However, looking at the opinion polls this weekend, I think, makes it clear that we have to have change.

For example, a YouGov poll today gives support for the parties thus:

Conservative 33%
Liberal Democrats 30%
Labour 28%

Our current system (on a uniform swing) would likely give seats to the parties thus:

Conservative 245 seats (37.6%)
Labour 275 seats (42.3%)
Liberal Democrats 99 seats (15.2%)

Which is just so wrong. If Labour are in the driving seat, we will probably end up having their scam for Single Transferable Votes foisted on us, which will do nothing but perpetuate the bias in their favour, and put off real reform indefinitely, as far as I can see.

There is a good article describing the various options for reform in The Independent today – “Electoral reform: So, just what system would give a fair result?”.

A fake, I am afraid, but funny anyway.

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 might find it offensive, or think I was a more than a little bit odd. If I choose to go to a fancy dress party wearing a pink tutu, or WHATEVER I WANT, that is my business.

Wanting to interfere in how other people live their lives, to stick your nose into people’s affairs, to attempt to set a dress code for the whole country, now that is unBritish, inappropriate and offensive.

I would commend to you The true-born Englishman by the great Englishman Daniel DeFoe.

It will let you insert images, puts a drop shadow on (?) if you want and auto thumbnails.

It will handle pretty much all the formatting for you with no fuss, except it doesn’t seem to have style sheet awareness, which surprises me.

One feature I like, because I am a map nut, is the ability to stick maps and aerial views in all over the place. Like this:-

 Seems to come with support for most flavours of blog, including WordPress, or you wouldn’t be seeing this.

I also found a great plug in for depressed WordPress users WordPress Suicide - kills your blog.

An ecstatic Rubbish Christmas Grand Champion Jan receives her treasured prize the Limited Edition Special Pack tomato shaped tomato sauce bottle.

I’ve got two more prizes to hand out to runners-up Lin and Alison, I bet they can’t wait to get their hands on those Poundland tokens. Will I be seeing both of you? Or should I have arrange for them to be sent somehow?

We played hide and seek

Admired the spots on a ladybird

Threw Pooh sticks

And waited for them to reappear

… and Small has learnt to play with the stream…

I had planned to take the children to Eureka (“The Museum for Children is the first and foremost hands-on children’s museum in the UK and is designed especially for 0 – 11 year olds.”) on Tuesday but instead spent the day taking my car in to Dixons to be what they call repaired, but everyone else would call being ignored for a week in their car park (I was promised it back today, but hey, I had been promised it back last Wednesday). So the Eureka trip was postponed to Thursday.

I hadn’t been to Eureka before but Big and Small had already been with Jax, long enough ago to have forgotten about it. It is excellent and I can commend it to anyone else within day trip range with appropriately aged children. The exhibits are nicely thought out, a lot are a bit Science Museumy, I thought that some were just a little odd, but then I am not the target audience. Anyway, the small people loved it.

There was an added little something which set everyone’s day off, in the shape of the presence of Big and Small’s big sister, Lily, who they hadn’t ever met before. So this really was a little bit special. We spent about four hours at Eureka and then pottered off to a pub with a play barn for lunch, the children ate a little and ran around a lot, and Lily and I chatted and watched them.

So, a very lovely day all round.

Low point was lending Big my camera and discovering that she has a much better eye than I have. The pictures with this post are ones she took, with the obvious exception, of course, of this last, in which she appears.

The Silent Ringtone Get a teenager to listen to it for you. (I was a bit put out, in spite of my incipient geriatric status, I can hear it…just)

Bachelorism

Photos of very small stuff Human stems cells, bacteria, that kind of thing.

Nice.

Normal service will be resumed….

In the mean time I will be reading a magazine

here

The time before, I got fed up with the whole business of haircuts and had the hairdresser whip it all off to a No 2.

Last year, I started to let it grow back and a month or so ago, I had the one haircut. The hairdresser was a very nice lady in Somersham, but it grew out and I had to decide this Saturday. Could I face spending half my morning going to a hairdresser, getting a fist full of hair rammed down my shirt where it would itch like crazy, have my wallet emptied and, worst of all, be obliged to put up with a stream of inane questions and chit-chat.

So, out came the clippers and off it all came, very short indeed, a No 0!

Big has been used to these changes in my cranial flora, so she didn’t bat an eyelid.

Small has got used to me being rather more furry:

“Daddy, stick it back on”

“Daddy, grow it back” (apparently I was expected to do this overnight)

“Daddy, your head’s the wrong shape” (I blame Jax for this one )

I therefore find it deeply disconcerting to find that the best protection we seem to have against a Government bent on removing our rights on a wholesale basis appear to be the self same House of Lords and Royal Family who our ancestors fought against in order to gain those rights in the first place. I like Charles Windsor, he is charmingly barmy, if we are going to have a king, then he will probably do rather nicely (my first choice would be to raffle it, no less random yet rather fairer than the current selection method).

Mind you, barmy Charles comes from a long line of nutters, his father, Phil the Greek, being no exception.

In 1967 he was asked if he would like to go to Moscow to help thaw out the Cold War. He replied ‘I would very much like to go to Russia — although the bastards murdered half my family.’ Duke of Edinburgh celebrated in book of gaffes (Scotsman)

You just love it when things get frantic… and doesn’t everyone else know it? You buzz around the office at 100mph, with your quick-fire repartee and snappy decision-making. Which is great for getting things done – or at least giving that impression – but make sure you know where the line is. Don’t lose that focus, but remember you’ve got a life outside work too.

Your office role: Apostle

Happy and supportive, you see yourself as a partner. In fact it might even be your company. You probably chant the corporate mission statement while you’re driving to work and feel proud to have a logo on your umbrella. So why do some people think your devotion is a bit extreme?

Your job attitude: Island

Why don’t people just leave you alone? You are doing your thing; let them do theirs. It’s not as if you interrupt them when they’re filing their nails or reading the paper. How many of your colleagues does it take to change a lightbulb…?

People Profiler (The Grauniad)

While I am inclined to the view the George Galloway is more of a Monster Raving Loony than any elected MP has a right to be, hearing his views on the radio today made me think of Claus_von_Stauffenberg.

“Metrosexual was coined in 1994 (as was its noun, metrosexuality) by British journalist Mark Simpson, who used it to refer to an urban male of any sexual orientation who has a strong aesthetic sense and spends a great deal of time and money on his appearance and lifestyle. …”

…I immediately suggested a synonym. Jax shouted me down and said I was wrong (I am used to the shouting, but she should know by now that I am never wrong).

Just curious to know whether anyone else might like to suggest a synonym for metrosexual?