Poor Man About Town

Well, it had to happen, Private Eye picked up on the issue that I raised the previous. Is Ken politicking for a future seat?

Noted Ken Livingstone at a press conference giving his spiel on the current London Bombings. Are you having a laugh?

Are you still going to welcome individuals who condone bus bombings abroad?

Are you having a laugh?

Labels: Ken Livingstone

i hear Coldplay are in for another award; gosh, it would be nice to make so make so much money from so much expression of misery.

Because I first heard Chris Martin use the term 'Knobhead' can't they they change their name to "the Knobheads". It really does deserve some consideration. Especially with lyrics like this:

"Stuck on the end of this ball and chain
And I'm on my way back down again
Stood on a bridge, tied to the noose
Sick to the stomach
You can say what you mean
But it won't change a thing
I'm sick of the secrets
Stood on the edge, tied to the noose

You came along and you cut me loose..."

Maybe their next album should be called "Misery needs Company"

Is this guy having a laugh?

I lifted this paragraph from the Guardian today

"Yesterday Mr Livingstone issued a statement that said he believed it was "important that Britain's Islamic community hears, through every means possible, condemnation of [the London bomb attack] from leading Islamic figures". The mayor urged such figures "to speak out with all the means they possess on this issue" and, without explicitly saying so, separated Mr Qaradawi's social conservatism from his views on jihadist terrorism"

I really like that bit "important that Britain's Islamic community hears, through every means possible, condemnation of [the London bomb attack] from leading Islamic figures", it's a bit like saying we have invited Heinrich Himmler et al to condemn the Far-Right's persecution of the Jews and "to speak out with all the means they possess on this issue".

Now let us look at the earlier passages in the article

"He condemned the London bombings and the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, saying Islam "holds the human soul in high esteem", but has spoken in support of Palestinian suicide bombers who target civilians in Israeli towns and cities.

Article continues Speaking to Newsnight last year, he said: "It's not suicide, it is martyrdom in the name of God [...] I consider this type of martyrdom operation as indication of justice of Allah almighty".

The cleric, who has broadcast regularly on al-Jazeera, said it did not matter if women and children were the victims of such attacks. "Israeli women are not like women in our society because Israeli women are militarised," he told the programme"

Point 1: What about the Israeli children, are they militarised?

Point 2: There are many Israeli men and women, Jews, who oppose its Government's policy on Palestinians. These people attract an awful lot of flak from their own community. Yet, we have this pompous right-wing cleric "who holds the human soul in high esteem" declaring that it is ok to bomb Israeli civilians because they are "militarised".

Why does this bozo play with words, why does not come out tell out tell the truth and say "it is ok to bomb Israeli civilians because they are Jews" and they lack "human souls".

I am not a Jew and I do not like the current Israeli Government, in fact I sympathise with the Palestine cause, but I cannot abide by innocent civilians getting blown away by any just cause.

When the bombs went off in London, Livingstone expressed his anger etc at this. All empty rhetoric and playing to the gallery. Livingstone, a Tabloid politician!

Labels: Ken Livingstone, Qaradawi

I was walking over Hungerford Bridge today and caught sight of Waterloo Bridge on which the sun shone - the stone intensely reflected the light. Because the sky had some cloud cover, the background of St Paul's, the Natwest Tower, the Gherkin and other buildings were in shadow, so the bridge was thrown in high relief. The simplicity of its design and stone, the architects had some aesthetic values. What is more, I was treated to a fantastic light show, the bridge showed off differences in light and shade, here and there, likewise the background. I stood there for a good fifteen minutes watching this. It was one of those moments that money can't buy.

Mark Steel Solution on Radio tonight, topic was on Housing and he proposed that where you live should be selected at random on an annual basis.

He spoke of living in a council flat and this bloke who was in tow of three dangerous dogs who used to shit outside Mark S' door. Although it was comical he spoke of people being plagued with barking dogs, drug dealers and burglars - such visitatations are far cry from those trashy tv programmes that look at buying a new home in a lovely area or country and how to turn said how into a palace - that's why all those diy centres are doing such a brisk trade.

Christopher Isherwood slummed it in Berlin in a tenement block - here are a few extracts:

"I descended slowly the five flights of stairs to the courtyard. The bottom of the court was clammy and dark, although the sun was shining on a cloud overhead in the sky overhead. Broken buckets, wheels off prams and bits of bicycle tyre laid scattered like things that have fallen down a well"

He describes the noise:

"Lying in bed, in the darkness, in my tiny corner of the enormous human warren of tenements, I could hear, with uncanny precision, every sound which came up from the courtyard below. The shape of the court must have acted like a gramophone horn...Somewhere on the other side of the court a baby began to scream, a window was slammed to, something very heavy, deep in the recesses of the building, thudded dully against the wall. It was alien and mysterious and uncanny, like sleeping out in the jungle alone"

Christopher Isherwood - Goodbye to Berlin

He said that because his landlady had bolted the door, he could not use the loo that was shared with four other flats, his landlady had advised him to use the bucket by the oven.

Housing is a huge problem - people are homeless because housing has become unaffordable, because of gentrification and property developers muscling into areas abd socially cleansing areas which are potentially desireable and then muscling out its incumbents. The Intolerant Rich are taking over our areas and this only supports the supports the statement that Property is Theft

Labels: Greedy Property Developers, Housing, housing market, Property Developers, the rich

Geoff Hoon has been expressing a view that we should be legally forced to vote. Voter apathy says an awful lot; every General Election 40 - 45% of the electorate tell all the main political parties what crap they are. Most ordinary people cannot stand for office, the deposit is prohibitive and then you have the huge Corporately funded campaigns - New Labour is a big benefactor of Corporate Interests and Millionaires. Imagine you running a campaign against a New Labour Candidate, glossy brochures promising the Earth to the constituency and you, barely able to afford 50 photocopies of your campaign leaflet at the local library, your're chicken shit. That's democracy for you. The biggest power we have is tell the main political parties what bollocks they are by not voting, it's our right to choose not to vote. Our choice is a big political statement.

Michael Bywater succinctly put it on Radio 4's Heresy

"...we are all now effectively disenfranchised, all the political parties are huddled into a vile knot like a plate of whelks where you can't distinguish them in the middle of the spectrum. They patronise us, they lie to us and they talk balls, and then once every four or five years they say "please come out and vote for us or we will hit you" it's not democracy, it's rape..."

Will this include house arrest?

Now that will be a load of fun.

- Imagine the haggles you will have with your keepers as to who pays the delivery man when the pizza arrives.

- Imagine the arguments about what to watch on the telly?

- Imagine if you support Millwall and your keeper support West Ham?

- Imagine your keepers gargling away quite happily on your booze.

Bollocks to that, I'd rather go back to the Magistrates Court and insist that I be locked up for whatever the duration, let the taxpayer foot the bill.

I treated myself to the Comic Strip's Eight DVD set.


The two episodes of Bad News are my favourites, these are followed closely by Strike! and GLC.

GLC was a warped homage to Ken Livingstone's then left-wing stance on local government. I can't believe it is the same Ken Livingstone on whom they base the episode. Ken has gone naff and don't we know it; this episode is a testament to how he was. The present is testament to how much of a political bozo he is now.

Among the episodes is Summer School, noted that it was written by Dawn French. Summer School is a university project where people are supposed to re-enact Iron Age life, but it presages reality tv programmes such as Big Brother and cak like it.

Pretty good stuff.

Labels: big brother, Ken Livingstone, Television, the comic strip

Saddened by the news of Ted Heath's death today.

I entered my teens when he came to power. I was full of rebellion and learned about politics thanks to his administration. I supported both miners' strikes against him. I remember the three day week and London been in the dark. The city looked quite dull in order to conserve energy - there was a ban on using advertising lights during the day. It presaged the conservation on energy. Now we are spending it with gay abandon.

I grew to like Ted with the passage of time. He opposed Thatcher.

Blair paid tribute to him by describing him as a politician of integrity (!).

Tony Benn described him as been more left-wing than Blair.

Good-bye Ted.

My bus was diverted via King's Cross Yesterday and deposited me at Euston, I knew the reason why, but I was hoping to get to Tottenham Court Road. I walked to Eversholt Street hoping that the street would be open to pedestrians, it was not. There was a camera crew, holding vigil and pointing cameras at where the bus exploded. The camera crew had set up a marquee on the traffic island. There were tributes on the stairs of St Pancras Church. I took a detour. As I headed down toward my destination, I noted that there was a camera crew at every junction waiting for something - possibly the carcas of the bus to be delivered to them and its 'rubber necking' audience; and these fucking guys were rubber necking and hoping to take shots of the wreckage to deliver into your home. We have seen the wreckage, we know what it looks like, what's the big hoo-ha?. The idiots who blew those bombs wanted this. It adds to their kudos. Ken Livingstone said that they targetted London as they would any other major urban centre because of the media response. Yep, Livingstone was right.Bad News sells and bad news makes makes money. Makes you sick, doesn't it!

London gets the Olympics! Yippee. The cheques are being written. The contracts are out to tender.

The Lea Valley will resemble a huge American mid-west ranch, highly populated by cowboys. Some will be called 'Hoss', 'Little Joe' and 'Blue Boy'.

Mark these words, the buiding work will be shoddy and extend beyond its contractual time. Ken Livingstone said that the cost will be less than "a Walnut whip". Oh yeah, try a 10 kilo box of hand-made Belgian chocolates. I do not want to pour scorn on the London Olympics, but this is a real huge money spinner and there are the multitudes who will want to get their snouts firmly planted into this trough.

I predicted that passengers on public transport would be congestion-charged, now it's time for the pedistrian. How the hell is going to be funded.

If the licence fee is worth anything, it's worth BBC radio and its related internet sites, bollocks to its television, I'll happilly pay the licence for its radio.

I heard Question Time on Radio 4 listen again. What a line-up! George Galloway, Oliver Letwin, Frank Field and a very glib and smug American woman, Colleen Graffy (British Subject, yet represents the Republican Party abroad and heads a group in the UK to persuade us that Bush does not eat babies(?));

George Galloway, bombastic - an Exocet missile of a politician; Frank Field, wooly; Oliver (I could not tell the difference between Oliver and Frank) and Colleen Graffy, passively aggressive, I had the feeling that she was holding a loaded Magnum gun under the desk (well , she spoke of the right to assemble and free speech, but neglected to mention the right to bear arms).

Great stuff!

The gas cooker has become a tall castle fortified by a moat of grease. Can't the buggers clean up after themselves? What is about living in a house with others, is there an expectation that others will clean up after them? I noted some bags of rubbish left around the bin this morning, it does not take much effort to open the bin and and put them in. Oh no, these cretins lack the imagination to do that.

The cockroaches are back in their multitude, it's the hot weather. I keep the windows open, make sure that things are clean and clear and burn tea tree oil - does this rid my room of creatures.

Grolly God continues to clear his throat rather loudly in the early hours of the morning; is he having some kind of dig at me or what? Why doesn't he piss off? He has the best room in the house, so why is he being a complete dickhead?

Labels: bedsit, cockroaches, cookery, hygiene

Although I have criticised and lampooned Blair endlessly on this blog; he has won my admiration today. I have got to give him his due, he has proved to be a complete statesman today. The atrocities that occurred in London last week left him with a rather stark choice - "kick ass" and Waco siege mentality (a la Bush) or leave it to the police and security forces to sort out. He chose the latter, he did not want to see a divided Britain, neither does anyone else. There are many people out there out for revenge at what happened; but Blair's message was rather clear on this, that it is a matter of policing and the due process of law. I really do hope that this will prevail. Yes, Blair does get my support on this.

The roads in this area have become linear car parks. I negotiated my way from work by driving down the backstreets - only problem is that everyone else the same idea. The 4uck You (SUV) were highly evident and the idiots behind their wheels made it plain that they were going to knock your bonnet off its hinges if you did not get out of the fucking way or give way to them. These idiots created more congestion around the backstreets than on the main roads. The bastards were making a declaration of war on other road users in smaller vehicles and were prepared to use terrorist tactics if they did not get their own fucking way in their Kick 4ss (SUV) vehicle.

The G8 Summit at Gleneagles was a free feed and free advertising for the very exclusive golf club. Guess what? The British tax payer had to foot the bill for this party.

The summit was a foregone conclusion, George Bush made it clear that he would not modify his stance on global warming and that he would not compromise American interests.

Well, the whole bollocks of this could have been discussed in a broom cupboard in some Whitehall office in a lunch hour for the all good that it did. I would not have minded, footing the bill, as a taxpayer, for some cheese and tomato sandwiches and one or two packs of biccies.

Instead, Blair had got us to shell out mucho spondooliks on this free feed to which some crap pop star called Bozo was invited to say his piece on Africa.

Labels: Blair, Bono, G8

Bozo, the lead singer of U2, has been hobnobbing with world leaders at G8 in order to feed and medically treat Africa. The man has single handedly freed the continent of slavery and exploitation. In the same week, this man has liberated some of his second hand clothing from a former employee.

Can we take this man seriously when he wears the most ridiculous spectacles?

Can we take him seriously when he sings stadium and anthemic rock?

Can we take him seriously for being so pompous?

Oh, Fuck off!

Labels: Bono, G8

I recall seeing this really bad science fiction film that was made in the fifties, it was about an invisible alien invasion; the aliens would strangle their pray. They were finally exposed by bursts of radiation and they looked like the central nervous complete with spinal columns. Thanks to the exposure of radiation, the US military was able to blast them to Kingdom Come - so ends the film.

No ending in sight at what happened on July 7th. People were going to work, signing on the dole, touring London, looking for jobs and doing what they do best, being human beings! OK, the world is sinful and evil, but any religion will tell you that crimes against the soul is not in the material domain, this belongs to the higher power. Are these clowns who laid these bombs so arrogant to assume that they are the higher power? What kind of reward are they expecting, paradise? Some reward, when it is tainted and corrupt with so much evil.

If these bozos had any self-respect and love of God, surely they would declare themselves. Even the worst terrorist activity is followed by some declaration and statement. Why no statement? Who are you? Fiends without a face.

It's Sunday the July 3rd, the fans have gone home and there is much mess to clear up. The G8 Summit is a real happening, a free feed and booze up for the world's leading politicians. The usual rabble of anti-capitalists / globalists were drowned in the apolitcal tsunami created by Bob Geldof, who has has single-handedly made us all aware of the existence of Africa with its impoverished, disease-ridden and starving Africans! Before this historic event, Africa and its impecunious Africans did not exist; Sir Bob put them on the map. Well done Sir Bob; 5 billion people can't be wrong (today's News of the World - has Sir Bob turned around its opinions on African illegal immigrants into the UK?).

The question that really does beg to be answered is why no black acts at the main UK event?. Why did they have to go to a siding in Cornwall? Yes, Bob Geldof has certainly made us aware of the Africa and Africans, but they are somewhere over there - on an advertising hoarding in Sidcup. Sir Bob's piousness turns into pomposity - his sincerity has been running on empty.

The best part of this gig was Sir Bob teaming up with Blair on MTV. How come they did not go on a British TV network but chose a Yank one instead - pretty vacant, huh?, get my drift, these guys are too good for us Brits! - I heard there was much pawing and fawning over each other. Pope Bob beatifies Blair and makes him a saint overnight. St Blair makes a declaration that Africa had influenced him into entering politics (wow, let's go for a spin, St Blair). How clean is your image?

I am a cynic when it comes to events like this; they are massive advertising campaignes for pop stars and politicians. The best comment on the whole event came from none other than other Robbie Williams who was invited to do his stuff for Live 8. He had come out of quasi-retirement in LA; the young interviewer invited him to comment on Starving Africans - he did not answer the question but invited the youngwoman to get his rocks off with him. Yes, he was crass; yes, he was advertising his product and yes, he was advertising sexual prowess, but he did not attempt to make any pretence of it. After all, it's only rock and roll.

Labels: Blair, bob geldolf, G8, Live Aid