Critic Cal

"Larry – the indolent, the unmovable, the irrepressibly charming – just might be the most dependable political figure in the U.K. today." ( Camila Domonoske, writing for NPR ) ... LARRY: THE DOWNING STREET CAT   Larry’s the Cat at the Cabinet’s door. His title – I ought to have told you before – Is Mouser in Chief, but he’s not one to boast So “Larry” suffices, in spite of his post. His jacket is tabby, he’s sleek and well-fed, With a Chippendale chair of his own for a bed. Yet he was in his youth quite the wildest of strays – And has put on no airs since his rescue cat days. His nominal mandate he glibly defies: He’d far rather quarrel with beasts his own size. So he’s less of a terror to mice and to rats (Which infest Number 10) than to neighbouring cats. When Freya strode onto the Treasury scene Her stand for austerity stirred up his spleen; While Palmerstone, Mouser for Foreign Affairs, On account of his boss, of whom Larry despairs, Can bare

"And so Mr Brown came to be respected even by the clan, because he trod softly on its faith. He made friends with some of the great men of the clan and on one of his frequent visits to the visiting villages he had been presented with a carved elephant tusk, which was a sign of dignity and rank. [...] Whenever Mr Brown went to that village he spent long hours with Akunna in his  obi  talking through an interpreter about religion. Neither of them succeeded in converting the other but they learned more about their different beliefs."  "Mr Brown's successor was the Reverend James Smith, and he was a different kind of man. He condemned openly Mr Brown's policy of compromise and accommodation. He saw things as black and white. And black was evil. He saw the world as a battlefield in which the children of light were locked in mortal conflict with the sons of darkness. He spoke in his sermons about sheep and goats and about wheat and tares. He believed in slaying th