The Sun King 2.0

Well, it appears that Alistair Darling (wisely) reads TMP blogs, because he seems to have acted exactly as instructed by the last blog entry, albeit just late enough to have added to the crisis, and been forced into a new position of widening the scope of government backed guarantees for banks.

Although the terminally pompous Mervyn King was duly queried for his somewhat unhelpful and irrelevant academic approach, he survived. Arguably now is not the time to see his fat head roll, but surely it must once the dust has settled?

Despite the deposition of President Blair, Westminster still has the courtly air of privilege and insider intrigue that was once associated with medieval monarchies, and it's tempting to draw parallels with Louis XIV, although this particular Sun King radiates for a while longer from Threadneedle Street. Get out your knitting, it's time for Madam Guillotine to be sharpened up.

However, the unholy alliance amongst the political and governing classes that means no one needs resign for acts of gross folly, stupidity and incompetence any longer, prevails for the time being, and all the guilty are still accumulating their fat state pensions very nicely, thanks.

The cocooned existence of this endlessly self-seeking Westminster coterie is at the root of the country's dilemma. As never before, they are shameless to a man and woman. This lot will do anything to keep their jobs. ANYTHING. The Westminster Cabal (WC) that remains immune from the sort of responsibility and challenges that face the rest of us in the real world is a growing and real problem.

Frustrated as rarely ever before, the shire parishes are now holding local referenda so that their beleaguered inhabitants feel that they are at least able to do something to show their displeasure at the way the government continuously rides roughshod over the wishes of the "misguided majority" and belies any notion of democracy, at a time when the "official" opposition is busy preparing David Cameron - one time Boy Wonder, rapidly transformed into the Boy Blunder - for the swift exit he now deserves.

Amidst all this, Brown surely cannot resist the temptation to call an election; there may never be a better time to fool enough of the people for the last time. He knows better than most that his government is living on borrowed time, and that the next year will bring nothing but more pain to expose the catastrophic follies of the past 10 years.

And speaking of courtly excess, although we thought we had done away with her at last, we still have that dreadful woman Cherie Blair popping up in the media all over the place, telling the rest of us to eat cake - and buy her book.

Now then, where's that sharpening stone?