Fractured rib

Painful, though the painkillers work quite well.

So, the Blair era draws to a close, and Brown plans his takeover. I am awaiting to see what happens with interest. I think Brown is more of a party man than Blair, and he will be more concerned to feel that the party are being brought on board. He has shown little interest in foreign policy and his closest links are with East Coast American Democrats, but I doubt whether there will be overly hurried changes in the Iraq situation.

The attempted bringing-in of Ashdown was intriguing, but I think much of the negative publicity was actually created by the LibDems, who are desperate to see the back of him. The main problem I have with the LibDems is that so many of them, despite their 'nice' image, are exactly the opposite in reality. How can you really trust a party whose specialism is to produce lots of lies and claim credit for things they haven't done, who seem to have good progressive principles at national level, but locally are often on the populist Right, and who support PR but when it comes to its obvious outcome - coalition - don't want to get their hands dirty?

But Labour still don't inspire. Patricia Hewitt and Ruth Kelly really have got to go - with so many good women MP's, why are these two in the cabinet? Actually, why is Ruth 'Opus Dei' Kelly in the Labour party at all? And I'd be hard pushed to say exactly what I think the core of the Brown agenda is going to be.

I await with interest.

or perhaps this one?

My view on the London Olympics

And a few thoughts

Its been ages since I posted (again) largely because most of the last month appears to have been taken up marking coursework - with another few weeks to go.

So, a few musings

Lets start with politics. David Cameron is certainly proving to be Blair-lite in more ways than one. Both in terms of image and his determination to place his party in the centre. But the reactyion of the Right-wing to his decision to no longer promote grammar schools was a sign that not all are convinced, any more than Labour became utterly Blairite

Having said that, many non-Blairites left the party, along with people like me who would have classed themselves as Blairites until we realised that meant embracing neocon foreign policy. I received a letter inviting me to rejoin the party, but I don't know. Thing is, we have been moved into another constituency and there is no way I would ever vote for the sitting Labour MP there, under any circumstances, so until he departs through death or resignation, it seems a bit pointless to get involved again. If Simon Hughes had become LibDem leader then they may have embraced the sort of liberal-left ideas I believe in, but Campbell makes Brown look exciting

The papers have been full of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.Its a sad situation, but I don't feel at all easy with the creation of the media circus surrounding it. If the child had been the black offspring of a single mum from Middlesbrough I somehow think that the reaction would have not been the same.Its this sense of vicarious grief - I find it unappealing to say the least. I don;t feel any sense of grief because I do not know the people involved