The #PCC count in Northamptonshire was positively electrifying compared with most polls around the country, what with the biggest turnout in the UK and the very singular situation of the second favourite being barred from standing, but still attracting 25,000 votes in the first count.
As seems to be the fashion these days, the media was herded into a pen from where they were occasionally allowed out intermittently, blinking, to circle the room like marauding cod looking for a story. All, of course, under the watchful eye of some PR sentry.
But we digress. Because at least we were there at the end to witness #PCC Simmonds – stood somewhat bizarrely behind a motor racing car – open with this: “We observe today not a victory of party but a celebration of freedom, signifying renewal as well as change”. These were the very words spoken by JFK in his inaugural address in January 1961. With Adam’s love of The West Wing already well documented here, does this point to a new style of leadership, possibly one where his young team spends three-and-half years eating donuts for breakfast, pizza for supper and the odd load of ice cream – always straight out of the tub, mind -– when things aren’t going so well. It’s going to be a thrilling ride and we’ll be watching it with interest all the way...
Aufona has always had a keen interest in the fleet of cars owned by the bashful burger purveyor, Tony Ansell, the Tories’ very colourful borough councillor for Abington. In particular it was the Ferrari that wasn’t actually a Ferrari which Tony got ever so slightly ruffled about when quizzed about it last year. The other day, spotted emerging from Abington Park, was a new set of wheels to interest us: A black Bentley, possibly a Continental GT, with a very distinctive private reg. As our snout told us, breathelessly: “We’re all in this together”.
Loved all @louisemensch’s thoughts this week on Israel, women bishops (#feminism) and, of course, the Corby by-election (broadly, ‘it was me wot lost it’), but this one was priceless: “You know what is awesome? Uncured bacon. No nitrates. Have been off bacon for ages, just had four rashers with my eggs & tasted great.”
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