Get me out of here.....

 A week is a long time in politic's, and so the last month or two have flown by. I understand why Bonking Boris was forced to resign, but it ws a case of be careful what you wish for, as the elderly grey pound population from the home counties decided to choose his replacement.

Goodness me what must the new King have thought. A cross between Margaret Thatcher and Teresa May, takong hopefully the good bits from both. Sadly only the handbag reminded us of Maggie, and I struggle to remember any good bits Teresa May had.  So Liz Truss entered office, set a fe hares running and then decided she had bitten off rather more than she could chew. 

Trigger World mirth at the mess the UK was in. The poison dwarf AKA the gobbler, North of the border could not believe her luck and just as she was meant to stick the knife in, some transgender nonsense got in the way and she ended up fighting a battle she did not expect, right on her doorstep. One of her protagonists is well connected in the witchcraft community so it might not be a straight forward battle to win.

So what of Labour? Not since Tony Blair have they had a creditable leader to push home any advantage they have over the governing Conservative party., and so it proves again. I would have been inclined if I was Rushi Sumak to call a general election, pass the baton to Mr CPS and see how he and his brash Northern colleagues would do. He must so be relieved that did not happen.

Then, just as the Country needs a lift, Peter Kay announces he will be touring again, that al do, and that mad MP Matt Hancock decides to emigrate to Australis but gets the wrong connecting flight in Perth and ends up somewhere in the jungle with a Karma Chameleon, a dwarf throwing minor royal,(lucky Ellie Simmonds got turfed off Strictly) and a series of Z list celebrities  all ready to breath a sigh of relief as Matt looks forward to ten bush tucker trials on the bounce.

You couldn't make it up!!

Margaret Thatcher

So, the Iron Lady is dead. At 87 she was the same age as the Queen and my mum, both iron ladies in their own way
.
All the commentators are indicating that there is no grey area surrounding the ex-prime minister, you either loved her or hated her. For my part, I was a fan. While the three day week and other trade union disruptive behaviour was an inconvenience, it highlighted a part of Britain which needed to be reigned in, she obliged. Her alliance with Ronald Regan cemented that special relationship with the USA which Tony Blair did his utmost to tear asunder.  That relationship went a long way to ending the Cold War, and the threat which the Soviet Union posed to the West. Gorbachev became a fan too. She was also strong in the face of Argentine aggression towards the Falkland Islands, and stood toe to toe with the IRA. Their bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton only re-enforced her resolve and her unwillingness to be turned.

Closer to home, as the first lady prime minister she end out a message to women that there was no glass ceiling, and what you strived for could be achieved, whatever gender you were. I suspect Cheryl Blair benefited in no small way to the Thatcher pioneering process. A wide and varied range of council house tenants are now home owners as a result of her 'right to buy' initiative and while her Keynesian oriented social reforms were not overly popular, they were what the Country needed at the time.

It is sad to see celebrations in the streets of Glasgow, to mark her passing, with many of the participants too young and blinkered to even understand the climate in which she operated. The miners will continue to hold a grievance as they are of the view that she destroyed their industry. Time has shown that coal was a dying commodity and the lack of investment in the Country's energy policies after that became apparent lies very much at the feet of the Labour government which followed her.

We are all suffering the effects of the nationalisation of British Gas, but most of her other decisions have been vindicated over time as successive governments have not repealed her policies.

She will for ever be seen as the villain of the piece up here on Merseyside, and Derek Hatton was rolled out yesterday to continue the assault on her character, God he looked a mess. It was she, however, who continued to support Liverpool after the Toxteth riots, and whose vision helped to the City  to become what it is today. There are many who blame her for the cover-up over the Hillsborough disaster, however, she had used the police creatively during the miners strike and was unlikely to let them be crucified by the victim's relatives at that stage. It wasn't her who opened the gates or made questionable decisions on the day, but difficult  decisions she did make all her term in office.

She will be afforded the funeral she deserves as one of the great British prime ministers, and the one thing her death has done is get people talking about politics again. Currently Parliament lacks characters, and like her or loathe her, a character she definitely was. Where would Spitting Image have gone without her?

Dessert anyone?

Two things inspired the subject of this particular entry, namely a chance to watch The Great Escape again, and the re-introduction of Kevin Keagan, to Newcastle United. Well what really caught my eye was 'King Kev returns to the Magpies' and I suddenly got all enthusiastic for nicknames.

Football nicknames, particularly for players, seem to be fairly mundane on the whole, King Kev is not very imaginative is it, and Quitter Man returns probably doesn't give the right image. Most players have 'ie' added to their name and become Kingie, Smithie and so on. In days gone by the nicknames seemed more imaginative, Ron Atkinson was called Mr Bojangles. He would probably of been called Bling these days though, and the great Alan Ball could easily have been Ballie, but was referred to as Bouncy!. The German captain Franz Beckebauer was fittingly referred to as the Kaiser.

Football club nicknames are more imaginative and traditional, hence the Magpies nickname reflecting the fact Newcastle play in black and white. Interestingly though, a magpie is a very deep purple, they just look black!

The Great Escape indicated how POWs all tended to have nicknames, the film featured The Tunneller, The Scrounger, and for Steve McQueen, the Cooler King, give the number of hours he stayed in there. Institutional nicknames come to the fore in many popular TV programmes. In Porridge, the nicknames were usually the persons surname, Fletch, Godper and so on, although the King of the Jungle, Christopher Biggins, was referred to as Lukewarm.

Londons Burning introduced us to the nickname culture which prevails in the fire service. Bayleaf, Sicknote, Zorba and Vaseline being some of the more regular characters.

Other walks of life have their own legendary nicknames. In politics, for example, David Lloyd George as the Welsh Wizard, and Margaret Thatcher as the Iron Lady tend to stick. Two famous golfers have turned their nicknames into world wide sporting brands as Greg Norman launched The Great White Shark, and Jack Nicklaus, the Golden Bear range of products.

I never had a clever nickname at school, where children can be particularly cruel with some of their choices. Apart from the obvious ones like carrot, for the red heads, our year seemed to specialise in Lord of the Rings nicknames, so we had a Bilbo, Barkis and Frodo in the late '60s well before the films gave them cult status.

One of the magical nicknames I have come across though is for my friend Martin Wooden. Martin was 1st XV captain at Twickenham and a seriously good prop, and he had the nickname 'Pud'. Now I always thought this related to his waist measurement, but no, you need to read The Good Ship Venus for the answer.

The trainee cook was Wooden
by Christ he was a good 'en
he t***d off twice in a bag of rice
and called it sago puddin'