November 13, 2005
by Nosemonkey
Comments Off on Japan photoblogging
Here you go, a few snaps from the trip. This will likely be a pisser for anyone on dial-up, I’m afraid, and no idea how it’ll look as I’m using Blogger’s picture hosting for the first time. It was an insanely good time though – I now adore Japan, and am seriously considering emigrating at some point. Excellent food, wonderful weather, and everything out there actually works efficiently. Being back in Blighty is, it must be said, somewhat depressing…
November 12, 2005
by Nosemonkey
Comments Off on Back
And trying to catch up with everything I missed. A lot of mental shit’s been happening in both the UK and on the continent while I’ve been away, so it may take me a while. Best missed headline so far? “Blair says MPs are out of touch” – ha ha ha!
Oh, and interesting missed discovery, this table (leeched from here):
Please note the ridiculously low levels of “faith hate” crimes. For why, then, do we need specific “Religious Hatred” legislation? There would appear to be significantly fewer “faith hate” crimes per year than there are injuries caused by slips on workplace steps – so where’s the legislation to rubber-coat all office staircases, eh?
Tomorrow, or possibly later today – assuming I can find somewhere convenient to host them now that my MSN Groups account is pretty much full – expect some pretty pictures of Japan and stuff. Normal blogging service here should, I hope, resume on Monday.
November 9, 2005
by Nosemonkey
1 Comment
“I hear your voices dripping sympathy and concern, saying you do this ‘for the victims’, Tony, Charles, and the rest of you…and I am disgusted that you should use ordinary people – because that is all we are – bombed people – bloodied people – in this way. Who gave you the right to speak for me, Mr Blair, Mr Clarke? When did I give my blessing to fear-mongering?”
November 5, 2005
by Nosemonkey
Comments Off on An anti-Charles Clarke quickie from overseas
I’ve missed loads while out enjoying Japan and stuff, from Blunkett going out on his arse to the government’s majority being reduced to one on an important terror-related vote (a vote to which a certain vocally anti-war MP for Bethnal Green and Bow failed to show) to Robin Grant apparently quitting the blogging game, but a spam email from the Labour party can’t be ignored when it asks for our views on the Terrorism Bill.
Sent out to people perceived to be Labour supporters, the online questionnaire is packed full of leading questions (“Do you think police should have the time and opportunity to complete their investigations into suspected terrorists?” being a prime example, with the other two – only TWO, please note – being not much better) that it’s rather hard adequately to explain to this repellant morons just why they’re so utterly wrong on this one in the deliberately limited format they offer. But clicking “No” to all of them may just do some good, as might publicising the inadequacy of this little exercise, which is about as close as they come to a consultation with the public these days – little better than “Do you love Stalin? – a) Yes, b) One-way ticket to Siberia, please”.
Oh, and while I’m briefly back blogging, can anyone explain to me precisely how they’re trying to spin Charles Clarke’s blatant attempt to mislead parliament? Or are they, as with the Blunkett affair (where we all knew that the jobs he took up after leaving the Cabinet last year were in breach of guidelines at the time, but it has taken until now for him to be ticked off for it), simply going to ignore it until a few months’ time when the Safety Elephant for some reason falls out of Blair’s favour?
Wednesday update: Hurrah! A Clarke email back-down –
“I would like to apologise for the questionnaire which was attached to the message that I sent out to party supporters on Friday. It was not intended to gauge public opinion but to start a political debate around the proposals currently being debated in Parliament. Many people have raised with me perfectly valid concerns about how the questions were drafted. I can only say that I share those concerns and give my assurance that questions of this type will not used in the future.”
He’s still a fucking cock though. Speaking of which, The Sun’s apparently been up to some dodgy polling of its own. I still wouldn’t know, as I won’t be back in the country until the weekend. At which point (jetlag and forgotten freelance deadlines permitting) normal service will resume on this recently much-neglected blog.
October 21, 2005
by Nosemonkey
Comments Off on Right – I’m off.
Leaving for Tokyo first thing in the morning. I’m back in the UK on the 11th, and have no idea how often I’ll be able to post while I’m away.
In the meantime, check out another new find, Rachel from North London, the blog of a survivor of the King’s Cross/Russell Square tube bomb on 7th July – she was in the carriage in which the bomb detonated, killing 26. She’s currently on a bit of a drive to help other survivors recover:
“There’s a big push on now though, from us in the survivor group to let other survivors know they can meet fellow-passengers from the train, before the November 1st Memorial Service for the Victims at St. Paul’s Cathedral. We’re on a bit of a deadline, before the news moves on, which it will soon. (Plus we are seeing that it seems to be about now – 3 months on – that the impact is really hitting people, now that the shock is fading, the emotional blowback kicks in.)”
Do what you can to help spread the word, eh? Our dear government, and even Ken Livingstone with his much-publicised fund for the victims, have so far managed to do effectively tit all (there’s a surprise). We can slag off the policies that have arisen in the aftermath as much as we like, but others have far more to worry about.
Otherwise, help out with expanding the Wikablog, as helpfully explained by our own dear Devil’s Kitchen. The bigger it gets, the better.
And, considering I’m getting back on November 11th, why not ponder donating to help ex-Service and Service men and women and their dependants? They have, let’s face it, got a bastard of a job. Again, we can slag off the policies and the politicians who make them, but these guys bear the brunt of those decisions. They deserve our support.
Right. Me done. Ta-ta for now.
October 21, 2005
by Nosemonkey
Comments Off on The EU budget and CAP reform tedium continues
As expected, negotiations over farming subsidies have gone all to hell, US trade representative Rob Portman stating that “The responsibility at this point lies squarely with the EU” – which is partly right, but a tad unfair really – the blame really lies, as ever, with France – but also with Tony Blair’s piss-poor “leadership” during the UK EU presidency.
And so, in typically new Labour style, Mr Blair, titular EU president, asks everyone to avoid the details when discussing the EU budget. Because, let’s face it, little Tony seems to have trouble speaking in anything other than meaningless platitudes – why should he suddenly have to try and cope with the nuances of the single most divisive and important issue facing the EU when he’s managed to be in power for so long without ever discussing anything in anything other than the broadest of terms?
I had some hopes before this UK presidency kicked off, but always knew that Blair would let us down, despite frequent pleas for action. Although I do like to see my political perception being spot on (God, I’m good etc.), this whole thing really is fucking pathetic. Sometimes I don’t like being proved right.
(A handy overview of the farming subsidies issues can be found at the Common Agricultural Policy blog (another recent discovery).)
October 21, 2005
by Nosemonkey
5 Comments
Not content with reforming the voting system ahead of April’s elections, apparently to give himself a better chance of beating ex-EU Commission bod Romano Prodi (aka a potential Nosemonkey political hero for his consistant refusal to join any political party), dear old Silvio (aka “most corrupt man in western Europe”) has just passed yet more constitutional reforms. This time giving himself the right to dissolve parliament and dismiss ministers at will, bypassing the head of state. Effectively the equivalent of Tony Blair passing a law declaring himself King.
To which our man Prodi (pray he somehow wins…) responded with typical eloquence:
“A few months before the elections, a governing majority which knows it no longer enjoys the country’s confidence, which has lost all the electoral tests of recent years, which is divided and fragmented on the inside and incapable of leadership on the outside, is about to strike the definitive blow at our constitution.”
He doesn’t exaggerate. Also included in the bill are widespread reforms which could at first glance look as if they’re abolishing the Italian central government – transferring responsibility for education, health and policing to the regions. Much as if Blair suddenly announced that the failures in the NHS and state school system are no longer going to be dealt with by Whitehall, and washed his hands of the whole thing. Which many in Britain would welcome (perhaps rightly – let’s face it, it’d be difficult to cock things up any more…).
In Italy, however, you can’t trust Berlusconi as far as you could chuck his vast piles of cash. This is (and I will admit this is purely, like, my opinion, man) simply a way of shifting the blame away from central government – which retains the right to intervene and meddle at any point.
These are the most significant reforms since the post-Mussolini constitution came into force in 1948, and place more power in one man’s hands than has been seen in Italy since the time of the baldy blackshirt. Berlusconi’s response to Prodi’s criticisms, however?
“Prodi’s tones are not those of political debate but of civil war”
Yay! Great idea! Bring up the idea of civil war having just apparently devolved powers to the regions in a country which has only been unified for a bit over a century, has widespread regional economic disparities, a history of corruption and violence, and has famously had the least stable governments imaginable since the fall of the last strong leader… It’s shaping up to be quite an interesting time in Italy over the next six months.
Oh yes, lest I forget, yesterday Berlusconi also vowed to change the law which guarantees political parties equal access to the media during election campaigns. The fact that he just happens to own the majority of the Italian media is just, like, a happy coincidence and stuff, obviously… So fingers crossed for a boom in the world of Italian blogs – a few English language ones of which I was previously unaware I’ve discovered today: Italy Magazine’s news blog, A Welshman in Milano and Beppe Grillo. The always good North Sea Diaries also has a bit of a Berlusconi fixation. If you know of any more, let me know.
October 20, 2005
by Nosemonkey
3 Comments
“Cameron has a dominant position – asked which candidate they thought would be best at attracting new members, best for party unity, best at opposing Brown and Blair in the Commons, best on the television and radio, which candidate would offer the best chance of winning the election and which candidate would make the best Prime Minister if the Tories did win, David Cameron trounced the other candidates on every count, beating Fox and Davis by over 30% in every question”
Jamie at Blood & Treasure, however, has yet to be convinced about the Tories’ latest Great White Hope…
October 20, 2005
by Nosemonkey
2 Comments
Speedy translation of parts of the Figaro and Le Monde pieces:
“clinical trials (on 150 volunteers) proved to be effective, the blood of the human guinea-pigs having produced antibodies”, announced the Hungarian Minister for Health, Jen� Racz, in Budapest. “We only have the preliminary results but I can say with 99.9 % certainty that the vaccine works.”
The prototype was developed since the end September by the National Center of Epidemiology, starting from a stock of avian virus H5N1 which appeared in Hong Kong in 1997 and was isolated at the beginning of 2005 from a person in Southeast Asia by the World Health Organization.
“the cost of developing the vaccine (estimated at more than 4 million euros) will be covered partly by the general reserve of the national budget, by the budget of the Ministry for Health and by the receipts from the export of the vaccine”, Mr. Racz said.
October 19, 2005
by Nosemonkey
4 Comments
Notice to friends/relatives who I know read this: no worries – absolutely fine, just a tad bemused and pissed off. Especially as when my dear grandmother warned me to “be careful after dark” on the phone the other day I just patronised her with a “yeah, yeah – I’ll be fine”.
Inept bunch of little bastards though. You want money, you’ve picked the wrong guy with Nosemonkey. I’m pissing broke, my cash-card’s one of the old-school, pre-chip-and-pin ones that even gets refused when I’m using it, I don’t have a credit card thanks to NatWest being shit and not having sent it to me yet, my mobile’s two years out of date and pay as you go, and I had a grand total of �2.54 in my wallet. Which I happily gave them to get them to bugger off. Even called them back for the 10p they dropped… And that was precisely all they got. They agreed that my phone was shit, saw that I had no notes, and didn’t even bother taking my wallet, because it’s falling apart at the seams.
The only somewhat irritating thing, aside from having lost exact change for a pint of IPA at lunchtime tomorrow, is that I walk down that particular stretch of road at around 11:15 in the evening, as it was, very frequently indeed, what with it being on the way to quite a few of the pubs I frequent on a regular basis. And now I’m going to have to pay closer attention to bunches of 17 year old twats in their hooded tops (show your faces, wimps – pimply teenagers all look alike anyway). Plus be worried every time the missus is out after dark in what I previously thought was one of the safest areas of London. Which it is. But I have no doubt that I’ll be slightly paranoid about it for a while now for her sake.
Nosemonkey’s solution? Twilight curfews for all under-21s. Bring back Borstal. And the cane. Teach them a little respect. Ban hooded tops. And anoraks. And big scarfs. And umbrellas. Anyone under 30 breaks the law, cut their parents’ benefits off completely. I want CCTV cameras on every lamppost, tree and garden fence. And halogen lamps, beaming down 300 watts of glaring light as soon as the sun goes in. And ID cards – mustn’t forget ID cards, they’re the solution to all our ills.
Nosemonkey’s actual solution? Meh… Bunch of opportunistic dicks. That’s only the second time in eight years of living in London that I’ve had any money taken off me under threat of violence. I’ve been lucky. And even if I wasn’t, there’s still tit all anyone can do about it, because these things aren’t premeditated. It was four to one, no one else in the street, and they knew that even though I could have caused some damage to a couple of them (they were all rather smaller than me, and despite the smoking and drinking I’m in fairly good shape) I wouldn’t risk it in case they had a knife. Teenagers are twats, these things happen, and it’s not going to make me change my mind about anything.
Right. that’s me vented. Time for a whisky, a cigarette, and then bed. Normal service will resume in the morning.
Update: Heh – that cheered me up – just discovered I’mtop Google result for how much is a pint of beer in London. The answer, in case you’re wondering, is anywhere between �1.68 and about �6.00, depending on where you go, but will rarely top �4.00 in any pub (those pubs are, obviously enough, never worth going into). The average is about �2.60, though.
October 19, 2005
by Nosemonkey
1 Comment
Though it must be said, issuing arrest orders for foreign soldiers over friendly fire incidents that took place in another country, and when those killed were journalists who had voluntarily sat themselves in the middle of a warzone, does strike me as a tad silly.
Thanks to my wonderous judicial expertise (gained by once being accepted for a law conversion course, but later turning it down due to lack of funds, thus losing myself a cool hundred quid, the bastards), I’d likely rule death by misadventure. Tragic, stupid and everything – but if you don’t want to get killed, don’t plonk yourself in the middle of a city that’s currently being bombed and invaded. Simple. Oh, and look both ways before you cross the street. And don’t make fun of that little bloke in the corner of the pub – you know, the one who always sits on his own, nursing his pint, and staring at everyone under his eyebrows.
(More on this from Spanish blog – in English – Barcepundit, with the case for more arrest warrants…)
October 19, 2005
by Nosemonkey
1 Comment
October 19, 2005
by Nosemonkey
1 Comment
This may not be a showtrial in the Stalinist sense – Saddam is, after all, guilty of the crimes of which he is going to be convicted. It is, however, a trial purely for show. But the people it’s trying to impress simply aren’t going to be. So I really can’t see why anyone bothers.
Why bother faffing about with the trappings of justice when we all know that Saddam’s supporters don’t recognise the legitimacy of the court and that the critics of the refusal to take this to the International War Crimes Tribunal, plus anyone who disagrees with the death penalty, have a tendency to feel the same way? And as Saddam’s so obviously guilty, why were they so afraid of putting him on trial in a court outside US control anyway? I simply don’t get it.
In any case, it’s sort of started, and the headlines are already utterly, tediously predictable:
and, entirely unsurprisingly and so even more depressingly:
Here endeth Nosemonkey’s already nearly non-existant interest in what’s currently going on in Iraq. The whole thing’s just too depressing.
October 19, 2005
by Nosemonkey
9 Comments
Last night the government won their ID card vote by just 25 votes.
The House of Commons has 636 sitting MPs (not including the 5 non-voting Sinn Fein members, obviously or the Speaker and Deputy Speakers). In the vote, 309 voted in favour of the government’s bill, 284 against.
So, my question is this – where the pissing fuck were the other 43 MPs? That’s nearly double the number of the government’s majority, and more than enough to have sent the revolting little thing back where it came from.
I want names and I want to hear the excuses. Anyone who has spoken out against ID who didn’t vote without an EXCEPTIONALLY good reason, I want to make their life an abject misery. Nosemonkey is angered, despite knowing this was an inevitability.
Update: Right – here we go:
TORIES (in favour of the rights of the individual versus the state, remember) who weren’t present for the vote –
David Davies (Monmouthshire), Quentin Davies (Grantham & Stamford), Roger Gale (North Thanet), Michael Gove (Surrey Heath), Greg Hands (Hammersmith & Fulham), Daniel Kawczynski (Shrewsbury & Atcham), Peter Lilley (Hitchin & Harpenden), Michael Mates (East Hampshire), Richard Ottaway (Croydon South), Nicholas Soames (Mid Sussex), Anthony Steen (Totnes), Gary Streeter (South West Devon), Ian Taylor (Esher & Walton), Edward Vaizey (Wantage), Ann Widdecombe (Maidstone & The Weald), George Young (North West Hampshire)
WIDDECOMBE? That’s the last time she goes on the fucking Today Programme ranting against the things. And Soames? He above all others should realise that one of the best things Churchill ever did when PM in the 50s was scrap wartime ID. Pretty much everyone there should know better. Dicks.
LIB DEM absentees
John Hemming (Birmingham, Yardley), John Thurso (Caithness, Sutherland & Easter Ross)
Hemming, eh? He seemed quite the opponent of ID on his blog – perhaps we should all pop over and ask him what the fuck he was playing at yesterday?
I’ll let the Labour lot off the hook for now – them absenting themselves did, at least, mean Blair’s lot had fewer people to bully into voting in favour. Although I’d be interested to know where the hell Frank Dobson and Dennis Skinner were. They’ve both been constant campaigner against these bloody things, yet don’t bother showing for the vote? It’s not even like Dobbo’s constituency’s far away – it’s only a 20 minute walk to Westminster, if that.
Update 2: John Hemming has responded (in the comments) – apparently he was in hospital yesterday, which sounds like a good reason to miss the thing to me.
Now what about the rest of them, I wonder?