Hell and High Water

I feel as if I ought to be saying something about the Damian Green affair - Bryan has - but, as so often these days, I'm so comprehensively aghast that I can barely articulate anything. Indeed my reaction to most of what this government is doing could best be summed up not in words, but in a sound - in that spontaneous gasping whoosh of incredulity that erupted in the Commons when Darling unveiled the full depth of the debt abyss he was digging for future generations. It's as if Brown now has a tactic of unleashing policies so jaw-droppingly preposterous and pursuing actions so breath-takingly deplorable that opponents - inded any sane person looking on - are struck dumb with appalled incredulity. With Mandelson and Campbell egging him on, he seems to be acting like a madman, willing to do anything to cling on to power. One can only hope that, being madness, it will prove self-destructive in the end - but, when power is finally prised from his tenacious grip, we taxpayers, God help us, will be left to pay the bills after he's trashed the place.
Never mind - the good news is that the lovely picture blog Venice Daily Photo is up and running again, after a six-month absence in Rome - and it's acqua alta time. And The Onion has yet more sound evidence of the beneficial effects of booze. (While you're there, check out the Magritte story too...)