| Cicely, my love |
[Feb. 1st, 2005|02:09 am] |
I shouldn't be allowed to watch DVDs of old Northern Exposure episodes before going off to work in places with unlimited internet access and no colleagues looking over my shoulder, especially late at night when blood sugars are low and emotions are close to the surface.
It's not the first time I've had cause to note this, and it's not the first time I've visited an NX fansite and suddenly, inexplicably, found myself dissolving into a jelly-like tearful mush at the unwelcome realisation that, hey, it's only a TV programme and these people and places weren't ever real.
But they ought to have been. |
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| This is interesting, politically |
[Feb. 1st, 2005|04:05 am] |
From Independent Digital: (subscription fee required)
Lib Dems could win election, poll shows
By John Rentoul
The Liberal Democrats could break through to form a government with a big majority according to an exclusive opinion poll conducted for The Independent on Sunday.
Although 20 per cent of voters say they currently intend to vote for Charles Kennedy's party, 37 per cent of those surveyed agreed with the statement: "I would vote for the Liberal Democrats if they had a realistic chance of winning in my constituency".
Those who say they would make the switch to the Liberal Democrats include 29 per cent of Labour supporters, 19 per cent of Conservatives and one-third of those backing other parties.
If people voted along these lines in winnable constituencies, Mr Kennedy would become Prime Minister with a majority of 126 over Labour, and the Conservatives would be reduced to a rump of 56 seats. Six current cabinet ministers would also lose their seats: Margaret Beckett, Charles Clarke, Patricia Hewitt, Alan Johnson, Tessa Jowell and Ruth Kelly.
The figures suggest the potential for meltdown in the electoral system if the Liberal Democrats can persuade voters in their target seats that they have a "realistic chance" of winning. And they reveal the extent to which Tony Blair's decision to join the invasion of Iraq has shaken the kaleidoscope of British politics.
The Liberal Democrats have already gained support at Labour's expense since the build-up to war in Iraq, but could yet gain more.
The British involvement in Iraq remains unpopular and there is strong support for bringing the troops home. Can it happen? Probably not - but not definitely not.
This psephological quirk has been known to the Lib Dems for years - my 2001 election leaflet carried a graph based on it suggesting I was in with a real chance of being swept into Westminster, not a likely possibility given that I was building on a base of just nine per cent support in the constituency.
But it is a fact that if people thought we were in with a chance of winning, they would be more likely to vote for us. Usually we're on the losing end of this vicious circle - we don't get the votes that would allow us to win because we don't appear to be winning.
But if during the election the polls start to show a three-way tie - which, while not the likliest scenario, is wholly possible - then things could move pretty fast.
A good analogy would be trying to set upright a heavy wardrobe that had fallen over. It takes an enormous amount of energy to lift it even a small way at first, but eventually a point arrives when the centre of gravity shifts, momentum kicks in, and the job completes itself with ease.
Every election so far, we've lifted the wardrobe part of the way but not far enough. Can we go all the way this time? Probably not - but as this poll suggests, there's never been a better chance in my lifetime. |
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| Haven't you heard? It's all been changed |
[Feb. 1st, 2005|05:30 pm] |
When I go off tonight for my evening shift, it will be the last one I do for a couple of months. I'm scaling back at the Indy from four nights a week to just one, Saturdays.
While this will put a spoke in the wheel of my ongoing research into all-night petrol stations (I can't tell you how sick I'm getting of Wild Bean Cafe cheese and red onion paninis) it has a lot of advantages.
The biggest one is that it clears space to work on a two-month project for a small communications company on rather better money. This will be a relief, as I am in debt and just had to surrender ten years'-worth of savings to the tax man. How long ago seem the days when I was giving £20 notes to deserving beggers, paying tax bills out of my current account, and sending relatives off on holidays abroad! Only a year ago, in fact, but it seems a lifetime.
Another advantage, of course, is that I get to sleep at night and be awake during the day. After last night's shift I got to bed at about 5.30am and woke up at about 3pm. This is not my idea of fun.
It's not farewell to the Independent - hopefully I can go back to more shifts after the other project finishes - but it will be a welcome break.
In other stuff, my old deputy headteacher, who was up before the courts on numerous charges of abusing boys in his care, has been convicted on six or seven of the charges. I haven't seen the reports, so I don't know which ones or what happens next, but I gather that when it comes to sentencing there are mutterings about his age (70) and frail mental health being a factor. We'll see...
For those who asked, my grandmother is now recovering after an operation to put a metal plate in her hip following her fall. Hopefully I'll be visiting her again tomorrow - I went a few days ago, before the operation, and she was doped up to the eyeballs and not at all herself.
Today, in my very limited time awake, I ran the car through a car wash to get rid of the layers of Cornish mud still plastering it. I love drive-through car washes, have done since I was a child, but you don't see them so often these days. It occurs to me after today that possibly the reason why is that car radio aerials no longer retract as far as they used to - certainly ours didn't, as a result of which it snapped like a twig. |
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| Best new blog on the block |
[Feb. 1st, 2005|06:21 pm] |
A great new blog if you haven't seen it yet is The Law West of Ealing Broadway, by a magistrate in (more or less) my part of London.
For those living somewhere not covered by the British judicial system, magistrates are civilians with no legal training who sit as a panel trying minor offences. Any major case gets shunted upstairs from the Magistrates' Court to a judge and jury on the Crown Court.
It's a great system, and it's produced a great blog.From The Law West of Ealing Broadway:
There is something about the law that attracts acronyms and jargon. As Latin slowly disappears from everyday use in the courts it is more than replaced by impenetrable sets of initials.
(snip)
The Lord Chancellor's Department is now the Department for Constitutional Affairs, or decaff to those in the trade. The rather homely lady who used to be the secretary to the Clerk is now the Justices' Liaison Officer, or J-Lo.
(snip)
Drivers with dodgy cars get a VDRS and drink drivers may be offered the DDRS, although they might have a CPO as well. And we have to tell DVLA about that.
When the Justices of the Peace Act was passed in 1368 (it's still in force) things were rather simpler. |
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| No worse, there is none |
[Feb. 1st, 2005|09:03 pm] |
It was, of course, inevitable. Realistically it was overdue. But it's still dreadful news all the same.
Ivan Noble is dead |
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