Thursday, July 31, 2008
The Next Leader of the Labour Party.....
... should of course be Diane Abbott. Never mind the wimpish Mr Miliband, or one makeover too many Ms Harman, the Labour Party needs a woman of substance to renew its values, and tackle any rogue elements amongst the security services and its spouses, amongst other things...
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Professions better suited to single people
In a society increasingly mawkish about marriage and the family, I am sure that some will censure me if I suggest that some professions are best suited to single people. I would include amongst such professions those of spy and purveyor of sado-masochistic services, and, perhaps particularly, where the two roles are combined. The case of "Witness E" in the deliberations of Court 13 regarding "Family Man Max Mosley vs Family Values News International" has of course focused my attention on this matter.
For it seems that Witness E - please correct me if I am wrong -, a married woman with 2 children (? and wife of a- now former - MI5 Director ), was the catalyst for this media furore, playing the role not only of dominatrix, but also, as it were, agent provocateur and "double agent" in accepting payment from both Mr Mosley, for a domination services, and The News of the World (for hosting a secret camera in her cleavage). Unfortunately, one serious consequence of all this was that her husband lost his job, unless this was some Spooks-style sting, of course.
Yesterday, Witness E expressed remorse for her actions. Well, she would, wouldn't she ! She had, apparently, discussed the matter - in what detail she did not confide - with her husband on the day previous to the event. One would have hoped that he had shown the good judgement we expect of spouses and members of the security services, but obviously this was not the case. Perhaps the prospect of £20k (? cash up front) from The News of the World had something to do with it. Maybe he felt he was standing up for family values in helping to expose Mr Mosley.
Witness E described her anticipated activities with Mr Mosley to her husband as in the nature of a "joke", leading me to suspect that her own marital relations, like those of her client, were rather odd. Therefore my message to all those - all be they non-uniformed - relationship and family fascists out there is this (please take note !) : marital/civil partnership and family status is no guarantee of probity etc in professional and public life; there are as many married perverts as unmarried ones, and probably more ; and some professions are better suited to single people.
Please see also my earlier blog : "Spooks" and The Real Power Inquiry
For it seems that Witness E - please correct me if I am wrong -, a married woman with 2 children (? and wife of a- now former - MI5 Director ), was the catalyst for this media furore, playing the role not only of dominatrix, but also, as it were, agent provocateur and "double agent" in accepting payment from both Mr Mosley, for a domination services, and The News of the World (for hosting a secret camera in her cleavage). Unfortunately, one serious consequence of all this was that her husband lost his job, unless this was some Spooks-style sting, of course.
Yesterday, Witness E expressed remorse for her actions. Well, she would, wouldn't she ! She had, apparently, discussed the matter - in what detail she did not confide - with her husband on the day previous to the event. One would have hoped that he had shown the good judgement we expect of spouses and members of the security services, but obviously this was not the case. Perhaps the prospect of £20k (? cash up front) from The News of the World had something to do with it. Maybe he felt he was standing up for family values in helping to expose Mr Mosley.
Witness E described her anticipated activities with Mr Mosley to her husband as in the nature of a "joke", leading me to suspect that her own marital relations, like those of her client, were rather odd. Therefore my message to all those - all be they non-uniformed - relationship and family fascists out there is this (please take note !) : marital/civil partnership and family status is no guarantee of probity etc in professional and public life; there are as many married perverts as unmarried ones, and probably more ; and some professions are better suited to single people.
Please see also my earlier blog : "Spooks" and The Real Power Inquiry
Friday, July 11, 2008
You Can't Always Get What You Want....
I recently decided to purchase a new bicycle, and set myself a budget of £250. My old one had served me well for 8 years and I was looking for a similar "work horse". However, having visited 2 local independent (ie the sort I wished to buy from) shops, neither seemed particularly enthusiastic about my custom, and one was positively discouraging.
In the event, I purchased a Universal Mystique from Woolworths for £69.99, and had this assembled by a local cycle maintenance shop (Lewis's). Lewis's, as it happens, is one of the oldest businesses in Worcester and conveniently resides in a railway arch adjacent to the entrance of Worcester City Council's Planning Department. How's that for integrated transport !
I'm not sure the "Mystique" will last as well as my old Phantom, which in turn was assembled from foreign parts (mainly Chinese ?) by Witcombe Cycles of Deptford, South East London, but you never know. The Mystique was "Hand Built" in Sri Lanka, a country which , I realised recently, appears to be the source of most of my hard wearing Marks & Spencer "wardrobe".
Thus I was surprised to read in The Observer Magazine a few weeks ago that Sri Lanka is one of the world's worst "conflict zones", due to fighting between government forces and Tamil Tiger militia, increasingly associated with suicide bombers. The escalation of the conflict has obviously impacted upon the country's economy, particularly tourism.
However, Sri Lanka, it would seem, remains an important source of products for British High Street retailers catering for the cost/quality-conscious customer (of whom I count myself one), and, quite possibly, for other sections of the retail market. People like me may well hanker after independent retailers and locally made goods, but you can't always get what you want !
But if you try, sometimes, you can get what you need....and hope that others can too !
In the event, I purchased a Universal Mystique from Woolworths for £69.99, and had this assembled by a local cycle maintenance shop (Lewis's). Lewis's, as it happens, is one of the oldest businesses in Worcester and conveniently resides in a railway arch adjacent to the entrance of Worcester City Council's Planning Department. How's that for integrated transport !
I'm not sure the "Mystique" will last as well as my old Phantom, which in turn was assembled from foreign parts (mainly Chinese ?) by Witcombe Cycles of Deptford, South East London, but you never know. The Mystique was "Hand Built" in Sri Lanka, a country which , I realised recently, appears to be the source of most of my hard wearing Marks & Spencer "wardrobe".
Thus I was surprised to read in The Observer Magazine a few weeks ago that Sri Lanka is one of the world's worst "conflict zones", due to fighting between government forces and Tamil Tiger militia, increasingly associated with suicide bombers. The escalation of the conflict has obviously impacted upon the country's economy, particularly tourism.
However, Sri Lanka, it would seem, remains an important source of products for British High Street retailers catering for the cost/quality-conscious customer (of whom I count myself one), and, quite possibly, for other sections of the retail market. People like me may well hanker after independent retailers and locally made goods, but you can't always get what you want !
But if you try, sometimes, you can get what you need....and hope that others can too !
"We Dont't Know How Bad It Could Get"
These, or similar, words were apparently captured by press photographers on papers carried by the Housing Minister, Caroline Flint. We've obviously come a long way since the days when things could only get better !
Thursday, July 10, 2008
"Spooks" and The Real Power Inquiry
Some may remember the so-called Power Inquiry, chaired by the fragrant (some may also recall this epithet was applied to Mary, wife of Jeffrey, Archer) Helena Kennedy QC. The report of this so-called "inquiry" seems to have sunk without trace, although Baroness Kennedy carries on talking, rarely pausing for breath* when given the opportunity of a media airing.
This brings me naturally enough to the subject of sado-masochism, or S&M, which I somehow also associate with the last recession (early 1990s and all that). It was at this time that Madonna (always a barometer of zeitgeist) published a volume called, straightforwardly enough, "SEX", which was sold in a sealed foil bag, I think, and had strong S&M overtones, which the entertainer later said were heavily laced with irony. Maybe.
It may also have been about this time that proclivities of the former Lord Archer, consort of prostitutes started to emerge. He, like Max Mosley, by all accounts, paid handsomely for his pleasures with Ladies of the Trade, although there was no suggestion that these involved shame and degradation, that came later when he committed, amongst other things, the crime of perjury.
Nor was there any suggestion that one of Jeffrey Archer's consorts was the wife of a senior British Security Services officer, as was a member of Max Mosley's sexual consortium (some might say "orgy"). This lady's husband (a director of either MI5 or 6 ?) had to resign as a consequence. Not even a Howard Brenton penned episode of "Spooks" could have imagined this !
Now, whilst for the likes of Madonna, or Helena Kennedy QC for that matter, 500 knicker (as they used to be called) for a giving someone a good spank might not seem worth getting out of bed for, many of us, like the spook's spouse, would feel empowered by such generous financial reward, even if we had to buy our own work gear.
All this said, I'm naturally concerned that senior public servants (and particularly high level spooks) may not be earning enough money if their spouses feel the need to go on The Game, even if it's a game by another name. Have their earnings not kept pace with those of other senior public officials ?. I'm thinking of local authority chief executives on c£200k pa, for instance.
For my money, these are precisely the sort of issues a Power Inquiry should have examined, and if not, why not ? Perhaps Baroness Kennedy was not, as I strongly suspect, the right woman for the job. Do New Labour lack a dominatrix of suitable clout ? Or could this be a new role for Cherie Booth-Blair ? Not a woman averse to making a good whack, by all accounts !
However, we should be grateful that, in the case of Max Mosley, any extraordinary rendition of "Allo, Allo !" (which German TV has recently procured and is now showing) was confined to role play amongst "friends" in the basement of his London home. Equally reassuring, is that all surveillance (in the best public interest of course !) was conducted by The News of the World, and not by some hostile foreign power, unless of course the Murdoch Empire constitutes one.
"Breath" : a very good contemporary novel by Tim Winton which strikes a serious note on S&M; as does the equally good "Fame & Fortune" by Frederick Raphael about the Thatcher years.
This brings me naturally enough to the subject of sado-masochism, or S&M, which I somehow also associate with the last recession (early 1990s and all that). It was at this time that Madonna (always a barometer of zeitgeist) published a volume called, straightforwardly enough, "SEX", which was sold in a sealed foil bag, I think, and had strong S&M overtones, which the entertainer later said were heavily laced with irony. Maybe.
It may also have been about this time that proclivities of the former Lord Archer, consort of prostitutes started to emerge. He, like Max Mosley, by all accounts, paid handsomely for his pleasures with Ladies of the Trade, although there was no suggestion that these involved shame and degradation, that came later when he committed, amongst other things, the crime of perjury.
Nor was there any suggestion that one of Jeffrey Archer's consorts was the wife of a senior British Security Services officer, as was a member of Max Mosley's sexual consortium (some might say "orgy"). This lady's husband (a director of either MI5 or 6 ?) had to resign as a consequence. Not even a Howard Brenton penned episode of "Spooks" could have imagined this !
Now, whilst for the likes of Madonna, or Helena Kennedy QC for that matter, 500 knicker (as they used to be called) for a giving someone a good spank might not seem worth getting out of bed for, many of us, like the spook's spouse, would feel empowered by such generous financial reward, even if we had to buy our own work gear.
All this said, I'm naturally concerned that senior public servants (and particularly high level spooks) may not be earning enough money if their spouses feel the need to go on The Game, even if it's a game by another name. Have their earnings not kept pace with those of other senior public officials ?. I'm thinking of local authority chief executives on c£200k pa, for instance.
For my money, these are precisely the sort of issues a Power Inquiry should have examined, and if not, why not ? Perhaps Baroness Kennedy was not, as I strongly suspect, the right woman for the job. Do New Labour lack a dominatrix of suitable clout ? Or could this be a new role for Cherie Booth-Blair ? Not a woman averse to making a good whack, by all accounts !
However, we should be grateful that, in the case of Max Mosley, any extraordinary rendition of "Allo, Allo !" (which German TV has recently procured and is now showing) was confined to role play amongst "friends" in the basement of his London home. Equally reassuring, is that all surveillance (in the best public interest of course !) was conducted by The News of the World, and not by some hostile foreign power, unless of course the Murdoch Empire constitutes one.
"Breath" : a very good contemporary novel by Tim Winton which strikes a serious note on S&M; as does the equally good "Fame & Fortune" by Frederick Raphael about the Thatcher years.
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