So the General Election date has been set.
Time for my predictions:
1) Labour Win
2) Tories issue kicking to Lib Dems and encroach upon Labour Majority
3) Lib Dems return to the fringe.
The Tory campaign has thus far been a mixture of good delivery combined with some utterly hamfisted attempts at playing on people’s fears (along with effectively reverting to the ‘soundbites’ they so despised in ‘97).
Personally aside from Blair winning there’s only one thing I want to see happen: I want to see the Conservatives take Colchester back.
For although I believe a Conservative government would be a bad thing for the country and disastrous to public services, they are at least competent. Watching Britain backsliding its way out of any sort of importance on the world stage under the Lib Dems or a Lab/Lib Dem coalition would be a nightmare.
Many observers seem to be very upbeat about the Tories and the Lib Dems in this election. I don’t think Howard has it in him to win but I hope he’s got enough to batter the Lib Dems back into the corner of British politics where they belong.
Later
John
So the pope has been read the last rites to bring him strength in his suffering. As a Catholic I’m saddened and keep John Paul II in my prayers but it lifts my spirits (and indeed it should his) to read what has been written on the BBC commentary page (now there’s something I never thought I’d write).
The pope is a great, great man who has shown immense love for all the people in the world. No single man has done more for interdenominational communications in the past century.
One of my favourite stories about the pope comes from Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the head of the Catholic church in England.
When he was training in Rome all the students were obliged to eat ‘on campus’ (or as it applies to those who train to take the cloth) however one morning he and some friends snuck out and went to grab a ‘cornetto e cafe’ at a small coffee shop.
As they were sitting there a senior clergyman entered the cafe and they felt for sure that they had been rumbled.
However the clergyman instead smiled and them and winked before exiting again with his pastry.
The man later took the name John Paul II. It’s that kindness which makes the pope such a wonderful pontif and why he’ll be hard to replace when God see’s fit to take him.
Later
John