Information Research Weblog

I imagine that many will have seen notices to the effect that Lynn Brindley, Chief Executive of the British Library is making a special plea for support in what is called in the UK 'the public spending round', i.e., the time when all government departments negotiate with the Treasury on what share of the budget they are to have.

At the same time we have the news that preparing London for the 2012 Olympics is likely to cost something in the region of nine billion pounds. Money that will be found one way or another from the public purse.

I guess that one can expect no more from a government led by the fantasist Mr Bliar (the typo is deliberate) - one of the most uncultured prime ministers since the end of the Second World War. It seems that the height of his intellectual interests is in making friends with drunken rock musicians and fading pop stars. Curiously, I've only seen one political commentator calling him a fantasist - but it is pretty obvious from his personal history - after all a child chorister singing directly to God is bound to have the direct line, isn't he? And if the rock band didn't work out and if the legal career was going nowhere, I guess the best place to work out your fantasies is in politics.