EVENTS, DEAR BOYS AND GIRLS, EVENTS !

I realise that my last post of April was guilty of some gender bias, and want to rectify this today.

A few years ago, I possibly offended a former male friend by quoting Harold Macmillan's "Events dear boy, events" in response to an email. We haven't been in contact since, but the reality is that our mutual life narratives had diverged some years before.

Nevertheless, as this particular friendship was an important one for a time I want to acknowledge it by considering the relationship between narratives and events now.

The British, and particularly the English, narrative frequently takes the form of a costume drama, of which the recent Royal Wedding is a fine example.

By contrast, the American psyche seems to prefer the action movie, especially with Western references. The killing of the outlaw Bin Laden reflects this.

Given that one set of events followed so fast upon the other, David Cameron must be reflecting that a weekend is a long time in global politics.

On the home front, what might tomorrow's events - namely elections covering local government in England, the devolved administrations of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and the Alternative Vote - hold for the Prime Minister ?

I would suggest that Mr Cameron might wish to consider the portent of last week's Royal Wedding runaway horse. On AV, a win for first past the post might result in Chris Huhne chucking Nick Clegg and bolting off to the Labour Camp.

With regard to "The Scottish Play", but not the one seen earlier this week by Prince Charles, Alex Salmond is likely to the overall winner.

Nevertheless, whilst for Macmillan "events" might be the worst thing that could happen to a government, I'm personally more upbeat about their consequences for these reasons.

The departure of Chris Huhne would, after all, enable the Coalition Government to wider its appeal by offering Caroline Lucas of the UK Green Party the position of Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.

A Huhne cohabitation with the Labour Party might also enable leader Ed Miliband to deal with Comrade Balls, which would undoubtedly contribute to the well-being of the nation's political ecology.

Yes, events, dear boys and girls, may be for the better as well as for the worse !