Prezza's Retirement Plans: Review the Papers, Run a Blog and DT Column?

Iain Dale asked earlier today what John Prescott could get up to in retirement. Prisoner's Voice quotes this suggestion:

When he is not a constituency MP he will be able to spare the time to go on the telly and review the papers when they are caught short handed, write a blog perhaps, string together a column about how women tend to decide how to vote. You know Iain, that kind of thing that a non-MP can fit in.

Mr Dale seems to have removed it for some reason.

Durruti Column: Worried Over Next Cabinet Meeting!

Ha ha ha. What are they like? Bless! You'd think that revolutionary situationist Buenaventura Durruti would know better than to worry about a Brown-Blair stand off at the next cabinet meeting! Some would say that would be business as usual. While others would simply jeer:
"Cabinet meeting? Next cabinet meeting? What are you on abaht?"
So very last week.

FA Cup Final: Extra Time

They should have scrapped the first 45 and started from half time. Good game now though. Well, until three minutes from the end it was.

David Lindsay: Interesting Developments

David Lindsay has got his side bar links going and continues to push out thinking and at times contentious blog posts. Some more links here soon.

Manchester, Chorlton: Play Acting and Farce

Michael Frayn's Noises Off was hailed by critic Frank Rich who said it: "is, was, and probably always will be the funniest play written in my lifetime." It is a classic bedroom farce based on a play within a play with the same action shown three times. A flyer like the one above has come through the door. If you plan to go, look away now as all will be revealled (source):

Act One is set at the dress rehearsal, the night before opening ... with the cast still fumbling with entrances and exits, missed cues, misspoken lines, and bothersome props, most notably several plates of sardines.

Act Two portrays a Wednesday matinee performance one month later ... In this act, the play is seen from backstage, providing a view that reveals the deteriorating personal relationships among the cast that have led to offstage shenanigans and onstage bedlam.

In Act Three, we see a performance near the end of the ten-week run ... when personal friction has continued to increase and everyone is bored and anxious to be done with the play. The actors attempt to cover up a series of mishaps but only compound the problems and draw attention to the bungling performance.

Much of the comedy emerges from the subtle variations in each version as off-stage chaos affects on-stage performance, with a great deal of slapstick. The contrast between players' on-stage and off-stage personalities is also a source of comic dissonance.

Oh, and a leaflet from another bunch of play actors arrives delivered by the same hands. Full of comic dissonance caused by the contrast between the truth and what is presented. Cllr John Leech MP and for all LOL know Cllr Ankers are members of the Manchester Road Players and of the local Libdemologists whose bleary Focus this is..

Listing: Weds 23 - Sat 26 May, curtain 7:30, £4.50 (£3.00) Manchester Road Methodist Church Hall. £1 off with flyer. See your MP and his chums lying and back-biting live on stage.

Later With Jools Holland: Simply Mick, Patti Smith, Joe Cocker

Interesting. Knew Mick from early City Life Co-op days (say 1983-85) and before from down the pub when he was an art student at the Poly (my bro Mike did some of that too at the same time) and later the overpaid DJ on Wednesdays.

Then hopefully the editorial and paste up team would get down to the Mandela Building for Mick's (and later Andy and Lou's) Black Rhythms disco. After putting the mag to bed. Often exhausted. We'd always insist that "Ain't No Stopping Us Now" made it to the turntables.

Later I outed him as the "next big thing" on our pop pages, we co-promoted his last unsigned gig in Manchester, still later I interviewed him in the Clynes Wine Bar (now Cavendish) where we had both hustled pool for years, published then with R-E-D drop capitals and again as one of the selected items for the 500th or some other anniversary, and despite a few strange fall outs the Distant Cousins opened for them, playing to 200,000 people on their 89-90 UK Arena Tour.

Tonight I just missed the start of Mick's first track ... He had an acoustic guitar as a prop. I don't much like the words, though Gota's guitar solo is something to behold. Second track perhaps better. But what do I know?

Cocker is back after a ten-year break - did you realise Later is more than ten years old? - and he and Patti are looking fresh and well in themselves.

Freedom of Information Vote: Tories and Lib Dems Will Whine But Did Absolutely Nothing

Mail-man Ben Brogan names and shames the 96 MPs who voted for an exemption for certain parliamentary business from the Freedom of Information Bill and congratulates 25 who voted against. He doesn't say much about the 500 plus MPs who had pissed off early for the weekend though he does notice that Dave-id Cameron and Ming Campbell did next to nothing about it. Both will no doubt join certain bloggers and local politicians whining about it.

Gordon Brown: You'll Have to Wait ...

Don't feel inspired just at the moment. Just impressed by competence and commitment. And the way the man's relaxed.

Labour Deputy Dawgs: Hari Hari Harri Christener

Johann Hari who was one of those "leftie intellectuals" who backed the war in Iraq has christened Harri as the best fit for Gordy. His CV is HERE. Scheduled to defend the war in an Independent debate in Manchester Town Hall he bottled it on one of Waterhouse's fine staircases and admitted the war had made the world less safe at the outset. Robert Fisk made mincemeat of the young pretender. But here's his Harri hype:

Okay, so Harriet Harman is not offering "an intergalactic revolution"*. It is unlikely space-aliens will bring socialism the day after she is elected. But she is offering a combination of real feminism and electoral popularity. As Labour faces its toughest election and most demoralised members since 1992, can it afford to say no?

You can join the campaign to make Harriet leader here.

Although his essential point below is a good one - which Labour can achieve however our women are deployed - I cannot approve of the gratuitous insult to dear Ann Widdecombe which rather detracts from Johann's proud feminist credentials:

Harmanism can trash David Cameron's flimsy, inconsistent bid for the women's vote. The Tory leader conspicuously belongs to a small clique of rich men, with barely a woman in sight. Out of 179 Tory MPs, only 17 are women - and that's if you count Ann Widdecombe as female.

Write in and complain: here or here.

It's also worth noting that Red Harri and the Daily Telegraph Health pages were a couple or four months ahead of this game of Yin and Yan.

* Reference to one of Tony Benn's fellow travellers of yesteryear.

Deputy Leadership: Link to Fabian Society Transcript

This is a link to the Fabian Society DL hustings which Newsnight straw polled. A joint meeting with Progress.

Grateful Dead Jerry Falwell: Bloggers' Hallelujah

On May 15 Newer Labour hoped Jerry Falwell would rot in hell, Iain Dale used the line the very next day. United in disdain for the charlatan. There is no hell, except other people, and now there's one less bad 'un. Christopher Hitchens tells CNN how it is above. Found by Dizzy.

Labour Leadership: Gordon Brown and the Spaceball

Lorenzo's Co-op Blog has dubbed me Top Political Blogger in Manchester and insisted I will be blogging a bit more than I have so far about Brown's triumphant return to our fair city.

Dog walk first, then we'll see. This picture, from Lorenzo is tagged "Spaceball" and has a readily identifiable UFO answering that description hovering to check if anyone didn't join in the standing ovation. A petulant but popular trick in the bad old days of Blair Labour.

UPDATE: Looks like Spaceball has a D Notice on it. The code's there. Will try again later.

New Deal: Iain Dale Refuses to Link to his Sources

Iain Dale has thrown out a statistic on New Deal without proper attribution or a link. He is being very self righteous and very rude about that. As someone commented I'm only asking for a link.

There is a chance the statistic is wrong, though not necessarily in a good way for Labour. It certainly is not complete. Fraser Nelson who cited it is a political commentator on the Spectator. His column is about how Gordon can (and surely will) win the next General Election.

Right: The secret Fraser Nelson link is HERE.

It is on the second page of the article which is, as I say, telling Gordon how to win the next General Election. Something Dale might have mentioned. He has pulled it right out of a context 95% of which is nothing to do with New Deal.

I'm not sure the figures for youth unemployment or NEETs - Nelson doesn't clearly say - was 14.5 now 14.6 are right. They may be too kind. Or if the number in this cohort has increased by around 23% (a detail too far for some people) they may correspond with Frank Field's statistics here.

Citing sources for statistics one relies on and providing links are not whims they are standards. Here are the links Iain, stick them in like a good chap. And give me a hattip.

UPDATE: Oh, alright then the careless Iain Dale post is HERE, added post-partum.

Madelaine: Conspiracy Theorists Should Explain

The man with the Ming Zing question on Question Time also made the point that because Madelaine's parents are middle class Doctors they have escaped being villified for leaving their kids alone, albeit nearby.

But there are one or two bloggers out there suggesting the parents have organised the kidnap themselves. One offering to eat his baseball hat if he's wrong.

I don't believe this myself for one minute. I am looking forward to a hat eating appearing soon on You Tube.

What was the motive? Where was the opportunity? Where is Maddie now? This theory appears to come from the Prof Sir Roy Meadows school of detective work. The accused mother in the most celebrated case Meadows cocked up later died in tragic circumstances.

UPDATE: I am reminded that Prof Southall was the one that diagnosed by TV, and the pathologist failed to report his findings on bacteria he discovered. There was a professional triple whammy.

World Bank: Sock! Pow! Yet Another Bushy Warmonger Bites the Dust

At 6.15 am Reuters finally reported the inevitable demise of Paul Wolfowitz, the architect of the Iraq War who has "resigned" over management matters including massively boosting his girlfriend's salary.

Out going UK Prime Minister Tony Blair is among those named by Reuters (above) as a possible successor. On Tuesday the Whitehouse declared Wolfy's shock and awe behaviour "Not a Firing Offense" which came in a long line of "White House support him fully" type announcements.

Who appointed this chump?

Meanwhile Guido linked yesterday to a Wall Street Journal report involving former and future Brown aide Tom Scholar in a secret liaison with another member of World Bank staff.

Semi-anonymous tipsters have told the WSJ that Mr Scholar also influenced his beloved's career position.

Question Time: Has Ming Lost His Zing?

Good question. And at five words the shortest I can remember. Chris Huhne defends Ming bravely. But of course Chris is a Lib Dem and he may well have a dagger under his cloak.
UPDATE: Zing is all the Tories have says the questioner. Ming bedded in and fallen asleep? asks another.

Fib Dems: Exclusive Picture of NO to Ming Rally

Fib Dems somehow got hold of this top secret snap.

Join the Labour Party Today: Choose the Leadership Deputy Leader

Join Labour HERE by 1 June 2007 and you can cast a vote in the Leadership and Deputy Leadership contests.

For students it was £1 a year last time I looked.

For unwaged and levy paying affiliate members the cost is just £1 per month = £12 per year. For waged it is £3 per month = £36 per year.

Labour Deputy Dawgs: A Gleaming Six Pack

Hilary Benn has made the cut as predicted for the Deputy Dawg Challenge, now widely seen as for only a minor party role and not as a contest for any Deputy Primeministership which could either be discontinued or appointed personally by Gordon Brown.

There is also speculation that the runner up or one of the field willing to take the job on will become the Chair of the Party, indeed this is more or less the role than Jon Cruddas has set his sights on.

The Hilary Benn link analyses the betting and polling so far which see him as a favourite. Alan Johnson however has the most nominations, Harriet Harman is seen as the Brownie candidate, Hazel Blears as the Blairite with a boost from some Newsnight fun last night, and Peter Hain? well he's one on his own that one.

Graphic from Guido Fawkes.

Grammar Schools: Perhaps Tomorrow ...

Ha ha ha. The Tories are in trouble on this one. Our great Grammar Schools and (now) Independent Schools were in many cases set up expressly to educate the ragged underclasses. Their world has turned upside down. Aiming to blog this tomorrow.