Yesterday I Was Angry But Today I Am Merely A Little Sad

Yesterday in the mother of parliaments two young blokes who read PPE at that Oxford spat indignation at each other - so far as I could tell the one with the speech impediment was accusing the posher one of killing cancer patients by taking their benefits off them, and the posh one was suggesting that the dribbly one was a half-wit. Very possibly they were both right but they would be wrong if they felt many members of the public were taking much interest. If we get the politicians we deserve then the British must have done something awfully beastly. It wasn't me gov, honest.

So that made me a bit angry, which melted away to mere sadness. I was also angry that the polity (give or take the couple of people who agree with me - the people who always get to sit alone on the bus) so ardently refuses to see things as I do. This anger too has dimmed to tristesse because it is really too, too tiring being that vexed all the time. So let me share with you a list of things that seem bleeding obvious to The Overgraduate but elude most everyone else.



Trade Union leader

Fat clown

• Bob Crow is an ignorant oik.
• A private sector worker would have to make contributions of 37% of his annual wages throughout his career to purchase a pension equivalent to that of a public sector worker. As an economist might put it - this is not sustainable.
• Nationalised industries tend to a condition where they are run for the benefit of their employees and not that of their customers. This state of affairs is arguably justifiable but the people who bring about this condition should be honest enough to admit it and should additionally be horse-whipped when they have the gall to plead that all that concerns them is patient care/education/[please insert platitude of choice].
• Not all doctors and nurses are saints and angels. Many are. Some are lazy, vain, greedy etc. Same goes for all professions, not least my own.
• As long as we choose to measure poverty by reference to a proportion of average earnings, the poor will always be with us.
• Not all the rich are bastards. Some are quite nice. Others are lazy, vain, greedy etc, not least my own profession.
• High rates of marginal tax serve only a punitive purpose. If that's what you want, fine, but be honest about your motives. And accept that it will not cure any economic ills, merely salve some consciences in the salons of Islington. 
• Early retirement, low taxes, generous state pensions. These things can be achieved in unison. I mean bloody hell, Greece did it. Whoops. 
• People are living far longer than they did at the time the welfare state was conceived. Failing to acknowledge this is plain thick.
• Our railway system is a disgrace and an example of what happens when dogma dominates good sense. Surely we can do better.

That's all folks. Oh, no it's not actually. I did a brick (bike/run) yesterday and the calf held up so it is all systems go for triathlon number 2 on Sunday. Which I hope might better dispose me to the world. Briefly.

Nature Is Trying To Tell Me Something ... And I'm Not Going To Listen

Hamstring is better. It's official. I've been out running on it  a fair bit recently. Trouble is I was well into my fourth mile the other day, feeling not a little chuffed with myself, when the sodding, bleeding, buggering calf muscle went again. That's it, the self same injury I was whinging about last summer and which transported me to the acupuncturist. Give up Dave, give up - that seems to be Mother Nature's message to the Roberts' body. But we will not give in so easily. If running is going to cause these breakdowns I have a simple solution - I will train for my triathlon by swimming and cycling only and trust that my legs will stand up to the strain of the actual day. I am not old. I am not old. I am stupid but I AM NOT OLD.



Bert from Sesame Street
Working Class Hero

 I received a letter the other day from this bloke I've never met but who nonetheless feels comfortable enough to address me 'Dear David.' Cheeky young whipper-snapper. Anyway it seems this bloke desperately wants to know what my priorities are and is going to do something about them 'For you, your family and your friends.' I am touched that he should be so concerned. So here is the list of what I want Ed Milliband (for it is he who has so importuned me)

• I would like people not to take it for granted that they may use my christian name unbidden. I do actually prefer to be addressed by it but I also like the politeness implicit in asking first.
• I would very much like to live in a country that believes social mobility can be a matter of upward aspiration rather than something achieved by resenting and choking high achievement so as to elevate the status of the politburo.
• I would like to be a citizen of a country that is not compelled to underwrite the bailing-out of basket-case economies such as Portugal.
• I would like to live in a country that held some gold reserves and not one that sold at the bottom of the market.
• I would like to be governed by politicians who strive beyond a fixation with class. Your snide remarks in your Budget response about the Chancellor's skiing holiday were monumentally pathetic. Lifelong politicos like you Ed make comically poor class warriors. Didn't they learn you nothing at Oxford. Ooh sorry there's that chip on my shoulder showing.
• I would like to be left alone to live my life in accordance with my conscience and not one dictated to me by anyone else, least of all you Ed (or is it Edward in fact?)

So Mr Milliband I will not be taking up your invitation to 'keep talking' but you are free to read The Overgraduate any time you like. When you bump into Vince Cable, David Cameron or any of the rest of the shameful crew of the good ship Britain please pass on Mr Roberts' regards and ask them ever so politely to make sure they leave space in the lifeboats for the rest of us. Oh and can you please sort out my calf injury as part of Health Service reforms. If you do that you can have my single transferable vote as many times as I'm allowed to give it.