Stinks @ Nos 10 & 11 Downing Street

Arturo came bounding in to the kitchen with great excitement! Not like him at all.

"Oh boy, old Georgy has gone and put his foot in it!" Arturo declared.

"Really, tell me more. He can't be worse than Lad Clegg or Invinceable Cable, can he?"

"He's talked to the Sun!"

"Lordy! Poor old Georgy! Gone mad, has he? Talking to the sky?"

"What you on about, Butch you old fool! 'The Sun' the newspaper belonging to Murdoch! The phone hacking lot, you know!"

"Ahh! Just as bad then. Anyway, what did he say?"

"He said, and I quote

What really stinks is one of the ways the Yes campaign is funded. The Electoral Reform Society – which is running some of the referendum ballots – stands to benefit if AV comes in because it could be one of the people who provide these electronic voting machines.That is exactly the sort of dodgy, behind-the-scenes shenanigans that people don't like about politics and politicians.

That's what he said and it caused a right old rumpus. Paddy Ashdown said he was 'throwing mud' and it was dirty tactics."

"That's politics, isn't it? He's a fine one to talk about 'stinks' - he makes a good few himself in his Press briefings. Why all the fuss? They all throw much worse than mud around! I've seen it and smelled it! "

"You are coarse, Butch! The fuss is because they're all supposed to love each other - Brotherhood of the Coalition - and all that!"

"Is that why Boy David was on Sky News then?"

"Just you listen," Arturo cleared his throat, "I learnt it off by heart. Georgy played it back at least five times. He was real attentive like. Boy David told Sky

'Whatever it is, the coalition government, I believe, will go on being a strong and effective government, and whoever is on the losing side, as it were, will just have to pick themselves up and say, 'it was a fair argument, a fair fight, a fair referendum, the country has decided, and now we have got to get on with all the things that matter so much'."

Arturo stopped, obviously waiting for applause from me for his brilliant recall. I didn't oblige. "Well, what do you think?"

"All I can say is it's typical lardy dah, old Etonian talk for 'Let the best man win - so long as I win!'. Anyway - why all this chumminess with Murdoch and his lot? I reckon Murdoch has got something on the Tories - so they give them all the choice interviews. What about good old Auntie?"

"Good old Auntie? What you on about?"

"Are you stupid, or just plain ignorant, Arturo? Auntie is the BBC - of course. These top Tories don't give the BBC any real tit bits, do they? Makes me wonder, I can tell you!"

Arturo got bored, he gets bored very quickly. He licked his paws, then rubbed his nose. "That's enough excitement for one day! I'm off for a prowl. Fancy coming?"

Since I had nothing better to do I joined him.