Budget day today. The BBC has used this picture of Gordon Brown on their front page:
I felt that he needed a fez:
Just like that!
Category: current affairs
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The ghost of Tommy Cooper
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Watch out, there’s a Humphrey about
Nothing to do with red and white striped drinking straws, but more to do with the revelation that the Daily Telegraph has used the Freedom of Information Act to gain access to government files on Humphrey the Number 10 cat. The dossier, apparently an inch and a half thick, reveals that, whilst on the Whitehall payroll, he cost the British taxpayer around £100 per year and was
a workaholic who spends nearly all his time at the office, has no criminal record, does not socialise a great deal or go to many parties and has not been involved in any sex or drugs scandals that we know of. -
President Condi
Condoleezza Rice denies presidential aspirations, but doesn’t quite say "no" categorically. Condi vs. Hillary could be interesting in 2008.
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Commentary
I expect that any of you with an interest in current affairs and politics have, like me, been watching the goings-on at Westminster with regard to the new terrorism laws. Those who are not familiar with the arcane workings of the Mother of Parliaments may be puzzled to learn that our "constitution" (largely unwritten, of course) provides no mechanism for resolving intractable disputes between the lower, elected, Commons and the upper, appointed and hereditary, Lords. There is no scope to use the Parliament Act here (which relies on the same bill being submitted in two separate sessions before the Commons can force its will on the Lords) – and rightly so, in my view, as there is little point in having a reforming chamber if it can not make any reforms. As a consequence, when neither side will give way (and, to be fair, both sides have made some concessions, albeit not to the satisfaction of the other side) the toing and froing will essentially continue until one or other side runs out of oomph. In that respect the Lords is at a disadvantage, its members being largely of greater age than those in the Commons and with the misfortune of having to sit through the small hours in response to the Commons votes. The majorities opposing the bill in the Lords were diminishing as the night wore on, partly because of the concessions won, but also, I suspect, because some of their older Lordships couldn’t keep up the pace and had retired to their beds.
What might seem more puzzling, particularly to those overseas, is the way in which time stops still in the Palace of Westminster on these occasions. As the sitting has not yet finished, even though it is the afternoon of Friday 11th March outside of the palace, it is still Thursday 10th March within. In fact, it could possibly continue to be Thursday there until Sunday evening, if that makes any sense. On occasions, I could do with days that lasted that long.
Oh, and if you were looking for an opinion, here it is – I think the bill as it stands is flawed, and agree with the LibDem proposals to increase the burden of proof required. I also agree with the Tories when they state that an electronic tag won’t be much of a deterrent to an Al-Qaeda operative if your average petty criminal already has ways of getting out of them. I didn’t find Charles Clarke’s attempt to guilt people into supporting him particularly helpful on The World At One today, when he said that we should approve the bill because today is the first anniversary of the Madrid train bombings – I don’t think that really helped the discussion at all.
Which is one of the reasons why I ran around this morning to make sure that I have a vote to use on May 5th. -
Reminder
Just a quick reminder – if you live in England, Scotland or Wales, you have a little over two and three-quarter hours to register to vote, should the election be called for May 5 as everyone expects. Contact your local district council for details – I was able to download the form from my local council’s website and then hotfooted it in to their offices this lunch time.
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Boris Johnson on becoming Tory leader
As quoted on BorisWatch, from an interview with Kirsty Wark:
It’s a bit like building an Early Learning Centre climbing frame. Have you ever built an Early Learning Centre climbing frame, Kirsty? If you ever build one, you’ll find that if you think about it too much, it all goes wrong. When you call the Early Learning Centre climbing frame suicide line, they tell you to just keeping going and not think about it too much. I found that advice very useful. -
Zone of Possible Agreement
Zopa, the eBay of money lending, gets a nice bit of free publicity from the BBC today. The question is, will it take off? Given the general mistrust amongst the general populace of online financial transactions with questions still hanging around regarding security, I think that Zopa has some preconceptions to overcome before people will use it on a significant scale.
Has any grayblog reader used it? -
Soccer corrupts, absolute soccer corrupts absolutely
Apparently, football shown on TV corrupts the behaviour of children that view it. I don’t find this at all implausible, given the way that young kids love to copy their heroes, and having watched my nephew idolise Wayne Rooney, a figure who must be one of the least suitable role models for any eight year old.
What did astonish me, however, was hearing a representative of the Professional Footballers’ Association, speaking on Radio 4’s PM programme this evening, having the temerity to suggest that the problem was not the foul language and poor behaviour of the footballers, but the fact that the TV cameras get them on close-up. What?? Surely, if players moderated their language and behaviour, there would be nothing to be captured by the cameras and this whole thing would not be an issue.
It is time that the football authorities took a tougher line on this. Rugby and cricket woke up to this a while ago, with suitable punsihments now imposed upon players that bring the game into disrepute through their behaviour. Football has already been working to eliminate racism – it is time it dealt with some of its other failings too. -
The cricketing bishop, RIP
David Sheppard, Sussex cricketer and Bishop of Liverpool, has died.