Following the news that basic standards of literacy have declined to hitherto unknown levels and A levels are inflated by two levels I have been thinking about why Labour have failed so badly on their promise of " education education education"
Having eight different languages at a school doesn’t help which is certainly case around me.( That why the local Labour MPs send their children to Grammar schools ) The NUT have been resistant to setting and indeed almost any attempt to extract a performance and they are exceedingly strong in the Labour Party which values it so called public sector professionals . The first point is that like all the public institutions it has been allowed to fall into hopeless inefficiency by the guarantee of rewards for the most useless . All teachers know that a third of the staff would never hold down a real job and have long ago given up trying to attain increasingly degraded standards
It is quite astonishing that our educational system has been allowed to fall so badly behind comparable countries and especially when such enormous amounts of tax payers money has been squandered to no purpose . Labour have no understanding of the problem because they see people as economic units whereas education is at heart about imparting culture . How on earth would ignorant twitching barbarians know where to start with that , they deny its value , they see only class money and utility .
This is why under their stewardship the nature of education has not only declined but become shallow and bland,. Ancient history dropped , art dropped so exam crammers can be fitted in. They are happy for working families to cough up for another computer or a Lab, some more trips and so on . Schools in our area literally cannot think of what to buy next but this makes absolutely no difference . Good schools are delivered by supportive parents driven teachers disciplined pupils and good facilties in that order . This is to do with cultural capital which Labour ignore except when choosing schools for their children
Typically the end result have been fixed with A levels being worth about two grades below the mark awarded. Silly little Nu lab wonks thinks that tables and performance charts are the answer well that would be because the little twerps think it is difficult for any school to pass its tests. It is childishly simple and that is because tests have to take account of such varying intake . Teachers like it that way.
Education education education turned into location location location and if the Brown Blair period needs an epitaph that would be a good start. In the meantime it has allowed their fellow travelling chums to pretend to use the state system by buying houses near elite comps like the two slimy gimps Millibands from the prat factory in a leafy suburb near you.
It is essential in my view that the Conservative Party gets education right and I have been disappointed that the only Party having any sort of genuine debate about it is called by the BBC and its enemies “ divided”. It is not divided ;both views of Grammars have some sense to them and both are about trying to close to chasmic class divide that suit’s the Labour victim tourists so well. What would the stuttering patricians Benn and Toynbee have to sell their books without a good supply of failed “product”.
Education is about love for learning and a sense of the value of structure and tradition. Under Labour we will continue to become a country that watches big brother
on benefits
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Because I have loved life......
Because I have loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die ( Amelai Burr) and life is easy to love on a sunny day
When the fat cat headline refers to our over- fed felines( again) we know the Summer holidays are well and truly with us and the news is a thin gruel you can just about live on . I’m having a little break from politics and taking gentle meander by the scenic route
How delightful it is that Hitler after a hard day’s genocide would relax , no doubt with a bagel , and listen to Jewish composers (revealed today). Andy Warhol whose retrospective in Edinburgh I would love to see filled his flat with Italian Renaissance work .Hypocrite? No I don’t think so .Architects of the 60s blighted the urban landscape with hideous modernity and lived in delightful Georgian splendour in Surrey but I see Andy Warhol as better than that. He shared the ambition of the masters in a different time like TS Eliot , a modern poet intensely concerned with tradition . Conservatism like art and poetry looks to the past but it does not copy it .
What is the distinctive modern art. Well amongst other things it is the ubiquitous tattoo. I laughed like a drain at the picture of someone who had CHOISE misspelt on his back in large black letters. My father had a tattoo from his days in the army . It said “ La donna e mobile. Femme change souvent” how true ... By the time I saw it ,it had a fascinating weather beaten patina and was cool . They don’t all age so well thought and when I was trying to think of a good subject for a tribal marking of my own there was nothing I felt I could live with. Davina Mcall tells us she is going to get another tattoo at 40 she “already has alien on her bottom “ . If she had “desperate “ on her forehead it might be apposite.
I `m glad I resisted the urge its so final , as if you could sum up everything about yourself in a word of a symbol. The time for that of there is a time is on the gravestone and the one I like the one I saw recently. It was simple and I would be happy to remembered this way
“ He was such fun”
What would be your epitaph?
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When the fat cat headline refers to our over- fed felines( again) we know the Summer holidays are well and truly with us and the news is a thin gruel you can just about live on . I’m having a little break from politics and taking gentle meander by the scenic route
How delightful it is that Hitler after a hard day’s genocide would relax , no doubt with a bagel , and listen to Jewish composers (revealed today). Andy Warhol whose retrospective in Edinburgh I would love to see filled his flat with Italian Renaissance work .Hypocrite? No I don’t think so .Architects of the 60s blighted the urban landscape with hideous modernity and lived in delightful Georgian splendour in Surrey but I see Andy Warhol as better than that. He shared the ambition of the masters in a different time like TS Eliot , a modern poet intensely concerned with tradition . Conservatism like art and poetry looks to the past but it does not copy it .
What is the distinctive modern art. Well amongst other things it is the ubiquitous tattoo. I laughed like a drain at the picture of someone who had CHOISE misspelt on his back in large black letters. My father had a tattoo from his days in the army . It said “ La donna e mobile. Femme change souvent” how true ... By the time I saw it ,it had a fascinating weather beaten patina and was cool . They don’t all age so well thought and when I was trying to think of a good subject for a tribal marking of my own there was nothing I felt I could live with. Davina Mcall tells us she is going to get another tattoo at 40 she “already has alien on her bottom “ . If she had “desperate “ on her forehead it might be apposite.
I `m glad I resisted the urge its so final , as if you could sum up everything about yourself in a word of a symbol. The time for that of there is a time is on the gravestone and the one I like the one I saw recently. It was simple and I would be happy to remembered this way
“ He was such fun”
What would be your epitaph?
<
Monday, August 06, 2007
Cameron`s Tactics are Working
Tories ahead in the key marginals says New Statesman editor...
New Statesman editor John Kampfner says the Tories have been quietly pouring money into the crucial marginal seats which could decide the outcome of the next General Election.Under the headline: The Tories are still ahead in the real election battleground, he writes in today's Guardian that while Cameron's Conservatives currently appear to be in a mess, much of their campaigning work with the swing voters in key marginal seats is going on below the radar. Kampfner says after the Tory panic in reaction to the Brown bounce, the smartest money will be on an improvement once the new political season opens in September...
Its interesting isn`t it because everything that Cameron has done that has created strains in the Party has been aimed at the 800,000 people who actually decide the election. Money will not have been making any difference but thats Kampfner who is a a bought and paid for Brown-nose . What is perfectly plausible is that Brown has been responding to the Daily Mail ( which he has ), and not to the Liberal centre. There is an important group of voters in this country who regard your ability to impress the Mail as in inverse proportion to your desirability as a Prime-minister. Its a damn site closer than the gross figures make it look and the bounce cannot last.
New Statesman editor John Kampfner says the Tories have been quietly pouring money into the crucial marginal seats which could decide the outcome of the next General Election.Under the headline: The Tories are still ahead in the real election battleground, he writes in today's Guardian that while Cameron's Conservatives currently appear to be in a mess, much of their campaigning work with the swing voters in key marginal seats is going on below the radar. Kampfner says after the Tory panic in reaction to the Brown bounce, the smartest money will be on an improvement once the new political season opens in September...
Its interesting isn`t it because everything that Cameron has done that has created strains in the Party has been aimed at the 800,000 people who actually decide the election. Money will not have been making any difference but thats Kampfner who is a a bought and paid for Brown-nose . What is perfectly plausible is that Brown has been responding to the Daily Mail ( which he has ), and not to the Liberal centre. There is an important group of voters in this country who regard your ability to impress the Mail as in inverse proportion to your desirability as a Prime-minister. Its a damn site closer than the gross figures make it look and the bounce cannot last.
Black Issues or White Guilt
This weekend in sickening episode of political cynicism Livingstone cheerleaders dragged out the corpse of Stephen Lawrence onto the stage courtesy of his duped mother . It was a transparent ruse to hang the material they had gleaned for studying Boris Johnson’s 20 years of journalism Their booty was the fact that he and used the word ‘picanninnies’. In fact he has used it often and always with the intention of lampooning the Liberal Imperial pretensions of the Blair /Brown mis-government also for its comic implausibility.
. I think it was a slight linguistic impoliteness but its hardly surprising that given the volume of material he has written they found something . Such trifling matters as context have ceased to worry the Toynbee traitors who long ago traded integrity for sinecures at the BBC and they will try to misrepresent Boris, a kind and thoughtful man, and on this flimsy and thoroughly meretricious basis .
The politically correct exotica that crept out of the darkness to yip included hypocrites like “Fairdealphil” who shows his progressive underwear from the all white fastness of Lincolnshire where he innocently dodders . Other haters of the white English were delighted to point out that London was 40% black and so Boris was dished so I decided to have a look into the ethnicity of London .
. London does indeed have the highest proportion of people from minority ethnic groups in the country apart from more who identified themselves as of Pakistani origin. Black Caribbeans form more than ten per cent of the population of the London boroughs of Lewisham, Lambeth, Brent and Hackney. Over ten per cent of Southwark, Newham, Lambeth and Hackney are Black African. More than two per cent of people describe themselves as Other Black in Hackney, Lambeth and Lewisham. I have to say that’s not the way it feels when you walk down the street but perhaps the fact that The largest proportions of people of Mixed origin are in London explains the reality gap. The dominant group by a very long way however remains the white British.
The ethnic minority populations are in general concentrated in the large urban centres, with nearly half 45.7% living in the London region.78% of Black Africans live in London 61% of Black Caribbeans live in London ,54% of Bangladeshis live in London (within the boroughs of Camden and Tower Hamlets) there is great variation though The whitest place in Greater London, with a population of 94.8% White British, is the ward of Cranham, on the eastern edge of Havering . while the least white place in London - by far - is Southall Broadway, where just 8.7% of the population consider themselves White British.
The 40 % figure is this “40% of Londoners belong to a minority ethnic group, including the White Other and White Irish groups.” This is not 40% black however but contains , for example Chinese , French and a rapidly growing mixed population
The overall picture then is not of a black city but a diverse City in which Blacks form a cohesive and dominant part in patches , the problem is not in fact these groups whose voting patterns are in any case unlikely to be crucial but in the wide Liberal “ Progressive” vote who actually turn up to put their cross down in local elections and the perception amongst the white working classes that Boris is old fashioned and a toff. The wounded feelings of the blacks are ammunition only. The guilty feelings of the rich whites and the class envy of the poor whites are the real prize and I wonder how good an idea this is for the leftv Lord Haw Haws .London is not yet a foreign country although it does feel as if it is and this sort of bourgeois alignment with communities may alienate as many as it attracts . There are real problems for Labour in Barking and the BNP`s progress at Sedgefield was an unpleasant under current .
On thing is certain , inflaming racial hatred to attract Liberals shows us that the fight is not at all between black and white or rich and poor . It is between Good and evil.
PS Having spoke to various people about the statistics I have from government sources I must reiterate that nmy own impression that there was a wild dissonnance between the facts and the figures has been repeated. Just to throw something out there, I would be pretty suprised if that 40% was not in fact closer to 70% nowadays
What the hell is going on!!
Sunday, August 05, 2007
Dale Acknowledges Mediocrity
I have no idea why but I am , apparently going to be in this book of bloggers with a bit of blurb . I submitted my excrutiating tract of false modesty just now ? Wonder if I`ll get in. This was my effort but I think Dale butchers them anayway.
Once upon a time Newmania was the orb about which the stars wheeled .His food and comfort were attended to as if he were a god ; and it was right . Sadly , this cushy number ended on the Third of October 1963 when he was born by emergency caesarean .Today he is a face on the tube amongst the countless souls ’ like petals on a wet, black bough‘. He eeks a pittance from Insurance and lives with his family in Islington. Part Pooter and part Prufcock his spirit has resisted its altered circumstances and consequently the wolf is so often at the door he leaves it milk and biscuits. He attended St. Albans School ( Direct Grant ) , and studied English , a bit , at Newcastle University where he did ok.
Turning to politics , Islington Council are to blame . In an act of wretched perfidy they robbed this proud warrior of his ancient lands aka his parking space .A long correspondence paid for ,no doubt, by the fines newmania “cheerfully” paid ,prompted our hero to join the Conservative party, aged 39. He was soon grand Poo-bah of something or other , running for the Council and infesting the local Paper`s letters page . From there it was a swift step to boring his wife rigid about the moral deficiencies of the Labour Party .
Bursting upon the blogasphere like a slight change of humidity he is well known the ‘dainty refinement ’ of his arguments and the ‘courtly deference’ shown to others . He occupies that undervalued position of “ just another one” , giving generously of his employers time commenting in the sphere. It has even been whispered …( Gasp), that supply of newmania, exceeds demand . I know I know ..scandalous
Newmania has been an instinctive Conservative since the Unions put the lights out but as a long time non combatant he has abroad range of interests arts, music sex humour business but ,chiefly ladies and gentlemen, himself. If his blog has a settled purpose it is only that he like all the other working family men in England feels excluded not only from political life but from all public life . Blogging has allowed one more tree that would otherwise have fallen unheard ,to fall with a crack on some deserving New Labour skulls .
Newmania would like to thanks all the forced metaphors and trite conceits that have made this blurb possible ..I love you guys !!
Ithenku
Once upon a time Newmania was the orb about which the stars wheeled .His food and comfort were attended to as if he were a god ; and it was right . Sadly , this cushy number ended on the Third of October 1963 when he was born by emergency caesarean .Today he is a face on the tube amongst the countless souls ’ like petals on a wet, black bough‘. He eeks a pittance from Insurance and lives with his family in Islington. Part Pooter and part Prufcock his spirit has resisted its altered circumstances and consequently the wolf is so often at the door he leaves it milk and biscuits. He attended St. Albans School ( Direct Grant ) , and studied English , a bit , at Newcastle University where he did ok.
Turning to politics , Islington Council are to blame . In an act of wretched perfidy they robbed this proud warrior of his ancient lands aka his parking space .A long correspondence paid for ,no doubt, by the fines newmania “cheerfully” paid ,prompted our hero to join the Conservative party, aged 39. He was soon grand Poo-bah of something or other , running for the Council and infesting the local Paper`s letters page . From there it was a swift step to boring his wife rigid about the moral deficiencies of the Labour Party .
Bursting upon the blogasphere like a slight change of humidity he is well known the ‘dainty refinement ’ of his arguments and the ‘courtly deference’ shown to others . He occupies that undervalued position of “ just another one” , giving generously of his employers time commenting in the sphere. It has even been whispered …( Gasp), that supply of newmania, exceeds demand . I know I know ..scandalous
Newmania has been an instinctive Conservative since the Unions put the lights out but as a long time non combatant he has abroad range of interests arts, music sex humour business but ,chiefly ladies and gentlemen, himself. If his blog has a settled purpose it is only that he like all the other working family men in England feels excluded not only from political life but from all public life . Blogging has allowed one more tree that would otherwise have fallen unheard ,to fall with a crack on some deserving New Labour skulls .
Newmania would like to thanks all the forced metaphors and trite conceits that have made this blurb possible ..I love you guys !!
Hmm . Odd
Ithenku
Saturday, August 04, 2007
Racist Slur At Boris
Well have you seen the front page of the Guardian? Look yourslef I`m not advertising the sordid rag. I commented on Dale as follows
Unfounded allegations and rumours are rather your stock in trade are they not? And what a loathsome trade some of you bloggers are making it....said A N arsehole
...and what about the utterly unfounded allegation that Boris Johnson is a racist which is in effect what this is . I do not comment on the disgusting immorality of those responsible for using Stephen Lawrence’s death for the tawdry aim a slurring a kind man who is entirely without prejudice that Stephen`s own parents should feel this is a fitting epitaph sticks right in my stomach. What sort of people are they ? What kind of empty self love persuade s you that your moment on the front page is worth this. The nasty little creeps who have organised it they fall beneath the lowest possible estimation of a human being .I would myself say that this is the single most repugnant front page I have ever seen . For the Guardian to collude in stirring up racial hatred for the purposes of trying to get Ken Livingstone, friend of the IRA and unreconstructed hard left refugee back in ,astonishes me . I have never said this before because it is so often used by pontificating pleaders ,but I expected better , I really did .
I know Boris Johnson and as it happens my wife and son are black as are many of the Islington Conservative Party Mrs. Lawrence speaks for no-one . NO ONE. Only the racist pity addicts of the platitudinising left think that Black is a homogenous slab of opinion that they can slice up anywhere they think fit and I can promise you that it is not appreciated . To put this on the front page is flabbergasting. Boris is absolutely not a racist as the Guardian well know and as everyone here knows as well . Polly Toynbee was first to start the lies quoting Boris hopelessly out of context on education so as to claim he was an elitist. He was at the time defending David Willets and saying Grammar schools are not the answer but competition is . I thought then if Paultry Filler is sinking to this then we are in for a dirty campaign to rival Bermondsey’s “ Straight Choice” Simon Hughes . Just when you think the left of this country cannot be any more vile they prove you wrong and for anyone else I can tell you that this is the way London Labour is ,a cess pit of the unreconstructed hard left to rival Liverpool’s in the 80s .
Meanwhile Enver Hodge is over in Barking talking about the blacks taking all the Council houses , Brown wagging a new found flag and on about British jobs for the British and Hazel Blears complaining about al the darkies that have turned up. They have been pretty damn quick to shore up their weakness to BNP defections ,, not a problems the Conservative Party have
And !“They perhaps helps you to feel you've made sense of this frighteningly complex world“ … are there really still adults that spout this sort of puerile clap trap ?. You Hughes Views are in no position to comment on the complexity or otherwise of the world because you think on the level of a teas-made .This much is at least certain . Oh .. that’s ironic you see blah blah..drivel sputter
And David Boothroyd” to the extent of speaking at several SWP events. “ Another child , what , do you think the SWP give a toss about anything expect the publicity and that speaking at their events is proof of anything . Have you ever met anyone form the SWP do you realise the sort of madness we are dealing with.? Clearly not .
Over a long journalistic career it is not surprising that Boris may have written things that he might now regret. What he has not done is pick on the Jews so as to suck up to the Muslims who are busy plastering leaflets all over London suggesting we bury homosexuals alive and , in many cases, tacitly approving or denying the bombing of their fellow citizens . Neither has he had tea with the IRA so as to abase himself before a strand of Irish opinion in the Capital .Is it worth hoping that Ken will condemn this poisonous stirring and allow London to debate the future of our City without lies and filth pervading the atmosphere ?( Are you listening you pompous toad FairdealPhil , who do you work for then ? ) It occurs to me that he may not because , like a lower league team , he can only beat Premiership Boris in the mud,. That is what this is all about. I `ll admit it sometimes I rant for fun or effect but this is different a new low . It occurs to me that the Labour Party are likely to have more to embarrass them from Ken` SWP and hard left gangs than the Conservatives do from Boris .
Sea Shanty "that her remarks on his unworthiness to be mayor of her city are sincere." Surely you can see that this is not the point. Surely !!!
Unfounded allegations and rumours are rather your stock in trade are they not? And what a loathsome trade some of you bloggers are making it....said A N arsehole
...and what about the utterly unfounded allegation that Boris Johnson is a racist which is in effect what this is . I do not comment on the disgusting immorality of those responsible for using Stephen Lawrence’s death for the tawdry aim a slurring a kind man who is entirely without prejudice that Stephen`s own parents should feel this is a fitting epitaph sticks right in my stomach. What sort of people are they ? What kind of empty self love persuade s you that your moment on the front page is worth this. The nasty little creeps who have organised it they fall beneath the lowest possible estimation of a human being .I would myself say that this is the single most repugnant front page I have ever seen . For the Guardian to collude in stirring up racial hatred for the purposes of trying to get Ken Livingstone, friend of the IRA and unreconstructed hard left refugee back in ,astonishes me . I have never said this before because it is so often used by pontificating pleaders ,but I expected better , I really did .
I know Boris Johnson and as it happens my wife and son are black as are many of the Islington Conservative Party Mrs. Lawrence speaks for no-one . NO ONE. Only the racist pity addicts of the platitudinising left think that Black is a homogenous slab of opinion that they can slice up anywhere they think fit and I can promise you that it is not appreciated . To put this on the front page is flabbergasting. Boris is absolutely not a racist as the Guardian well know and as everyone here knows as well . Polly Toynbee was first to start the lies quoting Boris hopelessly out of context on education so as to claim he was an elitist. He was at the time defending David Willets and saying Grammar schools are not the answer but competition is . I thought then if Paultry Filler is sinking to this then we are in for a dirty campaign to rival Bermondsey’s “ Straight Choice” Simon Hughes . Just when you think the left of this country cannot be any more vile they prove you wrong and for anyone else I can tell you that this is the way London Labour is ,a cess pit of the unreconstructed hard left to rival Liverpool’s in the 80s .
Meanwhile Enver Hodge is over in Barking talking about the blacks taking all the Council houses , Brown wagging a new found flag and on about British jobs for the British and Hazel Blears complaining about al the darkies that have turned up. They have been pretty damn quick to shore up their weakness to BNP defections ,, not a problems the Conservative Party have
And !“They perhaps helps you to feel you've made sense of this frighteningly complex world“ … are there really still adults that spout this sort of puerile clap trap ?. You Hughes Views are in no position to comment on the complexity or otherwise of the world because you think on the level of a teas-made .This much is at least certain . Oh .. that’s ironic you see blah blah..drivel sputter
And David Boothroyd” to the extent of speaking at several SWP events. “ Another child , what , do you think the SWP give a toss about anything expect the publicity and that speaking at their events is proof of anything . Have you ever met anyone form the SWP do you realise the sort of madness we are dealing with.? Clearly not .
Over a long journalistic career it is not surprising that Boris may have written things that he might now regret. What he has not done is pick on the Jews so as to suck up to the Muslims who are busy plastering leaflets all over London suggesting we bury homosexuals alive and , in many cases, tacitly approving or denying the bombing of their fellow citizens . Neither has he had tea with the IRA so as to abase himself before a strand of Irish opinion in the Capital .Is it worth hoping that Ken will condemn this poisonous stirring and allow London to debate the future of our City without lies and filth pervading the atmosphere ?( Are you listening you pompous toad FairdealPhil , who do you work for then ? ) It occurs to me that he may not because , like a lower league team , he can only beat Premiership Boris in the mud,. That is what this is all about. I `ll admit it sometimes I rant for fun or effect but this is different a new low . It occurs to me that the Labour Party are likely to have more to embarrass them from Ken` SWP and hard left gangs than the Conservatives do from Boris .
Sea Shanty "that her remarks on his unworthiness to be mayor of her city are sincere." Surely you can see that this is not the point. Surely !!!
Friday, August 03, 2007
Ipod Therefore I am
The whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking, 'Is there a meaning to music?' My answer would be, 'Yes.' And 'Can you state in so many words what the meaning is?' My answer to that would be, 'No.'Aaron Copland (1900 - 1990)
Foolhardy then to try and write something about it well worry not, anyone foolish enough to fall into my little well will not learn the secret of music today . No, my ambitions are more, ‘which ‘, than ‘why’ . I have been prevailed upon by the young and frivolous Mrs. N to acquire an Ipod . Furthermore, and much to my surprise, I have managed to find out how it works .Browsing Itunes has been a revelation . To wander amongst forgotten lost and broken records and immediately be able to hear them again has been a thrill this week. So while I am reacquiring lost loves and lost memories I was having a think about my Desert Island Disks .
The following are mine , today .Some, like the Tchaikovsky, remind me of years ago . My father would play this emotional romantic piece at full blast as we drove into the Lake District on holiday . Some I just like .What are yours ?
1 Gigli singing E Lucean E Slelle. ( Tosca) or anything
2 All Or Nothing – Small Faces
3 My Boy Lollipop –Milli ..
4 Tchaikovsky Concerto No. 1 in B minor
5 American Trilogy- the King
6 Rock and Roll Suicide – Bowie
7 Smells Like Teen Sprit – Nirvana
8 I found a True Love( call her Magnolia ) Wilson Pickett
You could have a new list every day I know but one last thing , if you have never heard Gigli sing listen..He is the best singer of any kind there has ever been.. NO debate , NO opinions , just the best.
Foolhardy then to try and write something about it well worry not, anyone foolish enough to fall into my little well will not learn the secret of music today . No, my ambitions are more, ‘which ‘, than ‘why’ . I have been prevailed upon by the young and frivolous Mrs. N to acquire an Ipod . Furthermore, and much to my surprise, I have managed to find out how it works .Browsing Itunes has been a revelation . To wander amongst forgotten lost and broken records and immediately be able to hear them again has been a thrill this week. So while I am reacquiring lost loves and lost memories I was having a think about my Desert Island Disks .
The following are mine , today .Some, like the Tchaikovsky, remind me of years ago . My father would play this emotional romantic piece at full blast as we drove into the Lake District on holiday . Some I just like .What are yours ?
1 Gigli singing E Lucean E Slelle. ( Tosca) or anything
2 All Or Nothing – Small Faces
3 My Boy Lollipop –Milli ..
4 Tchaikovsky Concerto No. 1 in B minor
5 American Trilogy- the King
6 Rock and Roll Suicide – Bowie
7 Smells Like Teen Sprit – Nirvana
8 I found a True Love( call her Magnolia ) Wilson Pickett
You could have a new list every day I know but one last thing , if you have never heard Gigli sing listen..He is the best singer of any kind there has ever been.. NO debate , NO opinions , just the best.
Light Up Fair Albion
Pub landlords in Bedminster say the smoking ban is threatening their businesses. The ban, which came in on July 1, outlaws smokers from lighting up inside pubs, clubs and offices. Debbie Cornish, pictured, landlady of the Barley Mow pub in East Street, said traditional workers' pubs such as hers could be driven out of business by the law. She said: "It is losing us trade, and I don't think we are seeing the full effect now - in winter, people won't want to step outside for a cigarette ."The big pubs have facilities and room to put up awnings outside for smokers, but we can't do that."It will kill of pubs like this one in the end.
Just one snap shot from the Bristol Chronicle of the agonies across the Land as the thousand year old tradition of meeting for beers and fags in the Pub is killed by nanny Caroline Flint. Last night I stepped out and attended summit meeting in a local Pub with the witty and urbane Mr. Croydonian and the scene was one from absurdist drama . The cosy interior was empty whilst crowds of smokers and non smokers congregated in the garden shivering ever more violently as night folded its dark wing over the land . The good news is that the ban is not working and resentment against it is growing not receding . Wreathed attractively in sinuous tendrils of aromatic smoke we discussed the infringement of property rights , the misrepresentation of passive smoking and the bovine passivity of the nation confronted with this outrage .
Light Up Fair Albion .Let the love of liberty that is our birthright enflame your match and lend its bedazzlement to your cigarette .
Just one snap shot from the Bristol Chronicle of the agonies across the Land as the thousand year old tradition of meeting for beers and fags in the Pub is killed by nanny Caroline Flint. Last night I stepped out and attended summit meeting in a local Pub with the witty and urbane Mr. Croydonian and the scene was one from absurdist drama . The cosy interior was empty whilst crowds of smokers and non smokers congregated in the garden shivering ever more violently as night folded its dark wing over the land . The good news is that the ban is not working and resentment against it is growing not receding . Wreathed attractively in sinuous tendrils of aromatic smoke we discussed the infringement of property rights , the misrepresentation of passive smoking and the bovine passivity of the nation confronted with this outrage .
Light Up Fair Albion .Let the love of liberty that is our birthright enflame your match and lend its bedazzlement to your cigarette .
Ken Livingstone Is Right !
Ken Livingstone has said Boris Johnson would be a "formidable" opponent in the mayoral race.But the current mayor, who will stand for a third term next year, has voiced concerns about the contest turning into "Celebrity Big Mayor".He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme he thought the media's approach to the mayoral race was to look for characters with "good one liners".He said Mr Johnson was a "charming rogue" but he wanted to concentrate on policies rather than celebrity."My job in the next eight months or so is to focus on what Boris actually believes in," he said.Mr Johnson, one of the best known MPs, is the favourite of four Tories on the party shortlist for mayoral candidates.
Poor poor Ken little diddums is worried about it becoming a celebrity show down is he . This is the man who has wasted untold millions selling Londoners Ken Livingstone with their own money and who makes a very nice living with his whining punditry off the back of his endless self advertisement .
Poor poor Ken little diddums is worried about it becoming a celebrity show down is he . This is the man who has wasted untold millions selling Londoners Ken Livingstone with their own money and who makes a very nice living with his whining punditry off the back of his endless self advertisement .
Lets be generous though this is the fist time he has ever said anything I have agreed with . Boris is indeed a formidable intellect and communicator with a wealth of useful experience. He will make a fine Mayor .
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Fun With Dick and Pain
Hacker Alert
'Police in southern Vietnam are investigating a case where a man had his penis chopped in half by his wife when he was sleeping.' . 'Police said his wife was angry, suspecting that he had a mistress, and cut off his member with a 20-centimetre knife, throwing the severed piece into a drainage ditch near their house in Ca Mau, a Mekong Delta province 350 kilometers south-west of Ho Chi Minh City. ' "He was bleeding badly when admitted to the hospital, but he is in stable condition now," said Dr Huynh Truong Son of Ca Mau General Hosptial "His friends found the piece and brought it to the hospital four hours later, but we decided not to conduct an operation to rejoin it because the piece was dirty with mud and had not been properly preserved," Son said.'
I expect that was smarting for quite a while don`t you think ?
PS :Thanks to Istanbultory for this
"Interestingly enough, the unit of currency in Vietnam is the....dong. I jest not. "
Rev Batters-baby
CHURCH leaders have spoken of their shock and hurt after a former Blackburn vicar admitted downloading child porn ( Today’s Lanashire Telegraph)The Rev Paul Battersby, who was priest in charge at St Mark's Church in Witton for four years and was previously a rector at St Peter's Church, Darwen, is awaiting sentence after admitting three counts of downloading indecent images of children.....Battersby was previously the national youth officer for the Church of England .
The Church is in a perennial doo daa about sex isn’t it . Elsewhere with the approbation of Bel ( is thinking) , they are happy for people who run fetishistic sites to turn up I begin to worry that these liberated attitudes might be uncomfortably connected to further abusive relationships of the Rev Batters-baby sort . Is it time for less sexual liberty . It seems unlikely that the church will give us a lead.
Smorgasbord
On the way to work I nibble distractedly on a smorgasbord of media offerings upon between tube to train . An attentive listener might notice audible and physical twitches and ticks as I browse. “Oh yeah...!”, “,Ha “ and on occasion “Oh do piss off ! “. On the other side of the internal debate there is the odd ,” Abso-bloody –lutely “ . I hope someone finds me as fascinating as I do because the following are the highlights of the daily harrumph
.There is a magnificent article in the Islington Gazette quoting a certain Paul Newman the “ Deputy Chairman “ of the Conservative Party “ Which am not but never mind . Clearly they know their punters because Paul Newman magisterially summarises the state of play on the Mayoral Candidacy. “ Boris will get more votes than the rest of them put together . Its going to be Boris . Nobody doubts that “ Gosh he does a good interview eh.. The Standard had a front Page last night on the Boris bounce showing a 6 % ;lead over the newt man. Goody goody gum drops especially given the Boy David `s personal investment in this vital contest.
Hoorah!
A further local Gazette offering comments on the explosion of property prices that continues in Islington .We were recently obliged to take advantage of this and trade down a tad We sold at £520,000. Council flats in some areas are now selling at up to £475,000 and there is another article about my area , Stroud Green Road , ticking off the up and coming signs ( Shops that sell dried tomatoes, that sort of thing )....
Due to implacable indifference of fate ( redundancy a year or two ago) a new child and only one income I have to leave .Not for the first time however I notice what a mockery it makes of everyone’s efforts when you live in a borough where half of the population are handed homes worth about £500,000 each absolutely gratis .There is little made of the demoralising effect on the middling of seeing their efforts reduced to farce by subsidised housing but I know it is keenly felt amongst others by me .
Gahhhhh!!
The Mail leads with the DNA files to be kept on major criminals guilty of such demonic perfidy as dropping litter with predictable Libertarian outrage . I happened to notice in Private Eye yesterday that Lord Levy and Ruth Turner were not swabbed despite their arrests over cash for honours , I suppose the law will have no trouble finding either of them especially Ruth Turner whose future career in an EU feather bed was the price of her silence , courtesy of one T Blair. Just follow the money .
Harrumph !
A point of agreement between the Brown lap dog rag the News Statesman and and the wavering Mail( noticeably cooling on Brown since pinko Dacres latest illness) is always interesting . I laughed out loud at the grave hero worship in the NS editorial ...” To watch the Prime minister frown as president Bush swung his golf buggy round and round frat boy style , restored a sense of pride “.....er yes my chest swells with emotion at the very thought ..(?) but they do admit to one reality .
A new EU constitution will grant an EU foreign minister strong powers. How would this affect the UK`s ties with the particularly on intelligence sharing. ( Quoting an ‘unsavoury’ source arch neo-con John Bolton as does the Mail)
This is a problem as the EU is an impotent talking shop militarily whereas the US is not . Brown `s body language has been leapt upon by the left with glee and I have to admire the way he acted the part of a distant unsociable night creature , The Stanislavsky System ? On the realities he has continued in Poodle mode though. Brown has quietly allowed the listening station at Menwith Hill in Yorkshire for the US missile system . this has been sneaked under Parliaments radar appropriately enough .
Typical!!!
Martin bright continues to diminish his relevance as a commentator by yipping like a cowardly hyena over the minor discomfort this Ali Miraj dragging out all the old faithful . Lord Kalms , the Grammar school debate and of course Saatchi to present David Cameron as a cornered animal lashing out with inchoate rage . This is all to do with the New Statesman’s long term support of Brown and has become increasingly pitiful over the last month . David Cameron can be excused some small frustration with the ridiculous pro Brown coverage of the BBC above all I think. It is the rest of the Party that are not stepping up to the mark.
Oh do piss off!
Stephen Glover in the Mail thinks that its lucky for Les Bleus that Brown is too arrogant to take advantage of a novelty swing and will wait. I am less convinced I think its money and the popularity of the SNP that are staying his hand Glover has one thing right though .The Conservatives will be lucky a chance to show their difficulties are temporary. For god’s sake lets take and stop this egomaniacal quibbling about how to build a sandcastle when the Brown wave is gathering on the horizon.
Abso-bloody-lutely !!
.There is a magnificent article in the Islington Gazette quoting a certain Paul Newman the “ Deputy Chairman “ of the Conservative Party “ Which am not but never mind . Clearly they know their punters because Paul Newman magisterially summarises the state of play on the Mayoral Candidacy. “ Boris will get more votes than the rest of them put together . Its going to be Boris . Nobody doubts that “ Gosh he does a good interview eh.. The Standard had a front Page last night on the Boris bounce showing a 6 % ;lead over the newt man. Goody goody gum drops especially given the Boy David `s personal investment in this vital contest.
Hoorah!
A further local Gazette offering comments on the explosion of property prices that continues in Islington .We were recently obliged to take advantage of this and trade down a tad We sold at £520,000. Council flats in some areas are now selling at up to £475,000 and there is another article about my area , Stroud Green Road , ticking off the up and coming signs ( Shops that sell dried tomatoes, that sort of thing )....
Due to implacable indifference of fate ( redundancy a year or two ago) a new child and only one income I have to leave .Not for the first time however I notice what a mockery it makes of everyone’s efforts when you live in a borough where half of the population are handed homes worth about £500,000 each absolutely gratis .There is little made of the demoralising effect on the middling of seeing their efforts reduced to farce by subsidised housing but I know it is keenly felt amongst others by me .
Gahhhhh!!
The Mail leads with the DNA files to be kept on major criminals guilty of such demonic perfidy as dropping litter with predictable Libertarian outrage . I happened to notice in Private Eye yesterday that Lord Levy and Ruth Turner were not swabbed despite their arrests over cash for honours , I suppose the law will have no trouble finding either of them especially Ruth Turner whose future career in an EU feather bed was the price of her silence , courtesy of one T Blair. Just follow the money .
Harrumph !
A point of agreement between the Brown lap dog rag the News Statesman and and the wavering Mail( noticeably cooling on Brown since pinko Dacres latest illness) is always interesting . I laughed out loud at the grave hero worship in the NS editorial ...” To watch the Prime minister frown as president Bush swung his golf buggy round and round frat boy style , restored a sense of pride “.....er yes my chest swells with emotion at the very thought ..(?) but they do admit to one reality .
A new EU constitution will grant an EU foreign minister strong powers. How would this affect the UK`s ties with the particularly on intelligence sharing. ( Quoting an ‘unsavoury’ source arch neo-con John Bolton as does the Mail)
This is a problem as the EU is an impotent talking shop militarily whereas the US is not . Brown `s body language has been leapt upon by the left with glee and I have to admire the way he acted the part of a distant unsociable night creature , The Stanislavsky System ? On the realities he has continued in Poodle mode though. Brown has quietly allowed the listening station at Menwith Hill in Yorkshire for the US missile system . this has been sneaked under Parliaments radar appropriately enough .
Typical!!!
Martin bright continues to diminish his relevance as a commentator by yipping like a cowardly hyena over the minor discomfort this Ali Miraj dragging out all the old faithful . Lord Kalms , the Grammar school debate and of course Saatchi to present David Cameron as a cornered animal lashing out with inchoate rage . This is all to do with the New Statesman’s long term support of Brown and has become increasingly pitiful over the last month . David Cameron can be excused some small frustration with the ridiculous pro Brown coverage of the BBC above all I think. It is the rest of the Party that are not stepping up to the mark.
Oh do piss off!
Stephen Glover in the Mail thinks that its lucky for Les Bleus that Brown is too arrogant to take advantage of a novelty swing and will wait. I am less convinced I think its money and the popularity of the SNP that are staying his hand Glover has one thing right though .The Conservatives will be lucky a chance to show their difficulties are temporary. For god’s sake lets take and stop this egomaniacal quibbling about how to build a sandcastle when the Brown wave is gathering on the horizon.
Abso-bloody-lutely !!
Prudence is AWOL
According to the BBC our beloved Gollum Brown is prudence personified. Perhaps they have not noticed the waste that continues in the tax credit fiasco the PM`s elegant flagship the .
This years depressing figures are £6.6 billion overpaid £3.9 billion still to be recovered and £700,000000 already written off. 2000,000 families a year are affected by overpayment and the government are chasing punters for £1.5 billion. The cost of running the system has risen to £587,000,000 ie by 40% . What happened to Dear Prudence then ?
Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play
Dear Prudence, greet the brand new day
The cost is up, you shoved it through
Its horrible and so are you
Its horrible and so are you
Dear Prudence won't you come out to play
Its the Little Differences
Like being able to drink a beer in a cinema in Holland ...Speaking of the Dutch they , of course rejected the Constitution said to be identical to the Treaty soi disant on which we do not get a vote . How little are the differences here?Hans -Gert Poettering MEP President of the EU has said that statistics about the extent to which the treaty was a cut and paste job are highly misleading.(96% say Open Europe .)Compared to the draft Constitution , he says , the treaty contains opts outs on the Charter of fundamental rights as well as a wider exemption in Justice and Home Affairs which mean that although the text is almost identical most of it will not apply to us . Not so very difficult to understand if its true . In fact the anecdotal evidence that the treaty and the Constitution are the same is largely drawn from the reaction of other foreign leaders announcing it as celebration but they are , supposedly in a fundamentally different position to us so the President’s remarks are well aimed .We have as many genes in common with a frog but the effect is contrasting . .
So how strong are the opt outs . How red are the red lines ? We cannot trust Hans Gert Pottering and I suspect Conservatives are right to scent blood. As yet , however, the case is not proved.
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Its A Grand Old Name
The BBC website a reports on a study which has found that 'More pop stars have been called Paul than any other name.' 'From McCartney to Weller, people called Paul have appeared on 57 number one singles since the UK chart began in 1953, according to Yahoo! Music.' What a relief to know that the license fee is being spent on the issues that matter. 'Despite Paul's popularity with musicians' parents, the name no longer features in the UK's top 100 boys' names. Ventura Barba from Yahoo! Music Europe said: "When you think of rock 'n' roll names, you instantly recall the unique ones like Bono, Prince and Slash. It's surprising to discover that an everyday name can lay claim to such an accolade." But it certainly wouldn't be a surprise to Paul Hewson, better known these days as Bono....and better know n to me by his apposite anagram Onob.Should have stuck with Paul although I believe it means small in Hebrew .
History of the Blackberry
Chapter One
In the 1957 Blackberrying meant packing some Ginger beer with a few school mates and cycling into sacred shimmering Summer England to enjoy a day of scrapes larks and Black berries . The chums will almost certainty have attended Grammar school and even at the tender age of thirteen be able to laughingly recite Keats back and forth to what we would now call A level standard. Several admiring girls might be allowed to come and they would sit prettily clapping the good natured games of daring the boys play . They are treated with scrupulous chivalry and shy admiration. Finally the tousled dark stained angels will return for tea and mummy will make jam. It is an Edenic land and they little know they are singing out its elegy with their high pure voices
Chapter Two
In 1968 West Indian immigration had added a new note of fear into English life . Enoch Powell’s Rivers of Blood speech injected hatred into the skin of the politiy where it has grown like a forbidden stench ever since . The white working class saw then that their communities were above all threatened by the newcomers and “ Black-burying was the gallows humour of the Teddy Boys as they caught the tube over to Notting hill intent on violence which sputtered from the riots of the late 50s . Chains knives and fists are the weapons and they do not have it all their own way.. Can we see in the words of the East enders a grim reminder of the rural roots their soon to vanish urban villages sprang from ? Many blacks were indeed buried , whites too.
Chapter Two
In 1968 West Indian immigration had added a new note of fear into English life . Enoch Powell’s Rivers of Blood speech injected hatred into the skin of the politiy where it has grown like a forbidden stench ever since . The white working class saw then that their communities were above all threatened by the newcomers and “ Black-burying was the gallows humour of the Teddy Boys as they caught the tube over to Notting hill intent on violence which sputtered from the riots of the late 50s . Chains knives and fists are the weapons and they do not have it all their own way.. Can we see in the words of the East enders a grim reminder of the rural roots their soon to vanish urban villages sprang from ? Many blacks were indeed buried , whites too.
Chapter Three
In 2007 Blackberrying is the sharp “Hot spot “ gangs hip flip word for mugging suits for their blackberries . This South London world of violence and drugs is fuelled by the fatherless befits policies of the Labour traitors . Malignant rat eyes peer from hoods to avoid the CCTV at potential victims in broad daylight.. They too have bikes on which a gang of twenty recently hunted down and shot their victim while he tried to hide behind a tree .Girls dressed to ape US whores sell sex in a bestial pecking order called “ respect”.
I shall take my son out of London and we will go and pick Blackberries together.
In 2007 Blackberrying is the sharp “Hot spot “ gangs hip flip word for mugging suits for their blackberries . This South London world of violence and drugs is fuelled by the fatherless befits policies of the Labour traitors . Malignant rat eyes peer from hoods to avoid the CCTV at potential victims in broad daylight.. They too have bikes on which a gang of twenty recently hunted down and shot their victim while he tried to hide behind a tree .Girls dressed to ape US whores sell sex in a bestial pecking order called “ respect”.
I shall take my son out of London and we will go and pick Blackberries together.
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