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I took the test and apparently... What Classic Movie Are You? personality tests by similarminds.com Test found via Inveresk Street Ingrate.

If you want to understand religion, visit an area without any street lighting for miles around. I can recommend Lundy Island or the Dingle peninsula in the far West of Ireland. The stars are extraordinary. You may have read about the Milky Way: here you can see it. The sky is more than beautiful: it is overpowering. Auden asked: How should we like it were stars to burnWith a passion for us we could not return?With skies like this you feel that they do. When I mentioned this to someone, he suggested that if you mapped the decline of religion ...

David Cameron's response to Tony Blair's speech on education suggests he has more nous than many of his fellow Conservatives. Under Hague, Duncan Smith or Howard the response would almost certainly been to argue that it showed Blair was a dangerous socialist who must be stopped before he destroyed the country. Instead Cameron has welcomed the speech because it shows Blair has realised the Tories were right all along. This makes him sound statesmanlike and will infuriate the Labour backbenches, causing trouble for the prime minister. It is an approach Simon Carr, the Independent sketchwriter, has been urging on the ...

This article in The Independent on Sunday underlines the two basic failures of New Labour's constitutional reforms - the reluctance to introduce a fully elected House of Lords that is above Prime Ministerial patronage and accusations of positions being bought and outright resistance to reforming the finance of political parties so as to prevent suspicions of influence being bought by wealthy donors. Until those changes are brought in then none of the political parties will be seen to be above suspicion. If the Government is really concerned with improving standards in public life and tackling widespread disillusionment with politicians ...

Now if a politican had written this letter from yesterday's Guardian then he or she would have been quite rightly villified for failing to take the threat of bird flu seriously: "Are we absolutely certain the parrot is dead? Maybe it's just resting. It could also be pining for the fjords. (I know, I know - couldn't resist.) Mike Bitwistle Manchester Maybe we have some work to do to ensure that the full seriousness of this threat is appreciated by one and all.

I am taking advantage of my short break to try and catch up with my reading. In particular I am about eight issues of Private Eye behind the current edition. If you have heard this before therefore you will have to make allowances. I was fascinated to read that the National Archives have sold off the website that enables on-line access to the 1901 census. Apparently, this has been bought by Friends Reunited. Presumably the site will shortly be rebranded as 'ancestors reunited'.

My friend from sixth form and university (and housemate for three long years - no offence Andy!) wrote the winning entry in the Make Votes Count Electoral Reform essay competition this year. It's rather so good, so I'll just repeat it verbatim as it appears on their website. Good one Andy. How can voting reform rejuvenate British democracy? by Andrew Turner, Winchester “It would be a great reform in politics if wisdom could be made to spread as easily and rapidly as folly” – Winston Churchill British ...

A bit of a mixed metaphor I suppose. I was pleased that the Spirit Group withdraw their application for an extension of hours at the Sheldon Inn which has in recent years caused major problems. Regardless of the efforts of the manager and his wife the fact is that the Spirit group make it difficult to maintain order. It would have helped if they had given some notice of withdrawing the

Chris Black asked on his blog a couple of days ago if we care about democracy. Well today's debate in Westminster on the Electoral Adminstration Bill is a case in point. The Tories are worried about broadening democracy saying it will allow fringe groups to get more access, although they were relieved that it helped their survival in Scotland. The thing is that extreme groups will be open to

My good friend and colleague Mark tells me that those pesky Lib Dems have launched a new campaign against Labour's Identity Cards plans - take a look at www.libdems.org.uk/noidcards If I was very clever I would probably also be able to add a link button to my site. Sadly I am not.

overheard in a Whitby pub. Lewis Carroll visited Whitby, and its beach is supposed to have inspired The Walrus and The Carpenter. When not writing nonsense verse such as the W&theC, Jabberwocky and the Alice books he took photographs of children in a manner which today would have him in court. Man in pub 1: I'm a relative of that Lewis Carroll, I am. Man in pub 2: So are you a pervert as well?

A kind link to here from Liberal England misses its intended old posting on this blog on E.S Turner's "Roads To Ruin" so here is the actual direct link earlier. The upcoming BBC TV series on Bleak House may come out in interesting times...

Just before the main band played, Shanade the support act played. In the true spirit of John Peel (as opposed to the conspiring to sack your drummer after the gig spirit) Shanade, being a new artist on the local scene was given a support slot. I hope to arrange something like this each year. I have to say stunning songs...!! she is so talented, if you ever get the chance to see Shanade from Leamington Spa, do so. Her songs have been going round in my head all weekend. Fortunately I had a MiniDisk recorder at the desk and I ...

Well the Roebuck John Peel tribute gig went quite well, apart that is from the situation with the main band under, well to be fair, Trecherous Backstabbing and Blackmail was forced into a position where the Drummer was sacked the following day. Now I am just the sound engineer, I just plug things in and press 'On', so what do I know? Basically the Guitarist who has never played in a band before in his life decided that he was so indespensible that he could threaten to leave the band unless the Drumer was sacked and the singer songwriter ...