I've neglected this blog for a while, maybe a reason why I lost two followers recently (which shouldn't have bothered me, but you know, its like friends on Facebook, it may be narcissistic but you always want more). So, spurred on by the return of Liam's blog I'm going to try and return to my heyday, which means I waste time here rather than on iPlayer.
So instead of jumping in with a long rambling post, here's some tidbits of what's happened on all kinds of different subjects that I was mean enough not to give my opinion on at the time:
Comprehensive Spending Review
Obviously, I had to include this in here briefly. In short, it was a shambles, a dangerous gamble by a ragtag government where half are intent on helping their pals by shrinking the state and the other half, well, the other half are Lib Dem's. The less said about them the better.
What's frankly scary and hilarious at the same time is that Osborne and Clegg can claim that these cuts are 'fair and progressive', a claim it took the IFS less than 24 hours to completely debunk, not exactly watertight. The only way Osborne has been able to claim that this CSR and his budget were fair and progressive were by including measures that Labour introduced in Darling's budget! The pure cheek of the man claiming that his budget is fair on the back of changes that they scathed at the time. I can't remember much support from the Tories for the 50% tax rate or the supposed 'Jobs Tax'.
Then you learn that the budget hits families twice as hard as banks, hits women far harder than men, will weaken the incentive's for people to work, and other than the top 2% of earners those who lose the most of their income are the poorest 10% of people. How is that fair? How is that progressive?
Football
Well, I should start with Blackpool, who were frankly robbed of a victory against City at the weekend, though I suppose that's the way it goes in football sometimes. We played as well as I've seen all season, better even than at Liverpool, but just couldn't make it count. (Though a wrongly disallowed goal and a goal that shouldn't have stood for them doesn't help) If we can carry on like that all season though, we'll be fine. The test comes after January, if we can keep up the standards and if we have enough strength in depth to keep plugging along to the end.
And the other big football story, Wayne Rooney. He has now apparently signed a new deal with United, after a messy and silly tiff he seemed to have going on. To claim that Manchester United didn't have enough ambition was silly and to not show a little more respect to a manager who protected him from so much in his time was plain rude. Yes, United may have lost some big names without bringing in equally big names, but that isn't how they operate, and I don't doubt for a second Alex Ferguson's ability to spot young talent and keep his club challenging at the top end of the table for years to come. (But for this year the league is Chelsea's to lose)
Also, if you want comedy gold mixed with an incisive football mind, look no further than Ian Holloway.
Jamie Oliver
Recently, I've been watching quite a lot of Jamie Oliver's stuff on 4od, starting with his new documentary on the American Food Revolution, it really is great. I was never really that much of a fan when I wasn't exaclty sure what he did, but he's taking on a massive problem (no pun intended) in obesity and doing remarkably well.
The things that are served as school dinners are disgraceful (not just in America) and its no wonder that obesity is now the biggest killer in the western world. Our diets aren't fit for purpose and it takes a strong man to take them on. Whatever you think of his techniques, you can't deny that his ambitions come from a good place and if not his way, then how?
Illusions on iPlayer
A while ago I mentioned some really interesting things that had been on Horizon about essentially bringing people back from the dead. They've got another great one out now about how our eyes, ears and even touch don't always tell us the truth about what's going on, and about how that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Worth a watch if for nothing more than getting to have a go at a lot of pretty cool illusions.
(You may have noticed I've gone a little more link crazy than normal. I just thought it'd make it a little more credible if I showed you where I got some of my stuff from and that it isn't all made up baloney.)
No comments:
Post a Comment