the dark past (strong and stable my arse)

it's a cool grey morning. horsemouth is up early (he can feel it around his eyes). 

last night a movie - the dark past (1948) - we are with a pipe-smoking avuncular lee j.cobb on the bus in new york city, we follow him and his monologue, we follow him into police headquarters, we discover he's a police psychiatrist. later (at police headquarters) he tells a story of how he was held hostage by an escaping prisoner and their gang. he begins to psychoanalyse his captor, he reveals to him the truth behind the nightmares that haunt him and as a result the escaped convict is unable to shoot his way out when the police close in (because he's realised all the men he is shooting are his father). 

horsemouth guesses the gangster, his moll and the rest of the gang all go  to jail to serve long sentences (such are the one-way benefits of psychoanalysis in the context of criminal justice). the gangsters moll, a tough cookie and a sympathetic character all at once, wants the gangster to get psychoanalysed (to rid him of the terrible nightmares). but that doesn't end up so well (does it). it's not shown but she probably ends up in jail (an accomplice to the hostage-taking at minimum). 

'if there's a cure for this... (I don't want it)' (co-)wrote flying lotus's mum in diana ross's love hangover.

we are who we are. the gangster would probably have been better off with his nightmares, his fear of going crazy and homicidal impulses (he would at least have stood a chance of escaping). the benefits to society of lee j. cobb's being able to cure criminals with psychoanalysis are obvious (but what if he started curing policemen or, heaven forfend, police psychiatrists). 

above horsemouth's head circulates 53 days of (to quote nicolette) no government. 

well no there'll still be government (there'll still be taxes) just that it won't (in theory) be conducted by the elected prime minister. (although he may stick his oar in).

the tory party are now engaged with electing someone who must satisfy three constituencies - the party's oligarch backers (no formal vote), the conservative MPs (a number of formal votes leading to a competition between the remaining two candidates) and last (and most definitely least) its ageing membership (formal vote on the remaining two candidates, though this could be avoided if the candidates do a blair/ brown deal). the new PM will be appointed 3rd september and then rule unelected until the next election (which could be as much as two years away). 

as someone pointed out this will mean there will have been 4 tory PMs in 6 years (strong and stable my arse mutters horsemouth). we continue with a bunch of thatcher's playbook, wannabee tax-cutting, wannabee minimal-statist arseholes, with some ethics and morality white sauce dripped over the top.  

with 10 plus candidates the field needs winnowing. it should all be fairly quick and ruthless. 

horsemouth has nearly finished reading blindness (and very good it has been too). the army and government have gone blind and melted away. everyone has gone blind and the people wander round the streets in gangs scavenging, sleeping in shops. it is (of course) a vision of hell (but only the doctor's wife still has eyes to see it).  there is (of course) some political metaphor in saramago's epidemic of blindness and the role of the state and army in preventing contagion by rounding people up. 

currently portugal (and indeed parts of spain) are suffering epic forest fires in a 43C heatwave. horsemouth wishes people luck. sunday horsemouth will be on the phone to his mum (it's due to be the mid-30s at his parents). and then again one of his friends lives the south of spain and another lives in texas.

yesterday a short walk with TG. then some mild annoyance in the house. horsemouth resolved this with a cold shower (one of horsemouth's better ideas yesterday) and some bureaucracy. indeed he made some efforts to book time elsewhere and then went up the park to sit in the shade and read.

today he has spent the morning in bureaucracies and getting his thoughts clear. it's a milder greyish day he will go out for a womble in a bit.