[UPDATE: Edited to use the version of the body text that actually makes some sense with the originally posted title.] I’m not that old, so I’m often puzzled by people who make historical pronouncements in ignorance of recent, relevant history, sometimes history that happened within their lifetimes but not mine. Of course, as Catholic dogma would […]
Stephen Pollard (under the title “Is the BBC out of control?”) and the Centre Right Blog at Conservative Home (under the title “Big Brother Corporation”) embed video of the recent, and undoubtedly threatening, ad warning unlicensed TV viewers of the completeness of the TV licensing authority’s database of UK addresses. In SP’s comments, Nicholas writes: […]
Boris Johnson’s Hair: still No Overall Control.
Every year the National Union of Teachers conference can be counted on for some beyond-parody educationalist nonsense. I enjoyed this one today from the BBC News site. As part of the perennial moan that children are being tested too much an NUT delegate worried that: Even nursery-age children were being taught to spell and write […]
The best way to reveal the true political colours of a bloggertarian is to call his bluff: there’s usually a good old-fashioned red-faced colonel underneath the shiny modern exterior. Right Next Time nails the UK Libertarian Party: all liberty, all the time, for all of the people—except for Johnny Foreigner.
Given the trouble a certain blogger found himself in for announcing Margaret Thatcher’s death prematurely, I should point out that I wrote my previous post about her before the ex-PM’s hospitalization hit the headlines. Regulars know I’m not a fan of hers, but I don’t wish her dead and I’m not going to take any […]
While I’m on the subject of Tories, this evening, I finally got round to watching the second part of the very good Michael Portillo documentary about Thatcher and the Conservative Party (The Lady’s Not For Spurning) that I downloaded from the BBC’s excellent iPlayer site. I put it off for so long because I was […]
It’s all over for the ‘Head On the front page of The Spectator online, Fraser Nelson suggests that David Cameron could be “the British [Barack] Obama”, which struck me as a coincidence, because I am the British Gore Vidal.
I spoiled my ballot papers—one for men on one colour of paper, one for women on another colour—for Labour MEP nominations today. I scrawled through the voting boxes and wrote “THIS BALLOT IS SEXIST” (as if it needed explaining), then I put them both into the prepaid envelope. If Harriet Harman has her way and we […]
The latest political scandal uncovered on BBC Radio 2 news this morning was a Conservative MP being “late to declare hospitality from McDonald’s”. Imagine an Italian person hearing that report and trying to make any kind of sense of it at all.
One of the things that came up over Christmas was, as usual, my continuing unmarried status as the big four-oh looms. Three different members of the family interrogated me about my non-existent love life. Yesterday, I was offered an opportunity to do something about this as I was invited to a singles event: a Website […]
“Meysterr McClaren, you hyev harrdly touched your sushi.”
Tom Hamilton complains about being spammed by Naomi Klein’s people, looking for publicity for her latest volume of designer politics. (Exactly as I didn’t with Peter Cook’s book back here, I am going to divine without reading it that Klein’s book will be rubbish.) From Tom’s comments, it seems, they also pestered Tim Worstall, Mr Eugenides, and […]
While I’m away, you might want to read Let’s Be Sensible’s “science” round-up and a couple of posts at Mr E’s place. This one is about a news story that highlights the absurdities of religious schools in England and Wales and this one is about the latest Conservative Party screw-up. When they do get rid of Cameron as […]
Ever found yourself in the uncomfortable position of agreeing with something on career Conservative Iain Dale’s blog? Under a photo of Sierra Leoneans queuing to vote he writes: This is the picture that should shame 39% of British adults … Why is it that 39% of people in this country at the last general election took […]
No one reads blogs on sunny weekends so this is possibly the worst time to try this out, but, being an evil neocon, I have decided to install Democracy 2.0.1 here. Now you can express your feelings about the Things That Matter. Exercise your franchise, PooterGeekers: n Who is the Messiah? David Icke David Shayler Christopher […]
Dismissing David Cameron and his gang as “toffs” is feeble, but I’ve noticed a few commentators refining that line lately. The Spectator blog points at Trevor Kavanagh, Political Editor of The Sun—there’s a job—claiming that the workrate of the Cameroonies compares unfavourably with that of either the Blairites or Brownites (as recounted by Alastair Campbell), […]
Over the past few days I’ve been busy. I’ll continue to be so over the next few days. Here are quick links to some of the things that have caught my eye lately. Following up my recent post about David Cameron, not only were the voting slips in yesterday’s Ealing Southall by-election labelled “David Cameron’s Conservatives”, […]
A couple of years back I planned a new running scenario on PooterGeek: Tora-Bora-nation Street. The idea was simple: Tony Blair and the rest of his family would drop into the local Corrie-style corner shop from time to time and I would depict their developing relationship with the new proprietors—with the Blairs unaware that the […]
Further to Anthony’s latest post about the execution of the head of China’s Food and Drug Administration, this week’s Alanis Morissette Award goes to the Beijing Public Security and Statistics Bureaux. From Reuters, via The Scotsman: A Briton who has spent years trying to convince foreigners that China is not as repressive as Western media often […]
I write short posts. Much goes unsaid. I often write ironically. Some subjects are better approached that way; or it’s just more fun for me to tackle them sideways. What I do say, I say in plain English in the hope that my words at least are clear to everyone who reads them. Reading Norm today […]
I’ve observed before that there are good reasons to criticise Cherie Blair, but it’s revealing that those aren’t the reasons why most people in the media criticise her. It’s worse than that: they hate her—and for the oldest human reason of all: she’s “not one of us”. Cherie Booth was a poor north-of-England Catholic girl from […]
Norman Geras is disappointed by Terry Eagleton. You have to wonder how closely Norm’s been reading Eagleton’s output over the past few years decades.
I think I should write a script that automatically generates a post linking to Shamer’s latest review of Question Time every week.
Some new blogs on the roll here: Vic, Brighton & Hove resident and occasional PooterGeek commenter, has her own place now, called The Stopping Service. On the political side of things, I’ve mentioned Conservative Home here before and both Political Betting and Polling Report are also well worth dipping into. Lastly, I have added Martin […]
I listened to Gordon Brown’s first Prime Minister’s Questions as actual Prime Minister yesterday. If you put the substance of the “debate” aside (as the laws of contemporary British journalism require all commentators to do) then David Cameron made Gordon Brown sound a bit rickety. The good thing for our democracy is that, before most […]
…Or even second- or third-vote for her. This is where preference systems get you. It’s ironic that, even though I think she was one of the worst candidates for the job, I also think her election will improve Labour’s chances of winning the next General Election.
The Labour aristocracy does seem to be attracted to “sexually highly charged black women”. Not being one of Jackie Ashley’s admirers, I missed her toe-curling tribute to Diane Abbott in The Guardian—where else?—when it appeared last week, but I caught up with it via Peter Briffa: [Diane Abbott MP] was, and is, a cheerer-upper. She was […]
British Spin fisks Dave’s “comeback” speech: First up, He keeps on with some horribly mixed metaphor. “then, brick by brick, you build your house. That is the plan I laid out when I became leader of this Party and that is exactly the plan we’ve been following. We started by preparing the ground. We stopped fooling ourselves […]
Over at Samizdata, California is becoming a “totalitarian” state because an overwhelming majority of the residents of the city of Berkeley voted for comprehensive regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and because San Francisco can fine pet owners who don’t feed their pets properly and fortune-tellers who don’t have a licence to practise. Britain is […]