The first episode of the Channel 4 series Skins

aired on January 25th 2007. At almost the same time this fanciful show about teenage life in Bristol hit our TV screens a certain student at Bristol University was awarded a £2.8million research grant. I covered the news of the twin stories by saying "Oh dear is that my case Skinning up and resting."

Although a subtle and discreet way of putting it that sentence had one clear meaning. The game is over. The will be no more skill. There will be no more demonstration of ability. This is not a discussion and this is not a debate. All that remains is a simple test. A test to see if the state can successfully complete several very easy tasks in a swift and efficient manner because right and wrong is not something reasonable people can disagree on.

Obviously this sentence was not clear enough for some people to understand because over the next year and a half they continued to believe they had options digging themselves ever deeper into a hole, further pushing up their costs and spending ever more money building a situation with such innate inertia that freewill could never again be exerted. All the while networks burned, the economy tumbled and at least seven were really and viscerally killed.

Now these same people are back on my television telling me what I won't get. You would think that will all the education, experience and power they hold they would be able to learn from their mistakes. Hell the ability to learn is even in our DNA apparently.

Now while I'm searching for a point to this thread may I paraphrase an advert for a government job I saw recently and say;

"There is one person in this room who you need on your side. Do you have what it takes to get him to warm to you?"