Whereof one cannot speak....

...thereof one must be silent. 'Thereof' in this case being the appalling condition of British public life, dominated as it is by Sulky Brown's standoff with Phoebe Blair. In fact, is Brown actually Ross? No, no, I mustn't go there. I will disobey Wittgenstein in order to make two points, however. Blair's strategy is - I hope - to create so much turmoil that he will simply announce at some point that a handover to Ross, sorry, Sulky would be too divisive and, therefore, he is staying, well, forever. I hope this because I dislike and mistrust Sulky, not because I like Phoebe. The second thing is: perhaps Phoebe's greatest coup in the present crisis is the appointment of an android as party chairman. Hazel Blears - known to her makers as Chairperson 3.0 - is a masterpiece of the geek arts with her deranged grin and her amazing immobility. This morning the director of BBC Breakfast simply faded her our in mid interview, a brilliant touch that drew sudden attention to her machinehood. Perhaps Phoebe is an android too and the handover, if it comes, will actually be like the last scene in Blade Runner with Sulky being Deckard cradling the dying Blairbot and musing, "All he'd wanted were the same answers the rest of us want. Where did I come from? Where am I going? How long have I got? All I could do was sit there and watch him die."