Port Or Starboard - The Choice Is Yours
I hear the new Speaker to preside over the Ship of Elected Troughs has finally been chosen. I wonder if the Ship of Appointed Swine will now also toe the line? A certain Mr. Berko has been selected by his fellow Commons' shipmates to walk the plank between the creaking benches and attempt to bring the lurching HMS Rotten back into a fair wind.
And, indeed, a fair amount of wind is exactly what will be necessary to bring her to some kind of heading at all. The Mother of All Ships has been at full speed ahead in the Red Sea for the last 12 years, but has finally come to grief on the rocks of the Tory Reef; the Blue Sharks are circling.
Captain Brown has had his good eye so firmly clamped to his economic telescope that he forgot to keep his own very able seaman within his line of sight, and they are in mutinous mood these days. Swarming over the rigging with their knives firmly clamped between their teeth, some have lost their grip and hit the deck. Others have attempted to over-run the crows-nest, whilst the weaker ones have simply jumped overboard - vainly clinging to the hope that their receipts don't get too wet during the long swim to the shore.
There isn't a man, woman or Mandelson alive who can control this kind of runaway vessel. The problem is that the current is too strong. And that current has been caused by the huge tide of hopelessness that has engulfed the electorate; a tide of utter despair caused by a torrent of half-truths, untruths, black fibs and downright boneshaking lies that have come to light since the expenses scandal broke.
I believe that a new laundry is what is necessary this time. Not more desperate mopping, furious pumping, drain-rodding or plughole plunging. Not enough detergent exists in the supermarkets to clean away the stain and stink of corruption that pervades the air in Westminster.
I have no doubt that there are a few, a noble few, who actually become MPs because of conviction, or because of passion or even some strange notion of doing right by society. The sad fact now is that the Government has become exactly what Lady Thatcher dreamed it could be - a glorious cruise-liner of private enterprise. And those of us who have worked within any large company will recognise the signs - company credit cards being abused, expense accounts been misused, staff being disabused, and we just know we have seen it all before.
We have to live and die by the sword in this system - and it should be absolutely no different for the Sailors of HMS Rotten.
Rats overboard now please..
Sir Guy.
And, indeed, a fair amount of wind is exactly what will be necessary to bring her to some kind of heading at all. The Mother of All Ships has been at full speed ahead in the Red Sea for the last 12 years, but has finally come to grief on the rocks of the Tory Reef; the Blue Sharks are circling.
Captain Brown has had his good eye so firmly clamped to his economic telescope that he forgot to keep his own very able seaman within his line of sight, and they are in mutinous mood these days. Swarming over the rigging with their knives firmly clamped between their teeth, some have lost their grip and hit the deck. Others have attempted to over-run the crows-nest, whilst the weaker ones have simply jumped overboard - vainly clinging to the hope that their receipts don't get too wet during the long swim to the shore.
There isn't a man, woman or Mandelson alive who can control this kind of runaway vessel. The problem is that the current is too strong. And that current has been caused by the huge tide of hopelessness that has engulfed the electorate; a tide of utter despair caused by a torrent of half-truths, untruths, black fibs and downright boneshaking lies that have come to light since the expenses scandal broke.
I believe that a new laundry is what is necessary this time. Not more desperate mopping, furious pumping, drain-rodding or plughole plunging. Not enough detergent exists in the supermarkets to clean away the stain and stink of corruption that pervades the air in Westminster.
I have no doubt that there are a few, a noble few, who actually become MPs because of conviction, or because of passion or even some strange notion of doing right by society. The sad fact now is that the Government has become exactly what Lady Thatcher dreamed it could be - a glorious cruise-liner of private enterprise. And those of us who have worked within any large company will recognise the signs - company credit cards being abused, expense accounts been misused, staff being disabused, and we just know we have seen it all before.
We have to live and die by the sword in this system - and it should be absolutely no different for the Sailors of HMS Rotten.
Rats overboard now please..
Sir Guy.
posted by therussian | 6/22/2009 09:26:00 PM
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