A Pettiness of Politicians

Usually when doing intercessions in Church, I will make a point of praying for all those in positions of power, whatever political party they may represent. Every now and again, you get the feeling that it would be far more appropriate to pray instead for the rest of us who end up looking on in disbelief as the politicians set forth on their latest round of metaphorical face pulling in a way that any respectable playground would find beneath them.

The latest thing is a discussion on the artist Titian. Gordon Brown comments on feeling like Titian, age 90, realising that he might just be getting the hang of painting; David Cameron decides to effectively go "ner-ner-ne-ner-ner" at Prime Minister's Question Time and says Titian died age 86. He said other things too, but when it turns out that the Wikipedia page on Titian doesn't quite back up his claims, someone (we are told some over-enthusiastic staff member) at Tory HQ alters the page to make it look like Titian died four years earlier than he did. When this is uncovered, it suddenly becomes the hot political story of the day.

In other words, rather than getting on with some serious analysis of what's going on here and across the world, a significant amount of time is being devoted to how old a Renaissance Painter was. The irony being that no-one really knows in any case.

Somewhere I once read a quote which went something like this: "At the start of every day's business in the House of Commons, a Priest comes in, looks around at the Members of Parliament, and prays for the people."