If you were watching the Television on Saturday night and managed to drag yourself away from “So You Think You Can Dance” or “Take Me Out” you might have been watching BBC2. If you were you would have seen a program about the election campaign of who is now President but was then Senator Obama. It’s called “By The People” and it may still be on the Iplayer.
The thing that struck me most during this excellent documentary was the vast number of the activists who seemed to be under 30, possibly even under 25. Yes, there were middle aged men in suits on the campaign but those out on the streets and making the phone calls were young, really young. Can you imagine that happening here? It wasn't wall to wall inspiration though. There were a few annoying characters. I don't think, for instance, that you would catch many English people doing a motivational dance based on a scene from “The Fresh Prince of Bell Air”.
How did they do this? OK, so Senator Obama was different to just about every other Presidential candidate ever. He was a young and black but it simply can't be that. He also wasn't President Bush which seemed to be to his advantage but then, neither was John McCain. But there seemed to be something else. There was something that got people excited about him before he started going on about “Hope”, a lot, or quoting Bob the Builder. As I'm on the wrong side of the pond it is hard to say but might it be the he spoke to people as if they were adults. As if they are clever enough to understand the problems and that sometimes there aren't simple solutions and that some things take time.
Whilst the 24hr news channels on both sides of the ideological isle were screeching and squawking about anything and everything and delivering every story as if it was the end of the world, Senator Obama was calm and made his point in a way that tried to avoid hyperbole or as he put it “Never to high or to low”. Ok, his big set piece speeches were filled with the sort of “Eagle soaring over the Great Plains” imagery so beloved by the US political speech writer, (although his main speech writer Jon Favreau is only 29) most of the time he was relatively sensible. He managed to get his sensible tone across despite the media.
And there lies our problem. How can we engage our youth? (That sentence makes me sound so old but, hey, I am). Again I think that, whilst politicians have to shoulder some of the blame for the public disconnect with the body politic, the media, both print and broadcast, have done an amazing job in turning us off for politics. It has got to the point that a politician has to point out that they think that people are grown ups and can cope with nuanced argument rather then being able to go on the radio and assume that the Today program is listened to by adults. The British press has reached a place were the subtlety of argument is almost impossible. They just want to deal in black and white, well some newspapers it is only the white. They want fear and emotion. The want to describe all politicians as on the make or croaked in some way, when, in fact, most members of parliament are there because they want to help people and they believe in what their party stands for. They encourage cynicism about politics and politicians and then act surprised when we have a low turn out on Election Day.
TV news is no better. Despite the fact that it is on for 24hrs a day they still seem to be in a hurry. All news readers have now taken the Paxman approach to interviewing which is less about extracting useful information and having a debate and more about showing that they have a lack of deference and showing how big you balls are, and this includes the woman. This is the reason that our leaders (and those that wish to lead us) go on the soft programs like GMTV or end up chatting on Mumsnet, they are able to get a word in edgeways, although this doesn't save them from being misreported, I give the Gordon Brown biscuit incident as evidence for this. It was reported in our papers that he is such a ditherer that he could even answer a question on which was his favourite biscuit. What a fool. The thing is, this isn't what happened. According to the founder of Mumsnet the question was asked but due to a technical error the Prime Minister didn't see the question hence no answer. However, despite the fact that it is untrue, I saw this being used this week in a newspaper as a fact.
The problems of reductionism are not just the fault of the press; Politicians must share the blame too. Take the problem that we have with drinking. The cost to the NHS and to the police. According to the papers it's binge drinking that's the problem. Extended licensing hours, yes, that's to blame. And it's all young people. As I record this the Tories are blaming the Term units of alcohol and want to bring in Centilitres of alcohol like they have in Europe, I don't think they've run this idea past the whole party, “like they have in Europe, I think not, on principle”. The Government are also looking at labelling but also at a mandatory minimum price per unit for alcohol. So the same people are being punished by both sides here with simple easy to understand and totally useless plans. No one talking about the at home drinkers who drink every night and in large quantities doing serious long term damage to themselves and much more importantly then all of those things, no one is asking why people drink so much. And why aren't they asking? Because it is a hard question to answer. There are no simple solutions and it won't fit easily into a press release.
Our press would have you believe that people care not for politics because, after the expenses scandle, we have found out that our politicians are corrupt. Personally I would say human, taking advantage of a lax system is human but they would say corrupt. But if this is the reason then why do Americans get so excited about their politics? Whether they admit it or not (and I don't think they will) their system is incredibly corrupt and their press is considerably more divisive then ours. Elections there are all about who can raise the most money and voting in the house and the senate is influenced (to a greater or lesser extent) by which lobby group has paid the money to the representative's election war chest.
So, again, we are left with the question, why where so many people excited by Barack Obama? Did they think that he was, like episode 4, a new hope? Coming to sweep away all that has gone before because that seems unlikely, people have noticed how slowly politics changes. Or maybe they just mistook it for a giant reality show in which they could get involved. That would explain the vast number of young people involved. Perhaps they were interested more in his “journey” than in his policies. Is this a bad thing? Maybe not. If they were interested enough to make phone calls and delivery leaflets maybe they might have read them and become a little more informed.
We are forever hearing ways that might encourage people to vote. We could do it at Supermarkets or by text or by post or by pressing the red button (oh no, that was Dr Who extra, but my point stands). Armando Iannucci described this in his book, The Audacity of Hype, as process replacing content. Giving people more ways to vote isn't really the answer to their lack of enthusiasm; you need to give them more reasons to vote.
But maybe way can see a way ahead because we are going to have pre-election debates. Finally all 3 main parties have agreed to have a US style debate and this can only be a good thing. The 3 leaders will have time to discuss their visions for the country on Prime time television, 3 times. I would imagine that Nick Clegg leapt at this opportunity and grabbed it with both hands, as he should. Whilst there will be questions from the moderator they will get time to make their point, without being interrupted by an imbecile, well David Cameron might say something. It will be 3 men standing up and discussing their point of view in the middle of the evening, hopefully with a minimum of fussing and extraneous nonsense, although I can't image that Sky will be able to do it without covering the screen the screen with a news crawler and up to the second live Polls and weather up dates. This is why we all need bigger televisions, it's so we can see the little tiny picture in the middle of the screen a little better. But back to some sort of point, is this the sort of thing that will help people start to re-engage with the political system? A couple of hours of, hopefully, decent debate not viewed through the cynical prism of the British Press, let's hope so. The reason that parties like the BNP did well in the local and European elections is 2 fold. Firstly people are disconnected from the main parties because they are not dealing directly with their hopes and fears (mostly fears that are prayed upon and exaggerated by the opportunistic hate mongers) and secondly their voters are highly motivated and go out and vote. European and local elections use proportional representation which leads to minority parties doing better over all. Whilst the General election will continue to use the first past the post system, which will make it much harder for smaller parties to have anything the impact they did before, if you do not vote then you have no one else to blame but yourself if the wrong person becomes your MP.
In short, I have no answers. We are in this state because we have allowed ourselves to get here. We have bought nasty, cynical newspapers and we have not complained when our Television news is uninformative and treats us like idiots.
Let us hope that we find a way to re-engage the populaces because if we don't only about 40% of those entitled to vote, if we are lucky, will vote in the next general election. This means that if the winning party gets, say 45%, only 18% of the people who could have voted voted for the party of Government. Hardly a ringing endorsement.
Showing posts with label Barack Obama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Barack Obama. Show all posts
Thursday, 14 January 2010
Sunday, 1 November 2009
Diana Watch
We are going to start with a question and this one's for the ladies (oh god, I sound like some terrible RnB singer, although I'm not sure I actually know the names of any Male RnB singers). Has Wolf Whistling ever worked? Have you been walking down the street and some knuckle dragging cretin has whistled at you? And then did you think to yourself, that's the sort of man that I want to be with? Have you?
I only ask this because when we were sat in the pub on Monday evening waiting for the quiz to start and on a table close to ours were a couple of slightly worse for wear young men (I believe a birthday was being celebrated.). Every time a young lady walked past someone in the group let out the World’s most piss poor wolf whistle.
Of course, no good came of this. They did not leave the pub drippin' in honeys. In fact they left the pub because the bar staff stopped serving them as they were drunk and a bit rowdy.
My question, however, remains. Was it the weakness of the whistling that prevented the acquisition of lady love or the act it's self? I have to know.
Although there is always the possibility that they were actually herding sheep using a dog of some sort but this is a little unlikely given as it was in a pub, even if it was in Dorchester.
I know that my town is a little out of the way. Some may even say backward and those people would probably have a point but answer me this, does your town have the National Champion Town Crier? No, no it doesn't. And why is that? Because mine does.
Oh yes! For the third time in a row Alistair Chisholm has won the National Town Criers Challenge Cup. Can your town claim that it has this sort of quality living there? Well can it? No it can't. You may have Universities and Cathedrals and the such. You may have great shopping and excellent parks but we have the best Town Crier in all of the country.
You may be thinking to yourselves, “well there can't be that much competition for that sort of thing” and you would be wrong. Alistair beat 17 other completely pointless, tourist pleasing anachronisms for that title. I can see the posters now “Come to Dorchester and get shouted at by the best in the land.” It gives me a warm feeling inside.
We did paedophilia last week (if you'll forgive the expression) but for a new level in paranoia read this.
Although it does seem that it might not be as true as the papers would like to have us believe. Never let the facts get in the way of a good story.
Somali pirates have kidnapped a British couple and their boat. Now, I'm not going to criticise the couple who did exactly what they were advised not to because they might be taken captive. No. what I going to mention is, who did the Pirates call to make a ransom demand? Was it Sky news? Was it ITV? Was it Dave? No, it was the BBC. Even Somali pirates think the BBC is great.
According to BBC news since this spate in kidnappings has started companies have sprung up to act as intermediaries between Governments and families on one side and the Pirates on the other. They will sort out all sorts of things, such as dropping of the cash and arranging the rather specific requests about the cash i.e. they like very specific denominations and from between certain dates. Isn't Capitalism fantastic?
I have a new hero. That man is Prof. David Nutt. He was the government's advisor on drugs until he was fired on Friday for using science and reporting it dispassionately.
He criticised Government for completely ignoring the advice that he has been giving them on many subjects but mostly on Skunk. He accused them of devaluing scientific evidence in general in the way that they deciding to ignore it and make policy based on the headlines they might receive.
Dr Les King, a part time advisor to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of drugs, has now resigned over the sacking of its head, Prof. Nutt.
Who is going do that job now? If you don't speak out then you are quite clearly a wuss and if you do then you are going to be fired. It is like the medieval sage who tells the King that he might loose the battle and he has you killed. What is the next sage going to say? “Oh yes my liege, you is like going to well win.” in order to keep his head on his shoulders.
So Jimmy Carr told a joke. Now, because the joke isn't actually offensive here it is, "Say what you like about servicemen amputees from Iraq and Afghanistan, but we're going to have a fucking good Paralympics team in 2012."
Now I think that that is quite a funny joke but it is not offensive. It is not a joke about the injuries that have been suffered, nor is it making light of them. It is a joke about war and the way it affects people’s lives.
Our lovely tabloids seem to be trying to bring about a new Puritanism. I had thought that MP's would have learnt, after being made to look silly by Chris Morris and others, that if they didn't really know what they are talking about that they would keep their mouths shut but oh no. They are still rent-a-quotes and will be offended be anything in order to further their careers or up their profile. Whilst some MP's said some stupid things i.e. calling for Carr to quit, from what precisely?, the least thought though statement was given to the Daily Mirror. Diane Dernie, the mother of wounded soldier Ben Parkinson, said: "Soldiers are fighting for freedom of speech. I hope Carr remembers that when he makes offensive jokes ridiculing them." Yes they are. They are fighting for freedom of speech. So he can say it then? Think about what you are saying.
These people just want to be offended by something. They have no idea about subtext or subtlety of meaning. I assume that they think that Animal Farm is about some uppity pigs.
The Award for Funny Looking Bloke of the Week Whose Beard is Clearly Drawn On,
This really has to go to Colonel Gaddafi,
Another Sky-News-being-on-in-the-pub moment this. They had an interview with the noted bag of lunacy that is the leader of Libya on Monday evening but unfortunately the pub didn't have the subtitles on. This meant that the whole pub was transfixed by the plastianted face (like a Gunther von Hagens victim being operated by Jim Henson) of the former terrorist sponsor rather then barely being able to keep their beer down whilst guffawing at the paranoid dribble that he mistakes for coherent argument.
The Award for I Can't Believe They Still Have That Rule,
President Obama is to lift ban on HIV+ve people travelling to the US. Let's just run through that again. America still bans HIV+ve people travelling there. Still. And has done for 22 years. I'm sorry? I didn't know that they still had a ban. I mean, how backward are these people? Actually, don't bother answering that, it’s unfair. It’s not the people’s fault. Some of them are lovely I'm sure but their Country does seem to be a little, well, slow.
Whilst I was discussing this with Significant Other, she reminded me that a World HIV conference was held there but no one with the disease was allowed to travel to it. At least things are now beginning to change there.
The Award for Sad News of the Week,
The actor Norman Painter has died. He has been playing Philip Archer in the long running Radio 4 soap opera The Archers since 1950. He has also written over 1000 scripts for the programme. One of his wishes was to carry on working until he died and he got his way. He was in the studio 3 days before he died. His last episode will be broadcast on the 22nd of November. RIP.
So, just some British sports news to finish with. At the Cycling World Track Cup various Team GB cyclist have won pretty much everything. They have, yet again, shown that British cycling is the best in the world. Bow down before our pedals tiny people.
Hope you all have a nice week and I'll keep you informed about the health of my cat which has renal failure.
I only ask this because when we were sat in the pub on Monday evening waiting for the quiz to start and on a table close to ours were a couple of slightly worse for wear young men (I believe a birthday was being celebrated.). Every time a young lady walked past someone in the group let out the World’s most piss poor wolf whistle.
Of course, no good came of this. They did not leave the pub drippin' in honeys. In fact they left the pub because the bar staff stopped serving them as they were drunk and a bit rowdy.
My question, however, remains. Was it the weakness of the whistling that prevented the acquisition of lady love or the act it's self? I have to know.
Although there is always the possibility that they were actually herding sheep using a dog of some sort but this is a little unlikely given as it was in a pub, even if it was in Dorchester.
I know that my town is a little out of the way. Some may even say backward and those people would probably have a point but answer me this, does your town have the National Champion Town Crier? No, no it doesn't. And why is that? Because mine does.
Oh yes! For the third time in a row Alistair Chisholm has won the National Town Criers Challenge Cup. Can your town claim that it has this sort of quality living there? Well can it? No it can't. You may have Universities and Cathedrals and the such. You may have great shopping and excellent parks but we have the best Town Crier in all of the country.
You may be thinking to yourselves, “well there can't be that much competition for that sort of thing” and you would be wrong. Alistair beat 17 other completely pointless, tourist pleasing anachronisms for that title. I can see the posters now “Come to Dorchester and get shouted at by the best in the land.” It gives me a warm feeling inside.
We did paedophilia last week (if you'll forgive the expression) but for a new level in paranoia read this.
Although it does seem that it might not be as true as the papers would like to have us believe. Never let the facts get in the way of a good story.
Somali pirates have kidnapped a British couple and their boat. Now, I'm not going to criticise the couple who did exactly what they were advised not to because they might be taken captive. No. what I going to mention is, who did the Pirates call to make a ransom demand? Was it Sky news? Was it ITV? Was it Dave? No, it was the BBC. Even Somali pirates think the BBC is great.
According to BBC news since this spate in kidnappings has started companies have sprung up to act as intermediaries between Governments and families on one side and the Pirates on the other. They will sort out all sorts of things, such as dropping of the cash and arranging the rather specific requests about the cash i.e. they like very specific denominations and from between certain dates. Isn't Capitalism fantastic?
I have a new hero. That man is Prof. David Nutt. He was the government's advisor on drugs until he was fired on Friday for using science and reporting it dispassionately.
He criticised Government for completely ignoring the advice that he has been giving them on many subjects but mostly on Skunk. He accused them of devaluing scientific evidence in general in the way that they deciding to ignore it and make policy based on the headlines they might receive.
Dr Les King, a part time advisor to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of drugs, has now resigned over the sacking of its head, Prof. Nutt.
Who is going do that job now? If you don't speak out then you are quite clearly a wuss and if you do then you are going to be fired. It is like the medieval sage who tells the King that he might loose the battle and he has you killed. What is the next sage going to say? “Oh yes my liege, you is like going to well win.” in order to keep his head on his shoulders.
So Jimmy Carr told a joke. Now, because the joke isn't actually offensive here it is, "Say what you like about servicemen amputees from Iraq and Afghanistan, but we're going to have a fucking good Paralympics team in 2012."
Now I think that that is quite a funny joke but it is not offensive. It is not a joke about the injuries that have been suffered, nor is it making light of them. It is a joke about war and the way it affects people’s lives.
Our lovely tabloids seem to be trying to bring about a new Puritanism. I had thought that MP's would have learnt, after being made to look silly by Chris Morris and others, that if they didn't really know what they are talking about that they would keep their mouths shut but oh no. They are still rent-a-quotes and will be offended be anything in order to further their careers or up their profile. Whilst some MP's said some stupid things i.e. calling for Carr to quit, from what precisely?, the least thought though statement was given to the Daily Mirror. Diane Dernie, the mother of wounded soldier Ben Parkinson, said: "Soldiers are fighting for freedom of speech. I hope Carr remembers that when he makes offensive jokes ridiculing them." Yes they are. They are fighting for freedom of speech. So he can say it then? Think about what you are saying.
These people just want to be offended by something. They have no idea about subtext or subtlety of meaning. I assume that they think that Animal Farm is about some uppity pigs.
The Award for Funny Looking Bloke of the Week Whose Beard is Clearly Drawn On,
This really has to go to Colonel Gaddafi,
Another Sky-News-being-on-in-the-pub moment this. They had an interview with the noted bag of lunacy that is the leader of Libya on Monday evening but unfortunately the pub didn't have the subtitles on. This meant that the whole pub was transfixed by the plastianted face (like a Gunther von Hagens victim being operated by Jim Henson) of the former terrorist sponsor rather then barely being able to keep their beer down whilst guffawing at the paranoid dribble that he mistakes for coherent argument.
The Award for I Can't Believe They Still Have That Rule,
President Obama is to lift ban on HIV+ve people travelling to the US. Let's just run through that again. America still bans HIV+ve people travelling there. Still. And has done for 22 years. I'm sorry? I didn't know that they still had a ban. I mean, how backward are these people? Actually, don't bother answering that, it’s unfair. It’s not the people’s fault. Some of them are lovely I'm sure but their Country does seem to be a little, well, slow.
Whilst I was discussing this with Significant Other, she reminded me that a World HIV conference was held there but no one with the disease was allowed to travel to it. At least things are now beginning to change there.
The Award for Sad News of the Week,
The actor Norman Painter has died. He has been playing Philip Archer in the long running Radio 4 soap opera The Archers since 1950. He has also written over 1000 scripts for the programme. One of his wishes was to carry on working until he died and he got his way. He was in the studio 3 days before he died. His last episode will be broadcast on the 22nd of November. RIP.
So, just some British sports news to finish with. At the Cycling World Track Cup various Team GB cyclist have won pretty much everything. They have, yet again, shown that British cycling is the best in the world. Bow down before our pedals tiny people.
Hope you all have a nice week and I'll keep you informed about the health of my cat which has renal failure.
Sunday, 27 September 2009
Diana Watch
Overheard from a Man exiting a clothes shop in Bournemouth, “Fucking Coldplay”. I don't think that that is too harsh.
For those of you who haven't been reading this blog for a long time you may not know the history. One of the first things I did on here was count (rather obsessively) the number of times the British newspapers had Princess Diana on their front page despite the fact that she had been dead for about 10 years at the time. This is how we arrive at the Sunday blog being called Diana Watch. Hope that makes sense.
And now, thanks to the Diana obsessed Daily Express, it is back to the future. This week they have had 2 Diana based front pages which, of course, means pictures of her looking suitably angelic. They have also managed 3 Madeleine McCann stories, which was also a particular favourite of theirs. So much so that they decided to start making things up and were sued, successfully, by the McCanns but it does seem that a leopard can’t change it spots, it just takes a break from showing you them for a while.
The Tory shadow for Culture, Media and Sport made an interesting suggestion this week. He is another one of these people that think that BBC news has a left wing slight (I really don't understand this at all. I think it may be confirmation bias, i.e. I am a left wing person and think that the BBC is a little right wing because I'm looking for it and the same is true of those of the right. They look for left wing bias and so they find it.) so in order to balance this imaginary bias, BBC news should employ more out Tories.
It's a slightly odd way of going about it but if that's what they want then it really should be rolled out through all BBC programs. This would mean more Atheists on Songs of Praise, more Environmentalists on Top Gear, more young people on Last of the Summer Wine (for young, you could read alive), much fewer twats on The Big Question, more old people on Blue Peter. Much fewer people texting or emailing their “views” to Breakfast. More Townies on Country File, more people on Antiques Roadshow who actually care about the history of the object that they have bought with them rather than just what it is worth.
That would all seem fair enough to me.
How arrogant are the British Media? The answer is a blindingly obvious, very. They are arrogant about their own importance but also about Britain's place in the world.
One of the big stories this week was that Gordon Brown, leader of a small nation with a not very big economy, was “snubbed” by Barack Obama, leader of the country with one of the largest economy which is still referred to as a “Super Power”.
What actually happened was that Downing Street wanted a 1 on 1 with President Obama but he was a little busy, what with trying to get Israel and Palestine to talk to each other, hosting the G20 meeting, being the first American President ever to chair a meeting at the UN, discovering (not by himself obviously, he's not that good, yet) that Iran had a secret Uranium enrichment plant and making up with Russia, so couldn't fit him in right now.
Oh, the outpouring of scorn on Gordon by all outlets of the British press. “Is this a new low in the Special Relationship?” was the question asked. No it's not, he was busy. “Was it the release of the Lockerbie bomber?” No, still busy.
He did get a chat in the end anyway. He got a 15 minutes walk and talk in the kitchens of the UN. Lots of people suggested this was an “only” a walk and talk but I think they missed the point. They spent 15 minutes walking in the kitchens? How big are these kitchens? One assumes that they were on the way somewhere and not just wondering round and round because that would just be weird. So, if you assume that the average walking speed of a human is 4 miles an hour and they walked for 15 minutes, that makes the kitchens 1 MILE LONG! That is a really big kitchen.
In the grand scheme of things we aren't that important. I know that we think we are but we're not.
Later on in the week the right wing press had a number of editorials about the American Press ignoring the visit of our Prime Minister. Again, I think they may have other things on their minds. I mean, did you see Coronal Gaddafi speaking at the UN?
I know that they have their agenda and that they are going to use every available chance to bash him but inventing problems is just lazy.
I suppose that they can't really focus on what Labour have actually done because that would undermine their argument, massively increased spending on Schools and the NHS with much better results from both, so they have to focus on his lack of personality.
I know it's unpopular but I want very clever people running my country who have policies that, in the main, I agree with, not a person who is “good” on television.
The Award for Deliberately Finding Something That Applies to Everyone Offensive of the Week,
This goes to some stupid nurse who thinks that she is more important than everyone else that works for her Trust and her patients.
The woman in question is called Shirley Chaplin. She was asked to comply to the trust's uniform policy (as every front line member of staff is) by removing her necklace, and she refused because it had a cross on it. She was then told that she would not be allowed to work on the wards if she didn't take it off. Nothing wrong with that. But she again refused.
She is now claiming that she is being discriminated against because she is a Christian and it is a cross. Other faiths are allowed to wear other expressions of their faiths and that is her reasoning. But here she makes a basic mistake. Other religions are allow because they are tenants of their faith and there is no such thing in Christianity. Well there is a great long list of things in the Old Testament but for some reason these are ignored and not discussed.
Mrs Chaplin has sought advice from the Christian Legal Centre, which seeks to promote religious freedom and, particularly, to protect Christians and Christianity.
The person representing her said, “Unfortunately an aggressive, secularist, politically correct agenda is being driven in the NHS and other public sectors at present.” Secular? How can it be secular if it allows other religions express themselves? Learn what words mean before you use them.
It is an infection control issue and a health and safety one and nothing more. Stop trying to make so much out of it.
The Award for a Spectacular Lack of Forward Thinking if the Week,
This goes to the Renault Formula 1 team who have been found guilty of cheating this week.
In last years race in Singapore someone decided that it would be a good idea, in order to get a safety car out so that no one could over taken Alonso (who was leading), that Nelson Piquet Jr should crash his car into a wall at high speed.
You know that you are in the wrong job when your boss is asking you to crash into a wall at 150mph. It's not good for you. He did it though. The safety car came out and the race finished with everyone driving around behind it.
If someone cheats for you, you keep them close. They could ruin you. They know that you have cheated.
So what did Renault do to the man who knew that they had cheated? They fired him. D'oh. They pissed off someone who knew that they had asked him to endanger his life and the lives of others.
A tad short-sighted I think you will agree.
I think that that will do for this week. Nice and short.
I hope you all have a pleasant and productive week.
For those of you who haven't been reading this blog for a long time you may not know the history. One of the first things I did on here was count (rather obsessively) the number of times the British newspapers had Princess Diana on their front page despite the fact that she had been dead for about 10 years at the time. This is how we arrive at the Sunday blog being called Diana Watch. Hope that makes sense.
And now, thanks to the Diana obsessed Daily Express, it is back to the future. This week they have had 2 Diana based front pages which, of course, means pictures of her looking suitably angelic. They have also managed 3 Madeleine McCann stories, which was also a particular favourite of theirs. So much so that they decided to start making things up and were sued, successfully, by the McCanns but it does seem that a leopard can’t change it spots, it just takes a break from showing you them for a while.
The Tory shadow for Culture, Media and Sport made an interesting suggestion this week. He is another one of these people that think that BBC news has a left wing slight (I really don't understand this at all. I think it may be confirmation bias, i.e. I am a left wing person and think that the BBC is a little right wing because I'm looking for it and the same is true of those of the right. They look for left wing bias and so they find it.) so in order to balance this imaginary bias, BBC news should employ more out Tories.
It's a slightly odd way of going about it but if that's what they want then it really should be rolled out through all BBC programs. This would mean more Atheists on Songs of Praise, more Environmentalists on Top Gear, more young people on Last of the Summer Wine (for young, you could read alive), much fewer twats on The Big Question, more old people on Blue Peter. Much fewer people texting or emailing their “views” to Breakfast. More Townies on Country File, more people on Antiques Roadshow who actually care about the history of the object that they have bought with them rather than just what it is worth.
That would all seem fair enough to me.
How arrogant are the British Media? The answer is a blindingly obvious, very. They are arrogant about their own importance but also about Britain's place in the world.
One of the big stories this week was that Gordon Brown, leader of a small nation with a not very big economy, was “snubbed” by Barack Obama, leader of the country with one of the largest economy which is still referred to as a “Super Power”.
What actually happened was that Downing Street wanted a 1 on 1 with President Obama but he was a little busy, what with trying to get Israel and Palestine to talk to each other, hosting the G20 meeting, being the first American President ever to chair a meeting at the UN, discovering (not by himself obviously, he's not that good, yet) that Iran had a secret Uranium enrichment plant and making up with Russia, so couldn't fit him in right now.
Oh, the outpouring of scorn on Gordon by all outlets of the British press. “Is this a new low in the Special Relationship?” was the question asked. No it's not, he was busy. “Was it the release of the Lockerbie bomber?” No, still busy.
He did get a chat in the end anyway. He got a 15 minutes walk and talk in the kitchens of the UN. Lots of people suggested this was an “only” a walk and talk but I think they missed the point. They spent 15 minutes walking in the kitchens? How big are these kitchens? One assumes that they were on the way somewhere and not just wondering round and round because that would just be weird. So, if you assume that the average walking speed of a human is 4 miles an hour and they walked for 15 minutes, that makes the kitchens 1 MILE LONG! That is a really big kitchen.
In the grand scheme of things we aren't that important. I know that we think we are but we're not.
Later on in the week the right wing press had a number of editorials about the American Press ignoring the visit of our Prime Minister. Again, I think they may have other things on their minds. I mean, did you see Coronal Gaddafi speaking at the UN?
I know that they have their agenda and that they are going to use every available chance to bash him but inventing problems is just lazy.
I suppose that they can't really focus on what Labour have actually done because that would undermine their argument, massively increased spending on Schools and the NHS with much better results from both, so they have to focus on his lack of personality.
I know it's unpopular but I want very clever people running my country who have policies that, in the main, I agree with, not a person who is “good” on television.
The Award for Deliberately Finding Something That Applies to Everyone Offensive of the Week,
This goes to some stupid nurse who thinks that she is more important than everyone else that works for her Trust and her patients.
The woman in question is called Shirley Chaplin. She was asked to comply to the trust's uniform policy (as every front line member of staff is) by removing her necklace, and she refused because it had a cross on it. She was then told that she would not be allowed to work on the wards if she didn't take it off. Nothing wrong with that. But she again refused.
She is now claiming that she is being discriminated against because she is a Christian and it is a cross. Other faiths are allowed to wear other expressions of their faiths and that is her reasoning. But here she makes a basic mistake. Other religions are allow because they are tenants of their faith and there is no such thing in Christianity. Well there is a great long list of things in the Old Testament but for some reason these are ignored and not discussed.
Mrs Chaplin has sought advice from the Christian Legal Centre, which seeks to promote religious freedom and, particularly, to protect Christians and Christianity.
The person representing her said, “Unfortunately an aggressive, secularist, politically correct agenda is being driven in the NHS and other public sectors at present.” Secular? How can it be secular if it allows other religions express themselves? Learn what words mean before you use them.
It is an infection control issue and a health and safety one and nothing more. Stop trying to make so much out of it.
The Award for a Spectacular Lack of Forward Thinking if the Week,
This goes to the Renault Formula 1 team who have been found guilty of cheating this week.
In last years race in Singapore someone decided that it would be a good idea, in order to get a safety car out so that no one could over taken Alonso (who was leading), that Nelson Piquet Jr should crash his car into a wall at high speed.
You know that you are in the wrong job when your boss is asking you to crash into a wall at 150mph. It's not good for you. He did it though. The safety car came out and the race finished with everyone driving around behind it.
If someone cheats for you, you keep them close. They could ruin you. They know that you have cheated.
So what did Renault do to the man who knew that they had cheated? They fired him. D'oh. They pissed off someone who knew that they had asked him to endanger his life and the lives of others.
A tad short-sighted I think you will agree.
I think that that will do for this week. Nice and short.
I hope you all have a pleasant and productive week.
Sunday, 20 September 2009
Diana Watch
11 year old to his dad, “I need a new sports bag.” “Why?” he asked “It's a perfectly good bag.” “Yes but it says Norwich Union on it and they are Aviva now.”
In my humble opinion the most important news story of the week was my cold. I felt terrible on Thursday, shivery and cold, blocked nose and aching limbs. Awful.
Then I woke up on Friday and felt fine. Can you imagine my disappointment on feeling well again and having to go to work? Possibly the worst day of my life.
James Martin is a cock (That's not actually what I wanted to call him but I've used the other C word rather a lot recently). It occurs to me that some of you might not know who he is so here is a picture,
as you can clearly see, he is a cock. He is also a chef and seems to work for the BBC a lot. He was on Ready, Steady, Cock back in the day but now is on Saturday Kitchen which is shown on, umm...... Saturday.
He also writes a car review, every so often, for the receptacle of all evil that is the Daily Mail. In one column he reviewed an electric car called the Tesla, which is really rather nice.
He doesn't like cyclist. Some people don't but usually it's within cities because cyclists, sometimes, do behave a little poorly. He hates cyclists in the countryside, mostly in the area around his house.
He has had a go at cyclists before but on Sunday he wrote that had sneaked up on a group of lycra clad hippies (for some reason he thinks all cyclists are hippies. Are all chefs cocks?), it's an electric car remember, used the horn and drove them off the road, “The look of sheer terror as they tottered into the hedge was the best thing I've ever seen in my rear-view mirror.”
Of course he apologised for writing the piece, as soon as someone complained, saying that it had been “misjudged” and had been intended to be “humorous”. I can not tell you how many times I've laughed as cars and buses have tried to knock me off of my bike, it's always so funny.
He also, rather inexplicably, said “It was never my intention to offend the many cyclists who share our roads across the country” Oh please, if you are going to write something at least believe in it. You called us names all the way through the article, you did mean to offend. That's what you do when you insult people. What a twat and, yes, it was my intention to offend him.
Barack Obama has dropped America's plans for the European missile defence system. Could this be his first truly great decision?
He is trying to sort some other things out like healthcare and Guantanamo Bay but this is the first thing he has really sorted out. No we will not put an unproven and remarkably expensive missile defence in countries whose people don’t want it and that will protect them from, ummm.... nothing.
Is this a gesture towards peace rather than war? If so I think that would make him the first American leader to make that sort of decision since..... well ever (my American history isn't that good). Actually I think he might be the only modern politician, in any country, to make a policy choice that doesn't use keeping us scared as it’s guiding principle, especially in National Defence.
Of course this has meant criticism from Republicans who have calling him soft on defence and giving in to Russia, although given what the US and the IMF did to the Russian economy in the 90's this muffin basket of a gesture should be the least that America could do. Giving in to Russia? THE COLD WAR IS OVER, YOU WON!
It also occurs to me that being as most of the Republican Congressmen (and I'm sure a lot of Democrats do as well) get shed loads of many from defence firms or work for them they were always likely to take it really personally.
Oh and they are all racists I'm told.
Who do they think is aiming a missile at them? Terrorist groups don't tend to have intercontinental ballistic missiles. Heck, even Iran doesn't. In fact if you look at this document (the bottom of page 11 and page 12 are most interesting) it seems that Iran is a long way from making a bomb and there is no published evidence from the US Intelligence community or anyone else that says that they have tried to develop, manufacture or test a device.
The document also points out that “Iran has acquired technologies not only from Pakistan but also from several European countries in contravention of export control regulations,”
Oh good. So it seems that far from there being a “War on Terror”, we are, in fact, exporting the things that we think that they shouldn’t have to them, probably gift wrapped with a nice bow, and then complaining about them having them.
International Politics is hard.
“Your starter for 10, who in that area does have nuclear weapons but isn't supposed to?” “Norris, employed some of the time!” “Umm, is it ....?” “Come on, I'll have to hurry you!” “Is it Israel?” “Yes, yes it is”.
I run a little bit so I found this incredibly impressive.
Slightly chubby man (at least he was when he started) Eddie Izzard has run 43 marathons in 52 days. He has covered 1,100 miles. He did it for a couple of reasons. One was to raise money for Sports Relief, which was good of him. The other reason was too celebrate the Olympics coming to London in 2012, in a sort of “if I, a slightly fat 40 something man can do this, imagine what you can do” way. This, I think is the more interesting of the two.
So many people have been, are being and will be cynical about London 2012 but it is going to happen. If everyone thinks it's going to be rubbish then it will become a self-fulfilling prophesy. Then the lazy thinkers, I'm looking at you Littlejohn and Clarkson, can all right columns saying “I told you so. It embarrassing. Why didn't anyone listen to me?” Because you are an arse, that's why. You are defeatist, short sighted and unhelpfully to the public life of this country. All you do is complain and moan. Not a positive phrase ever creeps out of you. You fear change like Luddites. You don't want Britain to be great; you want England to be as it was in the some misty eyed, mythical time that you have invented.
The Olympics will be fantastic. The cream of the Worlds sports men and women in one place and that place will be here.
Why can't we give the world a great show? Because some tubby middle aged men can't be bothered to get up off of their holier-than-though arses and do something to help because sneering is easier. Fuck them I say. Eddie Izzard is my new hero, a tubby middle aged man who did get off his arse and do something. Something great and inspiring. Bring on the Olympics, I, for one, will be loving it.
Oh dear, I seem to have ranted there a bit but it does seem that I hate lazy,cynical people who do nothing but talk our country down. And i was trying so hard to do nice.
Some awards to cheer myself up I think,
The Award for Incredible Over Reaction and Scaremongering of the Week,
This goes to Prof. Hugh Pennington who, is now, an arse.
Some children in England have picked up the E-coli bacteria after visiting a petting zoo or 2. This is a shame for them, don't misunderstand me, but his response was, “Children under 5 shouldn't touch the animals in case they get it.” Oh for goodness sake, just make sure they wash their hands afterwards.
Are you a grandfather sir? Have you ever tried to explain to a 4 and a half year old that they can't touch the animals (which is the point, after all, of a petting zoo) but their slightly older sibling can? Have you ever tried to stop a 3 year old doing pretty much whatever it wants?
There is already a strange disconnect between us and our food and now we are being told that they are dangerous to touch. It's like a fantasy Daily Mail headline, “If the paedophiles don't get your children the sheep and rabbits will”.
The Award for Is There Nothing Sacred Story of the Week,
Is no sport safe from cheating and match fixing? Rugby, cricket, football, formula 1 and now....... Crown Green bowling.
Oh yes. The Canadian team has claimed that the New Zealand team deliberately lost to Thailand at the Asia-Pacific Championships in Malaysia.
Because it is bowls the details are far to boring to go into but you can have a look at the link of you are interested.
The Award for Epic Lying About Your Age of the Week,
This week slightly right-wing and confirmed misogynist Keith Floyd died. Sad for his family. However, when it was announced on the news they claimed that he was only 65!
There is no way on this earth that he was only 65. How badly do you have to treat your body to add at least 20 years to it? I know that you think being mean but I know that I'm not the only one to think it.
We have received and invitation to our friends’ son's “naming ceremony” and we are slightly curious as to what will happen. We have been to the odd christening but this is all new. Will someone say, “I name this child Jay-Z Jnr” and then smash a bottle of champagne over him? I don't know and it upsets me.
I hope you all have a good week.
In my humble opinion the most important news story of the week was my cold. I felt terrible on Thursday, shivery and cold, blocked nose and aching limbs. Awful.
Then I woke up on Friday and felt fine. Can you imagine my disappointment on feeling well again and having to go to work? Possibly the worst day of my life.
James Martin is a cock (That's not actually what I wanted to call him but I've used the other C word rather a lot recently). It occurs to me that some of you might not know who he is so here is a picture,
as you can clearly see, he is a cock. He is also a chef and seems to work for the BBC a lot. He was on Ready, Steady, Cock back in the day but now is on Saturday Kitchen which is shown on, umm...... Saturday.
He also writes a car review, every so often, for the receptacle of all evil that is the Daily Mail. In one column he reviewed an electric car called the Tesla, which is really rather nice.
He doesn't like cyclist. Some people don't but usually it's within cities because cyclists, sometimes, do behave a little poorly. He hates cyclists in the countryside, mostly in the area around his house.
He has had a go at cyclists before but on Sunday he wrote that had sneaked up on a group of lycra clad hippies (for some reason he thinks all cyclists are hippies. Are all chefs cocks?), it's an electric car remember, used the horn and drove them off the road, “The look of sheer terror as they tottered into the hedge was the best thing I've ever seen in my rear-view mirror.”
Of course he apologised for writing the piece, as soon as someone complained, saying that it had been “misjudged” and had been intended to be “humorous”. I can not tell you how many times I've laughed as cars and buses have tried to knock me off of my bike, it's always so funny.
He also, rather inexplicably, said “It was never my intention to offend the many cyclists who share our roads across the country” Oh please, if you are going to write something at least believe in it. You called us names all the way through the article, you did mean to offend. That's what you do when you insult people. What a twat and, yes, it was my intention to offend him.
Barack Obama has dropped America's plans for the European missile defence system. Could this be his first truly great decision?
He is trying to sort some other things out like healthcare and Guantanamo Bay but this is the first thing he has really sorted out. No we will not put an unproven and remarkably expensive missile defence in countries whose people don’t want it and that will protect them from, ummm.... nothing.
Is this a gesture towards peace rather than war? If so I think that would make him the first American leader to make that sort of decision since..... well ever (my American history isn't that good). Actually I think he might be the only modern politician, in any country, to make a policy choice that doesn't use keeping us scared as it’s guiding principle, especially in National Defence.
Of course this has meant criticism from Republicans who have calling him soft on defence and giving in to Russia, although given what the US and the IMF did to the Russian economy in the 90's this muffin basket of a gesture should be the least that America could do. Giving in to Russia? THE COLD WAR IS OVER, YOU WON!
It also occurs to me that being as most of the Republican Congressmen (and I'm sure a lot of Democrats do as well) get shed loads of many from defence firms or work for them they were always likely to take it really personally.
Oh and they are all racists I'm told.
Who do they think is aiming a missile at them? Terrorist groups don't tend to have intercontinental ballistic missiles. Heck, even Iran doesn't. In fact if you look at this document (the bottom of page 11 and page 12 are most interesting) it seems that Iran is a long way from making a bomb and there is no published evidence from the US Intelligence community or anyone else that says that they have tried to develop, manufacture or test a device.
The document also points out that “Iran has acquired technologies not only from Pakistan but also from several European countries in contravention of export control regulations,”
Oh good. So it seems that far from there being a “War on Terror”, we are, in fact, exporting the things that we think that they shouldn’t have to them, probably gift wrapped with a nice bow, and then complaining about them having them.
International Politics is hard.
“Your starter for 10, who in that area does have nuclear weapons but isn't supposed to?” “Norris, employed some of the time!” “Umm, is it ....?” “Come on, I'll have to hurry you!” “Is it Israel?” “Yes, yes it is”.
I run a little bit so I found this incredibly impressive.
Slightly chubby man (at least he was when he started) Eddie Izzard has run 43 marathons in 52 days. He has covered 1,100 miles. He did it for a couple of reasons. One was to raise money for Sports Relief, which was good of him. The other reason was too celebrate the Olympics coming to London in 2012, in a sort of “if I, a slightly fat 40 something man can do this, imagine what you can do” way. This, I think is the more interesting of the two.
So many people have been, are being and will be cynical about London 2012 but it is going to happen. If everyone thinks it's going to be rubbish then it will become a self-fulfilling prophesy. Then the lazy thinkers, I'm looking at you Littlejohn and Clarkson, can all right columns saying “I told you so. It embarrassing. Why didn't anyone listen to me?” Because you are an arse, that's why. You are defeatist, short sighted and unhelpfully to the public life of this country. All you do is complain and moan. Not a positive phrase ever creeps out of you. You fear change like Luddites. You don't want Britain to be great; you want England to be as it was in the some misty eyed, mythical time that you have invented.
The Olympics will be fantastic. The cream of the Worlds sports men and women in one place and that place will be here.
Why can't we give the world a great show? Because some tubby middle aged men can't be bothered to get up off of their holier-than-though arses and do something to help because sneering is easier. Fuck them I say. Eddie Izzard is my new hero, a tubby middle aged man who did get off his arse and do something. Something great and inspiring. Bring on the Olympics, I, for one, will be loving it.
Oh dear, I seem to have ranted there a bit but it does seem that I hate lazy,cynical people who do nothing but talk our country down. And i was trying so hard to do nice.
Some awards to cheer myself up I think,
The Award for Incredible Over Reaction and Scaremongering of the Week,
This goes to Prof. Hugh Pennington who, is now, an arse.
Some children in England have picked up the E-coli bacteria after visiting a petting zoo or 2. This is a shame for them, don't misunderstand me, but his response was, “Children under 5 shouldn't touch the animals in case they get it.” Oh for goodness sake, just make sure they wash their hands afterwards.
Are you a grandfather sir? Have you ever tried to explain to a 4 and a half year old that they can't touch the animals (which is the point, after all, of a petting zoo) but their slightly older sibling can? Have you ever tried to stop a 3 year old doing pretty much whatever it wants?
There is already a strange disconnect between us and our food and now we are being told that they are dangerous to touch. It's like a fantasy Daily Mail headline, “If the paedophiles don't get your children the sheep and rabbits will”.
The Award for Is There Nothing Sacred Story of the Week,
Is no sport safe from cheating and match fixing? Rugby, cricket, football, formula 1 and now....... Crown Green bowling.
Oh yes. The Canadian team has claimed that the New Zealand team deliberately lost to Thailand at the Asia-Pacific Championships in Malaysia.
Because it is bowls the details are far to boring to go into but you can have a look at the link of you are interested.
The Award for Epic Lying About Your Age of the Week,
This week slightly right-wing and confirmed misogynist Keith Floyd died. Sad for his family. However, when it was announced on the news they claimed that he was only 65!
There is no way on this earth that he was only 65. How badly do you have to treat your body to add at least 20 years to it? I know that you think being mean but I know that I'm not the only one to think it.
We have received and invitation to our friends’ son's “naming ceremony” and we are slightly curious as to what will happen. We have been to the odd christening but this is all new. Will someone say, “I name this child Jay-Z Jnr” and then smash a bottle of champagne over him? I don't know and it upsets me.
I hope you all have a good week.
Tuesday, 20 January 2009
It's a Good Day
I know it sounds a little cliché but today IS an historic day. Whatever your politics or views on America, the inauguration of President Obama is a great day in their history. I have heard many people complaining about the fact the media are currently obsessed with his “blackness” and that they should be focusing on his policies. Well I suppose that they have a bit of a point but if they concentrate a little harder, i.e. turn the sound up so that they can hear it, they has been plenty of policy debate. The reason that everyone is now talking about his race is that he has won and he is a black man. Who would have thought that in a country that is so racially divided as the US? Consider their history, not their ancient history, but recent history. The civil rights act was only passed in 1964. Malcolm X was murdered in 1965 and Martin Luther King in 1968, these are very recent events. See how far they have come in 44 years, although Martin Luther King did predict that there would be a Black President in 40 years in 1964, not a bad prediction at all it turns out.
There is, of course, symbolism in the place as well. The inauguration will take place in front of a building that was built by slaves and the invited guests and real people will watch from the National Mall, the 2 mile strip of land that runs from the Lincoln Memorial to the Capitol Building, which is where slaves were bought and sold. It was also the venue for Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech. So a pretty symbolic day all round then for America and the world. I hope everyone has a fantastic day. And whilst everyone celebrates perhaps we should have a quick look at England. It was still alright to put signs up in Hotel windows that said “No Blacks, no Irish” in the 70’s and our politics is still depressingly white but lets not bring down the mood. Let's allow them their day of celebration for tomorrow the work begins.
There is, of course, symbolism in the place as well. The inauguration will take place in front of a building that was built by slaves and the invited guests and real people will watch from the National Mall, the 2 mile strip of land that runs from the Lincoln Memorial to the Capitol Building, which is where slaves were bought and sold. It was also the venue for Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech. So a pretty symbolic day all round then for America and the world. I hope everyone has a fantastic day. And whilst everyone celebrates perhaps we should have a quick look at England. It was still alright to put signs up in Hotel windows that said “No Blacks, no Irish” in the 70’s and our politics is still depressingly white but lets not bring down the mood. Let's allow them their day of celebration for tomorrow the work begins.
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