Can't see the wood for the trees?

One of my favourite passages in literature is from the Evelyn Waugh novel Brideshead Revisited. It describes the dinner shared by Charles Ryder and Rex Mottram in Paris in the early 1920s. Waugh obtained permission from his army unit for leave to go away and complete this novel. I'm so glad they let him. Waugh makes no excuse for the excessive descriptions of the sumptuous feast which they shared. It was written during the Second World War at a time when such fancies were a million miles away from the everyday lives of everybody. During the meal, the conversation turns to the Lady Marchmain with whom Charles had fallen from grace a few months earlier. Rex divulged that Charles' name "was mud" for a while after his exit. Charles' reply has a certain resonance for events taking place today. "They can call me pigeon pie as long as they don't eat me up". It was a popular expression at that time and needs no explanation. Rex, being a colonial from Canada didn't really understand the expression or indeed the meal itself. His attempt to impose himself on the establishment in which they dined culminated in him pronouncing the brandy to be the sort of stuff to which he would add soda water at home. After making a fuss, the waiters duly wheeled out an old bottle "full of Napoleonic cyphers" which they kept hidden for "people of Rex's sort". He swirled the liquor around his glass and complained that he couldn't possibly appreciate it drinking from this "thimble". They then brought out a brandy balloon the size of his head and all, for a while, was well with the world. The point I make here is that Charles reacted as one should to a personal attack. He reacted with indifference on the grounds that he wasn't in mortal danger and words after all are only words. The current Labour leader would do well to learn from this approach. Ironically, Waugh began his journalistic career writing for the Daily Mail under the watchful eye of Lord Rothermere who he would later go on to parody in subsequent novels. As Milliband allows himself to sink ever deeper in to a pointless row with the current Lord Rothermere, he is in great danger of losing touch with reality. In reality, several hundred African migrants drowned off the coast of southern Italy yesterday. The deaths of two infants made the news. Both had been well known to their respective Social Services departments. While much was rightly written about the cases of baby P and Victoria Climbie, it seems as though few lessons have been learned for all the rhetoric in between. As leader of the Opposition, it is expected that Milliband might from time to town express an opinion, and better still, a solution to such matters. His growing obsession with Lord Rothermere threatens to overshadow the events which are of national interest. Over the pond, America toys with bankruptcy as the Republicans hold the Democrats to ransom over "Obama Care". Mr Milliband was on Radio 5 to talk about the actions of the Daily Mail. Milliband suggests the Daily Mail needs to reconsider the sort of stories which they intend to cover. If we are to have a free press, it is frankly no business of Milliband what the Mail or any other rag chooses to write about. That's the whole point - it is a free press. Perhaps he's getting confused with the idea of popularity or acceptability. As leader of the Conservative opposition a few years ago, David Cameron was asked about his thoughts on TV regulation. His answer was wonderful. There is a red button at the top of your remote control with "off" written on it. If you don't like what you're watching, you can always turn it off. Ergo, if you don't like what you're reading, you don't have to buy or read that newspaper. That is how it works. People make up their own minds. They don't need a politician telling them how to. They need a politician to concentrate on the affairs of state. I would suggest to Mr Milliband that there are any number of more pressing issues to which his attention could be more usefully turned..