My friends, there were rumours a while back that Lord Mandelson was keen on appearing on Strictly Come Dancing at some time in the future (presumably when his team are back in opposition next year), there have even been rumours that Ann Widdecombe might be up for strutting her stuff on the show.
Well now the precedent has been set for politicians on the programme, with former House Majority Leader, Republican firebrand Tom "The Hammer" DeLay. If our Parliamentarians can be this good it would be worth watching:
...he criticises the smugness and self-importance that he feels has crept into some political satire – not surprisingly, a trait he sees more on the Left than on the Right. “It does not do for a political humourist to be smug. We’re not offering policy alternatives; we’re pointing out political absurdities. We’re the ones switching on the kitchen lights and watching the cockroaches scamper. But we’re not going in there to stamp on them. That shouldn’t be our role.”
Quite right, P.J., quite right....he opts for an observation he made in 1993 that is enjoying a new lease of life today: “If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it’s free,” he famously opined at a gala dinner for the libertarian Cato Institute as the then First Lady Hillary Clinton pursued her doomed efforts to reform the health care system.
“It’s very flattering to invent a catchphrase that sticks around and hear those words being quoted again,” he says, 16 years later. “They probably stand up to analysis and time because they’re true.”
Here's a tip, Griffin, give them up - don't make him come and take them...“When someone called me to say that the BNP was using one of my books in a publicity stunt, I was sick to the stomach.
“I served with men of all colours and from many nationalities. They were all equal to me. That’s what the army teaches you. Nick Griffin thinks differently. He thinks the British Army should be for whites-only. He thinks heroes like Johnson Beharry, our only living VC, should be sent back to Grenada.
“He doesn’t understand that what makes the British Army great, and what makes this country great. It’s the way we draw together people from all around the world and give them ideals worth believing in: tolerance, fairness, decency, looking out for the little guy.
“It’s the British way of doing things.
“That’s why I’ve asked for my books back. Because I don’t want anything to help the BNP promote their poisonous politics of segregation and hatred.”
"We have discovered two types of stimulants that were introduced into the Gaza trip from Israeli border crossings," a Hamas police spokesman told the French news agency [AFP]. "The first type is presented in the form of chewing gum and the second in the form of drops."
According to the report, the coastal territory's Hamas rulers claim to have detained several members of a gang involved in the import over the last two years who "admitted during the investigation they were linked to the Zionist intelligence services."
So far the Israeli Defence Forces have refused to comment on the allegations, no doubt shamed by the nature of the plot uncovered by the doughty torturers, er..., interrogators of the Hamas police force. That most taciturn of communicators, nobody from the IDF has been willing to come forward to apologise for their shameless conspiracy, though an anonymous source has broken ranks to be the sole whistleblower:
It surely can't be long before the brave crusaders for truth at Press TV pick up on this?...one army source was quoted by AFP as calling the story "absurd."
