The Wit and Wisdom of... Harold Wilson

We've got a job to do. We can only do that job as one people, and I'm going right in to start that job now.

Harold Wilson, on becoming Prime Minister for the second time, 04/03/1974. The next incoming Labour Prime Minister would not be for another 23 years.

Satirical Sting

Happy 30th birthday to Spitting Image. Yes, that really is Sting...

Election '74, Round One

With the two main parties having a roughly equal number of seats and with neither having a majority of the whole House, he has not got the renewed mandate for which he asked. But the Labour party has not got a mandate for the policies which it advocated, and Mr. Wilson has no right to pose as if it had.

In a shifting and uncertain situation one thing seems reasonably sure. The election campaign has made the public fully aware of its gravity, and they are prepared for a temporary standstill in the standard of living and whatever austerity measures are necessary.

Sunday Telegraph leader article, 03/03/1974, commenting on the results of the February 1974 general election, held on 28/02/1974.

An Arrangement with the Liberals would in any case be insufficiently stable, and Mr Thorpe seemed to be asking too much and offering too little... and a decision to face Parliament without guaranteed support to provide an overall majority would seem to many to be a discreditable attempt to hold on to power

Cabinet conclusions, 04/03/1974.

All of a sudden, the 1970s don't feel quite as far away as they used to...

The Wit and Wisdom of... Winston Churchill

Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm

Winston Churchill, 1941

The Wit and Wisdom of... Robert Baden-Powell, Mk. III

The most worth-while thing is to try to put happiness into the lives of others

Letter from Robert Baden-Powell, Sept 1940

Oh Tony...

And so the phone hacking plot thickens. Today, it transpired that the defendants had received an email from Teflon Tony, one time Labour Prime Minister and now jet-setting millionaire, offering his advice on how to get them through the chaos of the collapse of the News of the World. One line really grabbed my attention:

Get them to investigate me and others and publish a Hutton style report

As in, get an inquiry to completely exonerate you of lying to invade a Middle Eastern country and fit the BBC up with the blame? Might've been hard to blame phone hacking on them...

(I should emphasise, the defendants in the phone hacking trial deny all the charges levied against them, are innocent until proven otherwise by the judgement of a jury of their peers, and the trial is still in progress. As for Mr Blair...) 

The Politics of the Rain

Whatever money is needed, we will spend it.

Thus spake David Cameron yesterday, in response to the latest 'Crisis of Excessive Weather' to hit the UK. Now, this is not to detract from the suffering of those who have been flooded. God only knows they've been having a miserable time, made worse by the seemingly useless response from the authorities, and that they need all the help the state can give them. but, money is no object? Spending without regard for the cost? Doesn't sound much like the modern Conservative party. Or indeed, any past forms of the Conservative party.

A quick look at the areas currently underwater may provide a short answer:

Somerset- 4/9 Conservative MPs
Berkshire- 7/8 Conservative MPs
Dorset- 7/8 Conservative MPs
Gloucestershire- 5/6 Conservative MPs
Worcestershire- 7/7 Conservative MPs
Oxfordshire- 6/7 Conservative MPs (including Dave)
Surrey- 11/11 Conservative MPs

Surely just a coincidence that the Tory heartlands are being promised all this money, when the rest of society has been told since 2010 that public spending must be slashed?

The other side to the argument has been over who is to blame for these floods. Poor Chris Smith, as the chairman of the Environment Agency, seems to be taking much of the blame for the flooding. Other candidates are the landowners (for owning land in areas near to a river) and, rather brilliantly, God, as a punishment for the introduction of same-sex marriages later this year.

This last point was raised by a UKIP councillor (who, it must be pointed out, has now left the party). However, there haven't yet been any gay weddings in Britain, as the legislation doesn't come into effect until March, so if this really is divine retribution, maybe it's for something which has already happened. Let's have a quick look again at where the flooding is...:

Somerset- 3 UKIP councillors, 19.9% at the 2013 local elections
Dorset- 1 UKIP councillor (no vote share given on Wikipedia)
Gloucestershire- 3 UKIP councillors, 15.2% at the 2013 local elections
Worcestershire- 4 UKIP councillor (no vote share given on Wikipedia)
Surrey- 3 UKIP councillors, 22.3% at the 2013 local elections

Just saying... Much like the pirates and global warming, I hasten to add!!