Wipeout for Gordon

Gordon Brown is heading for a wipeout on Thursday at the Crewe and Nantwich by-election and everyone except him will know that it is all his own doing. There are so many things which people don't like about his character and here's a list of just a few:



1. Delusional
As Matthew Parris points out in The Times today, Brown has become so out of touch with reality that he seems to be believing his own lies and refuses to admit even to himself that he has ever made a mistake. Compare this to the anecdote by Michael White in The Guardian about David Cameron this week. When he told journalists he was happy to be in Nuneaton and then realised it was in fact Nantwich, he didn't try and wriggle out of it Brown-style but instead went and buried his head in a nearby bush, Monty-Python style.

2. Coward
An indecisive coward, Brown was prepared to knife Tony Blair in private at every opportunity but never to come out of the shadows for a public showdown. With the public glare finally on him, we all saw this in the way he flipped and flopped over his decision to hold an early election. Even John Major called a risky 'put up or shut up' leadership election in 2005, something Brown would never dare.

3. Bully
Like many cowards, he is also a bully and worse even, a sulky bully. Though politicians have been saying it for years, it's only now that the self-indulgent memoirs are doing the rounds that his brooding sulkiness has come to the fore.

4. Undemocratic
Then there's his disdain for democracy, seen first when he cut a deal with Blair for the Labour leadership rather than face him down. Then in 2005 he was perfectly happy to get in on the coat-tails of Blair promising to serve a full term only to completely disregard that mandate and stage a coup which ousted him within two years.

5. Unscrupulous
Okay, not much different from many politicians, but whether it's his 'British jobs for British workers' line or the old-style class warfare we're seeing in Crewe it seems there are very few limits on the lines he is prepared to peddle.

6. Tinkerer
Like a hyper-active child who's taken too many additives, Gordon Brown hasn't been able to help himself tinkering with the British economy ever since taking office as Chancellor. A bit here, a bit there, he's made the whole taxation system so complicated that even the accountants struggle to understand it. So, he takes the lower tax bracket to 10p. Then he takes it back again. Oh, and then he brings in a compensation package for those affected.

7. Sneaky
But perhaps what offends people most is the sneaky, snidey way he's gone about it all. Take the raid on the pension funds he made back in 1997. He snook it away in the details, just like he did with the increase in stamp duty and any number of other stealth taxes meaning that it's taken years for people to realise what he's been up to.

It's no wonder then that within the space of a year, the Labour Party has finally taken on the mantle of the nasty party from the Tories. In 1969 they teetered on the brink of getting rid of Harold Wilson and then backed off, only to lose the election a year later. The difference between then and now was that Harold Wilson had himself been voted in by the people. Gordon Brown has not.

A surfing film-maker

Nice article about documentary film-maker and surfer Greg MacGillivray at The OC Register.

New Surf Magazine

Kurungabaa is a new journal of literature, history and ideas for surfers. The aim is to bring surf writing by scholars, journalists, fiction writers and poets from around the world together in a non-profit publication free of advertisements. The idea is that freedom of thought and expression in surf writing at least partly requires independence from profit-driven publishers and from advertisers. To see the first issue, visit their website here.

A doctor, a river and an ex-barrister

Nice article at f/k/a/... about a river-surfing doctor as well as a kind plug for Why Lawyers Should Surf. Great website for haikus.

Surf Directory

New site called The Surf Directory from Orca Publications who publish Carve, SurfGirl and ThreeSixty magazines.

Music night - Douglas E Powell and Jim Gardner: Birth, Birds and Trees

6am today

Loose Fit now selling Lawyer Surf book

Loose fit Surf Shop in Braunton, North Devon are now stocking Why Lawyers Should Surf. To buy the book online visit amazon.

Lundy this evening

Why Lawyers Should Ski

Baby Chou is a great blog about a former solicitor who gave up law (aged 39) and moved to France for the simple life in 2002.

Drift Magazine

The first hard copy issue of Drift Magazine is now in the shops. It's got great surf writing and photography by Jamie Bott and successfully weaves environmental issues around interesting and amusing content. Definitely a stayer. You can get an annual subscription for £19.95 here. Very many congratulations to editor Howard Swanwick for making his vision a reality.

Saunton Burrows

Paddle around Baggy Point

Woolacombe this evening

Local surf photographer

Local surf photographer Jamie Bott's just got back from a trip to Noosa. For more of his photos visit his Tube Frame.

Porlock Bay

Copyright Garry Wright

New board

Jools at Gulf Stream Surfboards shaping the 'Blue Moon II'. Gulf Stream have been around since 1993 and are the only surf shop in North Devon which shape their own boards locally. All of the boards are made at the factory in Woolacombe, where after Jools has hand shaped them Ellis, their art worker, uses water based acrylic paints to create a customised design for each board. The next stage of the process then passes on to Matt, who laminates the boards and then finally JC, the sander and polisher, finishes them to perfection.

Sedbergh, Yorkshire Dales

Scarborough lines

Scarborough snow