Bit of a balls-up really

I am in agreement with Mary Dejevsky in today's Independent. I also appear to have found myself in a minority in that I supported the coalition, respected Cameron and Clegg for their bravery in going for a coalition, agree that tuition fees were inevitable, generally support the need for huge public sector cuts, am in favour of the change to the voting system, like the positive effect the Lib Dems are having on social policies and will still vote Lib Dem in the May local elections.

But this week both Cameron and Clegg seem to have got things horribly wrong. Clegg's comment that he had forgotten that he was in charge in Cameron's absence was a crassly stupid comment. And Cameron's absence, particular helping to promote arms sales in the Middle East, which a crisis was developing in that very region, was a huge misjudgement. And William Hague once more seems out of his depth.

For me all of this is reminiscent of my evacuation from Iran in 1979 when again the British Embassy and British Government reacted very slowly to the developing crisis hence putting me in some danger. I remember the day we were supposed to be evacuated when we were told to get to the British Embassy at 6am and 'keep a low profile'. When we got to the embassy compound, the gates were shut because the Embassy staff had not finished breakfast. So 200 expats were stuck in the streets of revolutionary Teheran trying to 'keep a low profile'!

So let's hope Cameron and Clegg get their act together real soon and sort out the Brits still stuck in Libya.

Off to see the Wizard

Andrew and I were given tickets by Visit London to see one of the preview showings of The Wizard of Oz at the London Palladium. Of course this is the Andrew Lloyd Weber production starring Michael Crawford and Danielle Hope, who won the BBC 'Dorothy' series of programmes.

We went last night and we had a good evening.

Firstly we had a meal at Silk, a restaurant just along from the Palladium located in the actual courtroom where Oscar Wilde was tried. Not a bad meal but not a great one either.

The show was enjoyable, the performances were fine, the staging was amazing. But in the end there was a lack of emotion. Somehow, the expensive (£6m) staging overwhelmed the story and the performances. So whilst there was nothing wrong with the whole production, somehow it didn't quite grab me in any deep way. It remained rather superficial. Worth seeing, but not likely to remain embedded in my memory.