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House Magazine Diary for October 2004 |
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Written by Austin Mitchell
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18 November 2004 |
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Friday 1 October
Cooking competition in Hull. Lawrie Quinn and I are humiliated by a team from Radio Humberside. Our dish, Balti Coeli a la Prescott, was delicious. Unfortunately my chocolate mousse turned out like soup.
Saturday 2 October
Watch a recording of the Bush Kerry debates. Why are we alone of the developed world deprived of debates like this? Perhaps Brits must be too dim to understand it and prefer PM`s QT custard pie throwing to brains working. The Labour Party should have its own leader debate between Blair and Brown. Then we might be able to find what the rows are all about.
Tuesday 5 October
Begin a week of watching the Tory Party Conference which brings back all the old class antibodies. It`s 2000 delegates in search of a policy but getting only videos and Elvis (who`s also dead). The best, indeed only, thing oppositions can do is say nothing, smile a lot and wait for government to implode.
Wednesday 6 October
The chairman of Unilver Frozen Foods phones to say that they are closing the Birds Eye factory in Grimsby. Disaster. Years of partnership end in P45s for 620 workers. Not the right time for the ODPM to be forcing the council to fire staff and close facilities, or the Post Office to close a quarter of our post offices.
Monday 11 October
Back to the bloody grindstone. Why is there so much washing up left this year?
Final Thoughts...
The election begins here. It`s difficult to see how Labour can lose. Squatting in the middle of the road forces competitors into extremes or daft strategies like Howard`s First Day timetable: “12.30pm Leave the EU, 1.00pm Abolish Crime”. But it also leaves our party pretty fed up and the electorate bored. It`s like 1970. All the jokes first used on Harold Wilson (How do you tell when he`s lying: When his lips move) are now mobilised against Tony. |
