Normally when I write these 'albums you should own', I'm writing about an album by a performer. Today is rather different - I'm discussing a compilation album featuring performers as diverse as Bobby Vee, Captain Beefheart, Miles Davis and the Monkees. Nonetheless, there is an overall artistic voice to the album, but it's not a [...]
It looks to me as if the Eastern Daily Press' website needs a sub editor.
January 16th has been designated the first International Fetish Day by someone-or-other following the huge success of National Fetish Day last year (what do you mean you didn't hear about it? Did you not see the sympathetic 12-page spread in the Mail?) What media coverage the day got last year was largely down to Ronnie Campbell MP not knowing what the word "fetish" meant. He initially lent his support under the misapprehension that a fetish was a kind of worry. Within the BDSM community (if such a thing exists), all was far from sweetness-and-light too. The debate is reminiscent of ...
Apparently global warming will slow the rotation of the planet. Water melting at the poles will migrate toward the equator, thus increasing the moment of inertia of the planet (ie, moving some of the mass away from the axis of rotation). To conserve angular momentum, the planet will slow a little. Days will become approximately one-tenth of a second longer, so don't lose sleep over this. Source: "Do Polar Bears Get Lonely", published by New Scientist.
I thought I would throw this one open to the blogsphere....any idea where I can find the Orange Book in PDF??
Tomorrow a swathe of well liked and well listened to local radio stations will be abolished to become part of the Heart FM group. This move, which will see much local content gone, with only the breakfast shows retaining any real local link are part of Heart FM's attempt to pretend to be a national network (whilst not paying for a national radio license), but essentially is about saving money. The question for me is will they retain listeners ? Our local station, Radio Broadland, has been going for 25 years and has a good listener base, but this is ...
It's not the most inspiring viewing, but this evening's episode has just contained a treat for anyone with an in British films. A scene between Wendy Craig (aged 74) and Ian Carmichael (aged 88). Craig is probably best remembered for playing dizzy housewives in sit coms, but she began acting in significant films like The Servant and The Nanny. Carmichael's long career was celebrated a couple of years ago by Paul Walter. He is best remembered for appearing in the Boulting Brothers films of the 1950s - though I always find him a little irritating in them - and was ...
I know Tories are getting excited about Celebrity Big Brother contestant Lucy Pinder claiming to be a "Tory girl", but I can't get over what an irritating voice she has. I guess with breasts like hers, you can see why she is photographed and not listened to !
...The Daily Mail doesn't!
When making coffee on the 4th of January 2009 do not use milk which has a 24th December 2008 use by date. One lump or two?
Another sixties classic. The Byrds playing the Bob Dylan song live (sort of) on American TV in 1965.
Sun 4th
20:12
The crime rate in Brussels might make people rethink the single site of the European Parliament
There is a considerable majority of MEPs and staff who support the idea of a single site for the European Parliament. Doing away with the monthly trek between Brussels and Strasbourg would be eminently sensible at various levels, not least economic and environmental. There has always been the assumption that the single site for the [...]
I wonder how many of you watched the appalling performance of Gordon Brown on the BBC this morning his feeble attempts to distance himself from any blame for the financial crisis were unconvincing. We have to remember that it was Gordon who was the Chancellor who was claiming all of the praise for the financial success that we were all enjoying until a short while ago. ...
So claims Peter Oborne, something which appears to have got the Tories into a right tizzy. Stephen Tall at Lib Dem Voice has debunked most of it so I will try to avoid repeating what he has said. It should also be pointed out that Clegg in particular has been linked to rumours (also by rightwing commentators) of planning a coalition with Cameron at various stages over the past couple of years. The idea that Vince Cable has suddenly become Gordon Brown's "poodle" because, um, Gordon Brown has finally started agreeing with Vince is ridiculous - is he really supposed ...
My old machine expired over the Christmas holiday, but I have a new one working in time to present the first Britblog Roundup of the new year. Gaza Being without a computer for a few days has left me unable to comment on the story of the week, but others have spoken up. Amused Cynicism writes on proportionality and how some commentators have tried to devalue the concept. Charles Crawford looks at the historic failures of Western diplomacy that have led to the current impasse. Back in London, Stop Gaza Massacre and Not a Sheep offer contrasting views of the ...
Click here I was fond of his candidacy and thought him a great Governor. As the first Latino anything I think he has to have wide shoulders. Let's see what happens to the investigation. Just imagine - if he were the GOP they'd be defending him through thick and thin - it would probably be par for the [...]
Iain Dale like George Bush supports the Israeli's in this war that is more beneficial for the people of Israel then the people of Palestine. Iain Dale has posted ranting about the protests against the violence by Israel that were attended by Ken Livingston among many other high profile people! The thing I don't understand is why, Iain Dale is so supportive of the Israeli's? I know that he goes for trips with other Tories to the Country but he needs to clean away the smoke from his glasses and realise that Israel are the terrorists in this war!
I write about quite a few BBC shows here, but very few ITV ones... Largely because ITV1 is rubbish, while the BBC at least tries occasionally. However, ITV tried something interesting last night, albeit with half a million fewer viewers than the announcement of Matt Smith for Doctor Who. Demons is Philip Glenister's new vehicle, not a Quattro but a British attempt at Buffy the Vampire Slayer. You can catch it again tonight at 8pm on ITV2, followed by the even more implausible Van Helsing - for classier horror pastiche, I'd turn to ITV3 at 7pm for Carry On Screaming ...
I have a new laptop and shall be posting this week's Britblog Roundup later this evening. In the mean time... This blog ranked 37th in the list of referrers to Iain Dale's Diary for 2008, having sent 3079 visitors his way last year. The list finds me sandwiched somewhat uncomfortably between John Redwood and Donal Blaney. Perhaps more significantly, I am not so far behind Lib Dem Voice. Lib Dem Voice itself lists the top five referrers to the party website for last year, and Liberal England is fourth: Jonathan Calder's presence in the top five is a tribute once ...
I decided I'd take a look back at last year and see how I did with my predictions/wishlist... "1. George Dubya to decide he's tired of being President and to stand down straight after the election which a Democrat (any Democrat, well almost any!) will win." Well this didn't quite happen but it's more than made up for by Obama's stunning victory. "2. The Lib Dems to be consistently polling in the mid 20s." Less said about this one the better! "3. British troops to be pulled out of Iraq." Seems like this might finally be happening with the handover ...
This is a hard blog for me to write; I pride myself on trying to keep the personal and the political separate but on this occasion feel I can't, besides there is an element of catharsis. I hope the reader will indulge me just this once. I was mugged yesterday; my assailant asked me for a cigarette and lighter which I provided and then I was told not to move or be beaten while he frisked the rest of my pockets. I lost about £50 cash and my mobile phone and it seems somewhere along the line a bit of ...
And after two very long posts, some light relief...
The problems - however astonishing and severe - are symptoms of the financial sector alone." Financial Times leader, 28.12.08 At the moment I would hazard a guess that we are about one-fifth of the way through the current crisis of Zeitgeist. I read last week, on one of the more respectable financial websites, that, with so many companies financially weak, 2009 would see 'a bonanza for mergers and acquisitions'. For the nth time, a member of the Cabinet parroted that "global problems require global solutions". Two UK banks seemed unwilling to take the hit for £32 billion worth of losses ...
With a hat-tip to Caron's Musings, I thoroughly recommend this passionate reflection on the situation in Gaza by Adrian Cruden.
I've pretty much avoided posting on this topic for a few reasons: 1) Time. I've been busy with essays and Christmas and didn't feel that I had the time to write about a subject that needed a more considered response. 2) I have a lot of friends who fall on both sides of the argument. Some who are supporting Israel and the IDF almost without question in its actions and others who are anti-Israeli with the same stubbornness. I think this same polarisation is played out across the worlds media. 3) I didn't really know what to write. What could ...
The draw for the 2008/09 FA Cup 4th round has just been announced, with undoubtedly the tie of the round being a Mersyside derby between Liverpool and Everton. For those who would like to know who's playing who, here is the complete list. Liverpool v Everton Southampton or Manchester United v Tottenham Hotspur Hull City or Newcastle United v Millwall or Crewe Alexandra Sunderland v Blyth Spartans or Blackburn Rovers Hartlepool United v West Ham United Leyton Orient or Sheffield United v Charlton Athletic or Norwich City Chelsea or Southend United v Ipswich Town Cheltenham or Doncaster Rovers v Aston ...
Today's Observer brings us the story of how the NHS is spending money on getting celebrities to take part in health information campaigns but insisting on keeping the details secret in case it puts people off: The Department of Health, which increasingly uses actors, singers, television stars and sports personalities to convince the nation to adopt healthier habits, refuses to admit how much it spends on celebrity campaigns. Now critics have accused the government of "unacceptable secrecy" following speculation that stars are being paid up to £10,000 a day for their appearances. The DoH has rejected a bid by the ...
Throughout the festive season, LDV is offering our readers a load of repeats another chance to read the 12 most popular opinion articles which appeared on the blog during 2008. The second most popular opinion article was by Alix Mortimer, and appeared on LDV on 16th November... After Baby P: what can be done? Recently, Lib Dem Voice has been snowed under with hits and comments from new readers, all expressing their anger in the face of the Baby P tragedy. (If you're a regular, you won't find anything in this post you don't already know - fear not, normal ...
I am reasonably confident that come Friday Drypool will appear as a Conservative loss in the previous night's local by-elections. The by-election in Hull comes about because of the resignation of a former Liberal Democrat councillor who switched to the Tories and was found to be living and working in Guernsey yet still claiming his Councillor's [...]
When pubs are closing at the rate of nearly 5 a week in response to the low prices being charged by supermarkets for alcohol coupled with the recession, it seems rather ludicrous for health groups to moan about one pub chain offering a pint for 99p. As I recall this was the price charged in my old student union from 1994-97 and I have to say it never did me any harm. The problem with a lot of health campaigners is that they fail to understand that it is the rise of the supermarkets and the lack of control they ...
On Friday, I didn't clean the flat. Then I made a short video about it. Marvellously, that wasn't the end of it. A second verse in Exhibit A: A third verse in Exhibit B: Dino Ron in Exhibit C: A special guitar in Exhibit D: And a synth pop remix with new fourth verse in Exhibit E: To join in with the most exciting musical meme of 2009 (so far), make a video, upload it to YouTube, and post it as a video response to the original video.
Wow what a backlash there has been to the decision to make Matt Smith the next Doctor, as I blogged yesterday the Internet was abuzz before, during and especially after the reveal finally happened. Firstly having jokingly suggested that LibDemBlogs should have been renamed yesterday evening due to the Whovian throughput I'm shocked that so many Lib Dem friends* hadn't seen him in the excellent Party Animals but maybe that is shaded by the fact that some of the rest seem to be equally political drama and sci-fi geeks. There appear to be three main bones of contention age, race ...
The BBC have been going a bit over the top about Plymouth Argyle's FA Cup Third Round tie against some north London team. It wasn't as if Argyle, nicknamed the pilgrims, had don...
Over the last few days my TV has been getting temperamental and sometimes needing a reboot before it would listen to the remote control. Yesterday, it stopped responding altogether. This is Not Good, because without the remote I couldn't tell it to switch to the particular input that my shiny Mac Mini was plugged into, and so I couldn't watch DVDs.So today I went out to buy the nice big monitor that I've been procrastinating about for over a year. At PC World, home of the High Pressure Salesworm and the Bait-and-Switch Monster. But I successfully made my saving throw ...
The most marvellous thing Doctor Who brings me in 1994 is Richard, obviously, but you can't buy one. Low-budget video Shakedown - Return of the Sontarans beats any BBC Sontaran story, while the Master returns in a book (but which? Dun-dun-dahh...!). New Adventures highlights include Conundrum's fun and games, Tragedy Day's telethon satire (and openly gay character), and hugely entertaining Sherlock Holmes-Doctor Who-Cthulhu hustle crossover All-Consuming Fire. And with Sylv's Doctor doing brilliantly, a new range beckons for the rest... Doctor Who: The Missing Adventures - Venusian Lullaby "'Remember us, Doctor,' he breathed. 'I beg of you, remember us all.'" ...
Sun 4th
14:08
Gaza, Geneva Convention 1949 and War Crimes - reference to International Criminal Court
It appears that the lessons learnt at the end of the 1800s with the Hague Conventions and the 1949 Geneva Conventions have been forgotten in Gaza. Much that the rockets should not have been fired on Israel, Israel's actions in Gaza in that they are resulting in the unnecessary deaths of non-combatants are in clear contravention of the 1949 Geneva Convention. Those firing rockets were also in
Congratulations to Paul Flynn, who has been pursuing the multi-billion pound subsidy to an American company in the event of a catastrophic accident at Sellafield during part of the massive £93 billion clean-up of the nuclear legacy there. As the Independent on Sunday reveals the Government pushed through the handover of Sellafield to a private business at breakneck speed because it feared that the "unstable management arrangements" of the controversial Cumbrian nuclear complex risked its safety. In doing so they effectively by-passed Parliamentary scrutiny by preventing MPs challenging the deal. The paper tells us that 'the cover-up arises from the ...
It could happen to anyone of us. We are coming back from shopping, get out of a taxi laden down with bags and lose our wallet. Culture Secretary, James Purnell was lucky to get everything back including his cash, credit cards and debit cards. He was lucky too that his House of Commons pass was handed into the local police as well. It could well have been used to gain access to sensitive areas of government. Mr. Purnell was also the Cabinet Minister who misplaced confidential documents relating to a benefit claim when he travelling by rail from Cheshire to ...
It's been a busy few weeks since we last delved into the Archives at LDV Towers, so here's a little snapshot of what's been happening here since we last rounded up. You can't have failed to miss our 12 Op-Eds of Christmas, a round-up of all your favourite writing from the blog throughout 2008. You can find all twelve at this tag link. There are still a few more to come, taking us up to when we at LDV towers take the tree out for recyling, take our Christmas cards to Smiths or Marks, and carefully wrap up the baubles ...
An old friend of mine, Adrian Cruden, posted the article below on Facebook last night. I thought it was brilliant and deserved circulating to a wider audience. I first knew Adrian through Scottish Young Social Democrats back in the day. He's now with the Greens and stood in a Council by-election for them a couple of months ago in Dewsbury. "they will bring upon themselves a bigger shoah (holocaust)", by Adrian Cruden A tiny area, packed with tens of thousands of people in cramped, inadequate, decaying buildings; with no one allowed in or out; water supplies cut and barely enough ...
Saturday: Oooh, what a DISASTER! A whole half hour of this year's Doctor Who Christmas special accidentally deleted, meaning they had to broadcast the REAL Next Doctor as "Doctor Who Confidential"! Here is a publicity still of the new Dr Who... the Doctor in Twilight {Posted by Picasa} ...and here is another one. the Doctor in Sulk {Posted by Picasa} Er. Anyway, Daddy Richard hasn't told you all about the Christmas Special yet, so this seems like an OPPORTUNE MOMENT to prod him into a seasonal review. Happy New Year... Doctor Who has never had a moment quite like it. ...
But my enthusiasm was dampened when I read it is only a painting. As Irfan Ahmed makes clear, this is a shocking waste of £100,000 of taxpayers money.
A break from the dark, dingy world of politics. To the world of Doctor Who! The eleventh Doctor was revealed yesterday, as the 26-year old Matt Smith. I must admit, I wasn't the only Doctor Who nutter who was a bit shocked. A couple of texts to a few friends later, and we came to a similar conclusion. We'll wait and see. Which is probably the best thing. We've all been proved wrong before. When Catherine Tate was announced as a permanent companion, I was horrified. But she soon became the best companion I've seen since the show returned (why, ...
Before he departed on extended holiday, lucky sod, to the far east Jeff would often engage is a little Friday Blog Love, so when I say this I thought of him. Don't worry Ann not in that way. Apparently those clever scientists have found evidence that the early highs of love are still present and reachable by those who have been together for 20 years. Ah bless. When showing pictures of their loves ones there was as much passion detected in brain scans in those long term couples as those deemed to be in the first throws of love. Previous ...
In November, following Tavish Scott's visit to Dundee to see local housing projects, I again highlighted the fact that the SNP government, whilst creating a lot of media spin about assisting the provision of providing more affordable housing in Scotland, had, in reality, been poor at actual delivery of the policy in communities across Scotland. Click on the headline above to view my earlier article. For 2008-9, Housing Association Grant for Dundee was reduced to £7.7 million by the SNP. This represents the poorest level of allocation in years - the figures below from a parliamentary answer from the Minister ...
Rupert Jones reports for the Guardian: ... government ministers' pension pots are defying the stock market slump and are up by 10% in a year, it emerged this week. Research by the Liberal Democrats revealed that high-profile ministers have pension pots worth more than 10 times the average in the private sector. Gordon Brown has a personal ministerial pension pot of £274,000. Justice secretary Jack Straw's is £294,000 and chancellor Alistair Darling's is £235,000. Lib Dem work and pensions spokesman Lord Oakeshott says: "Ministers and mandarins live in a pensions time warp. They look like the first world war general ...
Margret Thatcher is going to cost £100,000 to come back to Downing Street in the form of a painting. ConservativeHome have posted about how a painting of Margret Thatcher will be hung in Downing Street from February onwards. I don't know who is paying the £100,000 but I think its the tax payer and personally I have to say I do not support the payment to hang a picture of Thatcher in Downing Street. The only thing Thatcher brought to the Country was a shamble and she made a mess or the economy and the Country, now Labour has cleared ...
Israeli ground troops have gone into the Gaza Strip, in what Israeli military sources have called a 'limited operation'. Major Avital Leibovitch told reporters in Jerusalem that 'we are going to take some of the launch areas used by Hamas'. That suggests a quick, surgical strike, but it certainly won't be like that in reality. [...]
Do you find taking sides in a two-sided conflict too challenging? Want to throw your Manolo Blahniks where it really counts? May I recommend the Zimbabwean and South African embassies. The Zimbabwean Embassy is conveniently located on the Strand so you can finish your protest with tea in the Savoy. Better yet, it's just a short march with placards to the South African Embassy on Trafalgar Square
Police have arrested two teenagers after a woman narrowly escaped serious injury when a bucket of set cement was dropped from a balcony over Abbotswood shops. In an earlier incident teenagers smashed a window of one of the shops.Police patrols have been increased in the area.Anyone with information about the latest incident, which happened on December 16, should contact police in Chipping Sodbury or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.The Gazette has more details of the Abbotswood incidents.
Looking back at the US election the most astounding thing was the story that didn't really surface and illustrated the real weakness of the Republican case. The story is the casual accord that was drawn up between the two campaigns over Sarah Palin's Pastor Muthee. First, you'd think it would have been an open goal for the [...]
Somewhere between 12 and 60,000 people wasted a fine winter afternoon protesting about Israel/Palestine in front of 10 Downing Street yesterday. I say 'wasted' an afternoon because the Prime Minister of the UK can do absolutely nothing useful about Israel. He can make some noise, but no one will listen to him anyhow and it's not really any of his business. Several hundred protesters grabbed a
So here we are. Yesterday was 16 days on from the start of the Great Bin Challenge - and we did it! All our 'residual' waste for a family of three, our visitors and the dog in one 140 litre bin (the green one). Also shown are the (very full) recycling boxes for paper, glass, [...]
Based on the amount of traffic they've passed on to www.libdems.org.uk during 2008, the top five blogs were (with changes in brackets from last year's top five): Liberal Democrat Voice (no change) Iain Dale (no change) Lynne Featherstone (+1) Liberal England (+1) Jo Christie-Smith (NEW) Iain will, I'm sure, be flattered as ever to know he is so nice to the Liberal Democrats {:-)} (For the list of the top five local sites, see yesterday's post.) No great surprise that Ming Campbell's site dropped out of the top five after he stepped down from being leader. Nick Clegg's new national ...
So, yes. A kind insider told me the casting news before I went to work. After the initial crushing disappointment of it not being any of my preferred choices, there was a period of elation that it wasn't any of the ones I was dreading either. This has settled into a sort of shrugging not-botheredness. I kind of share Chicky Yog's underwhelmedness that they have replaced one scrawny, young, pale guy with another, and I think strangefrontier is dead on about the age thing - it's not the viewer's reactions to his age that matters, it's the other characters - ...
{Matt Smith as drawn by (c) Paul J. Holden.} Matt Smith as drawn by (c) Paul J. Holden.This can't be a nine wishes for 2009 because he won't actually be appearing in the role until 2010, but I am intrigued by the casting of Matt Smith for the 11th Doctor Who. It appears to have upset a great many people and in this X-Factor age everyone seems to think they should have been consulted (imagine if they'd gone down the talent show route... Brrr!). What is most striking is that most of the objections appear to be based on what ...
Following it as I do from several stops up the St Pancras to Bedford line I obviously miss out on a lot of the ins and outs of London politics, but I do know this, there is very little doubt that Ken Livingstone wants to be Mayor of London again. As early as July he made it clear that he is serious about running in 2012. However, he has a number of obstacles, aside from Boris and the London
