h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Sad news today of the loss of two notables in British society who on the surface couldn't be more different, but both had gentle and warm souls.

I'm not a Catholic, but I'll miss Basil Hume. He was a man who believed in people as well as one who believed in God. His secular pronouncements (and they're the only ones I can judge) always seemed well thought-out, caring and wise. His congregation certainly loved him - he conducted mass at my fiancee's church just a few weeks ago, one of his last I suppose, and it was filled to the rafters - and the people left happy to have seen him, he took them past the sadness of his own mortality.

Screaming Lord Sutch, on the other hand, always tried not to be wise, it wasn't the point of his party - despite notable successes (did you know the Monster Raving Loonies were the first party to campaign for the vote at 18 instead of 21?). He just thought the whole political process was too stuffy and full of its own importance - and if New Labour doesn't embody that, I don't know what does - and he was up for bursting their bubble. The only parties he really wanted in the corridors of power were wild ones with booze and drugs and pretty girls. He chose to spend his pop royalties on brightening up the ballot paper in bye-elections the country over, rather than becoming just another fat retired rocker. In his own way he served the people as much as if he'd been elected - maybe more.

In the end, they both made people's days a little happier. To lose two of the few people who manage that in one day is cruel.

 

I agree with both of your assessments regarding GBH and SLS.

I liked a couple of the Looney Parties policies in particular - one was to waterski on the European Wine lake and the other an educational one was to deal with large classes by providing larger teachers.

I liked Jim Curry's (Cardinal Hume's Personal secreatary) comments in the Guardian when asked what the Cardinal's last words were. "Ouch!" apparently.

Pancho Villa's (Mexican revolutionary), I believe , were, "Tell them I said something important"