I have little interest in British politics.

I have no interest in the Irish mob either so that isn't really strange.

I have always kept a wary eye on them though as there is a tendency for British policies to creep into our manifestos, and anyway there is no escaping them if I watch any news other then the local stuff.

I suppose my earliest real memories of the UK mob was in the days of Harold Wilson.  Now there was a grand gruff, plain speaking man of the people, and of course he was a pipe smoker.

Back in those days there were essentially two parties – the Conservatives and Labour.  Labour wanted everything nationalised and the Conservatives wanted everything privatised.  It was simple enough and there was no mistaking which party was in power.

After Wilson there was a string of leaders.  I don't remember much about Callaghan  but then along came Thatcher.  Jayzus but she was a nightmare in a dress.  There was nothing appealing about her, from her snobby accent to her bully tactics with the miners and Argentina.  I ain't saying Argentina was right but by Jayzus she took great delight in sending off a flotilla of warships!  As far as I am concerned, she was the start of the rot in modern politics.  She was a Rottweiler with a perm.

Skipping Major, Blair was a catastrophe.  That smarmy grin reeked of insincerity and his fawning over the Mercans was nauseating.  He became Dubya's faithful little lapdog and off they went arm in arm to fight a non-existant threat.  Millions died and he just shrugged and went off on lecture tours.

All this time Labour and the Conservatives were creeping closer together until at this point they were indistinguishable.  Both had the same policies much like our Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.  The only difference was in the name.

Personally I cannot stand the current leadership in the UK.  Cameron is a smarmy little oik straight out of Eaton.  Clegg and Milliband were straight out from under the same rock, with their hoity accents and their condescending ways.  Any time I saw any of them I just had visions of an oil slick.

OK, so Clegg and Milliband are gone, and no loss.  Apparently a Farron has taken over from Clegg but I only know that from Interweb research.  I haven't had sight nor sound of him otherwise so he must be a right non-entity.

And now we have Corbyn.

I know fuck all about him.  All I know is that he was a 100 to 1 no-hoper who came up on the rails and won the race.

I had never heard him speak or seen him in action, so again I had to resort to the Interweb [where would we be without the Interweb?!].  Two things struck me about him.  The first is that he wants to bring back the old Labour ways, so once again we'll be able to tell the two main parties apart.  The second is that he doesn't sound like an Etonian but rather sounds like he has lived a reasonably ordinary life.  That has to be a plus?  He is the first one since Wilson that I wouldn't mind having a pint with.  All the others would have driven me straight out of the pub.

There is actually a third thing.  He has a beard.  Not one of those horrible modern yokes but a real beard that looks well worn in.

All I need to see now is a picture of him smoking a pipe.