Stupid America

BBC News, Washington

Dunkin' Donuts said there was a "possibility of misperception"

The US chain Dunkin' Donuts has pulled an advert following complaints that the scarf worn by a celebrity chef offered symbolic support for Islamic extremism.

The online advert for iced coffee featured the well-known US television chef Rachael Ray.

She was wearing a black-and-white checked scarf around her neck that resembled a traditional Arab keffiyeh.

This fashion choice incensed at least one prominent conservative blogger, who said it evoked extremist videos.

The blogger, Michelle Malkin, called the garment "a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos".

Stylist's choice

Other criticism followed and the coffee and doughnuts chain has now decided to drop the advert.

In a statement, Dunkin' Donuts said the silk scarf had been "selected by Rachael Ray's stylist and that no symbolism was intended.

"But given the possibility of misperception the commercial was no longer being used."

This has caused a fair amount of consternation in some quarters but the conservative blogger at the centre of the row has praised the decision.

"Fashion statements may seem insignificant, but when they lead to the mainstreaming of violence - unintentionally or not - they matter," Ms Malkin has written.

I don't know who's more stupid, the people complaining or the chain for removing it. Yes, the pressure might have been intense from a few stupid conservatives but just read what they are saying. Wearing something that Muslims put around their necks in the desert does NOT evoke extremism. Only a very few are extremists, very few. It's like saying that we shouldn't use The Union Jack because a few people are racists or that we should stop people appearing on TV who have moustache's because a couple of dictators had them. It's ridiculous.

Who cares if it's what some Muslims wear? 99.9% aren't terrorists or extremists, they copy our culture and have adapted to fit in, so if we were to wear some clothes that they do then it's a compliment and shows religious integration and tolerance. I can't see any Muslims complaining about this advert, probably just middle-aged white women in offices.

Deary me, I'm going all left wing.

UPDATE: This message on the BBC site adds clarity of the scarves worn:

The black and white scarf is part of the traditional attire of the Palestinian, Lebanese, Jordanian Arabs. The same way the red and white scarf is for Saudi, Omani, Bahraini Arabs. this is like saying that UPS should change its brown uniform because it pleases the Hitler Youth.
Fuad Khan, Dallas, USA

Strange headlines of our time #42

One of the top stories on the Israeli news website Haaretz carries the title 'Was William Shakespeare a Jewish woman in disguise?'.

I want to pass comment, but I don't know where to begin with that one. I would read the story, but I fear it would fail to live up to my expectations. So I will sit here and enjoy the mental image of a stereotypically Jewish woman pretending to be a male English playwright.

Hmm..

Libertarianism? Not in todays socirety

Drawings of sex abuse to be made illegal

Wednesday, 28 May 2008 00:01

The proposals are the government's latest attempt to curb internet child sex abuse

All images of child sex abuse, including drawings and computer-generated images, are set to be made illegal following a Ministry of Justice consultation on the subject.

The proposals include a maximum three year jail term for those found guilty.

Child safety groups had been concerned paedophiles could circumvent current anti-abuse legislation by digitally manipulating abuse photographs.

Justice minister Maria Eagle said: "These new proposals will help close a loophole that we believe paedophiles are using to create images of child sexual abuse.

"This is not about criminalising art or pornographic cartoons more generally, but about targeting obscene, and often very realistic, images of child sexual abuse which have no place in our society."

But legal experts and MPs have sounded a note of concern over the proposals.

Edward Garnier, a backbench Conservative MP, told politics.co.uk the new legislation would have to be precise if it was to be effective.

"One of the things you must have in criminal law is exactitude and certainty," he said.

"Just passing aspirational laws doesn't help. It gets people seduced by a false promise that cannot be delivered.

"If you're going to have a new law covering what they perceive to be a gap in the law it has to be drafted in such a way that it fills the gap and doesn't create another one," he continued.

"If there is a genuine gap that needs to be filled, fill it. But fill it intelligently and fill it with a precise weapon."

This will be a risky blogpost but oh well.

Firstly, I would like to make it clear than I am not in favour of these proposals. The argument that the child safety groups are making, claiming that abuse photographs will be digitally manipulated is a true concern of mine but I don't believe that this will be the case. If someone is wanting to look at a computer generated image, then it would be a lot easier and less risky if the photographs were generated on a computer and not true pictures that have been doctored.

Drawings and computer-created images should not be made illegal. Yes, they are most likely very offensive to 99% of the population but I'm sure that people that get off on watching animals have sex or BDSM rituals are also offensive to others. We can't ban people from looking at artistic creations in their own home. I think that if it doesn't affect anyone else then it should not be made illegal.
I was listening to Radio 2 and some hyperventilating woman rung up saying it was wrong for people to have these urges and they should be locked up. I would agree if they were acting on these urges and having sex with children or downloading photos of actual abuse, but creating something on a computer is not affecting anyone. Who cares what people get off on if it's by themselves, we can't ban somebody's thoughts.
Saying that certain images 'have no place in society' is not a view that a 'centre-left' government should hold, are they now going to ban video games with scenes of violent crimes or art that has a naked child in it? It isn't possible to police this law efficiently and people will be jailed or fined when all they have done is drawn something that people find offensive. It's the Swedish Prophet Cartoon saga!

Is Ed Balls actually Michael Portillo mk.2?

Not to overstate my youth and inexperience, but the 1997 election was a bit before my time. Of course, I remember realising something big was going on, but does a pre-teen appreciate the details of general elections? I think not.

So, when, a few years ago, my A level politics tutor enlightened me with a tale of drunken cheering at a certain Mr Portillo losing Enfield Southgate, I was shocked. Here was a man I quite liked cheering at the demise of a seemingly friendly and intelligent MP, whose only crime was wearing a blue rosette. The Michael Portillo I knew was a man who spent his thursday nights on a sofa with Dianne Abbott, having to endure Andrew Neil's jokes. I just couldn't understand what caused the national outpouring of hatred for him.

Now I think I understand why. Although I will never be able to grasp the strength of feeling against Mr Portillo, I have a funny feeling that it is something like my feelings towards Ed Balls. I do see a lot of similarities between the two figures. Mr Balls has got to where he is because of the patronage of a more powerful figure, Gordon Brown. Much like Michael Portillo and Mrs T. He comes across as a smarmy, greasy chap, like Mr Portillo did. He is seen as a back stabbing figure, look at the rumours regarding him plotting against Brown. Sounds awfully familiar to a certain Conservative minister installing phone-lines in 1995. The parallels go on and on. But more than anything, Ed Balls just seems to symbolise everything wrong with politics in general, and this government in particular.

Enfield Southgate was never predicted to be a Labour gain, so maybe Morley and Outwood could be a surprise. I would swap 50 other Conservative gains for Morley....

Labour Crewecified, Lib Dems get a Crewe cut in votes

Well there's not much left to be said about Labour so I will focus on the Lib Dems.

This comment on thisischeshire.co.uk reflects my opinion of the Lib Dem campaign in Crewe and Nantwich (and all over the country imho)

Elizabeth, you had the same time as the other parties. Your constant jumping in bed with a sinking Govt will only damage your own party.

Why not have your own true liberal policies instead of hindering democracy re the EU and start taking action against the nanny state Labour has created.

This was in response to Elizabeth claiming that the little time before the by-election caused the Lib Dems to lose ground and voters hadn't made their minds up. I'm sorry but this is total rubbish. The Conservatives managed to turn around a 7,000 deficit to win by almost 8,000 votes in 3 weeks and the turnout was almost 60%, indicating the people did make their mind up. Excuses excuses!
She also claimed that this was a 'message to the government' which I think is true, but not the kind of message that she's thinking. The message is "We've had enough of Labour, we want a Conservative government". Her attack on the Tories capitalising on the 10p tax fiasco was nothing short of suicidal. As Rob in Yorkshire said; "..jumping in bed with a sinking Govt will only damage your own party."

Quiz

We will be beginningg a weekly quiz in the next few days. If you have any suggestions for questions or any idea of a prize (that doesn't cost us money) then feel free to let us know!

Caption Competition

"Green tax is the answer!"

What is this, the Morning Star?

Notice how we have an opinion poll on the right hand side of the blog. We have had it open for around six months now, during most of that time it has shown a pretty solid Tory lead. I expected nothing less, after all, this is a right wing blog.

However, in the last few days this has changed. We have seen a highly implausible surge of support for the Labour Party. So, come on people, who has worked out how to fiddle the poll?

Crewe and Nantwich: Winners and Losers

Well, it is the Crewe by-election today, how exciting. This is actually the first by-election I can remember where there is a serious chance of a Con gain (Ealing Southall = Bad), so what I say might actually just be naivety on my part. Maybe all governments behave like this when faced with the Official Opposition gaining a seat indicative of a majority at the next election, maybe this has actually been quite a timid campaign, but let me make this clear, if the Conservatives had ran a similar campaign (maybe picking up on her Welsh roots, her house or her actions as a WAG minister), I would be seriously considering resigning my membership. We have to behave honourably, politicians should set an example for other people to follow. What sort of example is this?

Anyway, as I don't want to address this all through continuous prose, and I want to be a bit different, lets take a look at the winners and losers of the Crewe and Nantwich by-election 2008.

Firstly, the Winners -

• Eric Pickles - The head of the Conservative campaign. Conservatives are historically appalling at winning by-elections, and a lot of that was due to the poor organisation of people on the ground. Mr Pickles seems to have corrected this problem, with his organisation of a disciplined and effective campaign. Extra points because he is a northern guy who went to a Polytechnic, hardly a 'Tory Toff'..
• Edward Timpson - Managed to go through the whole campaign without a 'Tony Lit moment' (no embarrassing photos with Mr Timpson and Gordon Brown are out there, I hope..), certainly done well in raising his local profile, and not rising to the personal attacks. A lesser man would have bitten..
• Gemma Garrett - The candidate for the 'Beauties for Britain' party. Gained lots of publicity, and will probably get a reasonable vote, after the Labour attack.

Onto the Losers -

• Tamsin Dunwoody - I wanted to like Tamsin, I liked her mother, I really did. Don't get me wrong, I didn't agree with a lot of Gwyneth Dunwoody's politics, but I admired her integrity and straight talking nature. It is clear to me that Tamsin Dunwoody has got to where she is today by trading on her mother's legacy. This Labour campaign has shocked me, and as Tamsin is the candidate, she should take the majority of the blame. Claiming that Edward Timpson is a 'friend of paedophiles' is abhorrent and disgusting.
  
• Steve McCabe - Similar criticisms really, running an appalling campaign. Extra negatives for seeming to assume that Scottish Labour tactics that might work in Glasgow would work in Cheshire. The unnecessary attack on Gemma Garrett was also stupid.
• The Labour Party - I don't need to elaborate on that one.
• The Welsh Labour Party - How could they let a woman like Tamsin Dunwoody into government? Is this indicative of the usual standard of campaigning in Wales?
• The English Democrats - Have you watched any of their campaign videos (available on Youtube)? It is as if the man tasked with making the adds got drunk half way through..
  

So there we have it. Whatever the result, Labour should be ashamed of this campaign. I could attack them for much longer, but no one likes blogs to be too wordy. I considered mentioning the Lib Dems, but I wasn't sure where to put them. This is probably a neutral for them, neither particularly good nor particularly bad. Henley will be much more exciting, on that front..

He's still here

From The Guardian:

The former London mayor, Ken Livingstone, is to present his own show on the capital's commercial talk radio station LBC 97.3.

Livingstone, who was defeated in the May 1 mayoral election by Boris Johnson after eight years in office, will present a weekly show on the London station.

He will join at the end of next month standing in for Jeni Barnett on her weekday afternoon show.

"I'm absolutely delighted to be joining LBC 97.3," said Livingstone. "I'll be the perfect afternoon antidote to [LBC breakfast host] Nick Ferrari. You can detox with me."

Livingstone and Ferrari have a little history together after the LBC breakfast host came out in support of Johnson during the mayoral campaign.

The former London mayor also complained to the station after Ferrari gave out his phone number on air.

They will have a chance to bury the hatchet - or not - on Thursday morning, when Livingstone will be a guest on Ferrari's LBC breakfast show.

Livingstone will host the three-hour afternoon show between 1pm and 4pm for the entire week beginning Monday June 30.

He will then present a regular weekly show on the Global Radio station, full details of which are still to be announced.

The LBC 97.3 programme director, Jonathan Richards, said: "Ken Livingstone brings unique insight to LBC 97.3. After eight years as Mayor of London, no one knows this city and its people better.

"He has seen London through the best and worst of times and is now sharing his views and knowledge by joining London's biggest conversation. Love him or hate him, Ken Livingstone is never boring."

LBC 97.3 drew a weekly audience of 701,000 listeners in the first three months of this year, according to the latest official Rajar figures.

Well we knew Ken wouldn't just disappear off the radar. Will this help him build his platform to be re-elected in 2012 or is it a comfortable job 'with the people of London' to whittle away the years and keep the cash flowing?

Useless BBC reporting, once again!

Amy Winehouse and Pete Doherty have caused concern among fans after filming a bizarre video of themselves playing with newborn mice.

The pair, believed to be at Doherty's Wiltshire home, put the video, called Winemouse, on YouTube on Friday.

In the two-minute clip, Winehouse says the pair have 30 one-day old mice.

One fan, called Katarinaport, wrote on YouTube: "Amy is on another planet. And this planet is called the planet of horrifying sadness."

The video shows Doherty and Winehouse bathed in blue light in a bare room, making rambling comments, picking up the mice and talking to them.

Another fan, called Aliandtulio, wrote: "You make me sad. You threw your talent away Amy. Most people would die for what you have and you ruined your chance. Sooo many people were rooting for you and look at you. So so sad."

'Car crash'

"Ahhhhh. So cute, like watching a car crash," was the response of Re1d.

Another comment, from Mintlipgloss said: "Amy you're young and SO SO talented, don't throw it all away. I hope you realise this before it's too late. I'm sending good vibes your way."

Winehouse's spokesman confirmed that the video was genuine but made no comment.

In it, Winehouse holds one of the tiny mice on her finger and uses it to send a message to her husband Blake Fielder-Civil.

"This one's got a message from Blake," she says. "Blake, please don't divorce mummy. She loves you ever so. Hang on, my big brother wants to say something."

Taking another mouse from Doherty, she continues: "Yeah, if you divorce her you'll have me to deal with. I'm only a day old. I don't know what I'm doing but I know what love is."

Drug problems

Doherty and Winehouse, two of the UK's most adored musicians, have both had long-term, well-publicised drug problems.

Winehouse was recently told she would not face charges over a video that purported to show her smoking a crack cocaine pipe.

She checked into a rehabilitation clinic after the video emerged in February.

Doherty was recently released from Wormwood Scrubs jail after serving 29 days of a 14-week sentence stemming from drug and driving offences.

Another video, which showed them with the mice and cats, has now been removed. A later video shows Winehouse performing with a girl identified as her goddaughter.

The girl sings Alicia Keys' song If I Ain't Got You, with Winehouse playing guitar and singing backing vocals in front of a Union Jack flag.

Winehouse is due to play a number of festivals across Europe this summer, starting with Portugal's Rock In Rio - In Lisbon event on 30 May.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7406336.stm

I'm sorry but since when has Pete Doherty been one of 'The UK's most adored popstars'??? Can anyone hum a song he has sung with his band Babyshambles? I would like to think of myself as quite into music and I can say that luckily his music has never troubled my ears. Their last record peaked at number 54.

Certainly not one of 'The UK's most adored'. Winehouse, maybe. She's had astounding success and has a lot of talent (that she seems to be throwing away) but certainly not Pete Doherty.

My last exam..

..is on Wednesday so lots of blogging from then!

University exams are much better at being spaced out than high schools and colleges. One a week for 3 weeks is excellent for revision, although I don't have 30+ like I did for my GCSE's

Gordon's Legacy?

click to view

You almost have to feel sorry for Gordon, he's not had much luck in the job. Looking at British Prime Minister's entry on Wikipedia it seems that Brown will not have much of a positive legacy.

The Duckworth Effect

Former Coronation Street actress Liz Dawn has been campaigning for the Labour party in a Crewe and Nantwich by-election.

Dawn, who played Vera Duckworth in the ITV soap for more than 30 years, turned up at a garden party with candidate Tamsin Dunwoody at the home of a Corrie fan in Coronation Street, Crewe.

Liz said that Vera and TV husband Jack Duckworth (Bill Tarmey) would be thrilled by Labour's recently-announced 10p tax concessions.

"Jack and Vera would be thrilled," said Dawn. "It was a bad choice really, wasn't it? But it has been altered now and it's been put right. People forget what it was like under a Conservative government."

Dunwoody, whose mother's death caused the by-election, said she was delighted to get support from the ex-soap star.

She said: "It is fantastic. Everywhere we go people come out and ask for autographs. People have grown up with her and having her here, as a strong Labour supporter, is a privilege for me."

Wow, ex-soap star helps someone they have no idea about whining about the past. She obviously has no idea what's going on at the moment and doesn't realise that the increase in her heating allowance this winter is a one-off.
Oprah Winfrey, Elton John, now that's a celebrity endorsement. Vera Duckworth? Hardly.

PS. The actor who plays Jack Duckworth is a Lib Dem. Definitely not Labour.

Is it April 1st?

Prime Minister Gordon Brown is in discussions with TV producers to star in his own reality show, reports say.

MP Hazel Blears was photographed carrying an email print-out detailing a show with the working title Junior PM to a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

The email from producer Margaret McCabe pitched the show, which would feature aspiring politicians as contestants, as being targeted for the "Apprentice meets Maria/Strictly Come Dancing audience".

The memo added that the show was "not stunt TV" and as a judge, Brown could become "more popular than Alan Sugar".

A spokesman for Blears confirmed that a reality show was in the works: "It is a very worthy programme idea. These young people would engage and have some kind of competition, and then there would be a way of electing a young prime minister for a day.

"The idea is to get more young people interested in politics. But it hasn't been commissioned yet. It is very early days."

What on earth? Gordon Brown as Simon Cowell? Surely this is a joke. It does seem like a good idea but not with Brown as a TV judge. That's just ridiculous.
The show might help us see what the general population want in a politician and what they are attracted to (the TV population anyway) but if this was to materialise then they should have representatives from each political party as a judge, not the leaders themselves. Surely they've got something better to be getting on with.
If this is true (I still can't believe that it is) then it seems to be a last ditch attempt to make Brown seem more 'human'. It will be so scripted to get across the fact that he's a nice, sensible, intelligent guy that it'll be just a Labour promoting TV show. Where's the fairness in that? We're not in Russia.

Source: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/realitytv/a95976/brown-wants-apprentice-like-reality-show.html

Exams

One of my major exams is tomorrow so hopefully I'll be able to do more blogging then. Apologies for our recent lack of blogs, we will resume normal service very shortly.

Go out and enjoy the lovely weather whilst it lasts.

Gordon Brown-pants' Labour at a serious low

YouGov (the now trusted pollster following the accurate Mayoral Election predictions) has the following figures post-mayoral election:

CON: 49
LAB: 23
LD : 17

This is the lowest Labour figure since records began, yet Gordon Brown is still at the helm?

Well apparently it would be even worse with anyone else in charge - including Milliband, Smith and of course Ed Balls.

I suppose that's the only consolation for Gordon Brown, certainly not for the Labour Party though.

Will it get any lower? With the credit crunch not getting any better and the Crewe and Nantwich by-election seemingly going to be lost, it seems that Gordon's not at rock bottom just yet.

Is it possible to recover from this in time for the next General Election? I point to 'no' and a very, very, very small part of me thinks that's better. Is it democratic to have a parliament where the leading party has more than double the seats of the shadow. Of course, being a Tory this sounds great and it is democratic as people have chosen and voted. But is it fair?

Thatcher Interview with Iain Dale

For a university project I interviewed Iain Dale on the resignation of Margaret Thatcher. Here are his answer. Many thanks to Iain for giving up his time to do this, it helped greatly.


Q1. In John Sergeant's book 'Maggie', he claims that a conservative MP told him that Margaret Thatcher had 'ruined' the Conservative Party. To what extent do you feel that she had damaged the partyand do you think she should have resigned earlier?

She didn't ruin the Conservative Party. The cowards who overthrew her did. If they hadn't ditched the most successful peacetime PM in that way and let electoral politics take their course, the course of the last 20 years might have been very different indeed. It has been a running sore ever since, and it is only really now that the Party is recovering. We can all play 'what if' and it might well have been better if she had resigned of her own accord at a time of her choosing, but we will never know how things might have panned out. Her big mistake was in not have a natural successor lined up.


Q2. In retrospect, do you think that Michael Heseltine did the right thing by challenging her?

I do not think Heseltine did the right thing, either for the Conservative Party or himself. He made sure he would never wear the crown. If he had waited for her to lose an election he would probably have won a leadership election. I think he knows that now.


Q3. Do you think that her backing of John Major, along with the Poll Tax, proved that by 1990, she had completely lost her political intuition?

She had no alternative but to back John Major. There were no other viable candidates. The poll tax was a big political error, there's little doubt about that. It took the form of a very slow car crash - many people could have prevented it from happening but failed to. Her well honed political antennae deserted her on that one.


Q4. In his recent documentary, Michael Portillo suggested that he tried to persuade Mrs Thatcher to fight the leadership challenge, and not to step down. If you had been a cabinet member, at that time, what advice would you have given to her?

I would have also urged her to fight on and go down all guns blazing if necessary. Defeat became almost inevitable I think, partly because she was so badly advised by the people around her - mainly John Wakeham, Tim Renton and Peter Morrison.


Q5. Political commentators argue that David Cameron is the first Conservative leader able to turn the "I would never vote Tory because of Thatcher" brigade. Why do you think this is and do you think there are any other Conservative members of parliament who could do this?

I think that is probably right. He has decontaminated the Tory brand, although I would argue that much of that contamination occurred under John Major rather than Margaret Thatcher. But Cameron has indeed restored Tory fortunes in a way that his three predecessors hadn't managed. However, he does not appeal to the C2 skilled working class vote in the way that Margaret Thatcher did. She identified with them through her policy on council houses and share ownership. His challenge is to have that same appeal.

Have we got it all wrong?

Everyone says that people vote elsewhere in local elections to give the current government a short, sharp shock but is this not the other way round?
Surely, people think of councillors as more involved and less sly than MPs so if they were wanting to deliver a show of dissatisfaction to the government then wont they vote elsewhere at a general election and vote for whoever they think would run their ward better in local elections?

This occurred to me when my friend said he voted Lib Dem in the locals but would vote Tory at the general to get rid of Labour.

Does anyone else agree?

Very brave or very stupid

Oo er, big news coming from Scotland. After a few busy and exciting months, things seemed to have settled down into a consistent pattern. We had the Scottish Government running rings around the Labour party, with Alex Salmond coming across as a very impressive figure. We had the Labour party doing just appallingly, seemingly unable to cope with the fact that it had lost, wildly lashing out at everything that moves, led by one of the worst party leaders I have ever seen. Then we had the Tories, doing actually pretty well (although you would expect me to say that, wouldn't you..), not setting the political scene on fire, and still stuck in the 17%-20% box, but at least stable, and impressing in dealings with the SNP. Finally we had the Lib Dems, but the less said about them the better.

Anyway, that was how it was 6 months ago, that is how it was yesterday. Things were settled, things were calm. No longer, however, for Wendy Alexander seems to have actually made a positive leadership decision, shock horror. Mrs (could someone please clarify if it is Mrs) Alexander has decided, after months of rubbishing the idea, to support a referendum, in a 'put up or shut up' challenge. As the title of this blog suggests, this is either a very brave decision or a very stupid one. If she forces a referendum now, and the SNP lose, she could be seen as the person who broke the Nats, every Unionist in the land would love her. However, imagine what would happen if Scotland said yes. She would be the leader who played politics with the union and lost, a leader who took an unnecessary gamble and ended up dissolving the UK. A leader who made her boss lose his job.

It is risky, it shows desperation, and I would not have the balls to do it.

Left Field

Not to gloat, but I refer you to a comment you made here.


You know, this actually feels like a gloat. Ha ha.

Tax is rubbish

Oh dear, I expect groans at that title. Rubbish tax, easy topic, quick blog. Gordon Brown wants to impose a 'pay as you throw' tax on rubbish in England. Simple policy, I don't need to explain in great detail.

This is not actually the angle I want to come at this story from, but suddenly I feel compelled to actually discuss my opinion on the issue. As with all of these issues, we can split the discussion up into two. Political considerations and practical considerations. Politically, this is suicide. All it will do is wind people up. On a practical level, I am unsure. It is a gross violation of civil liberties (a computer chip inside every bin, cataloguing exactly what we throw away, even Orwell wouldn't have thought of that), however Labour don't seem too fussed about such things, so I guess this is no surprise. On a practical level, I think more credit does need to be given to the motives behind this. We do face a massive problem with how much some households throw away, with bins full every week. This rubbish does not just disappear, it goes somewhere, and causes massive damage to the earth. It is a big problem, and this is a brave attempt to deal with it, but it is not the way to go. How should we go? Well, I honestly don't know. I don't like to criticise without offering constructive alternatives, but in this case, I can't help it.

What I actually want to talk about is local democracy. This tax will be collected by local councils, whether they agree with the policy or not. It is wrong, just wrong. Local councils shouldn't be forced to do this, they should concentrate on executing the wishes of democratically elected councillors. This is the problem with local democracy at the moment, we treat councils like agents of central government, with the democratically elected councillors dealt with as an after thought. These are people who have a mandate to execute, they are not employees of some nameless Quango. Lets treat them with a bit of respect, and let them do the job they have been elected to do.

Useless reporting!

I'm sorry but from what I've read and learnt, Crewe and Nantwich is anything but a safe labour seat.
Labour have declared that Gwyneth Dunwoody's daughter will take her place as candidate at the by-election. Now surely that isn't very Labour of them. Select someone for a position of power based purely on their ancestry and not their ability and who also lives over 150 miles away from the constituency whilst their mother is still warm.
Personally, this sly tactic will most likely not wash with the public and I suspect that Labour will lose this.

OGC, I hope the £14K was for humour

OGC (The Office of Government Commerce) has come up with a new logo for £14,000!


Looks pretty dull and ordinary doesn't it?

Now turn it on the side...

















Good lord!

If you can't see what it is then your mind isn't dirty enough.

The reason I don't pay my TV license

This is the reason:




Now pardon my French, but "What a load of SHIT!"

I can't believe we have to pay for this rubbish. The US get fantastic coverage of elections with amazing graphics, the BBC needs to learn from them.
The BBC is far too complacent. It has a guaranteed income so they feel they can do what they want with it and just mess about. An election night broadcast is not entertainment, nor is it a 'joke'. It's serious and we want facts, trends, anything, but we want it presented to us in a normal, interesting manner. Not something so stupid it makes you cringe.

The reason Boris is Mayor? Coke, Prostitutes and Threesomes!

Would Boris Johnson be Mayor of London if he hadn't appeared on Have I Got News For You?

Certainly not in my opinion. The only way that the Conservatives could have won the Mayoral race was with a very popular public figure who the people like and admire. Yes, people did know about him and his personality before HIGNFY but appearing as a host on that show propelled him into the realms of 'celebrity' as well as 'politician'. Very few politicians manage to become celebrities. Tony Blair was one, David Cameron is trying to be one and Boris Johnson was made a celebrity on HIGNFY.

So we have Angus Deayton and his dodgy antics to thank for giving Boris the platform to succeed and oust Ken as mayor. Let's hope he does well.

Cardiff, Merthyr and The Vale of Glamorgan

Excellent news in South Wales.

Cardiff has remained NOC with the Lib Dems unsurprisingly taking first place and the Tories pushing Labour into 3rd. Had Plaid contested a few more seats then I believe they could have pushed Labour into 4th (ie. Dreamland) but they seem to be a bit under-represented in Cardiff. They don't realise how popular they are with the Welsh students.

Merthyr Tydfil has been lost by Labour which half surprised me, half did not. I was rather surprised by the fact it is a very mining community and they do claim more benefits than most places in the UK. However, the place is so backwards and a bit of a dump (cue onslaught of abuse) that the voters must be protesting at the way they've been forced to live and see a way of improving this situation. Voters there must be very dissatisfied with Labour.

Finally, the Vale of Glamorgan has joined Monmouthshire by turning blue! Excellent news for the conservatives who seemed to be non-existent in Wales and they'll be pleased to gain a council that's not on the border. Newport and Cardiff are in between so maybe they could do a bit of work there next time.

Boris has won!?

As you are probably aware, I have been following the London Mayoral Contest closely and I have been especially the last 48 hours.
Betfair had Boris on 1.43 most of yesterday and he has shortened to 1.06 now! For those who don't understand decimals, the closer to 1.01, the more it is certain.

'Odds on' = 1.01-1.99
Evens = 2.00
Over = 2.01+

Now it looks certain that Boris will be mayor as Ken is on 17 and Boris has just changed to 1.05 as we speak.

Excellent news! Now I do hope that Boris will be very wise, please the public as much as he can to help the tories into power in 2010.

Let's pray that he doesn't fuff up!

Surprise!

Not too surprised eh?

This was meant to be posted months ago but Arnie forgot to publish it. D'oh!