Cicero's Songs

After a long hiatus, mostly to do with indolence and partly to do with the general election campaign, I feel compelled to take up the metaphorical pen and make a few comments on where I see the situation of the UK in the aftermath of the "Brexit election". OK, so we lost.  We can blame many reasons, though fundamentally the Conservatives refused to make the mistakes of 2017 and Labour and especially the Liberal Democrats made every mistake that could be made.  Indeed the biggest mistake of all was allowing Johnson to hold the election at all, when another six months would probably have eaten the Conservative Party alive.  It was Jo Swinson's first, but perhaps most critical, mistake to make, and from it came all the others.  The flow of defectors and money persuaded the Liberal Democrat bunker that an election could only be better for the Lib Dems, and as far as votes were concerned, the party did indeed increase its vote by 1.3 million.   BUT, and it r...

The essential circus of party politics in the UK is never more cringe making than at party conference time. The spectacle of socially awkward, physically clumsy individuals trying to get "down with the kids" in a vain attempt to assert a non-existent popularity is always a fairly barf-making sight. Even the best political figures tend to feel uneasy about the false ballyhoo of the conference set-piece speech; I recall Paddy Ashdown coming off stage amid a minor fireworks display and muttering a gentle imprecation at the slightly surreal farce he had been forced to take part in. Neither Theresa May nor Boris Johnson are particularly good political figures. May is an exceptionally awkward personality: "a bloody difficult woman" as other Conservatives have long noticed. Her management style is authoritarian and insecure, her personality lacks empathy and is unusually defensive under pressure. By contrast the extrovert Boris Johnson is a warmer figure, but his charm i...

Well, look lets face it, we all cringed a bit when Boris Johnson tuned up at the bird's nest stadium in Peking looking- frankly- rather scruffy. The fact that he seemed to be treating the great occasion with a certain amount of levity was certainly noted with disapproval by his Chinese hosts. Personally I was only relieved that he did not drop the Olympic flag- and a couple of times I must say my heart was rather in my mouth. It was not a particularly auspicious start to the next four years of London as an Olympic city. On the other hand, though, it was clearly gall and wormwood for Ken Livingstone to have to merely watch the spectacle that he had rather hoped to have been at the centre of. After the announcement that Livingstone is now to be the paid advisor of the windbag wannabe dictator of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, it quite brightens my day to think how much Ken must have been consumed with envy. Personally, I hope that he stays in Caracas for a very long while, since it may ta...

The steady stream of exposees and innuendo about Ken Livingstone have become a crescendo. The latest is the full length Dispatches programme, which comes on top of a consistent set of stories from Andrew Gilligan in the Evening Standard . The implication is that Ken Livingstone is a drunk and sleazy politician. As regular readers of this blog will note, that is a view that I have put forward for some time. I do not believe he is fit for office. I do believe he should be replaced. However, the leading opponent of Crony Ken is currently the equally absurd Boris Johnson . The litany of Johnson's questionable career begins with the fact that he was sacked for making up quotations for an article he wrote as a trainee journalist. Despite his starter marriage, which ended in divorce, and a further marriage which produced four children, Johnson caught the public eye when he lied rather obviously about his considerable philandering, including a four year affair with Petronella Wyatt amongs...

Last night was the first of doubtless many debates between the candidates for Mayor of London. To be honest I have been in a gentle kind of despair about the idea of Ken Livingstone, who I believe to be incompetent, doctrinaire and rather crooked, holding on to his job. Certainly, the idea of Boris Johnson- the clownish, gaffe prone Conservative candidate- replacing Livingstone is really not appealing at all. I think I prefer the dubious crook to the embarrassing clown. However, one candidate last night actually did come over as a sound and sensible figure. Brian Paddick was a guy who one can imagine dealing with - God forbid- a major terrorist incident. He also has interesting ideas about how to tackle the mess in transport and already knows far more than other two do about Policing. He is clearly thoughtful and intelligent. Between the posturing of the two gargoyles -Ken and Boris- Brian Paddick looks extremely good. If Boris's campaign implodes , as it easily might, and the ru...

In the six months since Gordon Brown became Prime Minister there has been an extraordinary volatility about British politics. Opinion polls have shown first a strong Labour lead, then, following the mishandling of the speculation concerning a possible autumn election, the Conservatives took the lead. The election fever that gripped the country created unexpected pressures: the Conservative leader was able to relieve the pressure on him by some astute handling of his party conference. Liberal Democrats, by contrast, were squeezed so intensively that Ming Campbell felt compelled to stand down. Now, as we enter 2008, a new political agenda seems to be emerging. Gordon Brown, somewhat battered by the blow back from the election that never was, has begun to launch a charm offensive in the media: a long interview with the Observer yesterday was paired with an appearance on the Andrew Marr show and then this morning he was on the Today programme. A veritable blizzard of appearances from a ...

Since our beloved Prime Minister chose to avoid going to the country in Autumn 2007, it does not seem hugely likely that he would call a general election in 2008. So, it seems likely that 2008 in British politics will be more interested in local elections than anything else. We have the interesting challenge of the London mayoral elections. This may yet prove to be a more open and interesting contest than it appears. To be honest, the Conservatives, by choosing Boris Johnson, have essentially admitted that the game is up. Although the gaffe-prone and disorganised Henley MP- we are told- is also possessed of finely tuned media antennae, the same could be said of Charlie Caroli . In fact, as at the Ealing Southall by election, it is the weak judgement of David Cameron that fixed on Boris as pretty much the only figure prepared to take on Ken Livingstone. Boris Johnson can not win the London election. Ken Livingstone, however, is increasingly embroiled in his own problems. The disgracefu...

I was at a wedding a few years back when a very nice Conservative Lady came in (a little late) and sat down next to me and with an air of triumph declared that : “I am late because we Conservatives have been selecting our candidate for Mayor of London. Its great news: its going to be Jeffrey Archer !!" My jaw hit the floor. I really did not know whether to congratulate her, as she clearly expected , or to commiserate her on the inevitable doom to follow. Boris Johnson may not be a crook (although of course his ex-mate Darius Guppy is)- but who needs another Archer-style “character”? I am with those who think that the Tories will rue the day- whether it is that Boris gets found in bed with a giraffe or some other more outre offence against sense and decency, I suspect that he will come to grief somewhere. As regular readers will know, Ken Livingstone has always struck me as a pretty sleazy kind of politician, with a far bigger ego than his "cheeky chappy" TV persona woul...

My comment about the lack of discipline of Boris Johnson seems to have annoyed a regular Conservative reader- the anonymous Lepidus- who is going to need a much broader sense of humour if the Conservatives actually adopt this ambitious but essentially rather clownish and oafish man as their candidate for Mayor of London. Since his comment was rather offensive, I have felt free to delete it and to switch on moderation for a few days. Apart from My blog=my rules, the fact that Lepidus seems to believe that Boris might be found in bed with a camel would certainly make me question Boris's credentials as a candidate, even if "private lives should be private"- or was that humour just a bit too subtle for our soi-disant triumvir?

"Whom the Gods would destroy, they first make mad" Euripides The ecstatic reaction of the Tory bloggers to the possible selection of Boris Johnson as their candidate for Mayor of London is bizarre. I do recall the last time the Conservatives went for a well known but slightly "eccentric" candidate. Of course that was Jeffrey Archer. Boris has a whole cemetery of skeletons in his cupboard, and may yet end up being found in bed with a camel or something equally inappropriate. His persona of dotty bafflement hides an ambitious but rather undisciplined character. So the choice is set to be the corrupt and thoroughly nasty Ken Livingstone or the demented Boris Johnson. If the Liberal Democrats can find anyone who is not a gargoyle we might just end up being in with a chance!