My predictions for World Cup 2010 are still on course. Uruguay beat South Korea without really breaking sweat. Mexico were well beaten by Argentina all be it with a very iffy first goal thrown into the mix. The ref was put in a hell of a situation because they showed the replay which indicated an Argentinian was off side a few seconds after he had awarded the goal and could not rescind it. The players went nuts but what was he supposed to do? A similar situation happened with the Germany v England match. Germany were comfortable 4-1 winners and ...
It's late on Sunday evening as I write these words, and it's been a pretty good weekend. Ros and I have spent the weekend expanding into our new building, which is shorthand for 'Ros has organised everything and I've done what I'm told to do'. The sun has shone, the odd glass of wine has been drunk, the barbecue has been cranked into action for the first time this summer, and life looks a lot clearer all of a sudden. I am, it seems, beginning to get the hang of village life. Paying our annual subscription for 'The Grapevine', our ...
Doing two days at once seemed to work over the weekend, and I'm going out tomorrow night, so here is a poll on the matches for tomorrow and Tuesday: View Poll: #1584726 Three of this weekend's matches had the expected result (sorry, England fans, but you were outvoted 3-1 in my poll and 4-1 on the field). The USA-Ghana match was evenly split, 34 of you backing each team. It is not therefore surprising that 19 people out of 68 called all four of the weekend's matches correctly. They were: protectedstar, dubaiwalla, chickenfeet2003, redfiona99, bopeepsheep, hani, wm_james, wowou, tokyolights, guad, ...
The Chorlton Beer Festival is on next weekend at St Clements Church. No football to get in the way now....
Yesterday afternoon I was sat in Starbucks enjoying a coffee (triple shot venti skinny latte) and sandwich when I read the story on page 5 of The Guardian "Being London mayor would suit me: Öpik" and nearly choked on my coffee. Well Lembit it may suit you, but will it suit Londoners? Deep down no, I really, really don't think so. Lembit, you really must learn that just because you think something is a great idea, not everyone will be with you as over recent years in various roles and things you have done within the Party. I was the ...
This morning another church in Yarm marked a milestone but this one isn't quite such a happy one - the Anglican congregation celebrated the retirement of Simon, rector since November 2001. The parish has seen some changes in that time and no doubt will see more in the future. Meanwhile it was an occasion for sharing fellowship and wishing Simon and family well for the future, with a suitably
As there is nothing else on television I am catching up on Thursday's Welsh political programmes and was intrigued at the interview on ITV Wales' Sharp End with Ed Milliband. During that conversation he stated that Labour had promised in their manifesto to look at the Barnett formula, the mechanism used by Government to calculate how much money comes to the Welsh Assembly. This is the first time I have heard such a claim so I had a look myself. Although the wording is fairly imprecise I think it is clear that what is being promised is not a review ...
As many no, I am no fan of the coalition deal. But it appears that my worst fears might be proved right about the capitulation of Lib Dem MPs to David Cameron when you see that Lib Dem poll ratings are falling whilst those for the Tories are increasing. It is an obvious and logical conclusion for electors to decide that if the coalition does it a good job then they should support the larger partner in the coalition because as the larger partner, they deserve more praise than the junior partner. Similarly, it is hard for the Lib Dems ...
Following on from a Youtube clip I posted last month of Nick Clegg speaking Dutch, I thought I would continue the 'series' with a clip of him speaking Spanish. Apparently he learnt Spanish for the sole purpose of wooing his wife-to-be! It must be coming in very useful now though in his role as Deputy Prime Minister for when he has to attend inter-government conferences.
Not content with the immense trouble that I am having with my family, I am also struggling to have any kind of peace and quiet in my house of late. My next door neighbour who used to be a friend is currently waging one hell of a hate campaign against me. Not content with stealing ...
Labour leadership candidate Ed Miliband has joined his more improbable rival Ed Balls in backing a National Union of Students campaign that seeks to replace Labour's tuition fees policy with a 20 year graduated graduate supplement on income tax. [IMG: NUS graduate tax] If adopted and supported by a future Labour government this would be a highly retrograd step, moving Labour back towards the economics of punitive socialism and away from the economically liberal centre-ground. Graduate taxes per se are not automatically an entirely awful proposal. If proportional and used as a mechanism of loan repayment, i.e. the actual cost ...
so the BBC said this evening and they weren't wrong. After an appalling performance which led to a 4-1 defeat to Germany this afternoon the England team are heading back home with their heads hanging in shame. That should be the end of it but we know it wont be. The team needs to be ...
This is a throbbing sensual romance about the serving girl who falls in love with the prince, set among America's East Coast aristocracy, involving also a murder mystery which is resolved by a caring and sensitive police detective who violates all credible investigative routine to do so. There is much flashbacking to the mid-20th century (the book was written and set in 1988). I got hold of it for the totally spurious reason that one of the characters, described as "somber yet dashing", rejoices in the name of Nicholas Whyte, but he turns out to have little to do with ...
Prepare yourself for a round of deep scorn, flagellation and recrimination from the tabloids as the inquest into the England football team's well-deserved World Cup humiliation at the hands of 'The Old Enemy', Germany, gets under way from tomorrow. The wise-after-the-event will be dusting off their professional outrage in the traditional quadrennial inquest into the ...
Welcome to the Broxtowe Enews, brought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by David Watts, the leader of Broxtowe Borough Council. We've on;y had one new subscriber this week, the first time for ages that new numbers have been that low, but a special welcome to that new reader. 1. Free Swimming You may have read in the press that the coalition Government have withdrawn the funding for free swimming places as one of the spending cuts that they have been forced to make. That cut is due to come into effect at the end of July. I ...
I'm including the 1983 results for completeness but, as you'll see below, the records seem to have been largely lost. The share calculations are all over the place and most of the names are missing but, assuming the party standing are accurate, it looks like the best year to date for the Liberal/SDP Alliance. 05/05/83 1983 Stockport Bredbury (10851) @ 1 vote share ? Ms. Lib/SDP 3101 49.4 Treharne A. Con 1794 28.6 ? Lab 1336 49.4 ? Ecol 48 49.4 ffff 1980: Lab Turnout 57.9 20.8 Brinnington (8824) @ 1 vote share ? Ms. Lab 2939 74.6 ? Con ...
Liberal Democrat MP Adrian Sanders argues that the nastiness of Labour's campaign against us shows they "simply don't understand what has and is happening in the world around them". David Boyle on The Real Blog thinks that Prince of Wales is right over Chelsea Barracks. "What are we, who believe that aesthetics are the proper concern of local people, to do?" he asks. "Prince Charles may not be the perfect instrument for a democratic age, but he is no less democratic than his opponents." Missives from Doktorb supports John Leech's campaign for "Jerusalem" to be the anthem for all English ...
A selection of other peoples thoughts that have caught my eye and made me think today. Malcolm Wood on making VAT fair The Quiet man on England going out The safety valve on technology in football Mark Pack on Daily Mail blunders Fraser Macpherson on a not very observant Observer
...About the randomness that has pervaded my twitter stream over the last few days. As some of my more regular readers may know, I have something of a rather strange family. Though I am related by blood to them, there is no contact. This is now of my chosing despite the attempts of some at ...
And so another week with Rutland's most popular fictional peer draws to a close. Sunday After every general election, it behoves us to remember those among our colleagues who fell in action: we say a prayer for them at St Asquith's this morning. In the ensuing silence - and before the enthusiastic rendering of 'The Last Post' by a member of the Rutland Army Cadet Force - I think of Richard Younger-Ross and Julia Goldsworthy, victims both of unfortunate misunderstandings over household furnishings, of Paul Rowen in Rochdale and of Sandra Gidley in Romsey. Some of our chaps, of course, ...
We can talk about the goal that never was, the free kick that hit the crossbar and 101 other excuses but the stark, open and honest truth is we were just not good enough. If you're about to argue reflect on this.....today was actually our best performance of the tournament. Says it all really! Still at least we beat the Aussies today!
So, England is out of the 2010 World Cup, some may say just a few days after they should have been. However, before everyone turns on Fabio Capello we have to remember that this is a team game and every single player on the squad has to take their share of the responsibility as does the FA and I really hope they all do so. Despite being completely out played in the first twenty minutes we have to ask what would have happened if the German goalkeeper had been honest in the 39th minute when Frank Lampard's chip beat the ...
Fresh from the Mail's triumph of journalism where it exposed an MP sending tweets in the middle of the night (only a pedant would point out that the Mail's journalist read the time wrong and in fact the tweets were sent during the day), we have the Mail's splash on how Steve Jobs may be planning to recall iPhone 4s (and again only a pedant would point out that the Mail's journalist failed to see the words pointing out that the Twitter account is a spoof). Makes you want to work for the Mail so you can share in the ...
The Usual Suspects have today been getting hot under the collar about the absolute certainty that the EU is going to ban the sale of eggs in dozens. We'll have to have them in 1.923 kgs packs in future. Man the ramparts! Pull up the drawbridge! It's an outrage! An attack on the British way of life! Bring on the photo of a bulldog in a Union Jack waistcoat! Blimey. Is it really worth getting hot and bothered about this? It's not going to happen. It never does. I've gone back to the original story in the Grocer magazine about ...
I wish I had stayed at the Highgate Horticulture Society's 150th birthday celebration. This beautiful and amazing garden is open on the 10th and 11th of July to the public. It is glorious. You would expect those who are involved in horticultural pursuits to have a nice garden - but this is a wonderland of meandering colour, plants and trees of absolute delight. The house (and garden obviously) belong to the Chair and his wife, the Treasurer, of the Highgate Horticultural Society and this was their Summer Garden party to celebrate the anniversary of the Society's very first flower show ...
Julian Astle, of the think-tank CentreForum, has an interesting piece on the Telegraph's website: 'Lib Dem back cuts to reinvent the State - not to reduce it'. This rather chimes with my view that the coalition will be looking at changing the relationship between the citizen and the State. There are, of course, liberals who do wish to reduce the State as well as the small State Tories that Astle mentions. In fact, some liberals want no State at all. Arguably, it isn't just about the size of the State. A small State is still a State and can be ...
So let's look at the negatives thus far. We're down in the polls to our more typical 3rd party position. Our main headlines have been about sex and expenses scandals, mainly proffered from the right, and blame for going along with severe fast-track 'Tory' budget cuts and a VAT rise that we campaigned against, by Labour. And the centre/left media which is typically supportive lampoons our leader as Cameron's arse, to boot! Obama appears to be warning, similarly to Labour, the danger of cutting the deficit too far too fast. Intellectually we are accused of no longer representing the legacy ...
Firstly I would have to admit to considering the original invasion of Afghanistan back in 2001 to have been justified as a counter attack upon Al-Qaeda after the 911 outrage that cost 67 British lives amongst the nearly 3000 fatalities. Al-Qaeda seemed to be a tangible symbiotic entity with camps and infrastructure living amidst the cruel, almost medieval Taliban regime. Something we could fight back at and that in doing so we would be safer. When the initial victory came, Al-Qaeda fled and the Taliban regime was broken there was the supporting justification of liberating the Afghan people and particularly ...
This is a time when we should all be pulling together, yet here we are, in the middle of a general election which could leave the country desperately divided. The election itself will not solve any of our problems. Our present troubles will still be with us long after the result has been announced. Our need then will not be for confrontation but for partnership, and your vote could help to bring about that spirit of unity which our country so badly needs. ... Even forty or fifty Liberal Members in the next parliament would be enough to change the ...
An impressively quick and direct response to my message. First the auto-reply: You've shared your idea with us, thank you. Was it a food idea? The food team meet every Wednesday afternoon to discuss our food and everything our customers have suggested. If you've suggested a new shop, we are growing, but slowly (one at a time, no rush) so it's just possible that there will be a Pret closer to you one day. Whatever you've said will be added to our weekly report that's passed round the the whole company. Clive, Julian, and the rest of the directors pore ...
The Friend of Selly Oak Park organised a successful Selly Oak Festival on Saturday, coinciding with the visit of the Fair to the park.One of the attractions included a demonstration of woodcarving. On display was the pillar to the right, which will eventually be a permanent feature in the park. This and other carvings, many using wood from trees in the park itself, will introduced as part of a
The first-ever and highly successful Dundee WestFest ends today with its parade and party - here's a short video clip from the events at Magdalen Green this afternoon. WestFest has been a superb success, with over 70 events taking place over the week. The WestFest team deserve our thanks and congratulations on organising such a superb series of events - roll in WestFest 2011!
Today's Observer makes wild allegations, claiming that half of Liberal Democrat voters are ready to defect. Scratch beneath the surface and you find that it is based on private polling for the Ed Miliband Labour Leadership campaign and, as Political Betting highlights, more Liberal Democrat voters are more likely to vote LibDem over the Coalition Government's budget proposals over Child Benefit, than are less likely to vote LibDem. The Observer chose only to highlight those less likely to vote Liberal Democrat, thus making their article nonsense. As Political Betting says : "One of the great things about the polling transparency ...
Well that was pretty awful. England's second goal should have stood and should have hidden a woeful performance: I couldn't see us being so gung-ho at 2-2 as we were at 2-1. Germany would probably have still won though: they were much better than England. So what could be done about the ridiculous goal line decision? I'm not convinced by the introduction of technology but I'm even less convinced by FIFA's arguments against. According to the media there seem to be three basic issues and one lame one that they raise: Fans enjoy debating the controversyThat it can't be done ...
Not your typical Aardman animation, and in fact quite... dark. Have a look at the Pearce Sisters, which was one of the shorts at the Hay festival. Aardman have disabled embedding, so I'll wait here while you go and have a look. Hum-ti-him... Done? I love the style. I also like the fact that the central characters show moments of tenderness. The dark humour is also very successful.
Just when you thought that the economic mess left behind by Labour could not get any worse the Observer reveals that Gordon Brown's Treasury has been dramatically understating the cost of paying public sector pensions. The official bill to taxpayers for future retirement payments is put at £15bn a year, but the actual cost is £30bn, according to John Ralfe, one of the UK's leading pension experts. This means that costs of £120bn to £150bn have gone unrecognised in government accounts since 1997. The Office for Budget Responsibility put the figure close to Ralfe's, at £26bn, in its report on ...
The coverage, particularly from the Labour-supporting press and bloggers make it look as though last week's budget was an early apocalypse. Which is a bit rich, given that a Labour government would have had to do something similar, right about now, as by now they'd have had to admit that the figures which they used for their March "budget" bore no relationship to reality whatsoever. The reality is that from early April, a lot of the private sector was expecting a VAT rise after the election (regardless of who was in charge) and there was a fair bit of planning ...
England is about to step out onto the field to play Germany in a historic World Cup clash. Our two nations have had our historical animosities but it is nice to see the papers aren't revelling today in events of 70 years ago. As someone who has lived in Germany, it is remarkable to me how similar our two nations are. We both like beer, football, our food tastes are pretty similar, and, believe it or not, our sense of humour and mindset aren't quite as far apart as some British newspaper would like to imagine. If America and Britain ...
George Osborne's Budget can't really be described as anything other than grim despite the clear Liberal Democrat contribution to make it fairer. In Scotland this means that 2 million basic rate taxpayers will benefit from the raising of the tax threshold and a million pensioners will be better off because of the restoration of the earnings link to the State Pension. Certainly it was vital that the Government took action to deal with the mess that Labour had left it. This is a mess that makes the Winter of Discontent and Black Wednesday look like mere frivolities. Don't blame us, ...
I am all set for the football this afternoon with the fainl piece of the jigsaw complete. We had already sorted what we will do, where we will watch the game and we now know the team, So what is the final piece of the puzzle ? Belief. Yes, like every England fan, I have convinved myself that man for man, on paper, as things stand, England have 11 better players than Germany and that we will win. Now all I have to do is be ready fopr the disappointment.
You know when you eat something bad and feel like you want to throw up? For ages you think you couldn't feel any worse - then you actually do throw up and its horrendous. That more or less encapsulates how I have felt since the coalition was formed. That sick feeling in my stomach started on that infamous Tuesday evening when the coalition nuptials took place and has continued, getting worse with each new announcement - leaving me devastated this Tuesday with the budget - and culminating in the meeting of CHYPS (Confederation of Heads of Young People's Services) I ...
I'm at Reading Station (Station Approach, Station Hill, Reading). http://4sq.com/6xT7ED # I'm at Bulmershe Leisure Centre (Woodlands Avenue, Woodley). http://4sq.com/crH7Sq # Fire alarm. Everybody out! #fb # A spider! A flipping spider! You woke me up for a spider! #fb # Had hoped to benefit from the increased income tax allowance, but as my salary for the next year is less than >>2500 it makes no d ... # -time job! #fb # Vuvuzela concert spoiled by outbreak of football. #fra #rsa #worldcup #fb # In from work and off for a shower #fb # Bad light stops play at ...
A couple of post-budget polls show post-budget combined support for the coalition parties remarkably steady – one at 59% and the other 56%, but with a move from the Lib Dems to the Tories, with Labour also picking up a bit of support and "others" squeezed down. Unsurprisingly, the budget is less popular with Lib Dem voters than Tory voters. It's less popular with our activists too. Most Lib Dems recognise the need for tough action to sort out the mess the nation's finances are in, and Nick and Vince have been talking about it for long enough. But the ...
It has become fashionable in the last few days to describe VAT as a "regressive", and by implication unfair, tax. This is usually followed by complaint about how hypocritical it is of the Liberal Democrats to agree to an increase in its rate. But VAT is not, by the simplest definition, a regressive tax. A regressive tax is one where the rate of taxation decreases as the value of the thing being taxed increases. A progressive tax is the other way round. Income tax is progressive, because those on higher incomes pay a higher rate of tax on it. Council ...
A footnote to my post from the general election campaign, Hasn't Charlie Whelan admitted Unite is breaking the law?. Finally, after nearly three months the Information Commissioner has ruled on the complaint and is writing to Unite to "recommend" they change their data protection registration. As to why the Information Commission didn't take any action whilst all the phoning was going on and instead waited until the phoning was all over, the data gathered, the data used, the votes all cast and the results decided? The Information Commissioner's office says "Please accept my apologies". Not quite regulation at its best. ...
I like many Liberal Democrats was furious with the budget this week and wondered how it could ever be called progressive when there were measures that hit the poor harder than the rich. However the fact is that we are the junior partners in this coalition. This means that the budget was always going to be a Tory budget. Vince isn't the chancellor, Osborne is. Nick isn't the PM, David Cameron is. As much as we hate it, The Tories hold the purse strings However some real Liberal Democrat concessions are occurring. For example the Coalition is getting criticism from ...
We last Richard Thompson as part of Fairport Convention in 1970. Since then, after a series of albums with his then wife Linda, he has become famous as a a solo performer - though he is still widely acknowledged to be less celebrated than he deserves. This is the final track on his 1999 album Mock Tudor. It resembles a Patricia Highsmith novel: we learn that the protagonist has stolen our jokes and the way we walk, and then it turns more sinister.
I think it is fair to say that for the Liberal Democrats one of the most unedfying parts of the coalition agreement was the section on immigration. However, according to today's Mail on Sunday, who clearly do not approve, we are having some success in watering down Tory proposals even on this aspect of the government's programme. They say that Home Secretary Theresa May has been accused of watering down a Tory pledge to bar immigrants unless they can speak good English. The promise was a central part of David Cameron's Election campaign. But it has now been disclosed that ...
The BBC this morning reports that to merge Powys council and its coterminous eponymous local health board have hit the buffers after a report found there were "major obstacles to overcome". Their consultants, KPMG have said that one of these obstacles is the Local Health Board's £20m deficit and its different decision making processes. The objective is to look to integrate services as widely as possible so as to generate efficiency savings of between £6m and £14m. This is of course still possible and both of these two obstacles can be overcome with some political will on the part of ...
Name of ward: Kempston North Council: Bedford Electoral Region: East England Last Contested: June 2009 Ant Caprioli (Liberal Democrat) 272 votes (19.8% +4.7%) Shan Hunt (Labour) 715 votes (52.2% +9.0%) Martin Quince (Conservative) 384 votes (28.0% -13.6%) Labour HOLD with a majority of 331 votes (24.2%) on a swing from Conservative to Labour of 11.3% Name of ward: Mostyn Council: Conwy Electoral Region: Wales Last Contested: May 2008 Garry David BURCHETT (Conservative) 310 votes (36.2% +9.5%) Jobi HOLD (Labour) 348 votes (40.7% +11.5%) Janet JONES (Independent) 198 votes (23.1% -8.1%) Labour HOLD with a majority of 38 votes (4.5%) on ...
The highlight of my past week was attending the gala opening of the South London Gallery's stunning two million pound building project. Specialising in contemporary art exhibitions and 'live art', the SLG has now doubled in size with the creation ... Continue reading →
One of the things my wife-to-be (in less than six weeks now, aarrggh!) is always on at me about is that I have never been camping. This is something she'd like to correct, whereas it's very much something I'd like to preserve. My rationale is that since Man progressed several thousand years ago from canvas dwellings into more sturdy ones, there is no need to pretend we're all subsistence farmers again and move back into tents. Sadly, she cites things like "nature" and "tranquility" as reasons to forego running water and post-Victorian toilet facilities and de-camp modernity. Don't get me ...
A quick follow-up to my post with YouGov's party I.D. figures as I've now got ComRes's equivalent figures, these taken from its penultimate election poll: Party I.D. Labour 32.5% (YouGov), 39% (ComRes) Conservatives 28.5% (YouGov), 35% (ComRes) Lib Dem 12% (YouGov), 17% (ComRes) Measuring underlying party I.D, as opposed to current voting intention, is a notoriously difficult process as people's general political views expressed to pollsters often move closely in step with their voting intention. Therefore the differences in numbers for each party between the two pollsters are not too surprising and it is more significant that the pattern is ...
I was inspired to buy this by Farah Mendlesohn's Rhetorics of Fantasy, which ranks it as a key exemplar of one of the four modes of fantasy story-telling, the 'liminal' in which the boundary with the fantastic is hazy and uncertain; other examples being Little, Big (which I bounced off) and the first two Gormenghast books (which I remember loving as a teenager). I think it also fits a lot of Neil Gaiman's work. I am firmly on the side of the fans of Lud-In-The-Mist. It is a superb tale of the inhabitants of the eponymous town, trying to sort ...
Just had a very enjoyable couple of days playing drums with Martin Taylor's Spirit of Django in Scotland. Our first show was in the pretty Victoria town of Strathpeffer and we were treated to some fabulous Highland hospitality by friends Duncan & Joan Kennedy. On Thursday night we played a sell-out show at Glasgow's Old ...
Writing in The Observer Danny Alexander says, Labour's approach of denial and complacency would bring higher interest rates, fewer jobs, less growth, more debt. It exposes us to much greater risks of financial irresponsibility - being forced by others to cut harder, with less care and control. That is the position of some European countries - it must never be Britain's. There is nothing progressive about the consequences of denial and delay. The coalition has chosen responsibility. We are restoring order to the nation's finances, credibility to our position internationally, and confidence in our economy that is essential for growth. ...
I had a couple of emails wondering why 28 days detention without charge was being carried on for another six months as announced in the press this week. Basically - the measure has to be renewed annually or you get left with nothing at all. The deadline to lay the new annual order arrived but the review of this particular measure along with other counter-terrorism legislation is not ready. So - the Home Secretary has extended the 28 days measure just long enough (ie not the whole year) to cover the time needed. In fact - it might have been ...
From the Council: Anyone interested in the future development of the borough over the next 15 years is asked to comment on Stockport Council's Core Strategy Proposed Submission document. A public consultation is taking place on the document until July 19th. The document sets down a broad plan for the development of Stockport up to 2026. Residents can feedback on:- · Sustainability · Climate issues · Housing needs · Safeguarding the environment · Access to services · Transport · Economic development to boost the borough The documents are available to view at Hygarth House, Wellington Road South, Stockport, all local ...
Earlier in the week the Australian Labour Party ditched their leader Kevin Rudd ahead of the elections that they looked set to lose, I wonder what would have happened here in the UK if the Labour Party had ditched Brown before the election.
Looking for some Twitter API help. Bit of a geeky post, this... Pagination is the act of splitting data into logical pages. Suppose I had a list of item, numbered 0 – 99. If I want 20 items per page, it's trivial to see that pagination looks like: p1 = 0-19 p2 = 20-40 p3 = 41-61 p4 = 62-82 p5 = 83-99 If I wanted to start at, say, page 55 – pagination would look like: p1 = 55-75 p2 = 76-96 p3 = 97-99 Easy, right? So why am I telling you this? Twitter Timeline Imagine that those ...
I've not seen any video quite as disturbing as this, outside the context of war. More coverage can be found here If you feel benevolent and particularly generous, this writer always appreciates things bought for him from his wishlist
Sundays polls did not look good for the Liberal Democrats with polling results of around 16 to 17%. Not a surprise to me. I personally consider the Liberal Democrat core vote to be just below this level. This current polling puts the Lib Dems at about the same places as they where in before this years general election. Labour are trying their best to get the Liberal Democrats to split from the coalition by attacking them and exploiting any cracks. It feels like people don't want the 3rd party to ever have any power. The 3rd party are some how ...
I have been struck by the nastiness voiced against the Lib Dems by the Labour Party and can only conclude that they simply don't understand what has and is happening in the world around them. I'm sure...
Since the reboot in 2005 I have only liked one of the series finales. They've all had great build up and a crap payoff. But not this one. MAN does the Grand Moff know how to write a series arc! I'm not going to write a lot here, because... well, frankly, it's nearly 3am and I have to be at work in the morning, but BLOODY HELL that was good. Lots of payoffs, lots of loose ends tied up, lots of characters actually doing things that made sense... Rusty should be forced to watch this over and over again till ...
When the Brazilian footballer Kaka was controversially sent off near the end of their match against the Ivory Coast it didn't make a difference to the final score. It gave him a one-match ban and it is usually not good to loose one of your best players in the world cup finals but in this case Brazil were already through to the second round. It may even be useful to rest one of your better players at this stage in the competition. So my reason for writing this blog is nothing to do with Kaka's punishment, it is more to ...
