Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in adarisa's LiveJournal:

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Friday, July 24th, 2009
10:01 pm	Women in Politics Chloe Smith MP (she is an MP even though Parliament has yet to return from recess, see here): Poll #1434641 Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 7 Is View Answers Cute 6 (100.0%) Not Cute 2 (33.3%) Very Cute 2 (33.3%) This is View Answers Not an appropriate reaction to the election of an MP 4 (57.1%) An entirely normal reaction on seeing a picture or video of somebody for the first time 5 (71.4%) Something I should feel guilty about even considering 1 (14.3%) Inappropriate but inevitable given how goshdarned cute she is 3 (42.9%) Tickyfeminism 3 (42.9%) My Great Aunt was smothered to death by parliamentary kittens, you insensitive clod! 4 (57.1%) So, yes, bit worried about my reaction to this bit of news. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 21st, 2009
1:00 pm	Politician becomes US President, world overreacts Seriously, people. Barack Obama was a fairly good choice for President of the United States. He wouldn't have been my first pick or indeed my second, and I'd actually have preferred the man who is his Vice-President. He gives a pretty good speech, though I didn't think the inaugural was a particularly good one - a bit too stark for the occasion. He's not some kind of messianic figure, and he's certainly not the liberal icon some ill-informed people in Europe are promoting him as. He promised to filibuster the FISA amendment bill to allow warrantless wiretapping during the democratic primaries. After securing the nomination he not only voted in favour of cloture but actually voted for the bill itself. He opposes investigating members of the previous administration for war crimes, despite the fact that there is near-irrefutable evidence such crimes took place, and despite clear treaty requirements that the US do so. In fact, he's still considering allowing evidence gained through torture to be used in prosecutions and had to be shamed into not appointing a pro-torture CIA director. He claims that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons despite the fact declassified US National Intelligence Estimates and the IAEA both say that they're not. He backtracked from a position of supporting gay marriage because, y'know, it's not politically a very smart thing to support in the US. He threatened to veto any attempt to block or delay the release of $350bn into the Wall Street bailout, despite the fact that Congress is extremely unhappy with the lack of oversight and the Treasury hasn't even spent all the first wodge of cash yet (though it has earmarked it all). And he naturally parrots the predictably entirely pro-Israel line of the US establishment during any major middle east crisis. Yes, he's an improvement on Bush and he might even manage to be better than Clinton, but don't look for a radical new direction from the United States or a return to pre-2001 values, because one doesn't appear to be forthcoming. Obama is a politician - one who played the Chicago machine well enough to rise to the national level, and he thinks and acts like one. Every indication would be that this first term will be a study in the art of the possible. Current Music: whirrr (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008
3:39 am	Whilst waiting for returns... As the curtain slowly falls on another Presidential term, now may be a good time to look back on the previous eight years, charting the course of the American ship of state as it has tried to lead the free world, frequently in somewhat less than line astern, through the rather turbulent waters of the early 21st century. ( For the reality-impaired, this is alternate history ) Current Music: BBC people talking about Obama (Comment on this)
Friday, October 10th, 2008
4:27 pm	It is easy, in the chaos of the 24-hour news cycle and probably the greatest financial collapse since 1929, to read and react but not think. Doubtless this applies as much if not more so to the speculators and politicians as it does to the onlookers. Add national pride and 'stolen' money to the mix, and we have a situation where nobody is really responding with much beyond emotion. The Iceland crisis, then, does not appear to be a time for sober reflection. The basic facts are simple enough - Iceland's banking sector ran up a debt several times greater than the country's GDP (the reasons for which are complicated, but Iceland's growing wealth as a banking centre lead to diversification of much of its money outside the country, so when the American and European markets crashed they took the Icelanders down with them) and as a result the Icelandic government took over several banks. When it did so it conspicuously failed to guarantee that accounts held by British customers would remain intact. The British government screamed blue murder, seized over £7bn Icelandic assets (using anti-terrorism legislation, unsurprisingly without a terrorist threat in sight) - almost two-thirds of the country's GDP - in the UK and threatened to sue the government to get its money back. The response of the markets was predictable. The Icelandic Krona, already in trouble, lost almost half its value overnight before trading was suspended. It is true that Iceland was in severe financial difficulties prior to Britain's intervention; but when you encounter a man in difficulty on a precipice, do you push him over the edge? It gets worse. Iceland, not being notably temperate, depends on food imports as a country and the crash of its currency will make these increasingly expensive, driving the price of food up and doubtless sending sections of its population into poverty. Iceland was a friendly country, a NATO ally. The British Government has just contributed, in no small way, to its ruin. Why has this been wrought in our name? (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, September 26th, 2008
9:48 pm	Musings on the Windflower law... For those of you who haven't played the RPG Nobilis, a brief explanation is in order. The players take on the role of one of the Nobles, semi-divine incarnations and defenders of a concept. They are charged with protecting their concept (known as an Estate in game terms) from all harm and promoting the will of their Imperator (a godlike being who made them into a Noble in the first place). There are, however, certain rules these beings are expected to follow. One of these is the Windflower Law, which in its simplest terms says "Thou Shalt Not Love Another". So I thought "Well, um, what about the Power of Love?". And the following is my answer - a rather disputative Domina of Love, the chaotic and irrepressible Iolanthe (yes, the Gilbert&Sullivan character...), predictably sticking her oar in... ( May it displease the court ) Current Music: Sweet Escape - Gwen Stefani (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 25th, 2007
12:10 am	Um, this might kind of be a year late... So, I said I was going to write this for enismirdal's Christmas present last year, only I kind of wrote myself into a corner and...um...I got distracted, and, yes, it's kind of a year late. Ah well. Still Christmas, innit. As ever, if other people want to write anything using this setting they should feel free. I even have a page of author's notes somewhere if you're really interested. Title: Ex Astris, Ultio: The Tales of the Dread Pirate Eni Part: Chapter One, The Dragon's Lair (2/?) Length: 4,945 words Copyright: Copyright is owned by Stuart Fraser. You are granted the right to copy this for personal use only, and may not distribute it in either electronic or printed form without my permission. This is a work of original fiction. Well, about as original as Sci-Fi gets nowadays anyway. Other: See above, also please feel free to tell me how useless I am. Or even be nice about my writing ability, if you're that way inclined. ( Merry Christmas, Eni ) Current Mood: late Current Music: Pogues Feat. Kirsty MacColl - Fairytale of New York (Comment on this)
Sunday, June 10th, 2007
10:11 pm	Things I don't talk about The Master would not discourse on mystery, force, rebellion and deity - Analects 7.20 When Ji-lu asked how to serve the spirits and gods, the Master said: "You cannot serve men yet; how can you serve the spirits?" "May I venture to ask what death is?" The Master said: "You do not understand life yet; how can you understand death?" - Analects 11.12 Some debate topics recur with all the inevitability of death and taxes. Perhaps in Benjamin Franklin's day people were more original in their topics of conversation, or maybe Franklin had a greater boredom threshold (or a defective memory). Maybe he just had a good ear for a proverb and decided to stop his list while he was ahead. In any case, topics of religion and philosophy are discussed with remarkable regularity in the circles in which I move (ie, you lot). People who know me are probably aware that I rarely hold back from expressing an opinion. Yet I rarely (I'm not going to say never as then I'm sure somebody will manage to find a counterexample from a time I was more bored than wise) make any comment on these matters. I suppose it is about time I explained why not. Part of the answer lies in the Confucian teachings quoted. I broadly agreed with Master Kong on topics in Lun Yu on which I had preconceived notions when I read it; consequently I am significantly more receptive to the remainder of his ideas. In the broader sense, I have come to accept the existence not only of questions which are unanswerable, but also of questions which are unimportant. The former class can readily be formulated in mathematics and computer science, and so thanks to Alan Turing and others I am spared the burden of proving this. The second category will I fear (and hope, since anybody who writes a post like this and claims not to want people to comment is lying) prove more controversial. I think to illustrate what I mean by unimportant I'll stay in the general area of logic, and drag something out of an old IM conversation with Senji: adarisa: I suppose if it's undecidable as to whether or not it is undecidable it is, in fact, undecidable. senji: No, because that would make the decidableness decidable. adarisa: Only in a logical sense. This is the RealWorld adarisa: Because practically if it isn't decidable whether or not it's decidable obviously you can't decide about it. senji: Because otherwise you could decide the decidability by deciding. I am sure that to logicians and philosophers this is a symptom of a terribly limited and terrestrial mind, but I'm an applied physicist. Perhaps it's my way of getting back at them for misunderstandings of quantum mechanics. Most metaphysical issues are of similar importance. I am aware that it is questionable as to whether or not this is actually real, but it doesn't matter because I have no way of experiencing "reality" if this is not it, so what's to stop me from calling this "reality"?. Likewise, the question as to whether or not I have free will is irrelevant to my ability to experience the sensation of it, and the difference between two indistinguishable sensations is surely unimportant. Entities are defined by how they interact with the world; entities that do not interact with the world may exist, but as they have no effect on anything I have done, am doing or intend to do, they are abstractions I don't need to consider. Is this a particularly unusual position to take? Nobody else seems to be saying it... (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 21st, 2006
12:24 am	Albatross, Session 2 Resplendent Albatross, at anchor in an island in the Bordermarches north of The Neck, 16th Descending Fire, RY 765 My dearest Falcon, ( Session 2 ) All my love, Flame Current Mood: excited (Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 8th, 2006
5:12 pm	Albatross, Session 1 So I decided I'd write some of these, in-character as Flame, since nobody else seemed to be writing session reports for The Albatross. I do not believe anybody is likely to know about this. The journal is written in Flame's native Old Realm, probably. We (that's senji and I) assume that Skullstone's children are taught to speak in Old Realm by ghostly tutors, since this seems to fit with the archipelago's general intermixing of life and death. The writing style is scattergun because Flame tends to write as he thinks, not as would make sense. Flame has excellent personal presence but rather worse writing ability. ( Session 1 ) Current Music: Whirrrrr (Comment on this)
Sunday, October 8th, 2006
2:04 am	Alignments... The Lawful/Chaotic and Good/Evil axes are in many respects a lousy system to base a roleplaying mechanic off, but they are a nice way to talk about a character's styles of thought in a very brief manner provided you accept the obvious limitations of reducing a complex decision-making calculus to two words. Any way, enismirdal and I were arguing about the relative merits of various alignments for protagnoist characters. I complained that in my experience Chaotic Neutral types were normally a product of lazy writing, and I couldn't recall such a character I'd actually identified with. So then I got wondering, who had I actually identified with? Are they just me-aligned characters? (I generally claim to be painfully LG) In no particular order: Lyra Silvertongue, from His Dark Materials (Phillip Pulman): Chaotic Good Stephen Maturin, from Master and Commander and subsequent books (Patrick O'Brian): Neutral Good Giad Pelleaon, from Heir to the Empire and subsequent books (Timothy Zahn): Lawful Neutral Wedge Antilles, from Rogue Squadron and subsequent books (Timothy Zahn, Michael Stackpole, Aaron Allston): Lawful Good Vorian Atreidies, from Legends of Dune (Herbert/Anderson): Chaotic Good Iblis Ginjo, from Legends of Dune (Herbert/Anderson): Chaotic Evil* Ko-Ko, from The Mikado (Gilbert): True Neutral Of course, if I'm going to talk about characters I identified with, I ought to mention: Sesus Adarisa, from The Enemy of my Enemy (Mine): ??? Adarisa tried to be LG, but I don't know that she managed it except maybe by the standards of her own world. So there seems to be some tending towards either L or G, I suppose. My objection to CN and TN is that such characters generally lack a believable motivation, short of them needing to save the world because it's where they keep all their stuff. There is an exception in terms of "Envoy of Balance" characters, but I've yet to actually read any fiction in which such a character exists. Of course, in reality...Prince Klemens von Metternich of Austria might count as such a type, and I liked him. In conclusion, I'm not entirely sure if I have a point or not, and I should probably shut up. But somebody might be able to garner something from all of this. *Um, arguably Current Mood: contemplative Current Music: The Gondoliers (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, December 25th, 2005
11:30 pm	The tales of the dread pirate Eni So, I was thinking, what does one get an enismirdal for Christmas? There are material answers - but these are either boring (chocolate, port) or somewhat impractical (a colony of bees). Most of the things she wants are immaterial. The only thing she's ever directly stated to me that she wants is: tentrevir: I have a sekrit desire to be a Mary Sue Well, OK, but how does one do that, beyond writing a story? What type of Mary Sue is she? Fortunately, this problem was solved by senji's subconscious, and his decision to tell us about it here. Consequently, I present to you the tale of the origins of the Dread Space Pirate Eni. ( Preamble ) ( Christmas Present Fic. 4,740 words long. You have been warned. ) Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: Jailhouse Rock - Elvis (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, October 24th, 2005
11:29 pm	There are two orders of magnitude more Google page returns for [Defra competent] (85,000) than [Defra incompetent] (543). I feel that this is a great and unfair imbalance and should be corrected somehow. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 28th, 2005
5:29 pm	Repeat offenders and greed, a two-part special! (Part 1) ( Baseball and punishment ) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, September 22nd, 2005
2:39 pm	You can never be too careful... ...Apparently. I feel I should share with you the chilling warning of the US Department of Homeland Security's Red Cell on Terrorist Use of Pressure Cookers. Amongst the highlights of the report: "There are few fundamental differences among pressure cookers as they all work on the same basic principle." "Note: Any Pressure Cooker weighing more than expected may be suspect" This is illustrated with a couple of men in combat fatigues standing over a bunch of kitchen apparatus (most of which appear to be saucepans) captioned "Confiscated Maylaysian (sic) pressure cookers" Apparently terrorist groups do use pressure cookers as containers for bombs, or "Improvised Explosive Devices" as the DHS would have it. This information, I believe, could have been communicated in a single sentence rather involving than the above silliness. The DHS, and the many British organisations with the same job, are, I believe, almost institutionally incapable of dealing with the terrorist threat. Other than their monumental uselessness in actually combatting terrorism (the way forward in law enforcement, apparently, is to arrest people wearing rucksacks and also making the police judge, jury and executioner), they have proven hidebound to thinking of global struggles as conflicts between governments. The media have not helped; by creating the bogeyman of "Al-Qa'eda" where none exists. Al-Qa'eda is a nothing, a front, a name - but a name it suits many almost entirely independent cells to go by, since for as long as they do, the West will react to them as one when they are many and diverse. All that these organisations share is an ideology (usually) and a goal (mostly; the stated aim is the withdrawal of US forces from the Middle East), and perhaps limited resources and planning intelligence. One might note that, then, the only difference between the terrorists and the governments opposing them is that in the former case it is intentional that the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. Intelligence agencies, alas, being themselves large in scale, think big. Terrorist organisations, having learned better than to try and fight on that scale, will stay small. Current Mood: cynical Current Music: Bloc Party - So Here We Are (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 20th, 2005
8:12 pm	Not good PR for PR ( Germany ) ( The wider issue ) (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, July 9th, 2005
2:50 am	The Base for Holy War After some thought, I decided to write a reaction comment to the attacks on the London Underground system. The title of this post is a translation of Al Qa'eda al-Jihad, the full name of the world's most infamous illegal organisation, and the presumed masterminds, or at least inspirations behind, the attack; although it is also a more direct reference to the content of the post. I should probably declare a human interest in the attacks; two of my dance teachers, Crystal Main and Bruce Lait, were injured in the attacks. I'd last seen Crystal a week and a day before the attacks; she missed the Dancesport A class the day before and her mother (this seems to run in the family...) gave it instead. Crystal is apparently more or less OK now and has been released from hospital, Bruce is still recovering following surgery. For balance, I also ought to admit that other than this, I think I was more affected by the English victory in the first Natwest Challenge One-Day International. A tragedy, but it is highly likely that more people died on America's roads than in the underground on 07/07/05. That aside, the reaction of London and people has been impressive. For those who lived through the IRA campaigns (I count myself amongst these - I knew of the IRA and what they did by the time I was six or so, in 1990) I suppose there is little new here other than the co-ordinated nature of the attack. The IRA generally gave warning unless attacking what it considered to be military targets, it is true, and this decreased the overall number of casualties, but overall the effect is much the same. London has shrugged the events off as a minor irritation, and even the stock exchange has regained its losses. A cup of tea has been suggested as a remedy, which clearly shows that the British are still British. The media, though, has been disconcertingly shrill. The Daily Star's headline was the most manic, but the pitch of even the broadsheets was annoyingly high. Pursue the perpetrators, consider re-evaluating the security for the capital and for the 2012 Olympics, mourn the dead and be thankful for the survival of the living. Do not, however, do so whilst throwing a hissy fit in the general direction of anyone and everyone you can think of. The frequent calls of "We musn't let it change our way of life" greatly remind me of Corporal Jones in Dad's Army, whose shouts of "Don't Panic, Don't Panic!" were about the most alarm-inducing sound one could imagine. "We musn't let them change our way of life" has become a catchphrase, something which has substituted for the need for considered thought about such an incident. I am not in any way an expert on security, the Middle East, or radical Islam, but I do read the thoughts of some people who are. Juan Cole, a professor of Middle Eastern history, has written a very erudite analysis published on Salon with which I agree, or at least accede to his greater knowledge, in many points. Ultimately, people attack things they feel in some way threatened by, and the cultural, economic and military hegemony of the United States and its allies - of which we are the proximate - is clearly threatening to many people. It is long overdue that this was addressed. Not merely the simply callous imperialism of acts like the attack on Iraq - a strategic blunder fueled by a thirst for revenge - but the more pernicious, creeping imperialism against which the cleric rails and the average Westerner fails to see. McDonald's, perhaps the ultimate symbol of American capitalism, is to these people a threat, of subjection and cultural extinction. Combine this with an American President with all the sensitivity of a two-by-four and all the confidence in Divine Right of Louis XIV, and those in the Islamic world who fear annihilation seem a little less irrational. To them, this is a total war in which there can be no surrender - just as it is for Israel, there is victory or nonexistence, and nothing in between. With this pernicious worldview gaining ground, there will be no peace in our time. It is not insignificant that the London statement referred to "Crusader armies". Here, unfortunately, is where I get vague. I have not read the Qu'ran, although I think it just vaulted to the top of my reading list. What I do know is that once Islam lead the world in culture and tolerance, that the Muslim cities of Seville and Cordoba were once Europe's grandest, and that there is no reason that Islamic and post-Enlightenment western culture cannot coexist, if the latter will tone down its predations. So, should we let the terrorists change our way of life? My answer is yes. Much as I disagree with their means of expression, they have a grievance which, valid or not, will not go away and needs to be addressed. As individuals and collectively, we have a duty to assuage the fears of the Islamic world. There are obvious points at which we should start both at governmental level - the Israeli-Palestinian conflict needs some form of two-state resolution; the increasing demands to open up to Western businesses should be toned down, and statesmen should adopt less of a commanding tone, whilst maintaining a resolute defence of human rights in the region. American politicians are used to supporting their arguments from the Bible when they campaign in the States; there is no reason not to turn to the Qu'ran when in the Middle East. On a more personal level, this is a time for open-mindedness and contemplation, not adversarial thought. Our enemies are fear and despair; ultimately, I agree with the Prime Minister: "There is no hope in terrorism, nor any future in it worth living. And it is hope that is the alternative to this hatred." - Tony Blair, Gleneagles, 8th July 2005 Current Mood: contemplative Current Music: Friend of the Devil - Counting Crows (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, June 10th, 2005
8:52 pm	*thwaps USSC* It will probably have escaped the attention of everybody likely to read this journal that, in their opinion on the case Raich vs. Gonzales, the United States supreme court ruled, in a 6-3 decision, that the Commerce clause of the constitution (empowering Congress "to regulate commerce with foreign nations, amongst the several states, and with the Indian tribes") gave the Federal government authority to destroy cannabis plants grown for personal use legally under Californian state law. This is, perhaps, one of the more stupid opinions this august body has held recently. Clarence Thomas is not a man I have much respect for, but his dissent here strikes the proverbial nail on the head: "By holding that Congress may regulate activity that is neither interstate nor commerce under the Interstate Commerce Clause, the Court abandons any attempt to enforce the Constitution’s limits on federal power." The principal dissent, written by the "Swing Justice" Sandra Day O'Connor, is scarcely less scathing: "The Court’s definition of economic activity is breathtaking. It defines as economic any activity involving the production, distribution, and consumption of commodities. And it appears to reason that when an interstate market for a commodity exists, regulating the intrastate manufacture or possession of that commodity is constitutional either because that intrastate activity is itself economic, or because regulating it is a rational part of regulating its market." The justification for this halfbrained decision was the precedent of Wickard vs. Filburn, wherein the Court decreed that the Secretary for Agriculture was allowed to penalise a farmer for growing in excess of his quota, despite the farmer's claim he intended the excess for personal use, on the grounds that this affected his contribution to the demand for his product, and thus had an affect on interstate commerce. O'Connor is suitably dismissive: "It will not do to say that Congress may regulate noncommercial activity simply because it may have an effect on the demand for commercial goods, or because the noncommercial endeavor can, in some sense, substitute for commercial activity. Most commercial goods or services have some sort of privately producible analogue. Home care substitutes for daycare. Charades games substitute for movie tickets. Backyard or windowsill gardening substitutes for going to the supermarket. To draw the line wherever private activity affects the demand for market goods is to draw no line at all, and to declare everything economic." Possibly the scariest implication offered so far is that since marital sex is a fairly obvious analogue for (illegal in most states, but still commercial) prostitution, Congress has just been granted the power to regulate anything it wants that happens between two consenting adults in their own bedrooms. Eep. However, and despite O'Connor's detailed distinguishing of this case from Wickard, this to me points to a major problem with the English common law system - namely, that if an emiment judge asserts 2+2=5, then it necessarily becomes incorrect to argue in future cases that 2+2=4. Precedent is all very well, but judicial decisions really ought to be considered with reference to facts other than a mountain of case law. Precedents, at least, should have a lifetime of thirty years, after which time the issues should be recosidered in the light of changes in society. The sight of the odious Dred Scott decision becoming controlling over debates on same-sex marriage recognition is evidence enough, surely. I don't expect many of you will share my opinion of the importance of this case. It's a federalist thing - individual states of a union should be allowed to police themselves, and in general all authority should be devolved as far as is possible. The man in charge does not know best, and being elected by more people does not make you cleverer. The people best qualified to represent their citizens are those who represent fewest of them. I am aware this post is disorganised, but that's because it was written over four hours whilst reading the opinion. I go dancing now. ---- There are the traditional bits of USSC sarcasm in judicial opinions - I wonder if there is a "dry humour" test before you become a judge? - which provide at least amusement if not compensation: "We generally assume States enforce their laws, and have no reason to think otherwise here." "Moreover, even a Court interested more in the modern than the original understanding of the Constitution ought to resolve cases based on the meaning of words that are actually in the document." Current Mood: annoyed Current Music: A Long December - Counting Crows (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, May 7th, 2005
1:16 am	Election analysis Well, I'm not starting revision this late, so analysis it is. This requires less science thought, and I'm far better at political thought at this time of the evening. So, what did Election 2005 have to tell the interested observer? ( Really rather a lot, so cut ) The overall effect of this election may be to move Labour further to the left - a natural consequence of their reduced majority - and away from America. Europe will be an interesting issue, although I expect the French to get Blair off the hook by voting down the European constitution themselves at the end of this month, and I cannot imaging the French taking kindly to being told that that was the wrong answer and would they like to try voting again until they get it right, which is the traditional EU response to a "No". I await the ensuing chaos with interest. A constitution which the French reject as too right-wing and the British reject as too left-wing does rather illustrate something of the problem the EU currently has. The Conservatives will, I expect, continue to muddle on, although much depends on the leader they elect. I am hoping for David Davies; they have an excellent shot at forming a government next time in any case. The Liberal Democrats need to work out whether they are a left wing or centre party, and commit resources to the North or the South West accordingly. If they do not choose they run the risk of losing both, or, more likely, becoming left-wing by default as the Conservative gains in the South this time around continue. All of these are, of course, things I could have said before the election - which is a fitting epitaph for this most perfunctory of exercises in democracy. Current Mood: analytical Current Music: Destiny Calling - James (Comment on this)
Thursday, May 5th, 2005
1:00 pm	As everyone else is at it.... Actually I voted several days ago via post (yes, some people have actually recieved forms), but anyway the point stands. I am really rather depressed about this election since I can't conceive of any outcome which I think will be good for the country. I am expecting a rather similar election to the last one - minor Conservative gains, Lib Dems picking up a few seats here and there that they targeted (Cambridge might be one; as Chesterfield was last time, but it is unlikely). I may be suprised. I have called the Conservative manifesto "the longest handwritten suicide note in history" and would quite like to see Micheal Howard's head on a pike outside Central Office. Running an election campaign that alienates half of your core vote whilst galvanising the opposition supporters and stabilising their crumbling base is really quite an impressive achievement. I am not aware of any election post-World War I in which the governing party was returned with an increased majority, I fear that this one may be the first. Current Mood: grrrrrrr Current Music: Am fuming in silence.... (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, April 28th, 2005
12:32 am	A question... Should I highlight pieces of news and, more often, opinion that I've encountered on the Internet that I consider to be interesting and instructive? This is, after all, somewhat a political blog, a form of communication which does rather like linking to everywhere and everything. Answers on a postcard^W comment. ( Meanwhile, I will carry on regardless ) (4 Comments |Comment on this)