In praise of Mr Draper

Not particularly a political post. I just wanted to say that Derek Draper's had a rough week. Tory bloggers are after him, because he has finally provided an answer to them. He can actually call them out when they overreach, as Iain Dale did over Carol Thatcher, and Guido has done over his appalling commentators. That's quite a rare thing. In Derek we have a Labour personality, not a politician, and not an ex-insider who's only interest is spilling the beans (Lance Price). But someone who can put up a redoubtable defence, and set out a positive agenda, and not care too much about the brickbats that then come flying.

I know people are worried that Labourlist is just a vehicle for him, but just look at it. Look at the articles, the range of voices. Derek has to be front and centre, it's a good thing because it means the site is taken seriously.

To coin a phrase 'there are 17 bloggers that matter in the Labour Party, and to say that I know all of them would be an understatement.'

Sorry...

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Mick knows where the dead go.
He followed them abruptly,
From that hawthorn field corner
Hot and quiet and smelling of pain.

Looking now you see the Somme or Ypres.
Fertile ground with death overgrown
And moments of violence blurred away
With grass and hedge and hoe.

They speak of place memory;
Of an imprint in nature of some violent act
But in the corner of that forever field
Lark calls, and the sway wind takes on.

Bob Bob Ricard

Apparently AA Gill didn't like BBR, where I took the Nip for a Valentine's Day dinner on Friday 13th. He was extremely rude about the staff, and very curmudgeonly about pretty much everything else.

I'm going to be a lot more polite about the place than that, but not entirely sure I'll be heading back either with clients or the bevvy of sophisticates that make up my salon. That's the era they're going for at BBR. Rich socialites in ermine stoles, cigarette holders poised elegantly. But in recessionary Soho it looks out of place. The champagne button on the table looks forlorn, as if it might have been well used in 1933 and 1983, but not had much action since. I'd feel a bit weird about pressing a button like that at the moment. I see the spectre of the Prime Minister hovering above me wearing a frown. But that's just me.

Basically, BBR. Looks fab. The staff were trying to be nice "Hello Simon!"... then to a waiter "Ten" (shit - was that points out of a hundred?). I was ushered to my table. I quite like the pink waistcoats of the staff and the good looking types wafting around the place. Not enough to make your heart soar (Ben) but OK. My issue is with a £23 steak that was really ordinary. And £7 ice cream that was three weeny blobs in a perspex bowl. Having said that the salted caramel ice-cream is incredible, and that rescued things a bit.

But £166 for two, three courses, one bottle? Hmmmmm. Not convinced. Classy but it's no Salt Yard (which has yet to be bettered in my book).

Great views

I didn't get any pics so I'm going to let Flickr do my job for me.

As I was trolling through Covent Garden last night, looking like a clown in my DJ I saw four sights that made my heart soar.

I looked through the Garrick Club windows as darkness fell.

Then looked up and saw this

St Martin in the Fields was looking fabulous

and finally this - totally magical.

Next time I really should remember the camera...

Vince at the Reform Club

On with the black tie last night for a political dinner at the Reform Club. Vince Cable did a turn and the audience was hanging off his every word - amazing how distance from power makes you a positive guru. As soon as you don the mantle of authority you become strangely suspect. I wonder if that's just a British thing.

Anyhow I asked Vince whether he'd consider being Chief Secretary if asked. He said no, but clarified the shifting relationship the Lib Dems have with their stance on coalition government. He said that currently the LDs would be prepared to go into coalition with either side in the event of a hung parliament. Presumably this is would be qualified depending on the circumstances, but it did show that the party has moved a long way to the right from the days of Kennedy.

A Lib Dem / Tory coalition. The very thought sends a long shiver down the spine. I still think Vince is one of ours at his core.

Keep calm and carry on

You'll have seen this poster which did a double back flip through cool a few months back and is verging on the mainstream now.

The English red. The crown. Keep calm! Carry on! Words that speak to the heart of us lot, who still on occasion have upper lips stiff. What I didn't know was that, in the dark Chamberlain-led hours before WWII, two million of those posters were run up, ready to be plastered on billboards up and down the country. As the first air-raid sirens wailed our forebears would be made resolute with this simple message at their backs.

But a change in view, a shift in policy, a feeling that this didn't need spelling out must have occurred. The poster was never used, was pulped, and a copy found a few years back. And now it's gone viral - loads of people love it. It speaks to us.

Almost 70 years on that poster is doing what it couldn't do in 1939. Speaking to our better nature. Firming up the upper lip. Keep calm. Carry on.

Totally life affirming and wonderful