An untheatrical posting for a nontheatrical week. I seem to have been mostly preoccupied with stuff in the news, reflecting on the aptness of Bob Dylan's 50 year old lyrics you play with my world like it's your little toy... and re-posting parodies on Facebook.

There's more to depress than amuse, even in the risible claim of Iain Duncan-Donut that he could live on £53 a week, what with the insistence of George Osborne that welfare is 'hugely expensive' ~ not if you compare it to (as Michael Rosen does) bailing out bankers, turning a blind eye to tax havens and giving tax relief to top earner's pensions ~ and then the horrendous causal connection made by tories & tabloids between a psychopath who carelessly kills his children and everyone in the UK on benefits. A relief to read the sanity of Owen Jones and Grace Dent on this case. Even Ann Widdicombe showed a smattering of compassion until she got started on the depravity of communal living and the need for Social Services to remove children from households with more than two adults in a relationship. Good thing she didn't live in medieval times, she'd have cleared every building from tithebarns to manors. And now the Metal Lady is beyond reach of Atos evaluation as fit for work, I'm thankful again for Owen Jones to say it like it is: It will only be worth celebrating when Thatcherism is finally purged from this country, and a Britain run in the interests of working people is built. Then we really can rejoice.

Now for something completely delightful: Comme une Image (Look At Me) a movie from fantastic actor/writer/director Agnes Jaoui, made back in 2008 but fresh-feeling as well as funny, tender, and irresistible. Well-observed characters and a storyline that's endearing without being 'sweet', and above all a brilliantly economic script, showing how tight writing makes the subtext shine.

I'm ending with me on a rock called the Giant's Chair, a 100 metre drop on either side, on a four hour walk to celebrate that Saturday the sun came out...
And a link to where I began, as wonderful Elvis Mcgonagall joins a topical debate on BBC Weekend  (16 minutes in) with his incisive wit.