Jack Straw “No leadership challenge” about as convincing as this photo

It appears the government, on the advice of jackasses has been told public opinion is fickle & if we just ignore it long enough, it will blow over. Of course the press whooping and braying probably ought to be ignored but there really is more to it than that which is also being blinkered out. Unfortunately we now have a government in denial, looking stubborn & frankly rather ridiculous.

Whilst Alistair Darling’s statement earlier in the week caused a storm of media fishwifery, it was ultimately nothing more than an empty soundbite reiterated ad nauseam.

So the invisible hand has been giving a lot of people the finger recently. We get the idea!

 You don’t need to tell people that they’re pissed off, they already know it.  When you have a government (irrespective of which party) that sticks its nose into every aspect of people’s affairs, they should not then be surprised when it gets the blame for things going wrong.

The public are irresponsible for colluding with our current system of government. I extend this message to the people of the U.S.A at this difficult time.

It should be a prerequisite that to get the vote, a person should understand that come election time, politicians behave like tramps at an auction, each one shouting out a bid larger than the last in the hope that the gavel will fall in his favour, whilst all know perfectly well that they don’t have a penny between them. As such politicians make ever-wilder claims to solve the problems for the world & his wife, some even believe they can.

The result is a population who, instead of taking back social responsibility, look expectantly to the government for the answer to everything.

This does however offer the opportunity for the government to do something noble. Namely to live up to their fiduciary relationship with the electorate but instead they adopt a position bordering on the epiphenomenal. Believing they can have an effect on the electorate without it having an effect on them.

Worst of all when the check bounces, ministers should not stand there with that stupid look of indignation plastered across their faces, as currently sported by the labour front bench.

To adopt  Mencken-esque terms, it is reasonable to assume that the politician per se will be of the second rate. And amongst this relatively small population, the centre left politician who has clung to his ideological milk teeth since his days at university, will in turn be a second rater but the current bunch are second & third rate even amongst left leaning politicians.

The sooner they’re gone the better & they will be gone, make no doubt about it. The real question is how long they can keep up this stubborn indignation and how much damage it will cause in the meantime.   

Just to be objective I will also slag off the Tories policies (when they have some) & the lib dems (When they have some that are not transparently fantasy)

And for a-bit-of-the-old ad hom’ 

Don’t you think Tony McNulty comes across as a thug? I sometimes imagine that he must have acquired his post after fighting John Reid for it, bare-breasted in a pub car park.

David Cameron please drop the act. If we wanted Ben Fogle for a prime minister someone would have asked him by now.

I can’t even remember the last name of the lib dem leader, Nick – something or other.

Vince Cable, despite resembling a piece of fluff you pull from down the side of the sofa, is good for a laugh. And because he has about as much chance of being in government as I do he has actually been able to say some pretty sensible things recently.

I’ve been organizing my mp3 collection this week & decided to pop some of my fav’ oldies onto a play list. Some of them have been digitalized from the old vinyl (not the 78′s though, they were turned into flower pots long ago. For shame!) Ideally they’d be played on a Wurlitzer 1015 jukebox compleate with random appearances by Henry Winkler who would hit it, say “Aaay!” & then make his exit.  but I’ll just have to without. Anyway here are a few off the list.

The Chordettes: Mr. Sandman 1954

Not entirely Rock & Roll, the group looks like a bunch of transvestites into forced womanhood, waiting dutifully for their husbands to drive the Studebaker Commander into the drive of the Levittown-esque suburban home before taking them roughly over the Bendix washer, spilling the betty Crocker cake mix….(takes a breath) the less of that the better.  Yes inspite of this, it’s a nice little song with some interesting vocals  & helps give a sense of context to Metallica’s Enter Sandman A fact not lost on punk band Gob, who included the intro to Enter sandman as the outro to their  cover of the Chordettes origional.

Chuck Berry: Maybellene 1955

For me this is the pick of the bunch. Chuck’s first single release, it has everything you could want from a rock & roll track. Though Chuck has more recently been in the news for his erm…eclectic filmmaking, tax evasion & lacklustre performances alongside Little Richard & Jerry Lee Lewis. I’m inclined to agree with one Youtube user who responded to the criticism that; Chuck wasn’t making the effort to do the duck walk as well as he ought,  ” He’s 81…I’ll be happy if I can still take a dump on my own when I’m 81!”  He is & will remain one of the most influential pioneers of Rock music.

Carl Perkins: Matchbox 1956

In this country at least, Carl Perkins isn’t as well known as Roy Orbison or Johnny Cash, let alone Elvis but still he wrote and recorded Blue Suede Shoes at sun records in 1955, Played electric guitar alongside Luther Perkins (no relation) with Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison in 1968 and at San Quentin in 1969 alongside Bob Wootton following Luther’s death in August 1968. I can’t help but feel he always played second fiddle (figuratively of course) to some of the others around at the time. Anyway Matchbox is one of my fav’s & well worth a listen.

Little Richard: Tutti Frutti 1955, Long Tall Sally 1956, Lucille 1957.

A man who ages better than his own waxwork & quite possibly wears more make up. Like Chuck Berry the amount of artists he has influenced reads live a veritable who’s who of rock for the last 60+ years 

Also included on the list. Some of these may have been from the early/mid 1960 but anyway:

Fats Domino: Ain’t that a shame, Blueberry Hill.

Del Shannon: Runaway

Chubby Checker: The Twist, Lets Twist Again

Lloyd Price: Staggar Lee

and of course…

Bill Haley & his Comets: Rock around the clock.