HE'S GONE (ish)

So Phoney Tony's off.
Loved his speech but what did he really mean?

Try this for size.
"I've stormed in, changed the style of leadership for something a bit more presidential, led you into a total disaster in the middle east and contributed to the death of a public servant.

I've also discarded hundreds of years of history by fiddling with constitutional history and only half botched it. Whilst doing so I've laid good strong foundations for a Faschist state by carefully eroding the liberty of all you underlings and thrown millions of pounds of your money at management consultants and IT professionals.

I've managed at some cost to erode the dignity of my office by indulging myself with "Lifestyle Gurus" of dubious character and have fawned as much as possible over "celebrities" and dodgy businessmen. I've had some good hol's out of it though. Cool Britannia is going to get much cooler over the next few years 'cause I've let Flash Gordon grab whatever he can to finance our profligate spending.

So I didn't get everything right. Never mind. I'll be long gone when the cack really hits the fan so someone else can sort out all the mess.

I'll now go all watery eyed for the benefit of the numbnuts of my constituency who were too daft to see through me and are too stupidly loyal to find any fault.

MORTALITY

At 04:30 on Saturday morning we were woken by a knock at the door. The caller was a police sergeant. My mind instantly ran through the long list of things that :-
a/ They couldn't possibly know I had done yet.
b/ Were done so long ago that they wouldn't be bothered.
c/ That I hadn't thought about doing yet.

The purpose of the visit though was much more serious.
A neighbour had called the Paramedics, complaining of difficulty breathing. This has happened several times in the past. Normally, her next action would have been to 'phone us. So that one of us could go along to reassure the visitors that although noisy, her dog was quite harmless.

The second call had not been made.

The Paramedics felt unable to gain entry so called for police assistance to control the dog.
By the time they had got to her she was dead. In fact she probably died immediately after the initial call.

Now the lady concerned was not at all well off. She had not invented anything world shaking.
She didn't move in exalted circles. After her children were grown and until osteoporosis reared its ugly head she worked as head cook at the village school. She prepared excellent food for village functions and on fete days offered for sale the most wonderful home made sweets.
We had appeared on the amateur stage together a number of times, and with my wife, she ran a Saturday Drama Club for local children.

Some years ago she had divorced an abusive husband. Not an easy life, but a busy one.

Within a couple of hours the village was like a disturbed beehive.

Now was the time we remembered that a walk to the next village with her could take half a day because every few yards someone would stop to pass the time of day. She was known to nearly everybody and many of todays young managers in local businesses had been fed by her at primary school.

What I am trying to say is that a Prime Minister dies, we hardly notice. Trudy Skidmore dies and her local community will never be the same again.

Which of the two will be missed the longest?