Welcome once again to our little collection of those posts you nominate. The idea is to try and pool our reading, to swap those bits and bobs that we should have seen but quite possibly didn’t. You can amke nominations…

I put it to you that such people are not representative as they are more likely to be:

a.) “Professional” politicians;

b.) Journalists;

c.) Union representatives;

d.) Unemployed (and hence have the spare time and probably nothing better to do); or (most tellingly)

e.) The sort of person whose idea of fun is going to a party conference and uses up their precious holiday allowance to do so.

On a porker pie-chart I would be willing to bet these particular groups will be tucking into the larger slices.

Must. Try. Harder. ;)

Now I’m starting to have existential doubts.

Despite havcing a Marxist approach to life (That’s Groucho by the way, NOT Karl) in that I would never belong ,to a club that would have me as a member, then problem is that quite a lot of people seem to define me according to their idea of which of these two “gangs” (or perhaps it should be categories) I should be pigeonholed into.

Generally speaking this tends to be ac companied by a certain amount of verbal invective and vitriol along the lines of “lentil eating”; “vegetarian/vegan”; tree-hugging”; “wimp” etc. followed by the label clearly designed to end all argument – “lefty/liberal”.

I’ve tried hard to be a seven stone lentil eating weakling to fit in with the simplistic dichotomy of the cranially challenged. I admit middle age is catching up and I’ve moved from a 34 waist to a 36 waist to provide a bit more bending room (and it has not helped moving from an outside work role to an inside one). I’m doing me best, honest.

And now along comes Paul who changes the rules the caricature!

What the hell am I supposed to do now?

I can’t afford to to get fat to fit in with Pauls caricature.

I don’t know. I’ll go to’t foot of our stairs. You bend over backwards to fit in with the views of what the simple minded require to validate their own petty existenc e and then one of ’em comes along without a bye your leave and changes the bloody rules.

Talk about confused? The Samaritans arn’t answering the phone (& it’s not even half past seven yet); and I don’t know where Marjorie Proops is working these days.

Come on Paul, fairs fair. The least you could do is advise those of us who are the exception that proves your clearly well researched thesis of how to achieve the fatness you say is ours by right of being, according to those like yourself who atuhorativly define what “gang” other people should belong to, a “1efty.”

Right-wing people are actually fat, because they are over keen on conspicuous consumption? (Karl Rove – anorexic?)

Often wondered about the ginger/baldness thing though. Ginger people do seem to bald quicker than others. Nature’s way of saying sorry? :)