3 Comments March 22nd, 2008 by ThunderDragon
So David Cameron has been caught breaking traffic laws whilst cycling to Parliament. Again.
But really, so what? Can any of us claim that we have never ever broken a traffic law in our life? Can any motorist claim to have never driven over the speed limit? Can any cyclist claim to have never edged over the line at a red light? Can any pedestrian claim to have never crossed the road when the green man wasn’t showing? No. And anyone who claims so is blatantly lying.
There are far more important issues than Cameron breaking a few minor road traffic laws, things we have all done in one way or another. Quite why or how this can be considered above the early release of even more criminals or the issues of embryonic fertilisation, I don’t know.
Add a comment March 22nd, 2008 by ThunderDragon
Uploading Parliamentary debates to YouTube is currently banned. But why?
Why should debates in our Parliament not be “allowed” to be put on YouTube or other video-sharing websites?
I agree completely with Lib Dem MP Jo Swinson when she said:
Parliament should be embracing new technology as a way of reconnecting with the public, so isn’t it about time we ditched the ridiculous ban on parliamentary clips being shown on YouTube?
Sites like YouTube are popular and accessible, so if there is a copyright issue will the House authorities review the current contract [with the company that films proceedings] and bring Parliament into the 21st Century?
Parliament belongs to us, the people, and so should the official filming of any and every debate held in it.
If Parliament wants to connect with the people, then it has to do so fully, by allowing the use of video of it in session by the people! Besides, it’s not like they can stop them being put on it, really. But this current way just means that only the politically partisan bits are uploaded by political fanatics, rather than it all being available for everyone to see.
1 Comment March 21st, 2008 by ThunderDragon
Exactly what it says on the tin.
LOLbama.
If you don’t get it, you’re way behind the times.
Add a comment March 21st, 2008 by ThunderDragon
Enid Blyton’s Famous Five series of books has been “updated” in a new Disney cartoon.
Jo, Max, Allie and Dylan are the children of Enid Blyton’s original characters and together with their pet dog Timmy embark on a new series of adventures.
But instead of crawling through secret tunnels with nothing more than a penknife and a ball of string, the iPod-wearing children fight off their enemies using mobile phones and other modern-day gadgets.
And while the original Five discovered smuggling operations and foiled kidnap plots, the new characters uncover a pirate DVD factory on nearby Shelter Island. (The Telegraph)
It just doesn’t - and can’t - work.
I read the Famous Five series when I was young. They were great books, set in a simple time before materialism and technology. The Famous Five is about a time when children could roam the countryside without neurotic parents wondering whether they had been snatched by paedophiles. When children weren’t wrapped in cotton wool and bubble-wrap and kept in doors all day long. When they were free.
This, however, just appears to make it all about gadgets and computers rather than just being outside and having fun. Besides, children should read the Famous Five books rather than watching yet another cartoon.
2 Comments March 20th, 2008 by ThunderDragon
The nominations for the London Mayor has opened, with 14 candidates putting their name forward. Why twelve of them have bothered is beyond me. The race is between Ken Livingston and Boris Johnson, maybe with Brian Paddick in a distant third. And bar those three - and very occasionally Sian Berry of the Green party - none have been mentioned in the media at all.
The candidates are:
Alan Craig - Christian Peoples Alliance & The Christian Party
Boris Johnson - Conservative party
Brian Paddick - Liberal Democrat
Chris Prior - Stop The Congestion Charge party
Damian Hockney -One London party
Dennis Delderfield - New Britain
Gerard Batten - UKIP
Ken Livingstone - Labour party
Lindsey German - Left List party
Matt O’Connor - English Democrats party
Richard Barnbrook - BNP
Sian Berry - Green party
Winston McKenzie - Independent
John Flunder - Senior Citizens’ Party
It is a straight race between Ken and Boris. And Boris is the only candidate who can offer a better future for London.
Add a comment March 20th, 2008 by ThunderDragon
Which member of Gordo’s Cabinet is a poet?
Whilst many of us may agree with sentiment of wishing Brown away, going back to Blair really wouldn’t be much of an improvement.
Add a comment March 20th, 2008 by ThunderDragon
Dad’s Army is going to be here to save you.
Gordon Brown wants tens of thousands of Britons to join a new Dads’ Army-style volunteer force to help the Government tackle threats to national security…
The new force, called a new Civil Protection Network, will be based on the local Neighbourhood Watch schemes.
The Prime Minister said he wanted to see “improved resilience against emergencies” from floods to terrorist attacks.
This would take “not the old Cold War idea of civil defence but a new form of civil protection”. (The Telegraph)
Volunteering in Britain is already screwed. Few do it any more. It has fallen by a quarter in the last decade. So how on earth does Brown expect to get people to do this? Those who would already do volunteering and are unlikely to drop their current commitments to take on this new pointless one, and those who don’t almost certainly won’t.
We already have people to fulfil this role - y’know, the police and the other emergency services? As well as associated volunteers? - so this proposal of a “Civil Protection Network” seems like little short of an attempt to take it all under on centralised authority - a good thing in some ways, and very very bad in others.
And the inevitable comparisons with Dad’s Army are never going to be lived down, no matter what.
1 Comment March 19th, 2008 by ThunderDragon
I fully support this cause, and encourage other pubs to follow the example of this Scottish pub:
YOU’LL never eat lunch in this town again: the landlord of the Easter Road bar and eatery, Utopia, has placed a poster in his window, warning Alistair Darling to keep off the premises…
It shows a noose above Mr Darling’s head, with “Barred” above his picture and “Not Welcome In This Pub” below. It is owner James Hughes’ personal protest against new duties on beer, wine and spirits in this month’s Budget.
“The poster is meant to be humorous, but to make it clear to punters that it is not us who are putting prices up, but Mr Darling,” he said. “The noose signifies that it is the government who should be hanged and not the licensed trade.” (The Scotsman)
All pubs should show this poster created by Devil’s Kitchen in order to show their displeasure at yet more taxes being showed on booze.
Add a comment March 19th, 2008 by ThunderDragon
A. Tory has got out his “Excel geek” hat, put it on, and analysed MPs expenditures for the last parliamentary session. He has then awarded those who have shafted the taxpayers - that’s you and me, folks - the most. And unsurprisingly all of the winners bar one are Labour MPs. And the only non-Labour MP? Angus MacNeil of the SNP. And the winners are:
Total expenditures: Shahid Malik, spending £185,421 of our money
Office and staff costs: Barry Gardiner, spending £123,852 of our money
Car travel: Janet Anderson, spending £13,851 of our money
Rail travel: Alan Milburn, spending £15,785 of our money
Air travel: Angus MacNeil, spending £30,560 of our money
Staff travel: Mohammad Sarwar, spending £4,500 of our money
Stationery and postage: Siobhain McDonagh, spending £49,107 of our money
IT: Liam Byrne of the Labour Party, spending £2,545 of our money
Staff cover and other costs: Joan Ryan, spending £19,068 of our money.
That’s one hell of a lot of our money. Visit Letters From A Tory for more details, even though he hasn’t published the entire Excel spreadsheet [which he should].
Add a comment March 18th, 2008 by ThunderDragon
Incompetent fraudsters.
I’d rather that any Conservative councillors who commit fraud are “incompetent” and “blatant” rather than very good at it.
We know that our system is wide open to fraud. We should do what we can across all parties to ensure that electoral fraud is either prevented or discovered as soon as possible, and the perpetrator(s) punished. Yet Labour, who created many of them, are doing bugger-all to correct it.
But the real question here is why would anyone commit electoral fraud - even incompetently - for a prize as small as the council seat!
