I normally refrain from commenting on American politics – not my area of expertise, you know – but I see that young Barak Obama has picked an old acquaintance of mine as his running mate for the Presidency. I remember meeting Joe Biden back in'87 when I was visiting America and he was running his own Presidential campaign. He asked me if I had any good ideas for a speech. I was a bit jetlagged, I must admit, and I fobbed him off with some piece of guff I'd heard from Neil Kinnock – well, I wasn't going to give him any of the good stuff, was I? I never heard how that speech went for Joe.
Kinnock, of course, went on to lose the unloseable election. I'm sure it won't be an omen, though. In adding Joe to the ticket, Barak has recruited a man who is so electorally popular that ,when the votes in the Iowa Caucuses were counted, he managed to poll almost a whole percent.
Meanwhile, the Olympic Games are bound for Great Britain! And what a fine display the British Olympic Association put on during the closing ceremony in Beijing! It was a stroke of genius – who better to sum up Britain's youthful energy and creativity than that young popular musician Jimmy Page? And who better to sum up British sporting prowess than the celebrity 'footballer' David Beckham whose performance in watching the European Championships from his home in LA was so impressive during the summer? And to think that some people are worried about London's ability to live up to Beijing!