Robert Hampton

Hm.

This shouldn't be happening.

Just read the BBC report on Jerry Springer: The Opera (link goes to PDF). It's a thorough report which reveals just how carefully the BBC weighed up the pros and cons of showing the programme, with the final decision going all the way to the Director General himself. Amusingly, and quite rightly, it dismisses all 50,000+ pre-broadcast complaints in a single sentence.

Up yours, fundamentalist wackos! Now, when's the DVD out?

Amidst all the tributes to the Pope for his contribution to the world (and I'm not denying that he did do a lot of good), it's good to see someone not blind to his failings and putting across a contrasting view, reminding us that it wasn't all good news:-

Read the rest of this post »

“This is not the homo land, this is the Holy Land.”

Muslim, Jewish and Christian leaders in Jerusalem have put aside their differences to unite against a common enemy: homosexuals.

The judge in a vote-rigging trial says the postal voting system is "wide open to fraud" and has strongly attacked the government's attitude to the problem.

Another issue occurred to me today which I think is far worse than electoral fraud. What happens if you vote in good faith for a candidate by post and then the next morning you open the newspaper to see the headline: “CANDIDATE IN PIG SEX SCANDAL”? Can you get your vote back? We need to be told!

Merseyrail guards walk out on Grand National day.

Fuck.

Fuckity-fuck-fuck.

This is not good.

Spotted this in the Liverpool Echo's Quotes of the Day section:-

“At least we have been spared Tony Blair describing him as ‘The People's Pope’” — Patricia Deacon, of Fairford, Glos, in a letter to The Daily Telegraph

“Across the world he was the People's Pope” — Michael Ancram, Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party.

I filled out a YouGov survey a couple of days ago. One question was about whether I knew the members of the Tory Shadow Cabinet. Shamefully I couldn’t remember who any of them were or what jobs they did. Now, for all the wrong reasons, I know of Michael Ancram.

Y’know, Arriva do their best and bus travel in Liverpool is not as horrible as some people would have you believe…

But I still couldn’t help looking at my watch every two minutes and thinking to myself, “I’d be there by now.”

Firefox has been ported to RISC OS!

One less reason to own a Windows PC then…

Wow. Arthur 1.0, the original operating system for the Acorn Archimedes, and forerunner of RISC OS.

Having played with it a bit via A310Emu this evening, I can confidently say that I’ve finally found a user interface which is more unpleasant than Windows.

Who Should You Vote For? says I should vote Liberal Democrat, which is what I expected.

I was mortified, however, when it gave UKIP as my second choice. All I did was tick the “we shouldn't join the Euro” box!

I want to place it on record that I am not a senile retired colonel nor a narrow-minded little Englander. I have to stop reading my parents' Daily Mail every morning…

…or it could just mean that the above site is a load of crap. That works too.

I did have to feel sorry for the poor student-type on the train today whose headphones prevented him from hearing the announcement that Liverpool Central was closed for refurbishment. On the other hand, the look on his face as the train ran through the station non-stop was priceless and certainly brightened my afternoon.

He therefore had to make an unscheduled detour to Brunswick, where I advised him that if he ran over the footbridge he might just catch the train going the other way. He alighted muttering various obscenities under his breath. Which is not unusual for people alighting at Brunswick, in my experience.

That is all.

…which is just as well, since my bank account contains the princely sum of £2.90. Which, by anyone's standards, is not good.

My Latest Music Purchase: The Simpsons Sing The Blues.

‘Cos, you know, I like to be up to date with the latest fads.

Isn't it a bit hypocritical of the Labour Party to criticise the Tories for exploiting people's fears on immigration, when Charles Clarke & Co are happy to exploit people's fears on terrorism to get the ID card legislation through?

Recently I’ve been getting quite a few spams with “WALLIUM WIAGRA” in the subject line.

This could mean one of two things: it's a lame attempt to get round spam filters; or Mr Chekhov from Star Trek has decided to enter the competitive world of unsolicited commercial e-mail.

Oh, and Nicholas Parsons was guest host on Have I Got News for You — hurray!