Happy Families!

It's probably a card game that isn't even known by today's children but, when I was young, Happy Families was a favourite - along with Snap, and Donkey; and non-card games like Ludo, and Snakes and Ladders!

The announcement of the new Shadow Cabinet, earlier today, reminded me of the Happy Families game.  Not only do we have Ed and Dave (and I don't believe, for one minute, that brother Dave will be out of the limelight for very long!), but we have the (in my opinion!) aptly-named Ed Balls and Mrs Balls (who, for some reason, prefers to be known by her maiden name of Yvette Cooper), and even a set of twins in the Eagle sisters!

So, is this a sign that renewed "new generation" Labour will favour the family unit, in the destruction of which their immediate predecessors (New Liebour - no, that isn't a typo!) played such a prominent part?   Sadly, I doubt it.  It looks to my 'non-professional-political-commentator' eyes like the usual cronyism that is one of the hallmarks of the Labour Party - and has been for as long as I have taken any real interest in politics.

These are the very people who stood (or sat!) by and watched the banks spend untold millions on useless assets.  These are the very people who allowed a property boom that was fuelled by people borrowing six times their annual gross salaries (and more!).  These are the people who watched a preponderance of television advertising that encouraged people to get into ever greater debt.  These are the people who ran the whole country into debt by spending money that the nation didn't have.  The only thing, I suppose, for which we may be thankful, is that young Ed didn't invite his immediate predecessor as Labour leader - the redoubtable financial wizard, "no more 'boom and bust' Mr Brown", to be the shadow Chancellor!

I recall, when I was in the Merchant Navy, meeting the most rabidly socialist person I had ever met - a ginger-headed Scouse baker.  However, when the time came for a postal vote for an election, he informed me that he would be voting for the Conservative candidate in his home constituency!  His answer, when I asked him why, was illuminating.  He informed me that, while he espoused Labour principles, he always voted Tory because they ran the country, while Labour politicians merely lined their own pockets!  As I look at Peter Mandelson pocketing 33% more, each month, in his EU pension than I receive each year in my own occupational pension, I recall my former shipmate - and conclude that he was absolutely right!