Have you noticed it too, or is just me?
The con-dem front bench appears to be getting plumper?
Certainly George Osborne is becoming what my granny would call, fuller in the face and the photographs of David Cameron sporting in the surf in Cornwall speak for themselves.
Of course the usual response when someone appears both plumper and still well groomed is: You're doing well.
And of course they are.
In fact the Chancellor is especially pleased with himself, the economy has turned the corner he tells us triumphantly, Plan A has worked.
Well sorry to rain on his parade but not here it hasn't.
Now we have the headline from today's newspapers that a Brazilian envoy for the UN has visited Britain, taken soundings, talked with folk and decided that the bed room tax has affected their human rights.
Indeed, so now in a fascinating example of what the churches call reverse mission, the third world has decided that in the not so rich west, i.e. 'up North', the policies of the con-dem's has in fact reduced living standards and effectively made people worse, rather than better, off.
Interestingly Vince Cable appears on the news telling us that George Osborne is not entirely right, the economy has not actually turned a corner, at least not yet, it's just going in the right direction.
But neither appear prepared to admit that living standards are in fact going down as the cost of living increases and benefits, both those paid to working families and those paid to those who are not working, are reduced.
So on we march towards 2015 and a chance to cast our verdict along with our vote on the con-dem parade of reduced benefits, hard hearted policies, condemnation of those who through ill health or disability cannot work alongside the constant refrain of the drum beat of austerity.
But this austerity is not shared, equally or equitably, I still have the image in my mind, of George Osborne in his Land Rover, eating his Big Mac whilst parked in a disabled parking space, that could account for the plumpness of course, fast food and short walks, as Jamie Oliver might advise, slow food and long walks are much better for the figure.
But that is really beside the point, Mr Gove visits a food bank and is reported commenting that if people have to rely on handouts to eat then they need to manage their money better, this from an ex journalist, now a minister living in a two income household.
There was a time a year or two back when I came across and started to develop the idea of the fourth world, that is the world of the poor, subsisting in the heart of first world nations, on an income comparable with third world citizens.
Meanwhile reports emerge that attitudes are shifting, people have finally, if not yet forcefully, rejected the dismissive and contemptuous attitudes expressed by the con-dem's and the survey of social attitudes suggests that people are recognising that the divisions emerging in society, fuelled once again by a housing boom, apparently engineered by the government, cannot be sustained.
I hope that at the party conferences the Liberals, as Mr Cable has started to do, begin to distance themselves from their coalition partners.
I hope also that Milliband and Balls take the opportunity to review their commitment to operating within the fiscal settlement being implemented by the Chancellor. It is really not necessary to continue to pursue austerity, which has strangled growth, when in fact investment in social development, improved wages and a more just social settlement will in itself stimulate growth as spending increases and demand rises.
Interesting that we have become so used to plastic that we often leave the house with just plastic in our wallets and purses, stop for fuel pay with plastic, shop in the supermarket pay with plastic, buy on online pay with plastic.
Well soon it seems, apart from that last example that's what we shall be doing as our paper money is transformed into plastic.
The give away comment on the BBC News last evening, following the report of those executives who left the corporation, (not with paper bags stuffed with plastic money but with plastic carrier bags stuffed with licence payers money), was at least it will be easier to wipe the red wine stains off a plastic fiver.
But not easier than rolling it up as a spill to to light your cigar.
Aah, how the first world lives.
Good job we've got the beady eye of the third world looking out for our interests.
The con-dem front bench appears to be getting plumper?
Certainly George Osborne is becoming what my granny would call, fuller in the face and the photographs of David Cameron sporting in the surf in Cornwall speak for themselves.
Of course the usual response when someone appears both plumper and still well groomed is: You're doing well.
And of course they are.
In fact the Chancellor is especially pleased with himself, the economy has turned the corner he tells us triumphantly, Plan A has worked.
Well sorry to rain on his parade but not here it hasn't.
Now we have the headline from today's newspapers that a Brazilian envoy for the UN has visited Britain, taken soundings, talked with folk and decided that the bed room tax has affected their human rights.
Indeed, so now in a fascinating example of what the churches call reverse mission, the third world has decided that in the not so rich west, i.e. 'up North', the policies of the con-dem's has in fact reduced living standards and effectively made people worse, rather than better, off.
Interestingly Vince Cable appears on the news telling us that George Osborne is not entirely right, the economy has not actually turned a corner, at least not yet, it's just going in the right direction.
But neither appear prepared to admit that living standards are in fact going down as the cost of living increases and benefits, both those paid to working families and those paid to those who are not working, are reduced.
So on we march towards 2015 and a chance to cast our verdict along with our vote on the con-dem parade of reduced benefits, hard hearted policies, condemnation of those who through ill health or disability cannot work alongside the constant refrain of the drum beat of austerity.
But this austerity is not shared, equally or equitably, I still have the image in my mind, of George Osborne in his Land Rover, eating his Big Mac whilst parked in a disabled parking space, that could account for the plumpness of course, fast food and short walks, as Jamie Oliver might advise, slow food and long walks are much better for the figure.
But that is really beside the point, Mr Gove visits a food bank and is reported commenting that if people have to rely on handouts to eat then they need to manage their money better, this from an ex journalist, now a minister living in a two income household.
There was a time a year or two back when I came across and started to develop the idea of the fourth world, that is the world of the poor, subsisting in the heart of first world nations, on an income comparable with third world citizens.
Meanwhile reports emerge that attitudes are shifting, people have finally, if not yet forcefully, rejected the dismissive and contemptuous attitudes expressed by the con-dem's and the survey of social attitudes suggests that people are recognising that the divisions emerging in society, fuelled once again by a housing boom, apparently engineered by the government, cannot be sustained.
I hope that at the party conferences the Liberals, as Mr Cable has started to do, begin to distance themselves from their coalition partners.
I hope also that Milliband and Balls take the opportunity to review their commitment to operating within the fiscal settlement being implemented by the Chancellor. It is really not necessary to continue to pursue austerity, which has strangled growth, when in fact investment in social development, improved wages and a more just social settlement will in itself stimulate growth as spending increases and demand rises.
Interesting that we have become so used to plastic that we often leave the house with just plastic in our wallets and purses, stop for fuel pay with plastic, shop in the supermarket pay with plastic, buy on online pay with plastic.
Well soon it seems, apart from that last example that's what we shall be doing as our paper money is transformed into plastic.
The give away comment on the BBC News last evening, following the report of those executives who left the corporation, (not with paper bags stuffed with plastic money but with plastic carrier bags stuffed with licence payers money), was at least it will be easier to wipe the red wine stains off a plastic fiver.
But not easier than rolling it up as a spill to to light your cigar.
Aah, how the first world lives.
Good job we've got the beady eye of the third world looking out for our interests.
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