David Cameron’s speech at Tory Party conference as a word cloud:
Trying hard to find the words environment or green in there. But it’s late and my eyes are heavy. I wonder if you could help?
Tags: david cameron
Bracknell: The Movie
8 OctThis is probably the best video concerning Bracknell on YouTube and will certainly raise a smile on anyone who lives or has visited the town.
Tags: Bracknell
The town of shame
7 OctThis is an editorial from the Sun in 1988 concerning the town of Brighton that a friend of mine linked to on facebook this week, four years on after a hotel full of Conservative party top brass (including prime minister Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet) was bombed by the IRA. I like to think that even the Sun wouldn’t sink to such nonsensical depths these days, maybe things are improving in the tabloid media – even if they still are far from perfect.
Tags: Brighton, IRA, Margaret Thatcher, The Sun
What were they thinking?
1 OctThis is the film that the 1010 campaign have pulled due to a large number of complaints that the film is in dreadfully poor taste. Not only that, but the “message” isn’t right either. The people who use the most oil, and create the most carbon are likely to be the ones who survive and even thrive, with the poorest taking the brunt. Blowing up people because they don’t wish to participate? It’s ludicrous, and it’s not even funny – and I say this as someone who fully understands comedy is subjective – is it even meant to be funny?
I can only hope that the video was deliberately provocative. Provocative enough for it to get pulled. Provocative enough to create huge amounts of publicity for the campaign. Unfortunately I think this is going to play right into the hands of those who moan about the nanny state, bi-weekly bin collections, having to pay for plastic carrier bags etc. etc.
Tags: 1010, People being blown up, Richard Curtis
Ed Miliband’s favourite tweet
29 SepI’ve recently unfollowed David Miliband and am now following flavour of the month Ed instead.
Anyway, there’s a little known feature on twitter called “Favorites”, very few people use it. I often use them as bookmarks, I favourite a tweet when I want to look at it later. The odd thing with these “Favorites” is that they are public for all and sundry to see.
Now, Ed Miliband only has one favourite tweet, a tweet from sunny_hundal (well, a retweet of Labour MP Tom Watson if we want to be totally accurate) with a link to a Guardian story covering the Andy Coulson’s phone hacking scandal:
Ed's favourite tweet
Now, I’m not even entirely sure whether or not Ed actually operates his own twitter page or gets his “people” to do so (If he does he should really make it clear – as should all politicians), but it does offer an interesting glimpse into what people in twitter are up to…. perhaps.
Tags: Andy Coulson, Ed Miliband, Pickledpolitics, Sunny Hundal, Tom Watson, Twitter
Red
27 SepSo, Labour elect Miliband the younger to lead them into battle with the Conlib/LibCon/DemCon/ConDem coalition. Fortuitiously for lazy tabloid hacks Labour’s new leader’s name rhymes with red, the fact he only dresses slightly more to the left than previous Labour leaders is unlikely to prevent the rhetoric from right leaning media. Perhaps the Tories could find a Tory Rory or a Blue Hugh to lead them, it’d certainly lead to some more easily formulated headlines.
Other media outlets such as Left Foot Forward have put together an article espousing Ed’s Green credentials even labelling him Green Ed. Will Ed Miliband be able to bring the coalition government to account regarding their environmental policies? Well, you would hope so, because with the cuts that are coming and the Conservative’s general feeling towards sustainability (cutting the Sustainable Development Commission) it shouldn’t be too hard should it?
It’ll be an interesting few months as Labour pick a shadow team to fight the coalition. I wonder how long it’ll be before Ed Miliband is identified purely by his surname, as he’s still probably not quite as well known as his elder brother yet. How long was it before Bush meant George W, and not George?
Anyway, I’m off to contact every Colleen on facebook and hotmail to see if they want to become leader of the Green Party at some point, after all, it’ll make the journos job that little bit easier.
Tags: Ed Miliband, Labour Party, Labour Party Leader, Red Ed
Iran, USA and the death penalty
22 SepMahmoud Ahmadinejad in typically bullish fashion has called upon the United States to commute the death sentence of Teresa Lewis, who arranged the killing of her husband and stepson in 2002. This follows calls from the US to commute the death sentence of Iranian Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani who was earlier last year sentenced to death by stoning after committing adultery (though it seems that stoning will not not take place).
The USA are a strange anachronism amongst western countries in still having the death penalty (52 killed in 2009), their current stance gives Iran ammunition to fight back against the States’ accusations of human rights abuses (despite Iran’s own horrific failings).
It’s a little known, but odd, fact that when a prisoner in the United States is executed the coroner writes the word “HOMICIDE” as the cause of death on the prisoner’s death certificate. Well, what else could it possibly be classified as?
You can appeal for action to be taken on both cases:
Tags: death penalty, Iran, USA
The Offence (1972)
19 SepI wrote this for another site a while ago, so I thought I’d regurgitate it here…
Bracknell has been the location of many cinematic pieces. It’s proximity to London and easy access are obviously two of the main reasons for its use. One of the first films to use Bracknell as a base was the 1972 Sean Connery film ‘The Offence’. It’s a pretty grim tale so I’ll gloss over the subject matter and get onto the connections with Bracknell.
Pretty much all of the outdoor scenes are taken in Bracknell. The first ten minutes are all filmed in the Wildridings area of the town.
Crossfell, Wildridings
The above picture shows Connery about to turn up into Crossfell. The fields behind are still there and used for football on the weekends, though it appears the bus lane hasn’t yet been built – and the trees are mere saplings. The houses within Wildridings were built in the late 60s, so when The Offence was filmed the estate can only have been three or four years old. What is quite interesting is that the streetsign in the photo has a space between Cross and Fell, these days it’s simply Crossfell. Is that interesting? Well, perhaps not..
Connery and Point Royal
This is the inimitable Sean Connery with the famous Point Royal in the background. Connery’s character actually lives there in the film, and I’ll certainly bring you pictures of that at a later date! This film only happened due to Connery’s pressure, he returned as James Bond in ‘Diamonds Are Forever’ under the condition that he could star in two films of his own choosing, this was one of them.
Mill Pond
The puddle in the background is where Mill Pond is now, the café is not there yet (it’s a fantastic place that I’ll surely feature at some point) and neither are the many friendly ducks, swans and geese who now live on the pond.
Arcnliffe, Wildridings
A lady walks up Arncliffe, Mill Pond in the background as is Great Hollands. As you can see this is before McDonald’s evil corporate juggernaught arrived on the Mill Pond roundabout. It goes to show that some things were better in the 70s.
It’s actually a very, very good film. However, the subject matter is pretty draining and dark. A young girl is abducted by Mill Pond in the first ten minutes of the picture. Still, this is fiction. Perhaps it may have been better to cover a friendlier film such as Harry Potter or Time Bandits (both part filmed in Bracknell). Next time, maybe.
Tags: Bracknell, Crossfell, Mill Pond, Point Royal, Sean Connery, Wildridings
Changing your mind
16 SepListening to the radio earlier today I heard Michael Lyons saying that there would be no rise in the TV licence fee in 2011. It made me think back to my student days and my views on the licence fee then. I had just started university and there waiting for me on the doormat when I arrived at my halls of residence was a short letter warning me in remarkably strong language that I required a TV licence if I wished to watch television in my room. I spent the next few years pretty annoyed about the licence fee “Why should I pay for something I don’t watch!?”, “It’s a compulsory tax”, “blah! blah! blah!”.
Over the past few years I’ve grown to love the BBC more and more, to love the sort of programming it produces. I’ve become even more enamoured with it since having children. The alternatives to CBeebies are horrendous, the garish Yo Gabba Gabba isn’t a patch on the far more sedate and peaceful In the Night Garden for example. I could list the adult programmes the BBC produces that I think are top notch, but I think we all know what they are by now.
My views on the licence fee have done a total 180, from thinking it was a horrid tax, to thinking it’s fantastic value for money – though I still hold great reservations as to the threatening tone of the letters sent to those who don’t have a licence (including those who don’t own a television). It’d be interesting to hear what others have “done a 180″ on, it’d probably be an interesting question to ask the Labour leadership candidates tonight; though I doubt you’d get an interesting answer.
Tags: BBC, television
Vodafone and the missing billions
9 SepInteresting stuff from the Private Eye this week as they detail the way in which Vodafone have sidestepped their corporate responsibilities by dodging the payment of tax. HMRC haven’t exactly come out smelling of roses either having accepted way under what Vodafone really owe.
These sorts of cases are incredibly frustrating when the government are talking of cutting so many services across the UK. If you’ve got a shortfall of income, surely the most logical route for anyone to take would be to make sure all income streams are functioning correctly. This doesn’t appear to be the case here, instead the government are instead going to undertake a crackdown on benefit cheats saying:
“But we need to do more to stop fraud. £1.5bn of hard earned taxpayers’ money is being stolen from the taxpayer. This is simply not acceptable.
“Nor is it right that only £20m of benefit fraud-related debts are recovered each year or that three in four of those caught don’t get prosecuted.
“It’s quite wrong that there are people in our society who will behave like this. But we will not shrug our shoulders and let them get away with it any longer.”
It’s telling that the government’s fervour in attempting to recover benefit fraud-related debts isn’t matched with a desire of collecting taxes from large corporations.
