I have never been much of a fan of PR. For one thing, I would like to see truly local MPs, for another, in the past I had fallen for the “you will never get strong government” line.
However, looking at the opinion polls this weekend, I think, makes it clear that we have to have [...]
Scientists from Rand Corporation have created this model to illustrate how a “home computer” could look in the year 2004. However, the needed technology will not be economically feasible for the average home. Also the scientists readily admit that the computer will require not yet invented technology to actually work, but 50 years from now [...]
Officials in Pecica, a village town about 13 miles from the Hungarian border in the country’s west, ordered the bright red signs, complete with the phrase “Attention – Drunks”.
MP calls for burkas to be banned in Britain
An MP has called for ministers to ban the wearing of burkas, branding it ”offensive” and ”against the British way of life”.
Dear Mr Holloborne, how I dress is my business.
If I choose to wear a burka, that is my business. Yes, I am male, so people [...]
Proportional Representation
I must admit I am not convinced by proportional representation, amongst other things I cannot quite see how it could be achieved without breaking the link between MPs and the localities they represent. At the moment, we vote for people, not parties.
However, both Labour (Blaenau Gwent, Erith and Thamesmead) and the Conservatives (South [...]
See here for Jax’s list and the rules.
Winnie The Pooh – A. A. Milne
Mein Kampf – Adolf Hitler
Barbarossa – Alan Clark
Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
The Sentinel – Arthur C. Clarke
Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson
Unordnung und frühes Leid – Thomas Mann
The Empty Raincoat: Making Sense of the Future – Charles B. [...]
The scale of Ireland’s financial crisis is chilling. A government panel of economic experts yesterday proposed huge spending cuts, including the axing of 5 per cent of all public sector jobs.
Things are not quite that bad in Britain. But … The Times
Small modelling a chocolate 99.
We are big on wearable food here, my speciality is the egg and bacon sandwich tie.
From Every Parent Matters Letter from then Education Secretary, Alan Johnson, March 2007
Parents and the home environment they create are the single most important factor in shaping their children’s well-being, achievements and prospects. We know that the overwhelming majority of parents want to do the very best for their children. We know that the majority [...]
World hunger is projected to reach a historic high in 2009 with 1,020 million people going hungry every day, according to new estimates published by FAO today.
The most recent increase in hunger is not the consequence of poor global harvests but is caused by the world economic crisis that has resulted in lower incomes and [...]
We live so far from the seaside, the poor little souls had to make their own.
We have a bench, a rather sad bench, covered in lichen.
We will let it dry, clean off the last bits of lichen, wash it down and then it can be oiled. Big really worked hard and happily at a not terribly nice job. I think she found it very rewarding seeing the improvement she had [...]
… Our treatment of numbers is not like our treatment of the old. It’s hard, except in rare cases, to be outraged by abused statistics. And in truth there’s nothing new here. But we’d do well to remember that numbers often represent people. To be careless of how we describe them in figures is [...]
We should not be surprised that schools are the latest instrument for checking up on families, says Bernard Trafford … In the storm of outrage that followed the tragedy of Baby P, fingers were bound to be pointed. Inexplicably, they are now being pointed at home-educators. The estimated 20,000 parents who choose to educate their [...]
One little job once we had done some basic unpacking was to see if all the bits of my backpacking tent, which has been packed away for years, were present and correct. The tent is pretty much bomb proof. Tested in gales at Wasdale Head and elsewhere.
We have been to the little local park.
And we [...]
I’ve been at the Times again.
Two articles that caught my eye:
This:-
This country’s education system is a betrayal of this country’s children. It blunts their intelligence, narrows their perspectives and blasts their future prospects. How often does that need to be said? Of course it is not universally true; many children defy the system, one way [...]
This problem was caused by Windows, which was created by Microsoft Corporation.
There is no solution for this problem at this time.
The pool is the whole point of the place after all.
ED: And we have grey squrrels fighting on our roof. Well, I think they are fighting.
