I'm quite intrigued as to what crisis occured in Oman, seeing as it's very much the only country in the Middle East that doesn't appear in the news.
Alex Richards
Donor
I would have thought that it would be due more to international issues than domestic really. I mean, it's not a democracy by any means, but the Sultan's of the sort to make a few concessions and say the right thing rather than crack down IIRC.
Well, when writing it, I threw it in because it was somewhere different, but then had a think about it while proofreading.
Yeah, my thinking was that Yemeni shenanigans were causing trouble over the border. For anybody wondering what said shenanigans were, I haven't a scooby doo. The PoD was in a Cambridge College in 1980. Anything could have happened in Yemen in the next thirty years.
Thanks for this. This is genuinely useful feedback. I think my soft style AH often means that the feedback on the actual writing is limited. My propensity for "and then they were all dead/cats/sitcom characters" probably doesn't help in that regard, mind.
Well there's always the question of the succession to the throne. There are rumours about why the Sultan has remained a confirmed bachelor. Apparently the current system is that once he dies for the royal family to make the decision internally, with if their not being able to come to a consensus after three days a sealed letter written by him being opened to choose one instead. Throw in Yemen next door, Arab Spring-type movements in the region, an open ended succession - at least within the royal family, and it could make for a potentially interesting situation.
A very novel idea which I don't think I've seen before.
It was said that when John Major was opposite Tony Blair at the dispatch box, given their backgrounds, they should have been leading each others' parties. I can see a similar case to make with Jim Laurie and David Davis.
I wonder if Laurie will let his other talents show? The man is a modern polymath. I can see him making a splash playing the piano on some charity programme.
Regards
R
It was said that when John Major was opposite Tony Blair at the dispatch box, given their backgrounds, they should have been leading each others' parties. I can see a similar case to make with Jim Laurie and David Davis.
I wonder if Laurie will let his other talents show? The man is a modern polymath. I can see him making a splash playing the piano on some charity programme.
Regards
R
Ooh, another one I missed.
Looking good. I would certainly have been tempted to vote Red in this TL
Looking good. I would certainly have been tempted to vote Red in this TL
Indeed. I first read about Laurie's aborted Olympic hopes years ago, and the serendipitous route into acting. I thought it would be interesting to look at the butterfly effect on one individual. It's the sort of PoD that a 22nd century android with the consciousness of EdT could use to spin a tale which has the Neo-Mysorean Empire muking the Moon, but I'm just trying to see where it goes until about 2016.
Definitely. With Laurie, I've tried to write it differently to Blair, though. I was too young to remember anything political before 1997, but I get the impression Blair managed to make his background irrelevant, or a non story. I'm having Laurie go for a different approach. Gamekeeper turned poacher, of you like. He knows where the bodies are buried, because he went to the same parties sort of thing. Whether it's particularly plausible, or apparent in the writing, I'm not sure.
I've got an idea or two brewing.
No update tonight, I'm afraid. Been up before 0500 for 5 of the last 7 days, and am again tomorrow. The spelling mistakes are mounting. Hopefully, there'll be something tomorrow or Friday.
Leaving Downing Street on the Back of a Motorbike: The Laurie Papers
People always want to ask a Prime Minister about the biggest disappointments of their reign. It’s an incredibly difficult question. If you think you’ve done everything you can, you’re either not cut out for the job, or have lost the desire to do it. There’s always more you wish you could do. More children lifted out of poverty, more homeless people given a roof over their heads, hospital waiting lists you wish you could cut further. One person falling through the cracks is only one person, but it’s an unmitigated disaster for that individual and those who love them. I did my best to reduce those numbers, and my successor is carrying on in our attempts to improve things further.
If I were to go into specifics, it’s pretty obvious that the whole of the Western World dropped the ball in Nigeria. The fact that such ethnic cleansing, attempted genocide, and awful sectarianism happened, at least partly on my watch, is something I will always struggle to deal with. I should have been more forceful when the thing was brewing, back when I was still Foreign Secretary. I think that the end of the Cold War had left us in some sort of hazy, self affirmed glow, where we thought everything was hunky dory, and liberal democracy would cover the globe. Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Burundi should have knocked this idea into a cocked hat. It didn’t. Thousands upon thousands died thanks to that complacency. Today, the scars are still prominent in West Africa, and I wonder whether they’ll ever heal. Whether I could have got things happening faster, I honestly don’t know. Robin Cook was a wonderful helper in my attempts to keep the eyes of the world on the Niger Delta. He told me I had done everything I could after one particularly fraught meeting. I wish I could agree.
It sounds incredibly facile, but another of the disappointments was how the satirists dealt with me. Spitting Image never let me lose the tracksuit, although the show was flagging a bit by the time we got into government. Private Eye were a little better. I had feared that they were going to do the “Message from the Prime Minister” as a sport obsessed Headmaster. As it turned out, I actually rather liked their “Captain’s Newsletter” most of the time. Obviously, it could get a bit near the knuckle with some of the things that happened during my tenure, but that’s what they’re there for. A satirist with no bite is no use. One of the running gags was my stuffing the Cabinet, and Honours list with sportsmen, which probably wasn’t their greatest innovation, but the timing of the wonderfully gripping Ashes victory in 2005, and subsequent MBEs for Michael Vaughan, Philip Neville and Andrew Flintoff was the perfect starting point for such a joke.
Personally, the biggest downside to my time in Number 10 was one of family. While I did my utmost to keep the children out of the media spotlight, I know that life wasn’t always easy for them. Moreover, I was very busy, and missed too much of their childhoods. It was that realisation that finally made me decide to go immediately after London 2012. I’d missed too much already, and they were growing into fine young men, thanks to their wonderful mother. Gordon knew before I did, the crafty sod. It was February of that year, and I managed to have a drink with him in a stopover in New York. He was as blunt as ever,
“You’re resigning”
It wasn’t very Prime Ministerial of me, but I spat my drink all over the table.
“You are Jim. I can tell. The fire isn’t there. What were you thinking?”
“The boys. I’ve missed so much.”
“Aye, my girls have come second to the IMF too often, too. I’m thinking of stepping back myself. Another year or two.”
“The end of this summer. It’ll give plenty of time for whoever comes next to bed in. Davis isn’t going to win, but when they knife him, the next one might be stronger.”
After that, we talked long into the night. Current politics, past reminiscences, everything got mentioned. It was only the next morning, flying out over the Atlantic, that I realised that I’d never consciously thought about resigning until Gordon said it out loud. However, as soon as he’d said it, I couldn’t disagree with him. He was right: the fire had gone. I needed to hand over to somebody younger. My predecessor managed to bookend my Prime Ministerial career with two conversations, of equal importance to me. The first, he made me really believe that I was the man who could take Tony’s vision, and build on it. In the second, he made me remember that there was more to life than politics, and that I needed a personal, not national, vision once again. As much as I respect Gordon as a comrade, colleague, and even friend, I never thought of him, as a man of great personal empathy. Except the two times it mattered most to me, he had worked out my own mind before I had. Whether that says more about him, or me, I’m not entirely sure.
Before I'd reached the tarmac at Northolt, my mind was made up. I'd spoken to Annie and the boys, and they agreed that it was the right thing to do, and the right time to do it. I'd also concocted the foolish plan to ride the Triumph out of Downing Street, although I hadn't shared that one with Annie.
People always want to ask a Prime Minister about the biggest disappointments of their reign. It’s an incredibly difficult question. If you think you’ve done everything you can, you’re either not cut out for the job, or have lost the desire to do it. There’s always more you wish you could do. More children lifted out of poverty, more homeless people given a roof over their heads, hospital waiting lists you wish you could cut further. One person falling through the cracks is only one person, but it’s an unmitigated disaster for that individual and those who love them. I did my best to reduce those numbers, and my successor is carrying on in our attempts to improve things further.
If I were to go into specifics, it’s pretty obvious that the whole of the Western World dropped the ball in Nigeria. The fact that such ethnic cleansing, attempted genocide, and awful sectarianism happened, at least partly on my watch, is something I will always struggle to deal with. I should have been more forceful when the thing was brewing, back when I was still Foreign Secretary. I think that the end of the Cold War had left us in some sort of hazy, self affirmed glow, where we thought everything was hunky dory, and liberal democracy would cover the globe. Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Burundi should have knocked this idea into a cocked hat. It didn’t. Thousands upon thousands died thanks to that complacency. Today, the scars are still prominent in West Africa, and I wonder whether they’ll ever heal. Whether I could have got things happening faster, I honestly don’t know. Robin Cook was a wonderful helper in my attempts to keep the eyes of the world on the Niger Delta. He told me I had done everything I could after one particularly fraught meeting. I wish I could agree.
It sounds incredibly facile, but another of the disappointments was how the satirists dealt with me. Spitting Image never let me lose the tracksuit, although the show was flagging a bit by the time we got into government. Private Eye were a little better. I had feared that they were going to do the “Message from the Prime Minister” as a sport obsessed Headmaster. As it turned out, I actually rather liked their “Captain’s Newsletter” most of the time. Obviously, it could get a bit near the knuckle with some of the things that happened during my tenure, but that’s what they’re there for. A satirist with no bite is no use. One of the running gags was my stuffing the Cabinet, and Honours list with sportsmen, which probably wasn’t their greatest innovation, but the timing of the wonderfully gripping Ashes victory in 2005, and subsequent MBEs for Michael Vaughan, Philip Neville and Andrew Flintoff was the perfect starting point for such a joke.
Personally, the biggest downside to my time in Number 10 was one of family. While I did my utmost to keep the children out of the media spotlight, I know that life wasn’t always easy for them. Moreover, I was very busy, and missed too much of their childhoods. It was that realisation that finally made me decide to go immediately after London 2012. I’d missed too much already, and they were growing into fine young men, thanks to their wonderful mother. Gordon knew before I did, the crafty sod. It was February of that year, and I managed to have a drink with him in a stopover in New York. He was as blunt as ever,
“You’re resigning”
It wasn’t very Prime Ministerial of me, but I spat my drink all over the table.
“You are Jim. I can tell. The fire isn’t there. What were you thinking?”
“The boys. I’ve missed so much.”
“Aye, my girls have come second to the IMF too often, too. I’m thinking of stepping back myself. Another year or two.”
“The end of this summer. It’ll give plenty of time for whoever comes next to bed in. Davis isn’t going to win, but when they knife him, the next one might be stronger.”
After that, we talked long into the night. Current politics, past reminiscences, everything got mentioned. It was only the next morning, flying out over the Atlantic, that I realised that I’d never consciously thought about resigning until Gordon said it out loud. However, as soon as he’d said it, I couldn’t disagree with him. He was right: the fire had gone. I needed to hand over to somebody younger. My predecessor managed to bookend my Prime Ministerial career with two conversations, of equal importance to me. The first, he made me really believe that I was the man who could take Tony’s vision, and build on it. In the second, he made me remember that there was more to life than politics, and that I needed a personal, not national, vision once again. As much as I respect Gordon as a comrade, colleague, and even friend, I never thought of him, as a man of great personal empathy. Except the two times it mattered most to me, he had worked out my own mind before I had. Whether that says more about him, or me, I’m not entirely sure.
Before I'd reached the tarmac at Northolt, my mind was made up. I'd spoken to Annie and the boys, and they agreed that it was the right thing to do, and the right time to do it. I'd also concocted the foolish plan to ride the Triumph out of Downing Street, although I hadn't shared that one with Annie.
It's still alive down here!
Album Review: I think I’ll have a lie-in
Album Review: I think I’ll have a lie-in
Seldom have music and politics made easy bedfellows. Spitting Image may have had some memorable hits over the years, but the real deal is usually more reminiscent of Jim Callaghan awkwardly warbling Waiting at the Church at a bewildered opposition front bench. In more recent iterations, the guitar slung over the back of Tony Blair’s shoulder when he entered Downing Street was, despite the hagiography since his passing, widely mocked at the time. References to trendy vicars who had stopped believing in God, but could lead a mean worship song, were de rigeur in May 1997. Laurie’s musical credentials have always been somewhat more apparent. Before entering Parliament, he’d notched up one eclectic episode of Desert Island Discs, as well as a handful of charity appearances for both A Sporting Chance and the Motor Neurone Disease Foundation which had ended with him sat at a piano. Unlike Mr Blair’s championing of Rain, Laurie has never felt the need to be popular in with his musical tastes: Muddy Waters and Nina Simone may not be everybody’s cup of tea, but Laurie will champion them to the hilt, and did so when appearing on Radio 4’s favourite selection programme for the second time in 2002.
This debut album, named after his response to a journalist on his leaving Number 10, reflects more of the works of the former than Simone. A soulful blues album is what the former PM has offered up here, with some wonderful guitar riffs, and some impeccable work on the piano. The one question that those who aren’t connoisseurs of jazz and blues would ask, is of course, “what about Conference Blues?” This comic ditty, first performed as an improvised number under the light of several hundred Nokias at the Torquay Riviera Centre during a power cut, is probably included just to satisfy questions from journalists like this one. While still able to raise a laugh, and welcome nostalgia, it is very much a “bonus track”, and not part of the album in any real way.
The standout tracks on the album are, for this writer, the moving Walking Away, which seems to chronicle the life of a regretful man who never managed to do what Laurie managed; and Louisiana Revisited, which I found myself humming all day long. The final song, The Path Untravelled, while ostensibly about a hiker in a mountain range, asks all sorts of questions to the listener. After all, what might have been in any of our lives? What might have been if Jim Laurie had never entered Parliament? Instead of being a Prime Minister who is surprisingly gifted at music, he could have been one of Britain’s greatest contemporary musicians.
What might have been, indeed. The path Laurie travelled has been interesting enough so far. We shall see if it contains any more unexpected revelations.
This continues to be great, Geordie.
Hyper-nerdy question: is the band in question here Oasis under their previous name (kinda), or their immediate predecessors from Huyton?
Hyper-nerdy question: is the band in question here Oasis under their previous name (kinda), or their immediate predecessors from Huyton?
@Ed Costello,
I am interested in your hyper-nerdiness and wish to subscribe to your newsletter. (Also very nice shout-out to the Huyton bunch.)
I am interested in your hyper-nerdiness and wish to subscribe to your newsletter. (Also very nice shout-out to the Huyton bunch.)
To be completely honest, I have a fair bit of interest in them - not only am I from Huyton, one of my very good friends plays bass for their current incarnation...