YesBut time is nearly up.

On 2nd May, Tony Blair will celebrate being British Prime Minister for ten years. I guess he will be in a very small minority, the vast majority of the populace are just waiting for him to resign - its been a long time coming.

Blair will resign as Leader of the Labour Party later this week, or possibly as late as next. As soon as Labour elects a new Leader - which will take about five weeks - Blair will offer his resignation as Prime Minister to the Queen. She will then - though she doesn’t have to - invite the new Leader of the Labour Party to form a Government.

What will Blair do after he moves out of Downing Street? Undoubtedly write his memoirs - to remind everyone how great a Prime Minister he was. He will make a heap of money on the speaking circuit in the USA - justifying the invasion of Iraq. Then what?

A man with an ego the size of Blair’s will want to remain in the public eye. A career as a TV pundit is out of the question - it would guarantee the turn off of every TV in the UK. With a bit of luck, he’ll see his future lies across the water in the USA, and we will get rid of him - but I can’t see Cherie Blair giving up her carrier to live in the USA.

Its popular for ex US Presidents to set up their own Private Foundation. And let’s face it Blair has always thought of himself more as a President than Prime Minister. How ironic if the Prime Minister who has taken this country into more wars than any previous Prime Minister, establishes a Foundation for World Peace. Yes that could be the kind of thing he would do in keeping with his self-image of being a saint. No he will want to remain on the “World Stage”.

Lets think, working for the European Union? No way the French would veto that. The United Nations? The man who ignored the UN when with Bush he invaded Iraq. Nope

I don‘t care what he does, as long as we never hear or see him again.

YesBut click here to see today's YesBut's image

YesBut how about nice cup of Chai?

I have to eulogies the glory of Twinings Chai, described on the packet as “a tea with the mellow flavour of Indian spices”.

To say “drinking a cup of Chai“ is an understatement, it is a ritual. The boiling of the kettle with the puffs of steam. The selection of the cup. Pouring the boiling water into the mug. The gentle lowering of the teabag into the still steaming water. Then there is the wait as the black tea with the additional flavours of cinnamon, cloves, ginger and star anise infuse for five minutes - watching as the crystal clear water slowly turns into liquid gold. Removing the tea bag, allowing the last few drops to drain into the cup. Adding just a dash of milk, before finally stirring in three-quarter teaspoon of pure natural set honey. Initially taking just a sip and tasting the rich black tea, waiting as the taste buds slowly detect a hint of the added spices followed by the honey sweetness which mingles in the mouth.

Sweet Chai brew is also produced by Yogi Tea, but to my taste the drink is too dominated by the spice flavours and does not have the required sharp contrasting taste of black tea.

I wish I could be as enthusiastic about other Twinings infusions, but regrettably I cannot. Its Lemon & Ginger tea is a misnomer. Undoubtedly to comply with the Trades Description Act it must contain some ginger, but in such small quantities it is hardly detectable. The same can be said of its Ginger, Orange & Honey infusion, which tastes like very diluted hot apple cider, with an orange peel tang - I’m being polite. I could compare it to cat’s pee. But having never drunk cat’s pee I would be doing it a disservice in comparing it to Ginger, Orange & Honey infusion.

But for now I sip my Chai, perfection - and all is well with the World. And I can concentrate on writing my blog.

Just thinking aloud

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Today's Image - Heatwave

It must be true if the newspapers say so, click here to see.

YesBut if I catch them I’d tag their . . .

It costs Londoner’s over £100 million per year to clean up the work of graffiti vandals. It’s ugly and is nothing but visual pollution. It is so extensive on London's South Bank between Westminster and Blackfriars Bridges that a dedicated team has had to be employed to remove the garbage.

Particularly in this area of London it is undiluted criminal vandalism. Why? Because there is an area set aside under the podium of Queen Elizabeth Hall for graffiti artists to practice their art. (Who am I to judge if it is or isn’t art).

By no stretch of the imagination can these daubers be regarded as artists, they are simple minded egotists. At least the paint sprayer’s activities can be removed. But these dumbos aren’t content with paint. They need to leave permanent reminders of their activities, by scratching their tags on bus and train windows.

I guess they are the twenty-first century’s equivalent of Rene Descartes’ philosophical supposition “I think therefore I am”.

"I graffiti to prove that I am."

Yes it proves they are, criminals, mindless, cretins who should be locked up and the key thrown away.

Click here to see images of the area set a side on the South Bank for graffiti artists.

YesBut it was acceptable language then.

I endevour to avoid offensive language in my blogs. It is used only when unavoidable in the context of the subject of the blog. Today’s blog does contain very offensive racist language. To enable you to choose whether to read the offensive passage, a further warning is given immediately prior to the offending four lines in the blog.

At the weekend I came across an autograph book given to my maiden aunt on her 17th birthday in 1919. The pages are filled with messages, sketches but mainly poems written there by her friends. All very innocent. Her own entry was the verse:

The eye that never shed a tear
A now rusty sawing needle is threaded through the page.

On another page, IR in July 1920, stuck an envelope on a page, outside is written “For Ladies Only”, lift up the flap and inside is written “Aren’t Men Inquisitive?”

On the last page Elsie Davies on 4th August 1919 wrote:

By hook or by crook I will be the last To write in your book.

D. Jones wrote:

Smile awhile
And while you smile, another smiles
And soon, there’s miles and miles of smiles
And life is worth while
While you smile.

All very innocent, which makes turning the page and reading the next verse written by A. Williams, even more shocking and offensive:

God made the niggers
He made them in the night
He made them in a hurry
And forgot to make them white.

Let me place the verse in the context of the time and the people who wrote in the book. My Aunt was born in 1902 into a Welsh devout protestant (non-conformist) Christian working class family. The family members and her friends would have worshipped at a Welsh Methodist Chapel at least twice on Sundays and in addition attended two Bible Study / Pray meetings each week.

Each week they would have made a financial contribution to the Methodist Missionary Society to “help the poor little blacks in Africa and the little slant-eye yellow children in far off China”. The money would have been given, to compensate for God’s failure to have ensured that these poor children hadn’t been born Christian, and in gratitude that they had been born not only into a Christian family but also Welsh - and everybody knows they only speak Welsh in heaven.

Unlike today, the verse would not have attracted any undue attention - “poor little black children they deserve our love and sympathy”.

Today's Image - Furnace Pond

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