Rose's week off

Anyone notice that Billie had a week off during the filming of Saturday's episode of Doctor Who. The role of companion being played by Tommy Connolly. Great feel, loved all those valve and Bakerlite gadgets, and Maureen Lipman was fab as the wire.

Some nitpickers have pointed out that the simulated 50s TVs obviously have 00s tubes in, and that you could see UPVC windows in some shots, but I will also point out that at standard definition you're not supposed to sit closer than 6 screen diagonals to the TV set.

Moblog from Cambridge

Actually a service station just outside.

Long but successful day. More tomorrow.

On Politics

Stephen Fry is a genius.

He was on "This Week" last night. This is what he had to say.

You may find some of the words distasteful, or a slight hint that he is an apologist for the government, but I doubt many sensible people would fail to be chastened by his words. (OK not many sensible intelligent people).

It's a put down to those who view political types as a separate alien species. Why do politicians do so many bigoted, knee jerk things, well because so many of us, the people, are stupid and ignorant and rant on about things without thinking. And we see things that are our own responsibility as SEPs. Of course Stephen included himself as one of the ignorant masses. We don't as a whole, try and do something about the state of the world, we just sit in our armchairs and complain.

Actually this is slightly unfair to my readership, 99.9% of whom do do a lot to make the world a better place, whether it be preaching peace and tolerance and sensible policies through the Lib Dems, providing a much needed provision to society through Scouting and Guiding, giving over half their garage[1] to food for the homeless, or helping refugees lost in a country only slightly less hostile than the rest of the world. I am as it were preaching to the choir here.

However while actors and comedians like Stephen and Jeremy Hardy can tell it like it is, politicians can't, witness the upset when Chris Davies MEP used some unwise remarks to describe a somewhat unpleasant constituent. And we are back to Stephen's polemic. As the late Linda Smith might put it, there are some unpleasant people, who "shouldn't be given the oxygen of oxygen". But the system, ie you and me, won't allow the policymakers to come out and say it, because scarily enough there's a lot of them and they all have the vote. And while some of us recognise the limitations of polite society, nay even demand they be enforced, to others this makes our representatives look shallow mealy mouthed and wishy-washy.

This passage particularly impressed me:

Take this week, for example. Suppose you're prime minister, you've got all these illegal immigrants. What are you supposed to do? Are you supposed to hide the true facts?

That's hardly something the public would accept, so you campaign and you say "we don't know how many there are - let's do something about it", and then you're accused of incompetence.

Well, of course you don't know how many there are: they're illegal immigrants. Do we expect magic from our politicians? We're not going to get it. They're just human beings like you and me.

The whole illegal immigrant furore is based on two things, ignorance and hysteria, and it doesn't help that the papers Stephens polemic cuts like a knife through the lie that illegal immigration is a situation that is dangerously out of control. How are you supposed to know how many illegal immigrants there are? By nature we don't know they're here as otherwise they wouldn't be here. That's one piece of ignorance. The other is that immigrants, and by association aslyum seekers are a dangerous problem. That is our hysteria, growing on a feedback loop via the press, and broadcast loud to our representatives in westminster. Who mistakenly think the good people in Britain are worried about it and want something draconian and stupid done. So they try and do the least stupid thing and still get it wrong.

While I give a lot of my time to politicians, (I have written letters to nearly the MPs who have represented me and given time and money to the Lib Dems) I am glad I am not one. It would take a sick mind not to be chastened by Stephen 's words. Thank you for reading, I feel better now, and thank you Stephen for your well considered and cathartic piece.

[1]Actually that's relatives not readers.

Water Water Everywhere

Simon Hughes made a great point on Question Time last week, regarding the South East water shortages. That as well as investing in the appropriate infrastructure, we should be tackling the reasons why so many people need to crowd in to the South East of England, by having a sensible regional policy and incentives.

Looking at a website advertising charity jobs recently, it was appalling to see how many waste donors money by being based in London, rather than having a cheaper regional office. In this day and age with modern communications, there is no need for all head offices to crowd into one city.

On the website is a less generous take on the same point.

A viewer says: As a resident of N E Lincs I don't want my water taken away to fill the swimming pools of Surrey and provide water to wash the vehicles of three and four car stockbroker families. If these people want plentiful water let them move north and, in doing so, alleviate the demand for water in the south-east.

Slightly selfish, but the right idea, why in this day and age do we need to have the head office of anything within a tube ride of parliament and the head office of everything else.

The other point on water shortages is that many of the people suffering hosepipe bans are not acknowledging the fact they use so much more water than we used to. While it is sensible for water companies to provide rain water butts to help people conserve water, we should be taking more responsibility for our own actions. While drinking water is a necessity, daily baths, swimming pools, clean cars and green gardens aren't, and if asked to not waste so much water on them we should respond in a sensible way, by taking responsibility for our own actions.

Easy for me to say for someone living in Yorkshire, with no garden to speak of, and ten minutes walk from a train station. But that doesn't make what I have to say less true.

Ignore this link

Go Jamboree! - Pre 21st World Scout Jamboree 2007 Community

The admin still needs to do a little bit of work on it, but the link's here for the digital spiders to spin their webs...

Hmm

Police examine election blunder. Slightly disappointed at our petty reaction given our attitude to the minimum candidate age.

Meanings of Sayings.

What does "He doesn't suffer fools gladly" mean.

• He makes people aware of the consequences of their behaviour
• He treats people fairly and is quick to put people in their rightful place
• Stupid people make him depressed
• He is quick to judge and intollerant of other people's weaknesses and foibles.

I was shocked in the weakest link to hear the last one. A symptom of the dumbing down of our society I fear.

Phew

Got myself a new Scouting project and am carefully stearing it towards the lands of constructive development. This means carefully stearing a line between being firm and assertive and not letting myself be walked over, and trying to offend as few people as possible. Some people will see simply not sharing their point of view as being offensive.

While I'm at it does anyone know of any websites that do online polling, that will take email addresses and/or names and the answer to a few questions?