Zen notes

One notes Tony Blair's whining that the police investigation into the cash-for-honours scandal has poisoned UK politics. Which selling lordships for political donations of course does not.

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One notes the continuing debate about the House of Lords. Here's David Steel, almost the definition of "useless twat" on why we should have a bunch of useless twats appointed to our upper house, who will then pontificate almost powerlessly on what the executive enacts without hindrance.

The correct form of upper house is simple: elect it by PR. A Commons consisting of local representatives and a Senate consisting of national representatives makes tremendous sense. We have something similar in Australia. It's a huge annoyance to the government if it doesn't control both houses, and that's a good thing.

Appointed anythings are a terrible idea. Why? Because whoever is empowered appoints a whole bunch of people who will further empower them. Whoever is disempowered remains that way. A house of the eminent would even be better, although agreeing what "eminence" should consist of is something that you can have wars over.

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One notes that if the police briefs the press that it is investigating Muslim nutters who have been planning to behead people, those nutters will never get a fair trial.

We can't end up with the kind of jury selection Americans indulge in, in which instead of selecting a jury of one's peers, both sides try to select one that is so misshapen that it represents no one in particular. In this case, you'd have to have a jury of people who have never read a newspaper or watched TV, and how can you trust their judgement?

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One notes the continued rise of Manchester United and the decline of Leeds United. If you needed evidence of evil forces at work in this world, well, there you have it. That no one seems able to stop ManUre and equally no one could stop Ken Bates from installing a suppurating boil with the face of a beauty-challenged macaque as Leeds' manager are proofs positive of the thesis.

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One notes the resurgence of English rugby, displayed in the thrashing handed to the Scots. Cue triumphalist predictions all round. Dr Zen notes only that suggesting the Irish were hot favourites was foolish anyway, and we shall doubtless prevail over that bunch of hackers and fatboys. It should also be noted that rugby union is only of importance to anyone approaching sane if there's no proper football on.

posted by Dr Zen @ 1:49 pm