Ron Silver

News that Ron Silver passed away yesterday is sad news indeed.

Silver will be most fondly remembered for his part as political guru, Bruno Gianelli, in the West Wing, but in endorsing Bush after 9/11, Silver committed career suicide and was ostracized amongst his liberal friends in Hollywood.

A committed liberal himself, his views clashed on neo-con foreign policy (something I can sympathize with) and in another real life meets fiction West Wing moment, came back to the show to help the moderate Republican Presidential candidate.

I could opine on the greatness of the West Wing, but will resist, however the depth of great actors, such as Silver, and the performances cameo actors such as him played, made the show something very special.



This seems to be a popular choice of clip (the one I really wanted was his advice to Sen. Vinick about wedge issues and re-uniting America, but couldnt find it)

The man that would have won the league for us last year...

13 mounths ago, Arsenal were top of the league by 7 points, still in the FA Cup and Champions league and Eduardo was on fire. Then a horror tackle that breaks Eduardo leg into 15 pieces (they only found the last shard of his knee cap a month ago somewhere near Llandudno) a tantrum from the skipper and a late goal. Le Arse fell apart, finished third and ended the season trophyless, a huge embuggerance all round and a important parable that one should never travel to Birmingham .

Still, the little Crozillian is back with a barely noticeable limp and is obviously so bored with scoring two conventional goals in his comeback, he has decided to start scoring with parts of the anatomy not previously thought of, starting with the heel of his left foot. We all look forward for what part of the body is next, possible his newly reunited left fibula.

James

Can i have the guacamole....

Probably not true, but doesnt the story go something like, when Mandelson was visiting a fish and chip shop in his Hartlepool constituency, he saw the mushy peas and asked the proprietor for the guacamole...

PMQs

Why can I not find it within me to like Harriet Harman.

Not that HH will lose much sleep over my endorsement, she certainly did well enough without my vote for deputy leader.

As much as anyone, I was shocked when she won, I had just assumed that everybody else was in on the joke, obviously not. But she is now favorite to take over from GB, surely, surely not?

I occasionally have a dichotomy when watching debates in the Commons, I like watching Tories like Hague, Pickles and Bercow, but agree with very little. However, with some on my own party's front bench, I just can't stand listening to them, they grind me the wrong way, Ball's, Alexander and Cooper etc, but when my teeth stop gnawing and my instant dislike of the hectoring, stilted, humourless, humanoid delivery subsides, the substance is there.

Unfortunately, I find HH intensely annoying, and disagree with almost everything she advocates (almost automatically now) she is everything we as a party we should avoid. 'Nanny state' is a horrid cliche, overused and a sign of faulty thinking, apart from when HH speaks of course. Has she ever seen a quota she hasn't liked?

Anyway, unfortunately, she did not pull off another win at PMQs today, and Hague was his usual self, funny, but bombastically wrong on many of the issues (the issues always seem to come second to his jokes anyway), although the over-rated Cable was pretty good today.

The real winner today was Miliband, the Foreign Secretary has a very awkward fake smile, no need for that fake smile today, he enjoyed Harman's performance very much.