Dollfuss

I was a little surprised to see Dollfuss lauded in the pages of Magnificat. He was a dictator who killed his enemies. I don't know if he forgave them afterwards. 

His rivalry with Hitler was in the nature of a turf war between gangsters and not a matter of principle. This is how Bertold Brecht portrayed it in his play "The Resisible Rise of Arturo Ui."

Things can only get better

I understand that the writer wrote jokes for Tony Blair. I do hope he didn't write that one about weapons of mass destruction. It didn't go well.

Labour activists will recognise many of the situations in this book and I certainly enjoyed reading it. It would be possible to take exception to the tone of this book if it were not delivered with such a self-deprecatory air. It is written from the point of view of a Labour Party activist and it shows empathy. I cannot think of another book of which one could say that. For non-Labour readers, I have no idea what they will make of this book but they will certainly find it interesting and amusing. 

Sean O'Grady on Broken

After the Chichester Festival event yesterday, we came home to enjoy the final episode of "Broken". It was a first class piece of work and only someone given to petty carping could possibly find fault with it.

I turned to the "i" newspaper this morning to find that Sean O'Grady apparently hadn't liked it and smugly dismissed it as "ridiculous".

The breathtaking scene in which the gambling machines were smashed by the people who had most to lose was lost on O'Grady. So was the exceptional sermon on casting the money-changers out of the temple. O'Grady is the former economics editor of the Independent and clearly the anger against the casino society expressed by Father Michael (Sean Bean) went right over his head.

I take issue with O'Grady's arrogant dismissal of "Broken". I would submit that Jesus could have been tried for criminal damage for casting the money-changers out of the temple. He did get in quite a lot of trouble with the authorities as it was!

As for the ending which O'Grady called "ridiculous", I thought that it showed the people Father Michael had tried (and sometimes failed) to help queueing up to give him a bit of support when he needed it.