gammarama.co.uk

A lack of posting recently… been pretty busy since moving out of my flat in Glasgow! I’ve been busy with sorting out job apps, and tying up loose ends from the flat etc. I am back north for a few weeks, staying at home. It’s great! Although i have yet to unpack, all my stuff has been dumped in my bedroom. It looks like a bomb site, and I ain’t gonna unpack any time soon!!

It’s nice to be home though. Seeing family, and just generally chilling out and having few worries. I’ve been taken out for lunch by my mum and sister a couple of times, always nice!

When living in Glasgow you soon forget how nice it is to be home, how scenic it is. I’ve been going for nice long runs, where you hardly see another person, it beats pounding the pavements of the west end. Bought a new bike too, for the cross. The hard training starts now! Below are a few pics. One of the new bike, and the others from just along the road.

Moore blames women for ‘banal’ TV

British TV standards are deteriorating because the BBC is “run by women”, astronomer Sir Patrick Moore has said.

The Sky at Night host also described female newsreaders as “jokey” and called for separate channels to cater for the needs of the different sexes.

“I think it may eventually happen”, the 84-year-old told the Radio Times.

A BBC spokesman described Sir Patrick as being one of TV’s best-loved figures and said his “forthright” views were “what we all love about him”.

The presenter said: “The trouble is the BBC now is run by women and it shows soap operas, cooking, quizzes, kitchen-sink plays. You wouldn’t have had that in the golden days.”

Link

Ok, his point about women is chauvinistic rubbish, but he has a point about the Beeb showing soap operas, quizzes… etc, basically dumbed down television ala big brother.

What should the role of the BBC be? There has been a lot of discussion over this what with the charter renewal. Should the BBC be competing with channel 4, itv, sky etc. on “entertainment” programmes, or should it stick to providing a public service, which may not be the most popular in terms of viewing figures, but in terms of substance is plentiful.

In my opinion, strictly come dancing, fame academy, celebrity [insert something here] etc. should not be shown on the BBC. It is cheap easy television, with no intellectual merit. The BBC should stick to panorama-esk type programmes, covering current affairs and things with cultural merit. Yes there does need to be a balance, of-course there will be some soaps and some dumbed down television, but the balance has to be struck carefully, and i think the BBC are trying to cater for too many with the likes of some of the programmes on BBC3. It should stick to what it knows best.

The BBC gets a lot of stick for being institutionally left leaning, some of which is fair enough (check out BiasedBBC), but on the whole we must be thankful for the institution that is the BBC, it is the envy of many countries. Take one look at the likes of Fox News, and many of the other American news channels, we have to be thankful of the BBC when compared along side them. The licence fee is worth its money for the BBC news website alone, not to mention radio 4 and radio 2, along with programmes like question time, this week and the like.

I have been packing and moving my stuff out of my current flat all day, it has got me thinking quite a lot! I’ve been in the flat for over two years, so it’s a little bit emotional packing all my stuff and getting ready to move out. It seems weird, all my life amounts to is a few possessions!!

It’s provokes a load of different emotions thinking about all my experiences and memories that i have had and ’shared’ with this flat! The time in my live it has represented. Fun, sadness, happiness, experimentation… It feels like it’s the end of an era, University pretty much finished, grad job around the corner, friends all going our separate ways - quite sad, but exciting at the same time, daunting!  I suppose everyone has the same feelings at some time or another, it was the same when we finished secondary school and no doubt it will occur lots more in the future.

Since the voting fiasco, there has been a number of commentators who have criticised the introduction of technology into the voting process i.e. the new counting machines. Just because as-a-whole they never worked as they were supposed to, does that mean that we should avoid adopting such technology?

It seems what is often the case what is theoretically possible for technology is very different from what is actually the case, in terms of the technology that is put in place and implemented. The developer/manufacturer is often over ambitious and oversells its product, with the effect of technology being sold and adopted under a false pretence. There are a number of lessons that need to be learnt, mainly that technology for technologies sake is not the answer, and that more scrutiny and thought is needed when implementing or adopting a new technology.

There have been a number if instances where technology has been poorly implemented by the public sector, and it fills me with fear that an ID card system and health record system will soon be implemented! There is the whole recent problems with security in terms of web sites for doctors applications, amongst many many other things. Dizzy has an article on companies poorly adopting technology, namely TK Maxx being hacked.

On a more personal level it amuses me when certain older members of my family want the latest gadgets, but have no clue how to work them. Dad, gets a new phone with all the bells and whistles, and struggles to make and receive calls on the thing!! Don’t even start about using computers…!

Ha, Iain has just posted this article about male rights. A new blog has been set up to promote male rights, for example:

Perhaps others should be set up for other “positive discrimination” policies!

Are still up everywhere…. I wonder if they will be as enthusiastic in taking them down as they were putting them up - doubt it.

So, I decided this morning, at the last minute, to go to the Rangers vs. Celtic game at Ibrox. It was another sunny day in Glasgow, shock! Managed to get a ticket outside no problem-o. Today was the third time I have been to an old firm game, and will probably be my last for a while.

The game itself was good, in terms of the result - Rangers deservedly won, 2-0!

The reason it will be the last game i go to for a while? The sectarianism. What really struck me was how little progress there has been in terms of sectarianism, and bigitory. Both Rangers and Celtic, along with a number of other groups have tried, and indeed still are trying to make some real efforts to stamp out bigitory, but by today’s showing, they are failing miserably.

The kick-off was at 12.30, the usual early time for old firm games. It was moved to this time years ago because of so much trouble in the past, with fans drinking all day before a later kick-off. I’m sure that has helped a little, but the amount of intoxicated and wasted people at the game was unbelievable for two reasons: 1) the time, at 12.30, i’m guessing many of them had carried on drinking (and taking whatever else) since last night; 2) they should never have been allowed into the ground in the first place. There were people who could hardly stand, let-alone watch a football match - i’m guessing the police wanted a relatively easy ride with minimum hassle, so let these people in, because there is no way they could have missed some peoples drunkenness.

I was at the game today to watch the football, which is more than can be said for a number of other people. There were a number of folk around me who stood looking at the Celtic support the whole game, taunting them. Before the game the atmosphere is electric, with much singing of the usual old sectarian songs. So much for this being stamped out, or even remotely eradicated. Rangers have been in trouble recently with UEFA over the songs that were being sung very loudly today. There was no attempt by the stewards or police to do anything to the few individuals who were orchestrating the songs. I don’t blame them really, they aren’t getting paid enough! The whole atmosphere of utter hate from grown, normally respectable men is unbelievable. I was more or less at the opposite end of the stadium from the Celtic support, but that did not stop some fools around me from shouting and screaming at them, as if they could actually hear them. Giving them the fingers, calling them all the names under the sun, singing about wanting to kill them…

I was shocked (maybe not the right word, disgusted a little i suppose), but I half expected it. I remember my first ever old firm game a couple of years ago, I was even more shocked, as i didn’t know what to expect. Before I even got in the ground the atmosphere was tense and dangerous. Young kids, standing at the barriers between the support shouting obscenities, with their dad joining in ten times worse - some role model. The old firm game is an exiting atmosphere, and you can kind-of understand how some of the people get carried away. Football is some peoples lives. They spend pretty much all their money on it, they live for going to the games on the Saturday.

Tonight in and around Glasgow will be carnage. The “wild-west”, “stupid town” etc, as most taxi drivers etc call old firm night. No doubt there will be a number of fights, stabbings and perhaps murders. It’s the norm. I usually try and avoid going out on an old firm night, if you can avoid it, you never know what idiot you might run into. The trouble with the early game, there is more time for twats to get drunk and cause mayhem afterwards.

Anyway, my whole point is, I suppose, what can be done about the whole situation? Education? Yesterday in the Herald I read an article about a youth project that has been set up in order to educate youngsters about sectarianism. It was all very rosy, educate the children try and overcome troubles, by understanding the differences between Catholics and Protestants etc. I felt the article didn’t even mention the main underlying reason for sectarianism problems, which which basically stem from deprivation, alcohol and drug abuse. Not to beat around the bush, the majority of those who attended the football today would have been lower working class folk, from the big estates in and around Glasgow and the west of Scotland. Sectarianism will always exist as long as there are the many problems in these estates. People poorly educated, with few aspirations of hope. I suppose the old firm basically illustrates Scotland’s social inequality, deprivation and society’s ills. Problems from today are going to persist, and will never go away by making token moves and being seen to act. The only way any immediate changes will happen is to hit fans really where it hurts, start having mass bans from games, whereby one person acts in a sectarian manner, everyone gets punished. Perhaps not the fairest, but at least it will start self policing at the grounds. A few closed door old firm games might be the answer?

I was half way through writing this post, and nipped down to Sainsbury to get stuff for dinner. In the car i was listening to Radio Scotland, the football phone-in. They were commenting how well behaved the fans were today! I was going to write before I heard them say this, that there probably has been an improvement in the recent past, but not a big improvement - there is still a big problem. If public figures like Jim Traynor (I think it was him hosting the phone-in) are stating that they never heard or saw any trouble, then they lead too much of a sheltered life, in their directors box, or commentary box.

*edit* i fell asleep half way through writing this, so never properly finished it, and i’m too tried to do it now!

Let the fun commence!

SNP is largest party at Holyrood
The Scottish National Party have the biggest single number of MSPs in the new Holyrood parliament.

At 1730 BST on Friday the final results were known.

The SNP won 47, Labour came in second with 46; the Conservatives have 17; the Liberal Democrats secured 16; and others came in with three.

Earlier on Friday, SNP leader Alex Salmond said that the Labour Party had lost the “moral authority to govern Scotland”.

Oh well, this will be interesting, a few days of negotiations.  Lets hope Salmond et al is brave and takes the right tough decisions when it comes to getting rid of this socialist state we live in.

is a twat.

He is a smug prick. “Historic moment” ya de ya. Lead for country, not for party advantage? Yeah, right. What a dick.

What happens now since he is an MP and an MSP, i’m sure the people of Banff and Buchan will be delighted that they will not have representative in the UK parliament. I’m sure he’ll enjoy the two lots of pay. */edit/ as Mr Eugenides pointed out over on his blog, which i was actually thinking about too!*

Well, a bit of a cock up I suppose. When I was filling out my postal vote, I did have to take a couple of minutes to read over the instructions, and they were not that straight forward really. The problem wasn’t the three different systems, and two separate sheets. With the postal votes you had two seperate envelopes and a loose sheet which had to be placed in one of the envelopes with the address showing out the way.

Anyway, it wasn’t that difficult to work out where to put the X and the 1,2,3 etc.

Best quote I read all night was a comment on one of the the BBC blog:

If people are too stupid to follow the instructions on how to vote then they don’t deserve to vote. I mean, how complicated is 1 2 3?

Unless one particular party only attracts people of a lower intelligence then the 1000 “spoilt” papers should be divided between the different candidates in proportion to the valid papers. Is a certain party complaining that it’s voters are dumber than average?

Either way, no-one was denied their right to vote as Salmond is yabbering on about. People did not follow the instructions; they have no-one to blame other than themselves. Yes, the instructions could maybe have been clearer, and there could have been more info on the different voting systems, but it’s up to the individual to educate themselves, not anyone else.

FOREVER

Awoo! After two days of drunken antics, my liver needs a rest.

Just watching the election coverage, nothing too exciting yet… Lots of spoilt votes.

I’ve been quiet of late…. unfortunately it is exam time!

Finals… it’s going to be very strange to be finished. I’ve been pretty lazy about getting a grad job. I’ve decided i’m not in too much of a rush - going to take my time and get something i actually want to do! Got a summer internship lined up with Murray International Holdings, so that should be good… and I have an interview with BNP Paribas too. Going to the Rugby World Cup at the end of the summer (in France), do a bit of travelling, then worry about getting a job!
My exams are:

• Economics of Natural Resources and the Environment (Was last week, it went reasonably well!)
• Government and the Economy (tomorrow… eek!)
• Financial Economics and Financial Institutions (Tuesday!)

Oh well, i ought to be revising stuff about PFI’s and PPP’s, bleh, been in the library all day, can’t face any more tonight! Hopefully the 2.1 is easily in the bag!!!

Another thought provoking post on GU Dialectic about the VTech tragedy in perspective. No one can argue that it was not a tragedy, and the loss of life and the actions of Cho Seung-hui are quite shocking… but I think the post on the GU Dialectic forum illustrates my point here better.  As i said:

…one thing that amazes me and is worth considering, is that on a daily basis there are suicide bombings and attacks, that kill tens and hundreds of people. This happens every single day. If you think of that in context to the London July 7th bombings, or Madrid bombings etc, it is amazing how little coverage it gets. Because this is happening in Iraq ‘we’, the west in general, don’t pay as much attention to it, and trivialise it. The news coverage is sparse and brief, we are more concerned about tv phone vote-ins being rigged…

Just read the link to this article on GU Dialectic website “looking is discrimination”… indeed… madness… how sensitive can some people be?!

Andrew ‘brillo pad’ Neil was at UoG the other day, making this clip. It raises a few interesting questions. Has social mobility really declined under a Labour government, despite all the money being pumped into education?

I think the clip does cover some of the issues, but doesn’t truly delve into the biggest issue; family background, parenting and encouragement. Yes it does mention it, but it seems to focus on the role of primary and secondary education. From a personal point of view, I believe that the state school which I went to offered absolutely everyone the same opportunity - to do the best of ones capabilities. I remember throughout school being encouraged and pushed by all teachers, that was the same for everybody, regardless of their background. However, I don’t think this is where the divide between lower and middle classes begins, it begins at home, and from a very early age - as one of the teachers tried to point out.

The way people are brought up, on the whole, determines the attitudes of pupils when at school. As i went to a small primary school (it had about 40 pupils in total, 3 in my age group!!), which was in a relatively affluent area, all my friends were of a similar background, and were relatively diligent! I got a complete shock when I moved to the local Academy (1,200+ pupils), where the behaviour of some of the pupils was quite unbelievable to a sheltered me!! Despite the teachers best efforts to try and persuade, force and coax pupils into learning, some people just did not want to; all they wanted to do was ‘have fun’, whilst being disruptive.

I was, and still am lucky, in the sense that my parents encourage me to do my best, and to work hard in order to fulfil my potential. Yes, often I should and could work harder, but on the whole I do enough to get by. Some of my contemporaries were not so lucky. For some it seemed like their parents did not give a damn what their children did in or out of school - little wonder some of the people have turned out the way they have. I think it illustrates the point completely if you link parents attendance at parents’ evenings, with how well a pupil does in school. It always seemed to be those disruptive and under-performing pupils parents’ that did not attend parents’ evenings (my apostrophe use is probably wrong… ha!).

Anyway, are the media and middle classes getting what the aspirations of lower classes should be wrong? Without being snobby, is the best that some people can hope for an apprenticeship, and a ‘good’ vocational career? Is that wrong? I have friends who were not interested in education - it is just not for them. They are bright enough people, but do not want to put in the effort now… should these people be encouraged to go to ‘University’, when frankly they should not be there? The rise of ‘micky mouse’ courses and ‘micky mouse’ universities is worrying. Its little wonder that the drop out rates for some of the supposed subjects are so high, many of the people should not be there in the first place, and what they are learning is of little practical use in the real world anyway! (yes, that can be said of many courses at the ancient universities, e.g. classics etc, but at least these courses are truly testing, and add something in terms of culture to society… unlike surfing courses). Surely money will be better spent elsewhere, instead of subsidising courses that are of little use. If basic skills are lacking, e.g. reading and writing, then shouldn’t we be targeting these (well, we apparently are, but not successfully, lets get back to basics!!). Additionally, all the extra educational spending, where has it gone?

For me, the government has its targets completely wrong, 50% in higher education is not a useful or sustainable target. Not everyone has the want, willingness or potential to go to university, or even higher education. Some people just want a 9-5 job, and are happy to settle down with that - is there anything wrong with that? The current structure isn’t working, drop out rates are high, and many ‘graduates’ are doing nothing with their apparent useful degrees, other than stacking shelves.  I don’t see any of this as a snobbish issue, and it should not be approached as such… people need to get over the hang ups of class divides and get real.  As for social mobility, I believe it is still possible to come from humble beginnings, and climb the ladder, achieving worthwhile things - but it is the same as ever; people have to work bloody hard to get up, perhaps harder than those that were born into comfortable surroundings, but that is the way it is, and probably always will be, get over it.
Anyway, enough of an incoherent rant from me… Burning our money has a really good article, with good articles linked in his post, here. Worth a read.

Well, it seems David Maclean et al have been defeated in trying to get an exemption for the commons and lords over freedom of information requests. Quite right too!

His reason for the bill was to protect constituents who speak to their MPs in confidence. As it was quite rightly pointed out by many people, the FOI Act cannot contravene the data protection act, and personal details that may be sensitive will not be released.

Apparently some MP “filibustered” the bill by speaking for about two hours… that would have been interesting i’m sure. I find it quite funny how there are loads of different ways of defeating a bill in the commons. Wasting time on a pointless vote, and dragging out a debate for five hours did the trick today. As this was a private members bill, it goes to the bottom of the pile and will time expire I think.

One thing with FOI requests is that there ought to be a limit on the resources that are used in gathering info for a request. It is difficult. On the one hand there is the need for some information to be released, but on the other hand, some of the information that is subsequently released is pretty useless, and has cost a lot to compile and produce.

Hmm, anyway… enough wasting time, better get back to some revision!

Update!! Well it seems the UK’s parliament has some more quirks… the bill is getting another debate on Friday (other PM bills aren’t ready to be debated)… oh well, some more time-wasting!

Well, maybe you are!  I got horribly lost today in Glasgow, whilst driving down to University (thought i would take a ’short-cut’ to avoid the roadworks on Dumbarton Road… big mistake!) … Finally got into uni, and read saw the headline for this story, and thought it was about the diversion i got lost on!  Oh well… still quite funny really, after a 25 minute journey, being diverted back to where you began!

Wooooah, well it seems that some Durham teenager has had some party!  A 17 year old girl has had a house ‘party’ whilst her parents were away over the easter weekend.  They leave the house, with the usual warnings to the child, no parties, no drinking etc etc.  So a couple of days later and £20,000 worth of clean up/damage costs have been made!!  This along with a month to put right.  I would most definitely not like to be the 17 year old girl at the moment, unpopular to say the least!

You have got to feel sorry for the parents though, pretty much ruined their house.  Apparently they are thinking of moving out.  The look on each of there faces when they first came home… would have been something!

Apparently the word of the party spread through myspace.  Its all quite amusing to me really, mainly because i’ve had parties, and been to parties which have perhaps been a little out of control, but I can safely say we didn’t do this much damage! The worst was a new carpet, and a hole in a wall… bad, but not as bad as this! Hmm, some interesting tales from house parties back when i was secondary school.  Interesting things being put in microwaves, toasters and the like.  Not to mention a number of poor goldfish!

Dizzy has posted this story earlier today about Gordon Brown’s campaign website, or lack of one. The just of the start of the post is about Brown et al trying to stop the Electoral Commission from scrutinizing any leadership campaign. That is fine. But he then goes on to say:

No website you say? Well I guess it all depends on how one defines “website”. If you mean he has no textual presence on the Internet putting out his stall for leadership then yes, arguably he doesn’t. However, if by website we mean the back-end preparations such as registering domains and putting the infrastructure in place to build it, then actually he probably does and the work for it appears to have started between October and December last year.

There is no website, in terms of what pretty much everyone would class as a website, and I quite imagine what he would class as a website too. There is a holding page in place that has been put there by the company who the domains were bought through (discount domains). From the domains having been purchased, he has tried to infer that there is a website in another form in the making. The only evidence he has is that various domain names have been bought obviously for use in a leadership campaign, gordonbrown4leader.com, .co.uk etc. There is absolutely no evidence of a ‘proper’ website being made (although I can quite imagine that ideas for ones have been drifted about, but that does not make or prove his story in any way.)

He talks about ‘infrastructure changes’, which are basically the domains being registered. I think he has deliberately tried to be misleading, as those who are not very technically knowledgeable will probably think that the ‘infrastructure changes’ are a big deal, when they are not. By continuing to say ‘work work for it appears to have started between October and December last year’ makes it sound like a big job, which it most definitely is not, as he well knows.

A company called Silverfish TV have bought the domains.

Silverfish TV are the people behind the Dave the Chameleon advert, whose client list includes errr…. HM Treasury, as well as the Labour Party and lots of other Labour Party connected organisations such as Progress and the The John Smith Trust. John Prescott is quoted on their website saying they are “bloody brilliant”.

Ok, so a commercial company have bought the domains, and they do have a link to the government. Fine, still no rule breaking yet. He leaves the impression that because Silverfish have bought the domain it must be because of orders from the Brown camp. It is a possibility, but, at the moment we are talking about a few domains that cost a few pounds each, and there is NO website. A commercial company, close to the labour has bought the domains. If i was in the media/internet business it is a good move to buy those domains, they could be worth a fair bit of money (i’ve bought monthefratellis.com if anyone wants to buy!!!). Also, if they are close to Labour, they perhaps pre-empted a future contract by buying the domains - nothing wrong in that. Also, as someone commented on Iain Dale’s site when he linked to the story here, the domains could have been bought for many other uses, such as a parody site (I don’t think this is likely, but still, we have no evidence to the contrary).

Now Channel 4 news have apparently covered the story tonight, I never saw it, but Dizzy has a follow up post here. I really cannot see how this is such a big EXCLUSIVE story. It’s little wonder people are put of politics when you get bs like this reported on the news. On another note, the way Iain linked to the Dizzy’s story illustrates how some bloggers should be more careful and check what they are posting.

Dizzy begs to differ and proves that he already has a backend website up and running …

He did nothing of the sort, as Dizzy said in Iain’s comments. (Iain has still not edited or corrected what he has said, and he will have seen Dizzy’s comment as comment moderation is swiched on.)
The evidence of the whole story is flimsy and based on ifs, buts, and maybes. It is getting increasingly amusing to see the focus of opposition attacks on Brown, when before it would have been Blair. Funny how the target of arguments can change so conveniently and easy.

Added a google adsense the other day, just to see how much money I wouldn’t get… anyway…. noticed this advert on it just now:

It is for http://www.ukessays.com/ which will write your university essays for you!!! ha… £1000 and you get at least a 2.1 grade essay/dissertation… quite interesting really. A few people around uni always joke about ‘giving someone £1000, wishing someone would write their essay for them’… but none of us actually would actually buy an essay online - I think!

I also noticed that you can sell your existing essays… worth a try!!!

Seriously though, it is pretty worrying that sites like this exist. At Gla they are introducing software for checking against plagiarism to economics undergrad courses. They already have them for a lot of other courses at undergrad level and all postgrad i think. Either way, if, as the site claims, that you really can buy an essay that will fly under the radar and get you a 2.1, i am sure a lot more people would consider it. If i was guaranteed a 2.1, or a 1st for my dissertation, i would say the £1000 might well be a good investment. It would mean i could concentrate on my other subjects etc. I suppose the only positive is that people can’t ‘cheat’ their way through exams in this fashion!

Just did a little google search, and it seems that it is quite a problem.

I have been watching the masters for the last four days (I blame this for wrecking my sleeping pattern!!!), argh, I want to play a round so much! Something I must do this summer is get into playing golf properly, and take it up a bit more seriously! I played a fair bit last summer, but not enough to get really into it, and improve. If i am going to play, i want to play well!! I think a couple of lessons may be in order.

The professional guys are just so good. Even at the masters, where they were struggling to beat par, they still made some shots seem too easy. The putting surfaces are like glass! Justin Rose was a little unlucky today, he played reasonably well. Tiger Woods seemed like a moany £$%, throwing a bit of a strop at his caddy. The guy who won it, Johnson, seemed like a reasonable fellow… pretty emotional and all that. I was sneakily hoping for a play-off… nothing like a bit of excitement!!

Below is a picture of Aigas Golf Course, nice and scenic… where I play mostly when I am at home.

When we were out in London, one big thing you noticed immediately was smoking. As I was with someone who smoked, it was quite obvious that smoking was allowed again! It is quite horrible, it meant that the next day all your clothes smell, as well as your hair - not nice. That along with the obvious detrimental health effects mean that I am very glad that it has been banned in Scotland! It has just been banned last week in Wales, and a ban it to follow in England in a few months too.

At first I wasn’t too for the ban, even though I am a non smoker, out of principle really I suppose, it is surely the right of people to be allowed to smoke. Anyway, the ban has been introduced, and it is remarkable how little overall effect it seems to have had. I would say that many of the pubs, bars and clubs that I would normally go to are as busy, if not busier because of the smoking ban. People have just accepted the ban, and get on with it, with very little fuss. From my experience with friends that smoke it means that they are likely to smoke less on a night out, which is undoubtedly a good thing. Although there are three main drawbacks from the ban: you not smell other things rather than smoke (B.O!); it means I am more likely to nip into a bar for a quick one, because I know I won’t come out stinking of smoke; and, when you are out with a lot of people that smoke the craic can sometimes move outside, even when its Baltic, which is annoying!!

After something has happened do you ever wish you had said something, or done something at the time?

What I mean is the other day when a couple of friends and I were in London we were looking for something to eat - the morning after the night before, so we were a bit hung over, just looking for a nice fry up or the like! We were in central London beside Kings Cross station and had no idea where would be good to get food, my Spanish friend saw a police man in the street and asked if he knew of anywhere nice. The Police man was so rude! To be fair, my friend perhaps did not ask the question “where would be good to get food around here” in the nicest way, but he was just struggling to get his words out. The police man, obviously noticing his foreign accent was pretty out of order. Speaking in a condescending and an aggressive manner he replied “MANNERS, we have manners in this country son! Say PLEASE!“, to which my friend apologised and said please, then the policeman said “No I don’t” and kept walking. Unbelievable! After it happened I wish I had said something to the policeman, I still do. From the point of view of the policeman I can quite imagine he has trouble with ‘illegals’, and immigrants, but that is not the point, he should not be so judgemental. Is this the image that we want foreigners to get of Britain and the police? I doubt it.

Frankly I would not be a policeman for anything. I couldn’t think of a much worse job. Especially when you start out, working shifts, dealing with all the scum of the day, tedious paperwork… etc. I have to wonder why some people want to be join the police. Do people just seek power? Are they lacking in their own lives so much that they want a job whereby they have power over others? I think in many instances that is why people join the police. Even by thinking back to people at school, and the type of people who wanted to join the police, or who have joined the police, i think it illustrates my point. It is not a job with any prestige or stature. No longer is the local bobby held in high esteem.

If i think back to when I was in my teens, I wasn’t particularly badly behaved, but I know the hassle the police got from my peers and I. Spending their shifts chasing after 15-year-olds drinking out in the street? Great job - I think not! Even today, having to deal with drunken students - no thanks!

There is beginning to be a bit of a fuss around the 15 Iranian captives selling their stories to the media. Apparently Faye Turney has got a six figure sum from the Sun. I don’t quite know what to think, although it does seem unprofessional and a little un-British military like.

On the one hand it is a bit tacky and distasteful, as someone said in the news, especially considering recent UK casualties in Iraq. Also, because they would not normally be allowed to sell/tell their stories. On the other hand, why shouldn’t the Navy personnel make some money, especially as most of the people in the group are not making that much money, a six figure sum, or the like, is a lot. The stories would have come out in one form or another, either from family members, or close friends, so perhaps it is better that the personnel themselves get to tell the story, and put a line under the whole affair.

Either way, them selling their stories and getting money may help solve the problem of armed forces hospital beds - they will be able to afford to go private!!

More pictures, which have not been sorted… are here!

Its amazing the difference the weather can make to peoples attitudes! Its been really sunny and dry here for well over a week, its like summer is just around the corner, especially with the clocks going forward. Can’t wait to graduate now and have a nice lazy and relaxing summer!

Ha, notices two already. The BBC web site is launching “sniff-screen technology” and Iain Dale is running for mayor of London!

Reminds me of when I was younger, at primary school, the teacher said we all had to get our feet inspected for verrucas… anyway… was funny at the time with a class full of people with their bare feet on the table.

Watched the first episode of the new series of the Apprentice last night. I don’t quite know why people who apparently have so much talent want to work for Alan Sugar. He comes across as a bit of a rude prick really.

The UK version seems so amateurish compared to the American version with ‘The Donald’. If people are so great, as they say, then why are they on the show, wanting to work for someone else, when they could be working for themselves. I would say that most of them want to be famous in one form or another, not really the ‘apprentice’.

In last nights show the contestants had to sell coffee, and frankly it looked like both teams did a pretty mediocre job (I know that there will have been some clever editing, but still!). Some pretty useless Scottish guy got fired. I was getting so annoyed watching the show… people being so stupid and so pompous. The internal politics within a team would piss me off majorly. If your team wins, you are exempt from being fired, so why do people not just go all out with the believe that they can win, instead of people covering their backs and not taking decisions. The amount of fence sitting and non-committal is unreal! Another thing, if they are all potential candidates, why is such a big deal made of who is team leader?! Bloody hell, they are like sheep sometimes, they go along with what the team leader says, even if it appears to be wrong, just so that they can pin the blame on the team leader! Either way, i would win the apprentice (haha)… actually i wouldn’t, i would probably end up smacking Sugar in the board room for being such a rude twat.

So who do i think will win?? I’ll narrow it down to the top six… just from last nights episode.

We shall see, i will most likely be completely wrong!

So the home office is going to be split in two… I don’t see how actually doing this will solve any of the many problems the home office has encountered in the recent past. Most of the problems come down to mismanagement on behalf of ministers and civil servants, splitting the home office up will not stop their failures. If it was to be spilt, and a new cabinet post was created, then i would say that is an improvements, as there seems to be a definite need to have accountability within the home office departments, which has been lacking.

One thing that has frustrated me is how much ministers get the blame for what quite clearly are faults of civil servants. Yes, ministers ultimately are responsible, but they cannot know everything, and must reply on civil servants, who are in their jobs permanently. A couple of summers ago I got job in the uni holidays working in local government, and i can tell you, it put me of being a civil servant for life. People were so petty, and the internal politics was unbelievable. From what i saw, everybody sat on the fence and avoided taking decisions because they didn’t want to be accountable for anything. Most of them were happy with their cushy jobs, and were insulated from the real business world… little wonder everything was so inefficient.

By the sounds of it, the split will just shift the problems, not solve any of them. Oh, and how much is this all going to cost, what with re-branding etc!