All in all, I'd rather be in Denmark

The local morning newspaper in Aberdeen, the Press and Journal, prints a "Quotes of the day" section every day.* It can be mildy amusing at times. Today, for example, there's this:

"Who are you, anyway, big lady?"
Small girl presenting flowers to Culture secretary Tessa Jowell.

As I said, mildy amusing.

There's another one today which caught my eye.

"It is a pretty universal view among politicians that there is something very rotten in the state of British journalism."
Labour MP Martin Linton.

I think you can probably guess why I though it interesting. He's might be right about British journalism but he's hardly in a position to complain. It's hard not to succumb to bitter laughter when a politician, a Labour politician no less, bemoans the rotten core of anything really. I have a strong urge to write to Mr Linton suggesting that he may wish to consider purchasing a pane of glass which has been treated to create a light reflective surface. They are available from many retail outlets and are commonly known as "mirrors".

Maybe I'm being a bit harsh on Mr Linton, I don't know a great deal about him. He might be one of the small hardy band of Labour MPs who actually have a conscience. Perhaps he's a man of principle, a man prepared to speak out for what he believes is right even when it might damage his career.

Well, if we check his voting record in the House of Commons we can see that since New Labour came to power in 1997 Mr Linton has voted with the government 2,127 times and against them 11 times. What do we think? Man of conscience or New Labour career toady? Or is it too close to call?

*I have a feeling that should actually be "Quotations of the day" but given my command of the English language, I might be guilty of "doing a Linton" here.