Well it`s been quite a week.  One which has seen another litany of buffoonery from Boris and his chums and which has not only brought justified outrage at the goings on at the heart of `government` but also the apparent morphing of the fat controller himself into an established national embarrassment.

Going back to the Owen Patterson fiasco things have become progressively more worrying and, yes, embarrassing too with the ongoing sagas about the alleged Christmas party last year, the `financing` of the redecoration of No. 10 and the diversionary tactics designed to distract minds from the chaotic shambles that passes for leadership. (Imagine having to set up an inquiry to determine whether a party took place in your house and whether you attended it or not.) As if there are not more serious and pressing issues that they should be concerning our elected representatives.

It is, of course, the pantomime season and we expect some jolly japes at this time of the year, some over acting, some posing, some jokes and all that but it really is depressing to see the leadership of the country themselves reduced to the role of pantomime villains.   I watched some of the parliamentary proceedings this week, notably Prime Minister`s Questions on Wednesday and it really was like watching a true life pantomime but one which this time was played out before an audience that rightly expected better.  In a theatre they would have been booed off the stage.

More than that, there were times when the claim, counter claim, denial and ya boo of it all took me back to the school playground of my boyhood but I suspect that, even back then, we scamps running around and feeling our way around life probably behaved with more insight, honesty and sense of right and wrong than the pantomime dames on all sides of Parliament`s stage.

There was a by-election in this parish yesterday, with the main political parties fielding candidates and for the first time in a lifetime of using my vote, I really could not bring myself to visit the polling station and vote for any of them.  I wonder why.