Wednesday 6 October 2010

Brum Fun

Those who follow @Dick_Puddlecote on Twitter will have noticed that I moseyed on up to Brum for the Tory hotairference. It's why things have been quiet - well, totally silent to be more accurate - around here for the past couple of days.

Arriving back today, there were work-related vehicle issues to get sorted and then an open evening for a prospective secondary school for one of the little Ps (the girl), and unlike others, this one was extremely impressive. Perhaps I may write something on it.

I may write something on the conference too. But not tonight. 'Cos I'm dog tired due to the fact that, for someone whose body isn't as young as the inner being wishes to be, the words 'free' and 'wine' and 'lots of it' tend to have that effect.

For now, though, I'll just say that much like the Lib Dem experience last year, in some respects there seem to be two Tory parties within one.

On the day that Theresa May announced - to whoops of delight, no less - that the misnamed '24 hour licensing' was to be abolished to control excessive consumption by, you know, other people, the end of conference party within the security zone was scheduled to finish at 3:30am, I was told.

Jealous? Not a bit of it, I was already shanted to a standstill at one o'clock when the lanyarded-up piled into taxis.

Is that a pillow I see before me?


1 comment:

Junican said...

Well, precisely, DP. 24 hour bars are to be abolished, provided that the Con Conf can have a bar to 3.30am.

24 hour alcohol availability has never been non-existent. Certain places in London (overnight trading places?) have always enjoyed exceptional status, based upon the non 9 to 5 way of life of the workers in those places.


It is beyond my comprehension that politicians can be so influenced by reports in the MSM of extraordinary events - for example, the odd person who spews up in the street (oh, of course, always observed by a TV camera). No one ever observes that 99.9% of the people wind their way home without incident.

It comes back, once again, to my observation that politicians are emotional beings. They can be smug, exhilarated, excited, depressed, keen, fearful, belligerent, noisy, humble, etc, etc. What they seem not to be able to be is analytical, scientific, erm.... The reason that I have to put 'erm' is that there are far more adjectives which describe 'emotions' and 'feelings' than there are adjectives which describe reality.
Facts are facts. Generally speaking, as regards facts, one can only say 'more than' or 'very much more than' (or, obviously, 'less than', etc).

I have been thinking about the structure of the conspiracy that wishes to deny us our freedoms. I do not like to use the word 'conspiracy', but there seems to be no other reasonable word to account for the multiplicity of anti-smoking bodies (nhs, health dept, ash, cruk, royal college of physicians, etc). It occurred to me only earlier today that there is one source of this multiplicity, and that is THE CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER.

It struck me only earlier today, when I was having a think, that the reason that there is a massively expensive whole department in the Health Dept devoted to smoking cessation is that the Chief Medical Officer has decreed that it should be so. In other words, the NHS runs hospitals and doctors, the Health Dept, generally speaking, organises the funding, but the Chief Medical Officer's dept has no specific duty. He or She can amuse themselves in any way that they wish.

The idea is frightening.