Until “Hot Tottygate”, the perpetually outraged on the Labour left were, well yes outraged, that David Miliband had popped up to lob a few grenades in his brother’s direction. Silly David doesn’t he realise that if you are on the right of the party you not permitted to make any comments  about the state of the party?

Besides we already have people to do that, they’re the ones who have the golden pass that allows them to tour the studios slagging of the last Labour govt and its most successful leader- some even have a book out, so they must be an expert on such things.

Tottygate distracted us from the continuing drama of the last Labour government, two people who we are told we are close, one is the leader, the other one isn’t and feels they should be.

I voted for David Miliband, I was impressed by the way I saw him interacting with younger people during the general election. I didn’t vote for his brother, I was unimpressed by the way he was playing to the gallery. Defining himself by what he was not, than what he was. (He did the same thing at conference and it brought him some instant gratification)

Such a tactic is always going to unravel when, in power, you start behaving differently to how your supporters believed you would behave. Criticism from backers of David Miliband is to be expected, but the uncomfortable truth is that some of the most vocal have been from those who backed him. (Although ironically if you are the general secretary of Unite your brickbats are applauded, however if your name is Tom Scholes-Fogg you are pilloried and insulted.)

So while I wait for Ed Miliband to show me and the nation that he is a PM in waiting (drums fingers),  I along with all the other ‘Bitter Blairites’ clutch a heart shaped photo frame of David to my bosom, blissfully dreaming of the day David receives his rightful coronation as the leader of the party.

Actually no.  Firstly the party wouldn’t stomach another coronation, we saw how badly that turned out last time. The party would not accept anyone being foisted upon us.  In the subsequent contest there will be other candidates and I imagine the party would choose someone who’s contribution to the party was deemed to be helpful rather than unhelpful.

Fraser Nelson in today’s Telegraph is right when commenting on ‘a crisis of leadership in the Labour Party’, he says,

It will not be resolved, though, by David Miliband. He has a habit of popping up whenever his brother gets into trouble, waving across the hall to MPs he hasn’t spoken to in months and conducting meetings in the House of Commons’ coffee bars, rather than his office. When Ed is doing better in the polls, David disappears back to the overseas lecture circuit. If he genuinely wanted to help, he’d join the shadow cabinet or resign from Parliament. Instead, he is posing as the man-who-may-run-again. As Sarah Palin found out, such status can certainly up your rates as a pundit, or corporate adviser. But Labour has no question to which David Miliband is the answer.

If there were to be a Labour leadership contest before the election I wouldn’t vote for David again. There is plenty of talent in the party and framing the debate around one Miliband or the other is like being told the vegetarian option is fish or chicken. Did I mention I was a vegetarian?

When I had my tea room in France I tended to cook most things from scratch, as opposed to assemble, which is what I suspect the hotel opposite me did. (Can one person prepare a three course meal for 100 covers, plus 30 or so menu ouvrier without resorting to opening packets?).

So all my bread, cakes, sauces, pies, pasties, custards usually started out with the basic ingredients. Certainly a far more time consuming process, but producing food that my loyal customers appreciated.

French people are far more interested in the provenance of their food. Mention to a burly lorry driver that the bread for his bacon sandwich was home made would always meet with an appreciative response. You just wouldn’t bother in the UK.

One area where I took a shortcut was with pasta, choosing to buy a good quality pasta instead.

Were I still in France I would be proudly rewriting menus to include my newest artisan creation, (while wondering exactly where I was going to find time in an already busy day).

Imperia Italian Double Cutter Pasta Machine SP150

In what may be a shock news to some my French experience came to an end last June.  A combination of fragile finances, exhaustion, illness and it has to be said tedium made continuing impossible. Many things that are amusing to begin with, soon become extremely irritating and when, as last summer, you end up shouting out of your bedroom window at nobody in particular, that you think the town is full of ignorant rude cunts, it is perhaps wise to concede that another season is not a good idea.

After a spell of recuperation I am better able to reflect on my time in France and look forward to sharing my experiences and observations of my time abroad and the mild culture shock of returning to live in the UK.

David Croft and Anthony Davidson were commentating on Schumacher’s return and at first the comments were even handed, especially from Ant. Making a comparison with Lance Armstrong’s return he made the point that  in retirement a cyclist was better placed to simulate the experience of racing than Michael.

Then it started to go downhill, we got the same tired clichés often reeled off by the anti-Schumacher types, stuff about how Michael always had a better car and less able team mate. Heavily hinting that these were the only reasons for his success.

I sent a tweet protesting this. Originally I was going to say “You’re always trashing Michael Schumacher’s reputation. With Brundle, is this sour grapes from ex drivers jealous that their careers are over?”

Obviously this was a bit rude so I changed it to:

“@5LiveF1 You’re trashing of Michael Schumacher’s reputation is extremely boring. You just can’t help yourselves.”

After I sent it I saw I hadn’t edited the beginning, not to worry, people make typos in firing off quick messages.

David Croft read my tweet and clearly riled by my criticism broadcast a personal on-air attack on my supposed poor grammar. Even Ant said that he thought his comments were harsh.

Perhaps David Croft isn’t used to getting viewer/listener feedback that isn’t fawning but that is no excuse for such unprofessional behaviour.

If they want their listeners just to send in comments saying how wonderful they are all and how fantastic the British drivers are then please say so and the rest of us won’t bother invading their Nirvana.

Finally, if you are going to take the moral high ground on matters of grammar it is a good idea to have your own house in order – glass houses and all that. So just for 5LiveF1’s resident grammar policeman, some gems from the 5LiveF1 Twitter feed.

@pastamaster39 I think Kerb height at turn 12 and 13 will be key, I wonder if they have been changed?

@f1_fans Great video’s though

2:29 PM Jun 4th via TweetDeck in reply to f1_fans

To all those asking we have not knicked @jakehumphreyf1 ‘s we have our own! Good for reading tweets not great for sending them….

9:42 PM Jun 7th via TweetDeck

@kevcorbett No License Fee has been spent on the iPad. It is a personal one to help our commentary in case the Daily Mail is reading this!

10:05 PM Jun 7th via web

“Félicitations! Les internautes ayant réservé leur séjour sur venere.com on tout particulièrement apprécié Le Pontrieux et bon nombre d’entre eux ont classé l’établissement dans la catégorie: Excellent Service .”

Which was nice!

The most idiotic  comments come from those who declare that France would never allow such a takeover of an iconic brand.

As I write I am munching away at a bar of Poulain Noir Extra. Poulain is one of France’s oldest chocolate brands – bought by Cadbury Schweppes in 1988.

To avoid the network overloading everybody is being asked to moderate their consumption during peak hours of  5 and 8pm. If these warnings are not heeded then preventative power cuts will be imposed to protect the network.  Most at risk is Finistère being at the edge of the network. Yesterday morning every Mairie in Finistère was contacted by phone to warn of outages.

This dampening the Christmas spirit somewhat. Towns and villages that were only last week boasting about their Christmas lights are now switching them off.  In St Brieuc their 11km of garlands and 27000 bulbs are staying off,  in Paimpol tonight and tomorrow there be no Christmas and town centre street lights. Vannes like other towns are  switching off the  illumination of public building and monuments.

However,  Christmas lights fans visiting Pontrieux need not fear – as I look out of the window our Christmas lights are glowing with gay abandon. I reckon there will be words….

Further reading:

Le Monde – La Bretagne sous basse tension

http://www.ouest-ecowatt.com/

” To Nick, Karen and family…..”

Oh well, there’s always tomorrow.

Father Christmas is due to take time out from his busy schedule to visit us today, tomorrow and next weekend. Given his busy schedule it was a real coup for t’committee to secure his services. I just hope he’s not a fraud, to check I will speak to him in English, that should flush out any imposter!

Perhaps they are after a particular market segment, after all even receivers of stolen goods and liars have banking needs.

This may even be good news for those of you caught making fraudulent loan and mortgage applications – just cite the “Melbourne” defence.