Wednesday 29 September 2010

Ed, Meet Kay...

This blog doesn't really do Politics (apart from Old Nige's uncannily accurate prognostications, at which markets and empires tremble) - but there's been no escaping this Milliband business. I doubt the Second Coming itself would get more coverage than the elevation to the Labour leadership of 'Ed', a man with the charisma of a tent peg and the appearance of something Aardman Animations thought better of. His lamentable speech proclaimed that 'We're the new generation' (and no doubt, like the Monkees, 'we've got something to say'). It was of course (what political speech isn't these days?) peppered with talk of 'change' and 'vision' and a 'new start'... With all this ringing in my ears, I stumbled into bed last night and sought escape in my trusty volume of Kay Ryan. Opening it I found not just escape but a curiously apposite blast of wisdom. I'll let it speak for itself...

Least Action

Is it vision
or the lack
that brings me
back to the principle
of least action,
by which in one
branch of rabbinical
thought the world
might become the
Kingdom of Peace not
through the tumult
and destruction necessary
for a New Start but
by adjusting little parts
a little bit – turning
a cup a quarter inch
or scooting up a bench.
It imagines an
incremental resurrection,
a radiant body
puzzled out through
tinkering with the fit
of what’s available.
As though what is is
right already but
askew. It is tempting
for any person who would
like to love what she
can do.

3 comments:

  1. Oh well, give the man a chance. When I hear creepy Irwin Stelzer talking up Dave on the radio I know we need an effective opposition, and fast. Besides, it can't be easy: imagine having Ed Balls on the brain every waking moment and Bob Crow haunting every dream. Talking of which ...

    Crow school
    is basic and
    short as a rule --
    just the rudiments
    of quid pro crow.

    "All out, brothers!" I'd guess that whoever leads the Labour Party over the next two or three years will end up torn to bits.

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  2. Oh that's brilliant! The Crow link hadn't struck me... I quite agree about having an effective opposition, which is another reason the 'Ed' thing is so depressing - he's plainly not up to the job, but I'm not at all sure any of this boiling, including his bro, are up to it. Hey ho...

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  3. Hindsight is never around when you need it, is it, but No... Ed Milliband hasn't been torn to pieces and I have a sneaking feeling he will turn out to be a statesman like Atlee. He doesn't do show business but in Cameron's case, whatever effect he hopes to achieve, he comes acress as a ranting bully with too large a sense of entitlement and no idea of how the poor live.

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