FAO Allegra Stratton: if you lay down with dogs, you get fleas.
You sold your soul for fame and glory. But the devil you made that pact with does not forget.
I'm reminded somewhat of Richard Keys and Andy Gray. Who reacted with shock when Murdoch and Sky hung them out to dry!
"It's a media circus!", wailed Dicky. About SKY TV for God's sake.
You had your choices Allegra. You made absolutely appalling ones. Now you can repent at your leisure, after being a disgusting, criminal PM (who you wanted to work for!) and vile government's little scapegoat.
It's fascinating when the actual, vulnerable human being is exposed.
As it was when Thatcher and May resigned - in both cases, having displayed zero empathy whatsoever for their countless victims.
Politics ISN'T a game. The kind of people Stratton was surrounded by think it is
The most callous, cynical game imaginable. Even now, this isn't journalists doing great work. It's compromising videos being leaked to them by Tory enemies of Johnson.
The downfall of British Prime Ministers: a potted history.
- Chamberlain: appeasement plus "peace for our time" plus Norway = bye bye
- Churchill: 'Socialist Gestapo' plus Tory (but not his) appeasement plus desire for a genuine welfare state = Labour landslide
- Attlee: too much austerity for too long, including rationing still going on at a time people started wanting things. We'd won the war. Had we lost the peace?
- Eden: d'oh! The third worst foreign policy blunder in postwar British history. Invited to... take early retirement.
- Macmillan: Profumo affair plus Night of Long Knives plus that stench of Tory decadence which would become oh so familiar
- Wilson: 'The pound in your pocket' plus England 2-3 West Germany plus the postwar settlement beginning to fail
5. When they come to us and roll onto their backs, then their fronts, to show that they trust us.
6. Their apparent Zen-like calm for hours on end.
7. That I can tell when my parents' cat wants water. Just by how she looks at me.
(By 'water', I mean: "Oi! Take me upstairs to the bathtub and turn the tap on. I shall then carefully test the heat with my paw to check that it's cold").
8. If we're depressed or ill, they have our backs. They do, you know.
So many memories of stirring in the middle of the night, hearing the score on Test Match Special, rolling over and putting my head back under the covers in interminable despair.
Bruce Reid's reign of terror in 1990/1 sticks in the mind even now.
So does the Atherton/Hick disaster in 1994/5. And Nasser saying "we'll have a bowl, mate" in 2002 and THAT collapse - every England batsman frozen in the headlights - at Adelaide in 2006/7 and the utter disgrace and shame of 2013/14. Truly, as embarrassing as the 1993 brownwash.
I have these tiny, can just about recall them memories of Newsround reports when we won in 1986-7 (but lost the last Test, which meant Allan Border kept his job. Oops).
Otherwise, my Ashes-watching lifetime started in 1989. Gooch lbw b Alderman, again and again and AGAIN.
Free societies only function effectively when the citizens act within the law, with respect for and responsibility towards each other.
The UK govt has broken that social contract many times over. But so have the unvaccinated (except those who can't be so for medical reasons).
It's not about "there's only a small risk to me; I'll take my chances thanks". It's entirely about increasing the risk to everyone else.
It's also about overwhelming hospitals with unvaccinated people - so others with life-threatening conditions die.
If you've actively chosen to endanger others through your own choices of refusing the vaccine (unless, I re-emphasise, your health means you can't be vaccinated) and/or refusing even to wear a mask, you don't get to stamp your feet and whine about consequences.
McCoist - who dressed up as Hearty Harry the week before the Rangers-Hearts Coca-Cola Cup Final in 1996, and when he did his big reveal, the Hearts fans laughed along with him - is quite amazing. Best summariser ever.
Keane definitely won't like the comparison, but he's Eamon Dunphy's true heir if you ask me. And DEFINITELY plays up to his image all the time.
I'd add James Richardson to the 'universally loved' category and take out Barry Davies: who I was in awe of but who divided opinion.
But compare and contrast McCoist's sheer love of the game with the absolutely horrendous Mark Lawrenson: whose rise coincided with the BBC's football coverage disappearing off a cliff.