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[Feb. 23rd, 2010|08:26 pm] |
On the Tube back from my new job I've just reading the (very good) Where Power Lies, Prime Ministers v the Media by Lance Price. A advantages of a seat there, the only benefit of getting on at Vauxhall where nobody else wants to work (unless you're a spy). Anyway, Price is talking about John Major and his paranoia regarding the papers, his inability to not read them and his pathetically thin skin. Price pus his finger on why, it hardly needed the skills of Vauxhall's finest after all: Edwina Currie. But it's what he says around this that is most interesting,
"Every journalist had heard stories of an affair between Major and the Downing Street caterer Claire Latimer. The stories weren't true and Major successfully sued...Ms Latimar told the BBC that she had been used as a 'decoy' and that Downing Street had allowed her name to be circulated to cover his real affair with Mrs Currie. 'He or they or whatever. I'd been planted to hid a story, which is the most extraordinary thing to me when you work in a place like Downing Street, to be put into this position.'
Considering what's been said about Gordon Brown for swearing in the general direction of his lowly staff and being a bit of a dick lately, I find it astonishing that nobody's gone back and pointed out that any Prime Minister who allows the name of one of his Downing Street staff to be dragged through the mud in order to save his own skin is a quite huge cunt. |
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[Jan. 20th, 2010|09:56 am] |
Alright Livejournal. I should be working but I can't really be bothered - exciting trip to see the Health Select Committee tomorrow though - so I thought I'd do a brief update.
First and most importantly, the quiz team I was a member of - some would say Cesc Fabregas style lynchpin - came second in the puz quiz last night. We won a pound each, coincidentally the same amount as it cost to play, but there was enough left over to buy two bags of crisps between seven of us. Some reward I think you'll agree. Anyway one of the teams got a bottle of wine for having the witty name of "Highbury and Quizlington" which is 1) older than time itself and nearly as old as "Quizteam Aguilera" 2) still a bit shit. Having said that, I find coming up with a quiz team name - witty at first and then gradually less funny every time you hear it - is probably the toughest part of a pub quiz, certainly up there with arguing whether the guy in the picture round is actually Linford Christie or not.
Work is going quite well. I'm looking for actual jobs now, ones that pay me money in exchange for labour, which I can then go on top exchange for goods and services, so cross fingers on all that.
Will try and creep out of work early today so I can get a couple of pre-game pints in (before resuming my increasingly bad-tempered and annoying feud with one of the stewards on my block at Arsenal). Then I am OFF on Friday afternoon, thank the lord. I'm going to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1) fromthecity's house to sit in the warm, watch ESPN Classic and have dinner cooked for me (nb, she doesn't know about the last two things yet). |
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 18th, 2010|09:15 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | books | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Field Music - Effortlessly | ] |
Well, I haven't updated for a while. Sorry about that: work getting in the way mainly, plus a declining confidence in my ability to write stuff without sounding like a twat. Unfortunate that.
Anyway, I've been reading quite a lot lately mostly because my parents suffered a serious failure in imagination when buying my stuff for Christmas and just bought my entire Amazon wishlist. So on Christmas Day I started with Family Britain by David Kynaston, the sequel to the wonderful Austerity Britain and convering 1951-57. It's good - great in fact - but not as good as Austerity Britain. A sort of creeping doubt keeps coming into Kynaston's judgements - things keep maybe being seen this way or it might be supposed that something happened. Have confidence man! Still, it's a bloody good book and the rest of the series will keep me in presents until about 2015: at this rate anyway and if he keeps his promise to write a history of Britain up to 1979.
I then picked up In Defence of the Realm: The Authorised History of MI5 by Christopher Andrew and then nearly dropped it again, because it's bloody huge. Andrew doesn't hedge his bets so much; it's a pretty firmly pro-MI5 book (something which a Private Eye review attacked though, ironically, the review was unsigned) but it rattles along well and Andrew argues his case cogently. There are annoying bits: he's always putting people's future titles in front of their names (writes Field Marshal the Earl Blainey) and there's an entirely superfluous conclusion but it's worth buying. Maybe in paperback though.
As a change from history and stuff, I've just started On Roads by Joe Moran. It's about roads. It's also bloody brilliant. |
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[Jan. 2nd, 2010|10:56 am] |
Some Saturday morning politics for you. John Major lays into Tony Blair today, as is the fashion nowdays. He's remarkably honest is Major: "There are many bad men around the world who run countries and we don't topple them, and indeed in earlier years we had actually supported Saddam Hussein when he was fighting against Iran." And how! At the time of the collapse of the Matrix Churchill trial over selling arms to Iraq, John Major had been Prime Minister for two years.
As Major piously hopes, "we can get respect for Parliament back providing governments and oppositions are frank... providing they don't let spin doctors perpetrate half truths". Quite right. For example, the Government's handling of the Scott Report into the illegal arms sales to Iraq mentioned above was a disgrace: Ministers mentioned were given ample time to comment and request revisions, a "press pack" - those spin doctors again! - was created giving largely positive impressions of a hugely negative report and Her Majesty's Opposition was given two hours to read the 1000+ page report. The Prime Minister then was John Major.
Still, happy new year everyone! |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 12th, 2009|10:01 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | meme time | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Field Music - In Context | ] |
My Decade, by a hungover Sam aged 24 and 3/4.
2000: I was 15. Broke a number of laws.
2001: Did GCSEs. They were reasonably shit.
2002: Saw my favourite ever Arsenal game: Arsenal 3 - 1 Manchester Utd, seats right in the middle of the North Bank. I miss the old place. Also, WiltORRRRRRRD. I vividly remember watching that entire game about three inches from the TV.
2003: I got some A-Levels. I went to Sheffield. I hooked up with Sarah.
2004: The Year of the Invincibles.
2005: Still in Sheffield. Slept with a fat girl.
2006: The first six months of 2006 were probably my best ever: Bex, finishing university, getting a season ticket and the Arsenal going to a Big Cup final. Went to Paris. Had a cry. Tried to piss on the floor of a hotel room.
2007: Drudgery in a hospital. Fucked it off, went to Australia. An excellent decision.
2008: Came home. Started an MA. Missed the beach.
2009: Finished MA, worked for a Labour MP, failed to get an actual job. |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 9th, 2009|09:41 pm] |
Me, obviously, in a ridiculous hat and gown yesterday. Then I had some wine and some pizza and some more wine and a bit more wine and today work was quite painful.
Christmas party tomorrow! We are going to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition and then here for lovely, lovely food. |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 12th, 2009|11:11 am] |
On the plus side to this continued unemployment, people keep telling me that I've lost weight. I have - probably something to do with going to the gym four times a week, though I could've quite easily fallen into the trap of eating biscuits all day. It's quite good anyway. I keep having attacks of vanity and staring into a mirror, admiring the space where I used to have an extra chin. |
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[Nov. 4th, 2009|01:32 pm] |
ARSENAL FANS ARE FEARFUL FOR THE FUTURE OF THEIR CLUB screams the first line of this Times article. Russell Kempson then spends the rest of his article, as well as this q&a, contradicting himself. Despite the doom-mongering opening line, what Kempson actually thinks is that Silent Stan "seems to be...trying to make sure that [Fat Man Utd Supporting Uzbek Cunt] Usmanov cannot buy the club by purchasing as many spare shares as possible". So..er..perhaps there is not so much of a cause for concern after all eh.
Leave the inane and inaccurate Times " football journalism" to Tony Cascarino please. |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 21st, 2009|09:48 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | ma stuff | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Weezer - I Want Your To | ] |
I forgot to mention it earlier but, prompted by fromthecity mentioning hers, I got my MA results back and passed. Sort of yay as I was two marks off a merit and, really, should've done lots better. Unfortunately my dissertation was pretty rubbish but what can you do now, it's all done.
Also, yesterday I won £25 on the Premium Bonds.
However, I still do not have a job. |
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[Oct. 5th, 2009|11:58 am] |
Since it's raining outside and I've already done some cleaning and I'm unemployed and slightly bored then I may as well update about my weekend. Friday I went to the Glasshouse Stores in Soho; fuck me, Sam Smith's red wine is awful but you can't really moan too much as it's also very cheap. I had a good time anyway.
Saturday my hangover was a four or five; not too dramatic anyway. I was going to go and have drinks with somebody but they had something else to do so I largely sat around all day, watching illegally streamed football and reading the Economist. Until fiveish anyway, when I met a friend and went to the Faltering Fullback in Finsbury Park for some beer and the Man Utd game. They were rubbish. Anyway, came home, had more wine, cooked myself a nice dinner, watched Match of the Day for the first time this season (!) and went to bed earlyish.
Sunday was the football. Despite my loathing of early afternoon Sunday kick offs - being in the pub at noon on a Sunday feels well wrong - Arsenal were magnificent going forward and Cesc Fabregas quite superb, so that made it all worthwhile. Then back to pub to watch a predictably dull Chelsea - Liverpool game; more wine, rubbish dinner and then bed to wake up today hangover-free. Wahey, I dislike Monday morning hangovers. |
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