While it is good to see David Cameron using the internet, I would advise having a paperbag at the ready if you go to Webcameron.
Does he think we were born yesterday? If you were going to do a videcast would you do it while you were doing the washing up? I bet he's got a dishwasher anyway - so I suspect the whole dishwashing thing was a sham. And would you conveniently have someone in your kitchen who is able to hold the camera and provide the right degree of "wobble"?
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Tories' laughable sham of conference democracy
The BBC reports of the Conservative conference:
...there will even be regular votes on the conference floor, which is a novel idea for a Tory conference, on a series of "hot topics".
Subjects to be tackled include "should marketing to children be banned?" and "alcohol does more harm than drugs".
Votes will be cast, X Factor-style, with electronic handsets, although what happens to the results once they are in is less clear.
Excellent. So let's suppose everyone votes to say "yes - alcohol does more harm than drugs".
Then what happens? And (putting aside the fact that alcohol is a drug) what about smoking tobacco, which, when I last checked, kills about five times as many people per year as alcohol?
So the Conservatives - all these wise grey haired individuals - make ponderous statements such as "alcohol does more harm than drugs". That is really worth the membership fee isn't it? Presumably the results of the votes will be written in stone rather like that "I believe" statement which Howard, or was it IDS?, came up with. Then have a ton of earth will be slung on top of the stone and it will be forgotten.
Presumably no vote will be held on the "hot topic" of some of David Cmaeron's recent announcements, for example his idea that the Queen's powers should be lessened. Now that would be a corker. I would expect the machinery to explode with indignation as the delegates pressed their buttons on that one.
...there will even be regular votes on the conference floor, which is a novel idea for a Tory conference, on a series of "hot topics".
Subjects to be tackled include "should marketing to children be banned?" and "alcohol does more harm than drugs".
Votes will be cast, X Factor-style, with electronic handsets, although what happens to the results once they are in is less clear.
Excellent. So let's suppose everyone votes to say "yes - alcohol does more harm than drugs".
Then what happens? And (putting aside the fact that alcohol is a drug) what about smoking tobacco, which, when I last checked, kills about five times as many people per year as alcohol?
So the Conservatives - all these wise grey haired individuals - make ponderous statements such as "alcohol does more harm than drugs". That is really worth the membership fee isn't it? Presumably the results of the votes will be written in stone rather like that "I believe" statement which Howard, or was it IDS?, came up with. Then have a ton of earth will be slung on top of the stone and it will be forgotten.
Presumably no vote will be held on the "hot topic" of some of David Cmaeron's recent announcements, for example his idea that the Queen's powers should be lessened. Now that would be a corker. I would expect the machinery to explode with indignation as the delegates pressed their buttons on that one.
Friday, September 29, 2006
Noel Edmonds naked at 186mph
I am not sure whether the police can at least investigate Noel Edmonds after he admitted driving naked on the Tring by-pass (where else?) at 186 mph at 4am 30 years ago.
I'll be charitable and accept the explanation of Edmonds' spokesman that he was confessing to something he now accepted was extremely foolish, rather than bragging to a lads' magazine.
It is tempting not to be charitable though.
I'll be charitable and accept the explanation of Edmonds' spokesman that he was confessing to something he now accepted was extremely foolish, rather than bragging to a lads' magazine.
It is tempting not to be charitable though.
Penny finally drops on 'Deal or no deal'
I was half-listening to 'Deal or no deal' this afternoon as my wife watched it in the kitchen.
It has barely comprehensible rules, an apparently aimless sequence of moves and inane cheering at some apparently random point.
I've got it. The penny has finally dropped.
'Deal or no deal' is the televisual version of 'Mornington Crescent'!
It has barely comprehensible rules, an apparently aimless sequence of moves and inane cheering at some apparently random point.
I've got it. The penny has finally dropped.
'Deal or no deal' is the televisual version of 'Mornington Crescent'!
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Doctor Who lost without his tardis
I was ready for a disappointment when I sat down to watch Who do you think you are? featuring David Tennant last night on BBC1. "Scotsman finds he is descended from Scots and a bit of Irish" didn't seem to promise a rip-roaring programme.
However, the whole thing was unexpectedly fascinating. It was fascinating to hear that David Tennant is actually David MacDonald and chose his surname, as a sixteen year old aspiring actor, from the pages of Smash Hits magazine. Yes, he named himself after the bloke in the Pet Shop Boys!
It was when he travelled to Ireland in search of his mother's ancestors that it got interesting. His grandfather was a popular football player for Derry City FC whose season scoring record still stands. His grandmother was a local beauty queen. One of his ancestors, James, was a Unionist Councillor in the same city who "was involved in the vote-rigging which maintained control of the council for the Protestant minority. Yet James also fought for social justice, and one of his daughters married a Catholic lad. His descendants were caught up in the Bloody Sunday march in 1972, the catalyst for the Troubles that have gripped the province ever since."
First of all we saw Tennant, a self-professed "Guardian-reading liberal" coming to terms with holding the Orange sash of his ancestor. Then he was delighted to hear of James' fight for better conditions for the poor. Then Tennant seemed more at ease to talk to his cousin who was a peaceful marcher in the Bloody Sunday protest.
Tennant's family history covered quite a kaleidoscope of Irish history.
However, the whole thing was unexpectedly fascinating. It was fascinating to hear that David Tennant is actually David MacDonald and chose his surname, as a sixteen year old aspiring actor, from the pages of Smash Hits magazine. Yes, he named himself after the bloke in the Pet Shop Boys!
It was when he travelled to Ireland in search of his mother's ancestors that it got interesting. His grandfather was a popular football player for Derry City FC whose season scoring record still stands. His grandmother was a local beauty queen. One of his ancestors, James, was a Unionist Councillor in the same city who "was involved in the vote-rigging which maintained control of the council for the Protestant minority. Yet James also fought for social justice, and one of his daughters married a Catholic lad. His descendants were caught up in the Bloody Sunday march in 1972, the catalyst for the Troubles that have gripped the province ever since."
First of all we saw Tennant, a self-professed "Guardian-reading liberal" coming to terms with holding the Orange sash of his ancestor. Then he was delighted to hear of James' fight for better conditions for the poor. Then Tennant seemed more at ease to talk to his cousin who was a peaceful marcher in the Bloody Sunday protest.
Tennant's family history covered quite a kaleidoscope of Irish history.
What are daddy long-legs for?
A few days ago, I asked 'what are daddy long-legs for?'
As ever, the BBC is on the case, and they have found some terribly clever boffin to provide the answer:
They are an important source of food for creatures that eat insects, including birds and spiders, says ecology professor Guy Poppy, from the University of Southampton.
"Insect eaters will be feasting on all the daddy longlegs at this time of year, a spider web will be full of them."
The larvae also eat decaying plant material and help to recycle nutrients back into the soil.
There you go.
As ever, the BBC is on the case, and they have found some terribly clever boffin to provide the answer:
They are an important source of food for creatures that eat insects, including birds and spiders, says ecology professor Guy Poppy, from the University of Southampton.
"Insect eaters will be feasting on all the daddy longlegs at this time of year, a spider web will be full of them."
The larvae also eat decaying plant material and help to recycle nutrients back into the soil.
There you go.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Is Stephen Fry mad?
He said he was mad, jokingly, as he exuberantly bought his seventeenth iPod on BBC2's A Secret life of the manic depressive. Of course he isn't (mad) and this two-part programme served enormously to help the public understand manic depressives. Stephen Fry is to be warmly congratulated. He even allowed the cameras to record him as he suffered from a bout of depression in Aberdeen. It was very brave of him to go to Aberdeen (joke!) and very brave to be filmed in such a state.
The programme explored "solutions" for what is sometimes called bipolar disorder. These included medicine and Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT). Stephen said that he thought CBT wasn't for him.
But I do hope that he does follow up and have some CBT. It certainly won't do him any harm. He is likely to find it a gentle, unintrusive series of chats that help him understand his personality and work towards ways of diminishing self-damaging extremes of mood in future.
The programme explored "solutions" for what is sometimes called bipolar disorder. These included medicine and Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT). Stephen said that he thought CBT wasn't for him.
But I do hope that he does follow up and have some CBT. It certainly won't do him any harm. He is likely to find it a gentle, unintrusive series of chats that help him understand his personality and work towards ways of diminishing self-damaging extremes of mood in future.
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