I have a piece on Comment Is Free about Burnham’s proposals for smokers.

It’s clear now that my blogging days are over.There’s a number of reasons, of course, but primarily the need to avoid repetition – not just of my own work, but what others write too – becomes exponentially more challenging with every post. Like so many others before me, I’ve said what I wanted to say in this format. I don’t have enough material in me to sustain a blog of my own any longer.

Thanks for all your support and encouragement, comments, opinions and everything else. It’s been wonderful.

Xmas break be damned! Shane Greer has tagged me in a meme, which means I now have to write a letter to my 16 year old me. Unfortunately for Shane I have been reading Philip K Dick books again, and so am approaching this not quite in the spirit intended. Here goes..

Dear Me.

Thanks to the nature of time, nothing I can say in this letter will change anything – at least, that is my hope. Assuming the physicists are correct, what will happen to you is what happened to me.

I don’t remember getting this letter, so presumably this letter will never reach you. I’m supposed to look upon this exercise not so much as a letter to the 16 year old version of myself, rather an open letter to myself reflecting on the 16 years that have since passed – mistakes made, victories gained and so on.

But, on the off chance you really do see this, I need to be a bit more careful about what I say. Time, it turns out, is a great healer, and 16 more years of life experience and knowledge stuffed inside your brain changes your perceptions of yourself, of the world and your place in it. I am very different to you.

I think, if you could see me now, knowing you as well as I do, you’d be enthused with an almost unstoppable passion to change the future, to make sure you don’t turn out like me. I understand that.

But, see, I cannot allow this to happen. I need you to carry on the path you’re on, no matter how wonderful or horrible it might be. If you do anything differently then it might change something, and I wouldn’t be me any more. In fact, just knowing you’re still alive 16 years from now is probably too much information.

So I’m going to tell what’s going to happen to you. Not a god-damned thing. Having said that, in about 12 months Kurt Cobain really is going to kill himself, but then I think you already knew that.

Yours Sincerely,

You (or Me… rather confusing isn’t it?)

I tag a bunch of Lib Dem lady bloggers, cos I’m fairly certain they haven’t been yet: Jennie Rigg, Caron Lindsey, Sara Bedford

I should probably point out that I’m taking a break for Christmas now. Have a good one!

OBI-WAN:

If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.

DARTH VADER:

(hoooo… haaaaaa… hoooo….. haaaaa) Are you sure, Old Man?

OBI-WAN:

Why, of course, Darth. Strike me down and…

DARTH VADER:

(hoooo… haaaaaa) It’s just… well… my Master can shoot lightning from his hands.

OBI-WAN:

Ah, well, quite. No, I mean a whole different kind of power, a power greater than anything you…

DARTH VADER:

And (hoooo haaaaaaa) he controls the entire Galaxy. He’s the Emperor of it.

OBS-WAN:

Ha! A mere trifle, my former pupil. You can’t imagine how powerful I will become if you strike me down. Really, really powerful.

DARTH VADER:

It’s just (hooo haaaa) I can imagine a lot of power, old man. If I strike you down, which, by the way, I’m definitely going to do, you’ll become a corpse.

OBI-WAN:

No Darth. I will become a spooky voice over, able to transmit my thoughts into the mind of a young boy who’s coming to destroy you. The force is strong with that one!

DARTH VADER:

(hoooo haaaaa hoooo haaaaa hoooo haaaaa) I see. I take it the rebellion aren’t able to stretch to long range radios then? You need to throw yourself at the mercy of a Sith Lord and get your ass spanked into oblivion in order to communicate helpful advice to your apprentice?

OBI-WAN:

When you put it like that.

DARTH VADER:

You didn’t think this one through did you? (hooo haaa) You are a fool, Old Man!

OBI-WAN:

Ah, but who is the greater fool? The fool, or the fool who follows him?

(DARTH VADER strikes down OBI-WAN who does not, in fact, at any point, become more powerful than DARTH VADER can possibly imagine)

With thanks to @lingmops