1. I will learn to cook some basic dishes
2. I won't let blogging interfere with my degree - I'm not getting into this much debt for nothing!
3. I will not obsess too much over Gareth David Lloyd, even if he is the cutest thing I ever saw, or gaze at Daniel Craig rising out of the sea in his blue swimshorts for protracted periods of time
4. I will not take the bus if I can walk the distance instead, except in emergencies (if I accidently sleep in)
5. I will make more of an effort to go to bed at a reasonable hour (so I don't accidently sleep in)
6. I'll try to keep in touch with people more

Have a great night counting down everybody, and here's hoping for a good 2007, both for ourselves and for the world at large.

In general I don't have much of a problem with people being really incredibly stupid. After all, stupidity is generally too subjective to judge sometimes. I know I have my moments, as do we all. I only really object when the person being incredibly stupid also happens to be in a position of great power.

You just knew that was a lead in to something about George W. Bush, didn't you?

Grand Canyon National Park is not permitted to give an official estimate of the geologic age of its principal feature, due to pressure from Bush administration appointees... “In order to avoid offending religious fundamentalists, our National Park Service is under orders to suspend its belief in geology,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch. “It is disconcerting that the official position of a national park as to the geologic age of the Grand Canyon is ‘no comment.’”

Now that's the sort of stupidity that has me ringing my hands in woe. So they're not allowed to date the Grand Canyon? If this is true (and I suspect it is), I've never heard anything so utterly ridiculous. Ugh.

I had a feeling this might happen. For those with stomach enough to watch, a video of Saddam's death filmed on camera phone is now up on Youtube, here. And for those unable to quite manage sitting through that, this is broadly what happens; Saddam steps forwards onto the gallows, begins to say his final prayer but is cut off halfway through as the trapdoor opens. The camara is dropped down for a moment, and then there is a close up of the dictator, dead. It's pretty awful.

I make no bones in saying that the man deserved to die though, and on the same gallows where many of his victims were killed was in many ways fitting. His death will make no difference to the war in general but if the families of those he terrorised and killed gain any satisfaction from his death, then more the better. What's perhaps most disturbing is that one of the executioners can clearly be heard yelling "Moqtada", the vehemently anti-American Shia radical cleric, repeatedly. Clearly our troubles in the region are very much far from over and this is in no way surprising; the end of Saddam has taken far too long to make any difference in that regard.

Oh dear. Dangerous time for bloggers, even just some bloke speaking his mind on myspace.

Beall, who uses the name "Stevo" online, wrote: "Well then what is there to say about Barrow in Furness apart from its a s***-hole!! "How the hell people live there I'll never no (sic).

"It's very rough, give me Newcastle any day and staying in a Travelodge by yourself for over a week is very boring!".

You have to wonder at the audacity of the locals who rounded on him, visiting the shop he worked in and harrassing him over such an innocuous comment. And at the shop manager who decided to give them free chocolate for it. Bizarre.

Stevo has my sympathy.

"Earlier today, President Bush said gay marriage is immoral and that heterosexual marriage must be defended, that's what he said. ... You can tell Bush is serious because he said the new Axis of Evil is Cher, Bette Middler and Clay Aiken."
- Conan O'Brien

Greed:	Low
Gluttony:	Medium
Wrath:	Very Low
Sloth:	Very High
Envy:	Low
Lust:	Medium
Pride:	Low

Interesting, eh? Can you tell I saved some posts up over Christmas...

As your government totters towards its end, Prime Minister, it is time to begin an assessment of the damage you have done to the country. I set down here some of your least glorious acheivements. There is little with which to balance them, on the credit side of the ledger...

An excellent post has been put up over at Bishop Hill, listing 85 tremendous failures of this government, complete with links to news stories and evidence. It truly is a terrifying snapshot of all of the problems they've caused, many of which we will have to live with for years to come.

Worth bookmarking for referencing alone I think. I challenge any Labour blogger to answer it point by point.

Just a quick aside note here to say congratulations to John Barrowman and Scott Gill, who tied the knot in Wales yesterday. I couldn't be happier for them. If they're still in love after fifteen years together I don't think their future happiness is in any doubt.

A gallery of people arriving for the event has been put up here, including all of his Torchwood co-stars. I must say he looks ravishing in his kilt.

If nothing else, at least this is one thing the Labour government is to be commended for; taking us towards the legalisation of gay marriage is an overdue step in the right direction. Now let's stop all this PC "civil partnership" nonsense and call a spade a spade, shall we?

Yet another initiative at the Downing Street website has been unveiled. Now we unwashed masses are to be permitted to see inside the great residence in panoramic glory. And very nice it is too.

I have to say I was amused that first thing to click on in the Entrance Hall is a picture of one Sir George Downing, who is described as a "traitor". Can't think why that made me chuckle. It just seemed somewhat portentous to me, though I'm sure I read far too much into it.

I hope everybody's had a nice holiday. Still got New Year's to go of course, so I thought I'd get some blogging in and take a short break from doing revision before I go cross-eyed.

So, what was all that business with the BA plane Blair and his cartel were sneaking off on overshooting the runway? I'll spare you the inevitable rant about Blair and all the freebie holidays he gets from all the money-grabbing musicians lobbying him to have the copyright time limit extended, and go instead with an amusing parallel drawn by a caller on Radio 2.

Misread the signs,
Went badly off course,
Misread the objective,
And had to be rescued by the Americans...

Touché. Sounds like a problem Tony has often. (With thanks to my mother for picking up on that one!)

Yes, I am still taking a break, but I couldn't let this one pass. This is utterly hilarious...

Apologies for the lack of posts, I just got home for the holiday yesterday and the internet has been patchy here. Anyway, I'm taking the week off for Christmas and to get a headstart on exam revision.

And so I leave you with this:

"David Cameron has led his party to its strongest sustained position in 14 years according to a Guardian/ICM poll published today, which shows the Conservatives have extended their lead over Labour to eight points at the end of the new Tory leader's first year in office."

Now that's a result. See you later.

I tend to believe that, like faith, atheism is a personal thing. It should be a mere conclusion reached through thought and contemplation about the nature of things. The one thing it should never be is frivolous.

So when an organisation creates something called "The Blasphemy Challenge" whereby anyone who uploads a video of themself to Youtube denying the Holy Spirit will win a free DVD, you can imagine how irritated I become. The nature of the prize implies that those taking part will be non-believers anyway, so it's hardly some sort of 'de-conversion' tool. One has to ask, what on earth is the point of this exercise? It's utterly moronic.

If a group of Christians were offering a Narnia DVD to those confirming Jesus as their Saviour via online video, I would say the same; just as that would deride the nature of faith as the philosophical position it should be, this challenges derides the nature of non-faith in the same way. Neither religion or secularism should ever be about winning prizes.

I just read a very interesting piece over at The Austrian Economists which reports on a lecture by Graham Scott, former Secretary of the New Zealand Treasury, which has inspired the suggestion that the institutions of the EU might have been created with an inbuilt lack of accountability because several of the larger members quite literally lack the word in their vocabulary.

"During his lecture Graham Scott remarked that the word “accountability” has no translation in many languages. For instance, it has no direct translation in French and Spanish. I presume it is the same with other Latin-based languages, such as Italian or Portuguese. While the word “responsibility” is Latin in its origin (and thus has equivalents in French and Spanish and other languages), it encompasses more than just accountability and, for that reason, is much less precise. In Scott’s view, the concept of accountability is at the core of the public management reforms in New Zealand. But its absence in many other languages may limit (and perhaps has already limited) the adoption of similar reforms elsewhere. Or it may lower the quality of their results. This would show the power of language in shaping institutions. An interesting conjecture..."

This is an interesting idea, and not one I've come across before, but it does seem ultimately flawed. Since accountability is an integral part of liberal democracy, and the founder countries mentioned (France and Italy) were democratic at the time of its creation, it seems somewhat incongruous to suggest that a language barrier on their part fed into how the EU was shaped.

Still, I do like this idea. Will the EU never get to grips with the idea of proper democratic accountibility while language barriers mean that everybody is talking about different concepts? Personally I think it's far more deliberate than that. The EU isn't accountable because nobody is pushing it to be. Many have talked about it, some rather a lot, but none have ever made it so because it has no inner need to work that way. Countries give over their cash and sovereignty regardless of legitimacy and some people will always support it regardless of its incompetence! That's why it will never have the impetus needed to do make the radical changes required to bring 'accountability' back into its vocabulary, sadly.

There is nothing I love so much, aside from being proved right, as being proved wrong. It seems my earlier pessimism this week over Cash for Peerages going nowhere was premature.

The Prime Minister told detectives on Thursday that he did not have “full knowledge” of secret gifts received by Labour or the subsequent nominations of lenders for peerages, according to senior sources.

Lord Levy had claimed in a written statement that Mr Blair knew about his dealings with the lenders. Lord Levy will now come under intense pressure to explain how and when he told Mr Blair about the loans, and any subsequent knowledge of nominations for peerages.

Last night the BBC reported that a note of a conversation between Sir Christopher and Lord Levy contained the question: “Wd you like a K or a big P?”, referring to a knighthood or a peerage. Sir Christopher’s office maintains that there is no record of any offer of a peerage in return for cash and Lord Levy has refused to comment.

So if this report is to believed it's still Game On. Hmmm, if true, I wonder if that phrase that will go down in the history books in infamy...

The Parents Television Council report is out. For those who haven't heard of them, they are a US organisation devoted to cataloguing any examples of religiousness or lack therein on the American box to an almost obsessive level. Their conclusion was that Hollywood is very bad and TV networks aren't representative of the true levels of faith in the country. Ain't that a shocker. They base this on the fact that a lot of people on Reality TV shows were very religious, while many characters on TV weren't particularly. While I'll resist the biting urge to come to any conclusions myself with regards to believers and the sort of people who go on Reality TV over there, I have to say that their findings are at least interesting.

Actually I rather like this report for comedy value along. It's full of amusing things. For example, apparently this:

Mandisa tells Simon Cowell that she has forgiven him for his rude remarks about her weight because of the grace she was given through Jesus Christ. (Fox, American Idol, February 15, 2006)

... is an example of a "positive reference" to religion. While this:

House tells a religious patient that the patient is either psychotic or a scam artist for believing that God speaks to him. (Fox, House M.D., April 25, 2006)

... is negative. To be honest, I would have thought it the other way around myself. But then again, I guess that's why atheists don't get to sit on religious councils with tenuous names. Shame.

I'll just have to console myself by going off and watching all those Family Guy episodes they don't like. Well, one must make an informed judgement about these things.

"It is because the public sector has invested £6 billion in new technology, modernising our ability to provide back-office and transactional services, that I can announce, with the detailed plans that Departments are publishing for the years to 2008, a gross reduction in civil service posts of 84,150, in order to release resources from administration to invest in the front line."

That was Gordon Brown in a HoC debate, 2004. Yet now figures released under FOI show;

Seven Whitehall departments did not make any redundancies despite a Treasury call for 84,000 jobs to be shed by April 2008.

Looks like the 'detailed plans' he had them put out in 2004 weren't followed up - surprise surprise. There is a world of difference between getting a department to say it'll do something, and actually making the department do it. Brown never seems to do the latter. It's like those silly Public Service Agreement contracts the treasury makes them put out but which are rarely, if ever, monitored beyond that, even when they completely flunk them. It's not enough to just say something is going to be done. It needs to be done.

What's the betting that in April 2008 nowhere near that figure will have been reached and we'll hear nothing about it?

Here's a fun test to determine the type of person you are, sent to me by a friend today. I'm pretty happy since apparently I'm in the same category as Thatcher, Sigourney Weaver and Whoopi Goldberg (even if that means Nixon is in there too). Do take the test, I'd be interested to see some more results.

Extroverted	Intuitive	Thinking	Judging
Strength of the preferences %
1	75	1	78

This means that somewhere along the way I have developed a "FieldMarshal Rational" profile. I'm not sure if I like the sound of that or not!

Famous ENTJs:

U.S. Presidents:

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Richard M. Nixon

Benny Goodman, "Big Band" leader
General Norman Schwarzkopf
Harrison Ford
Steve Martin
Whoopi Goldberg
Sigourney Weaver
Margaret Thatcher
Al Gore (U.S Vice President, 1993-2001)
Lamar Alexander (former governor, US Secretary of Education)
Les Aspen, former U.S. Secretary of Defense
Candace Bergen (Murphy Brown)
Dave Letterman
Newt Gingrich
Patrick Stewart (STNG: Jean Luc Picard)
Robert James Waller (author: The Bridges of Madison County)
Jim Carrey (Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask)
Steve Jobs
Penn Jillette

Fictional ENTJs:

Geordi LaForge (STNG)

Every now and then I pop along to postsecret to see what has been sent in. Today I found this one;
Good job this one is from the US. Here's hoping our Civil Servants et al have a little more decorum than that. You never know what might end up as pivotal evidence in a police investigation *cough cough*...

It should have been such an event today; after all these months of speculation and chatter, Blair was finally questioned by the police in Downing Street with regards to the Cash for Peerages Scandal. But the fact that it was not under caution, no lawyer was present and Blair's blatant lies about there being such a thing party peerages (since when?!) seem to be winning the police over, it's all been rather an anticlimax.

Of course Iain Dale and Guido Fawkes are on this case already, so I'll leave this one to them to comment on. I'm too disappointed to speak.

I've never been particularly afraid of hospitals in the past; needles, decor disaster, tasteless jelly, creepy porters - all fine by me. But nowadays I'm pretty terrified of them. Why? Of course, it's because you're more likely to come out far worse than you were when you went in now with MRSA running rampant.

Now, you would have thought that in such circumstances, where the cleaning staff were potentially making the difference, the government would avoid pissing them off. I would. So why is it, in a hospital where cases of MRSA are (correct me if I'm wrong) very low and the cleaners have been doing their job well, why are they cutting their funding?

While NHS staff got a 2.5 per cent pay rise, the cleaners, who work at Moorfields in City Road, got just an extra 1p per hour - and this was only because the national minimum wage increased.

A member of staff, who did not want to be named, added: "We normally get the same pay increase as our NHS colleagues. "We work hard to keep this hospital clean yet our contribution is not valued. We find it hard to make ends meet working here."

This is not to say that NHS cleaning staff are the only line of defence we have but they are certainly the most important, and they have been incredibly hard done by thanks to this government for years. This case is a small tip of an iceberg but it's symptomatic of their willful ignorance an enormous problem, arguably amongst the biggest facing the NHS. If there aren't enough cleaners or if they're too thinly stretched this will be paid for in lives. The NHS may be gripped with a financial crisis (of New Labour's making) and money needs to be rationed, but skimping in so vital an area is just beyond a joke.

... having had a hang-over all day from the post-essays celebrations going on last night, but thanks to one fellow blogger who shall remain nameless but will always have my gratitude, this picture changed all that.
It's still making me chuckle even now.

Does this, or does this not, sound like something right out of Father Ted?

'Tom Butler, 66, is thought to have been well entertained at an embassy function in London’s Belgravia last week. During his walk home he lost his bishop’s cross and personal belongings, and in a bizarre act is alleged to have got into the back seat of a parked Mercedes in a street called Crucifix Lane, south London, and begun throwing children’s toys out of the window.'

The bishop, a regular on Thought for the Day on Radio 4’s Today programme, told worshippers at the inauguration of a new vicar that night that he had been mugged and that his head was so bruised that he could not wear his mitre.

But people living and working near Southwark Cathedral in south London describe an altogether different incident in which the bishop, wearing his robe under a black coat, was found in the rear of the unlocked silver Mercedes A200 car.

Paul Sumpter, the car’s owner, was playing pool in the Suchard bar nearby. He and some other customers came out to confront Butler after the car’s alarm sounded and its hazard lights began to flash. Sumpter said to Butler: “Oi, what are you doing in my car?” The bishop allegedly replied: “I’m the Bishop of Southwark. It’s what I do.”

So now this is why Priests only get to have a sip of Communion wine. They can't handle it.

'You can argue that our Victorian forebears succeeded in achieving something very unusual between the 1850s and 1900 in changing public attitudes by - dare one use the word - instilling moral codes. I don't want to suggest this was an ideal society, but it was one where a sense of moral values and of the responsibility people owed to each other did seem to be pervasive. There was a much greater sense of shame in respect of transgressions.'

Hmm, yes I suppose you can argue that. But I really wouldn't.

Honestly, what's so great about the Victorians? That was a world of workhouses, child labour and even prostitution. There was just as much crime, if not more, and a lot of people were living on a real poverty line. In the upper classes we had families where the man of the house had hardly anything to do with his children and often mothers just had a governess to do the work. There was enormous class division and no way out of that trap. Education was not made free for all until very late in the day. There was still teenage pregnancy and family breakdowns and kids turning to crime. The only real difference was that the chastisements for being caught not observing societal rules were far more stringent, at least in the affluent classes, and they're hardly the target audience for this kind of initiative. Some supposed "sense of moral values" didn't prevent any of this sort of thing from happening.

So seriously, what's so great about the Victorians?

The Daily Mail does get its knickers in a twist over the strangest things sometimes. Today their target is Christmas cards that don't have Biblical scenes on them. As far as I'm aware this isn't a new phenomenon. It can't be laid at the door of Political Correctness, which, though it is responsible for some incredible acts of idiocy, isn't a one-stop-shop for all blame and stupidity. They're just mixing it in to the story get the readship riled up as usual.

"Traditional pictures such as angels blowing trumpets over a stable, Jesus in his manager, the shepherds and three wise men following the star to Bethlehem are dying out. Instead, scenes of the Nativity has been replaced on cards by designs or jokes with little or no relevance to the Bible story and the true meaning of Christmas."

And? So? Therefore? I'm puzzled as to why this is a problem. The religious ones are still out there, so if you are thus inclined, just pick the one of the Nativity and not the one about the drunk meer cats. The fact is, market forces dictate what Christmas and every other holiday is, not tradition, no matter how much wailing and gnashing of teeth that might cause. If the religious cards are not popular then it is natural that less will be made. You can't force companies to make any one particular kind of card if they aren't going to make a profit on it. All you can do is set up your own company and see if it survives.

Incidently, I'd really like it is someone to set up a 'Christian Ear'; it would be nice to have a version of Christian Voice that actually listens rather than just shouts. Boom boom cssshhhh.

Today I, and presumably many other members across the country, recieved a mailing with regards to joining in with the prize draws.

"The Conservative Party needs to widen its sources of income and not rely like the Labour Party upon a few millionaires or its Trade Union backers. We have therefore introduced this new scheme in order to involve more members and help raise much needed funds to help unlock the door to Number 10 Downing Street."

So it proclaims. I actually really like this idea. In fact I'd be very interested in joining in. Supporting the party and the chance to win some money - would could be better?

I am a little concerned about having send so much information on my bank account over the post I have to admit. I've been wary of sending things this way since having problems with a bent Postman, and now even more so after Dizzy spotted the huge security flaws in the party's last batch of membership renewal forms. Perhaps they have learned a lesson since then since they no longer as for your card's security number.

Or perhaps it's because these forms aren't actually going anywhere near CCHQ. The return address would appear to be just a connect StarVale Management & Technologies Limited. Obviously it's all being done externally. Seems a little sloppy then that the website hasn't been configured yet even though they've had it a whole month and the mailings are now out. I wonder what they're being paid for this operation! Come on, get it together chaps.

Yesterday was a day of national initiative for the NHYes Campaign. Accordingly I went along to Goole town centre with Andy Percy, the Conservative candidate for Brigg and Goole, and Neil Cropper from my CF branch to hand out leaflets and get people signing up to the petition. Normally I wouldn't volunteer during such a hugely busy spell of work (and yes I will get back to regular blogging as soon as I can), but the free lunch and good company swung it.
I actually met some really nice and very interested people out there on the high street, including a former nurse whose hospitalised friend was until recently being kept in a room with someone who had contracted MRSA there - not exactly very inspiring. I also briefly met MEP Timothy Kirkhope, who kindly popped by to wish us well, and fellow blogger Andrew Allison who also came to lend a hand.

Andy Percy has written an account of the day, here.

Right, the lines have closed! The drawbridge is up! I have my final sample of bloggers for my research project. The final number of right-aligned bloggers taking part is 60, which I have to say I'm rather pleased about - a nice round number there. I might even use some percentages!

I have a lot of people to thank for their help in this project - special thanks to those who posted a bit about this on their blog to help me out with volunteers. I am immensely grateful. You certainly qualify for a free pint or two should we ever meet up.

Here is the A-list:

	Blog	Web Address
1.	Iain Dale’s Diary	www.iaindale.blogspot.com
2.	Burning Our Money	www.burningourmoney.blogspot.com
3.	Dizzy Thinks	www.dizzythinks.blogspot.com
4.	Clive Davis Online	www.clivedavis-online.com
5.	James Cleverly	www.jamescleverly.blogspot.com
6.	Archbishop Cranmer	www.archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.com
7.	Ellee Seymour	www.elleeseymour.com
8.	Tory Radio	www.toryradio.com
9.	West Brom Blog	www.westbromblog.blogspot.com
10.	The Croydonian	www.croydonian.blogspot.com
11.	Conservative History	www.conservativehistory.blogspot.com
12.	Kevin Davis	www.kevindavis.org.uk
13.	Trevor Ivory	www.trevor-ivory.blogspot.com
14.	Dodgeblogium	www.andrewiandodge.com
15.	Natalie Solent	www.nataliesolent.com
16.	Mr. Eugenides	www.mreugenides.blogspot.com
17.	EU Serf	www.eu-serf.blogspot.com
18.	Leah Frasier	www.leahfraser.co.uk/index.php
19.	Tom Roll-Pickering	www.timrollpickering.blogspot.com
20.	ContraTory	www.contratory.co.uk
21.	Peter C. Glover	www.petercglover.com
22.	This Scepter’d Isle	www.sceptered-isle.blogspot.com
23.	Cunning Title	www.cunningtitle.blogspot.com
24.	Political Crossroads	www.politicalcrossroads.blogspot.com