大象传媒

Noting that the BNP polled 18.8% from a standing start in a local election yesterday, ahead of Labour and the Tories, why not look at the implications for the YouGov etc. polls that are covered on Newsnight and elsewhere, and ask whether the London elections may see a major body-blow to the three "main" parties.

The Home Office today defended advice it gave BT and Phorm that their "Webwise" agreement to track millions of broadband subscribers will probably be legal if consent is obtained.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that neither BT nor Phorm sought any government advice on the wiretapping trials conducted in autumn 2006 and summer 2007.


BT despatched spinners to the offices of Liberal Democrat MP Don Foster. He has been the national telco's most vocal critic in Parliament over the secret trials, branding them "disgraceful".

Police refusal to investigate BT and Phorm's alleged large scale law breaking who passed the buck to the Home Office, which then refused to act, saying it has no role in investigations. It attempted to pass the buck in turn to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, a body whose powers are limited to complaints over interceptions carried out on behalf of government agencies.

Dear Ms Gibbons

re a Third lead?

While Guantanamo Bay represents America's dark side I greatly admire their can-do spirit; Perhaps Newsnight might balance the show by looking at the other very different side to America exemplified in for example their awesome Space programme which I'm totally hooked on,

whenever I'm downed by the bleaker destructive side of the World I will watch a replay of a Space Shuttle launch on the net, it has such a Wow! uplifting effect on me and represents some of the best and bravest we have in their World -what mankind can achieve if it puts it mind to it,

and in terms of programming the World is really a mixture of highs and lows, we can all look at the lows but perhaps need a bit of the good stuff to balance this?

so could a look at Americas very positive side such as at Nasa be your third lead?

I suggested to a very courteous American who engaged me in a conversation yesterday that I wanted to see more of this side of America and less of the other side, while they might learn from our compassionate treatment of the weak in society, and our excellent NHS,

and re Space, the European Space Agency have just launched a drive for new astronauts but they are limiting it by numerical age rather than biological age, so fit wrinklies like me can't apply! (yet)

Could you set Susan Watts to work on this one?

Hope this is helpful

best wishes
Bob

A LOOK AT BROWN

Yes YES YEEESSS!!! Take a look at Brown, then Blair then the whole strange menagerie that parties select to do their bidding, prior to offering them pre-packaged, and compromised, to the voters.
If I am not making myself clear, I mean: LOOK AT THEIR PSYCHOLOGY. Start with Brown's signature, it is VERY REVEALING. It can be found below his photo
Then ask, and investigate, why politics is peopled by the aberrant. Follow that with the question: 鈥榳hat can we do to get sane, competent people running the country?鈥�
A day or two back, one blogger was commenting on the bizarre, Stepford Wife, performance put on by Yvette Cooper; just one example of many, that our MPs are not
'mostly harmless' but largely cuckoo.'

A THOUGHT FOR BOB

I think America鈥檚 鈥榗an-do鈥� is simply modified to 鈥榗an do what we like鈥� when it comes to Guantanamo. In terms of Eric Berne鈥檚 Transactional Analysis: America鈥檚 Parent ego-state allows the atrocity of Guantanamo and their Child ego loves the glory of space flight (all very simplified). But if Bob, in his Adult ego state, were to stand in some run-down, hopeless trailer-park, surrounded by American can鈥檛 do and won鈥檛 do, watching the shuttle launch, what would go through his, manifestly thoughtful, mind? Whether America will ever develop an Adult function is hard to guess.

PS Sorry to persistently look like a wally punctuation-wise. It seems I shall soon have to give up altogether. ( )?@'-"拢

Re-4.

Bang on. The oddness of Brown would make a great item. What exactly is wrong with him? His repeatedly walking past Newsnight's man Barnett in his report where he tried to get an interview, and ignoring him was quite stupifyingly weird. Our cat would have had a sufficiently broad range of behaviour to enable him to just turn and say "I'm honestly stacked out. Could you call the press office next month and we'll see what's available? Does that help?" Could we look back in 6 months and say that Brown was having a nervous break down? For me, Jack Straw will be Caretaker PM by the end of the year.

A LOOK AT THE STRAW MAN

Jack Straw falls into that group of politicians who come over as eminently reasonable until you actually study the words. His tendency to give date, place, time of day and colour of underpants information, when making some assertion, is worrying and that flight to the Nick, with his son over Cannabis, was certainly strange. Of course, he is a lawyer by training and presumably choice. Lawyers seem to find politics attractive; is it the power, or that both professions teeter on the cusp of amoral/immoral? I get no FEEL of Straw; I think he would make another Brown. Was he not reported as wanting to thump Balls recently? I warm to him a little. Balls 鈥� ah now: there is 鈥渁 suitable case for treatment.鈥� And he has a Stepford Wife! (See earlier post.)

Re 7. Oh god yes.Of course, I'm not advocating Straw. I just imagine that he's what passes for an elder statesman in New Labour these days. No one, except, one assumes that young shaver Ms. Cooper, wants Ed 'Bulging Eye' Balls as PM and I see Straw as keeping the seat warm for that young shaver Miliband or a returning Barmy Blair. As I see it, the real political challenge for this shower of a collapsing Govt., is purely to see how long they can possibly go before calling a General Election. If anyone on Planet New Labour is half awake they'd go now, as they should have done when Brown bottled it. Every day must see thousands more give up on Brown.

How about something on tonight programme about Israel hypocrisy? Hamas have just offered a 6 month truce and Israel has refused!

BULGING EYE BALLS

Priceless! I nearly fell off my chair. For everything else there's hopeless debt levels.
I salute your indefatigability grumpy-jon. I notice Stepford Ed鈥檚 eyes are watery eyes also. Do you reckon he wears thick-correctional contact lenses? Not to correct sight, but to correct inherent thickness? What was it the Straw man lacked? Was it a heart? And the Tin Man lacked a brain as I remember. So what are we to make of the Balls Man? No wonder the Straw Man was ready to take him on! You know 鈥� this Oz theme is quite appropriate. The clunking-fist Wizard turned out to be a little dithery bloke with no real power at all, when Toto found him behind the curtains. It鈥檚 all true. I just found a red shoe!

Re 10.
Charmless nurk isn't he barrie? and one hears that he sees himself as the next PM! Yet outside his party he's unknown; while inside it he's loathed ( not to mention inside Cabinet. )
Did you happen to see Greedy Gordon coming over all gravitas and assuring an expectant nation that there were fuel supplies which he described as " adequate" and "sufficient" ( in that 'overwatch' manner that he affects, as if he's just counted the barrels.) Camera cuts to queues of anxious Brits desperate for petrol and clearly not believing a word, but knowing a loser when they see one. Hilarious.

For Grumpy John

GORDON WHERE'S YOUR PRUDENCE

I鈥檝e just climbed up the greasy pole
Part way up I lost my soul
Those who know I鈥檝e dug a bloody great hole
Shout 鈥淕ordon where鈥檚 your prudence!鈥�

CHORUS
Let Polaris fly from the sub below
When like Tony to my war I go
All the voters shout 鈥渉ello鈥�
Gordon where鈥檚 your prudence?

One day in mid-age I was rash
I thought I鈥檇 give romance a bash
But I think I鈥檝e made a terrible hash
As Sarah鈥檚 not called Prudence.

Red Ken, my status will confound
He was right about the Underground
But he鈥檚 a chancer 鈥� quite unsound
He hasn鈥檛 got the prudence.

Now I am proud to be a Scot
But when pressed, fill a British slot
With all the heritage of got
You鈥檇 think I鈥檇 lost my prudence.

And this shall be my legacy
A greater Messiah than Blair I鈥檒l be
It鈥檚 safe for little children to come unto me
I鈥檝e changed my name to Prudence!

Re-12.
barrie. you're wasted on here. you've got talent buddy. so sorry to hear about the loss of Humph. some of those " clue" gags, particularly the lionel blair and the samantha ones, will live long in the memory. only he had the charm to get away with it at teatime. bet you were a listener.

Re-9.-osian-
great point IMO. official Israeli policy towards the palestinians could be contrasted with the far-sighted, intelligent and compassionate attitude of Jewish groups like Peace Now. and the undermining, threats, violence and abuse to which these brave people, as well as the palestinians, are subjected should be high-lighted.

Thanks grumpy jon. Humph et al took our minds off the awfulness of reality - much needed catharsis. I was, indeed, a fan. Will his ashes be scattered in Mornington Cres?

THE CURSE OF COMPLEX CULTURE

So far as this unlettered scholar knows, the PHENOMENON of cohesion and endurance that is the Jews, over best part of two millennia, has never been replicated by any other faith group. The PARADOX is that in keeping their 鈥淕od given homeland鈥� alive IN THEIR HEADS (in their culture) while being hounded from country to country, meant that they finally returned to The Holy Land as OWNERS who had just popped out for a while; only to find that squatters had moved in.
But the squatters, had lived on the land for many centuries and 鈥渟quatters rights鈥� IN THEIR HEADS had assumed a de-facto unassailable quality after such a long time. When trees your ancestors planted give you food, and the graves of those ancestors crumble with age around you, the land wherein those ancestors lie, REALLY FEELS like yours, to have and to hold.
Such a tragic impasse can never be resolved by religion. Religion is too full of certainty. What is needed here is Lao Tzu style wisdom: 鈥淓VERY DAY THE CLEVER MAN FINDS HE KNOWS SOMETHING MORE, AND THE WISE MAN IS A LITTLE LESS CERTAIN.鈥�
Wisdom is so manifestly lacking in the uncritical acceptance of a RANGE OF RELIGIONS that never realise how foolish they look within that incongruous bubble. Wisdom is so manifestly lacking in politicians who preside over space flight and the genome-triumph, yet resolve differences with war, and pathetically covet a sparkling personal legacy above integrity. Wisdom is manifestly lacking when human psychology is over 100 years developed, yet the madness of the individual increases daily and leaders are bizarrely drawn from the maddest.
I keep re-quoting Havel: we are 鈥淟iving within the lie鈥�. There is no shortage of bright kids pointing and declaring: 鈥淭he Emperor is naked鈥� but our culture (if that鈥檚 a relevant term) is so screwed up, that nakedness is fashionable (check TV and the top shelf) and naked Emperors are cool 鈥� innit.
Our governance is morally and spiritually bankrupt yet organised for self perpetuation 鈥� a Machiavellian marvel. I have, on this blog, asked the Queen to march her troops on Parliament and the 大象传媒 to step outside the lie and risk all. Yeah 鈥� I am as mad as the rest.