Recently in Politicians Category

THERE has, quite rightly, been a frenzy of Labour-baiting.Deluded Socialists have been the dim-witted victims of the most audacious election con in British political history - and they didn't see it coming.

There are more than a million unemployed people in this country who have not worked a day since New Labour came to power twelve years ago.

The best part of another two million have been without work for seven years or more.

There are any number of explanations for these bleak statistics just revealed by the Department of Work and Pensions.

Some of the jobless are, of course, simply bone-idle and enjoy sitting on their backsides while living off the rest of us.

Ronnie Biggs is a despicable old crook who deserves to die in prison.

But Justice Secretary Jack Straw's decision to ensure he does just that poses one very large question.

What about the rest of them?

Biggs was given 30 years for his part in the Great Train Robbery back in the Sixties.

The irony is that under our laughable parole system all he had to do was behave himself, say he was sorry and in 10 years he would have walked free.

That would have been a quarter of a century ago.

After four years and the spending of £100 million no-one has been convicted in connection with the July 7 bombings in London which took 52 lives.

This may tell us a great deal about the ineffectiveness of our security forces in combating small cells of extremists.

And more about their shortcomings is likely to be revealed next month with the release of a report which will detail how MI5 and West Yorkshire Police missed opportunities to monitor two of the suicide bombers.

But they're not the one ones to blame ...

The death of Ivan Cameron has had a profound effect on the entire nation.

And this cannot be solely attributed to the very real feelings of sympathy and condolence that have gone out to the Conservative leader and his wife.

News of the sudden death of the six year-old who suffered from cerebral palsy and epilepsy have focused attention on the dedication and love that David Cameron and his wife Samantha lavished on the their firstborn.

Details of their care and commitment - the way they insisted on including the all but helpless youngster in every aspect of their family life, the nights they spent sleeping on hospital floors beside his bed after he had been, yet again, rushed into A&E - would have moved the stoniest heart.

Friends of Carol Thatcher have been lining up to issue explanations for her G-word gaffe.

Apparently she's naïve, unsophisticated, "an extraordinary mixture of intelligence and foolishness" and "not highly conscious of politics or deeply serious". And she has made a habit of saying outrageous things because she was ignored by her parents.
OK.

So does any of that excuse the daughter of the former Prime Minister comparing the French tennis player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to a golliwog? Of course not.

Five days on and the most revealing move made by President Obama is still what he did the day before he took the oath of office.

He painted a wall in a centre for homeless teenagers.

This tells us a lot about the priorities of a man.

Facing an economic collapse described by his own advisers as "the mother of all crises", smouldering ruins in the Middle East, global warming and fighting in two wars he still found time to take off his jacket and pick up a paint roller.

Clearly Mr Obama puts great store by his media image.

In his book, the Audacity of Hope, he writes: "I am who the media says I am. I say what they say I say. I become who they say I've become".

But, of course, the newspapers and the TV stations can only report what he allows them to see and hear.

And this is the man who used to be called Barry until deciding that the more exotic form of his name might go down better, given his future plans.

This is the father who, when the family moved to Washington, insisted on being photographed taking his daughters to school. But who had, in fact, been at home for just 10 days in the whole of the previous year.

This is the unreformed cigarette smoker who is sure to never be seen smoking.

So who it is that has moved into the White House we can only wait and see.

Is it, as so many seem to believe, the politician who can solve the crisis, create global peace and rebuild the world?

Or is it simply the decorator who is capable of nothing more than getting himself photographed giving what already exists a quick coat of paint?

MPs on the House of Commons Children's Committee were shocked to be told that more than three children die each week because of abuse and neglect.

After being given the grim facts, chairman Barry Sheerman declared them to be "the most horrific figures I've ever seen brought into the public domain".

But why were he and his colleagues so shocked?

These appalling figures are well-known to the rest of us. Three weeks ago, in fact, they were reported in detail in the George Tyndale column.

When I first heard that a health authority had attempted to force a 13 years old child to have a heart transplant I was appalled.

And that was before I knew anything about Hannah Jones.

Now that it has become clear that Hannah is a remarkable, intelligent, courageous and articulate young woman the sense of outrage has simply escalated.