In Which Insomnia Leads Me To That Fight,Hilary Clinton,Alistair Cooke and Leanne Wood....but Not West Ham

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

It's 3:45am on a Sunday morning....and I still have insomnia.

Wife's asleep. She'll be asleep for hours yet. Lucky her. I'm awake....and I don't know what to do.

You might ask why don't I watch that Flemish show Professor T that I mentioned last week when I had the same problem. Trouble is, I watched it yesterday (for the record though I am officially a fan) when I woke up at 4:15am.

Perhaps I should watch Match Of The Day which I recorded as was on the afternoon/evening shift at work yesterday? All depends what the West Ham result was. Check my tablet for the score...

Not watching Match Of The Day.

So armed with a cup of tea...so want that cup of tea......find myself on Twitter. In the beginning it seems to be dominated by that fight between Floyd Mayweather and Conor Mcgregor. Had no intention of watching it even if it wasn't being shown on Rupert Murdoch's SKY (which I don't have). I've never understood pay per view for boxing anyway. Doesn't matter that they'll show all the fights on the card if the main bout ends very early you feel cheated.

The fight ended with the professional boxer winning the boxing match against the non professional boxer. Big deal.

So after that scrolled down my Twitter timeline until I stopped at an article where Shirley Williams was explaining how Hilary Clinton helped her out during a edition of BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour. In my zombie like state I make two actions.

1) Note to see whether I can get a copy of her autobiography Hard Choices from the library.

2) Have a listen to this Woman's Hour programme (broadcast in 2014 when she was promoting said book).

Because it occurred to me that nothing has boosted the likelihood of a female president of the United States in my lifetime more than the consequences of not voting her in last year. Perhaps as the US,North Korea and possibly the UK if Boris Johnson becomes Prime Minister shows, the gender that should be discriminated against in politics are fat men with dodgy hairstyles.

But I don't get to Woman's Hour. Having typed her name in the BBC Iplayer Radio app. I'm distracted by a Letter From America programme about her and listen to that instead.

Now for those too young to be aware of it Letter From America was a 15 minute radio programme where Alistair Cooke amiably chats about the issues of the day, whether personal to him or relevant to the entire world from, surprise, surprise, America. It ran from 1936 to 2004.

In this particular programme, broadcast in 1996, when Bill Clinton was about to seek reelection as President, was about the attacks on her not fulfilling the position of First Lady by opposition Republicans who considered the role to be that of dutiful female behind the President rather than a person with opinions that should be spoken of Interestingly Cooke explains how the first Lady sought a loan to keep the United States afloat with a foreign power without her husband's knowledge.

That lady, Cooke then points out with a knowledge of American history greater it appears than right wing Republicans, was Abigail Adams, wife of the second president of the United States (and who incidentally was against slavery). He also discussed Eleanor Roosevelt as well with passing references to Rosalyn Carter and Nancy Reagan. All ladies with opinions and husbands who were man enough to listen to them.

(Two points as an aside. Firstly listening to your wife doesn't mean you're a weak man. Secondly my wife always says I don't listen, though to be fair to me it's either when I've returned from the afternoon/evening shift at work....or when I'm watching sports)

The point is that it reminded me that throughout her career Hilary Clinton has been subjected to one attack or another throughout her career. Whether it was Whitewater or Benghazi or whatever the only thing that ever stuck was her use of emails and that was it. Yet the relentless attacks meant that the qualified candidate was beaten by a tangerine nightmare.

It also made me wonder whether in a smaller way Leanne Wood the leader of Plaid Cymru, the party I support is experiencing something similar. Whether it's a party colleague saying he would like to be leader should she step down (the caveat not being mentioned in the headlines) or a manic reaction from right wingers over a tweet. This all seems to be a similar reaction to when a woman threatens the establishment "status quo".

Amazing where passing the time because of insomnia leads you to.

I'd rather have a full night's sleep though.

Until the next time.