Wednesday 4th April

One of the groups which Adrian used to play, seemingly ad-infinitum, was the Bonzo-Dog-Doo-Dah-Band, or Bonzo’s for short.  They attempted to inject humour into pop music, with scant success I might add, but Adrian thought they were really funny, so what do I know.  Anyway, digression again – there was one song which sticks in my mind because the refrain was that it didn’t matter who you voted for the Government always got in.  Slightly amusing I accept, but it masked a few serious points; that all political parties were much the same; that once elected no matter how they ridiculed the silly hats and wigs of the ruling elite as soon as they won power they couldn’t wait to try them on (witness the Lib-Dems who were going to be so different, but have ended up just the same); and most important that the establishment eats people and parties whole.  It has the marvelous ability to swallow up and ingest and accommodate the strangest of ideas and turn them into a rounded consensus.  And it isn’t just the civil service, but the whole panoply of advisors, lobby groups and business consultants and party officials and most important of all it would seem, the PR team who manage to massage the original message, the carrot that was dangled, the promises, the aspirations, the pledges even, into some sort of programme for government.  And here in Britain it is managed pretty seamlessly too.  Even the mighty Anthony Wedgwood Benn once succumbed to the charms of Whitehall and while in Government at least toned down his rhetoric to acceptable levels.  And right now we have a Government that bears little resemblance to the one that stood for election only a couple of years (but it seems like an age) ago.  Already they are almost unrecognizable not only from their aspirant selves but from Messrs Blair and Brown and Major who went before them.  So, you see, it is true – no matter who you vote for the Government always gets in.