Just heard of the death of Alan Sillitoe which saddened me a little.
Sillitoe wrote one of my favourite short storie namely The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, and the character of Colin Smith, so beautifully played by Tom Courtenay in the film of the same name.
In a memorable quote Smith says, "Do you know what I'd do if I had the whip hand? I'd get all the coppers, governers, posh whores, army officers, and members of parliament and I'd stick them up against this wall and let them have it 'cause that's what they'd like to do to blokes like us".
After the expenses scandal of so many Tory and Labour MPs last year I'm sure that many folk felt the same.
Ironically Sillitoe couldn't stand the present New Labour government famously saying "I've voted Labour all my life but I couldn't bring myself to do so this time. They are incompetent and want too much control. I abstained instead".
Again, many people feel exactly the same given the betrayal of so many hopes and ideals over the past dozen years.
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