Liberal Burblings

Archive for January, 2007

During a recent spate of “stickie” sticking, I found a “stickie” from DeadBrain.co.uk to put on my sidebar. It updates the “news headlines” which are, the astute will notice, spoof “news headlines”. For example:

The death knell has sounded for the floppy disk!

PC World are stopping selling them. Later this year none of the machines they sell will have a floppy drive.

That makes me feel old.

It seems only yesterday when the first consignment of RX02 8″ floppy disks arrived at the computer parts warehouse where I worked in the eighties. And there was some considerable excitement when the 5.25″ RX50 floppies started arriving – customers lapped them up.

But nowadays the CD, memory card and USB stick have made the poor old floppy redundant.

…but it won’t happen.

Well, that’s been said before. But the 90% vote by Sinn Fein delegates to support policing in Northern Ireland really is a milestone.

At the risk of craven me-tooery, accompanied by multiple hat-tippery, I would just point out that this Number Ten petition about letterboxes ought not to pass without mention of that wonderful song in the Liberator Song book called “Letterboxes”, which was written by Chris Young and goes (to the tune of “Little Boxes”),in part:

Letterboxes on the doorfronts,
Letterboxes going snippy-snappy;
Letterboxes on the doorfronts
-Letterboxes hurt and maim.
There’s a high one and a low one,
And a small one and a narrow one;
And they all stick or go snipy-snappy,
And they all hurt just the same.

The complete words are here – scroll half way down the page.

Mulitple hat tips to:
Tim Roll-Pickering
Stephen Tall
Liberal Action

Conservative Home reports that “Cameron’s hesitation on Catholic adoption row imperils his faith-based social action agenda”. It reminds us that David Davies has already stated that he will vote “against the attempts by the Government to force the Catholic Church to consider placing the very vulnerable children in its care with gay couples.” (That is an interesting way of phrasing the point).

Conservative Home goes on to pinpoint David Cameron’s dilemma:

At the heart of Mr Cameron’s ‘social responsibility agenda’ is a belief that faith-based groups can do a better job at welfare than the state. But a big part of the reason for the efficacy of faith-based groups is the religious ethos that drives them. If Government insists that faith-based groups adopt an ethos that it less authentic to their traditions (and more like that of government departments) the faith-based projects will decide that they had better remain independent of government. There is a deep and unresolved tension between David Cameron saying that he wants public policy to encourage more faith-based social action but then hesitating to support the freedom of faith-based groups to behave authentically.

Of course, it is always possible that David Cameron simply votes for equality. He’ll then have to do a rapid re-think of his “social responsibility agenda” and possibly also defect to the Liberal Democrats.

It is always nice to immerse oneself mindlessly in ITV dramas. My favourite is Midsomer Murders closely followed by Taggart and Heartbeat. Dear old Midsomer seems to go from strength to strength, year after year. The last two have been superb. Taggart too, continues to thrill. And I won’t have a word said against Heartbeat.

Judge John Deed on the BBC has been an absolute corker of a programme. However, I think this series should be the last. It is getting very repetitive. These are the scenarios which get repeated over and over again ad nauseam:

• John Deed defies the authorities and looks as though he will self-immolate himself, but at the last moment he wriggles out of the problem and emerges as a hero.
• John Deed and Jo Mills have a terrific row
• John Deed and Jo Mills make up with a terrific snog
• John Deed and Jo Mills look as though they will get into trouble for sleeping together while working on the same case (surely this poor horse has been flogged sufficiently?)
• John Deed and Jo Mills get away with it
• Donald Sinden comes in like a Werther’s original grandfather and snorts and grunts his way to help John Deed in the end, despite initial reluctance
• The Home Secretary proves that he is very snotty (again) and, for some reason, lasts in office much longer than any Home Secretary since Peel the younger (check that Peel the younger actually was Home Secretary – Ed…and shurely it is “Pitt the Younger” anway?)

I am sorry, but there are only so many times flesh and blood can sit through these repetitive plotlines.

Roger Simon at Politico reports that Hillary Clinton ducked a question about Iraq at an Iowa face-to-face meeting with voters. She didn’t mention Iraq once, but mentioned ethanol twice:

Seeing John Reid and Tony Blair at the moment is like observing two drowning men, who take in turns to go under the water (which often appears brown in colour).

This week, John Reid has been well and truly under the liquids, struggling to hold his breath. This Sunday, however, the Lord Chief Justice has pulled him up from under the water, by the scruff of the neck, to allow him to gasp some precious cubic metres of air. The Observer reports:

Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers said the Home Secretary had not sought to instruct judges to stop imposing prison sentences on offenders. In a statement, he described Reid’s advice on sentencing as a ‘helpful summary of the present situation’.

Meanwhile, our other deluge-defying drownee, A.Blair, has been enjoying a week of welcome fresh air. However, today he swops places with Reid, and is back under the briny. The Old Bill apparently have possession of an allegedly curious hand-written note from him about the loans- for-peerages scenario. And the Electoral Commission is calling for the whole thing to go to court. Sounds like it will rumble on for years. I suspect Houdini Tony will get to the surface for a quick blast of oxygen somehow.