I have less than no money. Several of my friends are having crises (special hugs for theoldcatlady and missdiane). And lets not forget that we're all doomed and the world is going to hell in a handcart. And yet...

This morning I feel incredibly peaceful, happy, and contented. I had a really good time last night; I had a good night's sleep; I have a wonderful fiancé; and I am lounging naked in bed with my laptop and a bowl of cereal, listening to the awesome Sandi Toksvig on the news quiz. Life really doesn't get much better than moments like this.

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Various people have been talking about the fact that Andrew Neil is being rumoured as a replacement for Dimbledore on Question Time. My personal feeling is that Neil's style is better suited to the more informal format of the stuff he already does, and he wouldn't fit with QT. Neil is irreverent, but rambly. This is grand on This Week, when you're winding down from QT, but I don't think QT needs Blue Nun jokes. QT needs someone with the presence to control an unruly panel and a frequently unruly crowd, as well as a quick, sharp wit.

* eyes radio *

Hmm, I wonder...

Poll #1280876 Question Time
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 11

Who would make the best Question Time Presenter?

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Via andrewducker, Rape Crisis Scotland has an excellent series of adverts aimed at the very things several of us have been discussing of late: This is not an Invitation to Rape Me. More adverts like this, please, and less of the victim-blamey kind.

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Via mooism, it's not often someone who uses racist language warms my heart, but this little gem from 538 made me smile:

So a canvasser goes to a woman's door in Washington, Pennsylvania. Knocks. Woman answers. Knocker asks who she's planning to vote for. She isn't sure, has to ask her husband who she's voting for. Husband is off in another room watching some game. Canvasser hears him yell back, "We're votin' for the n***er!"

Woman turns back to canvasser, and says brightly and matter of factly: "We're voting for the n***er."

Bless 'em.

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The Torygraph is continuing its Vince is better than George meme. They say it like they are trying to jolly George along, mind, but the fact that they are saying it at all, is interesting to say the least.

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The government is continuing it's stupid anti-immigration schtick, despite the fact that immigration is a net benefit and all the studies show it. Why do they have to PANDER to Paul Dacre and all his little minions, instead of showing them they are wrong? Fuckwits.

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Hilarious article on Con Hom about how to beat Lib Dems in elections. Among the dirty tricks we stand accused of engaging in are being seen as working hard for their neighbours, joining residents associations and other community groups and being honest - people know what they are getting when they vote Lib Dem - oh NOES!!

There ARE some useful campaign tips for any politician in there, though. So here's another dirty trick - read those Tory tips, inwardly digest, and use, my Lib Dem brethren and sistren ;)

I spent last evening losing at Ludo with matgb and burlesque_bunny and her other half, and therefore didn't get around to backreading. Thus, today's linkspam of random things that caught my magpie eye is HUGE! Also, if I haven't hat-tipped you for the link, it's because I forgot who linked me to what. This is because I are a scatty old bint. For which, I apologise. A fair few of them came from m'colleague Douglas over at LC, though.

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First up, Ros Scott is unsure that too much choice is a good thing. I certainly agree that in terms of schools and (particularly) hospitals, people don't want choice, they just want their local one to be good. If someone is bleeding to death, the last thing you want to have to do is to decide whether St Luke's or the BRI would suit your needs better.

However, it's not just about whether or not people have the ABILITY to make choices, it's about whether or not there aren't better uses of their time, IMHO. A lot of the time I don't want to choose between a set of things because I'd rather be doing something else. Choice of beer is great, choice of buses to get to the pub is not. I just want a bus that's frequent, prompt, and stops where I want it to, not a choice of three, none of which go at convenient times, or stop at the stop I want.

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Via Neil Gaiman: No to age banding on books.

I agree, to an extent, with age restrictions (but emphatically not censorship for 18-rated films) for violence on films and computer games (less so for sex), because you don't need to put any actual effort into perceiving the violence of a film or computer game, and it could cause some serious trauma to some children. Books? No. I first read the bible cover to cover aged seven (after the Hobbit but before LotR), and you'll be hard pushed to find a book more stuffed with violence than that. I still think it was a worthy use of my time. Reading books that are "unsuitable for children" is an im;portant part of any child's intellectual development.

Similarly, I loved, and still love, books which are clearly aimed at much smaller people than me. Why should I be castigated for this by over-prescriptive publishers?

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el_staplador makes a good point about feminism, inspired by this article on the BBC:

Feminism, the way I learnt it, isn't about voting for the woman because she's a woman; it's about voting for the best person for the job because of them being the best person for the job. Where the feminism comes in is that, should a woman be the best person for the job, there should be nothing more standing in her way than there is standing in an equivalent man's way. I must admit that I haven't been following the campaign terribly closely, so can't give a considered opinion on the question. (In any case, it's too late now and I have no influence upon it whatsoever.) But honestly, it should be simple: which of the two could do the job better? They're both human beings, no?

I'd go further than the sainted El S. I think that voting for a woman just because she's a woman and not because she's the best person for the job DAMAGES feminism, just as "positive" discrimination is a patronising pat on the head from the patriarchy. YMMV, of course.

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Much hilarity abounds about Tony Blair's new plan to foster peace and stuff by not invading other nations getting people of different faiths to talk to each other. Like the author of jesus_and_mo, and I think the result of this is rather predictable:



OTOH, maybe cabalamat2 is right, and this will result in more questioning of the overweening power of religion in general. Which would possibly be a good thing. I don't mind religious folks doing whatever they like in the privacy of their own homes, but I don't want them present in my legislature, and I don't want them indoctrinating my child. Shame this still seems to be too much to ask.

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I originally did the "wife" version of this, and, somewhat predictably, I was atrocious. However:

109 As a 1930s husband, I am Very Superior Take the test!

This contrasts nicely with my result for this test, I feel:

What philosophy do you follow? (v1.03) created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Hedonism Your life is guided by the principles of Hedonism: You believe that pleasure is a great, or the greatest, good; and you try to enjoy life’s pleasures as much as you can. “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die!” More info at Arocoun's Wikipedia User Page... ( percentages and stuff under here ) Big hurrahs for the really, REALLY old guy! I particularly like that the secret to his longevity is "cigarettes, whisky and wild women". An organ which definitely disapproves of wild women, especially in conjunction with whisky and fags is the Daily Hate. Here's a couple of links to stuff about their misogyny and how it negatively affects the whole of society. Via the incredibly talented ginasketch, today is Drawing Day. So get your pencils, or Wacom tablet, out. Via shishmish on the TGT, someone at the BBC has seen the woeful Brainiac: Science Abuse on Sky, and thought that's not a bad idea, but the execution is terrible... I bet we could do better! Am really looking forward to this, even though Hamster is my least favourite of the TG3. And finally, guaranteed way to get me to accept your Facebook, friends request? Unashamed fanboying of this humble blog! As a reciprocal measure, I'd like you all to go and have a nosey at ottenfeed, which is being added to lcreadinglist as we speak ;)

... whose readers are, apparently, not happy bout last night's outbreak of sense and reason in the House of Commons. One of the things she says resonated loudly with me:

If the woman has access to the birth pill, why do so many fall pregnant? They should be made to carry the baby, then perhaps that would curb their appetite for unsafe sex.

This viewpoint I find most curious of all. Why exactly do people, who cannot trust a woman to take the birth control pill, think that the same woman can be entrusted with a child? And why on earth should any woman be made to bear a child as a punishment for sexual activity? In my mind a punishment is something like being sent to bed without your supper, having your pocket money stopped, or having your internet access taken away (someone needs to do this to a greater majority of Daily Mail readers). A punishment is not being made to gestate and care for another human being. The antis seem to have a very funny view of the people that they are trying to save; a child should never, ever be a punishment.

Oh, and as for "curb their appetite for unsafe sex", I wonder if Peter Pyett ever took biology lessons. Peter, the saying "it takes two to tango" applies here. I do wonder what his, and indeed a lot of DM readers, opinions are on the men who will not use condoms? It's funny how you never hear those, isn't it?

This, for me, illustrates the utter falseness of the trope that anti-abortionists care about children. They don't care about children. If they cared about children, they would not want to force people to look after children they do not want, making sure that not only the mother is miserable (which is presumably the intended effect) but the child suffers too.

Oh well. Just one of those viewpoints I will never be able to see, I guess. They're RIGHT that the best way to cut the abortion rate is to provide better access to and better education about contraception, but wrong in thinking that this has already happened. So, you know, Daily Mail reader is half right shock!

...

Great Cthulhu, that almost looked like an outbreak of optimism. Can't be having THAT...

Brian Paddick's election diary has been edited and published by the Hate on Sunday. Typically for the Hate there are a couple of errors - the most important one being all over his Facebook profile:

Yesterday
Brian was campaigning in Crewe on Saturday - never give up, never surrender! (11:51am)
May 11
Brian was campaigning in Crewe on Saturday - who said I was giving up politics?! (5:21pm)

However, it has prompted an interesting thread on LDV. Some Lib Dems are offended by the fact that Brian hasn't exactly heaped praise on the party (he's given ammunition to the Evil Dale, you see - and no, I'm not linking to that tosser). I found the article quite endearing. Brian shows himself to have a sense of humour, and also shows up many of the flaws in how the party does things. Hopefully we can learn from them.

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My lovely fiancé has an update on the Johnny Vegas situation. Whether or not he wins this libel action, the main result of this will be that everybody will get to hear about his horrid, unfunny, sexist "performance", and unless (perhaps even if) the girl comes out in unmitigated support of him, it will be a disaster for his career. I really think he's shot himself in the foot here, especially given that the Grauniad's lawyers are no stranger to the odd libel case.

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Speaking of my lovely fiancé: I showed him this link, and he picked lots and lots of holes in it. I'd quite like him to do it publicly, though.

See this? This is a gauntlet. See me throw it down... ;)

The Daily Hate and stuff are forever going on about judges gone mad, and stupidly lenient sentencing (which does happen on occasion, but not nearly so often as people think). With that in mind, it's nice to report a judge getting it pretty much spot on: Judge Anthony Russell QC, I salute you.

ETA: more details in the MEN.

We all know that the government position on drugs is decided by expediency rather than by sense and reason. Cannabis was downgraded to class C as a sop to the sensible position that it should be legalised AND a sop to those who say all drugs should be criminalised. Given the current government's puritanical tendencies and relentless pursuance of smokers and drinkers, it was only a matter of time before the idea was mooted of reclassification to class B.

As Evan Harris so eloquently said on Any Questions this week (taking his cue from here, I reckon)

- It's crazy to ignore the advice of an expert committee that you have set up purposefully to investigate something. What was the point in setting up the committee?
- Pot use has gone DOWN since it was reclassified
- classifying pot in class B makes a mockery of the whole classification system when there are legal drugs which are more medically dangerous (note: I am not saying that pot has no dangers, but both alcohol and tobacco are worse)
- messing about with the legal system to send a message to young people is pointless at best, and counterproductive at worst.

I'd add that messing about with the legal system at the behest of the police is the top of a slippery slope to a police state, too.

The best way to tackle the drugs problem in this country (and every other) would be to legalise, tax, and plaster health warnings all over ALL drugs, then people can make an informed choice. Prohibition doesn't work, and it never has. However, I recognise that political expediency means that this won't happen for a long time. With that in mind, at least evidence based reasoning should be used to dictate policy, rather than the urge for positive headlines from the Daily Mail set.

... recovering from the Hen party to end all hen parties. Recovery involved much lying down in dark room and being "nursed" by Mister Mat and watching copious amounts of telly because reading would have been too difficult.
... watching Old Who with my lovely fiancé - who enjoyed Arc of Infinity very much, and was amused by Colin's Five-Nippled Breastplate.
... watching Crotchw00t (the most recent episode with all the origins stories) and trying to work out exactly what it is about Chris Chibnall's writing that winds me up so much. Possibly it's something to do with the way characters behave under his pen. There's just no emotional truth to his stories whatsoever, and even characters I like, I find irritatng in his hands. I really, honestly, think he has some serious IRL issues, because the way he makes people behave is just... Not right.
... reading the next chapter of George to my little one and talking about Jupiter. I love that she geeks so much about astronomy stuff.

Am currently watching The Dalek Invasion of Earth with Mat, mostly because a bit of One will scrub the horrible Chibnallness from my brain, and being very amused by One threatening Susan with a smacked bottom. I've already had one of those today. Because my brain is still a bit fuzzy, I'm going to just drop in some links to stuff that's come to my attention for various reasons today:

- Sophie Lancaster's mum is taken advantage of in her grief by the Daily Hate. Yes, it's all the fault of video games and nasty films and not that these children (and many others) are never taught by their parents or anyone else that they're not the centre of the universe and their actions have consequences. My little one is FOUR and she knows the difference between fantasy and reality. FFS. The comments are especially terrifying. Yes, it's all the fault of lefty liberal dogooders, and not anybody who actually had any influence on these boys at all. *headdesk*

- Amusing billboard shocks oversensitive religious types. Maybe it hit a nerve because it's true.

- Another amusing entry from Amused Cynicism. Really, if you're not reading him yet, you should. He's cabalamat2.

- Imaginary Al Quaeda recruitment meetings. Very very very funny.

Remember the Tory councillor who said on his blog that poor people should be sterilised because they're all just sponging off Hard Working Families^TM? He's now resigned, after trying to claim that he didn't really mean it. And you know what my reaction was on reading the news story? Shit, is Iain Dale such a well known person that even the BBC won't correct his grammar, now? I mean, I know I quite regularly make errors, but srsly? A your/you're error on the BBC... The world is coming to an end, AMIRITE?

I have to resist the urge to label this next item "James, get your arse in gear". Ooops. It seems resistance is low today. But seriously, my friend James works for the Asylum and Immigration Service, and works very very hard, and is continually frustrated and occasionally heartbroken at the decisions he is forced to make by the system. He never gets a decent amount of time to assess each person, and is always being pushed to work faster, harder, harsher. The current government's pandering to the frothing Daily Hate reader on the subject of immigration is NOT a good thing for the people on the sharp end, and I glad someone is finally taking notice. Did anyone else hear the thing on radio four the other day about the panic that's starting now all the Polish builders have started going back home again? Can't help but feel a bit of Schadenfreude over that one.

Crossing the Atlantic for a moment, my good buddy raven_oreilly found an article from the horse's mouth about senator Obama's comment on typical white people. Who'd want to be a politician in today's America? Poor old Obama just wanted five minutes to chill and talk sport with somebody, and he can't even have that. Actually, our TV political coverage is less like that, but our print media are worse. Who'd be mental enough to be a politician over here? Over to you Cllr. Ball... ;)

And, segueing lightly on to religion, elephantfeed has some harsh words for the leader of Catholicism in our fine country. You'll be unsurprised to hear I agree with every last CAPSLOCKED multi-coloured one. When are the sane, moderate majority of Christians going to wake up to the fact that this tosser is giving the rest of us such an unfavourable impression of their sanity? To the extent that even though I know several sane, moderate, intelligent Christians, my first reaction to this news was sadness for the poor man. I mean, if you're going to give up one fairy story for another, at least pick one a bit less depressing than Guy Gets Nailed to A Cross For Saying Wouldn't It be Great if We Were All a Bit Nicer To Each Other (c) Douglas Adams...

And, because any excuse is a good excuse, here's that Marcus Brigstocke vid that a certain person whose name is apt to send the religious into fits of apoplexy by it's mere mention has been using on his recent lecture tour:



Link here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY-ZrwFwLQg

I do like the they're your rules, so why don't you bloody stick to them? bit...

The Daily Mail is paying people to make stuff up about immigrants.

Hands up everyone who is surprised?

Anyone?

* tumbleweed rolls past *

* bell tolls in distance *

When did the BBC turn into the Daily Hate?

I have several questions about The NHS spending £200 million more than ten years ago on babies born to foreign-born mothers

- how much did they spend before? Is this a percentage rise in line with inflation?
- how much are they spending on "native" babies, and has that risen or fallen (especially given that the "native" birth rate has fallen)?
- How big a percentage of the overall NHS budget is this? I'm betting tiny

I never expected the beeb to propagate this kind of right-wing reactionary bollocks, that immigrants are to blame for all our ills. Still, the beeb is run by a Liberal Conspiracy, isn't it?

* headdesk *

At least Ros Scott is talking sense in her very thoughtful post on the Human Tissue and Embryology Bill. If only all politicians were as willing to research, evaluate and consider as she is. I know I tend to see things as a bit black and white, but sometimes it's good to see that some people can see the shades of grey.

jw_77 alerted me to this article on (and yes, I'm sorry for linking to them) the Daily Hate Mail's website. It is, purportedly, a list of the 20 features which a man must have in order to be considered Mr Right by a woman. Of the 20, I would agree that one of them is a must-have feature (#20, likes pets), and two of them are definite deal-breakers if they apply. Any guy who drives a silver Mercedes would get a severe talking-to about his taste in cars from me. And any guy who is not /very/ young or unlucky who has had less than six sexual partners by an age I would consider him dateable either has something wrong with him, or is a blatant liar.

Of the rest, some of them would be nice, but are not deal-breakers either way (for instance, BA degree is no guarantee of being smart enough for me, and equally, there are lots of boys with no education at all who are smart enough for me), and some I'm not bothered about at all (short dark brown hair is ok, but ranks much lower than waist-length curly locks in my list of attractive features). Most ofr them are completely irrelevant.

But really, the number one attractive feature, which doesn't even get mentioned on that list? Honesty. Honesty is worth more than a £30,000 a year job or a £300,000 home in the Home Counties.

Anyway, my ideal man (five foot nine and a half, definitely not short hair) is currently sat watching DangerMouse with my four year old, plotting screen grabs to make icons out of (Be alert! England needs lerts!). This is a far more attractive thing than any of those superficial things about what Mr. Right supposedly looks like.

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Oh look, it's another one of those "Life was so much better in the fifties!" articles! Does anyone else feel like they've slipped into the Four Yorkshiremen sketch when they read these?

- Who'd have thought thirty year ago we'd all be sittin' here drinking Château de Chasselas, eh?
- In them days we was glad to have the price of a cup o' tea.
- A cup o' cold tea.
- Without milk or sugar.
- Or tea.
- In a cracked cup, an' all.
- Oh, we never had a cup. We used to have to drink out of a rolled up newspaper.
- The best we could manage was to suck on a piece of damp cloth.
- But you know, we were happy in those days, though we were poor.
- Because we were poor. My old Dad used to say to me, "Money doesn't buy you happiness, son".
- Aye, 'e was right.
- Aye, 'e was.
- I was happier then and I had nothin'...

etc. etc. etc.

It's not that nobody got depressed in the fifties; lots of people did. Lots of people killed themselves, and other people. The difference between then and now is that people don't feel ashamed to admit that they are ill and get help. How can this be a bad thing?

In the same vein, I celebrate the fact that the divorce rate has skyrocketed in the last few decades, because this means that less people are putting up with shitty marriages due to societal pressure. That can only be a good thing.

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Still, there is light at the end of the tunnel. People do keep debunking these Christianophobia scare stories, don't they? And of this, I am very glad.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH Quentin Twat and Hazel Blears in the same night! And he got Dickens wrong! I hate it when people say Ghost of Christmas Future; it's Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. Bloody dumbing down.

Anyway, onto more cheerful things. ILU Vince! Ehehehehehehe he totally blew them all out of the water. And what a mover! I think the man needs a cravat, though... Mmm, I shouldn't have let myself have that thought. Damn LOL.

Everybody Loves Vince.

The Observer lavishes affection on him. The Daily Mail is allowing him page space. Even Lib Dem voice have caught on - check this post of links a la Vince Cable Watch... Expect to see him turned on by the press at some point in the next couple of weeks, than. Poor bugger.

(I'm getting that feeling I got about three episodes in to the Ecclescake series of Nu!Who, when I suddenly had to put up with all these people who knew what cool was invading my fandom... it's a tough life being a girl!geek...)

FABULOUS Episode of This Week this week, which more than made up for the rather dull Question Time beforehand.

- Michael and Diane playfully slapping each other and using the word "affection" to describe how they feel about each other
- Lots of Doctor Whoness (yay for Doctor Who's birthday!)
- Michael, Diane, AND Andrew all fangirling Vince Cable ♥
- John Barrowman coming out as a Michael and Diane shipper... (oh yes, staceyuk, you might want to watch the watch again on the website for twinkly-eyed Barrowmanness)

... What? You think I watch this show for political analysis? LOL

There was only one greasy fly in the very fluffy and lovely ointment, and that was Quentin Twat. Although even he was fangirling Vince Cable... Anyhoo, since it appears they aren't going to stop using Quentin Twat and his overblown and unsubtle impression of Mark Mardell on an off day, can we not get someone to assassinate him? Please?

Not quite as good as the long-lamented Kilroy Intro Generator, but still hilarious: may I present, the Daily Mail Headline Generator.