I realise I could have appeared partisan in my last blog. So let me have another gripe about the other side. It seems a long time now since Gordon Brown reshuffled his cabinet and shocked everyone by bringing back the wily Peter Mandelson in either an act of statesmanship or desperation. No one that I've heard commented on the fact that two of the three Catholics in the Cabinet either gracefully retired (Ruth Kelly) or were given the heave-ho (Des Browne). Whether Paul Murphy was left with Wales because he's doing such a good job or because pushing all three out at one go would have been too obvious, I don't know. What I do know is that we need politicians in government who have the courage to dissent from the consensus party lines because of their religious convictions. And back in May the three of them did just that over embryo research and abortion. Personally I suspect it will be a bit more lonely for Mr Murphy, and there'll be more pressure on him to conform against his conscience. I hope I'm wrong.
Well, Paul (St of that name) tells us to pray for those in government, and he was writing at a time of a repressive totalitarian Roman empire. So I guess we'd better do the same. It's not a fun job just at the moment, even though our Gordon seems to be relishing it a bit more than he was.
On a lighter note what a lovely weekend we've had in the main. Pity about Lewis Hamilton. However no stock markets open, and so no falling FTSEs. Just blue skies and falling leaves. Pictures of Hannah Smith (aged 2 weeks +) down the line - a truly charismatic baby. Also of my friends, Louise and Mark's trip to Kenya, which took me right back to my gap year. And the Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sachs, reminding us of Soren Kierkegaard's definition of happiness: 'The door to happiness opens outwards.' Man, that was one deep Dane.
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