20 December I seem to have banged on this year rather more than usual. I make no apology for that, nor am I nervous that it will make a jot of difference. I shall still be thought to be kindly, cosy and essentially harmless. I am in the pigeon-hole marked ‘no threat‘ and did I stab Judi Dench with a pitchfork I should still be a teddy bear.
29 October, New York. I almost bump into an aged New York lady as I come into the grocery store and she comes out. ‘Oh sorry,‘ she says, ‘I zigged when I should have zagged.‘
John Bird used to do a very good Harold Wilson and after one show Ned [Sherrin] was summoned by Hugh Carleton Greene, the director-general, and told that the prime minister was threatening legal action. ‘Tell him to go ahead,‘ said Ned. ‘Say that just because he‘s prime minister he shouldn‘t feel he ought not to sue.‘ No more was heard of the matter.
8 December I buy a bottle of organic wine at Fresh and Wild and looking at the label see that it says ‘Suitable for Vegetarians and Vagrants‘. Momentarily I think, ‘Well, that‘s thoughtful, someone admitting that winos deserve consideration like everybody else,‘ before realising of course, that it says not ‘vagrants‘ but ‘vegans‘.
#beerandabook
pickFirst book down of the new year! Ok, true, I was sandbagging a little - saved the last few pages for today. I loved reading his diary excerpts in the London Review of Books - it got to a point where that was the only part I was reading. Mostly details of his daily life: travels, irritations, political commentaries, and observations. Clear-eyed, thoughtful, and very worth reading.
I wanted a Labour government so that I could stop thinking about politics, knowing that the nation‘s affairs were in the hands of a party which, even if often foolish, was at least well-intentioned. Now we have another decade of the self-interested and the self-seeking, ready to sell off what‘s left of a liberal institutions and loot the rest to their own advantage.
Keeping On Keeping On | 
