No.

The longest word in the English language.

Beguiled by Sophistry...

What more can I say?

Melancholy...

I have never been tired of life, but i've often been tired of company.

This is for those born or conceved in Traford...

oh yes....

Okay, Stretford and Salford are allowed , okay.

But only if youv got record

I've just returned from the supermarket.

It's Saturday night and i've had plenty to drink.

Anyway, my story...

On leaving the shop, I was about to pass a gang of youth.

Being me and rather fearless, I thought, 'why not have a chat'.

They were lovely and as I expected, not very scary.

We talked about this and that and then as I was about to leave one of them asked.

"How old are you?"

"How old do you think I am?"

The concensus fell between 27 and 29.

I've never felt this kind of pleasure before...

The filth...

Watching the police in Rome and Seville enjoy hurting the young and the disabled this week reminded me just how far our plod have advanced in the last twenty years.

Seeing our politicians stand by us was also refreshing...

Iranarchy for the UK

I'm glad Iran has agreed to release our trouble makers...

...'though I doubt we will respect their borders.

Slavery,

I would like to apologize for the behaviour of my old folk.

It seems that they neither owned nor traded slaves.

Murder.

The truth is awful.

R.I.P. Bob,

Profit makes us free.

These days...

Stealing copper has become a common crime, a month ago my local electric sub-station was raided causing a prolonged power cut, it killed my computer.

I've enjoyed being without it, although I admit to being very angry at the time, especially as I was completely unprepared for life without mains power.

Oh well, life is back to normal, England are even being trounced at cricket as I write!

Dog eat Dog!

According to UNICEF, us Brits have the most torrid childhood of any developed country.

Good, the pastel niceties on offer elsewhere suck.

Give me an arrested development full of risk and madness any time.

If our wellbeing suffers.. then maybe we''ll try to be more creative, or scoundrelous.

Frankie Laine...

I've just cranked up my oldest record player and in good old analogue 78 rpm sang 'High Noon' and 'Raw Hide',

I'd forgotten how much I wanted to be a cowboy...

February...

I've always hated February..

Both Ceasar and Augustus 'stole' days from February.

I think maybe they didn't steal enough for once...

Dear Lord levy,

I've no ( fine ) idea what these people want...

But if you ever have to stand next to a pleb on the front line...

I'll be your equal.

"I am commencing an undertaking, hitherto without precedent and which will never find an imitator.

I desire to set before my fellows the likeness of a man in all the truth of nature, and that man myself.

Myself alone!

I know the feelings of my heart, and I know men. I am not made like any of those I have seen. I venture to believe that I am not made like any of those who are in existence.

If I am not better, at least I am different." (Rousseau)



During these dark and dull winter days,

I thank God ( I am not) for the French...

Is oil abiotic?

I don't trust my masters.

Abiotic oil/gas could explain alot...

No-one has ever given me an explanation as to how fossil oil was created...

"London is a world by itself...

...among the Londoners are so many nations differing in manners, customs, and religions, that the inhabitants themselves don't know a quarter of them." Tom Brown (1690).

I am in complete contempt of our politicians as they tell us mutts what we're supposed to be.

Us Brits distrust the State and its minions, we do not need to be told what we are.

“When she was appointed, Ruth Kelly assured us that her attachment to an extreme Catholic religious sect – whose stated aim is to recruit people in influential positions to promote its agenda – would not affect the way she ran her department. She promised equality for all. We now know that her adherence to Opus Dei is completely incompatible with her job in a government department that promises to protect people from the very discrimination the Catholic Church wants to practise.”

Ruth Kelly....

No!

Whisky Galore!

England's enjoying yet another moral panic. Today we are dreadful looters.

Personally I don't see why scavenging the beach to salvage goodies from a shipwreck is bad at all.

My eyes were green as folk helped themselves to BMW motor bikes (which otherwise would be ruined anyway).

What worried me was those who walked away with disposable nappies. (Young children must be bad for the brain!).

Of course, the outraged are wealthy thieves who cannot understand petty theft.

Addendum.

Underling Mark Rodaway twittered, "I personally witnessed young children sitting unattended in gale force conditions, with the sea crashing, as their parents blatantly looted things out of containers," (up 'till now those crazy parents have lost no children, unlike that unseaworthy boat that pollutes our seas and lands).

'rescue authorities condemned the "crass greed" of hundreds of people who came to see what they could find.'

I take it that the rescue authorities have no idea what the word crass means.

I believe salvaging to be sensible greed.

300 Years of Misery....

Today being the anniversary of the unification between England and Scotland, all talk is of course, about divorce.

I'm all for seperation, the Scotch are a bunch of whinging bores, almost as bad as the Irish. If they prefer to ditch Brittishness, good for them. All their music sounds like a dirge and central heating put paid to their sporting prowess many years ago.

Imagine, overnight millions of people would become foreigners. All non-English would find themselves unable to claim to be British, there would be no such country. The English would feel hurt yet indifferent. Ambitious Scots would be horrified; doomed to play a minor role in a gloomy country.

One 0f the first consequences of independence would be the realisation that without England to unite against, the Scottish don't like each other at all. This would provide great hilarity to the rest of us (how about a free Pictland!).

The Union isn't broken, I can see no benefit to anyone if Scotland becomes a teeny weeny sovereign statlet. The potential damage though is enormous. If a few proud emotions win the day, then Britons of every variety will lose.

"Daddy!, don't waste that paper!

If we cut all the trees down we'll die!"

..."I'm not sure that's right dear.. ..the dinosaurs did alright without them.."

My youngest daughter's infancy is more or less over; her peers and teachers have taken over..

Winter blues...

SUPER-COMPUTER

Tony Blair is expected to announce today that sensitive personal data could be swapped by Whitehall departments. Ministers believe restrictions on data-sharing between civil servants are too strict. A 'super-database' or 'super-computer' holding everyone's records would be similar to a planned children's database.

DNA DATABASE

The Prime Minister has suggested that the DNA of every British adult should be stored by the state. The national database already holds 3.7 million samples, 6 per cent of the population, far higher than any other country. More than one million have been taken from people never convicted of an offence.

CCTV

The British are among the world's most observed people. Some 4.2 million closed-circuit television cameras record our every move - one for every 14 people and more per head than any other country in Europe or North America. The average Londoner can be caught on camera 300 times a day.

MEDICAL RECORDS

Millions of medical records are to be transferred to a central NHS database, allowing staff anywhere to access patients' information. People who object will not be able to opt out. The most personal information will be available to hospital managers, IT departments, high street pharmacists and civil servants.

IDENTITY CARDS

The first identity cards will be issued next year to foreign nationals and from 2009 to UK citizens. Anyone who renews a passport will be forced to register and the Government aims to make ID cards compulsory within six years. Fifty-two pieces of information, including fingerprints and iris scans, will be held.

SPY IN THE SKY

Motorists are already monitored through the soaring number of road cameras. In an effort to cut congestion, the Department of Transport is examining plans to use satellite technology to keep tabs on every vehicle's exact movements. Motorists, forced to have a black box fitted in their cars, would be billed for every journey they make.

...life on the British farm.

Israel plans to nuke Iran...

This report http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2535310,00.html sent yet more shivers down my peaceful spine this morning.

I like this bit, "Some sources in Washington said they doubted if Israel would have the nerve to attack Iran."

Since when has Israel not had the nerve?

I've just walked past the immigration centre in town...

It was full as usual but i'm sure they were probably of Romanian/Bulgarian origin for a change.

Their faces seemed full of hope and fear.

Good luck to them all.

As the world becomes one Global Community and overall wealth expands like mad, there should be no need for any despair.

There is no need for us to fear this change as long as our rulers truly care.

But they don't.

1921...

This was the year we lost 5-0 to Australia..

Tonight it will be repeated.

I'll be watching.

Ooh that was painful.

The Longbow

I get angry when folk talk about this...

An Englishman never draws the arrow... ... An englishman bends the bow...

The men of Gwent taught us.......

Whitewash....

Maldon...

...Hastings, Spion Kop, Dunkirk....

...or maybe Crechy?

I'm in pain, good luck in Sydney.. please.

This is for those (that beat me) i'm with...

Saddam : "He died like a man...."

Happy New Year..

Babysitters of the world unite.. ..and enjoy I suppose.