Weekend catching up

sorry about that, travel and illness means that I only got to the Tuesday Aaro a few days late. There is not much to say about a man whose actual argument is "politicians don't discuss big ideas any more?!! Why on my very desk I have papers about road pricing, rural bus routes and NHS fundholding adjustments!", except that the distinction between "political ideas" and "random managerialist crap" probably ought not to have fallen into abeyance in the way it has. This is more of the "lobes" theory - we the public are feckless, whining little bastards, always demanding to be entertained rather than knuckling down to the serious business of government. We simply don't deserve the politicians we get and we certainly don't deserve Aaro.

In many ways, Aaro may be correct in his belief that the public are like ungrateful teenagers. But he's ignoring the reason why teenagers behave like they do. They act that way because they are constantly being insulted by fake "consultations", from people who pretend to ask for their views and then ignore them and force them to do something else anyway. The "public debate" which we are always having on all of Aaro's big issues, is the equivalent of asking Kevin where he would like to go over Christmas, when everyone knows it's gonna be Nan's house.

I really can't face Watching Nick in the Observer. It's all about house prices. It's exclusively about London too, so it may be a retread of a Standard col, but I can't face looking that up either. At some point this all becomes a bit too painful. Any other prize bits of Decency out there? Has John Lloyd stuck his head above the duvet recently?