Plain Speaking Award...

...today goes to Kim Sears,Andy Murray's fiancée for a few expletives directed at the competition during the semi final of the Melbourne Open.

This was an occasion of high drama, tensions and above all the wish to see her man win. She said it how it felt, f- words and all.

In the current particularly British and American world of political correctness, which becomes more restrictive and oppressive by the day and in which she should obviously have said things like " a That's not very good" or  " Goodness me" , her outburst came as a blast of fresh air. Expressing feelings as they really are or with emotion is almost taboo and taken by the ranks of the slab faced miserabalists as vastly more significant than they really are. What she said on the spur of the moment was harmless , not pre scripted but spontaneous and alive. Excellent.

Dave to miss debate?

The news that David Cameron won't engage in any pre-election televised debates between the main political party heads (We can't really use the word leaders) unless the extra terrestrial Greens are included as a counter balance to UKIP's Nigel Farage comes as no surprise.

He seems to think any excuse will do.

Why bother with excuses though?  He should just say he doesn't want to do it because he is a pretty hopeless debater. He's OK, if wooden, at delivering pre-scripted and rehearsed speeches, often still relying on notes and autocues but he isn't good at the cut and thrust of spontaneous repartee. His real fear is not the Wallace-like miserabilist Ed who includes the class warfare stuff " For the many, not the few" in set pieces peppered with "hard working families" (why not singles?) in all he says. As far as most voters are concerned Dave and Ed are inner London political elite, alias the the speaking version of a heavy sedative. Both speak Martian and neither is really comfortable with talking to or mixing with the "ordinary people" about whom they talk so much.

 Nor is he or anyone worried about having to say "I agree with Nick" this time around.

The real problem for Dave, and to an extent Ed, is Nigel Farage. Here is a man with an armory of pre -prepared thrusts which he can deliver at will as occasion demands. He can think on his feet, repel and ridicule any assault and come over as the man in the bar with a pint in one hand and a politically incorrect fag in the other. Being savaged by Nigel and then kicked in the other Eds by opportunistic fratricidal Ed and hand wringing Nick when he's on the floor is not something Dave fancies,- especially on three occasions and multiple times within each.

If Dave wants to move on to Nigel turf, he  needs to reject the idea of televised debates by getting honest and say " I'm not crazy. Everyone knows I'm lousy at debates and don't enjoy them for a minute.They are just a piece of theatre like the weekly PMQs. I'm happy though to be grilled by Andrew Marr or anyone else in places where I feel more comfortable and can give more useful answers."

Unfortunately the chances of  our man having the courage to say just that are almost zero. That's why Farage is such a threat. He won't necessarily get enough votes to win many seats but he could split the right's votes in enough Tory seats to let Ed slip through the railings and into Number 10 as leader of the largest single party even though the majority don't want him or it. Just as in the Labour leadership election in fact. We could be facing the most undemocratic result ever of a General Election. Ed himself is said to believe that 35% of the vote will do it for him.

Back to the debates though. Our prediction is that one way or the other reluctant Dave will be forced to join Ed, Nick and Nige on a stage or two. He'd better start thinking now about how he will appear delighted to be there before Nige wipes the floor with him followed in short order by Ed and Nick too in acts of collateral verbal violence before they get too chirpy about it.

Footnote: The Oxford Union is not the best place to learn the arts of undergraduate debating. For that he should have gone to Glasgow University whose parliamentary debates have long been in a league of their own. But he wouldn't have known there was a Glasgow University,- or maybe even a Glasgow.

Britons Overwhelmed,-Things go Wrong.

Britons really have taken a hammering at home and abroad these last few weeks. There's been an air traffic control computer failure, snow in the Alps (wasn't that predictable), disruption on some railways due to over running engineering work (ditto). It's amazing that we've pulled  through to January 4th.

As we know there are set givens in our world of entitlements and rights. These include:

- The state is our Father, Mother and Nursemaid.

- When things don't go quite as expected someone (else) is always to blame.

-It is wrong that anything should go wrong. (Other people's) Heads must roll.

-There is no such thing as an accident. Any adverse event  must be actionable.

- "Not for profit" is how the world should be. It is immoral that however much anyone has risked or endured to create new products, services and jobs that they should in any way gain from their efforts.

-We have a right to cheap rail fares subsidised by the taxpayer. (Who?- That's not us, not really).

-The only acceptable way to make money is by winning or taking part in a TV reality show,playing football or scooping the lottery or being an imagined national treasure. These people should not be challenged.  All other forms of self advancement are exploitative and downright wrong.

-The railways should be renationalised. Memories of how things were before privatisation and the enormous post privatisation investments and improvements are very short.

- Also a candidate for nationalisation according to the RMT union should be a failed courier/parcels delivery company so that 2,700 jobs are not lost. Again the taxpayer can fund it .Why the nation should want to add to its debts the costs of keeping a non viable business in an overcrowded market is not explained. Maybe it's an extension of the educationalists view that nothing and nobody should be allowed to fail?  No chance of RMT's money following its mouth and buying it themselves.

-"Britons stranded in Alps" went the newspaper headlines. Well, yes, a few but so were Germans Scandinavians, French and many others. "We don't know where we are" wailed one lady at Chambery Airport into which she had just flown. Maybe this was a moment when a New York cop needed to be on hand with the crisp unsmiling reply "Buy a map". "Nobody's telling us what to do " is another frequent wail."Engage brain"would be the best, terribly un-British, retort. Think of the mental scarring that would leave. There must be compensation. Somebody must be sued.

Britain's NHS,- And they say it doesn't need reform.

Two real life encounters experienced  with the NHS in different parts of the country by members of one family last week:

1) GP to patient: "Normally we would run a few tests on this but as it's Friday afternoon we can't."

2) Helpline 111 responding to request for an appointment with the local out of hours GP service.(This little publicised facility is usually hidden away in hospitals, separate from but close to A and E departments). "It's 6pm now and as there are a couple of GP surgeries open on the other side of the county until 6.30pm we can't offer this service until they close so please ring back after that time."

Enough said.