World Aids Day

Gosh, well this site has gone a bit quiet. Where are you all? Have to liven this up a bit. And the CADS Christmas Party only just round the corner too. I wanted to do 'King John's Christmas' - you know that ditty that goes 'King John was not a Good Man, he had his little ways' though it remains to be seen whether I shall be allowed. It seems doubtful. Anyway I shall be in London that day on UNESCO duty so whether I get home at all will be a bit in the lap of the gods. Maybe the second half. Anyway, in case you are interested in something remotely theatrical here is something that (as it were) I wrote earlier.

I was reminded this week, as scandal after scandal rocked the leaky boat of government, of a wonderful sketch written by Peter Cook and performed as part of the ‘Pete and Dud’ series. Peter is explaining, or trying to explain, acupuncture to his dirty rain-coated colleague. “Let’s say you’ve got a pain in your head,” says Peter. “Well this acupuncturist comes along and sticks a needle in your arm, so you forget about the pain in your head and worry instead about the pain in your arm. So the acupuncturist then sticks a needle in your bum – so you forget about the pain in your arm and concentrate on the new pain.

“In the bum,” says Dud. “In the bum,” says Peter – or words anyway to that effect. And with it he creates the splendid illusion of the acupuncturist breathlessly chasing all over the body sticking needles hither and thither to keep one step ahead of the developing pain.

This prompts me to suggest that maybe the reason child benefit discs went missing was to take our minds of the wreckage of Northern Rock. And by the same token - or rather needle - the latest party funding scandal may have been created to take our minds off worrying about the security of our bank accounts. The only problem is that sooner or later the acupuncturist is bound to run out of needles, leaving a bruised and battered patient unable to sit down behind him. Equally, sooner or later the government will run out of scandals, too, I suppose.

Still everything is relative. Tomorrow is World Aids Day. 40 million people now carry the virus apparently. It's a sobering thought.