Saturday 2nd April 2005

Saturday 2nd April 2005

Pope's Legacy

Pope John Paul 11 died tonight aged 84. Not being a religious person myself, I can only say that his legacy transcends religion. He died with great dignity. His death has an effect on everybody worldwide. May he soul rest in peace?

The other side of Parliamentary life?

Recess Monkey (who, by the way, appears to be the only remaining willing participant in his Guardian Blog Award category) points to this intriquing site. It purports to be a blog outlining the awful life of an MPs wife. Whether it is genuine or not remains to be seen but I suspect that it will provide hours of amusement over the coming weeks, assuming that time can be found to read it in between leafletting and canvassing.

The campaign trail the new way to stay slim

I've been canvassing again today in my favourite PPC's seat. It was hot but fun. People were more than willing to talk. Tomorrow it is Leciester with maybe a sleep over. Walk walk walk, talk talk talk! At least it helps one figure. It's the best exercise in the world.

Exciting campaigning resources

The party has launch of our Internet campaigning resources page on it's web site - it allows our members and supporters to embed our message in to their web sites and blogs. We hope it will be a popular feature.

Eat, excrete and watch TV

A handy guide to tonight's TV: 7pm, BBC1: Doctor Who: The End of the World 7.45pm, BBC3: Doctor Who Confidential: Aliens - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly 8.20pm, BBC4: The Quatermass Experiment (live!)

Delay in the action of us...the activists

I hate easter, its the time when everyone goes on holiday at the same time, and in theis instance, James and I have been on well earned breaks too. We hope that the election campaign in Salisburry has not collapsed because of our absence, and we still strongly urge everyone to vote liberal democrat. Sorry for the non-news news, I thought I had better keep the site sum what a little updated until we were stretched to canvass again lol.

Reading Lord of the Flies today

I went to school in an era when it is was pretty much obligatory to study William Golding's Lord of the Flies for O level English Literature. In those days the novel was presented to us as an allegory about original sin, although my English teacher contested this conventional view and asked how civilisation ever arose if evil is inherent in man in the way that Golding appears to argue. The conventional view, however, is still offered by this website for modern-day high school students in America: We see the innate evil within the boys which is a reflection of ...

Welcome

I know we can look forward to an exciting election campaign. Across the country people are recognising that the liberal democrats are speaking up for principled, positive and honest politics. While the Tories, sorry Conservatives and Labour play Punch and Judy. I believe that liberal Democrats are being recognised as having the right policies and the right leadership to take our country into a prosperous future. In Wycombe we have seen the consequences of high handed Politians who take no notice of local people. The local health care trust is not accountable to local people but apparently it is not ...

Derek Wyatt

Anyone following the link to the 1976 Five Nations in the previous post may be interested to know that the D M Wyatt who came on as a replacement for England at Murrayfield is now Labour MP for Sittingbourne and Sheppey.

English rugby: The bad old days

The death the other day of Charles Kent at the early age of 51 brings back memories of an era when one did not so much support the English rugby team as suffer with it. (We heard faint echoes of them in the international season that has just ended.) Every selection seemed to contain half a dozen new caps, and the coaches were obsessed with elaborate tapped-penalty moves which never, ever came off.Kent's selection - he won five caps at centre in 1977 and 1978 - was based upon the insight that if England tried to string more than two ...

Tiny Tony

Who would've thought there going to be an election soon? Coming up, Gordon Brown on Footballers Wives, Charles Clarke on Doctor Who and John Prescott on Mastermind.

Oil price predicted to exceed $100 per barrel

Regular readers of this blog will be aware that I am concerned about the lack of response from government to matters relating to the depletion of crude oil. There are a number of websites and organisations which deal with matters relating to whether or not we should be concerned. www.hubbertpeak.com is one of the useful websites. This is named after the US Geologist who correctly predicted (in

Update on library

The old Library and Community Centre at Hook have been completely demolished now. This photo was taken from Elm Road. You can see that the prizewinning Citizens Advice Bureau building is still there. It is going to be incorporated into the new design. For earlier photos click here.

What is in a name?

Reading again this morning that the Conservative and Unionist Party are pressing ahead with their quest to have the name "Tory" dropped by broadcasters and having checked that it is no longer 1 April, I have assumed that they must be serious. Having been through a similar identity crisis with the Alliance, the Social and Liberal Democrats (Salads) and numerous other variations, my advice to them is don't go there. Then again if you are going to sow confusion amongst the electorate, whilst at the same time attracting scorn and derision from your opponents, the beginning of a General Election ...

Is not more, has ceased to be... just not quite yet

Simon Titley comments he finds the wall-to-wall coverage of the ailing Pope a bit ghoulish...I agree... Take the BBC Q&A on the Pope's condition given by their medical correspondent/doctor (that I was stupid enough to read yesterday and now can't find). Did I really need to know that elderly men often get urinary infections because they can't empty their bladder properly? Did I really WANT to know that? He's an elderly, ailing chap who is very ill. That's all we really need to know to get the picture.

Other unusual and gross facts I learnt yesterday

Woad was one of the original blues. Woad smells bad and dyes your hands. It smells so bad that woad-dyers had to live on the outskirts of medieval towns... I know the last bit because I watched "The Worst Jobs in History" some time ago, amongst which was woad dyer. This program also included that most reverend of jobs - the guy who wiped the King's backside (a well-respected job that obviously involved a lot of trust since you were standing right next to the king and directly behind him several times a day). Caput Mortuum means 'death's head' ...