Britannia Radio

Courtesy of The Sun   Wednesday 25 April 2012 The Rain. If you don't like it, look in The Mirror. COMMENT THREAD  Richard North 25/04/2012

Running into the swamp   Wednesday 25 April 2012 Although I try to keep to my own advice, and follow les grandes lignes, the news agenda is all over the place, to the extent that it is extremely difficult to discern even the direction of travel. Currently, the ether is pervaded by an air of unreality. It is almost as if our politicians have given up trying to run the government, and the media have lost the ability to offer any coherent narrative. Both of them, alongside the commentariat, are all over the place. The most obvious sign of this is the treatment of the Hunt affair. The Left is in full cry while the Right (if it can be called that), is adopting the head-in-the sand approach, while indulging in serial sycophancy combined with artful damage limitation. The British economy, of course, is going to pot as we slide back into the predicted recession, mirrored by the grey skies and the torrential rain of drought-hit Britain, mocking the pretensions of the doom-mongers who would have us drier than the Sahara. Across the Channel, isn't any better and, to complete the sense of unreality, the EU commission is demanding an extra seven percent for its 2013 budget. This, it says, it needs just to pay bills for EU projects already signed off by member states. As this issue climbs up the agenda, it is going to intensify the pain for the "robust eurosceptic", not least because member states have no direct control over the annual budget. The last word rests with the EU parliament. In time, The Boy is going to have to cave in, looking even more weak and ineffectual than he already does. The only bright point is that it is now obvious that the Cameron "experiment" is running on empty – no longer with even a semblance of control over the agenda. Back in my land of the mixed metaphor, it is as if someone has taken a huge stick and stirred up the pool. Not until the sediment has settled will we be able to see where those lignes are going – and then, I suspect, we will wish we couldn't. The track isrunning into the swamp and where and how it will emerge is anyone's guess. COMMENT THREAD  Richard North 25/04/2012