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Of course I woke up at 5.15am. Of course I did. Sleeping in a hotel is worse for me than having a crying baby.
It more or less scuppered my plans to write next week’s AIOTM on the train back home. Instead I tweeted about the court decision on parliament having to vote on Article 50 - which of course they do - it doesn’t mean Brexit won’t happen (and I am pretty certain it will) but you can’t call for Britain to have sovereignty over its own laws and then not allow parliament their say). But inevitably that led to me being distracted by all the tweets from furious Brexiteers - some of them suggesting civil war, merely because the UK parliament is going to get to discuss a UK law - one accusing me of being an out of touch multi-millionaire and another saying that I was seeking Jobseekers allowance. I mean those two things aren’t mutually exclusive I suppose. And are both true, so fair play.
Yet another person claimed I had betrayed my socialist principles to become a neoCon jester. Again true. Be nice if they repaid my betrayal with any work or even a bit of money so I didn’t keep having to make all my own shows and ask the public to pay the costs.
Of course Twitter brings out those with more volatile personalities and I can’t imagine a huge percentage of voters on either side would be prepared to consider armed rebellion if their personal preference isn’t upheld. But it’s terrifying how many people consider this most democratic of things to be somehow anti-democratic, or are saying that people have voted for something and thus it is decided and can never be discussed or voted upon again (another strange interpretation of democracy). Or indeed how many people seem to just want us to break off from the EU (as that’s what we’ve voted for) without any consideration for the complexities of how that will be achieved without condemning he UK to break up and all of us to economic hardship.
Things might be slipping away from us. It’s not like the world hasn’t been here before. I can understand the anger and frustration, because I feel that too, but it’s almost entirely focused on the wrong thing and it’s going to hurt everyone apart from the people who are actually to blame. And worst of all it’s an attitude that promotes the aims of the terrorists and foreign powers. Whatever happens in America and I am getting a sinking feeling, I think we’re in for a bumpy ride.
And it seems pretty clear that if Donald Trump doesn’t win this time then someone like Donald Trump will win some time.
On the train the conductor approached me to tell me that his colleague would be gutted not to be working today. Not only were they both fans of stand up comedy, but his mate was called Richard Herring. I saw a text from him expressing his disappointment. It’s strange seeing a text that looks like it’s from you but that you know you didn’t send.
Later I was home and tired and trying to get some admin done and thinking about having a sleep. I went out to post a letter thinking my key was in my pocket (having felt it through the pocket) but it was actually a bag of change that I had forgotten was in there. And my wife was out so I was locked out of the house. I popped to the Westfield to talk to my mobile phone provider about my contract. It had just ended, but as I had had a replacement phone recently I was wondering if I could change to a cheaper tariff. It turned out I could and I knocked well over £30 off my bill. That’s basically the money you were paying to pay for your phone. It’s pretty dishonest that the phone companies don’t automatically reduce your bill once your contract is up (I think one of them might). But it’s worth checking, if you don’t want to upgrade (and there’s nothing much in the iPhone 7 that’s making me that keen to do that quickly) that you’re not overpaying by hundreds of pounds a year.
Anyway didn’t get far on AIOTM. A little bit over a week until the recording. Still loads to do on this series, but in spite of it taking me away from stuff I get paid for, I am still glad I am doing it. But with my multi-millions plus my jobseekers allowance, money isn’t really that much of a concern to me.
Replacing Sara Pascoe on 14th November RHLSTP will be the amazing Susan Calman. Details here. It's Tony Robinson and Tom Davis on the 7th November, Sarah Millican andTBC on the 21st November (name announced next week) and David Baddiel and Lucy Porter on 28th. Tickets still available for all shows.
