Fifth Decade

They say your biggest rival in Formula One is your team mate. And when your team mate has just got pole at your home GP, you do have to dig deep and pull out something special  if you are not to be eclipsed.

Luckily for Lewis, his Finnish teammate is showing all the signs of being another Fisichella - fast over one lap, but scared of all the other cars and drivers when out on the track. Scared to overtake. Too tentative to try. I mean, look at how Alonso in a far less competitive car managed to keep Kovalainnen behind him for so long that Kimi Raikkonnen was able to score enough points to maintain equal first in the WC standings.

But what of Lewis himself? Just having a weak teammate doesn’t really mean you lap everybody up to 3rd place, and finish 66 seconds ahead of the second pace finisher, a remarkably well disciplined Nick Heidfeld who was once described as “being as fast as Schumacher over a single lap” based on their days in the Mercedes Benz junior DTM team.

Another ten laps and Hamilton could have lapped the field. Everyone. Including second place! Let’s hope he relaxes a bit now, Lewis has been a little over-eager at times this year, and it has cost him.

Perhaps he should take up golf - that’s a sport in which the harder you try to hit the ball, the less well you actually do so. But hit the ball when relaxed, and it seems to go miles with little effort. Don’t give up your day job, though, Lewis - we want you to continue racing for Britain for some years - and to be the first Briton since Sir Jackie Stewart to win more than one World Championship.

Ron Dennis has gone on record as saying that Heikki was in “poor physical shape” when they inherited him from Renault. So it is possible that it isn’t balls but brawn that Heikki is missing.

It certainly seems like it is Brawn that Ferrari are missing though. Stefano Domenicali seems to be overly challenged on the strategy front, and has made many mistakes this year. The Ferrari does actually seem to be the fastest car out there, and in Raikkonnen they have one of the fastest drivers around. But if even Honda can get on the podium when Ross is around, perhaps Ferrari will live to regret their witch-hunt of British employees.

As for Alonso, he was a long way behind, wasn’t he? If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen they say. Time for Alonso to hang up his gloves then and just support the Spanish football team and that Wimbledon winning tennis player who will now take up the mantle of most revered Spaniard. Already Alonso is sowing dissension within the team with his threats of leaving, his veiled attacks on Renault, his lack of team spirit. He does like to be the Prima Donna, though, doesn’t he?

Meanwhile, the two wiser dinosaurs of Formula One, Coulthard and Barrichello both had rather different races. Coulthard, in the same car that his team mate qualified in second place in spun out on the first lap, but he really hates racing in the wet even more than he dislikes his back end sliding around. On the other hand, Rubens Barrichello in a car that frequently qualifies in last place, or not far from it, managed to finish on the podium! A brilliant tactical switch to full wets for the short period of rain saw him lapping some 12 seconds a lap faster than rest of the field at one point, and with Brawn’s brains and Rubens’ racecraft who knows how well Honda could soon start doing.

But the day itself belonged to Lewis. He deserved to win, and his composure towards the end of the race was what he needs to remember the rest of the season. He’s a great driver, but over-confidence and over-driving are things he needs to continuously guard against. He can make a small difference to the performance of his car, but even he has to realise that sometimes scoring those extra points for fourth or eighth is more important than going for a win and perhaps in risking everything, achieving nothing as he has done already three times this year.

The second half of the season could be interesting!

Rumours are that now the FIA have re-elected a President whose primary public image is one of messing about with prostitutes, that the next move is to begin a global campaign to allow kerb crawling motorists to reclaim their fines for engaging the services of prostitutes. Max Mosley, the sad FIA President, has publicly said many times that he sees nothing wrong in engaging prositutes because they are “freely consenting adults”. Clearly a majority of the representatives of the motoring clubs that make up the FIA have come to the same conclusion.

Presumably, they did not think that messing about with prostitutes is morally repugnant nor a support for human trafficking, drug use, or the criminal underworld, or even an abuse against women. Neither it seems did they worry about their own members from the many countries in the world in which prostitution is illegal.

Apparently, many of the member clubs who supported Max Mosley receive money from the FIA. As any prostitute knows first you take the money, then you provide the required service - in this case to Max’s satisfaction.

Are we to conclude then that the lunatics are running the asylum?

If you are a woman, or a social worker dealing with the consequences of the abuse of women, or a feminist, or someone who believes in equality, or someone who has moral fibre, or who has religious affiliations, and are also a member of a motoring organisation then perhaps you should pressure your own motoring organisation to act proactively to do something to reverse this ego-driven abuse of power.

Just to remind you how it all started: the News of The World published a video showing Max Mosley, FIA President and son of the pre-war British Fascist party leader Sir Oswald Mosley engaging in a sado-masochistic orgy with three prostitutes in a concentration camp setting. The FIA represents the views of the world’s drivers in discussions with governments and other interested parties.

This week every other news item seems to be about some luminary, or thinks-he-is-a-luminary, exhibiting remarkable powers of denial over reality. Here are the shockers that most immediately come to mind:

Zimbabwe

Robert Mugabe is clearly in denial about having been defeated in the recent elections. Not only has the result not been made public, it’s actually been made into a state secret! Having said that, the ruling Marxist Zanu-PF party are making preparations for a re-run. Except nobody knows if that is correct or not, since the results have not yet been released, two weeks after the election was held, and one week after the results should have been released.

Latest news is that 23 constituencies will have a recount (because the electorate got it wrong, obviously) despite there being a time limit of 48 hours in which to lodge a recount request, which can only be issued after the results have been released, which they still haven’t been! Naturally, one suspects these specific 23 recounts have been planned because within the last two weeks, Mugabe supporters have been busily establishing they are the constituencies which need the fewest votes to be re-written, and have managed to rewrite them by now.

Finally though, the leaders of the countries surrounding Zimbabwe seem to be considering ending their state of denial that anything needs to be done in Zimbabwe and are actually saying things that should have been said years ago.

South Africa

In South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, that well known advanced intellect who was busily claiming there was no crisis in the ANC leadership as he sped to defeat at the hands of his rather more charismatic colleague - yes I know that could be anyone so I’ll be more specific and say defeat at the hands of his colleague, Mr Zuma, for leadership of the ANC - has now been saying there is no crisis in Zimbabwe either (never mind the electoral irregularities, starvation, 100,000% annual inflation, 80% unemployment and general economic collapse that has pushed 3 million refugees into Zimbabwe’s neighbours’ lands).

Even more, Megabrain Mbeki has gone on record to say that it was in the law that Zimbabwe could hold a run-off election. Yes, Thabo, but first of all they have to release the results of the first one! How else do you know they need a run-off?

Monaco

Changing tack to look at someone who hasn’t exactly been caned in an election (just caned) is Max Mosley who has been busily protesting that he has done nothing wrong in procuring the services of five hookers for a five hour orgy of sado-masochistic concentration camp style German language corporal punishment and sex. Someone ought to give Mr Mosley an education in the ways of the world, the law, and morality.

Prostitution supports the drug industry, human trafficking, and other unsavoury and associated criminally connected pursuits, and the women involved seldom sign up to it as the long-awaited fulfillment of their childhood dreams. Yes, Max Mosley, you did do something wrong.

London

In the town of Max’s recent denouement, another nobody-cum-luminary, Alastair Darling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer (the UK Finance Minister) who knows how to do what his boss says, is in denial about the strength of response of the UK Government to the sub-Prime crisis. He was on the BBC TV news on Saturday trying to pass the blame for the lack of response from the banks to the Bank of England’s recent 0.25% cut in interest rates. They have not all reduced the mortgage rates they charge borrowers.

Well, what did he expect? The ramifications of the sub-Prime crisis are far larger than can be fixed by a quarter point cut: the US Federal Reserve reduced rates by 3.0% and fed over $200 billion into the banking system across the board in exchange for (some of) the bad sub-Prime based collateral that is at the root of the problem. The UK Government just pledged a large portion of that sum to a single bank that would have otherwise have gone bankrupt.

But he’s clearly in denial about a quarter point cut being enough - the banks have to rebuild their reserves, and will be doing this in any way they can - a wider savings rate to mortgage rate differential, higher charges, more charges.

So, there we are, an unusually high tally of high-ups who need to do some mental press-ups to avoid having to wear hold-ups or hold dress-ups. Yes, it’s a giant cock up by the stuck up for the fucked-up.

I hope it’s a hiccough.

Nice lap, Robert. Light fuel load? No matter, pole is pole. I could hear the cheers from Warsaw from here!

I’ve always liked Poles - those of the thousands who live in the UK have all been pretty decent people. Friendly, welcoming and hospitable. Considering they faced death if they went back to their home country while it was under Russian domination, they always showed a phlegmatic sense of National pride, duty and patriotism tinged with sadness at their and their country’s loss.

It’s really nice to see such a friendly, determined and heroic people rise up and compete on the world stage in what is something that would only be possible in a non-communist world. Formula One. And Robert Kubica - today, you must be Poland’s hero. Best wishes for the race - chill out and don’t let your nerves get to you this time…

Talking of nerves, let’s see if Massa can keep it on the track this time. He really needs to finish! Never mind fighting for position, he just needs to keep it on the track. For a change. Maybe no traction control really does separate the men from the boys? And Massa right now is looking more and more like a boy…

As for the boy Hamilton, well, the boy done good. As Our ‘Enery would say. At a track where the Ferraris are clearly dominant (I am assuming they have more fuel on board than Kubica) pushing Raikkonnen down to 4th was no mean achievement.

Not sure why James Allen boo-booed again on ITV saying that it was good Hamilton was ahead of Alonso. Err, yes James. If you haven’t noticed yet, Alonso is in a Renault, and lucky to even get into final qualifying. There is no way he will be a contender this year - he couldn’t stand the heat, so he got out of the (McLaren) kitchen. At least James Allen explained the difference between what ITV calls the “hard” and “soft” tyres and the drivers call the “Prime” and “Option” tyres. Nice to see F1 moving to BBC next year though I am sure there are some good people in the ITV team as well.

Hamilton along with Kubica is on the grippy side of the track too, as is Kovalainen, unlike both Ferraris who are on the slippery side - but on the inside of the first corner. Should be an interesting start!

There’s going to be mayhem into Turn One. Kubica will get off into the lead, Hamilton will follow him, but the Ferraris will try to move over to the left asap to get onto the grippy side of the track with Raikkonnen overhauling Massa who will be desperate not to go off and therefore more cautious. This will then leave space on the right side of the track for those starting from fifth and below who may pile into the Turn One with too much speed on the slippery, sandy part of the circuit, not being able to stop and giving a few cars a light tap here and there. At least the strengthened, Adrian Newey designed Red Bulls will be less likely to explode this week! But we’ll see. The picture I’ve just described is just one (rather obvious) possibility.

And we all know that in Formula One strange things can happen. On and off the track. As we have recently found out. Bahrain is going to be a cracking GP.

But one thing you won’t hear this weekend is anyone saying “Bah. Rain.”

I was just reading an interesting story in MacFormat magazine about the NHS. They’ve spent a load of dosh (they can’t do anything without spending a load of dosh, apparently) on bringing themselves into the online age with a couple of applications - Choose and Book, and the even more expensive Electronic Patient Record system.

Anyway, they’ve spent £5,600,000,000 to be exact. That’s £5.6 billion. Plus £64.5 million on top. Like a kind of tip…

The story unfolds on Page 8 of the April issue of the mag “Safari users failed by NHS” and describes how NHS online schemes are unavailable to thousands of Mac users because the NHS systems only support Microsoft Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers.

Health Minister Ben Bradshaw was queried in the House of Commons by the Conservative’s Stephen O’Brien about the £64.5 million Choose and Book appointments system and replied in a written answer using what can only be called Microsoft-speak:

Because of the number of browser versions available to internet users, priority has been given to certification of the application against the most popular browsers in the first instance.

Well, that is strange. I thought there was such a thing as Internet Standards? You know, rules like we have for driving - drive on the left, steering wheel on the right, accelerator on the right, clutch on the left and brake in the middle. Standards that when used mean that any manufacturer can build a car that works on the road, and that any driver can use without having to learn a new system.

On the internet there is a set standard, even a set of standards, and the best websites use what is known as “Standards compliant coding” which basically means they only have to design and code for one International Standard. It is then up to the browser writers to comply with those agreed standards. This saves a lot of money for developers.

I mean, why develop for many different systems when you could develop for just one global standard?

Ah, but that doesn’t help Microsoft sell their software does it, because when there are standards that anyone can use, there is no way to lock them in to having to buy Microsoft. Microsoft have a long history of sabotaging international standards, as we have just seen with the ISO voting process for Microsoft’s OOXML file format when there was already a perfectly adequate ISO standard with far wider acceptance in the Open Document Format (ODF).

That’s exactly what they have done with the internet. In order to force users to buy their Operating Systems they incorporated features into their browser that were sufficiently different to the agreed standards to make life difficult for those with different browsers. In fact, in many ways Internet Explorer does not read standards compliant websites awfully well at all - it’s a flawed browser on many levels, not least of which being security, something of a concern where our health records are concerned.

It’s the waste that gets me though. How on earth could the government spend £5.6 billion on any computer system at all? And then not have it fully working? That’s a lot of tax money. It’s a lot of free prescriptions. It’s a lot of patient beds, a lot of life-saving equipment. Oh, I forgot, it’s also a lot of profit for Microsoft and its supporters.

Well, at least we know what the NHS considers most important then.

It could only happen in 21st Century shambolic Britain.

For many, many years Terminal 5 at London Heathrow has been in one stage or another of being planned or being built. Just the process of building the place has taken over 5 years. So you’d have thought that every eventuality would have been planned for, every process would have been rehearsed many times, every member of staff would have been fully trained, and would know exactly what did what, where, and how.

It seems they didn’t.

BA might have been hoping people would be able to hum the Steve Miller Band song, “Fly like an Eagle”. Well, BA got the Eagle part right, but only because on the day it was more like that line from The Eagle’s “Hotel California “You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave…”

It appears that British Airways caught “Iraq Expectancy Syndrome” ie, a concentration on everything up until the moment of truth, but very little focussed on consequences afterwards. Too much “Short Termism” perhaps? Basically, BA and BAA seem to have just assumed that everything would be fine on the day. BA even sent out a peppy email full of vim and hopefulness. It started:

“Five and a half years ago the building of our new home began in our most visionary project to date. Today we opened the doors. There is no more waiting… “

Err, really? According to the BBC News website things were not so rosy as BA predicted with delays of 3 hours or more for some, while less lucky people had to find hotel rooms as flights were missed or cancelled.

In their email, BA said “At Terminal 5 everything has been streamlined and designed to make your journey through the terminal calm and relaxed. And this morning we saw all the planning fall into place.”

Actually what we saw was everything falling apart.

Reports on BBC News say the problems mounted up for a number of reasons, all of which come down to bad planning, bad preparation, and poor or insufficient training. A typically British mess.

The BBC reported that the bottleneck was due to what BA referred to as the new “state-of-the-art baggage system” which broke down due to insufficient resources such as the computer system not being able to cope with the number of bags being carried. Because staff couldn’t get to their workplaces in time, bags mounted up at the end of the conveyor belts which were supposed to deliver bags to planes; this stopped the conveyors working, and then the check in couldn’t add any new bags to the “flow” and so everything stopped.

Some people even sat on their planes for three hours on the tarmac waiting for their baggage to be loaded, only to see it being returned to the terminal because the computers told the baggage handlers their stationary plane had already departed.

This was in complete contrast to BA’s earlier boast that “The next time you fly in to, or on from Terminal 5, you’ll experience for yourself how all the planning and careful design has fallen into place.”

Rather than falling into place, things were falling apart. One passenger in a wheelchair was stuck on a flight arriving into T5 from Glasgow for more than an hour - and then when he was transported to the terminal he realised he could not get up the kerb. Now that’s just ridiculous. Forgetting about wheelchairs in this age of Disability Awareness? That’s sloppy, if not careless.

So why was there all this chaos? Simple things, apparently. Some workers couldn’t get into their allocated car parks (insufficient systems testing); they got lost on the way to their places of work (lack of practice and poor preparation and signage); and some couldn’t get through security (poor systems testing again). And then of course there were the computer systems that fell over when things got difficult because presumably the programmers had not planned for what happens when things go wrong. Iraq Expectation Syndrome again.

In the end, 34 flights were cancelled, hundreds if not thousands of passengers inconvenienced, Britain made to look a laughing stock. Just because people no longer think things all the way through because they are more focussed on saving money/maximising profits than they are on getting the job done effectively.

Just like any other day at Heathrow then?

Is Spooks one of the best TV series ever?

BBC1’s immensely fascinating insight into the world of counter espionage, as carried out by Her Majesties Secret Service in the guise of MI5, has an edge of reality that is both believeable, and reassuring at the same time. Certainly it makes one proud to be British, knowing such people carry out such tasks in such a selfless way. And relatively unthanked too.

Well, maybe they get an MBE here, a CBE there, maybe the Directorship of a QUANGO or so - or even a career in politics, as the last head of MI5 has only recently embarked upon.

Whatever, the program catches the reality of life as a spy in the same way that the Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister series’ both did for the civil servant/elected representative dynamic.

You get the feeling that these stories really happened, or could have happened. Strangely, it makes me like the US more too. Sure, they have an iffy President at the moment, but I don’t believe for a moment that all US secret service people think like he does. First of all they are far more patriotic (they served their country, George Bush never did) and secondly, they are far more intelligent. They just have to carry out some rather stupid orders at times.
Same for the MI5 staff. They aren’t stupid. And Spooks really shows that.

So, if you know someone from the secret services, pat them on the back for me. Tell them the public do appreciate their sacrifice, even though we cannot understand their burdens. We may even criticise the outcomes of their actions from time to time, but mostly, we are so glad they are there, protecting us.

The only thing I wonder about though, is when Harry says he believes in protecting “this country” which exact idea of this country does he mean? Does he mean the current Government (whichever one is in power right now) or does he mean the system of Parliamentary democracy with a Monarch as Head of State, or some private ideal?

Makes you think, doesn’t it?

It isn’t often I’m surprised these days. But just occasionally, every now and then, it suddenly hits me.

This evening I was watching as I often do “This Week” hosted by Andrew Neil, ex-editor of the Sunday Times, with regular participants ex-MP Michael Portillo and current MP Diane Abbott. The guest I found most interesting was surprisingly Katie Melua, a singer whose CD I coincidentally bought recently without knowing anything more about her (I’d heard her played on one of the ad-free, talk free, Swiss radio stations, either Radio Swiss Jazz or Radio Swiss Pop and so bought the CD online there and then).

No, this isn’t some fan mail about some sexy, good looking young singer who’s on a roll, after all, This Week is a politics show - and a good one for the most part. Although of course, she is all of the above too.

What was particularly interesting was what Miss Melua had to say. She’s a very bright girl with some very good ideas. Well, she’s a Doctor’s daughter. She also happens to be Georgian, an immigrant of 15 years into the UK which she arrived in at the age of 8. Her English is now perfect, and she has just taken on British Citizenship, which she is clearly very proud of. Her praise of Britain was great to listen to. If only more Britons spoke like that about their country!

The discussion was on immigration, Britishness, and integration. Katie said there was not enough teaching of or resources for, the teaching of English to older and younger new immigrants but perhaps too much political correctness in England when she arrived compared to her home country Georgia - or even to her first British home in Northern Ireland during the troubles where she had to learn Irish dancing and how to play the tin whistle, a complete contrast to England where nothing specifically British or English was required of her; Diane Abbot said the British tend to be most British when they are showing everyone how little British they actually are; Michael Portillo said in the fifties Britons were last proud to be British, while Andrew Neil in turn egged them on, or over-egged things as the flow demanded.

Then it hit me: none of these commentators, talking about Britishness, were actually English! Well, not completely. Katie Melua is a first generation immigrant from Eastern Europe. Diane Abbott’s parents came from Jamaica. Michael Portillo is half Spanish. And Andrew Neil is a Scot!

Now I’ve seen it all. Britain clearly is a most cosmopolitan society. And do you know what? It’s a lot richer because of that. The discussion was interesting, well-argued, stimulating and well researched. People with real experiences and relevant ideas came together without any particular cross to bear or chip on their shoulders, and although the discussion was short, it was very satisfying to listen to.

Well done the “This Week” team. Now I really have seen it all…

Murdoch: I decide Sun’s politics

This has got nothing to do with taxes or immigration issues. It’s a lot more important than that - in fact it’s a completely fundamental flaw in Britain’s current system of government and explains a lot of the negative culture that so holds Britain back from its true potential.

I don’t want this to appear to be an attack on Rupert Murdoch either, since the system we have isn’t his fault, he just knows how it works and how to benefit from it. You have to actually admire him for that. But he does make a good illustration of what is wrong with the system.

In the US, no foreigner can own a majority share of any media business. That’s why Murdoch changed his Nationality from Australian to American. So he could own an American media network.

However, Britain has no similar rule, and that’s surely wrong.

Any foreigner can own a British newspaper, and with the multi-million issue selling tabloid press can then influence huge swathes of the electorate. Mr Murdoch has even said, to a House of Lords committee investigating media ownership that he “exercises editorial control on major issues - like which party to back in a general election or policy on Europe.”

Pardon me? He does what?

He persuades people, through the editorial slant his tabloid newspapers take, the stories and photographs they publish, exactly which party to back in a general election!

Not because the binmen don’t come often enough to his house, or because he pays too much tax, or has to wait too long for an NHS Doctor’s appointment, or because his kids’ school is under equipped. No, instead he is far more likely to be influenced by what is happening in his adopted country. What is good for the US? Or just as dangerous perhaps, what is good for sales?

Foreign media owners cannot feel the things British residents or Nationals feel, they may have some idea, or an ideology they follow, but the less British they are the less it will be likely to benefit Britain. They are far more likely to be biased against British interests than they are to be biased against the foreign interests they see, feel and hear, day-to-day, back home.

As a puppetmaster, a foreign owner’s audience are the people in their adopted and original lands. To them, Britons are no more than the players on the stage, controlled by the strings in their hands.

The influence they exert may be very subtle. But how can it be in Britain’s best interests? Shouldn’t British owners living in Britain control the press? After all, foreigners are not welcome donors to political campaigns financially, so why are they allowed to make or break Prime Ministers through the use of ongoing campaigns to undermine them or their policies?

Not all Fifth Columnists are shady men from Russia or China in back alleys. Some foreigners influence our way of life for their own ends and most of us don’t even think about it, we do what we are led to believe is right. Just not for us.

Ban foreign ownership of the British media now!

There seems to be a complete glut of disasters happening in the Government right now, the latest of which being the two missing CDs containing 25 million records of 7.2 million families and their Child Benefit claims. That came after the row over detention without charge nonsense which nobody other than the government supports.

Before that there was the Northern Rock disaster, in which the government bailed out the ex-Building Society turned “Mortgage Bank” with an open cost of some £30 billion potentially over the long term.

There are loads more too. To be honest, the Northern Rock fiasco was caused by slack policy in the USwhich created the sub-Prime scandal, and nothing to do with Gordon at all. Having said that, he did have the choice of letting the Northern Rock go bankrupt, and he decided he wouldn’t. Bet the fat cat boss of Northern Rock who made himself a millionaire from windfall profits when the carpet baggers sold off the family silver didn’t mind being rescued like that.

Funny thing though, Fat Cat bosses of privatised and semi-publicly owned businesses such as the Northern Rock always clai they need to earn such high salaries “because of world competition for top executives which means we have to pay them the market rate”.

Like hell you do. They aren’t the same at all. They get bailed out when they create a monumental cock up. Private bosses get sacked.

Of course, neither situation is a disaster for the boss that caused the problem through his daft decisions in the first place - oh no, whether private through and through or public servant to private philanderer, they always seem to end up with contracts that guarantee them five year’s worth of salary as a Golden Handshake or £10 million, whichever is the larger.

But I digress. This is supposed to be all about Gordon, remember? Well, there’s a very good reason, I believe, why Gordon’s on the rack right now.

It’s called Revenge. Revenge of the Sir Humphreys.

Gordon Brown was probably Britain’s most successful (and longest serving) Chancellor ever - certainly in living memory. He did a great job, and by having had a deal with Tony to not be moved out of his job in any reshuffle, he actually learned his way around the civil service pretty well, learned all their tricks, cons and subterfuges, and learned how to counter them all.

Not only that, but unforgivably, he stopped them spending money! Their own money (in their eyes), which they were entitled to spend how they wished through dint of being a civil servant charged with spending the money of the taxpayers.

Imagine all the times Gordon trod on people’s toes, slowed down their plans, and even interfered in internal matters! Remember that big spat Gordon had with the Civil Service over pensions a year or two before he took over from Tony?

Well, now the chickens have come home to roost. Gordon’s out of No. 11 and into No. 10. Well, his office has changed, if not his living quarters. Apparently the flat at No 11 that is for the Chancellor is bigger than the one that goes with being Prime Minister at No. 10, Downing Street. Since Tony had a bigger family than Gordon, he bagged the bigger flat at No. 11 which meant Gordie moved into No. 10 to live in some years ago - and now he’s working from home again.

Only problem is, he cannot control the Civil Servants any more, and every chance they get they’re letting one loose. They’re revelling in his discomfort and pain.

I just wonder how long it’ll last though. At some point all the accumulated bad things they stored away for years will run out, and Gordon will suddenly start to look all competent and in charge again, just in time for the next election campaign.

From Gordon’s point of view it must be a bit like a trip to the dentist. Murder having the tooth out, and painful for a short while, but my goodness is it better in the long run when the toothache goes away!

Sir Humphrey may live to regret the way things are going…