sweet effay

Veritas - I ask you. I guess Kilroy and his chums think it’s a name that will appeal to the sort of Daily Express reading saddoes who look back misty-eyed to their school days when we still had an Empire and there was Latin prep and muffins for tea. Oh well, it could be worse, at least they didn’t call it Gravitas.

Watching the man of the hour launch his new party on television yesterday, I was struck by something. Like all truly rational human beings, I am an avid reader of P.G. Wodehouse and the similarity between Kilroy and Roderick Spode, leader of the Blackshorts in the Jeeves and Wooster novels, is truly remarkable.

Both are obvious bullies with a talent for making themselves look ridiculous in the eyes of all but the most stupid people (even Bertie thinks Spode is an idiot). Both have no hope whatsoever of leading a successful political party, but cause a lot of trouble in the meantime. Spode had a secret embarrassing job designing ladies’ underwear; Kilroy’s embarrassing former job is, of course, no secret.

Watching Kilroy declaiming “They are stealing our country!” yesterday, I kept wanting one of the journalists to shout out “No they’re not Robert; it’s still here. Look, you’re standing in it!” Kilroy could have then slunk off into obscurity and saved us all a lot of unpleasantness in the near future.