But is it Art?

So, the big question is, when? When will Tony hand over leadership of the party to Gordon, and is it OK to have a prime minister called Gordon? Yes, old hat, I know. Tony said that he won't personally fight another election, Gordon Brown is keen to take that baton, when would be best for the country? Well, my own feeling is that Tony is right, the halfway honeymoon would be the best time. So long as he gets some kind of divine inspiration on how to do a complete U-turn on his current education Bill he can go out high and Brown can come in like a star.

Kevin and I have artistic differences in the kitchen. This is an odd thing for me to say because all the art that comes out of the kitchen comes from his hands and not mine, plus, we have an agreement that this is his territory and therefore armistice when it comes to my unstoppable weeding. But I can't help myself. I was allowed to paint it, colour is my bag baby. But I have to keep weeding and tidying, creating systems, minimising. My ideal kitchen would be a house doctor one, work surfaces empty save for some carefully positioned object, chosen for its form and colour. The insides of the cupboards would contain the crockery and glassware of an Ikea staged kitchen, there would be one of everything else, no spices nor baking ingredients would be duplicated. There would be nothing in the cupboards and drawers that didn't work and absolutely nothing that isn't used.
Even there you can see that I have moved towards obsession, but yesterday I realised that I was arriving. I have always kind of liked the big fridges and cookers we have here. But I have been carrying on a mission to rationalise the fridge. My fridge in the realm of Platonic Forms contains no half used jars of this and that, forgotten sauces and salsas. It contains a large jar of Coleman's English mustard, a jar of Dijon, some German mustard and horseradish. It contains mango chutney, Branston pickle, pickled onions. Discrete, oft used. Once used, replaced, jars recycled. Slick, clean, obsessive. You get my drift. I think I'm starting to scare Kevin - sensible fellow.

A little while ago I wrote a story that had an element of preaching about ethical farming in it. We are too small an island with too many people to tolerate the intolerable. We pick our fights but by God we fight them.
Having written and read that out, only a few days later, it came to bite me in the bum. Vancouver has many restaurants of international renown and one of the country's top chefs, Rob Feenie, has a restaurant here in the city, it's called 'Lumière'. Kevin has wanted us to go there for some time and they have a set many-course menu. Unfortunately, when we looked at this together, it contained both veal and foie gras. Britain has laws that govern the production of veal, since veal is traditionally produced by taking male calves straight from their mothers, incarcerating them in darkened cages where they cannot lie down and depriving them of water so that in their thirst they consume more of the fattening formula. In 2007 these practices will be illegal throughout the EU, a mere 17 years after being banned in the UK. Now I had done my homework even before writing my original piece. Canada has long since had guidelines for veal production similar to the British laws. But guidelines, not law.
So far as foie gras goes, again, the method which is most frequently used in France and in Québec is force feeding. The BBC website points out that foie gras as a cottage industry is not at all a problem, since if you give the geese enough to eat they will do the same as us humans and eat themselves to death. Force feeding cannot be justified, I have no problem at all with killing animals to eat, but our tables can be graced with enough bounty without torturing animals for our greedy palates.
I have absolutely no doubt that Feenie's restaurant buys its veal and foie gras from ethical sources that follow Canadian guidelines, and the website for the restaurant gives you the opportunity to e-mail them. So I did, on the 15th of December. So far, no reply, but I guess they're busy over Christmas.