The Importance of Being Idle

Warning: Random Tirade Ahead

A little bit of politics: Ken Clarke is out of the race for leadership of the Conservative party. Twice before he's run and failed (and then the glorious victors were William Hague and Ian Duncan Smith, a pair of political lightweights if ever there were) and frankly, I don't understand what Tory MPs are thinking. Ken Clarke is incredibly intelligent, erudite, easily the best speaker out of the candidates and he is generally popular in the country (hell, even I like him, and I'll vote Conservative just after Hell freezes over) and yet because he has the temerity to acknowledge that the UK is unavoidably a part of Europe, MPs won't support him. It is exactly this sort of bone-headed short-sightedness that has made the Conservative party a virtual laugh-stock in the country, and has rendered them unelectable even when Tony Blairs unpopularity is at record levels. In my opinion the three of them that are left in the race are just various shades of wanker, and none of them will help the Tories back into power. Not that I want them in power, I just think a functional opposition is quite handy in a democracy, to y'know, keep the ruling party in check.
Staying with politics, MPs have passed the bill for ID cards this evening, although they've admitted that the technology isn't foolproof. Well, aside from the fact that no techology is foolproof (nature has a terrific way of making a better fool), if the thing doesn't work reliably, what's the point exactly? The whole "it'll help combat terrorism" thing is just bullshit unless the card contains both a GPS transmitter, and some way of reading your thoughts and making them readable to local police. It'll get batted down in the Lords anyway, but I don't really think that's the point, the government will just whip out the Parliament Act again saying that their will should not be thwarted. Interestingly I'm not actually opposed to the idea of ID cards; I think having one single, nationally acceptable form of identification would be a really solid idea. However, the amount of information these cards will hold over and above confirming your identity, and whether or not I'm compelled to carry one at all times, ah well there's the rub.
In sport, I'm ashamed to be a Vikings fan. I don't know what has happened to that team, or why its happened, but basically they're not a team anymore, they're just a group of guys running about in purple jerseys. These are testing times for fans, the season is already as good as over for us, all we can do is look for the first signs of spring (as it were) and suffer regular beatings. Next Sunday we're playing the equally embarrasing Green Bay Packers, and it really is a case of the resistable force versus the movable object: its just a question of who crumbles first.
I've tried to take it easy today (yeah yeah, I couldn't tell the difference either) in an attempt to shake off this damn flu once and for all, and I have drunk many fine cups of tea. Which was nice. Truth be told, I'm feeling pretty tired again, and its not even 7pm yet. I hate being sick.

posted by BadMonkey @ 6:05 PM