Great event last night, “MILIBAND vs CAMERON!!!!!”, the great political head to head, the semi-final of the General Election in 6 weeks time, the chance for the public to see the leaders of the main parties in the studio, debating, answering questions, getting caught out, LIVE ON TV!!!!!

But not necessarily at the same time, nor together. No, first DC answered questions from the audience before being grilled by Paxman, then when he was safely 3 miles away, Miliband was brought out of his cage for the same treatment.

Jeremy Clarkson would have gone head-to-head with Ed Miliband, no doubt about it, but David Cameron refused. He offered to go into a 7-way free-for-all with a load of leaders of parties no-one’s ever heard of, but not mano-a-mano with Ed. And judging from last night’s performance, you can see why.

Though I missed it. The most important event in the history of… of… of… tv let-downs, I decided that Tai Chi was more important. Politics may decide our nation’s rule, our next government, massive issues like the economy, taxation, education, immigration, national debt and the NHS, but Tai Chi concerns my place in the entire universe. So that’s more important. ‘Single Whip’ was of greater concern than the single currency. My body may occupy space in the UK, but my spirit is somewhere in China. Probably eating noodles in oyster sauce.

And I recorded the debate, not willing to miss it altogether but once I returned home and all everyone was talking about was ‘the debate(s)’ I simply couldn’t face watching it. I saw some of Miliband, sufficient to make my skin crawl, and on the news they showed Cameron facing Jeremy Paxman, probably wishing he’d faced Ed instead who is nothing as bright, clever or nasty as Paxo.

The difference between these two leaders is that Cameron has some ‘statesman-like qualities’ and speaks very poshly, but lacks the presence of mind to be a good stand-up, or even a third rate stand-up in a very dingy club in Camden. Whereas Ed, for all his odd looks and socialist agenda, is actually rather good in front of a crowd. Even a crowd baying for his blood.

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I’m not exactly ‘unshockable’ but you do get numbed by all the constant bad news and tragedy around. Beheadings, cities bombed to the ground, another 1986 overweight MP was fondling little boys, its all horrible and loses its power to shock.

But the GermanWings flight shocked me badly. Not when it came down, that was bad and tragic but we’ve been there before. The shock came when we learned that the co-pilot crashed it intentionally. That was a real ‘fuck meeeeee!!!!!!’ moment. Made the whole episode a million times worse.

The head of Lufthansa, which owns GermanWings, Stormbahnfuhrer von Bustenhalter (not his real name), said that “there was no way Lufthansa could have anticipated this, they did everything they could in terms of psychological testing and failsafes” and when questioned further he actually became nasty and arrogant and drew his Luger. Now we learn that the co-pilot has had serious depression and psychological issues which Lufthansa were all to aware of. So WHAT WAS HE DOING IN CHARGE OF A FUCKING PLANELOAD OF PEOPLE?????

Happy Friday

A xxxx