Uncle Lozbags

My sister-in-law gave birth to my second nephew, Oliver Albert, at 10.44am this morning. Absolutely delighted for them all, and it sounds like, at 9lb 4oz, the young fella is gonna be a right little trooper. Awww. It's put a bit of a different slant on today's post, which was gonna be influenced by the Tories' new policies encouraging and championing the institution of marriage, and promising tax breaks for staying together in sanctity. The talking heads for this promising Radio 4 debate were Ian Duncan Smith (it's not a golden bullet, he said, but I don't think he was talking matricide) and Ed Milliband, a man with an astonishing lisp and a strong belief that children are our future, rather than parents. This touching soapbox for the marriage may not have been influenced by the woman interviewed by Jim Naughtie at 8.25am. She was imprisoned by the Stazi, East Germany's ruthless secret police, after being shopped to them by her husband. Not a happy marriage, I'm assuming.