The Spring Dinner that went wrong

Last night I should have been hosting the annual Spring Dinner at Wallasey golf club. I would have been kitted out in my red coat as would have been a number of colleague captains from neighbouring clubs. Our new chairman was gracious enough to agree to propose the toast to our guests, and the Royal Liverpool golf club captain would have given the response. It is always a very enjoyable night, and I have no doubt last night would have been equally so. I had even lined up a Doctor Frank Stableford look-alike to attend for photo opportunities before dinner.

Sadly though we are all confined to barracks, and while Have I Got News For You was able to conduct proceedings via Zoom, I suspect trying to run a dinner on the same basis would have proved to be difficult. That said though can you imagine 80 people signing in, their wives or partners serving the same dish to everybody and wine being taken. It could have been revolutionary for the Visionaries.

So we carry on with hopefully everybody still self isolating. The hot weather theat was forecast has not arrived on the Wirral so hopefully people will not mob New Brighton and Hoylake beach. It is in the South of the Country where people must be more careful and look after their neighbours.

Today we also awoke to a new Labour party leader, Sir Kier Starmer. I try not to get political on this blog, and had hoped that the words in his opening speech would allow me to continue that trend. I will support the Government and ask the tricky questions when needed , he said. excellent I thought, only to read today that already he is using the press to highlight serious errors the Government have made over the control of the virus. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and not being part of the decision process does allow you to comment in a way the people in control cannot, but it is so disappointing that he feels he has to wade in now without even waiting until his scheduled meeting later in the week with the PM.

I understand Starmer was the head of the CPS when evidence of Jimmy Saville's misdemeanours were presented to him and Starmer reached the conclusion that there was insufficient evidence to proceed. Hindsight again rearing it's head given what happened after Saville died.

How lucky Churchill was during the Second World War that he did not have social media to contend with. How he was able to control or censor fake or bad news to ensure the mood of the Country remained bouyant is something that the current PM has absolutely no chance of doing.

I wonder what the Queen has to say about it all when she addresses the Nation later this evening!

Good game, good game.....

You get to know when Christmas is sneaking up on you. The television running order begins to be dominated by programmes, the format of which is decided by viewers preference.

The X -Factor must be the market leader in this particular category, so it is difficult for other networks to pitch against it and expect to do well. As a best effort, the BBC put their own celebrity tomfoolery fest, Strictly Come Dancing, on a tad earlier in the hope of maintaining the audience later into the evening. I doubt it works, and i do wonder how they continue to pay homage to the doddering old fool who comperes it.

Many years ago Bruce Forsyth was a marvellous performer in the old Victorian music hall traditions. He was multifaceted and as a result got many major roles in theatre and television.
He is best known for hosting Saturday Night at the London Palladium in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and hosting high profile game shows like The Generation Game, Play Your Cards Right and The Price is Right. All in all he had a long and successful career.

Not satisfied with that, however, he suddenly decided he should be Sir Bruce Forsyth, and started a very public and, to my mind, distasteful campaign to obtain his ultimate goal. He is a fairly ruthless individual on the golf course, where he takes the attitude that if he is playing everybody else should get out of his way, and he brought the same attitude to his knighthood campaign. He solicited the help of high profile friends and colleagues, and eventually in the 2011 Birthday honours list he achieved his aim.

Personally I think it stinks. I have always thought the award of an honour by the Queen should be something which surprises as much as rewards, and to be blatant about such a thing would immediately disqualify the person from ever receiving it.

Sir Bruce, however, got his award and he continues to crack puerile jokes and struggle to read his q- card every Saturday night, so at least those watching Strictly can see at first hand what a bumbling buffoon he has become. Didn't he do well!