Bookbenchers: Alistair Darling MP

Jeremy

Have you tried 'Roy Hattersley' by Lloyd George?

It begins with the verse:

Lloyd George knew Roy Hattersley,
Roy Hattersley knew Lloyd George.

And it ends with everybody being ennobled. Or nobbled.

Baron

rather predictable to the point of disappointing. still, amongst the comrades he must be the only one who can recall Bagehot.

TrevorsDen

Is this the comedy section of coffee house?

He would let Shakespeare burn? A more appropriate book for him to save would be the complete works of William Magonagle.

Fergus Pickering

The Complete Works of Dickens must have been writ exceeding small. What a disappointing selection. I can't believe he actually LIKES any of the books. A snivelling politician to his fingertips. Burns would have had his number.

Nicholas

Why does the Speccie keep choosing lefties for this series? Is it a "balance" thing? Poor old right - doomed by this gentlemanly chivalry for opponents.

Radford NG

To kill a Mocking Bird? An alien novel from an alien country.I'd point you to "Cry The Beloved Country" by Alan Paton.

Wilhelm 1

White hair and black eyebrows, that's just an odd look, isn't it ?

Fergus Pickering

Oh come, Nicholas. Werent the last two Tories? One an ETONIAN Tory. I'd like Eric Pickles , I must say.

canonalberic

A truly dismal selection. The alleged left wing bias complained aboutis misguided it is an exquisite exercise in self-revelation - with various shallow progressives consistently chosing works that any real booklover would only read at the point of a gun.

Ruth

He should't bother with 'The Fear Index' it's dull , predictable and boring,
which actually come to think of it, would suit him.

Wilhelm 1

I always find these little book reviews amusing. It's a tick box to make the chump in this case Darling look human to the voter.

Spin Doctor, say you like Charles Dickens and Beatrix Potter, that'll get you the middle England vote. Say you like Robert Burns, that'll get you the Scots vote. Say you like association football, that'll get you the working class vote.

It's a load of old codswallop and so transparent. The reality is the creep Darling is probably reading Marx and Engels.

Nicholas

FP "Oh come, Nicholas. Werent the last two Tories? One an ETONIAN Tory. I'd like Eric Pickles , I must say."

Er, I think my point was about lefties being selected, not Tories. Perhaps that's why I mentioned the "balance" thing. Another clue might be in the fact that the word "only" is missing between the words "choosing" and "lefties" in my original post.

But why politicians? Why not a man on the Clapham omnibus or at least someone who is not an identifiable member of the politico-celeb-media elite "governing" us?

Wilhelm 1

Darling is a typical apparatchik, careerist, opportunist.

A sniveling sook, teachers pet and school sneek

'' To kill a mocking bird ''

How tiresome, how predictable. That will get brownie points with the comrades and the black vote.

No Koran I see, you've slipped up there Alistair, you wont get the muslim vote.

Ps. Old Git, no one like a grass, so I posted this again. So There !!

Wilhelm 1

'' I would to be Sherlock Holmes.''

Surely Darling is Uriah Heep.

'' The character is notable for his cloying humility, obsequiousness, and insincerity, making frequent references to his own "'humbleness". His name has become synonymous with being a yes man.''

Edward McLaughlin

He must read a tremendous amount during those hours when he can't sleep, for thoughts of how he helped ruin the country.

Or was that a job well done?

Rhoda Klapp

How about ditching this series if it cannot produce a convincing list? If every last one of them creates a list of bien-pensant answers then we learn nothing of interest. This idea is a loser. Let's get a right-wing blogger in here.

Benton Marder

So, he might rather read Marx and Engels? How boring. Why not go the whole hog and read Lenin and Stalin? William Magonagle, however, was a great man, worthy to be read

Dimoto

I guess his favourite music is Cold Play, and favourite TV series is Cheers !

Why are the media so keen to resurrect this narrow-minded provincial solicitor and eminently forgettable ex-Chancellor, as some sort of Renaissance man and allround good egg ?

Is he incredibly cheap ?

Andy Carpark

'My propositions are elucidatory in this way: he who understands me finally recognizes them as senseless, when he has climbed out through them, on them, over them. (He must so to speak throw away the ladder, after he has climbed up on it.)'

Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus 6.54

'Books are a load of crap.'

Philip Larkin, A Study of Reading Habits

jebediah

Utterly tedious book selections. If this is what they read no wonder politicians are inside the bubble.

No Hobbit or Harry Potter for you kids, no To Kill a Mockingbird, it's great fun.