Rita, Sue And Bob Too

Linda and I were welcomed to our new home yesterday by Rita and Vincent, a nice but rather boring young couple who live just a few streets away from me. Well, just far enough away that I don't have to bump into them if I don't feel like it, which I expect may be quite often.

Today's Daily Mirror, under the charming title "Thatcher My A**e" reveals that Sue Johnston and Ricky Tomlinson are to star tonight in a loony-leftie documentary portraying how "closure of most of Britain's coal mines in the 1980s devastated hard-working communities across the country... at least 250,000 jobs were destroyed, the cause of an untold number of financial and personal tragedies for families whose husbands and sons had worked down the pits."

Devastated communities, my a**e. These people lived in self-perpetuating miserable conditions and were whipped up by an assorted rag-bag of communists, trotskyists and anarchists into nearly bringing down the government and country. Some of them even attacked our decent policemen and policewomen and their horses.

Maggie was right to bring the industry into modern times. Look how much happier people in Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire are now, the older ones retired and tending their allotments, the younger ones retrained as beauty therapists, travel agents and financial consultants.

Why some of them are even in PR for Christ's sake.


Meanwhile, Councillor Bob Piper keeps up the vitriolic attacks on me:

"Luke, meanwhile, feels sorry for Saddam's old buddy and finds the gloating distasteful ... and he has a hunch that "history will say Rumsfeld made all of us a lot safer." Well, that makes me feel safer."

"Luke Akehurst thinks that Hazel Blears should be the Labour Party Deputy Leader. Luke's only reservation is that Hazel might be some way to the left of him. Don't laugh.... instead, read the demolition of Luke's suggestion by the Ministry of Truth."

"There are some very sad individuals out there."

Well you know what they say, Bob. All publicity is good publicity. It's because old dinosaurs like you poke fun at political giants like me that we get more and more readers on our blogs, more votes in internet elections and, one day...

P.S. For the film buffs out there, yes you are right that Bob is a sad old git who thinks he's younger and fitter than he really is. But I wasn't actually suggesting that he has been humping Rita Krishna or Sue Johnston, let alone both of them at the same time.