Prometheus - Life of a thousand cuts
This morning Kate practices her flute at 7:30 in the morning. Quietly enough. I give her Patrick's packed lunch as she's off first. And I make another to Patrick's preciuse specifications. Not the grated cheese his mum had left him. Slices! Not those processed slices! Real slices. Cut from a chunk! And shouldn't that be in a food bag?
Patrick and dad talk about school work on the walk to school. Literacy and numeracy are daily fixtures. How about Craft Design Technology? I ask.
Not today! comes the reply. Swiftly followed by the news that he and his arch rival Tahir are the only ones who completed their pop up book project.
Their theme is Prometheus. The young god who dared save man by giving back the life giving fire that Zeus had confiscated. Punishment? His liver pecked to bits on a daily basis only to regenerate overnight. A painful life by a thousand cuts.
Patrick tells me his pop up has a bird sliding up and down to jab Prometheus where it hurts but cannot kill. I'm away in a sea of thoughts trying to map the travails of New Labour onto the story.
Zeus, the all-powerful Blair perhaps? Life-giving fire the quietly redistributive policies from the socialist hearth, rising from the embers through Brown's care and commitment? His only reward that painful life by a thousand cuts?
Pandora's Box waits in the wings as Man's comeuppance. That might well be Thatcher's hatchet man Michael Howard. But what's this? Pre-Labours' Hercules to the rescue. Freeing Brown, and perhaps nurturing the Hope which alone remains in the Box. It's thirty something consecutive quarters of growth and stability rather than the full thirty years ... and it's a little bit of a stretch all round. But hey. It's early in the morning.
Gordon Brown is far from perfect. He's taken the neo-liberal shilling. He's signed the Faustian pact of loyalty as number two in a long-running double act. But despite all this most of the party would most likely back a Brown succession.
And the party's who are pretenders to Labour's throne will not be chanting "Elect Blair, Get Brown". They know full well that this is a message the electorate actually like.
On the other hand that "Go to bed with Charlie, wake up with Michael" jingle is at the crux of this election. Recognised by SNWDWVF. Not unfortunately by the immature and impractical BackingBlair project ... foolishly calling us all to vote Tory in hundreds of seats. I don't think they're tramping the streets I'm tramping.
Patrick and dad talk about school work on the walk to school. Literacy and numeracy are daily fixtures. How about Craft Design Technology? I ask.
Not today! comes the reply. Swiftly followed by the news that he and his arch rival Tahir are the only ones who completed their pop up book project.
Their theme is Prometheus. The young god who dared save man by giving back the life giving fire that Zeus had confiscated. Punishment? His liver pecked to bits on a daily basis only to regenerate overnight. A painful life by a thousand cuts.
Patrick tells me his pop up has a bird sliding up and down to jab Prometheus where it hurts but cannot kill. I'm away in a sea of thoughts trying to map the travails of New Labour onto the story.
Zeus, the all-powerful Blair perhaps? Life-giving fire the quietly redistributive policies from the socialist hearth, rising from the embers through Brown's care and commitment? His only reward that painful life by a thousand cuts?
Pandora's Box waits in the wings as Man's comeuppance. That might well be Thatcher's hatchet man Michael Howard. But what's this? Pre-Labours' Hercules to the rescue. Freeing Brown, and perhaps nurturing the Hope which alone remains in the Box. It's thirty something consecutive quarters of growth and stability rather than the full thirty years ... and it's a little bit of a stretch all round. But hey. It's early in the morning.
Gordon Brown is far from perfect. He's taken the neo-liberal shilling. He's signed the Faustian pact of loyalty as number two in a long-running double act. But despite all this most of the party would most likely back a Brown succession.
And the party's who are pretenders to Labour's throne will not be chanting "Elect Blair, Get Brown". They know full well that this is a message the electorate actually like.
On the other hand that "Go to bed with Charlie, wake up with Michael" jingle is at the crux of this election. Recognised by SNWDWVF. Not unfortunately by the immature and impractical BackingBlair project ... foolishly calling us all to vote Tory in hundreds of seats. I don't think they're tramping the streets I'm tramping.
posted by Chris Paul at 9:25 PM
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