Being ill has meant taking in far more TV and radio than usual, but now I'm thinking tat everyone else is ill and I'm sane. First I see the Tories saying "Vote Blue, Go Green", which makes me think: If you want to go green, why not just vote Green? Labour's response is an infantile advert rather than real policy. Nevermind that the Tories have a fairly spotty record on the environment, but I then see John Redwood (arch climate change denier) claiming that by building more roads traffic will move more quickly and therefore CO₂ emissions will drop. Yeah, because road building is such a clever solution! Gordon Brown, whose party has allowed CO₂ emissions to rise since coming into power, went on TV to suggest we turn our TVs off standby. Somebody give them a medal!

In happier domestic news, apparently, "our" Queen has turned 80 today. Whilst I can understand some people having affection and nostalgia for the institution, and praising her (apparently) solid work over the past fifty years, I was astonished to see Charles Clarke, a Labour MP, heartily defending her constitutional role. I cannot understand why anyone would prefer an unelected family dynasty to be the commander of the armed forces, the head of state, the head of an established national church, the head of a corrupt and farcical peerage and honours system and all the rest of it. Does Clarke believe in democracy or not?

Oh well, back to being ill in bed...