Donategate - Nice 'n' Sleazy does it

Well done Gordon Brown for putting the sleaze back in British politics.

Whatever your views on the Tories, they did sleaze well. Archer, Hamilton, Norris, and Major himself made politics more interesting for the likes of me, an apolitical thirty-something with few intellectual demands.

But now we have Donategate. It's a fascinating story of love, sex and betrayal and......No, of course, it's not. It's a story of a businessman, David Abrahams, donating more money to the Labour party than he's willing to admit.

And of course 'businessman' is the key word. He didn't give this money to Gordon because he felt he's been looking a bit under the weather recently. Or as a reward for the fantastic way the country has been run in the last 10 years, and the many benefits the UK's businesses have derived from Labour rule.

No. Apparently Abrahams is after planning permission for a business park in County Durham. The police have been called and have started to investigate.

In the great scheme of things I suppose it's not a great bit of sleaze - but I'm optimistic that police investigations will reveal a more sordid slant to the story. One that includes Harriet Harman, Christopher Biggins, a tub of candy floss, a cactus and a mountain goat.

I live in hope.

School's out

During my schooldays there were a couple of occasions when, to get out of a particularly dismal afternoon of lessons, we'd set the fire alarm off. You could get a way with it a couple of times a term, and it relied on no holier-than-thou swot snitching on you. It was well worth the risk to avoid double French.

So I have a certain admiration for little Muhammad sitting in a Sudanese classroom, bored to tears by some fat white woman leading a "ah, ber, ker, der..." chant for days on end. I'm sure he looked round for a fire alarm, but in the end settled for something far more subtle.

"Miss, I think that we should name the bear 'Muhammad'". A knowing glance round to all his classmates, and all that was required was to decide who was going to run home and spill the beans to Mum. No school until 2008, and a maybe even a chance to go to a lashing rather than the usual boring panto.


BBC News item:
A British schoolteacher has been arrested in Sudan accused of insulting Islam's Prophet, after she allowed her pupils to name a teddy bear Muhammad.

Colleagues of Gillian Gibbons, 54, from Liverpool, said she made an "innocent mistake" by letting the six and seven-year-olds choose the name.

Ms Gibbons was arrested after several parents made complaints.

The BBC has learned the charge could lead to six months in jail, 40 lashes or a fine.