Simple Sailor says…
Why the hell have we got a ‘simple sailor‘ in charge of our anti-terrorism strategy? Were all the complicated ones busy?
Simple sailor Lord West is a man in two minds. At 8.20 this morning he was emphatic:
Lord West said he still needed “to be fully convinced that we absolutely need more than 28 days”.
“I want to be totally convinced because I am not going to go and push for something that actually affects the liberty of the individual unless there is a real necessity for it.”
‘I want to be totally convinced’. Well somebody convinced him because an hour later he was as equally emphatic, just from a different angle:
[A]t 0930, after a half-hour meeting with Mr Brown, the peer told the BBC he was “personally convinced” that the 28-day limit needed extending.
“I personally, absolutely believe that within the next two or three years we will require more than that for one of those complex plots,” he said.
He later issued a statement in an attempt to clarify his position saying: “I am quite clear that the greater complexities of terrorist plots will mean that we will need the power to detain certain individuals for more than 28 days.”
‘Maybe being a simple sailor and not a politician, I didn’t choose my words very well,’ was his excuse, bless him, as he insulted 37,500 members of the Royal Navy. I bet he gets into all kinds of hilarious scrapes with that shortcoming. We should write a sitcom. This week Lord West doesn’t choose his words very well and ends up hiding naked in a cupboard when the vicar comes for tea.
Still, it’s a rags to riches tale of such a simple sailor becoming the First Sea Lord. There’s hope for us all, on this showing. What odds on John Prescott being the first man on Mars? West’s given schmucks all over the country a reason to carry on. Then you think, it’s just as well he wasn’t asked to fight a major sea battle during his time as head of the Navy. What with him and his inability to choose his words carefully we could have been in real trouble.
It’s either that or, after going off-message on the radio, Lord West was told to get out and debase himself on national television in an ‘ee, am right daft me’ style. Actually stupid or told to act stupid in order to keep his job? Who would you prefer in that position, an idiot or a puppet? Is there another explanation?
Anyway, must dash. I’m making dinner and I’m convinced it’s going to take no longer than 28 minutes. The directions on the pasta packet say 14 but I’m telling the kids it’s going to take nearly an hour. Because I’m convinced.
Posted on November 14th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
| See also • 42 days: stick a fork in it… • Not Dead Only Sleeping: The Attorney General’s Advice • The downing of XV179: an accident of history |
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It might take an hour. Those sauces can be awfully complicated these days.
It’s not insulting, I’m sure most members of the RN know that their officers are pretty simple.
What does he get paid for being “simple?”
It’s just that my wife sees that as a description of me and wants to make sure that I’m on the going rate.
Even assuming a one-way trip, I don’t think there’s a rocket big enough.
Be fair. It’s what you say when the subject’s not formally in your domain and you don’t want to drop any clangers. Bit late for that in the good Lord’s case.
As an IT person it was an occasional tactic when dealing with financial regulators. Stick a couple of pens in the breast pocket and hope they read Dilbert. “Just a techie, me”. Never actually used the words though.