The Inspiration?
Submitted by JG on Mon, 04/06/2007 - 16:28I saw this on the BBC website - now we know where they got the inspiration from...
I saw this on the BBC website - now we know where they got the inspiration from...
"Interactive" olympic logo: £400,000
Mascot design (and other ancillaries): Not included
It comes as no surprise today to learn how prolific the Labour government has been when it comes to introducing legislation. The Blair premiership has seen an average of 2,685 new laws introduced each year! That is one every three-and-a-quarter hours! It has been Blair's answer to everything – there is nothing that can't be solved without a piece of legislation in the crazy world of New Labour. The research by legal information providers Sweet & Maxwell, has shown that more than seven new laws have come into force every day since Tony Blair came to power a decade ago!
Has the David Cameron honeymoon period come to an end? The grammar school debate has probably run a little further than he had hoped and there are signs that the right of party are fed up with being forced to tread the tight line between showing a unified party willing to change and completely selling out. I'm sure Cameron is happy that this whole debate came about; it gives him a chance to show that he is in the centre ground of politics and will drag his party there with him. Unfortunately for him, though, he will never have a "Clause 4 moment".
Government
Just lent my copy of P.J.O'Rourke's Give War A Chance to a friend, so decided to replace my lost copies of Eat The Rich and Parliament of Whores, to re-read them (and extract a few quotes for this site in the process). Went into the local W.H.Smiths and couldn't find an appropriate section. Would it be Politics or Philosophy or Economics or Current Affairs or Humour? Strangely, there didn't seem to be sections for the former, or anything targeted at the over-14 age-bracket in the latter. There were, on the other hand, several bookcases devoted to "Tragic Life Stories" (a sub-genre of autobiography that I hadn't realised the need to distinguish, like the big sections for the "life-stories" of 22-year-old footballers and media celebrities). Rows and rows of fantasy books and puzzles, too, but nothing too taxing.
Decided I must just be being obtuse, so asked at the desk. "Is that P.J. as in the letters, and how do you spell O'Rourke?". Oh dear. Nothing in the computer. Curiosity piqued that they seemed only to offer books for the lobotomised, I enquired where I would find the sections for P or P or E or CA. "We don't really have a section for them, but you might find something in the History section." A bit of lateral thinking required: "Where do you keep your Boris Johnson, then?" This is Maidenhead, and Boris is not only hopefully a well-enough known celebrity even to oiks, but MP for the neighbouring constituency of Henley. Must be a bit of Boris on the shelves.
Taken to look at the History section. Logical enough, given his excellent Dream of Rome. But no Boris in History, which is 80% Military History, and 80% of that about WWII. Instead, tucked away amongst the Spitfires and Shermans are a couple of shelves of "General Interest", which is intended to cover P,P,E, CA and much else besides. Finally, there is Boris, but sadly Maidenhead's intellectual capacity will only stretch to his book on cars (gives you an idea of the range of interests intended to be covered by those two shelves). That, it seems, is all we want to hear about from our politicians and pundits.
Maidenhead is typical of every bland High Street in the country, and it seems that, judging by their reading tastes, the typical shopper in the typical High Street in England is BRAINDEAD. Mind you, some more than others. At least Maidenhead's Smiths carries some current-affairs magazines, though tucked away at the back as though they are a little ashamed of them. And so infrequently attended that they are still displaying the Spectator from the week before last.
Still, that beats Newton Abbot, where I once got stuck for a couple of hours on the way back from Torquay. Looking for some reading material, I walked into town, stopping into each newsagent for a current-affairs magazine. After three failures, I asked the shopkeeper if he had anything suitable - something like The Economist, or Time or Newsweek, or some other obscure intellectual magazine like them. "Not much call for that round here." But there was clearly plenty of call for magazines about tractors and carp-fishing. Jethro is not exaggerating about the west-country.
Anyway, to the point. Below the General Interest shelves (back in Maidenhead) was one for books to help with your Citizenship test (another sign of the times). The Government's official publication, Life in the United Kingdom - A Journey to Citizenship, caught my eye. A theory and a game suggested themselves.
Liberal Democrats
It has been a focus for debate on Picking Losers for some time and like the idea or loath it, the Nuffield Trust health think-tank has called for greater independence from day-to-day political control for the NHS. Professor Edwards from the Trust think-tank believes that the NHS should be modelled on the BBC approach.
Government
Government
The Labour party and the Government are just about to get caught up in a good old fashioned sleaze story. The Times has broken the story that the massively in debt Labour party has been using government grants for its policy-making process. The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has received nearly £1 million in government grants. They are the people behind popular ideas such as road pricing, rubbish taxes, ID cards and justifying hospital closures.
It is expected that the fortnightly bin collections and the "chip and bin" tax we are to pay on top of council tax for the removal of our bins will increase levels of fly tipping. If that is the case, we the tax payer have a serious problem! It is thought that there were 50,000 cases of fly tipping in the London Borough of Chelsea and Kensington alone last year. Haringey over 60,000. Outside London, Manchester had more than 30,000. Yet the Government and councils have warned that the worst cases are likely to be in rural areas but are simply not reported. So far it has cost
Government
Government
Over the coming weeks and months there is going to be a seemingly endless queue of people trying to cash in on the "Blair years" (headed by Tony himself, of course). Alistair Campbell's memoirs are due to be published in July, though there are reports that he has cut out the juicy bits to protect Blair. No such luck for Tony with regard to the former cabinet secretary Lord Butler. He has got some pretty damning words on how the country was run under Blair's premiership. It seems the rumours that the country was run by him and Alistair Campbell were pr
The Department for the environment, food and rural affairs (Defra) has got itself in a bit of pickle! It appears to have endorsed a view from a vegan group called Viva, that we should all become vegetarians to combat climate change. It is even considering recommending eating less meat as one of the "key environmental behaviour changes" needed to save the planet. The leaked email even says that this change would have to be introduced "gently" because of "the risk of alienating the public". Well, you've lost me for a start.
Eric Friar is a 91 year old RAF war hero. Now Mr Friar isn't having the best of times at the moment, he suffers from mini-strokes, bladder cancer, non-Hodgkins lymhpoma, has been diagnosed with bowel and colon cancer, shingles, dementia, is almost blind, has MRSA and is currently in hospital with pneumonia. His condition means he cannot eat unaided, can barely walk and has difficulty sleeping because he is in constant discomfort. His local NHS trust has assessed the case for assistance as "moderate" because the couple have savings of more than £21,500. Moderate!?
Government
Government