‘a temporary moral code’

Jean Cau: ‘I wonder how you manage. Tough situations [with his women].’
Jean-Paul Sartre: ‘That’s the word exactly, Cau. There are situations which I call rotten. Try as one might to resolve them, it’s impossible to get out of them externally intact … In some cases, you’re obliged to resort to a temporary moral code.’

Jean-Paul Sartre: ‘I lie to them [his women]. It is easier and more decent.’

Johanna: There are many ways of holding a man prisoner. The best is to get him to imprison himself.
Leni: How does one do that?
Johanna: By lying to him.
(Jean-Paul Sartre / ‘The Condemned of Altona’)

The Daily Politics

Please would the Director-General give the key to the crockery cupboard back to Andrew Neill. Poor Andrew looks as if he’s going to burst a blood vessell if he’s not allowed to hand out some Daily Politics mugs very soon.

try Aznar

I have no idea whether there is any prospect of success but this definitely goes into the ‘wouldn’t it be nice’ column:

An initiative to try ex president of the Spanish Government Jose Maria Aznar for his role in the invasion of Iraq will be promoted through assemblies in several Spanish cities … by a so-called Platform for a Trial against Aznar, which has been supported so far by over 1,500 important figures from Spain and abroad. (source)

though for the day

Man has always assumed that he is more intelligent than dolphins because he has achieved so much — the wheel, New York, wars and so on — whilst all the dolphins have ever done is muck about in the water, having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man — for precisely the same reasons.
(Douglas Adams / ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’)

All hail the Gat

So the expected announcement has been made and Wales have a new coach: Warren Gatland.

WRU chairman David Pickering said:

We have acted decisively and got a top world talent on board; some might say arguably the best coach in the world and we certainly think so. We have been charged with getting the best possible man for the job, and we have brought in someone with a proven record of turnaround situations. He’s done it with Ireland, he’s done it with Wasps. He took them over and left them in a far better state than when he joined them. We have got someone who’s a hard-working, tough guy, who will be the boss. We have someone who is strong enough to cope with the pressure of living in the goldfish bowl of Welsh rugby. We have someone with a proven record of turning around situations for the benefit of national and club teams at the highest level. Not only that, Warren is hungry to get back into international sport. We believe he is the leading candidate and he is the best fit for Wales as we see it.

On the whole — a little hyperbole aside — you can’t argue with that: Gat certainly is a ‘top world talent’ with the skills, experience and toughness to hack the job. They’d have probably given the same spiel, changing only the examples, if Jake White had been appointed. So what. In general, I don’t buy ‘best fit’: the point is that there were a few possible really good fits and Gat is undoubtedly a really good fit.

But what I really liked was Gat’s realism and hosing down of expectations:

I am asking people not to expect miracles from day one. It is going to take a little bit of time, putting things in place. But give me a few months and hopefully you will see a turnaround and some pretty good rugby played by a reasonable Welsh team… As far as I’m concerned it is a clean slate for everybody… Being 10th in the world is too low a ranking, and I intend to try and improve that… The challenge for me is to leave Welsh rugby in a better state than when I arrived. That’s what I’ve aimed to do in past jobs and I’m totally committed to doing the best job I can and to put a team out that the Welsh people will be proud of.

the Ray Gravell Cup

On the 24 of November Wales play South Africa at Cardiff for the Prince William Cup. The WRU say that prince William ‘kindly agreed to the establishment of a new trophy in his name celebrating 100 years of history between the rugby nations of Wales and South Africa in 2007′.

It seems to have escaped the WRU’s attention that the said prince William, despite being a Welsh Rugby Union Vice Royal Patron, is far more comfortable wearing an English shirt (and why not as he’s English). So why not name the cup after someone who embodied all the good things about Welsh rugby (including wearing the shirt with pride and winning).

Sign Cambria magazine’s ipetition to get it renamed the Ray Gravell Cup.