Happy New Year.
I wish you all the best in 2004. I don't make New Year Resolutions (if it's such a good idea, why didn't I do it last year?), so don't expect to see a list of promises here.

Instead I thought I would pass on a story from the Independent that perfectly illustrates the arrogance of the ruling elite in this country.

Click here!

The story concerns a poll conducted by BBC Radio 4 in which listeners were invited to suggest a piece of legislation to improve life in Britain, with the promise that an MP would then attempt to get it onto the statute books.

As the paper reports:

But yesterday, 26,000 votes later, the winning proposal was denounced as a "ludicrous, brutal, unworkable blood-stained piece of legislation" - by Stephen Pound, the very MP whose job it is to try to push it through Parliament.

Mr Pound's reaction was provoked by the news that the winner of Today's "Listeners' Law" poll was a plan to allow homeowners "to use any means to defend their home from intruders" - a prospect that could see householders free to kill burglars, without question.

"The people have spoken," the Labour MP replied to the programme, "... the bastards."

Having recovered his composure, Mr Pound told The Independent: "We are going to have to re-evaluate the listenership of Radio 4. I would have expected this result if there had been a poll in The Sun. Do we really want a law that says you can slaughter anyone who climbs in your window?"

Well, funnily enough, Mr Pound, YES THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT WE DO WANT! How dare you judge people for wanting to protect themselves, their family or even their property?

I certainly hope that Pound's views get the widest possible audience to show just what happens when some people get to Westminster. And I also hope that his constituency dispatches him at the earliest opportunity, so he can go home and make scones and cocoa for the next burglar who drops by to loot his valuables.

I also love the idea that Radio 4's audience will have to be re-evaluated after this! What a disappointment for a politician to actually be confronted by the reality of what the public really wants! It brings to mind the famous Bertold Brecht quip.

Back in 1953, East German workers staged a revolt against the Communist regime that had failed to deliver the workers' paradise that it had promised earlier. The leader of the Communist Party issued a statement regretting that the people had lost the confidence of the government. Poet and Playwright Berthold Brecht wrote a sardonic poem suggesting that the government should dissolve the people and elect a new one.

Pound would no doubt approve.