The Shirley Williams story

Not much to laugh about in the news today but Shirley Williams was on Desert Island Discs this morning which cheered me up. She's certainly led an interesting life and has lived through fascinating times.

She gave a reasonable account of why she and the others in the gang of four left Labour to form the SDP in 1981. And she had the grace to admit that she'd have been a hopeless PM.

What made me chuckle most were the reasons she gave for not re-joining Labour, the party that gave her her fame and fortune, once it had become obvious that the SDP was doomed.

Apparently it was primarily because, although Labour had been rescued from the wreckers and had dropped all the major policies which caused her to leave, it still had a few policies she didn't like. No wonder she feels at home with the LibDems who appear, to this completely biased reporter, not to have any coherent policies at all.......