Skip to main content

Ratty, Mole and Toad go to Westminster

Dressed in his old Etonian flannels, the affable Rat was punting up the river with his Fortnum and Mason hamper in tow taking in the fragrant, soft spring air. After a lifetime underground forgotten by everybody, the soft skinned Mole had finally come to the surface feeling all confused. The all knowing Rat soon recognised the advantages of taking the helpless Mole under his wing. The Mole was just grateful to be among the important people above ground.

After a while they saw a very grand punt going past them and Mole asked the rat who the person was on that very grand looking vessel. "That is Mr. Toad", replied Rat. He is very wealthy but always spends in excess of his income. That punt for instance cost him a fortune but word on the river has it that he is taking delivery of a new motor car on Saturday and he hasn't yet paid for that punt!

"Oh dear", said the agreeable Mole. "It will all end in tears", said the knowing Rat. After a succession of imprudent purchases, the profligate Toad soon found himself in the debtors prison and while there, his beloved Toad Hall had been taken over by a load of rowdy, free loading jingoistic stoats and weasels. Their leader Nigel was a most disagreeable chap who seemed to be popular with just about everyone despite him being a bit of a lout. With their old friend Rupert the grumpy antipodean Badger, the Rat and the Mole resolved to run Toad Hall while Toad was away in disgrace.

But the wasteful Toad was soon back and insisted on returning to Toad Hall. He immediately announced several grandiose plans for the future but was swiftly put in his place by his trio of friends; the trusty Old Etonian Rat, the ever willing Mole and the grouchy Badger from the Southern hemisphere. They all realised that hey just couldn't take their eye off that roguish Toad for a second or he'd spend all the money and once more have nothing to show for it.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A golden opportunity for Denbigh?

Mini outbursts of discussion continue do their rounds on social media regarding the present state of our town in Denbigh. The temptation to bemoan the status quo is seldom far away as we seek to compare the past with the present. The world around us has changed radically since the second world war and it is often a great challenge for us all to keep abreast of that change. Sixty years ago, it was still fairly normal to see a horse and trap coming to town. Such a sight today would bring the town to a standstill - if indeed there were any shoppers there. The way we communicated sixty years ago was mainly by word of mouth with the written word still being the domain of the pen in our hand. The way we shopped has changed radically too although not always as much as some people think. In those days it was still fairly standard practice for a local shop to deliver their goods to households within a few miles of their premises. In recent years, the ubiquitous supermarkets have been quick
Post a Comment
Read more

Lessons in Democracy

The quest for democracy is a long road with a seemingly intangible destination. The last week has shown us just how elusive it can be. The Labour Party in the UK continues to struggle with the decision of their electorate to choose Jeremy Corbyn as their leader. Whatever one's political leaning, the behaviour of Labour Party MPs in recent weeks has hardly emboldened the public to engage with the political process. If democracy is the result of asking the people what they want, the recent election of Jeremy Corbyn has provided one of the most overwhelming mandates in history. Such was the public desire for his election, there was no need for a second ballot. We might be forgiven for thinking that even the most arrogant of MPs would have to take such a result on the chin with a modicum of good grace. Not so. Their behaviour in recent weeks has been an insult to the masses who did their bit by engaging with the leadership election during the summer. The legacy of such behaviour is c
Post a Comment
Read more

Who Cares?

At a time when the fortunes of the NHS continue to dominate the news, I was fortunate this week to attend a medico-legal training day. Rather than bore people with the latest legal positions on various aspects of healthcare, I would instead prefer to concentrate on some of the frankly extraordinary facts which emerged on the day. I found many of them so astonishing, I felt the need to share them with a wider audience for reasons I will explain later. Before I dive in to a statistical frenzy, let me quote the words of the Health Secretary of Tony Blair's first Cabinet in 1997, "The best place for a lawyer is on the operating table.......Lawyers are milking the NHS of millions of pounds every year - money that would be better spent on healthcare". But do we all appreciate the validity of those words? In 1996/7, there were around 4,000 claims for clinical negligence - negligence being the breach of a legal duty of care owed to one person by another which results in damag
Post a Comment
Read more