I always think it's bad when po-facedness wins, even when there are cheap points to be made. I'm equally keen on people not taking all this very seriously.
So, well done Jack Straw for this response to a question about the hours worked by his Special Advisors:
As working for me as a Special Adviser is, I am told, pure pleasure and stress free, my Special Advisers work exceptionally long hours, often at weekends and late into the evening without complaint, and have not therefore felt the need which they otherwise might to complete timesheets to show that I was sweating their labour
I thought it was funny (for it is). And poor form for the right in pretending to care.
Tuesday 13 October 2009
Wednesday 7 October 2009
We're in this together
Anna's furious with George Osbourne's speech at conference for his 'patronising' use of the first person plural in his speech. What really riled her was 'we all borrowed too much'. Amusingly of course, the papers and the Today programme have been highlighting Osbourne's reaching deep into his children's DVD collection for the phrase 'we're in this together', apparently a key policy line from the makers of High School Musical (though as Disney spent a lot of the mid century fighting furiously with various Unions, there is a certain irony about that).
They're both wrong though. HSM cannot take credit for 'we're in this together.' It's a generic phrase. Perhaps Osbourne was really focusing on the Nine inch nails song of the same title (I've heard neither). Equally, A's quite wrong to complain that Osbourne's wealth makes him somehow unqualified to comment. Let's be clear, he's keeping the stupid 50% tax, and imposing a cut on MPs and ministers, as well as exempting the lowest paid public sector workers from the freeze (and the front line military - nice touch).
Crucially, and I cannot stress this enough, he's right because we're fucked. We have no money and a debt with more zeros that High School Musical sales. So of course we need to cut jobs and freeze pay and work harder. Labour has been poor in response claiming:
a) they'd cut harder because they've promised to halve the deficit (just as they promised to abolish boom and bust)
b) the Tories would hit the middle class. It's a long way from Labour when people earning over £50k are the class they worry about
I think it's good stuff. The public sector workers being banned from earning more than the Prime Minister is nonsense, and their caps on pension just absurd. Were they to come into force I'd have to move out of the Public sector, but they won't.
Roll on May.
They're both wrong though. HSM cannot take credit for 'we're in this together.' It's a generic phrase. Perhaps Osbourne was really focusing on the Nine inch nails song of the same title (I've heard neither). Equally, A's quite wrong to complain that Osbourne's wealth makes him somehow unqualified to comment. Let's be clear, he's keeping the stupid 50% tax, and imposing a cut on MPs and ministers, as well as exempting the lowest paid public sector workers from the freeze (and the front line military - nice touch).
Crucially, and I cannot stress this enough, he's right because we're fucked. We have no money and a debt with more zeros that High School Musical sales. So of course we need to cut jobs and freeze pay and work harder. Labour has been poor in response claiming:
a) they'd cut harder because they've promised to halve the deficit (just as they promised to abolish boom and bust)
b) the Tories would hit the middle class. It's a long way from Labour when people earning over £50k are the class they worry about
I think it's good stuff. The public sector workers being banned from earning more than the Prime Minister is nonsense, and their caps on pension just absurd. Were they to come into force I'd have to move out of the Public sector, but they won't.
Roll on May.
Sunday 4 October 2009
Bibliography, September 2009
Bought (o)
Read (6)
G. Tremlett, Ghosts of Spain
A. Christie, Murder is easy
M. Druon, Le Roi de fer
J. Lovegrove, The Hope
A. Tabucci, Requiem: a hallucination
A. Trollope, The Duke's Children
I'm far to busy to read much this month. Other than holidays I have barely read anything this month. The best though was Tremlett's (the Guardian's Madrid correspondent) book on post-Francoist Spain, which I have had for some time and never quite got round to reading. It's fascinating, insightful and very well done.
Read (6)
G. Tremlett, Ghosts of Spain
A. Christie, Murder is easy
M. Druon, Le Roi de fer
J. Lovegrove, The Hope
A. Tabucci, Requiem: a hallucination
A. Trollope, The Duke's Children
I'm far to busy to read much this month. Other than holidays I have barely read anything this month. The best though was Tremlett's (the Guardian's Madrid correspondent) book on post-Francoist Spain, which I have had for some time and never quite got round to reading. It's fascinating, insightful and very well done.
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