Shortest Day

The shortest day - which means that from now on the days start getting longer.  Summer is on its way.  I've finally finished work for the year (unless I get called back in for an 'emergency') and I'm finally beginning to unwind.  The stress levels over the past couple of weeks were becoming unbearable: my stomach was constantly upset, I couldn't sleep properly and I was beginning to physically ache.  But a decent night's sleep (and morning's, actually) has done me the world of good.  The symptoms of the stress are beginning to fade away.  Mind you, they did temporarily shoot up again this afternoon when I foolishly drove down to Morrison's to pick up some more beer - a combination of Christmas drivers and Christmas shoppers almost sent me back over the edge.  At least now, though, I have enough beer in my fridge to float a battleship.  It should be enough to get me through Christmas and New Year.

But hey, there was joyous news this festive season: Damian Green was forced to resign from the cabinet over that internet porn business!  It was Christmas come early when I first heard the news yesterday evening!  Mind you, the right wing media have been quick to try and spin the news to the government's advantage.  Apparently, sacking her de facto deputy demonstrates May's strength and determination.  Except tat she didn't actually have any choice, as Green had broken the ministerial code and she has now lost her main ally in cabinet, thereby weakening her position.  The press are also doing their best to obscure the issue at hand - that Green had apparently being viewing porn on his official laptop (and probably wanking off to it) - by trying to turn it all back on the retired police officers who leaked the information, trying to make them the guilty parties by calling in to question their integrity and honesty. 

But they can't get away from the fact that he was accessing pornography at work on a work computer.  Anywhere else that would constitute gross misconduct and result in dismissal.  Yet this was effectively covered up at the time.  Arguably, those who leaked the information have a public interest defence: the Tories are forever banging on about the evils of internet porn and constantly proposing measures to restrict access to it (and probably lots of other, non porn, sites they don't like), so when one of their senior members is revealed to have an apparently insatiable appetite for the stuff, isn't the public entitled to know about his hypocrisy?  Damn right they do, but the Tories and their friends are going to do their damnedest to bury the facts, either through press obfuscation or by making out sure that the story breaks just before Christmas, when most people have their eye off the ball with regard to politics.  Wow!  We're still talking politics here with only a few days to go before Christmas! What a world we're living in!