Ryanair to charge for air on planes

Following news today that Ryanair are investigating the possibility of charging people £1 to go to the toilet on Ryanair flights, Ryanair are keeping quiet over concerns that they might in future turn of the air systems in the planes and instead charge people to use oxygen masks instead.

A senior Irish self publicist said on TV at every possible opportunity between repeating lies that Ryanair are the best airline in the world that "if we can get away with charging people for a call of nature when they have no alternative but to use aircraft toilets then why shouldn't we extend this to the air on the planes itself ? Remember, Ryanair don't give a toss about the customer, all we care about is profits and if we can get away with it, we'll do it".

Further future options Ryanair have considered are:

1) Introducing a new more expensive ticket for higher class customers. These tickets will be called "Cattle Class", and passengers will be treated the same as existing customers but importantly, will not have the put up with standing in queue with the plebs in the standard "Pleb Class" that already exists.
2) Seats will be stripped of covers with passengers asked to sit on bare springs. Passengers can pay an extra £10 for a velcro cover which they will be expected to give back at the end of the flight.
3) Passengers willing to travel naked will not be charged the full £4 charge (per journey each way) that debit card customers are charged and will, instead be charged just £3.87 per flight, saving a whole £13 pence.

Reporting comments and the risks of doing so

I don't make a point of quoting Guido Fawkes blog as I don't read it. I personally don't like the cult of the personality that seems to surround the blog or the fact that for so long he tried to hide his identity. I know its a very successful blog and congratulations should go to him for that.

However, if ever justification was needed as to why you shouldn't believe everything you read on blogs, particularly when reading comments to blogs, it comes from The Right Student who has been caught out by taking a quotation from a comment posted to Guido Fawkes blog which was later proven not to hold water.

Update : Interestingly this posting on "The Right Student" has been removed since late last night.

If you've nothing to hide you've nothing to fear

Those words used in the title of this posting were used by Ming Campbell today to make the point that Labour, so keen to tell us that we need ID cards because "If you've nothing to hide you've nothing to fear", are running scared (with lots of Tory support) or providing the Freedom of Information requests of cabinet minutes in the run up to the Iraq war.

Labour motives are obvious. But we know why the Tories support Labour in this lack of freedom. Aside from David Davis, there is hardly a history of open government and a willingness to put things out in the open (remember Spy Catcher ?) from the Conservative party. But the truth will come out eventually on the way Labour and Blair manipulated this country in to a war.

At least we Lib Dems can say proudly that we did not support sweeping things under the carpet.

No wonder the kids have problems if the parents are like this

Parents have reportedly complained that a presenter on children's TV channel CBeebies is "scaring their children" because she had one arm !

Quite astonishingly these parents claim their children are so disturbed to see that someone on TV does not conform to their perfect vision of the world that the kids are having nightmares !

What utterly useless parents these people must be if they cannot explain simply to their children that people in the world are different from each other, some have disabilities, some need wheelchairs, some are ill, some have spots, some run faster than others, some have different skin colours and some people, despite their handicaps overcome the hurdles put in front of them and show that efforts in life is rewarded.

Presumably these same people will not allow their children to watch the Paralympic Games for fear that the children will have nightmares from watching Ellie Simmons or Oscar Pistorius competing.

You have to fear for the future of this country if this is the type of parent having children in this country.

So why was Binyam Mohamed in Afghanistan ?

Getting away from the fact that released detainee Binyam Mohammad appears to have been tortured by US officials, something which any true believer in democracy is totally opposed to, how many others feel less safe because he is in the country tonight ?

As I understand it he came to the UK from Ethiopia, but despite having no links with Pakistan he travelled there and then on to Taliban controlled Afghanistan, strangely leaving Afghanistan when the Taliban were overthrown and was then captured by the US when trying to use a false passport to travel back to the UK.

Why does someone visit Afghanistan ? Why would he use a false passport ? Why was Afghanistan the sort of place he wanted to be in when Taliban controlled but not the sort of place to be when run by Afghans ?

Do these actions concern you ? They would me, but then we let him back in to the UK.

I don't have the answers, just lots of questions.

Crazy mortgages - You read it here first !

I note that Gordon brown has spoen out against 100% mortgages whilst Tories too are jumping on the bandwagon to attack crazy loans that their party had no problem in supporting a few months ago.

I'd just like to point out that I made the point HERE back in November 2006 !

Step aside Vince Cable.

Will Iain Dale have to repay the donations ?

Iain Dale likes to repeat and recycle the stories concerning the conman Michael Brown, who made a substantial donation (with the approval of the Electoral Commission), to the lib Dems before the last General Election.

Stories on Iain' blog centre around "Will the Lib Dems pay it back" to "Lib Dems to be bankrupted", depending on how anti Lib Dem Iain appear to be feeling in any given month.

So it was with some interest that I read today that Bearwood, a company owned by Tory donor Lord Ashcroft, is being investigated by the electoral commission in to its donations to the Tory Party. North Norfolk Conservatives received substantial donations from Bearwood in the run up to the 2005 General Election (although oddly every pound donated by Bearwood seemed to equate to another vote on the eventual Lib Dem majority there), and Iain Dale was, of course Tory candidate in 2005.

Should I now be running stories every month on whether Iain should pay back the money ?

No, that would be very silly.

Why the government's pledge to fight terrorism does not extend to Norfolk and Bacton Gas Terminal

Bacton Gas terminal in North Norfolk brings in one third of the gas we use in this country. It is guarded very ably by a small team of MOD police who work closely with Norfolk Constabulary. The MOD police themselves say they want the support of the local constabulary and this is vital to the work they do. So what does the government do to help ? They withdraw funding from Norfolk Constabulary meaning that they cannot provide 24 hour support for this prime target for terrorism in the UK.

Remember that people now locked up inside top security prisons for terrorist offences have had the name of Bacton Gas terminal on their lists of potential targets. There is a clear risk to Bacton, but this government, obsessed only with inner cities and London cannot spare the small amount of money it needs to protect Bacton properly so Norfolk is policed "on the cheap" by the government whilst other parts of the country are given the very highest levels of security.

Twitter ? Get a life !

I have always been someone who embraces new technology. I use the SatNav on my phone, I own more than one MP3 player (but not an iPod), I have a good AV system at home, love the internet, own more than one computer, I can network my music around my home (using ethernet cabling which is installed under the floor of my house), I have owned a Spectrum, a Commodore 64, Atari ST, Commodore Amiga, NES, SNES, GameCube, DS, Wii, Xbox and Xbox 360. Oh, and I also had a first generation Gameboy. Yes, in general I'd make the point that I am tech savvy and like gadgets and gizmos.

So why do I not see the point in Twitter ?

It seems that bloggers are mad about Twitter but as far as I can tell from people's feeds on their blogs all Twitter tells me about is where they have been, what they have done, who they spoke to and, in general, I find these things about as interesting as paint drying.

I am sure there are some interesting feeds from some celebrities IF you have the time and inclination to follow them. However, I am at a loss as to why following an MP or a political blogger would be in any way interesting or worthy of my valuable time. And time is the most important aspect here.

For many years I have known Norman Lamb well. Since long before he was MP for North Norfolk I have been slightly in awe of the effort he puts in to North Norfolk and it has been a pleasure to know him. But do I want to follow him on Twitter ? Do I want to know who he has met, where he has been, which debate he engages in ? No. Why ? Because if I wanted to know I would call him or look it up on the internet. Now if I am not that interested in an interesting person in a high profile job who is a friend of mine, why should I have the time to follow someone else who does not meet any of those criteria ?

I have a life, quite a busy one, which involves my family, working, some entertainment (if I can fit this in) and generally trying to fit everything in to 17 hours a day and then get 7 hours sleep. As it is I find it hard to fit in the time to blog regularly.

The very fact that people spare the time to read my blog in the first place is something that amazes me, but at least, I hope, that because I am writing in some depth those who read this will find out more about me views and opinions as I seek to explain them. But could this happen on Twitter where you are limited to writing no more than a single sentence ? I think not.

So I simply don't get Twitter because I have enough to do in 24 hours without spending/wasting my time reading about the triviality of someone's bowel movements are who they bumped in to. For me Twitter is this year's Facebook, and whilst I can understand how the networking elements of Facebook make sense, even if Facebook itself serves no real purpose, then I fail to see how my life will be enriched or made anything other than trivial by learning about the trivialities of someone else's life.

A plea on behalf of education

A report today comes up with the rather sensationalist conclusion that Children in England are getting a "deficient" primary education. In many ways I agree, but don't let the headlines or government excuses allow you to believe for one minute that this is because of what is actually going on in schools. The problems for this lie with government and their addiction to recording what is measurable but not what is important.

The truth of the matter is, as the report suggests, schools are focusing too much on maths, English and testing. And why is this happening ? The simple answer is a system is in place which is obsessed only with SATs in primary schools and league tables, with this further emphasised by Ofsted inspections which largely ignore the great bulk of what goes on in a school and instead places the focus on test results in Literacy and Numeracy.

I think we all know that being numerate and literate are important, but this government has an obsession with tinkering with education, literacy schemes, numeracy frameworks and national curriculum objectives which mean that teachers are constantly having to change the way something is taught before we know if the way we had been doing it is actually going to be the best or most successful methods.

If a doctor gave out different pills each week to a patient, how does the doctor know which pill s are the ones that cure the patient or which makes them worse ? The same is true of education. We need time to bed things down, see what works and make adjustments accordingly.

I heard David Cameron on Radio Five Live a few days ago going on about education and "his plans", and my heart sank. Not because I am bitterly opposed to the way the Conservatives have treated education in the past with real terms cuts in funding in the 1990s whilst favoured "opted out" schools creamed of money from LEA schools and selected pupils, but because want I want, and what just about every teacher wants to hear is that any new government will have a moratorium on education which means we will have at least 2 years (and preferably longer) with absolutely no change at all.

No change might seem like a cop out, but in the primary sector we need time to see what is working and what is not. We need to given the new literacy and numeracy frameworks, which have only been in place for a few months, time to work. David Cameron and the Tories certainly ought to be planning for what might need to happen, but how about listening to people in education and stop pandering to those who fail to understand there is more to education than changing the curriculum.

If David Cameron want to win over thousands of teachers in a single swoop and make a real difference, he could take on board one of the main thrusts of today's report and seek to deal with the over testing of primary school children by scrapping the key stage two SATs tests and accepting that ongoing informal assessment by teachers (which is allowed at KS1 and KS3) should be the way forward.

Cameron Hypocrisy : Number 192

More hypocrisy from Cameron. What a surprise.

The difference between the letter and the spirit of the law

Jacqui Smith may well have informed the relevant parliamentary authorities about her living arrangements and I am sure she does have a letter telling her that her arrangements conform to the letter of the rules. However, does she really think her arrangements fit the spirit of the law ?

If we asked 100 people on the street the simple question, which of these is the person's main home ?

a) The house they own. The house where their spouse and children live. The house where the children go to school from.

or

b) Their sister's spare bedroom where they spend a few nights a week.

How many people would answer (b) ?

I think we all know the answer.

Spanish jobs for British Government Agencies

With the economy in such a state and with British firms laying people off by the day, any small thing the government can do to promote British made products really can make a difference.

So why are the DVLA encouraging people to use their online services by offering each and every month as prizes Spanish built Seat Leon cars ?

Surely this would be the ideal time to be offering a Nissan made in Sunderland or a Honda made in Swindon or even a Mini from Oxford ? No. Not this government. It's a Seat from Spain that wins !

Why do the Tories and Labour think that cities should elect presidents ?

Instantly I expect people to assume I have my facts wrong when I use the word "president" instead of mayor, but let's be clear, the proposal that the Tories have pushed whereby large cities in England would have directly elected mayors with presidential powers which allow them to make councillors almost totally redundant is the last thing that local democracy needs.

It is hard to name an area where having a directly elected mayor has lowered costs or led to a resurgence of interest in local democracy. Do the people of Hartlepool feel better off for having a directly elected mayor ? Is turnout any higher in Doncaster because they have a directly elected mayor ? Are people any happier in Newham because they have a directly elected mayor ? Of course, everyone knows the answer is no. In fact, the election of a mayor, where your vote makes less difference due to the whole constituency nature of the voting, renders your vote less worthy and makes the council more remote. Knowing that your local councillor essentially becomes someone who just lobbies on your behalf but has no real power is hardly strengthening local democracy.

What Cameron needs to do if he really want to roll back the centralisation that started under Thatcher and was continued and accelerated by Major and Blair is to return real power to council and allow councils to raise their own taxes through a local income tax or some other form of local taxation. Only when councils are really accountable for their spending and their own decisions will people take proper notice and interest in what local councils do.

Sadly Dave's plans to further remover powers from councillors and hand them to one person is not what most of us would call democracy.

Read your email Keith Simpson

A little tale was told to me today about Keith Simpson, Tory MP for Mid Norfolk and an accusation he made against a fellow MP from a different party.

In Buxton (Mid Norfolk), there is currently a by-election ongoing, and last weekend Norman Lamb, who is Lib Dem MP for the adjoining North Norfolk constituency dropped by to give the Lib Dem campaign some support.

Keith Simpson, who had pulled up in the same car park huffed his way over to Norman Lamb and demanded to know why he had not received a message from Norman informing him that he would be campaigning in his Keith Simpson's constituency.

"You have", replied Norman, "Have you checked your e-mail ?"

"Err, no" replied Keith Simpson.

The lesson for the day ? Learn to use e-mail regularly or get yourself a Blackberry Mr Simpson !

Is there any Z list celebrity TV challenge that Lembit Opik won't do ?

Every time they announce a new celebrity challenge TV show my heart sinks knowing there is a good chance Lembit Opik will whore himself by appearing in the show. Thankfully he didn't appear in "I'm a Celebrity", but appearances on various TV shows from Celebrity Apprentice (which was a good show but left me feeling Lembit came out of it very badly) to Celebrity Mr and Mrs, and others along the way, as a Lib Dem, make my heart sink.

Lembit apparently feels he is unappreciated in the Lib Dems by the members as a whole and feels that some bloggers fail to give him credit for things he has done.

So should I give him credit for appearing in the latest celebrity feature "Team Ant versus Team Dec" on "Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway" ?

No, of course not. When he ought to be knocking on doors in his constituency, when he ought to be doing the work his is paid to do, instead he is appearing on a ITV1.

Credit where credit is due Lembit. Now go and do something I can give you credit for.

Agreeing with Ken Clarke

You can't argue with the logic of what Ken Clarke said today about the merger of HBOS with Lloyds. It does now seem that this merger, although an enticing prospect for Lloyds at the time, may result not in the saviour of HBOS, but the failure of HBOS and Lloyds.

The fact that ken Clarke was excluded for so long from the Tory front bench means he does come to the whole credit crunch debate with the freedom to speak his mind, but also with some gravitas, something the Tory front bench lacks at the moment, someone the press actually believe and go to for real information, not spin. At the moment the press really only have one port of call for a political expert on the credit crunch, and that is Vince Cable. Perhaps Ken Clarke might be able to get some of Vince's action. However, as Paul Walter points out, Ken has not really moved with the times. He mumbles and "erms" his way through interviews lacking the incisive direct point that Vince Cable hits so often.

So whilst I agree with him on Lloyds, perhaps it is clearer to see why he has been away from the front line for so long.

For me, Ken Clarke was the obvious choice as Tory leader in 1997. At a time when people did not like the Tories at all, he was the sort of leader who would have made them credible (something they never were under William Hague) and not loathed.

Tories want a return to slum landlords

Lowering the standards required for housing so that people can rent these lower grade properties to people hardly looks like a forward thinking policy, instead it seems like a return to allowing slum landlords to provide poor accommodation for sky high rents. Surely nobody could believe this is a good idea ?

Oh, apparently its a Tory idea.

Glorifying Teenage Pregnancy - Thanks to "The Sun"

Today's headlines in "The Sun" glorifying the 13 year old father of a child really does send out the wrong message.

The Sun has an "exclusive" on this story and the baby's teenage parents have, apparently, been behind closed doors with representatives of "The Sun" all day. Putting two and two together you would have to assume that "The Sun" are not providing this support out of the kindness of Rupert Murdoch's heart and they have paid the teenagers a handsome sum in return for the exclusivity of this story.

At a time when people bemoan the obsession teenagers have with fame and a lack of willingness amongst some youths to get qualified and get a job, is "The Sun" paying these children to report their law breaking really sending out the right message ?

There are supposed to be laws that prevent people from profiteering from breaking the law yet "The Sun" tries to offer these people money, fame and a shoulder to cry on.

What an example to set.

Tories rewriting history

We shouldn't be so shocked that a Tory employee attempted to change an historical fact on Wikipedia , instead we should be more worried about the Tories attempt to whitewash their past and claim the oral high ground in the wake of the credit crunch.

on BBC Radio Five Live this morning George Osborne simply ignored Nicky Campbells questions regarding Tory leader David Cameron speeches from less than two years ago when he criticised attempts to regulate the City of London and the banks. The presenter seemed to have a list of speeches and dates from Mr Cameron which Osborne had absolutely no answer for other than to say "but we do want proper regulation". It seems clear that the Tories are desperately hoping that nobody examines their "light touch" policy on The City in too much depth.

Osborne tried to justify the Tories high moral line by arguing that under Tory governments in the past no banks went under. Sadly it seems that someone who wants to be the Chancellor of the Exchequer has never heard of the Bank of Credit & Commerce International (BCCI), a large bank which although foreign owned, was based firmly in London which under a Tory government (and virtually no monitoring or regulation, as is the Tory was) went bust. Though no HBOS, BCCI went under in relatively bening times and without the Tory government having a clue that it would happen.

the Tories would be much better off holding their hands up and saying "We were wrong on regulation and we now see the need for it" rather than denying their guilty secrets and making us all suspicious of whether we can believe them about anything.

More bank stupidity

Oh dear, and in Norwich too.

At least this bank error does not require billions of pounds in government bail out funds.

Lib Dems raise concerns about threat to retained firemen

One of the spin offs of Britain no longer having an opt out from the EU's working time directive is that it could directly affect fire services across the UK as many retained firemen will already have worked their full allowance of hours in their normal jobs and it could mean they may not be able to attend to emergencies for fear of sanctions under EU rules.

Many rural areas are reliant on the volunteers who serve as retained firemen. I know from my brother in law who is a retained foreman that recruitment is difficult enough at the moment with fewer people living and working within the designated distance required from the fire station, so the last thing firefighters want the EU to be doing is interfering.

So well done to the Lib Dems who have secured a debate on this issue in the House of Commons and let us hope some common sense can be brought to this issue.

Bonus arguments show bogus logic

The fact that the head of Barclays Bank thinks bank bonuses are a good thing that should remain should come as no shock to anyone. It is like asking the head of Cadbury's if people should buy chocolate or a Premiership footballer if he thinks footballers are overpaid. But the argument she gives just do not hold water.

The most often used argument from those who support bonuses for the fat cats in the city is that "if you don't pay them the going rate, these people will go elsewhere", but this argument holds no water at all now as bonuses around the world have been slashed. Very few companies, if any, will be paying massive bonuses to its fat cat executives so how can they maintain this as an argument.

Then there is the argument that "banks will not get out of this mess if they lose all their best people", but as I have already pointed out, other banks are not paying bonuses so there is little chance of these people leaving to go elsewhere.

And finally, there is the argument that "success should be rewarded", which might be true were it not for the fact that the "success" these banks talked off were the very things that later put the banks in to such a sorry financial state. So many executives received benefits last year and in previous years for their investments in sub prime. If banks cannot differentiate between good work and bad, then bonus payments make no sense other than being a way for banks to reward themselves, not success.

We all know that the city has no morals and no ethics and we should not be surprised as bankers greed. The saddest thing is though that the government seem so toothless to stop the city and we, the taxpayer, are paying the price.

It may sound cruel, but some would argue that if you are THAT stupid, you deserve to be ripped off

The BBC were featuring a story today about "work from home" scams where people are told they can earn £300 a day for stuffing envelopes in return for a one off £35 fee.

Now lets start by doing the maths. £300 per day is £1500 a week which equates to £78000 a year. Does anyone honestly believe you can earn £78000 a year stuffing envelopes ?

It may sound incredibly cruel, but if you honestly believe you can earn more than a doctor, an MP, a head teacher, a senior policeman, a bank manager, a solicitor or an accountant by stuffing envelopes you really do need a reality check. Why would anyone go to university or train to do one of those highly skilled jobs if they could sit at home drinking tea stuffing envelopes with Jeremy Kyle on the telly ?

Perhaps £35 is a cheap price to pay for a reality check.

Ice, snow, and those who deny global warming

The last few days of snow has seen radio and TV shows reporting a rise in emails and texts from people rather triumphantly claiming that the current weather proves there is no global warming.

To answer in short, what a bunch of idiots.

In any weather cycle, we have extremes, varying from the very hot to the very cold, and as one meteorologist made clear yesterday, the snow we have had this week was, 30 years ago, a once in every five years event. Now we only get it every 20 years.

Then there is the issue of temperatures, which despite the relative cold of this week, still show the mean average rising year on year. Even last summer, a dull and rather uninspiring cloudy 3 months, average temperatures rose compared to previous years.

And finally, you only have to look on the internet for a few minutes for current evidence that shows how looking at the weather in one small part of the world (the UK) cannot prove anything. Take for example Australia, which is currently suffering a long heatwave unprecedented in recent years leading to wild fires.

No, it does stun me just how ignorant the global warming deniers are. They might disagree about the causes, bu the evidence of climate change is overwhelming.

Update :

In order to make the point cleare and after a host of anonymous, semi abusive posters sent me almost identical links seemingly from a "We don't think Climate Change Exists" website, I'll post the following piece of evidence from the Met Office Website.

It states, as some have pointed out, that 2008 was slightly cooler (over 12 months) than in 2007, but was still one of the top ten warmest years on record. It also explains why 2008 was cooler, with the facts not really suiting the deniers arguments.

By the way, we can all report one crank report from one obscure university but this is not really going to impress me.

The right wing really have got to ask themselves why they alone want to be so against the climate change agenda.

A mixed message from Leicestershire County Council ?

On Thursday night I listened to Radio Five on the way home from work. On the show they were interviewing the Tory leader of Leicestershire County Council who, in what seemed to me an attempt to win populist support, had said teachers who cannot make it to school because of the bad snow should go unpaid for those days unless they have made a "reasonable attempt" to get to school. This typical "teacher bashing" comment might win votes from people angry that their local school is closed because of bad weather, but the Council leader's statement failed to properly quantify what a "reasonable attempt" was.

Given the leader of the council was making such a strong statement about teachers, one might imagine that Leicestershire County Council was itself making a "reasonable attempt" to keep all its roads open. However, a Leicestershire County Councillor was on the radio yesterday morning complaining that Leicestershire County Council was itself asking for efficiency savings from its road gritting department which would mean cuts in its budget for gritting next year.

So on one hadn the leader of the council is telling teachers their pay will be docked for missing school and on the other the council are looking at reducing its own ability to keep roads open . Very odd indeed.

The inept British legal system

At the end of the BBC Sky Cops tv programme tonight the presenter told us what happened to those arrested during the program, and it pointed out the utter uselessness of the British legal system and tells us so much about why people have lost confidence in it.

When referring to the "third man arrested" after an incident where they deliberately led the police helicopter in to the flightpath of Heathrow airport in an attempt to avoid arrest, the voice over said "the third man failed to turn up to court and charges against him were later dropped".

What !!! A person can simply refuse to turn up to court and the CPS just drop the charges ?

Absolutely astonishing.

Clarkson - Apologising for the right thing and ignoring Scots MPs

I am at a complete loss as to why Scottish MPs have become involved in the row regarding Jeremy Clarkson's comments about Gordon Brown.

Personally I feel that Jeremy Clarkson was unnecessarily offensive, but not for the reasons that Scottish MPs got so upset.

As I understand it Clarkson referred to Gordon Brown by describing him in three ways.

1) One eyed
2) Scottish
3) Idiot

To refer to Gordon Browns eye problems was deeply offensive and is simply ridiculing a man who has done well to overcome a disability. For this Clarkson should apologise.

Describing Gordon Brown as an idiot is also not pleasant but is subjective and people could genuinely hold this view and could probably argue a decent case for it (likewise others could refute it). I cannot see that calling him an idiot is anything to apologise for.

So that brings me to the description Scottish. As I understand it Gordon Brown was born in Scotland, has Scottish parents, represents a Scottish constituency and is proud to call himself a Scot, so what is the problem ? Why oh why to Scots MPs and MSPs feel the need to be offended by him being called Scottish ? Anyone is welcome to call me English, indeed I am proud of it as I am sure many Scots are proud to be Scottish.

Some Scots really do need to get over themselves

Why would you want small amounts of rubbish rather than one big thing that works ?

The decision to block ITV, Channel 4 and the BBC from working together on their project Kangaroo video and TV download system absolutely beggars belief in this era of global internet competition.

Together "Kangaroo" could have become a major player not just in the UK, but across the world, with consumers needing just one system in order to provide content from a range of providers. However, the small minded idiots who have to make judgements on such systems decided that duplication of systems with ITV, Channel 4 and the BBC each providing their own systems was the way forward.

Presumably these same idiots will also be buying a separate TV in their homes for each channel so as to avoid using using one TV for more than one channel.

The complete and utter hopeless incompetence of ITV and their FA Cup coverage of Everton vs Liverpool

After 90 minutes of football and 28 minutes of extra time, with the score Everton 0, Liverpool 0, for some completely unexplainable reason ITV decided to go to an advert break whilst the match was still playing, only to return from the break with Everton having scored !

Absolute total rubbish coverage from ITV and further proof why they are not fit to cover sport.

Update :And now to compound matters, they have returned from the post match advert break half way through an interview with the Everton goalscorer !

The half hearted throw away apology for "technical problems" does not do their incompetence justice.

Did Simon Burns think it was Dave ?

Tory MP Simon Burns has pleased guilty to dangerous driving (after earlier saying he was not guilty) and has been fined £400.

He was pulling out of the Houses of Parliament in his Range Rover (no doubt an absolutely necessary vehicle for driving around rural Chelmsford constituency), when he pulled out in front of a cyclist, breaking the cyclists neck in two places.

It made me wonder if Simon Burns thought the cyclist might have been "Dave". I guess if it had been him Mr Burns would have seen Dave's car following him down the road.

Forget the weather !

The police advice is ... don't travel unless absolutely necessary.

The schools across Norfolk are shutting by the dozen.

Norwich Airport is closed.

I am supposed to be on a literacy course at a training centre in Norwich and ... Norfolk County Council have insisted the course is going ahead and when I phoned asking do they really expect me to attend given the weather, they just made plain that the course was still running and that would be my decision.

Impressed ??? No !!!

Update : Having now returned I can confirm (despite comments from one idiot) that the ring road is now deteriorating badly and a number of less well gritted outer roads are now becoming very difficult too.

The problem was never going to be getting in to Norwich, but as anyone with access to a weather forecast knew, the weather would turn bad. Schools across Norfolk were well aware that staff were going to have to get home again and that is why many decided to close early. At least my course did finish earlier than planned.

Norfolk School Closures - Is your school closed because of the snow ?

If, like me, you are desperately trying to find out if your local school is closed in Norfolk because of the snow but cannot find it because Norfolk County Council's Schools website is so appalling and the "School Closures" section is no longer displayed on the home page of the website and is now hidden, click on the link below.

http://www.schoolclosures.norfolk.gov.uk/

Is someone who left University with a Third Class degree the person to go to for Maths advice

David Cameron, it seems, is slightly obsessed with female TV personalities. Not content with Kirsty Allsop (from Location, Location, Location) being involved of a Tory taskforce on housing, David Cameron has now put Carol Vorderman (is there anyone who grates more on my nerves than her ?) in charge of investigation maths teaching. Let's not forget, Carol Vorderman left university with a third class degree. Yes, it is a pass, but for a number of employers this is not actually good enough to get a job.

From what I have heard from David Cameron on GMTV this morning, what he is demanding that schools do is exactly what is already part of the new Numeracy Framework. It is a shame David Cameron seemingly hadn't bothered to read this document like all schools have !

So who will be next to head up a task force for the Tories ? Can you think of a female TV presenter who wants a job ?

Are these the actions of the forces the Israeli apologists think use minimal force ?

The family of a British journalist shot dead by the Israeli Army in Gaza five years ago have received a £1.5 million payout from the Israeli government. The Israeli government, however, despite a full enquiry and even film of the event claim the Israeli soldier was NOT breaking the law.

Now remember, this is the same Israeli government who also claim their forces are acting within the law and within strict limits when the bomb and shot their way in to Gaza.

According to film footage shot at the time, Mr Miller, is seen waving a white flag as he steps from a building in Gaza. There is a shot and his colleague shouts: "We're British journalists."
There is then a second shot, which hits Mr Miller in the neck.

So just to be sure, remember that this IS the sort of behaviour the Israeli's accept from their armed forces and do NOT think is illegal.

And we are supposed to think this is minimal force ?

Real life is funnier than fiction

This BBC clip of a couple of criminals, handcuffed together, making a run for from a New Zealand courtroom showed just how stupid criminals can be.

A scheme I am amazed our government has not copied

The Italians have a novel way of making extra money from motorists. They not only install camera's to photograph drivers jumping traffic lights, but they alter the speed of the intervals between the lights changing to different colours in order to confuse drivers and increase the number of fines.

Read about it HERE.

I am astonished our government have not copied this idea given their willingness to use cover the country in speed cameras.