Night Of The Long Knives

With David Cameron's out of the blue election win, the crushing of Scottish Labour, and the immediate resignation of Ed Milliband, Nigel Farage, and Nick Clegg as leaders of their respective parties, it could be that we have seen the nearest we have ever had to a Night Of The Long Knives in domestic politics. And talking of 'respect' .... another leader was also lost when George Galloway of the 'Respect Party' had his ass kicked by an Asian female Labour candidate Naz Shah, who said she was glad to see him gone. She thanked all her opponents  ... "with the exception of one" ... "To Mr Galloway I say that your campaign demeaned our democracy but personal attacks on me have not worked. The people of Bradford West have seen through this and you have been sent on your way.” 

Whether it was his ex 'wives', or Naz Shah and her friends, George was taking no chances!

Food Of The Gods

With elections in the air, and the UK about to vote for its own Benevolent (Elected) Dictator, the question that popped into my mind was what do dictators like to eat? Well normally who cares, but as we have dealt with their pets it seems a suitable to finish off on their eating habits .... a recent book 'Dictators' Dinners: A Bad Taste Guide to Entertaining Tyrants' has divulged the tyrants choice of meals.

Now That's A Chicken Fit For Any Dictators Table

 

Interestingly, as most modern dictators (of the peoples revolutionary kind), were of peasant stock, their food choices often reflected this (a bit like me with my love of Beans on Toast!). 

 

• Antonio Salazar of Portugal, loved sardines (that dish reminded him of his impoverished childhood, when he had even had to share one between him and a sibling).

Man Of The People

Ed Miliband is about as working class as Tony Blair was ..... and maybe even less so, which is saying something ..... this is a problem which his minders and PR guru's are forever trying to counter. So for example, on the 25th of May 2014, just prior to the Euro elections, they staged a 'photo op' at Covent Market in London.

The 'visit' was staged to promote Mr Miliband’s then pledge to help small firms by cutting rates and reforming the banks (how wasn't actually specified, as usual ... but hey, why let substance interfere with style). So obviously as well as buying fresh cut 'flowers' at 06:30 am (like we all do), he also wanted to be seen as just an 'ordinary bloke', representing 'Doncaster North', and who just happened to be stopping by for a mug of tea and a breakfast bite, in a local 'greasy spoon' cafe. I know, no don't laugh, this is what happens when you parachute Labour Party apparatchiks in to safe seats in the North, and elbow local men and women aside ... remember Peter 'mandy' Mandelson, being given a seat in Hartlepool (Its called local democracy, Labour style).

Obviously, as child from Primrose Hill, north London, and educated in Corpus Christi College, Oxford, he has nothing whatsoever in common with the general residents of Doncaster North, including it seems his eating habits. Still someone in his entourage decided that a 'bacon butty' was the perfect image to give to the press .... working class fodder vote winner if ever there was one (well ignoring those who shun pork).

Why Do All Labour Leaders Now Look Like Frankie Howard?

Tarred By The Same Brush

The issue of whether the Liberal Democrats really are the 'decent people' as they recently claimed while they attacked the "bitter tribalism" of British politics, has always struck me as a strange claim, just as they say that they stand for "a different kind of politics".

And while we are on the subject of "bitter tribalism" ... the Liberal Democrats at their recent conference apparently said that they would borrow less than Labour, and cut less than the Tories, which is a tribal sort of claim. Mr Clegg also said that they will not set out "red lines" in the event of a hung Parliament, but said "people do have a right to know what our priorities are" .... meaning that he is going to play tribal politics, to try and get another five years of shared power for his party.

The party leader, also said that only he of the three main parties leaders, had taken on Nigel Farage the UKIP leader in a debate, because "someone has to stand up for the liberal Britain in which we and millions of decent, reasonable people believe". There we go again, that claim to represent the 'millions of decent, reasonable people' ... as though voters for the Tories, Labour, Green or UKIP parties, are somehow not quite the 'decent, reasonable people', that the Liberal voters are.

Just Saying It, Don't Make It True

School Kid Voters

Ed Milliband wants 16-year old's to be able to vote in elections by 2016 ..... this cunning ploy, which was also adopted by the Scottish National Party as part of the Independence referendum, is the sort of sleazy politics which we have become all to accustomed to in the current atmosphere.

The Labour Party face a very tough time in Scotland, from a powerful, nay triumphalist SNP, and may well lose most of its chances of Westminster power there, without entering into a Westminster 'arrangement' with them (or the offer of another referendum). So this little electoral stunt is designed to ensure that in any future election after 2016 (and there is a good chance that a hung Westminster Parliament could result in some sort of weak Liberal / Labour coalition, and therefore another election within 18 months), the Labour Party can harvest the semi-politically literate teen voters in urban areas.

Of course the Liberal party have also often debated this kind of idea themselves, and for much the same reasons, so they would probably favour it ..... but its the Labour Party who could actually deliver it. To be fair, Milliband has also launched a campaign to get students to register for votes, but possibly for the wrong reasons, as he is desperate to try and garner the 'youth' vote ... probably as he feels only they are daft enough to cast a vote for him ...

Ed Milliband Wooing Teen Voters .... Not

Electionitis Vaccination

How many Angels can dance on the head of a pin?

"We Don't Dance On The Head Of A Pin Unless We Are Really Drunk!"

That was the the sort of unanswerable question that medieval theologians used to ask students, although in point of fact there is actually no surviving example of the question ever being written in that form.