THE BRITISH THREAD II

I know, Nigel Adkins is not a happy bunny. This is the first time we've dropped off the top of the table for 4 months. We're only 1 point above Cardiff and our next league game is against them.

It might be a landlord's policy. To shift these families out of London and re-develop the properties now that the need or desire for servants has been reduced. And to thin out Labour voters. Improve the tone in the capital.

Provincial landlords will also benefit.

The bishops won't like it because the poor are more pious.

I think you might be right there.

Ah, Shirley Porter, gerrymandering in Westminster. I get it now.
Good point, Spendy.
But I think, misplaced in this instance. They only want to make it worthwhile for people to work. Otherwise, why would they?

And further to that, we hear of communities where no-one has worked for two or three generations.
Since the Welsh pits closed, Wales has been a black spot, no joke intended.
If children are growing up in a house where father and grandfather/ parents and grandparents/ have never worked, no wonder so many see only The X Factor as a career choice.

Lets talk about eugenics. It gets a bad name, but what is the quality of the next generation to be? What of their attitude?
I think every generation since Cromwell has thought the place was going to the dogs, and now it's our turn.

Ill fares the land, to hast'ning ills a prey
Where wealth accumulates, and men decay

I'm not absolutely sure they do want everybody to work. They have to say they do of course because not doing would be dynamite.

A policy was in operation for many years to sign anybody who applied off as excused work and on to incapacity benefit because they then didn't appear in the official unemployment figures, just as Saturdays, Sunday, Bank holidays, long weekends, etc etc. early closing, don't, and they were not working. I gather that now you need a bad squint or a fear of enclosed places/ open spaces. I knew one lady who got on incapacity benefit because she was deaf in one ear.

And are mothers bringing children up not working. Or those looking after elderly relatives. Were financial whizzbangers working in 2008? What's work?

There are a lot of economic advantages to, say, 8% unemployment. There are disadvantages too of course but they mainly stem from the desire of the 92% to keep the cost of the 8% down.

Attitudes are another matter. I suppose that communities were no-one has worked for 2 or 3 generations have ways of making life tolerable. There are late mornings, allotments, pigeon clubs, pubs, TV, pancake racing, gossiping, the Open University, bowls, no bosses, no targets, no commuting---I bet it is quite interesting once they get into the swing of it.

I don't think we are going to the dogs. They try to give us that impression so that we will look to them to save us.

I see our Mr Cameron is in Davos today, explaining the shortcomings of the eurozone to its members.
No doubt he will endear himself to his listeners as he always does.

Yesterday he told the European Court of Human Rights it should not concern itself too much about what happens in Britain.

I think Mr Cameron has made a close study of Mr Blair and his main man Campbell.

I recently read Mr Blair's account of his time in office and Alastair Campbell's diary record of those years. They are worth reading Mac.

There are many examples in them of the gentle irony of your post. Especially in Campbell. I read Blair first and I think I chose correctly. I'll perhaps read them the other way round in the summer.

Tony's attitude to Cherie is very grown up.

My distaste for Tony Blair prevents me from purchasing or reading his book. He can convince himself of anything, and fake sincerity with the skill of the master, a master manipulator. No doubt intelligent and famously articulate (if you get past his matey smarm) he is utterly devoid of principle. Elected by the people and then not even governing by cabinet, he answers only to God, the other infallible being.

Ich bin ein Iraqi.

I was not trying to persuade you to accept Blair's point of view. I was trying to persuade you to have a look at what it's like in there. Where the buck stops. In a madhouse.

What if you end up thinking like Blair's on soft furnishings?

I think I already know what he would say. Look guys, it's very difficult you know, I did what I thought was best at the time with the information we had. And by the way, after our success in Kosovo it was clear to me that I was an instrument of the Almighty. Two million marchers in London against the invasion of Iraq? What is that compared to my toothpaste-sharing partner's wishes? I told George Dubya we were in, long before. Of course, that would have been unpopular in Parliament, so I had to keep quiet about that till later.

Blair's "point of view" is like the points of the compass. It all depends where the wind is blowing from.

Fixed

I didn't mean anything like that Mac.

Australian Open Tennis. Things are going well for Andy Murray. Right now he is playing Novak Djokovic for a place in the final against Rafael Nadal.
Sofar the score is one set each.

It's going on now? What time is it over there?

Match in progress right now, 3rd set and the score is 4 all. Our time is 10.30pm in Melbourne.

It's live on Eurosport.

So it is, thanks Walter.