Election (not) special - by Richard... Friday, May 06, 2011

Election (not) special - by Richard... Friday, May 06, 2011

Libdims are taking a drubbing , mainly oop north in places like Newcastle, Hull and Sheffield. They should never have got any there votes anyway, except that a lot of simple people thought corrupt, inefficient Libdim politicians would make a change from corrupt inefficient Labour politicians. Now they are finding that they prefer corrupt, inefficient Labour politicians after all. In Scotland though, the SNP is ripping Labour and the libdims apart.

Elsewhere, Labour and Tories are roughly neck and neck - although Labour are looking to win 600 seats on local councils. And the "no" vote wins the referendum thingie. With hindsight, the choice of Eddie Izzard – rather than the political "dinosaurs" on the other side – to front the "yes" campaignis thought to be "well-intentioned but naïve". A poll yesterday disclosed that only one in four of the public knew that the comedian was backing AV. Only one in ten knew who he was and only one in three hundred thousand knew he was a comedian.

Caroline Flint, one of the few half-way decent MPs left, says the whole idea of a referendum was misguided: "The truth is the public really did not want this referendum, there are other priorities for people". She is dead right, but that won't stop the political claque going orgasmic about whether the coalition can survive, although the Vince Table thinks it will.

Libdim's Lord Ashdown has launched a scathing attack on Call Me Dave for his conduct during the referendum campaign. In the first sign of recriminations between the coalition parties, the former libdim leader - a close ally of Nick Clegg - accused Dave of a "breach of faith" in letting a largely Tory-funded "no" campaign target Cleggy personally. Dave made little Nicky cry.

Senior Girliegraph journalists are asking the vital question of whether Chris Huhne's future bid to oust Nick Clegg could be ruined by his estranged wife's tell-all book. The Energy Secretary dumped wife of 26 years Vicky Pryce for his former lesbian lover last year after their affair was unmasked ... Meanwhile, the same old dross remains in place, our rules continue to be made in Brussels, and our media remains locked in denial.

Earlier in the day, Maxed Hastings told us to get out and vote "no" otherwise we'll have squabbling, indecisive coalitions. And the clever and sophisticated Tim Montgomerie believes in the tooth fairy, or "the collective wisdom of Twitter", which amounts to the same thing.

To celebrate a grand day - albeit a little while ago - two of our wonderful plods stop off for a coffee. At least they weren't beating up innocent rioters, or wannabe voters. Some don't seem to drink coffee though, according to their well-meaning colleagues.

State of the parties at 01:14 ... same as it was at 01:13. I'm going to bed.

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Shameless - by Richard...

Clinton: Iconic image of White House monitoring operation "may have caught me preventing a cough", reports The Daily Mail, without so much as a blush.

The photo was taken by the White House photographer on Sunday night as Obama and his national security team monitored the assault. Clinton is covering her mouth with her right hand, but she said that the gesture might not convey any special significance. "I am somewhat sheepishly concerned that it was my preventing one of my early spring allergic coughs", she says. "So, it may have no great meaning whatsoever".

The Fluffygraph girlee just carries on as if nothing had ever happened, while the clever and sophisticated blog editor Mr Damian Harris pontificates about "conspiracy theorists".

"The internet played a huge role in spreading false claims about 9/11 in the five years after September 11", he says. "But, if the technology of five years ago was easily adaptable by conspiracy theories, that of 2011 offers infinitely more sophisticated means of making outlandish claims appear as plausible as the BBC evening news".

It is suggested by a commenter that we are entitled to exercise reasonable scepticism, and to ask for a minimum level of evidence to be provided, without being called "conspiracy theorists" by half-arsed journalists whose gullibility extends to believing everything they have been told by the White House ... and finding the BBC evening news "plausible".

Mr Harris was not available for comment.

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Frozen Poles - by Richard... Thursday, May 05, 2011

We might be basking in the sunshine in England – although it is dull and wet at the time of writing – but the Poles are not having such a good time of it. May snowfall and freezing temperatures have descended on south-western Poland, with 41 road deaths and 400 accidents reported since the May weekend began. Traffic has struggled particularly as many drivers had already switched to summer tyres.

In the Lower Silesia and Opole regions, 100,000 homes were left without electricity and temperatures have plummeted as low as 0°C in some areas as frost and heavy fog hampered traffic. Power lines also went down in Walbrzych, Jelenia Góra and the Wroclaw area after trees heavy with snow fell and brought down electricity cables.

The same story applies further east, with the previouly ice-bound Gulf of Finland only now clearing. Just three weeks ago, 38 cargo ships were awaiting icebreaker assistance.

All of this points to a cold weather system parked over eastern Euope, affecting our weather here. This puts into focus the ritual pessimism about the state of the Arctic ice. These professional doom-mongers, such as the wuzzies in the National Snow and Ice Data Centre, are getting more than a little tiresome with the constant predictions of disappearing ice.

I really would like them to pop down to the Port of St Petersburg to tell the authorities there that they are wasting all their money investigating in new icebreaker capacity. I suspect the response might be фокстрот Оскар.

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Honey! They stole my vote! - by Richard...

Well, I would have liked to have voted for my local council, but Bradford electoral services have screwed up and failed to register me and Mrs EU Referendum. Thus, on my arrival at the Polling Station, I was not allowed to vote.

Nonetheless, the kindly young ladies got on to the electoral offices by phone, to try and sort it out. On the phone, I made it very clear what I thought of Council officials stealing my vote, but with witnesses present and in a polling station, all can attest that I was polite and offered no threats to the lady I was speaking to, or to any of the staff at the polling station.

Anyhow, the lady at the "town hall" promised to find out what went wrong and ring me back. When she rang off, what she actually did was call the police. No less than three West Yorkshire crime fighters arrive - two little girlies and a big brave man with his stick and his flak jacket. But they were as puzzled as the rest of us at the polling station, where we are having a general conversation to while away the time, while we were waiting.

Only then does the slime ring back to claim that our application went in late, ignoring the fact that we had already sent in a request some months before. But the slime has spoken. Bradford Council has stolen our vote and are lying through their teeth about it - so we don't get to vote today. But, guess what ... they still want our money.

Lovely little system we have in this country. If they don't have a form every year from you saying you exist – or they manage to lose it – then they steal your vote. But strangely, you don't have to tell them you still exist before they send your Council Tax bill. And when you dare to complain about your vote being stolen, they call out the police.

Then, if you take the principle of no taxation without representation seriously, guess what they do? They put you in prison! Yay!

Welcome to the Fascist state of Bradford.

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