177. Olaf Scholz: Putin, Power, and Far-Right Populism
23 February 2026
Off to Ireland. Hope the day ends better than it has started
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Post
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4 February 2011
Sometimes you just know something is going to go wrong. Greetings from the Aer Lingus lounge at Heathrow, where I am waiting for the next flight to Dublin, the one I was on having been cancelled.
I didn't know what it would be, but on the way to the airport I was sure things would not go according to plan. I had checked in online, so had my boarding pass and headed all the way to the departure gate before getting the bad news that would have been available to me had I bothered to look at a departures board. So having negotiated security etc once, I had to go out again, change flights and come back through. Moan, moan, moan, though at least it is fairly quiet, though probably for bad reasons, like the economy is not picking up as it was meant to under Plan A.
The TV in the corner of the lounge keeps telling me it could be Departure Day for Mubarak in Egypt. They could be right. But given all we have seen of President Mubarak has been an address to the nation a few days ago, and a few staged pictures since, we have very little way of knowing his thinking, and establishing how much domestic carnage and international pressure he is prepared to tolerate. A lot, I would imagine.
The TV also keeps showing front pages with pictures of Sally Bercow, aka the Speaker's wife, draped in a blanket. There will be much spluttering by Tory MPs over their front pages.
The flight has just been called so with a bit of luck I will get there just an hour or so behind schedule, before a day of interviews, a reception to launch Power and the People in Ireland - the peace process is a dominant theme - and then The Late Late Show.
Last time I appeared on it, I received a text as I arrived at the studio from Irish lock forward Donncha O'Callaghan. Everyone in Ireland watches the Late Late, he said ... Don't fuck it up. I'll try ... And same to him in the Six Nations.
In your time at No 10, you had a potential “Loose Cannon” in Cherie, whom you obviously reined in effectively. What is your advice to the Speaker on how to control his increasingly “Loose” cannon? It is a shame that she is endangering his position as he could become one of the great Speakers, having no bias whatsoever towards his sponsoring party.
Alastair – apart from the fact that exports of goods and services are up substntially; that unemployment has stabilised; that some of the doom predictions of Morgan Kelly are wrong; that there are nearly 850k more working now than at the start of the boom..things may be negative. What you might like to focus on with the Late Late Show:
– the 5 things that you feel might turn things around
– such as small eompoyers being able to take unemployed people on full time where the State pays three days and the employer two (State saves two days and employee gets skills);
– believing that the European Guarantee on savings applies the same to deposits at home as well as any otherpart of EU i.e. keep your deposits at home;
– buying Iriish Government bonds;
– spending a bit more
– and er more positivity.
I always felt that if you had been around the IMF/EC bailout that the conditions would have been betetr 🙂
I didn’t know what it would be, but on the way to the airport I was sure things would not go according to plan.
Alastair the Psychic Psypin Doctor?
Re: Sally Bercow “She who should be kept on a chain”
I think we all get those days’ when we just know that things and events will be conspiring against us. I used to believe that what happened then was simply a self-fulfilling prophecy, but as some of these things that go wrong are not under our control that theory made no sense.
Most of us have the gift of telepathy. It’s knowing how to use it that matters. We can’t change what’s going to happen. But we can perhaps be a little more prepared for difficult and annoying events.
Richard:
I’m sure you’re not as pompous as you sound. Do you really think men should ‘control’ their wives? Of course you don’t. Lighten up, dear.
True, Mrs B is a bit of an exhibitionist, but hey – a flash of life and colour in a world of politically correct stuffed-shirts and Stepford wives is a breath of fresh air as far as I’m concerned. And as for the Tory prig who accused her of offending the ‘dignity’ of Parliament: well, posing (rather tastefully, actually) in a sheet seems to me a lot less undignified than fiddling your expenses to cover porn movies, 16p bath plugs, duck houses and manure, yadda, yadda, yadda, as well as building fat property portfolios at the tax payers’ expense.
This guy said Mrs B. should ‘Shut up and cover up’. Yes, leave the cover ups to the MPs who fought tooth and nail to keep their tawdry little scams under wraps.
Thanks Alaister for discussing your mental health issues on the Late Late Show tonight, you have done a lot to help other sufferers by opening up about your experiences. Orla, Ireland
This is something I am able to agree with you about Richard. imho Sally Bercow’s bhaviour is demeaning to her husband’s position as Speaker of the HoC. I also think he could become a very good Speaker for the reason you mentioned.
Although I guess there is more to worry about already in this country and the wider world, than the silly antics of this desperate wannabe of a woman.
Should have caught the boat, from Fishguard, or Holyhead, via Paddington/Euston chuff-chuff, and satisfy yourself with the carbon savings. But you would have had to set off a morning earlier though.
D O’C is a nice fella, as most lock forwards tend to be, for some reason. Old Colin Meads the old legendary lock forward for New Zealand was in Cardiff last night for the game. Think he is over to see most of the Six Nations championship. A heck of a good fella.
“Do you really think men should ‘control’ their wives?” I Do believe that in the partnership each should realise that by their actions they can destroy the other. Mrs B is a publicity seeking lady who wants to dominate, stretching her usual “rent a gob” availability into “rent a tit” for the Evening Standard.
If you find nothing wrong with her judgement, that is for you.
Richard et al, it usually works the other way round, you might find. Something to do with wombs, and a man’s need to have one close, or something hifalutin like that, on the couch.