"I am the heir to Blair". Were ever truer words spoken by 'Call me Dave'? There is simply no passing bandwagon upon which this OE spiv will not hitch a ride. Earlier in the week he ordered/suggested/hinted/asked nicely (you choose which one you believe) the use of Scotland Yard manpower to re-open the investigation into the missing Madeleine McCann. The McCann parents are two very intelligent and media-savvy people who have fought relentlessly to keep their missing daughter before the public eye - and I congratulate them for their tremendous efforts. However, Kerry Needham, whose son Ben disappeared on the island of Kos 18 years ago, comes from much further down the social class and lacked all the communication skills that the McCann's have and thus her story has virtually dropped from sight. Certainly it has no interest for 'Field Marshal' Cameron!
Next up for the laying-on of prime ministerial hands is the 'military covenant'. This amorphous, now-you-see-it-now-you-don't, make-it-up-as-you-go-along, piece of political flim-flammery manages to combine stupidity with chicanery and thus becomes an archetypal piece of Cameronion political stuntery. No-one quite knows what it is to do, specifically, in practice, on the ground, over the desk of some local authority bureaucrat who probably thinks all soldiers are fascist brutes who should be sent for re-education. And why should soldiers receive special treatment? No-one forced them to sign on at the point of a bayonet, they volunteered, and when they did so they knew the rules. And does it apply to all servicemen? Will the no doubt splendid clerk from the Royal Army Pay Corps who once did a 6 month tour at the main HQ in Afghanistan receive the same preferential treatment as a squaddie who did 3 tours up the sharp end? And will the benefits, whatever they turn out to be, cover all ex-soldiers? If so, I had better brush up on my Richard III-style limp because I'm an ex-squaddie even if I did come out in 1968 and the only action I ever experienced was the usual Saturday night punch-up in the NAAFI Club in Aldershot!
Well, I don't know what this covenant will do apart from create a brief halo around Cameron's head but I can guarantee three things, many ex-servicemen will be disappointed when they discover that it is mostly military-political bullshit; and many civilians will be resentful when they see servicemen jumping housing and benefit queues; and finally, but almost certainly long after Cameron has retired with a knighthood, the judges will be called upon to decide the matter in detail and as we can all see from their useless efforts to sort out the law on privacy, they will make a complete cock of it.
I'll swear I posted a comment here. Wot's become of it?
Posted by: dearieme | Monday, 16 May 2011 at 00:06
More water with it, DM! Or perhaps like me you are suffering with OMMS (Old Man's Memory Syndrome) and you have put it down somewhere and forgotten where.
Posted by: David Duff | Monday, 16 May 2011 at 08:57
No, DM will be correct in this instance.
I penned words of great wisdom to you a week or so ago and they promptly disappeared into the ether, never to be heard from again.
I retired to my room to sulk quietly.
Of course, I have no idea what those clever words were and the world is probably a better place for that but who knows?
Could have been important.
Posted by: Sassyandra | Tuesday, 17 May 2011 at 00:52
Andra, I expect it was a poetic paean of praise for my witty and intelligent scribblings here at D&N along with some not too subtle hints that you lust for my body - oh - take that as a 'no', shall I?
Posted by: David Duff | Tuesday, 17 May 2011 at 09:15