http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/thatchfuneral

heh heh

which led me to this..

back to work now

so the little tykes let that nice mr cameron have his bike back..
maybe the tories do have the answers?

anyone else smell fish?

labour lose in Glasgow east, which must be depressing for mr brown. labour are going to lose the next general election - i think that's almost a certainty - but if scotland continous to vote snp then wither labour in the north? full scottish independence edges ever closer and without its scottish seats (and who knows, its welsh ones too) can labour ever win such a landslide election in england as it did in 97? i doubt it. the only way forward is PR (and not the spinning sort!)
after the revelations about 'work for dole', ID cards, the effective suspension of habeas corpus, the war.. i will find it hard to vote labour again.

our government (and the tories) are planning to make all those on the dole over a year to do community service. so what are we saying? petty criminals and long term unemployed are the same? why not bring back houses of correction to force petty crims to break rocks and pick oakem, and the workhouse so all those millions of benefit scroungers can be housed in convenient bastilles separated from their families if they DARE to ask for more handouts

what with footballers living in slavery are we caught up in some bizarre Dr who episode set in victorian cardiff?

it would appear that my version of Word for Mac2004 has a glitch: on several occasions its grammar checker suggests i use 'there' when the correct word is 'their'. this might explain why there are so many similar errors in my students' essays. there is a belief amongst tutors that their students don't know their there's from their their's and their computer isn't helping.

well its been weeks hasn't it? and i was fed up with all the golf coverage by 8 o'clock on thursday morning

today 'good old arsenal' tv had the first pre-season friendly - the annual derby against our more loving near neighbours, barnet. the reserves play there so it was no surprise to see hardly any first teamers line up against the league two side. aluminia (who looked a bit iffy - and not just his hair ), clichy and sagna with justin hoyte and nordviedt at the back; aron ramsey and denilson in the middle, lansbury and traore on the wings;walcott and bendtner up front; they looked good at the back and inventive but no end result. barnet ended the half one up through a great freekick. second half wenger changed the entire team and it was virtually the reserve and youth side combined. they were better, hungrier and perhaps more used to each other.

overall ramsey shone as the star of the day, with young jack willshire (he's only 7 years old) very promising. shame there weren't more first team regulars and it would have been nice to see nasri. verdict on a 2-1 away win (barazite and simpson with the goals)? ok, but if the togonator does p*ss off to spain or italy we need to buy a forward, or two, and i'd buy a goalie.

as for cambridge.... only went and beat a proper everton side 4-2 at the abbey! 1 nil up 2-1 down then turned it around. fanatastic.. europe here we come (in five years time!)

oh and my african side, kaiser chiefs, held the mancs 1-1

writing this while my office printer chunters out the 208 pages of my book draft. Its not complete but its getting there

spent a few days in the 'smoke' this week: at the archives discovering how shitty soem people's lives were when they fell foul of the law or (more often) poverty in the 18th century. the business at work (which rumbles on but may coem to a head this week or next) and the almost indescribable misery of london's poorest in the 1780s has re-radicalised me and i think my writing has got punchier. hopefully this will result in a better book.

also went to the jack the ripper exhibition at the museum in docklands. very good. naturally very few revelations for me there given that i know the 'story' pretty well but it was poignant to see the wonderful moving and static images of eastenders struggling against poverty in the 1880s. last night watched alastair cooke's postcards from america which focused on - amongst other things - the riots in LA in the 1990s which also had much to do with poverty and alienation. The message seems to be fairly straightforward: treat people like animals and deprive them of real equality and face the consequences rich man.

hope you are all well - i'm looking forward to better weather this weekend and no nasty surprises in the post

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/7509273.stm

so farewell then alex hleb
your silky skills and flicks
confounded many a premiership pleb
but your ice cream meeting and agent's tricks
and confession that london is just TOO big
showed you are
just like most modern footy stars
frankly
a bit of prick

go away and come back another day. I don't know about you lot but I can't stand the rain outside my window. I suppose that into every life a little rain must fall, but why is so much falling in mine? I might as well live down rain street. people said its gonna rain on the world today, everywhere, even in soho where some of us took shelter from a shower and i fell into her arms. oh listen to the pouring rain, listen to it pour - who cares about the weather? she does, she brings the rain - it feels like spring - oh yeah she brings the rain. apparently the rain comes from the east, water dripping from our clothes, we don't mind at all. in fact we'll just listen to the rhythm of the falling rain, telling me what fool i've been..

do you have a favourite rain song?

...anyone?
what a load of tosh!

but quite fun   

first blood to the spaniard..

light,bike,guardian,coffee,toast,tidy,mum,text,pet shop,flu pills, tesco, vanilla pod,hells angel, avocado, prawns, guardian (again), cooking, garden, beer, chat, cooking, daleks, travellers, puppy, mushrooms, rioja, tiramisu, sherry, chat, peep show, bed

criminal justice on the beeb? horribly compelling television. if the prison system is anything like its being depicted its a national scandal. he's only on remand..he hasn't been convicted of anything and he's being subjected to systematic abuse.

seen this?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/liverpool/7483317.stm

£20m for robbie kean?
£18m for gareth barry (he's good but really.. £18m?)
£14 for darren bent..

and they wonder why wenger always buys overseas players