Olympic Iceman strips!

Just found this video of 2006 Winter Olympics champion, Evgeni Plushenko. It's a funny film where he strips on ice to Tom Jones *Sex Bomb* sound track. Check out this video: Evgeni Plushenko - Sex Bomb!

Is this the way to jail-a-rillo?

A woman in the city of Bath has been punished with an Anti Social Behaviour Order for repeatedly playing the Tony Christie/Peter Kay cheesy hit song *Is this the way to Amarillo*.

Clearly neighbours have been crying into their pillows.

Read more of the story from the Daily Mail news website. There is a wonderful feedback comment from someone in Canada who says Mrs Webb of Bath should have been fined more for playing this song.

During raids by Bath & North East Somerset council and local police, stereos were seized from the house and these are now likely to be destroyed. How can this be justified... music systems can be bought again, it's the music CD which needs trashing.

Mrs Webb, who is £500 the poorer after her conviction, will be asking “Is the road to jail-a-rillo” if she pays the music too loudly again in the next two years... as this is the knee-jerk reaction the court will impose.

Lib Dems favour Proportional Voting, don't they?

As astonishing story in The Times this Saturday reveals a large number of outspoken Lib Dem MPs have not exercised their right to pledge a second preference vote for Leader of the Liberal Democrats.

Lib Dems are selecting a replacement to Charles Kennedy, who resigned as Leader in January.

All 75,000 members of the party vote one for their first preferred candidate, two for second and three for third… we call it proportional voting and it’s a rather sacred belief amongst Lib Dems that this form of second transferable voting is a better option to 'first-past-the-post'. The candidate in last place is eliminated and his backers’ second choices are distributed between the remaining two – it results in the most favoured candidate winning the election as determined by the party membership faithful.

The Times writes: For a party whose forebears embraced the cause of proportional representation for the best part of a century, and to whose members the single transferable vote has the status of the Holy Grail, their behaviour is at best inconsistent.

• Lord Kirkwood, chairman of Sir Menzies’ campaign, admitted: “I only used one preference myself. It is only of interest to anybody if Campbell comes third and I know he will not come third.”
• Lynne Featherstone, an MP backing Mr Huhne, confessed: “I have not used my second preference on this occasion.”
• Vince Cable, the Treasury spokesman, said: “I filled it in the day after it came. I honestly can’t remember whether I just went for Ming and not the other two, or voted for Chris [Huhne] second.
• Jo Swinson, 26, the youngest MP and a Campbell supporter, said hesitantly: “I cannot actually say… I’m fairly sure I voted for Chris Huhne as No 2.”

I have used my votes with Hughes – 1st and Huhne - 2nd. Unlike these honourable members of parliament who seem to support first past the post, I am confident most party members have determined who that wining candidate will be through second preference choices.

But then again the honourable members of the party would not have stabbed Charles Kennedy in the back – and this Leadership election would probably not be taking place at this time.

A most famous victory for Lib Dems

Sometimes even the media can celebrate with us, rather than laugh at the Liberal Democrats.

The party leadership election has given rise to ridicule for the third party of UK politics, but thank goodness for by-elections. In a sensational result the Lib Dems have turned round a safe Labour seat into a most famous victory for Liberal Democrats.

Even the politically neutral epolitix.com wrote on their website on Thursday 9th Feb that Nu Labor would hold the seat:

Labour is defending a majority at the general election of 11,562, when turnout was 59.9 per cent. With Labour expected to hold on to the seat, attention is set to focus on whether recent troubles for the Lib Dems cause them to fall behind the SNP in the battle for second place.

A story with more detail of the result is on the Swindon local party website.

So how could Labour loose this safe seat? Maybe it is because our hospitals are dirtier and less efficient and some waiting lists are longer. Our schools are turning out an ever-thicker brand of child at the age of 16 or 18 because education reform is a cock-up failing our youth. Our police are obsessed with being nice to groups that cause public danger rather than prosecuting them. Our public transport system is expensive and inadequate. Our welfare state rewards the feckless while penalising what the Victorians called "the deserving poor". Our Armed Forces are sent abroad to die for their country on the basis of a lie.

It could be the Blair factor has passed his sell-by date, but seeing as the PM in waiting (Gordon Brown) has his home in the Dunfermline and West Fife area and represents the neighbouring constituency… maybe the result had something to do with the “Brown-effect”? For me the principal reason of Lib Dem success is that we are a party of vision and passion with the most credible of policies to make Britan great again.

And when the Liberal Democrat party can communicate it’s possitive message to a listening public, despite all the scandals which have plagued us for a month – success comes our way because people don’t care about individuals – they care about freedom of opportunity to succeed and see their fellow countrymen succeed without interferience from the state.

Hey, I made it onto the Daily Telegraph blog site of Ian Douglas, production editor of telegraph.co.uk with a comment about printed newspapers increasingly becoming 'yesterdays news'.

The advent of increasing availability on-line is for many, the end of the purchasing a daily paper.

I like the internet, but there is still something comforting about reading a "broadsheet" newspaper, getting ink all over your hands and hearing the crumple of paper as overly large sheets are folded into manageable sections.

Long live the printed word!

Death to the West?

I do not like that feeling when I find myself agreeing with Tory MPs. Guilt shivers down my spine, like the winter chill factor ever present at this time of year.

The Conservative Shadow Home Secretary said

• "Clearly some of these placards are incitement to violence and, indeed, incitement to murder - an extremely serious offence which the police must deal with and deal with quickly. Whatever your views on these cartoons, we have a tradition of freedom of speech in this country which has to be protected. Certainly there can be no tolerance of incitement to murder."
  

Maybe I am not fully subscribed to Liberal thinking on this issue, but why is it the political party that exists to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society and values liberty, equality and community is not speaking out against the enslaved spoken antics of an ignorant minority?

Radical Muslims who are sporting placards in our principal cities screaming: "Massacre those who insult Islam", "Europe you will pay" and "Europe you'll come crawling when Mujahideen come roaring" no further represent mainstream Muslim opinion than the Unionist radical Rev. Ian Paisley MP represents mainstream opinion on Christianity.

The rumpus and furore started last week when a fanatical wing of Muslim followers reacted to cartoons published in a Danish newspaper in September of 2005 which was subsequently re-printed by a number of other European media outlets. The most offensive cartoon appears to be of an image Mohamed with a fuse-lit bomb as a turban - an indication that killing your enemy is acceptable for followers of that faith.

Muslims believe in one God, is it the same God who is worshipped by Jews and Christians? If it is, then that fact invites co-operation between followers of the three monotheistic religions.

As a Liberal, I prefer to focus on where we agree, rather than dwell on where we disagree. Maybe Reflecting Britain campaign is a step towards that goal, although I think Lib Dems aiming to win the voting support of Muslims in the UK is more important than getting a Lib Dem Muslim elected to Parliament.

Muslim theology claims that God has sent prophets to every people, and that Mohammed was the last of them. After him, according to orthodox Muslim doctrine, the believers are to expect not another prophet, but the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Jews believe that the Messiah will come and set the captives free. Meanwhile Christians believe that the messiah has already come in the form of Jesus - He set us free through his death on the cross and resurrection and promised to come back "the Second Coming of Jesus Christ".

All three of these religious beliefs subscribe to the ultimate conclusion. I guess I just wish He would hurry up and come back before more blood is shed in His name!

Braised Baby Onions

Just found a great food blog whilst reviewing the 2006 blogs of the year.

Here is a recipe I tried last weekend when I had some vegetarian friends over for lunch.

Prep time: about 10 min
Braising: ~45 min.

Ingredients (serves 2)
12 red baby onions
2 tsp oregano, dried
2-3 tbsp olive oil
8-10 black olives
fresh oregano leaves (to taste)
100-150g feta cheese, crumbled
season with sea salt and freshly ground pepper

1 Preheat oven to 180°C (360°F). Peel onions and place them in a fireproof casserole dish or alternatively on a baking tray. Sprinkle with half of the olive oil, the dried oregano and season well with salt and pepper - don’t be shy. For the first 40 minutes cover up with either a lid or some aluminium foil.

2 For the last 5 minutes, uncover, add the olives and a few fresh oregano leaves and drizzle the rest of the olive oil over the onions.

3 Serve with the feta cheese crumbles and a few more fresh oregano leaves for decoration.

Don't push... I mean it!!

Phew, I am glad this week has come to an end.

Working on a Local Area Agreement on behalf of the Local Council to get all public services working together is extremely rewarding.

I have posted up a couple of reports that I am working on at this time in the Links section. One on Equalities and the other on voluntary and community Involvement.

Some partners appear not to want to work together. At these times I just want to scream or hit something. Good job I attended that ANGER management course

So before I fall off the edge into a pit of doom, I made time to visit a fun website a friend recommended this afternoon.

But be warned... You may wish you had not pushed this.

• Picture crafted by a fantastic Portuguese illustrator who has a wicked website. I would recommend visiting http://unkemptwomen.blogspot.com/

Is coffee poison?

At Christmas we purchased a fantastic little Espresso machine and have been knocking the black liquid in quick shots for a couple of weeks now. I don’t so much walk to the office anymore, as “fly” – I am high as a kite.

I have been worried of late that I get more headaches than I used to… Am I poisoning myself with too much coffee?

I also just read a blog from someone in Boston – home of the Mad Tea Party who is anxious he is consuming too much coffee and it got me thinking some more.

There was a scare story in the UK Sunday Times last week. And I quote:

COFFEE is responsible for as much as a third of daily consumption of the cancer-causing chemical acrylamide, research by the United Nations has found.

The story goes on to say that drinking dark-roast coffee is better than medium or light… it is the process of roasting that creates acrylamide.

So as for giving up… I don’t think I will bother, just raise a cup of the strong stuff!!

Brokeback Mountain gets four Golden Globes

Three Cheers… Brokeback Mountain has won four Golden Globe Awards… it’s the Oscars next!

“Real-life couple Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams were both nominated for their performances in Brokeback Mountain: he for best actor for his turn as Ennis Del Mar, and she for best supporting actress for playing his long-suffering wife Alma”

José and I went to Bath (a city about 40 miles from Swindon) to see the film last Sunday. Despite our key home town of 180 residents and two Multi-screen cinemas with ten screens each – neither being prepared to show this film, we had to travel to watch the movie.

Based around two cowboys (actually sheep-herders) who find their daily routine a tad boring they discover each other, unexpected love and enduring friendship that lasts a couple of decades. But living in the conservative American West in the early 1960’s is no place for men to live together so they do what most closet gays do and marry women and raise families.

These poor women are put through the most unkind torture of being married to principally gay men and living lives of misery.

The cowboys live out their relationship through annual meet-ups – but it’s not a comfortable life for either of them.

+++
I read this wonderful novel by Annie Proulx on the beach in Portugal in the summer of 2003.

So I knew what was coming in the movie, but have to hand it to Heath Ledger for superb acting. The scene in the trailer when he hugs his lover’s shirt is to DIE for?

It certainly is a modern-day love story which I would recommend anyone go read the book and see the movie.

Feel real pleased that we got to see the film. I have been a bit emotional since the movie... José just rolls his eyes towards heaven and thinks me rather silly. He says I am like a lost puppy that needs to be cared for.