The meaning of life, as seen by Michael Meacher

The Friday Thing: Life and other bits...

A LOT of MPs and ex-MPs fancy themselves as authors and we have political thrillers, travel books and the odd bonk buster (Edwina Curry’s specialist subject) but not Michael Meacher.

Michael has written a book, “Destination of the Species” (the Cotswolds in his case) in which he asks: “What does it all mean?”

Well, it means different things to different people. To some it’s redundancy, Job Seeker’s Allowance, Oldham Council and the Latics (they’re all on suicide watch) and to others it’s a property portfolio second only to the the Duke of Westminster’s, a job for life and a pocketful of perks.

The 272-page paperback tome, just about thick enough to prop up that dodgy leg on the kitchen table, gives our Michael the chance to ponder on the really important issues of the day such as: “What is the purpose of life? Was it to go into politics, make money or something else?”

Now, you might think that to go into politics and to make money are one and the same thing and Michael would probably be the first to admit that it has certainly given him a privileged life, though of course it would be wrong to call him a toff. Only Tories can be millionaires, major property owners and toffs according to Gordon’s gospel.

Michael admits that this, his latest literary effort is “not an easy read” and there is a strong suspicion that he could say that again. So what is Michael’s conclusion? “What are we here for is unanswerable... I did not want to answer it.”

As Agatha Christie might have put it: “And so the killer is: Don’t ask me, work it out yourself.”

What will staff of the splendid Waterstones say about it on those little white cards that grace chosen books. Best not read yours, Michael.




WE are to get what the Government calls “Petition Power” which apparently means that instead of chucking our petitions in the bin or filing them under L for lost they have to consider them seriously (and then maybe use them as drop mats).



“We’re giving real teeth to petitions” says Community Secretary John Denham, presumably instead of the rattling, lithping dentures that keep falling out and getting trodden on. He wants councils to hold full debates on petitions and for senior officers to get involved on such things as response times for complaints.

“Councillors are there to fight the corner for local residents,” he says. And you thought they were there for the allowances. Shame on you.




FINAL WORD: Shouldn’t Latics be giving fans £2 (or maybe even £20) for watching them instead of it being the other way around?