Prezza Punches His Weight

Huzzah for Prezza. This morning on Radio 4, usually known for it's ambushing of politicians, inviting them onto the programme to discuss one issue then asking them for off the cuff comments on another, John Prescott remained calm and gave Radio 4s new economic skinhead, Evan Davis, a verbal thumping for his cheeky bushwack. Asked onto the Today programme to discuss his TV show on Class in British Society, Davis began to ask Prezza about the Mandelson/Deripaska business. It's obvious that Prescott has taken some ducking and diving lesson in the local gym since his straight left to the electorate of yore because he handled Davis in consummate style deflecting the question adroitly and with not a little humour. JP really is a joy for commentators and not for the same reasons that Mandelson is. He is straightforward and often unintelligible but always worth listening to. I, for one, am going to miss him

Passing It Forward

An article this morning give just praise to Alan Bennett for donating all his works to the Bodlean Library that Oxford institution that houses copies of most of the world's literary heritage. Mr Bennett is reported to have told of his relief as the notes, manuscripts and jottings of a lifetime disappeared off down the road. His rationale seems to have been, partly at least, that his education was State funded so he felt that this selfless donation was almost a duty to give back. Bravo Bennett and more power to your literary elbow, may we be reading many many more of you gems in the future.

Fresh from that uplifting moment I come across this item via Digg, in which some anonymous stranger has bought, at auction, a repossessed house in the States only to give it back to the owner from whom it was repossessed. How cool is that?

It just goes to show that perhaps that sixties idealism didn't die out after all; that a seed of it still survives and is just now ready for germination in this financially turbulent time. Now that the ethos of unfettered greed is being reappraised perhaps the idea of community and collective responsibility is an idea whose time had come.

Presidential or What?

Who looks the most Presidential - Barak Obama or John McCain? Or perhaps Sarah Palin should be up there in the choice because, frankly, McCain ain't looking so hot health-wise. Three times cancer survivor is three times cancer getter n'est-ce pas? So his record on cancer is not to be envied. Does the USA want Sarah Palin as President? Perhaps they do. I heard a lady on Radio 4 this morning saying that we, the British more specifically the British Press, were being superciliously nasty to Ms Palin and that we had misjudged her appeal to the American people. Well dang my britches if that ain't the darndest accusation I ever heeard! Is it too much to ask that a Vice-President, possibly a President, can speak in joined up sentences and knows a little, just a little, whereof she speaks. I know we've all been conditioned to low expectations by eight years of W but maybe we might not be in the shit heap we're currently in if we'd had a President who could read without moving his lips. To replace him with another one who's definitely short on international experience is, to say the least, dangerous. Ms Palin is undoubtedly smart, a cute as a pet fox some might say, but is Alaskan native cunning enough on the international stage. I suspect not.

If You've Done Nothing Wrong...

Did I miss something? Did Bjork and Sigur Ros plant bombs in the London Underground while I was asleep and kill and maim dozens of voters. Because that's the only reason I can think of that Gordon's barmy army of legal eagles could have sanctioned the use of anti-terrorist legislation to freeze Iceland's assets in the UK. It's kinda like your local council nuking your vehicle for illegal parking instead of just giving it a ticket like any normal joe. Admittedly Iceland didn't seem to be handling their own personal financial meltdown very well but holy crap why not just go the whole nine yards and invade. Surely those smoking geysers are hiding places for all kinds of WMDs?
Remember folks, this is the administration that says their uberdatabase, all your information, is safe in their hands. If they're prepared to cripple the economy of an ally using the terrorist legislation what are they going to do to you, you're only a voter. Remind me again. Is this a Labour Government?

Help stop this lunacy now. Check this out and sign the petition. This folks, is not what the anti-terrorist legislation was meant for. But this is the way it starts.

Headline Spotting - Part 1

Newsfeed readers are quite useful but they do throw up some really strange headlines. My first encounter with one of these was the headline 'Gunshot victim critical' and I thought 'well you would be wouldn't you', you're not likely to be complementary. 

Today I come across 'Cemetery owner denies murder plot' and I'm wondering whether he has a special space for murder victims. 

Perhaps it's just me...

Australia - Land of the Bizarre

Via Boing Boing. Anytime you think you'd like to emigrate perhaps you should check out these extraordinary tales from the outback. Not only could you be assaulted in an olfactory manner by fish-lady but you could be chased by hearse-man. God's own country no doubt, who else would want to live there?

Joining the Mobile Revolution

Well, here I am blogging from an iPhone on the move. So now waiting world, you can be kept up to speed with my every trivial hiccup. You lucky people. Moving trash.


-- Post From My iPhone