A brain-clearing respite in the aftermath of battle

The coalition is a week old and with the benefit of hindsight appears a strangely natural consequence of the long weeks of electoral campaigning we have been through.

What has seemed to some as the “party of war” and of the City is out of power. The prospect of raw Conservatism appears to be equally out of power.

The Liberal Democrats – never a very clearly defined force – are in power, apparently modifying the bits of Conservatism that supposedly frightened the horses.

The prospect of huge cuts in just about everything has a credibility it never had until a week ago.

My Snowblog pause referred to in the most recent thread was to permit a brain clearing respite in the aftermath of battle. By chance I’d agreed to participate in a charity musical, staged at the Questors Theatre in West London.

It was a professionally staged event called “Showstoppers”, a troupe of accomplished thespians staged a musical in the style of assorted composers from Rogers and Hammerstein to Verdi.

I was the man in the middle – the Director’s aide, called upon to sing and act assorted elements that tend to need singing or acting.

I got to choose the setting, the audience got to choose the title and the musical genres. I pitched for Whitehall and Downing Street as the setting. The audience chose “I agree with Nick” as the title.

I learned two things – firstly how much they hated the Lloyd Webber genre and how much they are enjoying the coalition. However I think I also learned I should stick to the “day job”.

So far, I am also enjoying the coalition. Unleashed from his right wing – for now – Cameron is emerging as an unexpected figure.

But Labour’s fall is also continuing to surprise. How exhausted and out of ideas one realises they now appear to have been. It seems too many a risky moment to be making a quick decision about who should lead them.

We now see that the cuts will come in much faster and harder than we had pre-supposed, some in this coming week.

Was it Labour’s proximity to and dependence upon the Unite union that prevented them from doing what the new Transport Minister Philip Hammond is doing – calling both sides in the BA cabin staff dispute in for talks today? What a strange self immolating dispute it is.

We live in genuinely interesting times.