Last night I lay in my hospital bed and wept into the pillow.
They were not tears because after two months away I miss my partner and son, or of frustration that I cannot walk, stand or use my hands properly, or of discomfort from neuropathic pain, or even from fear of the tumour growing in my pelvis and attacking my nervous system. I am all cried out from those causes.
They were tears for the Labour Party I love and its humiliation. Its lost councillors. The poor, the weak, the old, the sick, who need a Labour Government and a Labour council.
But also for Gordon Brown, who, whatever his faults and errors or my anger at his ousting of Tony Blair, is a good man who does not deserve what is happening to his premiership.
Please let this be over fast. If we are going to change leader the PLP needs to do it now and end the misery for both Gordon and everyone like me who loves Labour and cannot bear to see the party’s death by one thousand cuts.
Birth and rebirth are always going to be painful. But death is worse, and right now the choice is between death and rebirth.
ReplyDeleteStay strong comrade, because things can only get better.
I say let Britain have its Tory Government - the electorate will quickly realise that it has been conned. Cameron is weak and shallow, a nothing politician. The anger of the electorate in 2014 will be wondrous to behold.
ReplyDeleteGet well soon, Luke.
I think that's a very good post that also sums up a lot of how I am feeling at the moment.
ReplyDeleteDitto. Minus the bit about the tumour, of course.
ReplyDeleteI truly share your political pain. But I've no evidence that Gordon Brown is a good man who doesn't deserve this. What is happening to Brown is exactly the same as what Brown did to Blair. And look at how Brown has treated Darling in the last week, Blears before that and countless others at the hands of McBride.
ReplyDeleteThe Labour party does not deserve this, the party does not deserve this shower of leaders. But Gordon Brown probably does.
I have total empathy with the political pain you are feeling....
ReplyDeleteLooking at the early results of last nights County Council elections the Labour Party has clearly been dealt a very severe defeat by the British electorate....
Labour has lost 8 out of the 10 seats it was defending on Bristol City Council and is now in 3rd place behind the Lib Dems and the Conservatives who are now the Official Opposition Group.... In St George East ward the BNP polled heavily and Labour has even come in 4th place behind the Greens in another ward..... My heart goes out to all those Party activists who have worked so hard and those Councillors who have lost their seats.... Bristol used to be a Labour stronghold.... no more....
Even worse still Labour has suffered a hammering in Lincolnshire.... Labour lost 17 County Councillors and now only have 4 left.... the Conservatives now have 60 County Councillors gaining 15 compared with 2005.... The Liberal Democrats now have more County Councillors than Labour with a total of 5....
This cannot carry on but inevitably will if Gordon Brown remains Prime Minister....
However.... it is not just the leader of the Labour Party we must change.... there must be a radical overhaul of Labour Party policy starting with a total rejection of Public Sector Market Reforms and the whole neo-Liberal philosophy that has uncontrollably gripped the Labour Party....
I am far from suggesting that we must return to Old Labour.... however I am equally saying that we must ditch the once useful but now totally outdated New Labour philosophy too... eseentially what I refer to as "Old New Labour"....
Labour can and I firmly believe and hope will ditch Gordon Brown and make the essential radical policy renewal it so desperately needs....
The Centre-Left is in the ascendancy.... there are only Centre-Left solutions to the problems facing Britain and the Globe....
But only if Labour takes up the challenge by ridding itself of a highly unpopular and incompetent Leader and Cabinet which is in thrall with the Politics of the Past....
Gordon Brown and much of the current and past New Labour elite re: Stephen Byers... Peter Mandelson.... Alan Milburn et al - are now the very thing that they criticised the likes of Tony Benn et al of being: "The Dinosaurs of the Labour Party"....
Much of them starting with the Prime Minister must go....
Hello Luke
ReplyDeleteFollowing the Purnell letter I thought it would be interesting to see what you made of it all. But putting politics aside, much more importantly I'm extremely sorry to hear you are so poorly, I really hope you make a strong recovery soon.
My guess (although I now work in Switzerland so I'm well out of the loop) is that Purnell won't prove be a fatal blow just yet. The local and European elections will be a disaster, that is a given, but with a major reshuffle (and it needs to be major), the headlines will soon shift. The resignations will be stopped and some form of cohesion restored.
The key thing for Brown is to regain the political impetus; he missed a major trick on the expenses issue - it should have been the night of the long knives. What better way to have re-established political authority? Those sacked could hardly have bemoaned their fate or use it as a pretext to attack the PM. In effect, they would have been politically hamstrung.
This would probably have saved Mr. Purnell and many others penning such letters. Instead it has allowed the resignations to become the story, rather than stopping the rot of those 'on the make and on the take'. I guess the problem was that even if Brown drafted in fresh faces, skeletons could still have been lurking in new closets. That said, Brown always seems to have struggled to see what is politically around the corner.
Look, you're right, Labour shouldn't give up hope, if they make it to 2010 the economy might have bounced a little and Brown could continue to try and trade on his international reputation.
That said, for them to stand any chance in a years time they actually need a 2005 re-run. The electorate was quite clear; vote Blair, get Brown. But 1) can the PM stomach such a prospect in 2010 2) who is this prospect in the first place? Probably only Miliband is a serious long term option at this stage.
But in the interim, if Brown is to survive he needs nothing short of wholesale reshuffle. Minor tinkering (as seen on the expenses issue) will ensure Rome burns. Labour must be drastic.
Ed Balls as Chancellor is too obvious. Go for the jugular and appoint Mandelson. Blairite would clearly need to back any government with Mandelson in such a role. Bring Miliband back in to a domestically focused role and strike a deal, Granita style. The 2010 election is then really Cameron / Miliband, not a fading Brown or stop gap Johnson. Darling will probably remain loyal, but he should still be given a decent role in cabinet.
I could be totally wrong, but I don't think Purnell has done himself many favours on this. He's right, Brown needs to stand aside, but not in June 2009. I'll stop rambling now, but I really hope you manage to get well soon; one additional thought worth keeping in mind if it helps (as someone who has never really bought into party politics out of 'academic' purity - well something like that) is that 2010 is rather like 1992 for Labour. A very good election to loose…
Get well soon.
Matthew H (former Shandwick)
Morning Luke. I used to think Gordon Brown an honourable and capable person even although I'm not a labour supporter these days.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately he's proven to be neither as his time as chancellor and now PM has shown. He is all for self and not for country and I feel rather ashamed that he's Scottish. It's most noticeable now that few of the commenters who were around in John Smith's time seldom mention John Smith and Gordon Brown in the same breath these days.
Keep on the up Luke. Time hangs so long when you're confined to bed. Wishing you well.
Oxfordshire is starting to declare, and so far Labour has come fourth in every contest, getting under 5% in two of them.
ReplyDeleteGordon Brown is a genuinely nasty piece of work, and frankly deserves everything he is getting. As does the Labour Party for being stupid enough to hand him power.
As for the country, if you really believe a Cameron government will be that different from a Blair government then you are blinded by party factionalism. I find it almost impossible to distinguish between them.
Oh, and Labour has just come fifth in Witney West. Enjoy.
ReplyDeleteYeah, well you ain't crying as much as the rest of us who are sick and tired of watching you champagne socialists filling your boots without the slightest hint of embarrassment.
ReplyDeleteI feel totally betrayed by Labour, who I voted for back in '97.
The first slap in the face was the ending of the 'Rule of Primary Purpose', followed by tuition fees, followed by one betrayal after another.
Then we had that Christian nut who bombed people because 'God told him it was the right thing to do' (lock him up and throw away the key).
He and his awfull wife, who tried to utterly destroy our civil liberties (like the outrageous attempt to end trial by jury for 'either way cases').
So fuck you all and don't bother coming back. It'll be at least 50 years before the population forgets what a bunch of lying, thieving bastards you all are.
Toodle-pip!
I think Gordon is the only man to get the country out of the mess and on to the right path. Any chance of a peerage?
ReplyDeleteThat sad and self-demeaning posting by Julian McSad serves to remind the decent members of humanity that whilst politics is important, your health is paramount. Luke I had no idea you were going through all that, and as an occassionally severe critic can I offer my sincere best wishes for you getting better.
ReplyDeleteAre you having a laugh? The first few paragraphs are the most pathetic ghastly self-engrossed thing I can ever have read. I half expected to read "(brings out onion)" and find I'd got my nose in a Private Eye parody.
ReplyDeleteIt would behove you to get out of this middle-class comrade shtick and remember it isn't just Labour members who have morals or compassion - and that quite a few of your "comrades" don't have those qualities themselves.
Happy Days. I must admit i'm loving all this politics. Hopefully all this chaos will produce the kick up the butt our politics urgently needs.
ReplyDeleteMade me laugh UKIP missing out on votes because voting slips didn't unfold properly. Even heard someone moan that the BNP should not be number 1on the ballot paper as just because of that they will get more votes. In the future new parties will be called AAA Politics or Aardvark for England
In reply to Anonymous 12:48 PM, June 05, 2009 :
ReplyDeleteWhat are you doing insulting a guy in hospital. You are off your head. No doubt some BNP skinhead knucklehead. Atleast labour beat your neo nazi BNP, you have nothing to crow about. You will have to wait another generation to get the chance to reopen your death camps.
@Zokko oddly enough that's what I used to think about "Bambi" Blair in early 97.
ReplyDeleteIts also a sign of the utter exhaustion of Labour.
The problem is you all seem to feel sorry for yourselves, rather than for our country that has to put up with a self indulgent rump government for another year whilst the debts on our children's heads pile up to the tens of thousands each.
Luke I wish you personally well, but I think you'll find you all need at least 10 years in opposition to get yourselves sorted out.
You may notice that the well-named Oxbridge Prat has stopped posting about Oxfordshire. Is this why?
ReplyDeleteSo far:
Labour held our county seat in Barton & Churchill, we held our seat in Cowley and Littlemore and gained the other 1 back from an Independent
We gained a seat from the Greens in East Oxford
We gained a seat from the Lib Dems in Headington & Marston
In Oxford City where Labour councillors and the Labour MP work hard all year round we are making gains. Even now!
We have sadly lost 2 good Labour councillors in Didcot South to the Tories.
Ah yes, Anonymous. In East Oxford you beat the second Green by 12 votes, with the combined Green vote being substantially higher than Labour. Similar comments apply in Headington and Marston, and even in Barton & Churchill you got a lower total vote than the Lib Dems. Plus, of course, the "Independent" in Cowley and Littlemore was actually a former Labour councillor who was expelled from the party for benefit fraud.
ReplyDeleteOverall you have 5 out of the 40 seats declared so far. Well done.
Make that 5 out of 51. And you got less than 5% of the vote in Benson, Burford, Chalgrove, Goring and Moreton. In Moreton you came fifth with 3.78%.
ReplyDeleteLuke,
ReplyDeleteI don't think we've met. I used to work in the Commons.
I too am very sad about what is happening.
I wanted to send you a message though which is much more important than the events of today - I'M SORRY TO HEAR THAT YOU'RE UNWELL AND HOPE YOU GET WELL SOON!
Best wishes,
John Slinger
Get well soon Luke, and I suppose you could say the same to Labour.
ReplyDeleteWishing you both a speedy recovery.
Best Regards,
P
You need to change leader and call an election that is the only fair and reasonable outcome. Put your trust in the electorate and let them decide.
ReplyDeleteBrown was not elected and has no mandate, his popularity has fallen dramatically since taking the top job. This is very clear and you can't keep on blaming outside circumstances for his poor ratings.
He may well be a nice man, but the reality is that he is not up for the job. We have to have an election by 2010 so surely it's time to go to the people.
What is this Alan Sugar...Tsar. What a joke. Alan Sugar made his money from property....he isn't actually a very good business man just a property tycoon.
ReplyDeleteHow many of you own one of his rubbish internet phones and what ever happened to his computers.
Hardly a model for Labour values either.....against maternity and paternity pay, min wage etc etc.
His appointment is nothing more than a ratings stunt...and shows just how much Brown is willing to put keeping power before country.
Dirty Euro 2:11 - how dare you call me BNP you low-life scumbag. You might at least have noticed that unlike fascists - and you - I can string a sentence together. I have fought against them all my political life so you can f... right off. How would you like it if I called you the same?
ReplyDeleteAs for Akehurst being in hospital, so what? I wish him all the best. That doesn't excuse the pathetic mawkish snivelling about "weeping at the thought of a wicked Tory Government"; it does an evil disservice to Toryism, but is no less than we expect from bourgeois Labour types.
Dear Luke
ReplyDeleteThe poor the old the weak and the sick do not need Labour to make things worse.
Your Party did this to themselves.
Bring back Tony Blair.
We will end up with an imitation Blair in Cameron.
In any event, Gordon's been a disaster from backstabbing start to finish.
The best thing for your Party and for this Nation is for Gordon to let go.
The labour party finished a long time ago and its so sad. I was a member from 1977 until Tony Blair's decision to scrap Labour's Clause IV commitment to public ownership after becoming leader of the Labour Party in 1994. Even after I left the party I still campaign for it in elections, b nut now I find its not a party for the workers, but just another Tory party supporting big business and privatisation. A lot of Trade Unions are to blame by keep pumping millions of pounds into the party without questioning what they are doing!
ReplyDeleteThe best thing for Gordon is to let go....that is the difference between Brown and Blair....Blair knew when to leave. How this man who was not elected, form a cabinet of mainly unelected members is beyond belief and just shows the extent to which he is willing to go to.
ReplyDeleteWhat next.....a dicatatorship.....it has to stop now.
Brown is doing immense damage to himself, the party and the country by not calling for a election.
When the Govt have gone beyond serving the public, in the public interest - then it is null and void and that is the law. I think it is time for our Queen to step in and call a stop to this nonsense.
All my predictions have been 100% and If Brown waits till 2010 Labour will be wiped off the map completely. People across the country feel cheated and this resentment is building up....
Mark it is worse than the Tory party....at least under the conservatives we will get the freedom to make a choice.
ReplyDeleteThe vote on the consitution being a classic example of the British people being denied the right to choose by the Labour political elite.
Freedom is very important and the whole idea of ID cards a massive DNA database an unelected superstate scares the hell out of me.
This is why we have a democracy so we can choose our destiny. If the majority of people choose to accept the Lisbon treaty then I will shut up and accept it....but until I get that choice I will fight for my freedom to choose.
Brown should not be allowed to go on without the support of winning another election.
Rich
ReplyDeleteThe Tory party is the same or worse than Labour, they will not have referendums either about the Lisbon treaty as it goes well for the Big business and undermines workers rights!
The Labour party is Alien to trade Union members these days and most laws supposedly for workers rights they passed get overturned in the courts as they are very weak and ambiguous so the Tory Courts can misinterpret it in favour of the Bosses!
Labour deserve to be defeated, even before the expenses scandal.
ReplyDeleteTheir neo-Conservative foreign policy failed in Iraq.
Their neo-Liberal economic policy seemed for a while invincible, but was built on a house of cards. Sent tumbling reveling what is now obvious; you cannot sustain growth based on debt indefintely.
The problem is that no one really deserves to win. Certainly not the Tories who more or less agreed with Labour all these years.
The Lib Dems have a stronger case, Vince Cable has been proved right many times over. But the real question now that no one really wants to confront; if debt is no longer to finance growth, then what will? Maybe meaningful sustained growth is no longer realistic. The politics of no growth is the most challenging conumdrum we face today, and no one seems capable of addressing it.
But congratulations to Labour's team in Hatfield South who gained the borough council seat from the Tories in a by-election on Thursday. How many other Labour gains were there on Thursday?
ReplyDeleteRich I hope you enjoy the cuts in public services the tories will do, under the excuse of a Bush created depression. Bush created all this toxic debt which he got the rating agencies to give tipple A ratings to and sell to British banks. It is your right wing ideology that created this. Bush got rid of laws protecting people from predatory loan companies under some freedom BS. Freedom yeah freedom for the :RICH: Yeah now we know why you support the tories.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 7:37 PM, June 05, 2009
What is the point in all this fake communist language about "bourgeois" to back up the tories. Hate filled bigoted nutcase.
My last point was to that offensive oaf.
ReplyDeleteLeiv Godron Brwno aloen. hes the bets thign to heppen to this cuontry.
ReplyDeleteyour all ante-scotch
you dnot liek gorodn becaues he didtn go to oxbirgde
Scum like Blears and champagne socialists like Purnell should be deselected.
ReplyDeleteFlint now has more time for photo sessions which will enlarge her pathetic ego even more.
Get well soon Luke.
Roger
Dirty Euro...I didn't think I was being offensive....????
ReplyDeleteWhat's your predictions for the European elections?
ReplyDeleteI really don't know how these will go.....I think though Labour may do slightly better here due to the amount of parties and the spread of the vote......
Rich my comment about the "offensive oaf" was not for you it was for anonymous 7:37 PM, June 05, 2009. I clearly put that.
ReplyDeleteAlso I did all th other Dirty Euro comments except 1:11 PM, June 06, 2009. It is that bloomin nazi stalker again.
The guy terrifies me. He is a hate filled bigot. He keeps going on about petty bourgeois people. What is his problem with some lower middle class people. Is he a snob or an inverted snob. Who decided to hate lower middle class people. What is that about? Does he want everyone to just be working class is that his argument. He seems to have all the hatred of a communist mixed up with the hatred of a nazi.
I think it is that Shamik again, stirring again, trolling. Get lost Shamik. I left a message on your blog.
ReplyDeleteOK I should not say that. Sorry Shamik you have insulted me in the past with this sort of joke but it could be anyone. I am fed up with anon trolls pretending to be.
ReplyDeleteHi Luke
ReplyDeletethere are some strange, strange folk who comment on your blog (including myself of course)
Get well soon.
Labour have perpetuated poverty for the very good reason that without it you would have no reason to exist. Anyway for fuck`s sake who cares ,you concerntrate on getting well.
ReplyDeleteJohn Gray "there are some strange, strange folk who comment on your blog (including myself of course)"
ReplyDeleteWhy do you do it to animals or what!
I have to agree with the comments that this latest blog is pompous self-indulgent crap. All you left out is a reference to 'won't someone think of the children'.....!
ReplyDeleteLabour has imploded due to flaws within the party that stretch back, in my view, to the period after John Smith's death. After then, the neo-Thatcherite wing of the party gradually took control. I'm no lefty - I'm just not a Reagan-esque neo-conservative, like the Blairites and Brownites.
The seeds of why Labour has got itself into this mess have been growing slowly since the early 1990's. Intolerance of views that divert from the party's narrow line (e.g. Walter Wolfgang, Robin Cook), an over-reliance on smear (e.g. Damian McBride), dispicable undermining of anyone who dares to oppose the parties view/interests (e.g. Dr David Kelly), internal political games and personal ambition taking priority over the country time and again (countless examples that we all know of). I could go on.
And having watched you at close quarters both in your Labour student days and in the early years of your post-student Labour career, I have to be honest Luke and state that you are more to blame for the problems our party has created for itself than most. You're arguably more to blame than about 99% of party members - the ordinary foot soldiers who leap out of the trenches to the sound of whistles blown by party apparatchiks like yourself who are the donkeys leading the lions. I don't want to inflate you're importance. It's just that I've always found your approach within the party to be corrosive. Famously, you were the man who beat Damian McBride to his recent problems by almost a decade when you wrote a handbook on how to smear Tories and Liberals ('find one fault and smear them all'). Not how to out-policy, out-campaign, or out-debate them – that would be too easy - but how to undermine and smear them. The sort of stuff the party has tended to rely on increasingly over the last decade.
So you'll forgive me if I don't join in the group hug over your illness. It's not that I wish you unwell. It's just that your self-pitying references to the party's woes, inter-mingled with your own sad circumstances, stick heavily in the craw given the role you've played in creating and promoting the sickness that has grown within Labour and has now got us to the stage where we are. Something else for you to weep over perhaps as we approach the inevitable electoral meltdown that you and your ilk have inadvertently helped create.
Actually I didn't write the pamphlet you quote. I just circulated it to Hackney Labour Group, who didn't need to smear the local LDs as they gave us enough ammo anyway. It was written by the then deputy leader of Lambeth Council.
ReplyDeleteI don't think you would find many members in Hackney or Aldershot or Castle Point who consider my influence corrosive or recognise the charicature of my politiical and organisational style you present.
Well we'll see what happens after the European results. Poor performance will probably result in a leadership challenge by the end of the week.
ReplyDeleteI can bet that Mandy the back stabber will be one of the first to stand for leader.
I just read your post out to my partner and we have to agree with Cockney R.
ReplyDeleteIf you're so concerned about the poor etc, we look forward,once your're recovered, to reading about your volunteer work.
Because all we hear from you and the rest ofyour labour chums is "me, me, me".
It's not about you or your stinking Party - it's about all of us.
Haes eny1 seen my trowsers?
ReplyDeleteKris
ReplyDeletewhat exactly makes you so bitter towards people who are idealistic enough to want to change society through political volunteering?
It IS about Labour - Labour is why we have a free health service, a welfare state and a minimum wage here.
Luke
ReplyDeleteIt IS about Labour - Labour is why we have a free health service, a welfare state and a minimum wage here.
Labour are privatising the health service through the back door!
the min wage was a very bare minimax thing to do, even Fascist right wing president Reagan kept a minimum wage. Try living off a min wage?
Luke, we don't have a free health service. We have a health service paid for by other people. Do try to remember that simple distinction
ReplyDeleteHaes inyone seens by pals the jiws and blucks. I support the NHS because i wunt pipl who shud diy tu be fri. I h8 Hitler becos I am tideus PC bur.
ReplyDeleteI know this seems deeply self indulgent but I have my internet name to protect. Some moron is pretending to be me putting on the writing style of a drunken scot to do imprersonations of me as he obviously feels all Scottish people are dunks. The guy is racist snob and a NAZI.
ReplyDeleteObviously the dirty euro at 7:04 PM, June 07, 2009, and 2:09 PM, June 07, 2009 was not me but some mad nazi who hates scottish people.
This man doing satires of me is disgrace. He is even mocking me for hating Hitler, and is saying that I am bad because I do not hate jews and black people. I knew the guy was a NAZI.
How typical that his satires of me embarrass himself more than me.
It is like watching a 1970 comedian making jokes about gay people or black people. Now the joke is on how disgusting and offensive they are.
Also the NHS is free. Stop playing the moron trick that works on redneck Americans that getting us a free healthcare is unfair as billionaires and millionaires have to pay for it boo hoo. Get over it greedy moron.
Dirty Euro, I have not criticised the nature of NHS funding, I have just pointed out what it is, and in particular that the NHS is not free.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure why you find this simple fact so threatening.
Dirty Euro, it must be a wind up I really wouldn't pay much attention....
ReplyDeleteIf he doesn't hate Hitler then he can't be a Brit and is no friend of the BNP. So please don't think that all BNP members are some sort of Neo Nazis because they are not.
Anyone who thinks what Hitler did was right should take a trip over to Normandy and meet some of our troops and veterans. Maybe even take a trip to some of the death camps. Even the toughest men cry when they see the million graves and realise what our grandparents sacraficed in order to free Europe....It could have been very different.
OK Rich thanks for standing up for me. Although I do think the BNP is a neo nazi party. They are led by a man who denied the holocaust. Don't be fooled by them. Griffin did deny the holocaust. There are many other options if you are right wing such as UKIP etc: .
ReplyDeleteWell I wouldn't worry too much Euro.... The BNP have spent over half a million pounds and achieved only moderate poll gains....and I was expecting more considering the political mess.
ReplyDeleteI will say this though too much blame for the Labours poor results has been put on the expenses fiasco but I honestly think the reasons for Labours downfall are more complex than a single issue.
People in general are fed up with the current government....this is a vote of no confidence.
Luke
ReplyDeleteNewsflash: you are PAID to be a councillor.
Newsflash: Labour is about targets and Groupthink. How else do you think you dingdongs got into this situation? Because you're really successful? Get a fricking grip.
The thing about genuine volunteering is that there are thousands of people, not blowing their own trumpets, just getting on with it. The people at the homeless canteens, the volunteer ambulance people, the lawyers at formerly Government funded law centres doing it for free - people doing it because it's the decent thing to do - not because they are "getting" anything out of it.
THOSE people, not slimy little politicians, are what hold this nation together.
btw
ReplyDeletelabour's descent really started with McNumpty and then Smith on police and nurses' pay. Labour threw everything at squirming out of their agreements and GB himself tried to suggest that the state of the economy turned on their pay.
We all knew that was utter horse-shit then, but oh how sweet the revenge when both McNumpty & Smith got nailed for fiddling, sorry, tearing the ARSE out of their expenses.
The icing on the cake was the realisation that GB as Chancellor is largely responsible for the complete shower that is our economy now.
And now you want Blair back? Where were you two years ago? You want Blair's results, but not his leadership.
I honestly think you should just get some rest.
Great post, Luke. I understand how you feel. It is all so very sad. The party doesn't deserve this.
ReplyDeleteDon't let the bastards (on this thread and elswhere) get you down.
I hope very much that you get better soon.
Best wishes,
Ben