Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz have made an action-comedy called ‘Knight and Day’. Could they have stolen Thornton King and Holly Day’s thunder I wonder and do we think they have put the kybosh on any chance of the Thornton King books being bought for filming? It would be just my luck wouldn’t it? We won’t know until we read a review or see the movie. There being no revue in Friday’s paper I turned to the internet. The reviews on the whole are not that good and anyway Knight and Day has absolutely nothing to do with the two main characters and it would appear to be more a James Bond movie or Bourne Inheritance, one of those anyway. Phew! Sigh of relief.
Many years ago watching B type black and white science fiction serials in the cinema people were featured talking to each other long distance on screens and I wondered what that would be like in reality. Being the perfect Luddite as far as invention and innovation is concerned I didn’t think I would like it but now that it is with us in reality, Skype and web-cams, I love it. Mind you I resisted microwave ovens until it was proved to me how useful they could be and, until fairly recently, the same applied to a dishwasher. I do still hate mobile phones though and I wouldn’t know an I-pod from a Blackberry, whatever they might be.
So what did I leave out of New Labour’s eighty percent? Did I mention the Afghan war? How could I have forgotten that? History and the Russian experience should have warned them that no one wins a war in Afghanistan.
What about twenty-four hour drinking that has led to so much blind drunkenness and violence? I know the British have always been drinkers, witness Hogarth’s Gin Alley, but these last few years alcohol has played much too big a part in people’s lives including those who unfortunately live near pubs and who have their gardens trashed, used as lavatories or vomited on.
So what about money spent? A £1.2billion electronic border’s system which is supposed to protect Britain from illegal immigrants and foreign criminals has descended into a shambles. After it was hit be chronic delays the American firm paid by Labour to introduce the system has been sacked. But that is not the only money Labour wasted to leave Britain in such a financial mess. £12.7billion on a computer system that doesn’t work for the National Health, Department of transport Shared Services Centre(?) now estimated to cost the tax payer £81million. Other innovations have cost or will cost £155million, £24.4million and EU farming subsidy £1.5billion. Admittedly and to be fair that last one is hardly Labour’s fault but it is still an awfully large sum of money. The figures beggar belief.
In the musical ‘Sweet Charity’ there is a number, ‘Hey, big spender.’ Makes me think of New Labour but what’s new? Every Labour government has been known to be a big spender. After all, it’s not their cash that gets squandered. I must have reached the eighty percent by now. Or have I? What about Gordon Brown when chancellor practically giving away Britain’s gold reserves? And what has happened to private pensions? Oh, dear, it just doesn’t bear thinking about or talking about so I’ll say no more.