Himself Alone 1970

In the thin air of the Azteca Stadium in the 1970 World Cup Final Pele hovers majestically over his Italian prey - Himself is similarly airborne as his ten year old derriere has been launched towards a Western Irish sky by a bolting horse.

In the next few moments gravity will work on both and Himself will attempt to match the cacophony of 107,412 and will come pretty close. Life is flashing before him, At ten his life is as watchable as a reality TV spin off on a cable channel  - thin content which Himself tries to stretch out by endless previously ons recaps and in next week’s show...He had recently sat through Love Story - will he die before his own has ever tasted love? Never to skate in Central Park? Never having to say sorry - and not even the drawn out death where Ali Mcgraw looks more glamorous as the end nears but an instant hit of body on Connemara marble. At least he would die with as clean a conscience as Bobby Moore post diamond necklace scandal.

The nag that had inched forward like a non league crowd following a triumphant cup tie vs higher placed opposition who wanted to savour the relative luxury of the away ground now moves with energy and purpose as speedily and unexpectedly as the appearance of the roundel insignia on Japanese fighter planes over the Pearl Harbour skies.  Not like in the Michael Bay travesty but as in the epic war fillum he's just seen at the ABC Essex Rd: Tora Tora Tora - surprise surprise surprise - like all 70s boys he was multilingual - provided there was a war on.  feuer achtung Banzai hande hoch. And this is war: man vs horse - all about personal survival.

Fortunately Himself had bronze, silver and gold badges acquired thro many hours of perspiration starting with Mum’s dexterous use of a safety pin when she somehow retrieved the elastic swimming trunk cord - as much a wonder to Himself as the third of the working class consistently voting against their own interests or the touting  of £100k Peter Marinello as the next George Best. The swimming lessons in the Tibberton Rd Public baths - always busy as very few folk had bathrooms at home relying on the Saturday night tin bath. That would be followed by climbing into the blue and white cotton pyjamas warmed in front of the coal fire in readiness for the Andy Williams Xmas snowbound belatedly screened in April.

Finally the inflating and tying off of said blue and white cotton sleepwear and the desperate drying of them with dressing room hairdryer which had been recently installed owing to demand from men growing their hair longer. This had resulted in the wolf whistling of certain players at football grounds- obviously only visiting or especially former heroes especially Jimmy Robertson  at the Lanewhen he scored for Arsenal. The skills  these medals acknowledged were of no use on land.  If only his bolting mount had been a giant sea horse... 

Himself has never ridden before but he has seen the Grand National on the telly so The pose is pure Pat Taafe - Mum’s fave Irish jockey who won the grand national that year  resulting in her annual bet paying off with jubblies all round.The horse is no Arkle the champion horse much less Champion the Wonder Horse star of Saturday Morning Pictures - a communal cinema going experience where the largely junior crowd heckled the Government Information films watched rapt at key moments in Z for Zorro and cheered at Flash Gordon - all behaviours far more endurable than the Vue/Cineworld going adult munching supersize tacos swimming in collagenous red , loudly predicting plot outcomes and turning their phone screens up just in case they miss an update from their co-worshippers of WKD, Lynx and cuffed sweatpants who style themselves as the whatsapp group lethal banter squad

The horse is one of a team too - some of his mates bearing  Aulfella and da brudders others pulling a trap navigated by Mam with dasisters. They have names tho none as resonant as 

Tostao, Gerson, Jairzinho - Brazil 1970 the greatest team ever - and the highlight of their play wasn’t even a goal but an outrageous dummy and miss vs Uruguay by the totemic Pele. Pele’s opening goal and Carlos Alberto’s clinching fourth meant  Brazil won Jules Rimet three times and got to keep the trophy. Perhaps that’s what drives Mark Francois and Rees Mogg towards urging constant war on Germany - a hat trick of victories would give them world domination in perpetuity - the natural order of things. 

The rarity of sightings of these yellow and green shirts enhanced their allure. They were only glimpsed every four years and the white clad Germans and Orange dutch every two. Contrast that with the attention mega trawler supernet net of todays’ neverending news  - transfer deadline day is more exciting than most games. No such problem in 1970 midweek - we got Sportsnight with Coleman - which did feature football but only after you had sat through all sorts of things boxing, figure skating but the one most pertinent to the crisis - showjumping

 Following exposure on the telly kids would head to the park to attempt to copy their newfound Gods - the Willie Carr  flick, the Best robbing of Banks at wembley - scandalously ruled out for ungentlemanly conduct, The Denis Law sleeve grab (does anyone still make long sleeve shirts?). 

Rosemary Gardens cinder pitch was their Highbury, their Lords (with matting rolled out and stumps on springs) even their Wimbledon when anyone cared to play (two weeks in June) but it was never our Hickstead-  our Wembley stadium never the Empire Pool Wembley

The only pools that mattered were the centrepiece of early Saturday night ritual. The football results delivered to kitchens steaming with anticipation of life changing news and perfectly cooked potato flesh - invariably just like the clocks that year of nothing in our lives and others changed. However, one of Aulfella’s friends, Old Docherty, actually won the pools and grew beardier, scroogier and unhappier with each occasional visit -never once bringing anything with him. For Irish kids the visitors from Home - and most of them were in the same boat as us, ie a barely afloat dinghy - were always good for a few bob. It was considered good luck to give the kid some silver. Yet this man whom fortune had shone on never once shelled out to us. In fact he spent one whole day complaining that the imminent decimalisation of the currency meant penny for the guy was now  prone to hyper inflation and nothing but a profiteering shameful scam perpetrated on the unknowing  and donors should be handing over 0.471new pence. God knows what he did during bob a job week. Bob a job week was where uniformed kids washed cars, cleaned windows, ran errands - known collectively as odd jobs. They ain’t odd tho are they? Night time Czar is an odd job as is innovation sherpa at Microsoft and eBay curator - here is a Crying Boy print in cracked frame contrasted with a chipped babycham glass tight against the cracked  soda stream  bottle - and they all earn more than a few bob.

Being Catholics Himself and crowd were always a bit self conscious during bonfire night possibly cos of the burning of effigies. Anyway he had All Souls day - Halloween - then to Church all souls - Old Docherty cme  one year and the highlight was his reaction to the  collection plate: a dummy worthy of Pele followed by a Barry John pass or if the row was very empty - he demonstrated real potential in the new sport of Frisby. 

Always happier as player than spectator, Himself enjoyed the privilege of altar serving which often yielded significant coinage. The tariff was clearly signposted -  weddings, baptisms - then the biggest payers:  mourners.  We used to pray for  for a big funeral not the old miser Docherty of course - even tho he had promised Aulfella he’d get his newish telly in the will

Telly was the talk of the summer for the cinder pitch in the park was also the scene of filming the TV show Budgie. This starred Adam Faith who was an actor/ pop star and managed his own career as well as other artists. It’s not easy doing that - only Louis CK really handles himself and look where that’s got him. When the show was aired one local geezer was rechristened as Budgie because of his feathered cut - the Rachel of its time. Until the 90s such references were pretty universal but the market led fragmentation of broadcasting reflected the times of greater social inequality especially in broadcasting. Food banks remain a shock to us children of the 1970s - then we had Adam Faith, Bob Hope but no Charity - too much Charley Pride. Thanks to the proliferation of channels TV has lost its role as cultural glue. Back then Cultural glue was, well, glue - sniffed from a crisp packet. Now football is the cultural glue though it seems far more one way than in the past

Old stadiums are demolished to be replaced by what look like PFI prisons  - do you think real supporters care about their new stadia? If they did you’d hear new songs - we have a craft beer concession in our stand/ we followed carbon neutral building practices/ four figure sums our tickets cost four figure sums.

He  pines for the old Highbury, the Lane , the Den. There used to be alphabetically ordered boards on the side of the pitch with a key to the code supplied in the programme  intended for half time scores - Himself’s crowd always bet upon the initial of which of the neighbours teen sons would be turfed out. In their flared wrangler belt loop they wore their red and white wool scarf knitted by loving aunties (no doubt she’d be sued for copyright by the club now). The offender would be escorted out by a hopefully helmet free copper- if there’d been a pitch invasion - their perp walk taking them past a raucously cheering Northbank to a warholian fifteen minutes - of fame not that is not the wait for VAR. 

As football grew into the monolith it is today other sports were forced into the shadows - after all you can recreate the epic Celtic vs Leeds European Cup Semi -Final the two legged Battle of Britain - see it wasn’t just kids who were obsessed by war tho even the ten year olds knew the actual Battle did not feature Scottish pilots in Mescherschmidts.  You could even recreate speedway in the bombed out church with some soil at the corner and the bike - the Ivan Mauger skiddy turn at corner. But showjumping ?

Its rural and/ or upper class credentials meant it never really caught on in London as a participation sport - how could it? The  horses in the area were  totter or rag and bone man and the coal carthorse.  Undeterred Himself devised a game where he would jump over paving stones which hosted street furniture - lamp posts, beacons - obviously  any failure to clear the slab would deduct faults. In truth this was the  steeplechase a la Alf Tupper in the Victor whose every win would see his thought bubble read “I’ve run him” sparking huge moral panics about comics ruining kids English - 

So as his mount charges towards a Dry stone wall Himself searches for showjumping knowledge that might help - Princess Anne who went on to winning medal in 1976 - only athlete not required to undergo a sex test - typical class privilege; David Broome; Lucinda Prior Palmer - just one person - the only double barrelled name Himself knew was Ian Storey Moore-  who kept winning at  Badminton -now he’s really getting lost...Himself suddenly knew he could be  saved and weirdly his Gordon Banks turned out to be Hughie Greene.

In those days beer was delivered by horse - called dray carts  On Opportunity Knocks that year the Dray King for Thwaites Star brewery had been declared Britain's champion beer drinker. Using the technique he’d seen Tonto use Himself directs the horse towards the stream. It stops to drink and he dismounts and does the full Harvey Smith  - futile but made me feel better - gesture politics they call that now. Himself recreates the Central Park scene from Love Story there is no snow but sweet connemara rain turning the earth into mud…(falling up/ snow angels / eating snow build snowman) 

No horses were harmed in the making of this story...

Brexit inset

INT CHEQUERS. DRAWING ROOM. THE CABINET AWAITS THE PM'S ENTRANCE JACOB MOGG GRIEF Each man kills the things he loves - I love England. He reaches for a plate What's this? There are no cucumber sandwiches HAMMOND THE BUTLER Sir that is because there are no foreign workers to pick 'em DAVID WORTHLESS It is awfully hard work doing nothing - as I have for two years JACOB MOGG-GRIEF All women become like their mothers - if I'm lucky. Though I prefer Nanny. BORISILY My ideal has always been to love some one of the name of... Boris. GOVEDEN The good friday agreement ended happily... unhappily for me HAMMOND THE BUTLER (ANNOUNCING) LADY DEATHKNELL Enter Theresa May DAVID WORTHLESS I just have to get something (exit) LADY DEATHKNELL To lose one election was a catastrophe to lose two is a certainty. Gentlemen, the handybag Noises heard overhead - re-enter worthless WORTHLESS Is this the bag? 2. LADY DEATHKNELL Yes WORTHLESS It's empty - it was full of used notes - Oh Goveden. Vote Leave must have spent it all on bribing the electorate. LADY DEATHKNELL What do you mean? There's no dividend? BORISLY We'll fill it with deals from pickannie land or brigadoon... LADY DEATHKNELL Fill it with your briefs for you are done here with your nonsense WORTHLESS But the no deal is exactly what we wanted LADY DEATHKNELL And who is the father of this no deal? Do we need DNA testing or will one of you claim it? BORISILY Lady, none of us want it but we all want it to look like you have betrayed us and the voters so we can lead the Party LADY DEATHKNELL And then what is the plan? BORISLY Reaches in bookcase for dictionary MMM Philanderer, Placeman Plagiarist, - here it is - preparation for an event. How ghastly- Do people do this? For themselves? Well I never I just ask Dacre HAMMOND THE BUTLER 3. Removes coat to unveil vest stufffed with what looks like grenades - they are pineapples No. None of you did plan apart from Him moving his hedge fund to Dublin and Billy Bunter Lawson getting French citizenship. Well now it is time - you think these are just pineapples - well they are but we cannot import them thanks to you lot GOVELY I've finally discovered the importance of feathering your own nest Hammond removes blunderbuss from the fireplace. HAMMOND THE BUTLER He forces the cabinet into a corner with the gun You've had this coming you lot He turns and shoots the audience CURTAINS (FOR THE TORY PARTY)

Brexit Awards 2018 - Stormontzy wins

Sketch: Brexit Awards

Jack Whitehall - final prize goes to best selling artist. Opens envelope, cash falls out. Arlene Foster is Stormontzy from her album loyalist murder gangs and and Jim Prior

UVF in balaclavas as gospel choir behind Arlene: (song starts)

Funded by your grace

Direct rule a disgrace

We came and we saved you

The country is broke and

We get a billion because we saved you

(Grime track)

Yo Theresa May where’s the money for glengormley? Oh it’s in the bank - dead on

Alright East Belfast in da house

Don’t let May get too big for her boots

You’re never too big for the boot

I got my 10 MPs to boot

Save her face so she lick boot

Orange Man know I back up the Uvf…

Next year I’ll carry on with the fiddle

Hashtag Murky - peace treaties can suck my ...

I saw 3 sips then I had a bells

Nothing beats the old fashioned pub  especially an Irish one but they are now virtually extinct. We should share pictures of property developers jangling their keys outside of closed boozers on Facebook to shame them.  Liverpool Rd N1 mid 70s, one such pub open on a Christmas night -the key to a great holiday for Himself. Himself has to get out Christmas night- his sire, Aulfella was always rearing up, undoing the hard work of Mam. Aulfella was capable of loving or hating anything at any given, depending on his temper. He hid his good moods in the same place as his money - under the carpet in the front room, reaching for them both when he was on his way to Da pub or da club.

Your best guess as to the name of a pub where the Provisional IRA paper An Phoblacht was sold openly, tricolours decorated the wall and the jukebox featured anti -internment hit The Men Behind The Wire? The Crown of course ( I always add upside down as a nod to the Celtic FC halftime favourite Irish Soldier Laddie) For Himself the test of a decent Irish bar is the Guinness - you can tell a decent pint when you can see mark of each sip on the side of the glass. I offer three swallows for you this season - let’s start with a huge, thirsty gulp.

Liverpool Rd N1 mid 70s, a proper Irish pub The Crown. Himself is there with his first proper girlfriend - Dixie. They are deep into their relationship having met across a crowded home and wear department in Tesco Chapel Market. I’m Not In Love played, his hands on her waist and...breathe (exhale loudly. A glance down at the gap left between the skin  of her back and the waistband of the Wranglers reveals a possible future of bliss - the white bra strap shining in the UV light. ..a reverie...were these the hips that turned a thousand faces and burnt red these cheeks of Islington? A small cry escapes her lips - Sorry love - those plastic sandals are harder to manoeuvre than the Green Flash I normally wear for dancing.

Mam was of a somewhat sunnier frame of mind - where she hid when depression struck we never did find out though Himself and  Dabrudders found most of her hiding places. In earlier years, Accomodation was an old store of some kind affectionately known as the shop. Upstairs one bedroom,with two bunk beds and a cot a sitting room with a pull down bed and a stereogram. Downstairs a shop floor with building gear covered in dust sheets, a kitchen with coal fired stove leading out to a yard. The toilet was reached by a run through a coal cellar sometimes fast, sometimes slow ,,, record time on return from a camping trip in Youghal which included The Return of Dracula one night (rather lax enforcement of X certificate in Ireland) and waking next morning to discover the tent had been pitched beside a slaughterhouse - sheep skulls stretched out in greater numbers as the tide retreated from the stony atlantic shore.

In the cupboard in this  dungeon was where the Christmas presents were hid - and played with/ sometimes ruined long before the day. Mam commented on the odd angle of the crossbar on the subbuteo goals - a few years later we could’ve blamed the Tartan army saying it was a souvenir set of Wembley 77. Himself just used a Swan vesta and Mam’s hairnet to repair it (the onion bag not being to scale).

The shop went as part of slum clearance, as did most of the other condemned buildings. Himself and his moved into the renovated Victorian terrace - into the nineteen seventies - bathrooms and central heating , into the peak of Equality in the UK. The new neighbours’ eldest worked part time at Tesco Chapel Market and through this network Himself impressed enough at interview to collar a role packing cheese and butter then progressing to staffing the Deli counter in a double act with younger brother Seamus. Union membership guaranteed good wages which rose in line with inflation of which there was plenty .

Time honoured courting process was in place from the first time he saw the poppers on the nylon housecoat struggling to contain the developing curves. His cotton overall hid his embarrassment but not his intention - all boys schools did not prepare you well for this. Even the Drama teacher the fifth form swooned over paled in comparison. And then their story started - a word in his shell like -not a letter in the Hardy/ Shakespeare/ Tolstoy mould but a hand gesture to approach a friend - not like today. Sexting was Chelsea’s cup winning manager, Mobiles were Airfix planes on string and pawn featured in a passage from Christy Brown’s  Down All My Days which Aulfella could recite by heart - the good suit went in Monday and was redeemed for Sunday mass. Himself was onto a sure thing - if he asked her to dance at the Xmas social she’d say yes.

Consider the obstacles there: asking - the potential for rejection greater than the selection of the Park football sides where every choice was carefully considered to produce a finely calibrated balance. Fourth best defender gone would you select the second best header without the guarantee you’d land a crosser from the top five?  Dancing here did not mean a hustle a bump or even the ska shuffle all of which he could handle. No The Smiley’s People double agent meant a slow dance. So he watched the couples, the elder siblings the pairings of someone’s mate and someone’s sister. Some still together celebrating their second grandchild…

It worked, Nature  took over they “got off”, “pulled” and then they were “going out”. This did not mean going out that much as funds were somewhat limited, opportunities even moreso. There was a date culminating in a faint prompted by a Sissy Spacek  bloodbath scene. The Odeon Holloway Rd witnessed many a coitus interruptus in its years and this apology laden nursing scene in the foyer echoed many of the experiences Himself and Herself played out. Himself caught the climax of the film   a few years later at college ; ditto the coitus although that was more to do with a Malt Liquor (Breaker, Colt 45 ) for 10p promotion - and  Carrie herself could not have levitated his head  off the pillow the next morning.

No, going out meant staying in with the occasional foray for a coke float at Wimpy with unattached girlfriends (never my mates) including Margaret.  Sitting indoors then in a council maisonette. The sitting room was long with the auditorium seats pointed at the shrine - the rented colour set delivering nightly delights. On the sofas, the Elder sister and Geezer fiancee (saving for wedding so not going out) on the armchairs Graham and Ivy the parents, Between them our would be lovers. Telly and smoking that was the evening - Whan the Bert Comes In, Carry On something and Rich Man Poor Man. .When the folks went dahn ve Legion the vinyl came out - Atlantic Crossing with its slow side and fast side and David Essex’s concept album All the Fun of the Fair. Himself had just begun to achieve some minor plateaued competence on the Hofner Guitar Aulfella had bought from a Showband mate (typically flamboyant gesture and much loved) so this obviously was the equivalent of a masters in Musicology allowing him to pontificate and evaluate all music ever created or about to be - for Heads like him and his best mate Pat most music was judged and unless suitably complex, the black cap came out. Himself kept these opinions to hisself or there would be no goodbye fumble in the porch, no warm lips, no ambition destroyed by parental knock, no warmth enough to see him the ten minute walk home.

But in the Crown buoyed by a half pint the opinions flowed as freely as the song. Xmas evening found them with unattached friend Margaret and her extended family of Lydons as in John. The patrons rotated the singing some better than others but all applauded/ gently ribbed then it came to John himself. He starts doing white Christmas, HImself  joins in forcing JL to go faster,make more of a mess of the melody, savour the lyric, thrash it - invent punk This bit might be somewhat exaggerated in memory, especially as JL was not even there.

That’s the first sip now the second and the third, happy ending.

That Pub, When the comedian Himself returned to The Crown years later it had become Waxys Dargle - a theme Irish bar, Shane Mcgowan’s local, etc. Singing would get you barred. There were no old men in suits and ties. Now it is a block of flats. Himself remembered the Goldsmiths Tavern in New Cross - put up a sign no  hats / no guinness - code for  No Blacks no Dogs no Irish I guess. That sign always conjured up an image of Phil Lynott  trudging from door to door whispering to the Jack Russell nestling beneath his Afghan coat - dont worry me darling their women go mad for me. One year, Himself and da family minus one acted in chorus and decamped to The George in Essex Rd where with the families of Dabrudder’s Sunday football side they created a kind of mad  talent show where audience and performers became one - a communion as Boal would call it. Twas grand - it’s now a gastropub where three organic cherries on the slot machine means a village in Cambodia gets a new goat. the pub quiz includes questions based on the budapest metro map of 1959 and it offers 65 different ales in flavours like panetonne and panfried liver but only one mode of atmosphere - tedious. Gentrification as effective a migration prompt as Potato blight.

Gentrifiers

Chorus - Making your town cool - house price house price house price school - repeat ad nauseam

We think buy to let’s an absolute disgrace/ glad we bought 5 at the old stamp duty rate

Here’s to our genius - or was it / our parents stumping up the dough for the deposit

Agents call this place Shoreditich Lite/  I call it prosecco - bubbly bland and white

So pass the craft ale pass the tapenade / if someone mentions brexit pass the hand grenade

Otag kebab’s been skewered by souvlaki food carts/ I loathe graffiti but our kids study street art

Pie and mash, licquor, winkles and wallies are all rebooted as cuisine a la cockney

Fiver for a loaf of bread a petition vs. greggs / Costa flipping coffee costa flipping arm and leg

Can’t buy malt vinegar to put upon your plate just condiment fundamentalists of balsamic state

Riding Monday then flute, Latin Greek / by Tuesday we’re into the rhythm of the week

Lance flunked the grammar despite all the tutors So Granny pays the fees at st mediocres

Everywhere the skips and signs shout out: we’re cooling up your town - time to get out

Repeat chorus and fade

Talking Re-encounter blues

I got a message from an ex  might 've been by phone or maybe a text. I replied:

I would really love to get together . Please read through the terms and conditions then sign and date the contract below

I consent to compliment you on how you have handled the ageing process: how maturity has yielded you an even more refined wit than you possessed at twenty -one; how your former bouffant hairstyle was rather effeminate and the bald/ grey look gives you a certain dignity; how you seem so much more comfortable in your own skin albeit that epidermis is rather more stretched than on our previous encounter.

I agree to allow that ownership of property is no measure of success and that a room in a shared student house at thirty plus at least equals if not trumps such accommodation as it allows a life free from the shackles of mortgage enabling you to create your poetry/novels/ plays/paintings/sculptures/music* delete as appropriate. I understand you have not produced any (insert option from list above) in the last three decades and great Art takes time. Please tell me about your projects at great length. I will be allowed a proportionate amount of  time to respond with my news - the proportion is two minutes to each of your hours

I solemnly acknowledge that own/ partner's /child's success will only be shared if it is equivalent to above success and no greater. My spouse's consultant brain surgery clinic and my own sequence of critically lauded, prize winning and  best selling crime novels will therefore remain matters for your private google searches over tear-stained keyboard than matters for dialogue in this intimate setting

I hereby gift rights of any images taken whether they be photographic or video to be exploited by you in perpetuity excluding blackmail

I agree to conclude by maintaining the facade that it would be lovely to do it all again soon

On parting, I understand I am to limit myself to the following : I've forgotten how (insert praise) you are, you remembered (your choice here) I love...

The names and details of those involved have been changed to protect the innocent. In reality  I pretended I had such a full working and family life I couldn't possibly find time. Well wouldn't you?

file:///Users/mediastudies/Downloads/mnt/space-1865500-mulliganations-15a38f732c022bc213240de917d6f29c/posts/2011/03/comedy-part-3.html

Union maid

Non talking ed wants to reconsider relationship between labour and unions - I'd call it outrageous - where else do you foot the bills but get constantly attacked? It's like paying child support to an abusive ex-partner. Course labour cabinet supports workers organising if it's abroad but not at home. And mps do work hard - just not at being mps but running their other businesses. Why does labour need such huge sums - humble campaigning could work: cycle to local rallies and argue your case in person. Accuse the tories of monstrous wast of money if they run xpensive campains. Junk the spin - the press loathes labour leaders unless they're right wing. Pledging not to show party political broadcasts on TV would be as big a winner as offering public the chance to promise money to not show children in need. In short grass roots rebuilding is the only way - adopt policies to appeal to your constituency not the other side. So here 's some miliband union songs to get us going Time for new labour songbook: Lack of solidarity forever We shall come over all Uriah heap - please vote for me Gordon brown' s lobbying for anyone with the dough ad lib ad nauseam

Political football

We need to get people excited about Politics as much as they care about soccer. I long for the day we sell Replica kits - shouldn't be too hard as entire ruling class wear same uniform. Each side can wear Sponsored shirts Tories Newscorp and labour gmb - for now- and of course we have the conveyor belt of talent the ppe course at Oxford. The Coaches could become famous like Lynton Crosby the Ron Atkinson of politics. Papers could run Fantasy politics competitions - actually the entire media already do. Commentary would go like this : "...and welcome to the corporate tax avoiders multinational lobbyists house of commons for pm question time. The debate is going from right to right and for those of you watching in black and white the libdems are the all white team.

Episode 2: Australians sent home in India

Episode 2 https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/DRS/drs%202%20mp3%20pod.mp3?w=AADe1KdsM32NPO6lCgV8cxH_svW1cbjUGk66QdW4_ffM0Q

Episode 2: Australians sent home in India

Episode 2

Episode 2: Australians sent home from India

Episode 2 https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/DRS/drs%202%20mp3%20pod.mp3?w=AADe1KdsM32NPO6lCgV8cxH_svW1cbjUGk66QdW4_ffM0Q

Episode 2: Australians sent home from India

Episode 2 https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/DRS/drs%202%20mp3%20pod.mp3?w=AADe1KdsM32NPO6lCgV8cxH_svW1cbjUGk66QdW4_ffM0Q