Siggi Freud and the SUV

Yesterday, in the Guardian, George Monbiot discussed what he believes to be trend towards extreme libertarianism in the UK. Monbiot exemplified this narrow individualism by referring to the antics of the automobile lobby and by quoting from Jeremy Clarkson.

Whatever the merits of Monbiot's argument the worth of his piece was the response it received from Guardian readers.

While Monbiot was happy to call anti-speed camera nuts and militant motorists as 'anti-social bastards', Liz Lloyd from Brighton had a better analysis...

"Good for George Monbiot on the devastating political impact of private car use. One other reason why the car is having such a corrosive effect on society is that, in psychoanalytic terms, the car driver is able to indulge the universal infantile fantasy of being centre of the universe - Freud's "His majesty the baby" - without the necessary disillusion of accepting the existence of others as people with their own needs and feelings. This self-centredness is evident in the car driver's "you can't mean me" response when faced with anything outside his own bubble.

Car driving, with its selfishness and aggressiveness is a terrible legacy of Margaret Thatcher's - on the analytic couch the car driver is a pathological narcissist who has not had to come to terms with the Oedipal "other".

Well, exactly....

[Pic above: Sigmund Freud sizing up whether he should go for the 5.2 litre V8 Humvee or the 5.0 litre Cherokee....]

McDonald's and BK chase franchise at House of Commons

(Pic left: McDonald's - Coming to a Legislature Near You).

Martin Horwood, Lib Dem MP for Cheltenham, has a dream - he wants to see the Mother of Parliaments become a UNESCO World Hypermarket site. Mr Horwood, elected in May this year, clearly wants to make an impression and has tabled a written question asking the House of Commons to expand its commercial ventures....

Appearing in today’s Hansard – get them while they’re hot – he asks “…if the House of Commons Commission will expand the number of commercial ventures in the House of Commons part of the Parliamentary Estate to include (a) a newsagent, (b) a bookshop, (c) a bank, (d) a laundrette and dry cleaners, (e) a pharmacy, (f) a stationers and (g) an Indian restaurant; and if the Commission will make an assessment of the contribution to public funds such services might make.”

Unfortunately, h) an undertakers i) a Volvo dealership j) a Blockbuster video store and k) a Virgin Megastore were left off the question paper so we are left to wonder what might have been.

Disappointingly, Nick Harvey MP, answering for the House of Commons Commission, and lacking the Orange Book credentials of some his crypto-Thatcherite Lib Dem colleagues, responds by saying there are no current plans to extend the House's commercial activities. Ah well, never mind…we can but dream of a Krispy Kreme doughnuts outlet in Big Ben and an Anne Summers in Central Lobby. Today it may be the stuff of dreams but tomorrow, let's hope and prey, it could be a reality.

(Hat tip: MR)

I'm mad I am...

This is Mark Davies, from Pontypool. He's a crazy kind of guy and has, as you can see, had a mini fir tree woven into his hair.

What a funny chap.

Surpassing the novelty tie (listed by the UN as an 'affront to human dignity') Mark, father-of-two (those poor, poor children), likes to go that one step further. In the past his head has displayed a dartboard design, a Playboy bunny, and a Welsh dragon. He was due to have a braided representation of the Cenotaph on his bonce to commerate our war dead in November but his stylist was on holiday in Dubai so Mark chose to wear a poppy instead.

Of his classy new style, Mark said "I've had a few wacky hairdos before, but this one is head and shoulders above the rest." A remarkably tabloid friendly quote that and the use of the word 'wacky' indicates Mr Davies might be a 'crazy' guy of the Colin Hunt variety.

Apologies folks. Christmas should be a time of goodwill and here I am slagging off my fellow man for attempting to have some fun. Shame on me. No novelty socks for me this year.

Saddam's trial will not be fair, says United Nations...

"...because he knows he's guilty, the Iraqis know he's guilty and all those mass graves show he's guilty" a UN spokesman didn't say yesterday.