A week is a long time in politics, but seven days after the dawn of a "new" era of Tory supremacy, the agonising continues over Labour's thorough beating in the local elections.
Everywhere, it seems, except Bolton, one of the few areas to swerve the wholesale rejection of Gordon Broon and his motley crew of assorted sycophants and secret plotters.
The divine Anthony left a right mess when he quit Number 10 for the lucrative after-dinner speaking circuit. One political commentator has suggested that perhaps he could be persuaded to donate a slice of the considerable wedge he is now trousering towards a fund to benefit military victims of his ill-conceived march into Iraq. There's more chance of me being elected Miss World.
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I feel sorry for his successor. It's not his fault that the world is currently enduring a cataclysmic economic downturn. Nor that he suffered a personality by-pass somewhere along the way. Maybe he never had one, a personality that is, unlike his sainted predecessor, whose easy smile and honeyed words could make even the Blackest Wednesday seem like Good Newsday.
All those years sitting on the bench and then Gordon turns out to be a lost leader. Much worse is that directly opposite him in the House is David Cameron, a carbon copy of Tony Blair. Youthful, gifted with the gab, an opportunist, doing what Opposition leaders do best, capitalising on mishaps which have befallen, or been engineered by, the Party in power. Will Cameron and his Tories be any better? We must wait and see, as the chances of Mr Broon turning things round seem remote just now.
To his credit, the PM held up his hand, accepted defeat like a man - though in private the reaction may have been different - and promised to start listening to the electorate, particularly those in Labour heartlands who deserted him in droves. I had to snigger at that. Politicians listen but don't hear. However, just in case Gordon is the opposite of what we have come to expect from the legions at Westminster, here are a few suggestions:
Bring our military personnel home from Iraq and Afghanistan. It may upset our cousins across the Atlantic, and damage the "special relationship" we hear so much about, but only the most optimistic, or seriously daft, believe Britain's presence is serving any useful purpose in either country. And the billions it is costing could be better spent improving the UK's economy.
Make all prohibited drugs legal, impose the same kind of swingeing tax on them as you do on alcohol, fuel and tobacco, thus benefiting the Treasury by "squillions", making dealers redundant and reducing levels of violent crime associated with drugs. Prohibition does not work. Think about Capone and the other mobsters who flourished in America during the 1920s.
Impose new tax thresholds on non-domiciles, who earn fortunes in the UK but get away with financial murder, thus endorsing the oft-expressed view that New Labour are really Tories in disguise.
That will do for starters, Gordon. We'll get to tax levels on cigs, fuel and booze later. Do you hear us, Scotland the Brave?
Most will agree that prohibition does not work. Bans can become a challenge to may people.
All money earned in this country should be taxed in this country.
Cannibis is less harmful that alcohol and a lot of tax could be raised by making it legal.
PS. Unlike many MPs I have never tried cannibis and don't want to.
Most will agree that prohibition does not work. Bans can become a challenge to may people.
All money earned in this country should be taxed in this country.
Cannibis is less harmful that alcohol and a lot of tax could be raised by making it legal.
PS. Unlike many MPs I have never tried cannibis and don't want to.
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