Blogs and the real world

My colleague Tom Harris has got himself all over the media over the last few days after 'innocently' asking the question, "so why is everyone so bloody miserable?". He has had to get used to the rest of us MPs greeting him as "Happy Tom", or some unprintable alternatives - though not surprisingly I think Tom is secretly very pleased at the coverage as a result which has no doubt done wonders for 'hits' on his blog (and most of the rest of us are jealous because of that!).

You can't help feeling he has a point, though, when you read about the situation in many other parts of the world. We have the horrible situation in Zimbabwe, about which a lot of people have been contacting me - click here for a link to the House of Commons report of David Miliband's statement on the situation (it starts after a few paragraphs of other business). There is the ongoing tragedy and repression in Burma (and I would like to congratulate Forthview school in West Pilton in my constituency for its latest initiative, this time a poster exhibition jointly with a school in Thailand for refugees from Burma); and then there's a lot of talk in the media about a possible Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities - if that happens, the consequences, not just for the Middle East, but for the world as a whole could be catastrophic.

That doesn't mean we should underestimate our own problems at home; but it does put them in something of a perspective.