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Friday 13 January 2017

Tristram in the links

Links are highlighted well by the internet and not only clicky links. When making sense of things, people tend to search for emotional links or causal links to explain the cascade of events in daily life. Emotional links are always popular and well suited to improvising unlikely but comforting explanations. There are many other links too. Tristram Hunt has decided to break some old ones while forging a few new ones.

Labour MP Tristram Hunt is quitting as an MP to become the director of London's Victoria and Albert Museum, triggering a by-election.

Mr Hunt told the BBC that while he had "had differences" with party leader Jeremy Corbyn in the past "that wasn't the spur" for stepping down.

"The spur was the incredible opportunity of the job," he said.

So he has opted to sever his formal Parliamentary Labour party links and forge new links with the V&A. A move from one museum to another as some wag wrote in a link I’ve now lost. To forestall the obvious, he has linked his resignation to the fairly commonplace activity of changing career.

Nothing to do with glaringly obvious links to deselection or having to endure the worst party leader in Labour’s history. Linking his resignation to a mere career move is Tristram’s polite way of ducking embarrassing links to these far more likely and obvious causes. Crikey - maybe he is a gentleman.

Not that he thinks anyone will fail to make the obvious link between his resignation and the Corbyn disaster. It merely allows him to wave away links to sinking ship analogies. And deserting rats of course, but that link would be unkind.

5 comments:

Scrobs. said...

Do they also have dinosaurs at the V and A?

Demetrius said...

It is better to be the first rat off a sinking ship than the last.

wiggiatlarge said...

An MP who can compare Cromwells Republic to the Islamic fundamentalism in Afghanistan is not a loss to Parliament or any where else for that matter.

Anonymous said...

Hang on a mo. Young Hunt is an intelligent fellow with an interest in history, it makes perfect sense to wangle a nice civilised job with the V&A. Think of the advantages, cycle to work, congenial surroundings, decent salary and pension, good contacts for the next move.

I think we can forgive him jumping ship from Labour and politicians, nasty environment, uncongenial people and a doomed outlook - at least until about 2027. By then he will only be 43 and ready for a nice job at say the BBC or one of the more civilised quangos. Few politicians have principles and no one should waste their time flogging a dead horse.

For I fear the next 10 years will be lost time so far as politics is concerned, we will still be arguing about Brexit details, the economy will still be flat on its back, the working class will still be in the s%^t and Corbyn will only just have passed away from the scene (one way or the other). All in all best out of it.

A K Haart said...

Scrobs - they must have lots of cracked pots.

Demetrius - as I'm sure Tristram knows.

Wiggia - I'm not sure why he was there in the first place unless he always intended to move on.

Roger - it does make perfect sense and it may be that a spell in politics hasn't done his CV any harm at all. It may even have been plan A all along.