I am watching John Mortimer night on BBC4. We have had Rumpole, and are currently enjoying Larry's masterful performance in A Voyage Around My Father. I'd encourage all of you to watch as much of it as you possibly can. However, if all you can spare is an hour, and if you have the tiniest Liberal bone in your body, please, please, PLEASE watch John Mortimer: A Life in Words.

It might give you a little inkling of why I love him so much.

When I were a lass, I dreamed of being Rumpole of the Bailey. Not the moustache and the small cigars and the nagging wife, but the impeccably liberal and just junior barrister who fought against the system to prevent it trampling over the harmless who happened to get caught in its path. I admired Leo McKern's irascible yet lovable performance, and Rumpole instilled in me a fascination with the law.

Fast forward a few years. I'm an undergrad law student at Hull uni, and there's a trip to Lincoln's Inn for those of us planning on going to the bar. They sit us along a long table, barrister-student-barrister-student. The rather elderly gentleman I was sitting next to shared my fondness for expensive cigarettes and even more expensive brandy, and we had long and wide chats. I remember discussing the minimum wage with him, and his stunned face when I told him that a mere two years prior to our conversation I had been being paid £1.90 an hour on the tills at Morrison's, and that was more than the shelf stackers got. He thought (as Mat tells me many of the rich kids at his uni thought) that the minimum wage was pointless because nobody got paid that little... I asked him what he would say if he was asked to give one piece of advice to an aspiring barrister. He said two words. Read Rumpole. I told him that I remembered watching it as a kid, but I hadn't realised there were books too. If anything, his face was even more shocked than before. He told me that although the author's politics were a bit dodgy the procedural detail was impeccable and invaluable. As soon as we got back to Hull, I went to the secondhand book shop...

I may not have become a barrister, despite my best efforts, but Rumpole had a big influence on my politics. Rumpole and the Golden Thread. Rumpole and the Children of the Devil. Rumpole and the Reign of Terror. Every one of them a clear, concise picture of one man fighting to secure justice for his client against a system which is huge, lumbering, and badly thought-out. Yes, it's a romantic vision of the law, but because its author was a practising barrister, with an intimate working knowledge of the legal system, it was flawless in its portrait.

John Mortimer's genius was, as has been said before, in taking radical liberal/left positions, and making them seem like perfectly natural, reasonable, and utterly British (and therefore making them appeal to Conservatives). His books are full of example after example of Liberal philosophy cleverly disguised as story; topical comment disguised as fiction. Today, he passed away. I'll miss his incisive wit and evidential eye for detail. I'll miss him appearing on This Week and advancing the most outrageously Liberal positions and trying to smoke in the studio. I'll miss his books, and I'll miss new Rumpoles with Timothy West on radio four.

A defining influence on my life has gone today. Coping will not come easily.

So, the IWF have backed down over Wikipedia (hat-tip gominokouhai). Quelle surprise. We can all get back to our lives now, right?

Well, no, actually.

There still remains the dishonesty of the ISPs in presenting 404s (or blank pages), rather than you have been linked to something which may be illegal, and we have therefore censored it for your own safety - only Demon even approached honesty here - and there still remains the fact that, as from January, the IWF will have a much bigger remit to block much more content, and much of it will be more contentious than child porn.

We are certainly living in interesting times...

So, flicking through the blogs I find news of Palin's hypocrisy (although I could be charitable and call it mere arse-bleeding stupidity) and the even more sickening hypocrisy of the tabloid newspapers, and I'm getting kind of pissed off.

And then I saw this.

Next time I am defending the British legal system, and saying that actually it works quite well, and that the system of precedent and case law means that even if there is a freak miscarriage of justice it'll be sorted out on appeal... Just remind me of this, will you? Even reducing the sentence of ONE of those amoral little fucktards is an insult. THEY KICKED SOMEONE TO DEATH FOR BEING CIVIL TO THEM, FFS!!!! AND THEY THOUGHT IT WAS FUNNY!!!

* is not a happy SB today *

These are the tabs I have had open for several hours intending to write blog posts referring to them:

1, Quacks on the telleh. Shame on you, Andrew. Three links on this:

http://gimpyblog.wordpress.com/2008/10/10/bbc-gets-quack-to-speculate-on-mental-health-of-prime-minister-during-time-of-financial-crisis/
http://www.ministryoftruth.me.uk/2008/10/11/analyse-thi/
http://endless-psych.livejournal.com/290648.html

2, Healthy cigarettes are apparently not a contradiction in terms. As those of you who know my ongoing battle with the evils of tobacco will know, this is of interest to me (currently off the wagon, having managed a good month on it up till conference)

https://e-cig.com/shopping/shopcontent.asp?type=Home

As Charlotte Gore speculates, I'm willing to lay money down that they will be banned or taxed/regulated to the extent that they might as well be banned soon.

3, Yes, I would.

http://community.livejournal.com/dw_daily/9476.html

I have to admit, it's been ten years or so since I did criminal law, but I seem to recall that appeals to the Court of Appeal can result in increased sentences, as well as decreased ones. Anyone more up to date than me care to confirm or deny?

Because these bastards deserve to be punished to the full extent of the law. They killed someone, and they gave someone else physical and mental scars that will NEVER HEAL, and they still thought it was funny right up until the guilty verdict came back. Their MOTHERS were laughing about it. Scumbags like that deserve the key throwing away.

Still no dogsitter that's viable. Mat is ill. His germs have REALLY good timing: they have made him lethargic and useless and unresponsive at EXACTLY the right time; at the moment it's looking like NEITHER of us will be going to conference. Which is going to be a joy for poor old Emma, who is expecting both of us to work...

Still, rather than wailing and gnashing my teeth, I thought it would be better to distract myself by writing a post. It may be somewhat random though. The first item is a clue as to why:

(via addyit - vid link here)

---

And then there is what has become known among Lib Dem Bloggers as Mat's Musical Meme, because even though it's been going round LJ for months, Mat's is the only LJ they read ;)

Answer the questions with the titles of songs by one band/artist. Invite your readership to guess the band.

1) Are you male or female? Poison Girl
2) Describe yourself. Beyond Redemption
3) What do people feel when they're around you? Heartache Every Moment
4) How would you describe your previous relationship? Killing Loneliness
5) Describe your current relationship? Our Diabolikal Rapture
6) Where would you want to be now? Gone With the Sin
7) How do you feel about love? Drunk on Shadows
8) What's your life like? Sleepwalking Past Hope
9) What would you ask for if you only had one wish? Please Don't Let It Go
10) Say something wise. It's All Tears

---

Speaking of Lib Dems, am grateful to James Graham for reminding me of the one thing Jo Crispy-Strips DIDN'T say about the new Lib Dem website which is cool and laudable: YAY Creative Commons! We've got one up on the government, just by understanding the concept.

---

I wonder when the rest of us will learn that Americans don't like being told how to vote? Not anytime soon, it seems.

---

Via purplecthulhu, The Kingsnorth protesters are acquitted under a "lesser of two evils" defence. This could be an interesting precedent...

---

Via puddingcat: comment and I'll give you a letter, list ten things you LOVE which begin with that letter, then post this in your journal and give out some letters of your own. puddingcat gave me a C.

1, Cake.
2, Canines.
3, Captain Slow.
4, Cthulhu.
5, Classic Who.
6, Crappy Old Horror Films.
7, Crappy old Sci-fi films.
8, Crackpot schemes.
9, Cynicism.
10, Cock.

I think those are all pretty self-explanatory... Oh well. Life goes on. Best be off to work.

They've found the deleted scenes from Metropolis! Sci-fi geeks rejoice! And pray Cthulhu we get a showing of it at the FFW next year...

matgb has a highly amusing post about the hypocrisy of the guy who sued the BBC for showing Jerry Springer: The Opera and upsetting his delicate religious sensibilities (related Facebook group).

Don't watch anything on YouTube which isn't allowed to be there, else you'll get got.

Creationism hits science classrooms in the UK. and we are funding it via the state school mechanism. *I* am paying for some poor kids to be taught complete bollocks as though it is fact. Amused Cynicism makes comment more eloquently than I ever could.

The Torygraph have picked their top ten ever Doctor Who episodes. No surprises that it's Ten-heavy, but perhaps surprising that it contains no Trout. And, obvs, Caves of Androzani should be #1.

James May is amazed that the BBC are upset with him for drinking a G&T, when really, they should be upset with him for putting slices of lemon in it. LIME, James, LIME!

Jeremy Thorpe says Robert Mugabe must die. I guess there's a limit to everyone's Liberalism, eh?

David Davies shows just how pro-liberty he really is. Hey ho. Is anyone actually surprised by this?

Chicky Yog imagines Gordon as a barman and finds him wanting.

The turkeys HAVE voted for Christmas: Mike at PB is right. Any PPC opposing any of the lot who voted for this is going to have a field day.

neohippie posted this video:



... and I had to share it because... well, don't you think the mad dancing dude looks like lanky Lib Dem councillor Jon Ball? Well, except the lanky dancing dude is a better dancer, obviously... ;)

---

neohippie also mentioned that the above video gives her the same sort of warm fuzzy feeling like that "I love the whole world" Discovery Channel commercial, and that vid gives me the warm fuzzies too, so I'm going to repost it (link is here)



Apparently the sainted XKCD get the warm fuzzies from it too, since they have done their own version...

---

And speaking of things that give me the warm fuzzies, Amused Cynicism has reported something that makes me just want to go out and buy a Joss Stone album:

After the show a reporter asked her what she thinks of piracy, and people who download her songs off the Internet. Her response baffled the reporter, as she simply told him: “I think it’s great…” There was an awkward silence for a few seconds, the reporter probably expected to hear something else from her. “Great?,” he said.

“Yeah, I love it. I think it’s brilliant and I’ll tell you why,” Stone continued. “Music should be shared. [...] The only part about music that I dislike is the business that is attached to it. Now, if music is free, then there is no business, there is just music. So, I like it, I think that we should share.”

“It’s ok, if one person buys it, it’s totally cool, burn it up, share it with your friends, I don’t care. I don’t care how you hear it as long as you hear it. As long as you come to my show, and have a great time listening to the live show it’s totally cool. I don’t mind. I’m happy that they hear it.”

Stone went on to say that most artists have probably been “brainwashed” by the record labels, when they discourage their fans from downloading music. Of course, Stone is not the only artist who actually wants people to share their work. Last year rapper 50 Cent made some positive remarks about filesharing, and Nine Inch Nails take it even further, as they upload their music onto BitTorrent sites themselves.

We all know that artists who support filesharing benefit from it, and one day the music industry will wake up to that. But until that day, lets say a big hurrah for Joss and point and laugh at Kiss... And now I have the urge to listen to Steal This Song by Mitch Benn...

---

You know when people tell you that climate change is all made up so that we can be made to pay more taxes? And that the world has fluctuating temperatures anyway, and it's silly to think that man could affect it?

Show them this. Nice hard maths, how do I love thee.

---

One more very cool thing before we slip down the slope of depressingness: The facebook Nexus app. Someone on nwhyte's f-list says they might have the smarts to make this for LJ: I hope they do. Of course, the coolest thing about mine is that it looks like the mothership in LifeForce. YAY for Patrick Stewart made from blood!

---

The results are out for Henley. The Tories won, which is not a big surprise, with a lower turnout and a decreased number majority, but an increased percentage majority. Lib Dems increased their vote share slightly, but not appreciably. But the real story is in the lower orders. Labour came fifth. They lost their deposit. They were beaten by not only the greens, but the bastard nazi party.

As they say on PB, happy first anniversary, Gordon.

* bleak smile *

---

I don't know what I think about this article, except that lots of people should read it.

Despite the vast number of religions, nearly everyone in the world believes in the same things: the existence of a soul, an afterlife, miracles, and the divine creation of the universe. Recently psychologists doing research on the minds of infants have discovered two related facts that may account for this phenomenon. One: human beings come into the world with a predisposition to believe in supernatural phenomena. And two: this predisposition is an incidental by-product of cognitive functioning gone awry. Which leads to the question ...

Is God an Accident?

---

The full text of the Lords judgement on anonymous witnesses is here. I know what *I* think about this - I'm not against witnesses' identities being kept out of the press, but complete anonymity with no cross examining makes evidence very unreliable in my view... There must be some sort of happy medium? I mean, if the only evidence you can get is an anonymous witness, then that's surely not enough to convict?

Or am I old-fashioned in clinging to the idea that one should be innocent until proven guilty? More and more often these days it seems like I am...

---

Ready to get more depressing? There's a Romanian girl. When she was ten, she was raped by her uncle. She didn't find out she was pregnant until it was too late for her to have an abortion under Romanian law, so she wants to come here to have one. Surely nobody sane could object to this? She's ELEVEN, and she was RAPED!

Well, apparently there are people who object to it (check comment two on Unity's post on LC), and I am fully in agreement with innerbrat on their complete lack of sense and morals.

Forcing an eleven year old girl who was raped to carry an incestuous child to term is not protecting unborn children. It is child abuse. There's no other term which fits. It makes me feel sick to the stomach that people can even contemplate it.

---

It occurs to me that maybe I should have started this entry with the depressing stuff, and ended on the cool vids to cheer you up... Oh well. If you're depressed now, just scroll back up... ;)

In the light of John Major's comments re: the 42 days issue, I'd like to remind everyone of one thing.

The debate before the house is not referring to the total period a person can be kept inside before they have to be released. This is, in fact, about whether or not we should have 42 days of imprisonment for people before they are even told what they are supposed to have done wrong. Once you have been charged, once the rozzers have deigned to tell you what they think you've done, you can still be kept locked up for an almost indefinite period, up to and including your trial, given the consent of the judiciary.

The sole reason that this measure has been introduced is that when the police bring charged suspects before the courts, a lot of the time the courts say this man is clearly innocent, let him go, and the government wants to stop innocent people being released because they think it makes them look soft. Does anyone have any doubt at all that the three (yes, THREE, such a huge proportion of our 60,000,000+ population!) people who have so far been kept to 28 days under the current legislation before being charged would have been allowed to be detained post-charge by a court? FFS... What sort of country are we living in when someone can be locked up for any significant length of time without even being told what they are suspected of doing? How the hell have we come to having our government piss wantonly and indiscriminately all over habeas corpus without a peep from most of us about it? I'm sorry, I'm becoming incoherent. This just makes me SO ANGRY.

Given that you can be detained almost indefinitely post-charge, do we really need to have a limit of more than a week? Or even a couple of days? America manages with a two day limit...

And justifiably so. She's just had threat of bailiffs for someone else's debt. As she says: You shouldn't have to be a member of Parliament to get someone to take action. Well, you know, far be it from me to blow my own trumpet, but I've dealt with bailiffs on the doorstep for someone else's debt before - are you reading this, Kenneth X, you scrote? Used to live on St Paul's Avenue in Nottingham? - and once I'd managed to persuade them that I wasn't called Kenneth, and didn't have £20,000 worth of stuff for them to take ANYWAY, they were perfectly fine. But I can see (and did see, when I worked at CAB) how this could be rather intimidating for someone less articulate and confident than myself or Mrs Valladares.

The thing is, this goes on a LOT. It's a symptom of centralisation. I hate to go all remember the days when you spoke to your bank manager in a ROOM and he knew your NAME... here, but...

The magistrate who signs the warrant isn't your neighbour any more (or your grandad, in my case). You're just a name, or a house number, on a bit of paper. They're not going to wonder what the bailiffs are doing going round to old Mrs Smith's place. The council worker (on roughly the same wage as me, i.e. about fuck all) has a big pile of paperwork to get through and you're just another sheet in an ever increasing pile. Everybody is under pressure to get as much through as fast as possible, and they don't even REALISE that this winds up making more work because things aren't scrutinised properly (parallels with legislation under the current government entirely intentional).

So yes, Ros, you're right to seethe. Seethe away. But you're lucky enough to be in a position to do something about it too, or at least more of a position than the rest of us.

So go on, do something.

I'll vote for you for party president if you do!

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.