On the radio this morning
I heard about a project taking place over the next eleven months in
which eleven accomplished authors will each write
a short story about the eleven incarnations of "Doctor
Who" as a run-up to the fiftieth anniversary of the show in
November. These might be interesting. Each story is only about five
thousand words long and will cost a couple of quid. I was a tad
surprised to see that these stories are being published by Puffin
books, but after all, Doctor Who is a kid's show (!)
But the main news of the
day was the
Prime Minister's speech. The radio commentators and TV news spoke
about very little else today. My piss boiled on so many levels.
Firstly with the constant references by the various pundits to
"Cameron". I can't pretend to be the chap's biggest
fan, but he is the Prime Minister, and should be addressed as "the
Prime Minister" or "Mr Cameron" or "Sir".
I'm always running him down, but I respect the office he holds.
And as for what he's
done.... He's promised a referendum as to whether the UK will be in
or out of the European Union. Personally I feel we should remain in,
but that's irrelevant. What's annoyed me is the way that this move is
billed as being a triumph of democracy. It is not. When you actually
analyse what he's said, he is actually offering (if elected)
the choice to vote for whatever specific plans he will cook up for a
Europe that suits him, or to unilaterally leave the European Union if
he don't like the look of it at the time. I'm reminded of a small
child demanding its own way before going off in a sulk. A true
democratic process would give me personally some input into devising
any revised Union treaty.
But is this about the
British membership of Europe at all? The Prime Minister has said that
he feels that the UK should remain part of the European Union. I
can't help but feel that the Con-Servatives have stirred the
Euro-debate in order to do the dirty to their political opponents in
UKIP, and to appeal to the jingoistic vote by winding up the other
European leaders.
And what with the Prime
Minister boiling that most volatile of fluids by his performance on
the radio, my blood pressure went through the roof at the antics of
my fellow road users. Traffic was stacked three miles back out of
Wincheap as everyone seemingly celebrated "National Drive Up
the Middle of the Road Day". Traffic was at a standstill as
so many people were blocking the roads by driving right up the
middle, rather than keeping to the left hand side of the road. On the
back streets there was even a chap in a mobility scooter following
the white lines; seemingly desperate not to be left out.
I can understand his not
wanting to be on icy pavements, but did he really need to be
following those white lines?
Being on a late start
gave me a little time before work, so I did some shopping. A tankful
of petrol (not cheap), and then to "Pets at Home"
for Furry Face's food. On Saturday we got a card from the Ashford
branch of "Pets at Home" where (I am sure)
the nice lady said it gave us ten per cent off of all purchases in
any of their stores. The nice lady in the Canterbury store wasn't
having any of it, but said that we could use the card to accrue
points which we might redeem at some vague future point. Oh well -
every little helps, I suppose. Mind you it doesn't help that Furry
Face doesn't seem to be overly fond of Pets at Home dog food. But
it's (relatively) cheap, in these austere times he'd be even less
fond of going hungry.
And so to work, which was
much the same as ever. I spent a little while looking to swap shifts
about when my phone rang. The most recent fruit of my loin wanted to
use my PC. She needed it to make a presentation about eroticism in
modern art (!) Personally I'd rather she made a presentation
about modern art's need to take a firm moral stance (preferably in
stout hessian undergarments), but what do I know? And then in a
fit of boredom I decided to unleash my savage vengeance onto an
ungrateful and unsuspecting universe. However I found myself somewhat
thwarted. An ungrateful and unsuspecting universe is rather a large
thing onto which to unleash savage vengeance, and I was rather at a
loss as to where to start. If any of my loyal readers might like to
offer any suggestions on the matter...
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