Hideous

Mother called last night after visiting the baby shop. The red push chair was apparently "Hideous", so we went for the black with red trim which I'm told is is "very smart". We got a good deal in the end because the model we ordered was discontinued and we got the upgraded "New for Spring 2006" model. They even pumped up the tires for us. I was begining to get fed up with them, but they came through.

Did you see Tony Blair on Parkinson the other night? The media made a big fuss and claimed he said that god and history would judge him over his decision to go to war. This actually isn't what he said at all. He said that people with faith believe they will be judged by god. And he had a hard time saying even that. The embarrassment really showed. If like me you believe that Tony Blair's faith is about as real as the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the comment is far more telling than the media is saying. He didn't say, "I belive in god and he will judge me". He made some vague statement about people with faith believing they will be judged by god, because he doesn't believe any god will judge him. He doesn't believe in god at all. He believes that telling people he has faith will give him a better chance at the Euro President job. But it's almost as hard for an atheist to claim to have faith as it is for a Christian to claim he doesn't.

Apparently today is National No Smoking day. I don't think it was very well organised. I didn't know anything about it until this morning. I wonder whether my brother has begun his quitting programme yet. His workplace is banning smoking completely on all sites from the end of this month and he was going to stop smoking then. I don't think he's very serious about it though. He needs someone to kick his arse every time he lights up. He does claim to have cut down.

Today David Mills, husband of the Culture Minister Tessa Jowell, will discover whether he is to be indicted over corruption allegations involving Italian PM, Silvio Berlusconi. I still think JOwell is going to lose her job over this, but she has some chance of keeping it if the case against Mills is not pursued. I think it will be however.

Yesterday the news was full of the story of Natalie Evans who has been to the European court of human rights in an attempt to overturn UK court rulings that prevented her from using her frozen embryos to become pregnant. Ms Evans was left infertile after cancer surgery but had IVF treatment to fertilise some of her own eggs before the surgery. The eggs were fertilised using her partner's sperm. The couple split however before the embryos were implanted and her partner withdrew his consent for her to use their embryos.

I do feel some symapthy for Ms Evans here. She wants a child and can't have one. I also fully understand the position of her ex-partner. On balance I feel the courts have made the right decision. I think Ms Evans has a case, but I think her decision to have children in this way would put a lot of pressure on someone that doesn't want to be an absent father. I also wonder how the child would manage growing up knowing that his/her father didn't want anything to do with them. If I was Ms Evans, I would be tempted to adopt a child, but that is just me. I can't really look at this from a woman's perspective. But this case interests me just because of the moral issues here.