I can do this all the way to Scotland

Dear Aquaintance ...

New mania ,him see many great posts on Croydonian ; him laugh ha ha .

Love the last one in which the linguistically sensitive Mr.C suffers unbearable agonies confronted with 'The Scottish Government’s response to the UK Government Consultation on the “Future of Nuclear Power”. In vast rolling tundra of a document the great man has discovered ‘90 references to Scotland and Scottish (excluding the footnotes) in around 3,600 words - let's say one 'scot' per 40 words. There are however “ no references to Westminster, national government or the United Kingdom (just 'the UK'), and one 'British' . "The UK Government “ is the perpetual villain of the peace . Ooooo its like that is it ‘The UK government’ .Its as if I started calling my father by his first name. Thus Salmon snips with cold malevolence at the remaining threads holding the countries together. Cue Brown’s new book “ Union Jack Underpants Why Are They So Comfy?”.

Vision On ?

“I `m sorry we can`t return your policies to you "




George Osbourne accused the prime minister of having to wait for the Tories to tell him what his vision for the country was. "Now a week after we put forward our plans the prime minister and the chancellor are scrabbling around in a panic trying to think of something to say."

You`ve seen the copy cat policies on Non Doms and IHT ? This is new and uncharted territory surely? First of all the opinion polls set the date for the election for this rancid and bankrupt government and now they are setting their headline Policy according to the same Polls . Naturally they have slightly changed it but can you imagine the conversations that must have taken place

“Darling How can we pretend we were going to do this ? “
“Darling how can we make it look as if it is not stealing the Conservative’s Policy”
“Darling have you called CCHQ to ask them what my next vision is ?”
“Darling I ....just want to be Prime minister...boo hoo hoo....waaa!”

Something quite sinister is happening here, this is no longer government a system of belief or leadership leadership , its an exercise in mortal limbo . Surely the British people are not as protoplasmicly formless as to accommodate this new low and react with less brains than Pavlov’s yipping canines. ...... Surely ?

Our Broken Society is "Fixed"

Its all in the breeding y`know ( A Lippizana prances)



The Telegraph does make me laugh. The poor Editor must have huge sympathy with David Cameron trying to free the Conservatives from the grip of gerontocracy but how can he inject youth ? Answer ;they breed them like posh little ponies . All their ‘rays of sunshine’ are out of, and by, some faded celeb writer of pundit . Sam Leith , the Gordon gel and Celia Walden for starters . Celia Walden who does a harmlessly skippable chit chat collation is , of course ,the daughter of former Conservative Party Member of Parliament George Walden.

There is no little irony here .George Walden has railed , this past two years ,against the nepotism and privilege from whence Conservative Leader came . An excerpt of his book “ The New Elites” was trailed in the Daily Mail as “ George Walden turns the flame thrower of on David Cameron” The book, a sometimes perceptive , rantothon ,sets out describe the media /class nexus of the really powerful . Gorgeous , in his estimation, George came through the Grammar school route, now closed in our increasingly classist society. He seems as insecure about his literary learning as the geekiest autodidact.

If I found , “ New Elites “, mixed ,” Time To Emigrate “, his next, is a sour preening hymn to the talent and ,( apparently ), wealth , of George Walden . I recommend you avoid it .I wonder how this acid tongued Thersites spitting hate at privilege and cant, squared his posture, with wangling his dull daughter a job ant the Telegraph ?

A while ago the DT featured a girl who was ordinary but happened to be a good . She wrote about how it might be possible for her to buy a flat if she stayed in for ten years but in reality she’d be enjoying herself when she could . She took you into the world pubs and buses you know. A world that has not been much chronicled by the high stepping Lipizzanas .I have not seen her since. If talent like this continues to be suffocated by the rigor vitae of old degree life will pass out of more institutions than just the Daily Telegraph


Conservatism is not stasis it is renewal .It is a vital matter on every level that access to power is retuned to ordinary people .Our broken society must be fixed , not “fixed” . That includes access to the media .I heard Judie Birchill screeching her customary inchoate consternation in which the was some truth.

“It used to be that they got to be Bankers and Judges and things but at least we could be actors and journalists. Now they want everything and they’re all bloody useless......I would say dyslexic if that wasn’t another lie”

I wonder how Old Etonian Devil`s Kitchen feels about this ?....snicker

Its A Long Way To Tipperary ( Thank God )

From Ireland Online's report on the conviction of a Tipperary man for attempted murder:

'Sgt O'Riordan said that when Crowe was interview he asked gardaí what evidence they had against him. They told him he had been identified at the scene. Crowe replied "that's bullshit. Nobody saw me. I had a balaclava and gloves.'

We Need To Get A Wide On

I have lost count of the number of times I have read articles saying the real story of the Polls is the decline of the Liberals now down as far as 11%This is not a Party so much as a small gathering of close friends but Consevatives have less to gloat about than they might think and must pursue a rapprochement with true Liberals.There are old grudges to overcome ...

It is, for exmaple , infuriating to see a Party , soi disant , operate as a franchise for any local gripe from immigration to environment .Nonetheless ,swings and roundabouts accounted for , FPTP in which tactical voting thrives ,is still infinitely better than PR . Under PR a Byzantine Political Court Eunuchery would carve up the territory after a non-decision.

Onn the other hand Iain Dale reminded me that the Lib Dems are a coalition of social democrats and Liberals and while there may be some point in the Liberal Party there is absolutely no point in the “SDP” . Those pallid socialists with Muesli gone back to Labour which cleans out a lot of the dishonesty

David Cameron has , as yet , failed to convince reamining Liberals that they can join us in resisting the authoritarian bumblin’ Brown and this asymmetry of defections is a real problem . It gives the lie to the Liberal claim to have been other than socialists thus far .Equally they can hardly claim to stand for Liberality; the canyon of emptiness where purpose should be , defeats attempts to claim any special territory . Even their teeny squeaks about surveillance would not survive the first death notionally attributable to the lack of dawn to dusk snooping.

For all this there are some great ideas emerging for this quixotic pick and mix selection. Their ideas on community housing were echoed in the Conservative Party and represent a thoughtful attempt to solve the great problem of the day . The concept of restitution to the ‘victim of injustice’ under the Law ,is one the Conservative Party would do well to consider.

On this blog and around the right of centre blogashere there have been certain individuals who have irresponsibly and impolitely abused members of the Liberal Party as adolescent onanists who have rushed to their room and slammed the door on reality( ahem...) but the truth is this .

For a Conservative administration to succeed the forces ranged against
Brown must grown by another 11%. In order to do this we must call on the vestigial sense of those UKIP members unimpressed by those seeking makes careers out of a trainer pony in the media . The coalition also has to include real Liberals ( often Euro sceptics by the way) who surely must wince to be bulwarking the most centralising and coercive government we have had since the war under the banner “Liberal”. That is the task. Only a Party which can contain a spectrum from Nigel Farrage to Nick Clegg can take this country back from its abusers and we should stop imagining we can all agree about everything .


Liberals I clutch you to my bosom , I love and I would like us to put our petty differences aside.Let us work together against Jabba The Hut and his Mephistophelean schemes to destroy this beautiful green land and its free people .I `m sorry this will oblige you to abandon your Party but your views will command respect and consideration in the Conservative Party.

When will I learn ....

Well Doughty Street was an experience , it’s a very odd environment to be in and I `m afraid the whole business of letting other people speak somewhat eluded me. I was amazed , to be honest at how ‘in my depth’ I felt but the Tasmanian Devil impression was not exactly what I had in mind . Oh well I daresay it will be a while before an outbreak of plague amongst important people recurs so 18 Doughty Street is likely to lollop along without me.( It was fun needling Devil`s kitchen a bit though.)


http://doughty.gdbtv.com/player.php?channel=262


View the horror


OH and reason for feeling a bit stupid No. 2 I `ve had a good long think about the time I can commit to organising a group blog and the fact is I do not have the time to do what I am already involved in. Its a shame because I belive there is such a lot of unsung talent and the idea is basically sound but ...money and family must come first........

All in all feeling a bit ....feeble

What Is MOSAIC ?

Gordon Brown held the door slightly ajar for the prospect of fixed term parliament,(Dale )

Its awfully hard for a socialist of or indeed anyone to understand this but some things work well because they are imperfect. Polling used to be a rough and ready business John Major confounded successive predictions of his imminent demise with a spectacular victory won in old style from his box on the street . Such mistake would not be possible now. The politicians have worked on it and got it better....( I `m joking of course).... Seriously Tescos and the like have improved their marketing over the years under the pressure of competition and it is now exceedingly sophisticated. Labour’s soft ware is called MOSAIC uses the technology and it subdivides categories into tiny constituencies. ‘Coronation Street Woman’, ‘White Van Man’,are typical “ Urban genius “....is me
This technology as revealed by Martin Bright was used by Gordon Brown to judge the moment of electorus interruptus . Given the risks we may surmise that the picture was even bleaker than the marginal Polls when you really started to pull it apart.

We are running into problems here. There is an asymmetry of knowledge between the state and the individual now that has the effect of denying us a real vote by the use of electoral timing . Polling works too well and I think we are going to have to move to fixed terms despite all its many drawbacks. In this swirl of frightening new exactitude it pleasing that women are continuing to give Pollsters the heebie jeebies. In the past two weeks men have drifted within an average oscillation of 8% . Women have vacillated and dithered over a colossal 23%. I cannot imagine why this might be but apropos of nothing let us take a visit to the dress shop....

Her“ Do I look good in the Brown?”
He” Yes “
Her” Oh but I really like the bluey green”
He” Yes”
Her” But this is a new Brown ....”
He “ Yes “
Her “ No No I like the bluey green , I `m decided ....unless......
He ( loses will to live )


Women know your place

Shooting An Elephant

Schools and Elephants

I was told a interesting story by my brother yesterday who is the head of Economics at what was a very good local, Comprehensive. Coming from the private sector , he is constantly amazed at the short hours and deluded attitudes of teachers who really believe they are all Robin Williams in Dead Poets society. This, in a system where many of the pupils are unable to read adequately when they leave .

The headline pass rate, % boys with five O levels including English and Maths , has dropped from a rather good 60% to 40 % over the last few years .Into this equation you usually have to feed the number with paid school meals which is an average intake or London with now below average outcomes. There are all the usual problem ,of course ,a level of motivation that is highly varied amongst staff; but the root from which this slump grows, is a lack of discipline .

The other day an incident happened that summed up the problem.. Newmania Junior was walking along a corridor when he saw two boys having a play fight . He told them to stop . They continued . He repeated the instruction requiring names . He was ignored and they would not give their names. He told them they would be in detention and demanded their identifications. At this point there were a number of other boys watching and the younger of the two simply said “Why don’t you shut up !”

You can see, can’t you, the implications for the boys that allowing anarchy of that sort has .Newms minor took action to ensure that the strongest possible punishment was meted out to the perpetrators . Some time later he discovered that aside from a chat about their attitude no action whatsoever had been taken............



In all the talk about policy, selection, and Whitehall levers we should never forget that the will to use existing powers must be there amongst the front line educators . At this time they are hopelessly infected with absurd visions of the’ child’, and in denial about their failure to provide the essential service they are paid for. The work of politics goes on at many levels and one thing we have to do, is reacquaint Teaching Colleges with Conservatism and its corrective to 60s Liberalism . The Upper Middleclass can accommodate self indulgence but it the end of all hopes for working class boys .

I do not think that teachers are dreadful people they are simply living in a dated orthodoxy There is opportunity to engage with them , but the Dave Sparts will have to be rooted out and ejected from class!

PS Excerpt from Orwell’s shooting an elephant

“when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys. He becomes a sort of hollow, posing dummy, the conventionalized figure of a sahib. For it is the condition of his rule that he shall spend his life in trying to impress the "natives," and so in every crisis he has got to do what the "natives" expect of him. He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it. I had got to shoot the elephant”

True a teacher does wear a mask and many fine teachers have always adopted a persona not their own. Why should they not . It’s the result that maters not the “honesty of the relationship with the pupil" . In many ways it does not matter what the elephant is . Uniforms, politeness , respect. Whatever it is though for discipline and learning to continues “The Elephant must be shot “ ....although Orwell at this stage did not agree ....

Magazine Project Update

Looking back on the previous thread I see there is some real interest in this idea and I am convinced there is a gap. I was delighted to see Jon Teunon , who you will not know but is about the best of the lefties on Compas.Now that would really question a few orthodoxies in a most uncomfortgable way. Others like Norfolk Blogger , the best Lib Dem, might contribute and we would have a distinctive and interesting package . This all has to be less silly and a more interesting. Otherwise it would be just another blog. Blogs are great but the writers can do better and deserve better notice.

I am debating as to whether I should purchase some soft ware of have go at using a web thing . Frankly I am about the worst person in the world for this and I was hoping to persuade someone to help. That is the next step and I will have sorted it out by next week . After that an editorial meeting and I think a month to get going

Doughty Street Fiasco ( The Kampfner Interview)

Exhibit A


To: 'Paul Newman'
Sent: Saturday, October 06, 2007 1:52 PM
Subject: RE: The Return of Blogger TV
Are you up for coming on Blogger TV? We have a space tomorrow…



Note the date and time of the above email, which I received yesterday from Iain dale. Now to me tomorrow generally refers to the day after the one you are in . For example on Saturday .‘tomorrow’ would be Sunday . I stand corrected . On Saturday ‘tomorrow’ refers to Monday . At least I think that’s the idea.
Unaware of the new ‘alternate day’ calendar , I dutifully picked out a few favourites blogs and trundled the two stops to Kings Cross .Skipping gracefully through beggars , prostitutes and thieves with a light heart and a tra la la I arrived at 18 Doughty Street about 15 minutes early or 24 hours and 15 minutes early by the ‘new reckoning.’

The plot thickened . Doughty Street continues over Guildford Road into Mecklenburgh Square . If you approach from Grays Inn Road therefore , you can either turn left or right into Doughty Street. If ,as I did , you turn right , there is nothing to tell you that you have left the celebrated boulevard before you reach number 18. In all ignorance , you have entered Mecklenburgh Square, and stand before the residence of John Kamfner, the Editor of the New Statesman, and Brown nose bore nonpareil
I assumed that the New Statesman’s Editor had an adjoining office and there being no choice, rang the bell . Johny boy ( my new chum ),was in a considerable bate when he answered the intercom. Oddly , he was not at all pleased to hear from a little Tory out to gloat at the Brown Bottling panto of a Sunday eve . I said “Is this the 18 Doughty Street ?” he replied “ No it isn`t , you’ve got the wrong place, cross the road”. His tone was heavy with the soul sicklied weariness of the Ancient Mariner . I suspect this is not the first such misunderstanding .

How marvellous that Ian has arranged things thus . Endless keen Conservatives playing unwitting knock down ginger on the Moloch to Brown`s Beelzebub . If I have irritated the flabby arsed vendor of prolix middle brow chatter the adventure can only be counted a success . I think I `m doing the blogger thing tomorrow . If so , I shall go and knock at the mouth-watering Georgina splendour of this canting socialist plutocrat again …perhaps more than once . I hope he sends his Butler down to see me off.


The New Statesman’s current cover page is “ Election fever” Beneath it is the invitation to discover “ What Che Means Today”…Now that’s a happening journal for you. Excellent article on the Bravery of running away “ by Martin Bright who , may well have had the nod on Brown`s “Italian “ moment .


Update : Dale responded thus
Paul, sorry, my body clock must have been wrong. ..... Kampfner is very annoyed at the number of visitors he is getting….!
There you have it newmania ,confidante of Lord Blog of Blogham and aquaintance to top editors will be appearing tommorow.

The Denouement

On this blog I have long argued that the very things that Cameron emphasised initially , neutral tax policy , environmental awareness , devolving power , and even an attempt to understand not merely condemn the famous “Hoodie “ ,would play well with the marginal swingers . No other political commentator of comparable importance (I `m, kidding ) , stuck to this line and I was also -bloody -lutely right . Another Brown ( James ) put it this way …” Sometimes I wanna jump up and kiss myself “
It was the marginal Polls wot backed Brown into a corner. He knew a reduced majority was no mandate and scraping though on the back of the Scottish scam and the boundary commission lag would not suffice . His arriviste Britishness has shown how conscious he was of the need for a English majority . Ruling only a little tartan province of Europe was not what he has been plotting since, at 16, he went blind writing plans for world domination under the bedclothes .How well Cameron called that issue .True it festers at a low level, but it is clearly not the electoral force Brown feared .

On Andrew Marr today 'Flash' waffled pitifully about ,the need to set out a vision” . Here’s an experiment for you . Imagine Tony Blair`s thespian puppy delivery of this hogwash . What have you got ? Thats right undiluted Blair in dark suit and blue tie .

At the denouement of the Edwardian detective story, for one character ,the civility that has hidden his febrile evil fractures before the truth. Typically the villain is supercilious to the end .Let us see how it plays out ..


BROWN( Clapping sarcastically ) “What lovely a story Poirot . What a pity you have no evidence for your funny little theory…”..

POIROT-“ Au contraire mon brave … I can prove that you are not the conviction politician with an alibi for the last then years .Mr. Joe public , who you thought so dull , saw you running the country like a rolling pres release. Your imposture has been “magnnfique “ .It amazed even zee leelte grey cells of Poirot .”

LADY CHUMLEY “ Poirot , what are you saying ?…”

POIROT-“ Blair …Brown … Brown , Blair look closely mon freres …Zey are zee same man “

COLONEL DUFFER-“ My god Poirot “ ‘ You`re right “ Seize the blackguard !“

Bestial; fear disfigures the villains laconic smirk and typically the he makes a dash for it over the croquet court. Finally , dishevelled and desperate , he is dragged back to the patio .There is no escape from the vice grip of a sweating plod and the astonished Hastings.


Brown can say what he likes about the inheritance tax sums , noone cares , its loose change in the 647 billion anyway. He can pose as a serious man “”Getting on with the job “ until the bovine ruminants return and good luck. We have seen the denouement , and in his fond hope that it will be forgotten he has once again misjudged the intelligence of honest Joe Public



PS. I am on Doughty Street tonight..dunno when ,its be there at 8.45

http://doughty.gdbtv.com/player.php