Radioactive Vomit Yellow

We painted the kitchen. I didn't think we would find enough time between parenting duties to do it, but it's finished, apart from a very little bit of woodwork. I did walls and ceiling, the dragon did the woodwork. I'm still cleaning paint splashes from my glasses. The funny thing is, Dumpy went to bed when the kitchen walls were radioactive vomit yellow, and woke up with them "natural wicker", and I don't think he noticed a difference.

I got up early yesterday morning and made eggs benedict for breakfast. It was pretty awesome. I wouldn't want it every day, but I did want to see if I could make a hollandaise sauce, and I could. So that is something else I can add to the list of stuff I can make.



In preparation for our visit to the Lake District in August, we bought a back-pack thing for carrying the boy. It was £70, so he has to like it. It's quite good actually. We did a trial run on the way home. I think he likes the fact that he can see over the head of the driver.

Mostly boring, but there is a picture

The Henley by-election took place yesterday. I was thinking it would make bigger headlines. I wasn't even aware it had happened until this morning. The Tories won with a huge majority, but they were always going to in that area. They increased their share of the vote to 57%, up 3.5% on the last election. The turnout was only about 50%, but that's probably about average for a mid-term bi-election. The Labour party did spectacularly badly, finishing in 5th place with a 3% share. They were beaten by the Greens and the British National Party and lost their deposit. They did manage to beat the UKIP, Monster Raving Loonies, the English Democrats, the Miss Great Britain party, the Common Good party, and the Fur Play party. Though the combined vote share of those trailing seven candidates was only 4.77%. I quite like the idea of the Fur Play party. Apparently their candidate was called Harry Bear.

The next bi-election will be on 10 July in Haltemprice and Howden. The election was forced by David Davis' resignation in protest at the 42 day detention plan legislation getting through parliament. He is going to stand again and make civil liberties an election issue. The Lib Dems have said they won't enter a candidate against Davis because they agree with him. The Labour party has also decided not to enter a candidate because they don't agree with him?! The more cynical among us might think they are scared of losing another by-election.

We have been informed today that the monarchy costs us all 66p a year. That's a nice way of looking at it. In fact it means that the government gives the monarchy 66p for every man, woman, and child in the country. So the tax payers pay for all those who don't pay tax, as well as themselves. They also conveniently forget to include security costs, or costs for military ceremonies. I'd personally rather have the 66p anyway. At least I could buy a newspaper, a bar of chocolate, or about a teaspoon of petrol.

There was an interesting story today of a lady who went to a big supermarket and asked them to make a cake for her son's 21st birthday. The supermarket apparently offers a service whereby a photo can be printed on their cakes. The lady gave them a photo to print on the cake, but the supermarket refused to print it because the picture was of her son, naked, aged 5 months. Eventually they agreed to print the picture with a star over the child's bottom. I've read several reports, and they don't exactly tally, but it would seem that the supermarket did make a statement saying that they had a strict no nudity policy and it covered baby pictures. Most media reports seemed to infer that the picture was considered pornographic by the supermarket.

I don't want to say much about the story itself. I think you can guess my own feelings. I'm all for more nudity, but someone on one of the comment pages made a very good point I think:

So now, perhaps we can have a few thoughts from the I.D card fans who tell us "if we have nothing to hide.....".

Because you can bet your bottom dollar, THIS is the sort of thing that will go STRAIGHT onto the "little chip" in your pocket.

Then EVERY one can read that you attempted to have "child pornography" printed at Asda.

That comment was made on the Telegraph website by Ragnar Vagmornasson von Brandenburg-Preussen on June 27, 2008 7:41 AM.

And here's the pictures for the beautiful baby thing:

Achieved the Impossible

Stuart Wheeler, spread betting millionaire, has failed to win a high court ruling that would legally force the government to hold a referendum on ratifying the EU Treaty. It was not entirely unexpected. He is however going to appeal, and I think the government is running scared. They appear to be desperately trying to ratify the damn treaty before Mr Wheeler gets his ruling. For ratification to be completed, the "instruments of ratification" must be deposited in Rome. This hasn't happened yet, but it is scheduled for next month. In fact, ratification cannot be completely completed until the Irish sort out their personal ratification issue. That doesn't appear to be close to resolution.

Judith Charmers, who has been presenting the holiday programme, "Wish you were here" since I was a child, says she has not worn any underwear for 30 years, even round the Balearics. Who'd have thought it?

Dumpy dropped a turd in the pot again this morning. He told his mummy he needed to, and clothing was removed in time to do the deed. Yeah, go Dumpy! I can see a point in the not so distant future where nappies become but a dim memory. Oh how I yearn for that day.

Bloody Harriet Harman is bleating about positive discrimination legislation again. According to the BBC, "The equalities minister said firms should be able to choose a woman over a man of equal ability if they want to." That statement strikes me as odd, since it would appear to imply that currently firms are not allowed to choose a woman over a man of equal ability if they want to. Moreover, she went on to explain that, "companies would not be forced to use positive discrimination", which makes me wonder exactly what the legislation does force companies to do.

The real problem I see with this legislation is that it simply can't be enforced. No two candidates are ever going to have exactly "equal abilities". It would be impossible to argue in court that they did. How can anyone possibly use this legislation to bring an action against anyone? It's facile. Of course, it will mean that white males with a legitimate discrimination complaint will find it harder to make their voices heard. Good work Harriet.

On a brighter note, I appear to have achieved the impossible. I have been awarded compensation by First Great Western because they are a completely rubbish train operator. They gave me a voucher for 12 English pounds that I may use to pay for my next ticket. I was thinking I might frame it and mount it on the wall. I claimed for compensation because last Tuesday I was unable to get a train due to catastrophic signal failure. The other people in my office that travel by train have not bothered to try and get compensation, so I have completed forms for them and distributed them for signing. I even wrote the envelopes for them. All they have to do is stick them down and put them in the posting box. See, how much money First Great Western could have saved by not pissing me off last year.

The Dragon accidentally entered Dumpy in a beautiful baby competition last week. She was just wandering through town, minding her own business when a photographer asked her if she wanted to enter him, so she did. He had his picture taken and it's going to appear in the paper next month. The readers are supposed to look at all the baby pictures in the paper and vote for their favourite one. The winner gets £200 or something. Three pictures were taken and the Dragon selected her favourite to go in the paper. She was then given the option to buy the prints for £50. That's how they make the money I guess. She bought them anyway. I haven't seen them yet. I don't suppose many people are going to vote for children they don't know in the paper. I'm guessing the winner will be the one with the pushiest mother who persuades the most people to vote for her little darling.

Today, nothing else happened. Oh, I did book a hotel in the Lake District for a couple of days. Dragon's sister is coming to visit. I'll scan the Dumpy pics and publish tomorrow.

Trouser Accidents

We spent the weekend in Devon. We didn't do anything special, but it was quite relaxed and I think everyone had a good time. Dumpy had a couple of trouser accidents, but he managed to drop a turd into the big boys' lavatory, which made his grandma very proud indeed. He's going swimming today.

I don't know whether things have changed drastically since I was in full time eduction, but jelly wrestling in bikinis was never an event on the agenda at Reading University while I was there. Click!. No comment is required from me.

I'm officially going to have a go at making eggs benedict this coming weekend. In fact we have several things pencilled in for the weekend. The dragon wants to paint the kitchen. Now that the tiling is finished, she's all ready to complete the job. She likes decorating. The grass will need cutting as well. My mother wants to come down and see the finished kitchen the following weekend I think. We need to buy paint and stuff.

There is an excellent article in the Spectator, by Danial Hanan, about Europe. It's dated 18 Jun, but I only read it this morning. For those of you who can't be bothered to wade through it all, it makes a prediction about what will happen to the Lisbon Treaty now the Irish have rejected it. Hanan claims the Irish 'No' vote will be ignored and the treaty will be levered in surreptitiously anyway. Most people are expecting the Irish to run a second referendum. But Europe can't keep making people vote again every time they get a 'No', while accepting a 'Yes' immediately. Actually, it's not quite correct to say that they accept 'Yes' votes immediately, because they have never actually had one as far as I remember. The part of the article that amused me most was the collection of quotes from Euro leaders. Here are a few of my favourites:

Daniel Cohn-Bendit, leader of the Euro-Greens, snarled: ‘It is not truly democratic that less than a million people can decide the fate of nearly half a billion Europeans.’ Spot on, Danny. So how about letting the other half-billion have referendums, too?

The Vice-President of the Commission, Margot Wallström, plans to run some Eurobarometer opinion polls to find out what the Irish were really voting against. Let me help you with that one, Margot: they were voting against the Lisbon Treaty. The giveaway was the ballot paper, which asked people whether they wanted to amend the constitution so as to, you know, ratify the Lisbon Treaty.

According to the President of the European Parliament, the amiable Hans-Gert Pöttering, "The ratification process must continue,’ because ‘the reform of the European Union is important for citizens, for democracy and for transparency.’ Got that? The reason the EU is tossing aside the verdict of the Irish people is for democracy.

It should be funny. It is funny. I heard a politician on Radio 4 last week claiming that although the Irish actually "voted No mathematically", they didn't really mean it.

Bullets

It's Thursday and so far I have only managed to post one entry this week. That's not to say I haven't been writing. I have, I just haven't been posting. So here is the week, bulleted:

Tuesday...

I couldn't get to the office. I tried, but when I arrived at the station, there was chaos. I should have watched the local news over breakfast. I usually do. If I'd seen the travel news, I wouldn't have bothered walking to the station. Apparently there were signal problems in Didcot. As a result, no trains were travelling east from Swindon. People travelling to London were being advised to travel 40 minutes west (London is east), to Bath, and start from there. So I came home again and worked from home. I don't actually like working from home. I'd rather go to the office and sit down with people round me.

I'm going to apply to First Great Western for compensation again. I wonder what excuse they will come up with this time for not paying. The train was more than an hour late. They can't possibly back out of it this time.

Wednesday...

Lotus Notes is Horse Shit. It's now officially top of my list of all time bollocks software. And that list includes Adobe PageMaker. I mean seriously, how the shagging hell are you supposed to configure it? It won't let me do anything. It just keeps telling me it can't find the damn file. I know which file it's looking for. I know it's looking for it in the wrong place. I even know where it should be looking for it. I just can't make it do it. I'm in danger of disappearing up my own arse. Even the IT boys are scared of it.

The tanker drivers have managed to secure themselves a pay deal amounting to 14% over two years. That's unskilled labour, driving a bloody lorry, and it takes the average wage to more than £41,000. That's more than I earn, and I'm a graduate engineer. There is no point in being qualified. I was hoping the strikes would continue. Can you believe they got 14%? They were only asking for 13%.

OK, stand by, I'm going to talk about Islamic extremism:

I have some unconventional views regarding Islamic terrorism. I think AL Qaeda is completely disorganised. Anyone can lob a petrol bomb and claim to be doing so in the name of Al Qaeda, and I think that is largely what is happening. I don't think they have organised cells around the world covertly planning their next move. I don't believe there is a well defined hierarchy. Even the 9-11 atrocities were the work of just a handful of men, and a few thousand dollars. It didn't take a criminal mastermind to organise it, just big cast-iron balls. I think bin Ladden is dead and has been for years, and I think any cohesion that did exist within Al Queada died with him.

I don't think Abu Qatada is a terrorist mastermind either. I think he'd like people to think he is, but the reason we have no evidence to convict him of terrorist activities is probably because he hasn't done anything tangible. That doesn't mean he's not guilty of anything. He has a history of preaching violent extremism, and he stirs up trouble very effectively. That is what he should be charged with. And if the appeal court rules that he can't be deported to Jordan because the trial that convicted him there wasn't fair and safe, then we should see to it that he is tried fairly and safely in an international court for those offences.

Why am I on my high horse about Islamic terrorism? I'll tell you. It's because Abu Qatada has been released on bail. The guy is a scum bag. He arrived here in UK on a forged passport. He's wanted all over the world. He's been convicted of terrorist offences in his absence in Jordan. The courts can't hold him here because they have no evidence that he's actually done anything. I don't know that he is a terrorist, and I don't know that he was tried fairly in Jordan. I do know that he is a scum bag that stirs up trouble, and I don't want him in my country. The trick is not to let these people into the country in the first place. You don't get this problem then.

Thursday...

The kitchen is officially finished. There are tiles on the wall and everything is installed. It all looks very good. I want to celebrate by making eggs benedict. I don't know how to make it. I've never eaten it. It just looks nice. If I get time at the weekend, I'm going to try. Actually, I don't think I will get time at the weekend because we will go to Devon, but you never know.



Lap dancing clubs are to be reclassified as "sex encounter venues". This is apparently in an effort to slow the proliferation of these places. Currently a lap dancing venue requires the same licence as a karaoke bar it seems. People don't like strip joints near their homes. It is argued that they attract crime, sexual exploitation, and bring down house prices. I agree that house prices may be affected. I'm not sure about the crime argument. In my view, the great unwashed are likely to stay away from these places because there is a charge on the door. As for sexual exploitation, you simply can't make women dance naked against their will. I can't even make my wife do anything against her will.

Working from home

So I'm working from home today. The man has come to do our tiling and I wanted to be here to see him. I managed to buy different batches of tiles it seems, so they didn't quite match. He's mixed them all up though, so I think it'll be OK.

I didn't realise George W was coming to Britain. He's not a popular fellow. The police had trouble keeping the protesters contained in Parliament Square yesterday it seems.

We had a pretty good weekend. I found a working farm to visit. There were animals to feed, sheep and goat racing, a huge maze (2 acres) made of willow hedges, bouncy castle, tractor rides, baby donkey, baby pigs, straw bale maze thing. And it was just £6.50 each to get in, and then we didn't have to pay for anything else. We had a pretty good time anyway.







I know that picture above looks like an unkempt forest of willow, but that is the maze, and believe me, it's a bugger to get through.



It was the Swindon Summer festival this weekend. A bit of a washout if you ask me. It was badly advertised. I couldn't work out where all the events were going to be. I only knew about the gig in Faringdon Road Park because I saw them putting the gear up. They had a Blues Brothers tribute band there. They were actually pretty good.

Nothing else of any interest is happening. Oh, the country is running out of fuel. I love it when this happens. I have half a tank, and I don't need to drive anywhere. The strike was due to end tomorrow, but it seems the tanker drivers are still angry and failed to reach any agreement in talks today, so more strike action looks inevitable. Do you know, the average tanker driver is earning £36K a year? I know some university graduates not earning that much.

Friday 13th, and I'm so happy I could pee

There is so much surprising good news today, I don't know where to start.

It might be Friday the 13th, but there is something very wonderful happening. The Irish are voting on the Lisbon Treaty. If they vote No, the treaty must be dumped. They are the only nation voting on the treaty, and they were expected to vote Yes. However, early indications show that in fact they are going to return a No vote. A No vote would mean that the treaty would not be ratified by the Irish. Since all nations have to ratify for the treaty to come into force, that would put Europe on very dodgy ground indeed.

It's very difficult to predict what the hell would happen if the Lisbon Treaty was dumped. Some would say that Europe, as it stands, is incapable of supporting the current member states. It's corrupt, drowning in bureaucracy, and desperately unpopular with the people. It needs to reform to survive, but it doesn't appear to be able to do so. My father, in typically cynical style, once told me that Europe would "drown in it's own juices". I think this could be his prediction coming true. How I wish he was still here to see it. I can't get too excited. The No vote hasn't come yet. So far early polls are suggesting that a No vote is coming, but the result won't be known for sure until this evening. I can't wait.

The media are really giving David Davis a hard time today after his shock move to resign as shadow Home Secretary yesterday. Much is being made of a split between Davis and Cameron, though that appears to me to be largely speculative. I'm sure Cameron is disappointed Davis chose to do this, but I don't think it's any more than a difference of opinion, a healthy thing in politics if you ask me.

I think the public are going to support Davis. I think the majority of people realise that civil liberties have been snatched away by the government and that someone needs to make the stance. The PM is going to be embarrassed and the Conservatives can only gain support. The media are labelling him a nutter. The public I think are going to hail him as a hero.

The UN has suggested, in fairly strong terms that the UK should hold a referendum on whether to scrap our monarchy and become a republic. I think I'd support that, not because I want Britain to be a republic, but because I think Ponce Charles is a bloody liability.

All this, and Tessa Jowl (Minister for London) has been photographed dressed as Barbie's Grandmother. It doesn't get any better than this.

MIsc

So, the Irish are voting on the Lisbon treaty today. This may not sound significant to people not strangled by the mass of red tape that is the EU, but Ireland is the only country holding a referendum on the issue. And since all countries must ratify the treaty for it to become active, all eyes are upon them. The Irish are pretty pro Europe, but things are not cut and dried. They will almost certainly vote in favour of the treaty (sadly) but it will be close. I don't know when the result will come out.

Yesterday was another bad day for the PM. He did win his 42 day detention vote, but the government (majority of 65) won by only 9 votes. What's more, those 9 votes came from the DUP. Then, just as it was being hailed as a victory in the fight against terrorism, it emerged that a cabinet office official managed to leave two top secret, terrorist related, intelligence dossiers on a London commuter train. It makes you wonder exactly how important the cabinet regard the fight against terrorism doesn't it.

There is much speculation about why the DUP decided to support the government on this issue after a last minute meeting with Gordon Brown. Both DUP and the PM swear blind that no deal was struck, but I think most people are convinced the votes were bought.

The Shadow Home Secretary, David Davis (I quite like him) has just resigned over the 42 day thing. He thinks the Conservative leader should have been tougher. I think I agree. He's standing down to force a by election in his constituency. He will then stand as a candidate again, hoping to be re-elected on the back of his civil rights stance. I think there are better ways he could have played it, but you have to admire the man I suppose. He can't fail to win his seat back. The Lib Dems are siding with him (!?) and are not intending to enter a candidate. And Labour can't possibly reverse the 5,000 vote majority achieved at the last election.

It does seem as though the story of David Davis in a rift with the Tory leader is only being reported by the BBC. The Telegraph seems to be suggesting that Davis' only problem is with the Labour party. Davis didn't mention any rift with Cameron when he made his resignation speech. He only issued a challenge to the Labour party, urging them to fight him at the by election and make it a civil rights issue.

There was an interesting thing in the Telegraph this morning. According to the research of Prof. Richard Lynn, people with higher IQs are less likely to believe in God. I wanted to agree with the guy, but his research doesn't appear to hold up very well in my view. He claims that academics are statistically less likely to believe in God. He's not the first to say it. Richard Dawkins often makes the same claim for instance. He then goes on to say that academics have higher IQs and it is this that makes them less likely to have faith. But, he does not establish a causal link between intelligence and atheism in my view. He only establishes a correlation between education and atheism, and between education and higher IQs. He's made controversial claims in the past.

He also points put that young children are likely to believe in God, but more likely to question it as their intelligence develops. That reinforces the correlation between education and atheism I think. Young children will believe almost anything, because they have little education. As they become educated, they question things more. It's not just intelligence. I'm still thinking about it. It depends how you define intelligence doesn't it? One could argue that intelligence never develops. You just add knowledge.

42 days

I need to mention government plans to allow detention without charge for 42 days. This plan has been kicking around for months. It's always been controversial, but the bill is actually scheduled to be voted on in the Commons today. And it's really too close to call. The Lib Dems (for once not sitting on the bloody fence) and the Tories, are both planning to oppose the bill. There are also something like 50 Labour MPs intending to rebel. What makes it unpredictable is the fact that the DUP are refusing to say which way they will vote. They only have a handful of MPs, but they could swing the result in either direction.

In case you were wondering, I am against detention without charge for 42 days. It's open to abuse, and I can't see what the advantage would be. Supporters of the bill argue that 42 days are required to collect evidence against some terrorist suspects. But suspects can already be held for 28 days, and anti terror legislation is already being abused by local councils, who consistently use it to monitor emails and bug phones.

Prediction: I think the government will scrape a win here. I hope they don't, but I think they will, because I suspect Gordon has bribed the DUP. He is panicking however, because it will be close, and he really needs to win. He's in bad shape right now, and a loss here will injure him very badly indeed. The bill will go to the Lords if the government wins here today. The Lords will throw it out, but like the fox hunting bill, they can really only delay things.

My own MP, Anne Snelgrove, who gets letters from me quite often, is going to vote for extending the detention period to 42 days. You don't need to be psychic to make this prediction. She never votes against the government, because she aspires to be a cabinet minister, and she doesn't want to upset the people who can put her there. Also, she already voted to increase the detention period to 90 days, though that was defeated in 1995.

The key vote is going happen some time around 6pm. I don't know if I can get this posted before the result goes out, but the time now is about 13.15.

I just broke our purchasing system at work. There I was, minding my own business, trying to order some new software, when apparently my "handle is out of range". Wonder what that means. Can't order my software anyway. Lotus Notes truly represents all that is evil in this world. Well Lotus Notes and Tony Blair anyway.

I'm on kitchen duty tonight. I have to make pasta. I thought this was going to happen earlier in the week. I even bought a bottle of cheap red wine to throw in it. It's tonight though, definitely tonight. I've had it confirmed. I paid £2.58 for the bottle of wine. I thought that was great value. I imagine it would be too awful to drink, but no reason why it can't go in the pasta sauce. I'm quite into cooking at the moment.

My laptop is having its hard disk encrypted tonight. If you don't hear from me tomorrow, it's because it's all screwed up and I have nothing to type on. Not only that, they are dusting desks in the office tonight apparently. The word has gone round to clear desks before leaving this evening. My desk is not messy, but there are some really good examples of the volcano desk principal in here. These people need more notice before the desk fairy visits if you ask me. I bet this is all down to some weird EU directive.

I think I have a sore throat coming.

OK, it's now 11.02 pm and I didn't get this posted by 6pm. Told you I wouldn't. The vote result came out around 6.30. The government won, by 9 votes. The DUP voted with the government. They had a total of 9 votes. All are denying any deals (read "bribes") but meetings were attended and the DUP voted the way Gordon wanted. No one believes they weren't bought. The DUP are corrupt, and I hope the electorate remembers that next time they are required to vote.

Pictures and Stuff

It is (was) dragon boat festival this weekend. I confess I don't know what dragon boat festival celebrates. If we are in Asia when the festival arrives, we always go and see the races, and then eat jong tsi, sticky rice dumplings. In the west there are no races, but we still make the dumplings. The dragon made hundreds of dumplings yesterday and we ate them in the garden. We spent a lot of time in the garden yesterday. It looks really quite nice now. The path up to the garage is passable now, though the Weigela needs cutting back. It was spectacular this year, but has somewhat taken over.

There are a lot of dumplings left over. the dragon is going to share them with her Asian friends today I think. I hope the weather will remain nice. It was looking a bit grim last week. I need sunshine. I had two beers yesterday. It was the first alcohol to pass my lips for several weeks. I found some novelty beers in the local Indian shop. One was a Bollywood beer. Very colourful label, quite nice. The other was Desperado beer. I just liked the name. It had all sorts of aromatic flavourings. Tasted a bit gingery. Quite odd.

We've also been making bread again:





We have loads of strawberries growing in the garden. They are still green, but dumpy tried to eat one anyway yesterday. I knocked one off with the lawn mower. That was depressing. we need a new lawn mower. The current one has been in my possession for about 20 years, and it was second hand when I bought it from my old boss. Perhaps we should treat ourselves to a new one.

I was drawn to the headline, Brain size not key to intellect, this morning. Perhaps I am turning into a pedantic old git, but headlines like this annoy me. Is this a new discovery? Has no one except me noticed that there are several mammals with bigger brains, but smaller intellects, than humans? Isn't this another observation from the school of the bleeding obvious?

I am prepared, as always, to read the article before I take the piss however. I didn't have to read very far. From the first two paragraphs:

"UK research reveals that the rising complexity of connections between brain cells may have been the biggest driving force.

The Nature Neuroscience study found clear differences between brain junctions in mammals, insects and single cell creatures."

Hang on, single celled creatures!? Connections between brain cells? Can anyone see where I'm going with this? It's too easy isn't it?

Oh this is going nowhere. I'll write something good one day, hones

Another prediction

OK, I feel another prediction coming. Big Brother Nine started last night with the usual hysteria. I always tell myself I'm not going to watch it, then stray across it by mistake while channel surfing and find myself drawn to it, like a road accident. Another 16 unstable social misfits have been imprisoned in the house for the next three months. The hilarious twist this series is that two housemates are pretending to be a couple, when in fact they only just met, while in reality two other contests are a real couple but are not allowed to tell anyone. How do they come up with these amazing ideas?

I didn't watch it all. I saw about 5 people go into the house, and Divina McCall jumping about like a schoolgirl at a Boyzone concert. My prediction is that the winner will be Mikey. He's a comedian and he's blind. Women very seldom win BB. I think it's because the majority of public voters are women and they don't vote for other women. If men voted, the women with the biggest chests would win. Is that cynical? Mikey not only has the advantage of being male, he will also get the sympathy vote, and he came across as a nice guy when he arrived. So there you have it. I'll be commenting again in 13 weeks.

Sir Ian Blair, the corrupt chief of the Met Police, is always somewhere near the top of my list of people I loath most in the world. He's about third at the moment, behind Tony Blair and David Blunkett. Today he has come out with a statement which, on the surface seems fairly sensible. He suggests the CPS prosecute celebrities when they are caught taking drugs on film. He mentioned particularly the case of Kate Moss, who was recently filmed doing something dodgy looking with an unidentified white powder in a London recording studio.

The CPS defended themselves by saying that they considered prosecuting Moss but didn't have any evidence that the substance in the film was an illegal narcotic. Sir Ian Blair claims she should still have been prosecuted and made to prove to a jury that the powder we saw was not drugs.

OK, STOP!

Since when has anyone had to prove their innocence in this country? I'm sure I remember being taught that everyone in this country was innocent until proven guilty. Isn't that a cast iron human right? If you think she's Guilty Sir Ian, it's up to you to convince a jury she is. It's not up to her to convince one she's not.

I don't like Kate Moss. She's only a place or two behind Sir Ian in my list of foul people as a matter of fact, but she does have the same human rights as every other British subject. I'm more than a little concerned that Sir Ian seems to think he doesn't have to observe that.

Evidence

Well Hilary has finally agreed to concede and endorse her opponent. I suppose that means the cow will be second in command. Would she be the first Lady VP? See, I'd be worried about that if I was Obama. She's probably hiring someone to bump him off as we speak.

I want to do a naked bicycle ride to draw attention to the perils of global warming. Actually I'm a bit of a climate change sceptic. I just like exposing myself. They have one arranged in Cardiff soon. And they say there will be one in Bristol and Oxford. The Bristol and Oxford ones have no date. Last Bristol one was in October - not doing that! I think there is a London one.

I mentioned yesterday that we were making bread. In case you didn't believe me, here is the evidence. It's very nice. It's a bit sweet. It came from a Chinese recipe book. I think it's traditional Taiwanese style. I had some for lunch anyway.



The Dragon plays a silly postcard game with one of her cousins. About once a month they make a postcard and send it to each other. I wanted to post a scan of the current one. She finished it last night and I thought it was quite nice. The theme would seem to be, "Dumpy at play".

Truncated

Politicians are odd creatures. Nearly all of them claim to believe in democracy. Even the dictators claim that the will of the people put them there. Yet when democracy shows them something they don't want to see, they ignore it. Hilary Clinton has lost the race for presidential nomination. It's quite unarguable. She simply doesn't have as much support as her opponent. If she believes in democracy, she should stand aside and allow it to work. Why doesn't she stand down? She only seems to be in favour of democracy if it gives her power.

Exactly the same thing is happening in Zimbabwe. Robert Mugabe knew damn well he couldn't win a presidential election, so he tried to fix it. When that failed, he refused to release the results and refused to stand down when it became clear he had lost. Now he's forced a run off, which he can't possibly win, and his opponent has been "detained" by his police. The man would rather send his country into civil war than let the people chose their leader. Yet he stands on a podium and preaches democracy.

Hilary Clinton and Robert Mugabe are both corrupt, power-mad scum. Why would anyone support them?

This is going to be a truncated entry because we're making bread. This is just a stop-gap while it rises.

Knob of the week

I know it's only Monday, but I want to present my "knob of the week award" to the Bishop of Stafford.

The Bishop of Stafford, Gordon Mursell, seems to think that climate change sceptics, and I count myself among their number, are as guilty as Josef Fritzl. My first reaction to this story was confusion. He does however try to explain himself. It seems that Gordon thinks that to ignore climate change is selfish and that it condemns our children to an unpleasant future. That's like Fritzl you see, he didn't give a toss about his daughter, only cared about himself.

Over and above the fact that his comments are so vacuous as to destroy his own argument, this story is interesting to me for other reasons. He appears to be of the opinion that climate change is so obviously happening, that anyone claiming otherwise can only be in denial. I wonder whether he considers me to be as guilty as Fritzl. I'm of the opinion that there is very little firm evidence to suggest that global warming is actually happening, though I'm certainly willing to listen to anyone who does have compelling evidence. It seems to me that the climate scientists can't agree on the rate of warming, the effects of warming, or what's causing it. And all conclusions appear to based on the premise that the climate would be stable if man wasn't meddling. That premise is demonstrably wrong.

Why is that interesting to me? I'll tell you. The standard Christian argument for the existence of god is very similar to Gordon's argument for the existence of global warming. It's obvious it's there, you just have to look around to see it. You can't possibly need more evidence than that. To ignore it is morally wrong.

The Bradford and Bingley Building Society is drifting up Shit Creek sans paddle this morning it seems. Their chief exec, a man in whom the market apparently had some confidence, has resigned with health problems hours before it was announced that they were in the red. The B and B were (are?) the biggest buy-to-let mortgage lenders in the country. House prices are plummeting, and I guess it seems as though they have a huge amount of money invested in property which isn't worth as much as it was. What's more, it's property bought by people who rely on letting the place to tenants to cover the loan repayments. If they can't find tenants, and the value of the property falls below what they borrowed to buy it, they won't be able to make the repayments, and they won't be able to pay off the loan by selling it.

This morning I read that Yves Saint Laurent has died, this afternoon Bo Diddley passed away, and just a day or two ago, Beryl Cook died. It's been a bad week.