Thoughts here and there

I was very busy last week, if not with looking after Kimberley after packed days of work and getting a heft of church papers ready, there was the weekend when Saturday was taken up first with going to Oadby (via Leicester) to visit my grandfather, popping back home briefly before going out to Canterbury for a friend's birthday.  And then on Sunday I was looking after Kimberley again.
One of the things I didn't watch was The Great European Disaster Movie, mostly scripted by Bill Emmott, former editor of The Economist, which was slated by The Telegraph as the most patronising piece of TV ever.  Not surprising but the reviewer Gerard O'Donovan should have been careful with his language when he described it as a "mish-mash of fact, fiction and wild speculation" - this the modus operandi of The Telegraph's star economist Ambrose Evans-Pritchard (who has been predicting the imminent demise of the Euro for at least seven years).  Then Toby Young produced his own widely partisan and highly selective rebuttal - the author of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People really does know how to do that - the best bit his eulogy of Norway for providing a model for Brexit; this would be the same Norway that has adopted more of EU law than Britain and has absolutely no say over it, the same Norway whose population is twelve times less than the UK's but has a far bigger reserve of oil to exploit.  But Young doesn't dislike the EU, he hates it so no-one should expect an objective riposte when he can pen an article for 'clickbait' purposes.
Anyway, enough of that.  Watching Star Trek: The Next Generation on the SyFy Channel and noting the steady improvement in narrative since the mostly unimpressive first series (despite the hot outfits assigned to all non-security female staff, apart from Counsellor Deanna Troi after the pilot), it always is a source of satisfaction to see continuity errors series apart.  In Ensign Ro last night (fifth series), Captain Jean-Luc Picard served an admiral struggling with an illness a hot ginger tea, something Picard mentioned was his grandmother's way of tackling the common cold.  Even though the admiral admits that it is a Cardassian virus, Picard's own youthful experience seemingly contradicts Wesley Crusher who explains to Data in Datalore (in the first series) that 'a cold' was something humans used to have a very long time ago, suggestively longer than the 30-40 years in difference between Picard and Crusher.  The Simpsons dealt well with such fan criticism in The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochy Show, so it is wise not to pursue it further.
I was sad to hear of Sir Malcolm Rifkind's fall from grace, Jack Straw not so much.  Even though Straw offered far less, he did it in his parliamentary office, a clear breach of the rules.  Sir Malcolm's grandiose grandstanding was not illegal and it is quite natural to gild the lily to acquire a sinecure.  In fact, what might have sealed his downfall was his unrepentant response to the recordings in contrast to Straw who referred himself to the Standards Commissioner. I still remember Sir Malcom in the 1997 Tory wipeout in Scotland when he lost Edinburgh Pentlands, the electoral ousting of a serving Foreign Secretary complemented by the toppling of then Defence Secretary, Michael Portillo, in Enfield Southgate.  This removed two potential leaders for the Conservatives in the rebuilding process that took place thereafter, with William Hague's time coming too soon (the Tories had a net gain of one constituency seat in 2001 - Labour retained its hegemonic majority of 160+).  Now, not only was Sir Malcolm forced to step down from the Intelligence and Security Committee and suspended from the Conservative Party but will be forced to relinquish the ultra-safe Tory seat of Chelsea and Kensington - Boris 'The Animal' Johnson must be kicking himself for not waiting and going for the still safe but less rock solid seat of Uxbridge.  Straw was already stepping down in 2015, so it is sad end to Sir Malcom's political career (that place in the Lords probably won't happen either).  His 'crime' is small beer to the vast networks of corruption that cripple the US Congress.  Because of lax rules that constitute a breach of the law only in regard to a direct quid pro quo, lobby groups have captured almost every member on Capitol Hill, with the 'pay-off' coming further down the line rather than immediately. It has got to the extent that elected representatives rarely resort to filibusters because they are so busying contacting lobbyists to secure extra funding.  We shouldn't judge ourselves by those who are worse but the 'sins' of Sir Malcolm and Straw are miniature in comparison.