Lord Thomson of Monifieth is dead. How the terms "Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs" and "Chairman of the Independent Broadcasting Authority" conjure up a lost world, now that we hardly realise that there is a Commonwealth, and now that ITV is well on the way to abandoning any pretence that its universal 3 button brings with it public responsibilities, while pornography is available on Freeview.
For that matter, if we must have European Commissioners at all, imagine a time when they (and indeed peers and Cabinet Ministers) were not, as now appears to be the case, chosen at random out of a telephone directory.
But, somewhat ironically (considering that John Cleese used to do Party Political Broadcasts for the SDP), there is now something of a "don't mention the War" attitude to the SDP. Lord Thomson is said to have "joined the Liberal Democrats", as if he had gone straight from Lab to Lib.
Could that be because, when so many of today's media grandees were Communists or Trotskyists and entirely open about it, the SDP was trying, however imperfectly, to provide a home for those driven out of Labour who could still see the point of, or even imagine, a person called the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs, or a body called the Independent Broadcasting Authority?
Free from the betrayal of Gaitskellism over Europe, free from the betrayal of Christian Socialism over nuclear weapons, free from the decadent social libertinism of Roy Jenkins, and free from the comprehensive schools mania of Shirley Williams, better luck this time.
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Pornography on Freeview? You must have a different system to me!
ReplyDeleteYou have to pay an extra subscripotion to get it, like UKTV Gold or the TopUp Anytime ones. But it's there.
ReplyDeleteMy uncle (now deceased) tried to have even the possibility removed from his set. No matter how many times they told him that "It's all right, Mr Lindsay, you can't get it unless you subscribe to it", he was adamant that he did not want even the suggestion of such a thing under his roof.
And good for him, say I.
Good for him? He sounds like a complete idiot.
ReplyDeleteNo, sweetie, that's you.
ReplyDeleteYou shouldn't be on this blog, it's beyond you. Stick to porn.