We’re safely past 5th November and the Palace of Westminster still appears to be standing in one piece, if somewhat shrouded in workmen’s paraphernalia. But it’s inner working has suffered a bigger disruption than anything G. Fawkes might have managed. The very roots of democracy are under threat from a Government that thinks it’s above rebuke and the law, and a Member of the once august institution who thinks it’s entirely reasonable to pocket £100,000 a year to give commercial companies privileged access to the corridors of power. So now the media are trying to suggest that MPs shouldn’t be allowed to have other jobs; and MPs will then want more money because their £80,000 salary isn’t enough. I’m choking on my bread and water even as I write this. The great achievement of our Mother of Parliaments was that Members DID do other things, because we didn’t want full time professional politicians. Added to which there is a huge benefit in MP’s having the experience and expertise of life outside Westminster. I’m so upset by all this I’m thinking of writing to my MP. Funnily enough I saw her yesterday at a Remembrance Service Concert in our local Roman Catholic Church; she had a policeman sitting beside her. More Bleak House than Great Expectations. Where’s Charles Dickens when you need him.
Are you ever worried about bacteria? If so I have some bad news. I’ve just read that one teaspoonful of saliva contains 500 million bacteria, give or take the odd thousand. That’s quite a lot. I’m intrigued to know how the survey was done and how many samples were taken to arrive at that average? Assuming it is an average, that means that some people might only have 400 million and others 600 million. You might be that lucky person with an overdose of the little blighters. Actually of course it’s good news because the vast majority of the vermin are in fact extremely beneficial, especially to our microbiome (otherwise known as the gut), which without a suitable variety doesn’t function very well. I’m most optimistic about the state of Alison’s gut as she’s become a keen gardener and getting a bit of dirt under the fingernails is apparently very good for populating the microbiome with a wider variety of microbes. Alternatively you can just get a fecal transfer…..
Wife, daughter and I tuned in to a new Crime drama on the telly last night. The very first scene featured the male lead, a Detective Inspector, having a lover’s tiff with his partner and then making up with a full-on snog. As both actors involved have penises it wasn’t a scene I felt particularly comfortable watching. Of course the Inspector’s sidekick is a black woman and we will no doubt get the full panoply of LGBTQXYZ diversity as the series progresses. A producer friend of mine told me recently that there is no longer any point in even considering a new series for TV/Netflix/Amazon Prime etc unless it covers all those bases. As far as I’m concerned anybody is free to do whatever they like, as long as it’s legal, moral and ethical, but I don’t understand why it has to be stuffed down our throats all the time?
Postscript. Parliament discussed the whole Pattinson incident today. A junior Conservative minister was left to make a fulsome apology for their idiocy because the man in charge was “honouring” a previous commitment to visit a hospital in the North East of England. Presumably all private jets were booked up. You do wonder what size of mallet will be required to bash Boris’s head before he gets the message. He’s pulling off the almost unimaginable achievement of making Sir Kier look good.
ADayInTheStrifeOf 