BBC Two's Young Margaret made it perfectly clear what a self-regarding and rather unpleasant person its subject was even as a schoolgirl. It also put to bed the myth of her closeness to, or even concern for, her father. By the time that he died, he did not even have her telephone number.
Attending his memorial service, during which a lectern was dedicated to his memory in the chapel where he had preached, itself in the town of which he had been Mayor, she demanded a better seat than that allocated to her, on the grounds that she was a Cabinet Minister. Her elder sister Muriel had to point out that, "This service is not for you."
Still not the best line in it, though. That was when we were told by the BBC that Grantham, "was built on the A1." Look out for the BBC's next documentary on the Royal Family, during which the narrator will wonder aloud why Windsor Castle was built so near to Heathrow Airport.
Now that you have been replaced on Lanchester Parish Council by a younger, healthier young man in the 2013 version of the mighty Neil Fleming, Mr Philip Richardson (remember the name as you say, should we now consider you a political activist (although you have never knocked any doors in Lanchester) or should we consider you a journalist now?
ReplyDeletePhilip is as unlike Neil Fleming as you could possibly imagine. He is personally tolerable and well-liked, for a start. Nor is he ballot box poison, possibly even shown to be venereally so by Friday afternoon. But I grant that Philip is in better health than I am. Most people are.
ReplyDeleteAnd I have knocked on more doors in Lanchester than you could possibly imagine. Although I have a feeling that another of my records might be broken this week, I was the Sub-Agent who secured Labour an overall majority of the vote on a four-way split in Lanchester. The Labour Party has never forgiven me. It never will.
According to my blurb where and when I am published:
David Lindsay is freelance journalist, an author, a supply teacher, a market research worker, a charity worker and a political activist based in Lanchester, County Durham, as well as a Tutor of Collingwood College, Durham and of the Teikyo University of Japan in Durham, and a member of the Centre of Theology and Philosophy at the University of Nottingham. Born in 1977, he served on Lanchester Parish Council from 1999 until he stood down in 2013, together with eight years as a governor of a primary school and eight years as a governor of a comprehensive school. He has also served on the Governing Body of Collingwood College. His books, to date, are Essays Radical and Orthodox and Confessions of an Old Labour High Tory. His website is http://davidaslindsay.blogspot.com and he is @davidaslindsay on Twitter.
Now, on topic, please.
Philip was very touched to get a complimentary reference in your article. You are moving from Obi-Wan Kenobi to Yoda.
ReplyDeleteNo vacancy for that position is there.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I must emphasise that neither of us talks like that.
Now, on topic, please, people. Come on.
That boy is our last hope.
ReplyDeleteNo, there is another.
ReplyDelete