I think I need to move to Scotland

I see that STV, who remain outside of the ownership of the rest of the mainland ITV network , have dropped certain ITV shows from their schedule and are producing more local programming in their place.

I have for some time stated that I think ITV turn out generic crap that either apes poorly what the BBC are doing or produces safe and uninspired drama that allows you to turn your brain off. It really should be no surprise to anyone that ITV are in so much financial trouble.

The problems at ITV started when their regional identity started to go. Locally here in Norwich Anglia TV had a reputation of turning out quality drama (Tales of the Unexpected, The PD James detective mysteries, The Chief, and other) and great wildlife documentaries through Survival Productions. The regional network might have been costly, but it allowed each area of the network to specialist and also provide competition. As soon as this diversity went from ITV, so did the originality and the quality. Now in Norwich all they produce is regional news.

So perhaps I should move to Scotland where at least they still value locally produced programming.

What have the Green Party achieved in Twickenham ?

Apparently nothing, according to their website.




Note the blank space where they list their achievements.

More Green problems ?

You may have read on this and other blogs a couple of weeks ago about the cancellation of one of the Green Party's own internal elections.

There is a new twist to the story the ERO who suspended the election has resigned; he isn't giving much away on his blog, but there is clearly an under-current.

On a more positive note from the Greens, Derek Wall has praised our own blogging peer and all-round good egg Eric Avebury.

What will the Tories priorities be in government ?

Letters from a Tory has an excellent letter regarding the Tories "back door" means of legalising Fox Hunting again after the next general election. I am unimpressed, as it A. Tory, but I wonder how impressed the electorate will be.

Imagine a Tory government coming to power. They have serious financial problems to deal with and have pledged to rid the country of needless QUANGOs. Then, by means of getting Fox Hunting within a legal framework they give teeth (and money) to a new QUANGO to oversee hunting (wasting more money) and are seen by the electorate as being more concerned about hunting defenceless animals rather than dealing with the economic problems.

It's potentially absolutely wonderful stuff for an opposition leaflet for the local elections in 2011.

Action at last over low flying US jets

Norman Lamb MP is calling a public meeting on Cromer regarding the persistent problems with US airforce jet undertaking low flying exercises late at night over Fakenham, Cromer and other towns in North Norfolk.

Having been brought up on one of the flight paths regularly used by RAF jets landing at the now closed RAF Coltishall, i have no problem with low flying jets. But when I lived in Fakenham I was always surprised to see US jets screaming very low and very fast across Fakenham, going in to steep climbs (needing an afterburner and making lots of noise) and failing to do what the RAF routinely do, which is to fly around towns.

I have no problem with jets practising as this is a small price to pay for our security. But the US airforce jets show a flagrant disregard to local towns and villages in North Norfolk.

Extraordinary people - Dean du Plessis - The blind cricket commentator

If I were asked to name any group of people I admire above any other it is the blind. When ever I see someone using a white stick to guide themselves to their place of work in total blindness I am amazed at their ability to live such normal lives with a disability that I cannot comprehend.

Now it is well known that when someone is deprived of their senses they then find their other senses become more finely tuned, with smell and hearing becoming far more sensative as the brain develops these areas. And there can be no greater example of this than Dean du Plessis, the blind Ximbabwean cricket commentator.

Dean du Plessis uses his amazing hearing from stump microphones and can detect the area of the bat that the ball hit, he can hear the unique way that players grunt, moan or excitely shout to the ball they have hit, and is then able to use this in his commentary.

I could go on, but I would suggest that you listen to the story of Dean du Plessis on the BBC Iplayer in the next four days before the programme is removed. He really is a remarkable man and somone I admire.

Do the Tories only say what they really think when they think nobody can hear them ?

The chairman of Gosport Tories caused something of a furore by giving his view that a woman candidate might be a decent candidate if she were attractive. Now, he has apologised and said he thought the interview was over.

This leads me to wonder if the Tories only say what they really think behind closed doors.

Proof that the Daily Mail really is your Daily Scum

Liberal Conspiracy, not a blog I always warm to, has a great article picking apart the Daily Mail story on immigrants outnumbering the number of people signing on for benefits. The implied bias of the Daily mail artcile was to make out that immigrants were over here putting British people out of work. In short the artcile was a BNP wet dream.

It's well worth a read and can be found HERE.

Whilst the Daily Mail's support for the Nazis in the 1930s (and indeed in to the 40s) might be a long time ago, its support for natioanlism still lives on.

How wrong can the Met office be ?

A few months ago the Meteorological Office declared that the UK was in for a good summer with temperatures in August expected to be warm (something that has not really happened since 2005) and sunshine expected to be seen more often than not. This was greeted at the time with some relief by the UK tourist industry and a bumper summer was expected.

Then a few weeks ago the Met Office declared that they were wrong and instead we could expect colder weather and showers.

Now since they have made this announcement I cannot remember it raining here just North of Norwich. I know it rained in South Norfolk for five minutes yesterday lunchtime, but apart from that, the weather has been glorious for nearly three weeks.

So the question is how the hell can the Met Office get it so wrong ?

A few weeks ago there was a reported sudden surge in people booking holidays abroad in the light of the Met Office's change of forecast. So who has benefited from the Met Office's incompetence ? Thomas Cook and Thomson, that's who.

Why people don't use public transport

Norwich fans returning from West London last night after watching Brentford beat Norwich 2-1 suffered another blow after their train arrived home in Norwich at 6.35 am.

The train, which broke down twice, took more than seven hours to get them home turning the usual two hour journey in to the journey from hell.

How many football fans will drive instead of using the train in future ?

Meeja studies

I found my self nodding my head in some level of agreement with the Tories when they stated that there needs to be some way of differentiating a media studies A level from a maths or chemistry A level.

For years, perhaps unfairly, media and film studies seem to have taken stick from the press for their perceived "easy ride" way of getting an A level or a degree. This may be unfair, but it does remind me of a chap I knew at university who excelled at nothing other than getting drunk. The be quite honest and fair, he really was not that bright. He told me he was studying a degree in media and film. One of his modules was on the films of James Stewart. Well as soon as he said this I started eulogising about The Glenn Miller Story, Mr Smith Goes to Washington, The Rear Window, Vertigo, Harvey, and of course, It's a Wonderful Life.

And what was the chap's response ? "What ... oh ... I don't know them". What the hell had he been studying if I knew more about James Stewart films than him ?

For me it justified the prejudice that some people study subjects which are ultimately worthless and really not worthy of equality with other subjects. Of course this is grossly unfair and there are, I am sure, some media courses that are really tough and genuinely a challenge but perhaps these need some form of assessment to make them stand out from other media courses.

If you want to know the sort of stuff media studies students should know then click HERE to do the BBC media studies test. I scored 6/7.

The right to bare arms - The right to bear arms

A report suggest the UK should be more careful about who we sell weapons to incase they are used against civilians. Tighter controls on who we sell stuff like this to should be welcomed, but we should be careful about the examples given.

Israel has been singled out because of the use of the military equipment they have been sold against civilian targets outside the borders of the country. This is a valid argument. However, the report sites Sri Lanka as another country we have sold weapons to which might have seen civilians attacked using the weaponry. Sri Lanka is, in my opinion, a different case.

Sri Lanka was dealing with an internal insurgency from within its own borders. Whilst there may be evidence of the Sri Lanka army attacking civilians, are we seriously suggesting that we should not have sold weapons to a country fighting a terrorist group within its own borders ?

It does remind me of the the days when Labour claimed it would have an ethical foreign policy. That seems like a long time ago now.

Update - Used the wrong "bare/bear" so decided to keep it in honour of the hot weather today.

When is it my turn ?

Two weeks ago, Harriett Harman was standing in for Gordon Brown. A week later it was Peter Mandelson. This week, apparently Alistair Darling is standing in for the Prime Minister.

At this rate it will be my turn to stand in for Gordon Brown in about three weeks.

Why this story is no surprise to me

The BBC reports on the detention at Newark-New Jersey Airport of a Bollywood film star for two hours, apparently because he has a Muslim name. This comes as no surprise to me from my experience of that airport.

In 2006 we returned to the UK from Mexico via New-New Jersey Airport, and the way passengers were treated in the name of security was preposterous.

When we were going through security to get back in to departures, having reclaimed our luggage from our connection, we were stood behind a white American man who was ordered, by security staff, to remove his shoes. He explained that he was wearing calipers and could not remove them. He was then ordered, with security staff arriving and standing around him with their hands on the gun holsters to "remove your shoes sir." Again, he explained politely that he was wearing calipers, he rolled his trouser legs up and revealed the metal and strapping. Now I would have expected anyone with a shred of decency to say politely to him "No problem, we need to sort this out, could you follow us to this room so we can sort this out". But oh, not in America. He was then grabbed by each arm, force marched to a desk, and another US security gut then shouted something about him being uncooperative and he would be required to undergo a DNA test. They then in full view started taking sample from his mouth whilst an armed guard stood over him.

We all know about the shoe bomber and 9/11, but this was a massive overreaction and appalled both myself and my wife.

So no, I am not surprised to read what happened to this Indian film star.

Please be nice to me

Those of you who have read my blog for some time will know that I am a season ticket holder at Carrow Road where I follow Norwich City, and that I have, since I was seven, been an Everton fan.

So after Norwich started the season last week losing 7-1, I was feeling a little bruised.

Imagine how I feel today with Everton losing 6-1.

So please be nice to me.

BMA share my concerns about flu jabs for children

A couple of days ago I wrote that it seems odd that tamiflu is dangerous for kids, but children will not be in the first wave of immunisations.

Now the BMA are saying the same thing.

I wonder of the government have noticed the correlation between infection rates dropping Scotland from early July (when their school holidays started) and in England from late July ( when English school started their holidays). It seems that children are one of the main ways in which flu spreads quickly (any idiot could tell you that but obviously the government do not know).

In the 1918/19 flu, US cities that closed schools noticed their overall infection rates and absenteeism from work was lower than those cities where schools remained open.

But do our government learn from history ? Course not.

Headlines for Daniel Hannan

Tories think you should die six months earlier

Based on the fact that the average life expectancy at birth in the US is six months less than that in the UK (using the NHS).

Tory MEP wants a higher infant mortality rate

Based on figures that show the infant mortality rate is higher (50% higher) in the US than it is in the UK (using the NHS).

Oxbridge educated wealthy man opposes free health care for poor people

Why is it always those born in to privilige that oppose anything that help poor people ?

Now it I were running a campaign in any Lib Dem seat I'd be doing mail shots to all voters asking them to sign a "Save the NHS" petition, particularly if I was in Daniel Hannan's South East region.

Here's a challenge for the local press in Norfolk

Following the story about Rupert Read and the abuses that appear to have happened in internal elections in the Green Party, lots of people have commented about whether the local press will follow up on the story. My guess is that they won't. The local press love the Greens and with a former high profile journalist running the Green PR in Norwich, the press seem scared to print anything that would paint the Green Party in a bad light.

So will the press report on what is happening ? I know you read this blog.

Government Logic

Two days ago we read that Tamiflu is not considered to be good for children to take and it may do more harm than good.

Today we hear the government are NOT, I repeat NOT, going to prioritise children for immunisations for swine flu.

So children are left to rely on Tamiflu, which is dangerous to them.

Warped and sadly fatal logic.

The not so clean Green Party

Rupert Read gained himself a lot of publicity (but few votes) for his so called "Clean Campaign Pledge" in the Norwich North by-election. the Lib Dems, knowing what he is like and that this was a worthless pledge refused to sign, and the local press fell over themselves to tickle Rupert Read's belly and give his campaign more credibility which the result itself didn't justify.

Well now the truth has come out about the "Clean Campaign" that Mr Read is currently running.
It appears, as well as carrying a scathing attack on one of his opponents on his campaign website, someone has been contacting Green local parties with further attacks on one of the candidates.

The election has now been suspended.

One wonders how certain Greens have the nerve to lecture us all on clean politics when their own internal elections are so downright dirty.

Update - There is more interesting stuff on the Greens HERE.