Negative campaigning

From Austria with love.

Manchester latest - MP gets just deserts

Could be you next!

Labour say Goodbye to the Dear Leader

With a song.

I think I'm going to cry.

Clinton lays into Fox

I am not a great admire of Bill Clinton but this was quite a performance.

It seems that the Murdoch Empire is to be trusted nowhere.


UPDATE Video removed by Fox. Please note that Murdoch Empire feels free to snoop on others but can't bear you to see their bias exposed. Obviously free speech is about Rupert making filthy lucre!

Can we have a General Election?

Noting that the Labour Party is apifling £27 million in debt I guess that there is little chance of whoever is elected labour leader later this year offering us General Election.

I find this disturbing as a change of leader can mean only one of two things;

1/. A change of direction in which case it is insulting not to put the matter to the country

or

2/. More of the same in which case the recent battles can be seen as about personal ambition with MPs showing more passion about their jobs than the sort of decisions that have caused death and destruction in Iraq, a crackdown on civil liberties and the creation of a debt culture.

It is not that either of the other main parties would govern differently or be more inclined to seek a fresh madate. It is that it would be nice for the political class to care about what the public wants. I think we should make a fuss. After all it's time that they were afraid of us rather than it being the other way round.

Kalinka

Saturday was a busy day. In the afternoon I saw Bideford Town beat Biddestone 1-0 in the Les Philips Cup.

In the evening, I went to see the three local brass bands (Appledore, Bideford and Hartland) performing at Edgehill College. This was a touch compulsory as all my family play in the Appledore Band. Anyhow, it was a good concert. My favourite piece was "Kalinka" which thanks to my favourite Labour Councillor Bob Piper, I have found can be seen her.

Don;t you just love the dancers and isn't the band conductor a bit like the one in "Brassed Off"?

Shrub gets it from the old man

Talking of moments when you want the earth to swallow you, up this old gem from George Bush Snr is hard to beat.

I think it dates to his Presidential campaign in 1987 when he used a little of the stardust from Reagan whose Vice he had been.

Sparks ride again

Last night whilst watching Johnathon Ross Show, It was great to that fab group fom the 80s 'Sparks.' Anyhow here is a treat. See their classic This Town ain't big enough for the Both of Us.

I love the keyboard player. this video doesn't show him at his best when he looks seriously dangerous.

They don't make them like that anymore!

Global warming

Is this why there is so little action on climate change?

Twisted genius Time Ireland explains how he sees New Labour Tory failing us

Links

My links have disappeared thanks to my incompetence. They will be restored with some additions as of early next week.

Difficulties.

i am having some difficulties in making changes to this blog. I will seek to address them on Friday. It may involve saying farewell to Blogger.

UPDATE

Looks like resolving today

A couple of blogs

I've just found a most delightful site entitled Opinionated Old Fart. The title may seem frivolous but it is full of excellent stuff by Clyde, an American, who describes himself as a "liberal Christian."


I found Clyde whilst looking at Mad Priest's site which is good reading even when one feels inclined to differ.

I intend to link to both sites when I revamp this blog shortly. Still, I recommend readers to pay them both a visit. It is certainly worth doing.

Words of wisdom from The President of the USA for World Peace Day - Sept 21st

Every gun that is made, every warship that is launched and every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those that hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense - under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.

Dwight David Eisenhower
34th President of the United States

Apologies for not finding such a comment from the current incumbent

Methodist blogs roundup

Another issue with thanks to John.

Enjoy!

Insult to a footballer

Lots of attention to poor Ashley Cole in the press this week. Certainly, I was saddened to hear that Arsenal were prepared leave him destitute by only paying him £55,000 per week.

I can only say I nearly wept when I read the following heartbreaking extract from a resume from Cole's book "My Defence:"

'One telephone call changed everything about how I viewed and felt about Arsenal,' he writes.

'Ash! Are you listening?' said Barnett. 'I'm here in the office and David Dein is saying that they aren't going to give you £60k a week. They've agreed £55k and this is the best and final offer. Are you happy with that?'


Cole was not. 'I nearly swerved off the road. "He is taking the p***, Jonathan!" I yelled down the phone. I was so incensed. I was trembling with anger. I couldn't believe what I'd heard.'

It all seems quite a contrast with the game I watched this afternoon in which Bideford drew 2-2 against Bridgewater in the FA Cup Qualifying stage. It was an enjoyable match in which both teams played with real commitment even if they lacked the finesse of the Premiership teams. I guess many of the players got paid but it was not on a grand scale as none of the teams in this part of the world are flushed for money.

I am all for players being decently rewarded for the skills they acquire and the commitment they show. Indeed, I think Ashley Cole probably deserves the £60,000 he sought, but for a year rather than a week! It is sad that the world of professional sport is increasingly money obsessed. In the case of the top levels football, it is increasinly the play thing of the super rich with agents and top players raking in obscene fortunes whilst fans seem to exist to be ripped off.

Anyhow, back to Ashley who apparently felt unloved as a result of Arsenal not offering him £60,000 a week. What are we to do to make him feel better. I guess we could offer him something from the Benevolent Fund or even arrange a flag day to assist him in his need. Actually, we might not need to do so for the Robber Baron who owns Chelsea is apparently showing compassion by paying him £90,000 a week and managing to do so for Ashley and his team mates by charging prices for admission that are beyond the means of many fans to afford. All this is not to mention the other rip offs that are perpetuated on fans by the football aristocracy.

Clearly, the game is being taken away from working class people. Were we to think, we have nothing in common with the spoilt popstars of the Premiership and our international teams.

Anyhow, just in case the Methodist Recorder are looking in, I can tell them that even if Ashley was offended that his bosses were 'taking the p...' out of him for offering £55,000 per week, I will be only too happy for the Methodist Church to take the p... out of me in such a way. I'd be delighted to get that amount per annum if they could afford it. Actually, I'm just happy having a job in which I'm paid annually just under the level that Ashley found to be an insult for 2 1/2 days of his precious time. And for that which I get, I am very grateful.

Sex strike to stop conflict

I rather like this form of peacemaking. I suggest that we do not elect any future leader whose spouse is not prepared to follow the valiant women of Periera.

For the sake of no war, let's put the question!

I'm staying friendless

Well, you'd never beleive it. Gordon Brown says that Tony Blair is and always will be his friend.

After last weeks shennanigans in which following renewed undermining of Brown by Blair allies, friends of the Chancellor such as Tom Watson sought to bring the Prime Minister down with plenty of nods and winks from the Iron Chancellor, I am inclined to feel that friendship is overrated.

On a slightly more serious note, I am concerned that the buddy act in the General Election was a sham. Still, that's waht we voters are here for - to be duped!

I don't believe it

Osama's buddies, The Taliban are demanding an apology from Pope Benedict for linking Islam with violence.

I can't help thinking that they are not quite the best people to make such a demand.

Rupert's nasty little porn mag

Rupert Murdoch's soft porn hate rag The Scum is at it again. Having heard that MP Clare Short who dared to confront the bullies of Wapping over the issue of Page 3 girls, is to step down, Murdoch's sicko minions are once more leaping into the sewer.

With snide references to her appearance Satan's little helpers have been at their malign worst behaviour. Even the latest Page 3 trollop has managed a dig at Clare's physical appearance with the observation;

"Page 3 girls and the fans will all be glad to see the back of her - mind you, who'd want to see the front of her!"

Miaouw! Not only does that comment fly in the face of all the progress made by femninists with its vanity and superficiality in thinking that women should be judged by their appearances. It also treats readers of the The Scum as more moronic than even I think they are. For whether, The Scum thinks that shallow girls who take off their tops to keep the pervs happy are the best commentators or whether they dishonestly attribute tripe to them, is irrelevant. The fact is that such inanities have a distinctly nasty air about them.

When I played football at school, we were told that even if we were to play the man, we should at least attempt to play the ball as well. That The Scum fails to even try to do this shows that it has nothing to offer to those who want to build a decent society.

Clare Short has much to commend her. For all the points at which she is open to criticism, her genuineness is transparent. not for her the hypocrisy of a shallow newspaper which campaigns against domestic violence and then goes silent when its own editor is the cause of the boys in blue being called out for precisely that.

Exodus files

Within Methodism, many of our congregations are somewhat on the elderly side. Whilst this has the plus for my ego of causing many churchgoers to regard me as young, it does raise the important question as to why there is a huge missing age group from many mainline congregations.

I have never believed that this is because spirituality is in decline. On the contrary it seems to me that people are as much spiritual seekers today as ever they were. The problem seems to me that we within the churches are failing to meet that spiritual hunger.

Sally in her blog has done us all the service of providing us with the stories of a number of young people who have walked away from the church having found that it has not met their needs.

We need to read these stories and to learn from them. Thanks to sally and the young people who have shared their stories. Otherwise we shall continue to lose gifted young people with so much to offer the people of God.

Conference Special

Time to go

Prophesy re Blair

Back from my holidays about which I will blog in next few days.

Clearly, I have come back at an exciting time. With I minister and 5 PPSs having resigned from the Government today, I think Blair is clearly toast. I would expect him to resign the leadership of the Labour Party by Christmas.

I realise that Brown will probably be the next Prime Minister which does not exactly thrill me. However, having seen a Labour PM acts as an international poodle to a rightwing US President and seen his fawning beofre the rich, even those as ethically challenged as Rupert Murdoch, I thrill at the thought of his eviction.

I can't go as far as to sing "Happy Days are here again." However, I feel that a temporary suspension of teatotalism is in order. I'm off to Morrisons to get a bottle of champagne to enjoy whilst watching the death throws that emanate from the Bunker at No 10.

As Shrub would say - "Bring it on!"