Saturday 13th June 2009

I have been thinking about the position of Speaker of the House of Commons. Rather than having an election for Speaker amongst the MPs in the normal way, I wondered if they could perhaps have ‘Speaker Idol’ where they took it in turns and the public got to cast a phone vote to decide who went each week. Not only would this put them to the test, in what is definitely an important role, but it would get the general public more involved in the political arena. It could be hosted by Davina McCall, unless of course she fancied having a go at being the Speaker. Then we could see the unsuccessful MPs come out and claim it was a victory for them really if only you looked at it all another way. The alternative would be to select a non-MP to be Speaker. Here, either I or Martin Bell, or for that matter Joanna Lumley would be possible serious choices, whilst if you wanted a bit of humour injecting into politics, you could choose someone like Stephen Fry or Boris Johnson!

Shadow had her rabies blood test yesterday. You should have heard her scream and that was when she was being lifted onto the table. She was actually fine when they did the actual test, but as a result of her anxiety and consequent raised blood pressure, she had a lovely little pink bandage on her leg. The vet said she only needed it on for about an hour, but Shadow asked if she could keep it on to show my Master when he came home. As it is she used it as a way to get some sympathy from Brian the postman, still I can’t really complain on that front, he’s always very pleased to see me.