Ha ha ha ha ha

Don't You Know Who I Am?, or Rules Are For The Little People (via BoingBoing and the Daily Mirror. This is why Tories are Scum.

Baroness Neville-Jones, the UK government's security chief, was stopped at Heathrow with an oversize aerosol can in her hand-baggage. When security officials upbraided her for trying to bring banned objects onto a plane, she reportedly railed at them:

The Baroness was ticked off by border staff, who did not recognise her. But she took offence when they told her how important security is. The 71-year-old Baroness, known for being haughty, ranted: "Of course I know how important it is, I'm the Security Minister."

Ironically, the former head of the British Joint Intelligence Committee was on her way to discuss the war on terror with US security chiefs. Her outburst at Heathrow Airport came just two days before an ink cartridge containing explosives was found in Britain on a US-bound cargo plane. A Whitehall source said: "No one could believe it when they heard about the rant. After all, the border staff were only doing their job.

Victory is mine

At last, I'm a winner.
10/10 on the Guardian's literary quiz (about poverty), without looking anything up!
A bright spot in an otherwise depressing day - although lunch with Darek, Steve and Christine is always fun. I tend to listen to their learned discourse in awed silence.

Talking of being a winner: Heathrow 3rd runway and Stansted 2nd runway cancelled! There wasn't much choice - all the parties except Labour were opposed, and no doubt they'll try to expand capacity elsewhere rather than allowing greener transport to replace flying, but for now, savour the clean(ish) air.

All hail John McDonnell

He's the hard left Labour MP who has been suspended from Parliament for a few days after picking up the Mace in protest over the government's decision to authorise a third runway for Heathrow (the turncoat, hypocritical arseholes) despite claiming to be green and despite the obvious fact that Britain's already in breach of EU pollution laws with only 2 runways.  

OK, you might say, why should a bit of theatre in a Victorian fantasy building be so praiseworthy? He's hardly loaded an anti-aircraft missile in Terminal 5. However, John is the MP for Heathrow, and a dyed in the wool socialist. He understands and represents the working classes. He knows the importance of jobs for all. BAA and its tame ex-socialists like Clive Soley have corralled the unions under the banner of '3rd runway or nobody will ever work again' because the unions think that greens are toff trustafarians out to close down every industry going: socialism or environmentalism. But they can't use that argument with people like McDonnell because he knows that environmentalism will provide huge numbers of jobs as we re-engineer the entire country. He's that rare thing, a forward-looking socialist - and being the MP for Heathrow is a delicious extra.