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April 30, 2005
SNP countdown poster 5
Posted by Simon Holledge at 11:50 AM | TrackBack
April 29, 2005
New Vote 2005 Forum
A new Vote 2005 discussion forum has appeared. There is a note explaining:
Unlike some other forums, Vote2005forum.org.uk is NOT sponsered by, nor affiliated to, any political party or such persons associated with political parties. We take a neutral stance and moderate posts fairly and have rules that members abide by.
It resembles closely Vote-2005 UK Election Prediction, a popular phpbb based forum, compromised by a lot of aggressive anonymous posting, which was sponsored by Politicos Bookshop (12 February).
Vote-2005 is currently unobtainable. Attempting to access the site brings up an access forbidden notice (error 403). The site seems to have died on 20 April.
Posted by Simon Holledge at 07:14 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
SNP countdown poster 6
Posted by Simon Holledge at 07:00 PM | TrackBack
April 28, 2005
Electoral fraud advice
They Work For You are offering advice about electoral fraud. They write:
“If you’re as worried as we are about electoral fraud, here’s what you can do:
Don’t vote by post. Turn up: it’s worth it.
Ring your council, ask for the Electoral Register Division, and check you’re name is not on the “marked register” - ie, someone has already voted in your name. Find your council’s number here: www.upmystreet.com/lgc_roles
Finally, if you suspect fraud, email electoral.fraud@guardian.co.uk, who are collecting incidents to report on, and contact the police.”
UPDATE 1 May 2005
The Council of Europe may investigate the British postal voting system and the way it could have been abused in this election.
Eric Jurgens, chairman of the Council of Europe’s Council for Democratic Elections is reported as saying: “Some people will think it strange that after focusing on the countries of Eastern Europe we would look at Britain. But if there are problems then they should be examined. Britain is a mature democracy, and so we would not need observers at ballot stations, we would be sending people to examine your rules.”
news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=465932005
Posted by Simon Holledge at 10:58 AM | TrackBack
SNP countdown poster 7
Peter Murrell of The SNP is publishing a daily countdown poster for the last week of the campaign. This is today’s poster.
Posted by Simon Holledge at 10:27 AM | TrackBack
April 27, 2005
Your MP's Report Card
They Work For You have prepared a short report card on every MP in the last parliament. All you have to do is type in your postcode and you can see the relevant page.
In my case, I learn that during 2001-05 my own ex-MP, Anne McGuire (Stirling Labour), “voted very strongly” for introducing foundation hospitals and student top-up fees, for Labour’s anti-terrorism laws, for the Iraq war and for equal gay rights. She “voted moderately” for introducing ID cards, and “a mixture of for and against” the fox hunting ban.
Posted by Simon Holledge at 11:22 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
All BT exchanges to be enabled
All British Telecom exchanges in Scotland are to be enabled for broadband by the end of this year. This has been funded under the Scottish Executive’s Broadband for Scotland’s Rural and Remote Areas initiative with both government and European money.
Without knowing the details of the BT/Scottish Executive agreement, it seems disappointing that the government have gone back to the old monopoly service and the telephone system rather than forward to new technology (like WiMax etc.) which may have more to offer in the future and be better suited to remote areas. However other suppliers may not have had the capability to deliver within the time allowed.
Not everybody will be able to access fast internet connections, as some people will still be too far away from their local exchange to be connected.
www.publictechnology.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2816
Posted by Simon Holledge at 03:12 PM | TrackBack
April 26, 2005
Skype
My wife has been in Japan for the past two weeks and we’ve been testing out Skype, the free P2P internet telephone, to keep in touch. We found the sound quality excellent. We had a problem with feedback/echo through a laptop microphone, but once we switched to headphone/microphone sets it worked fine. (The actual ‘phone’ is a software device that appears on screen.)
Skype is easy to set up and the interface is simple. SIPphone, a genuine VoIP service, may offer even better sound but it is more complicated to use.
Posted by Simon Holledge at 03:23 PM | TrackBack
SNP trucking
Following Backing Blair’s successful poster trucking, the SNP are hoping to put five poster vans on the road round Scotland for the last week of the campaign. It’s a great way of getting a simple message across.
The email from Peter Murrell, Chief Executive of the SNP, explains that the vans will cost 10,000 pounds. The party have 2,500 email addresses (for 10,000 + members), so they are hoping each person will give 4 pounds or more to the camapign.
I wonder many Scots now have email? My impression is that it is higher than 25 per cent. It certainly is higher in my area. Maybe the SNP need to gather more addresses for occasions like this?
Posted by Simon Holledge at 12:21 AM | TrackBack
April 25, 2005
Spinon satire
The election humour in Spinon just gets better. Originally set up by Rubber Republic it includes the work of DogHorse, Neil Hepburn, Eclectech, and Ben Butterworth.
Our prospects for getting rid of unpopular politicians may not be improving but in the world of satire they have already been annihilated. Hurrah for photoshop and the power of the net!
Posted by Simon Holledge at 11:45 AM | TrackBack
April 24, 2005
Salvaging a bit of optimism
Probably the best thing that can be said for this election is that more and more people are becoming aware of the inadequacy of the British electoral system: they realize that however many of us want to see the back of Tony Blair we are not going to be able to make it happen.
An article on the Electoral Reform Society (ERS) site explains that we could call 425 of the results (outside Northern Ireland) with certainty right now. Another 54 constituencies would require swings of over 7 percent to change hands. Only 2 per cent of electors will have any real influence over what happens.
MakeMyVoteCount.org.uk, which is linked to the ERS, are campaigning for reform and are asking people to sign their petition. The site is endorsed by Charles Kennedy: “Make Votes Count have done a fantastic job … . The last General Election showed clearly why the need for a proportional voting system is as great as ever. Under First-Past-the-Post voter participation is declining, as more and more people are finding that their vote simply does not count… .”
I have mixed feelings about the Joseph Rowntree funded POWER ‘an independent enquiry into Britain’s democracy’, as this frequently seems to fall back on an establishment viewpoint.
On the entry page they say: “We seem to be entering an era of permanent political disaffection and mistrust, where the gap between citizens and political power is getting ever wider. … This growing disconnection between the governors and the governed threatens to undermine the vitality and legitimacy of Britain’s Democracy.”
This rather begs the question of when exactly the system did enjoy vitality and legitimacy.
The POWER blog has some good comments, but the questions can be patronizing “Do young people actually know what the word democracy means?” and the people running the site don’t appear to have the expertise to send proper email notifications etc.
Perhaps I should put forward Holledge’s Law? The more people are involved in publishing a website, and the more they are paid, the more amateurish the website will be.
www.electoral-reform.org.uk/news/05-04-19-seats.htm
www.makemyvotecount.org.uk/home.html
Posted by Simon Holledge at 07:37 PM | TrackBack
April 23, 2005
The Brack
The Brack Photo © SCH
I spent today away from the computer and the election - hill walking. The Brack is fine, rocky Corbett (787 metres high) in the Arrochar Alps, next to the considerably more famous Ben Arthur (‘The Cobbler’). The scenery here is more rugged than the Trossachs. The Brack is a mountain of grass and grey sculptured boulders inlaid with gleaming quartz, a place with lots of ‘corners’.
Lochan near the summit of The Brack Photo © SCH
Posted by Simon Holledge at 11:32 PM | TrackBack
April 22, 2005
More political test sites
There are two new political test websites, evidently modelled on the successful Political Compass Test.
Gabriel Rosenberg’s Political Compass is a diamond rather than a square, but like the original site, it contrasts left/right with libertarian/authoritarian.
Chris Lightfoot’s Political Survey 2005 shows the individual relative to the British electorate as a whole. There are two axes stretching from rehabilitation/internationalist on the left to hanging/flogging Eurosceptic on the right, from freemarket/pro-war at the top to socialist/anti-war at the bottom.
My results were different for each test. The original Political compass had me down as a libertarian/leftist aligned with Gandhi, Mandela, the Dalai Lama and the Greens. Rozenberg thought I was a centrist. Lightfoot’s test evaluated me on one axis as ‘very internationalist and rehabilitationist’ ( with 93 per cent of Britons to my right and only 1 per cent to my left!), but on the other axis only ‘slightly socialist and anti-war’.
www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,20929,00.html
Posted by Simon Holledge at 12:32 AM | TrackBack
April 21, 2005
SNP newsfeed restored
The SNP newsfeed is available again. The XML URL is:
http://www.snp.org/html/snpnews.xml
Posted by Simon Holledge at 11:11 PM | TrackBack
April 20, 2005
Holyrood and the Webby Awards
The Online Parliamentarian report that Holyrood have paid to enter the Webby Awards! What a joke! Can it really be true?
I can’t remember when I discovered the Webbies “the only award show for Internet sites that matters”. Actually I think they found me. I wasn’t sure whether I needed or was worthy of an award, but when I saw the entry fee was between 95 and 195 dollars, I realized it was a scam.
incunabula.typepad.com/parliament/2005/04/thewebbyaward.html
UPDATE 21 April 05
Here is link to a Scottish Parliament news release dated 10 May 2004. It refers to the competition last year. (Apparently this year’s announcement is no longer on the website.)
www.scottish.parliament.uk/nmCentre/news/news-04/pa04-030.htm
I have found the spam email the Webby Awards sent me in December 2001. They offered me a discount if I applied early! See below:
X-Sender: drwatson@mail.webbyawards.com (Unverified)
Date: Sat, 8 Dec 2001 13:47:27 -0800
To: interestedentrants@webbyawards.com
From: Doc Watson drwatson@webbyawards.com
Subject: Webby Awards Call for Entries Has Begun - Discount to 12-21-01
You are receiving this email because you registered to be notified when the call for entries began. Thank you for your interest.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The 6th Annual Webby Awards Seek The Best of the Web.
The Web sites that people go to daily for information, entertainment, community products and services. The Web sites who model the best practices for this year and will set the standards as we enter the Internet’s second decade.
We know you’re out there. Stand up.
Enter Your Site Now for an Early Bird Discount http://www.webbyawards.com/main/submit/index.html
You are large and small, alternative or mass-market, creating content and services in any of our 30 categories from Activism to Commerce, Travel to Education, Film to Personal Web Site, NetArt to Technical Achievement, and our best of the best, Best Practices.
You deserve to be recognized for your achievements; to receive acknowledgement from the leading international honor in technology, creativity and individual achievement; to receive exposure only the top award can bring — placing you on the map or reminding people that you’re still the best — more traffic, new visitors, new customers, new members to your community.
You’re there. You’re setting standards, you’re pushing boundaries. Let us see you. Stand up. Stand out.
Enter Your Site Now for an Early Bird Discount http://www.webbyawards.com/main/submit/index.html
Early Deadline: 12.21.01 Final Deadline: 01.31.02
The 6th Annual Webby Awards Honoring the best in creativity, technology and individual achievement. http://www.webbyawards.com
Sponsors include: IDG (http://www.idg.com), Creative Group (http://www.creativegroup.com), SBC Communications, Inc. (http://www.sbc.com), and Elias Arts (http://www.eliasarts.com).
All balloting is audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers (http://www.pwcglobal.com)
Posted by Simon Holledge at 02:49 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
The St Andrew connection
Simon Young in AD500: A Journey Through the Dark Isles of Britain and Ireland is suggesting that the bones of St Andrew (Christ’s first disciple) never reached these shores. Adoption of the saint seems to have been due to some kind of ethnic confusion on the part of the Picts who failed to distinguish between Scandanavia and Scythia. This presumably vindicates John Knox and his followers who threw the supposed relics out of St Andrews Cathedral.
Perhaps this makes the idea of having St Andrew’s Day (30 November) as a national holiday less attractive?
www.theherald.co.uk/news/37556-print.shtml
Posted by Simon Holledge at 12:48 AM | TrackBack
April 19, 2005
Backing Blair Video IV
Backing Blair have released their fourth video by Tim Ireland. This is about Iraq: ‘Drawing the line’. It’s dedicated to Peter Hain “who used to care”.
Warning: many of the images are disturbing. (The size is one megabyte.)
www.backingblair.co.uk/the_line/
Posted by Simon Holledge at 11:49 PM | TrackBack
SNP 'connectivity' policy and Fair Isle
As I have argued, providing universal broadband internet access is the cheapest, quickest and the most productive of all infrastructure projects.
Building roads, rail links, ports etc. are all major capital items. The internet is not. A new motorway or railway may offer a convenient service (possibly at environmental cost) but they will not change the way people think, study, work and do business.
So, I’m delighted to see that developing the internet is now SNP policy. This is the ‘Connectivity’ section of the SNP manifesto:
- The SNP wants Scotland to be amongst the best in the world in terms of IT infrastructure and national connectivity. That means complete access to broadband across Scotland and new initiatives to provide wireless access. In Estonia, for example, the debate is focused on making the whole country a wi-fi hotspot, to make wireless access to the internet available everywhere, let businesses become truly mobile, and open up the marketing opportunities of the world wide web to everyone. The SNP will support a wi-fi pilot initiative for the North East of Scotland. We will work with local authorities and the business community to create a series of wi-fi hotspots, starting in Aberdeen and then Dundee and Inverness, with the intention of creating a wireless area between these cities.
It’s not clear what technology is being referred to here. Perhaps wiMAX (802.16)? That would seem to be the best technology, but there are other possibilities.
The Guardian have an article on Fair Isle, Britain’s remotest island, which now has satellite broadband, with over half of the 70-odd islanders connected at home. This is inspiring: if Fair Isle can have it, then it should be possible anywhere!
www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,1461205,00.htm
Posted by Simon Holledge at 02:11 PM | TrackBack
April 18, 2005
Carbisdale, Second Battle of
Carbisdale in Sutherland was the site of the last battle, fought in 1650, between the Covenanters and the Duke of Montrose’s Royalists, which the latter lost. Unfortunately it is now threatened by a minor development, vigorously opposed by local people and historians.
Posted by Simon Holledge at 11:34 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
I'll be back!
I thought the Backing Blair poster was metaphorical (something to do with Blair?) but I was wrong, Maggie Thatcher was here in person in the Trossachs on Friday 15th, supporting the Save the Scottish Regiments campaign.
If I had my way, she would be in the Hague explaining why she ordered the sinking of the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano, with the loss of 323 lives, on 2 May 1982, when the ship was outside the British-declared exclusion zone.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/ukpolitics/vote2005/scotland/4453591.stm
Posted by Simon Holledge at 10:14 PM | TrackBack
Primroses
Wild primroses have apparently disappeared from many parts of Britain and Ireland but they are still flourishing in the woods around Callander.
Primroses in the woods beneath Callander Crags / Photo © SCH
Primroses (detail) / Photo © SCH
www.englishplants.co.uk/primrose.html
Posted by Simon Holledge at 04:13 PM | TrackBack
April 17, 2005
Demolition of Edinburgh tower blocks
Edinburgh’s early 1960s Capelaw Court tower block in Oxgangs was demolished today. Two more blocks, Caerketton Court and Allermuir Court, will be knocked down later.
While I understand the reason is the state of the housing rather than the external ugliness of the building, this is still great news. I just hope that other blocks nearer the centre will suffer the same fate.
I used to assume that the old buildings of Edinburgh had been intentionally preserved, but a closer look at the city suggests that this was not the case. For example there seems to have been little resistance to the architectural vandalism perpetrated by Edinburgh University around Potterow, Crichton Street and George Square.
Any nominations for other buildings we might like to disappear? Mine is the Appleton Tower.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4452293.stm
www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/explore/demolition/index.asp
UPDATE 19 April 05
Here is the Appleton Tower.
Appleton Tower from the Crichton Road car park / Photo S Holledge
Appleton Tower showing the deterioration of the fabric of the building at the top / Photo S Holledge
And here is the building Gary Smith (Big Stick Small Carrot) is nominating for demolition: St Nicholas House, Aberdeen:
St Nicholas House, Aberdeen / Photo G Smith
Posted by Simon Holledge at 04:46 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack
April 16, 2005
SNP manifesto
The SNP manifesto was published yesterday. It’s beautifully designed and produced. More on the content later.
I advise anybody who is interested to buy a copy (GBP 5) or get the pdf.
Unfortunately the professionalism with which the SNP handle print still hasn’t carried over into the digital world, even if the website is attractively designed.
The ‘preview’ of the manifesto comes out like a modernist poem with different texts laid on top of each other. (I’ve tried it in three or four browsers and it’s the same in all of them.)
The SNP newsfeed has also been down since March 25. The 30-odd links in this blog to SNP news releases from October to March no longer work, and of course we have no newsfeed access to new documents.
Considering we are in the middle of general election, this is disappointing.
www.snp.org/snpnews/2005/snppressrelease.2005-04-15.0793735679
news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=402932005
Posted by Simon Holledge at 02:24 PM | TrackBack
NTS plan for Culloden
The National Trust for Scotland (NTS) is asking for planning permission to build a new visitors centre at Culloden. It is being designed by Ralph Appelbaum Associates Inc. of New York (and London) who claim to be “the largest interpretive museum design firm in the world”.
The NTS are also hoping to buy additional land to protect the existing 180-acre site from development.
news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=403522005
www.culloden.org/the_battlefield.html
Posted by Simon Holledge at 11:46 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
'Everyone' election campaign
‘Everyone’, the joint campaign by 25 of Scotland’s environmental bodies for action on climate change, is geared up for the election.
They explain “We need you to press your General Election candidates to commit to delivering year-on-year progress towards a cut of at least 20% in carbon dioxide emissions by 2010, and put us on the path to a 60% cut by 2050.”
They are asking supporters to send a pre-prepared/editable email to local candidates asking for their views on cutting emissions etc. (They have a list of local candidates and you can decide to write to some or all of them.)
www.everyonecan.org/campaigns.html
Everyone is supported by the National Trust for Scotland, RSPB Scotland, Scottish Wildlife Trust, WWF Scotland, Ramblers Association Scotland, John Muir Trust, Woodland Trust Scotland, Friends of the Earth Scotland, Sustrans Scotland, Mountaineering Council of Scotland, Soil Association Scotland, Rural Scotland, Plantlife Scotland, Reforesting Scotland, Cairngorms Campaign, Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust, Butterfly Conservation, Marine Conservation Society, Biological Recording in Scotland, North East Mountain Trust, TRANSform Scotland, Scottish Countryside Rangers Association, Scottish Countryside Activities Council, Badenoch and Strathspey Conservation Group, Association of Regional & Island Archaeologists.
Posted by Simon Holledge at 11:26 AM | TrackBack
April 15, 2005
Sometimes I wish . . .
… I was still in Tokyo. My Japanese ISP never let me down… . I have just been 24 hours without an internet connection, with no explanation or apology from my ISP.
I chose them because they were a small Scottish ISP in Dumfries listed by Scottish Enterprise. I hoped they would be responsive and easy to contact - big mistake! They were just a front.
The business, called by a variety of names, is in Surrey. They have a series of phone numbers - one that costs a pound a minute to call, one that costs 50p a minute, a ‘Gold Service’ with a flat monthly charge, plus a few other ordinary lines that aren’t answered much. (To be fair their website is quite good, but you need a connection to access it.)
Sometime ago I wrote to Scottish Enterprise suggesting they might stop recommending a service which was not in Scotland, but I never heard back from them. I didn’t really expect to… .
Does anyone know of an ISP in Scotland with a reasonable service, maybe even one where they actually answer the phone?
Posted by Simon Holledge at 03:58 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
April 14, 2005
A Message from Albia
I am enjoying Hugo Kent’s ‘Message from Albia … a country just like Britain, but worse’.
The blog chronicles the affairs of Prime Minister Kiznya Schlop of the Noy Krep Proti, his friend and rival the Finance Minister Bragdny Door, Zavlov Nizder, the leader of the Nyesti Proti, Prince Yusslez, the heir to the throne, and many others.
Zavlov Nizder is introduced in the ‘Albia Gazetteer’: “Once seen as a hardline rightwinger and the driving force behind the controversial Pole Tax (under which anyone of Polish decent entering Albia was required to pay a flat 500 pahnd fee). Since becoming leader of his party, Mr Nizder has sought to give himself a more human image (no small task for someone who casts no reflection in mirrors and has a deep aversion to garlic, sunlight and sharpened wooden fence-posts) and has recently discovered a lifelong passion for Skowz FC football club and an abiding interest in Morris dancing.”
Posted by Simon Holledge at 12:09 AM | TrackBack
April 13, 2005
Labour's rotten boroughs
Boris Johnson has an apposite posting on the unfairness of the Westminster electoral system. If all three main parties achieved the same number of votes, Labour would be able to win three times as many seats as the Liberal Democrats, and twice as many as the Tories - not that first-past-the post is a fair system in the beginning.
www.boris-johnson.com/archives/2005/04/britainlikezi.html
Maybe this is a good opportunity to commend Boris-Johnson.com as one of the liveliest, friendliest of the southern blogs. Boris may be a Tory, but many of those who follow his blog and make comments are not, including Tim Ireland who set it up in the first place. Melissa Crawshay-Williams, who looks after the site on a day-to-day basis, encourages broad participation irrespective of party. Good old ‘one nation’ tories of the past would be proud.
Posted by Simon Holledge at 11:40 AM | TrackBack
April 12, 2005
'We the Media' by Dan Gillmor
I was in Edinburgh today, wandered into Blackwell’s and bought Dan Gillmor’s book ‘We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People”.
Has anyone read it? Published last summer, it’s about the future of journalism.
There are a lot of good quotes - I will include some here later.
The publishes explain that the book is “a wake up call to newsmakers - politicians, business executives, celebrities - and the marketeers and PR flacks who promote them… Big media has lost its monopoly on the news, thanks to the Internet… . newsmakers [must] play by the new rules and shift from control to engagement.”
www.oreilly.com/catalog/wemedia/reviews.html
Posted by Simon Holledge at 12:52 AM | TrackBack
April 11, 2005
Hit the Road Jack (Straw)
The election is producing a terrific collection of cartoons, posters, animations and satirical songs by online activists and others.
The Rub of ‘Peace not War’ have a great version of ‘Hit the Road Jack’ in support of Craig Murray’s campaign against Jack Straw in Blackburn.
www.craigmurray.co.uk/archives/2005/04/hittheroad_ja.html
Posted by Simon Holledge at 12:47 AM | TrackBack
April 10, 2005
East Neuk Festival
There is a new arts festival in Fife that has grown out of a series of concerts given by the excellent Scottish Chamber Orchestra.
The East Neuk Festival which takes place from 30 June to 3 July in Kilconquhar, Dunino, St Andrews, St Monans, Crail, and Elie. It features chamber music by Mozart and Schubert.
Posted by Simon Holledge at 07:08 PM | TrackBack
Hänsel and Gretel in Stirling
Hänsel and Gretel was performed in Stirling on 9 April 05 as the first leg of a ‘Scottish Opera on Tour’ production, bound for Aberdeen, Forfar, Ayr, Kelso, Inverness, Portree and Wick.
For touring requirements, the conductor Derek Clark has written a new, reduced version of the score for a 19-piece orchestra of ‘Soloists of the Orchestra of Scottish Opera’ (for the record: two violins, two violas, two celli, one double bass, one flute/piccolo, one oboe/cor anglais, one clarinet, one clarinet/bass clarinet, one bassoon, 2 horns, one trumpet, one trombone, one timpani, one percussion, and one harp).
I was wondering whether the diluted orchestration would sound disappointing in the theatre, but it didn’t. It was too good in fact, as the music in the reverberant acoustic (of the 872-seat Albert Halls/Main Hall) effectively overpowered the stage business. While it’s difficult to get the right balance when you are performing in a series of different venues, Derek Clark might be advised to adopt the practice (of R Strauss? Furtwängler?) of handing the baton to an assistant and walking around to hear how everything sounds from different parts of the auditorium.
None of the cast - Jennifer Johnston as Hansel, Claire Wild as Gretel, Miranda Keys as both the mother and the witch and Roland Wood as the father - were able to project musically or dramatically much beyond the orchestra, though Rebecca Bottone was charming as the Sandman and the Dew Fairy.
The production was confusing with lots of shrine-like white boxes around the stage, which eventually were opened up to form the witch’s gingerbread house, but there were amusing effects with puppets, broomsticks etc.
One of the reasons for staging this opera was to involve local children - in this case 15 of them - but they were controlled, static and limited in what they were allowed to do. Letting them loose on the production (rather like the 1999 Corsaro/Sendak Zurich production) would have made it more fun.
The hall was only about three-quarters full and contained few children. Perhaps it would be better to put it on at Christmas?
Posted by Simon Holledge at 06:23 PM | TrackBack
April 09, 2005
Craig Murray blogging
Craig Murray has started a blog.
Murray is the former British ambassador to Uzbekistan who objected to the use of intelligence derived from torture. He is now standing as an independent anti-war candidate against Jack Straw in Blackburn (see also March 11 and 17 October 2004)
www.craigmurray.co.uk/weblog.html
Posted by Simon Holledge at 12:01 AM | TrackBack
April 08, 2005
Legality of Connery phoning
Further to my earlier postings about political cold calling (March 7), there are doubts about the legality of the SNP using Sir Sean Connery’s taped message for blanket calling.
The Information Commissioner Richard Thomas has apparently warned that each call that resulted in a complaint could result in a GBP 5,000 fine. This implies that the Labour Party, who have already done extensive cold calling, could be in for some very hefty fines.
news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=324&id=372722005
UPDATE 9 April 05
There is a further story in the Scotsman today with Richard Thomas repeating his warning. No doubt the SNP can and should check the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) list, but I wonder what action will be taken against Labour who apparently started cold calling much earlier and without checking the list.
I have been on the TPS list here since February, so it will be interesting if I get any calls: a case of ‘Tony, make my day!’
news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=324&id=374522005
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/ukpolitics/vote2005/scotland/4426815.stm
Posted by Simon Holledge at 02:08 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack
Not Apathetic and keyboard malfunction
mySociety, publishers of WriteToThem.com and DowningStreetSays, have set up a new website for non-voters.
They explain: “NotApathetic was built so that people who are planning not to vote in the UK General Election on May 5th can tell the world why. We won’t try to persuade you that voting is a good or a bad idea - we’re just here to record and share your explanations. Whether ideological, practical or other, any reason will do.”
Contrary to appearances, I have not been suffering from apathy myself the past few days! Instead I have been struggling with two, not one, malfunctioning keyboards! I am hoping things will be back to normal very soon.
Posted by Simon Holledge at 02:08 AM | TrackBack
April 07, 2005
Beethoven Burns
A new Beethoven setting of a Burns song has been discovered and Tim Cornwell in the Scotsman reminds us that the Edinburgh publisher George Thomson commissioned many pieces of music by Haydn, Weber, Hummel and Beethoven, as well as text from the great Scottish writers, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Perhaps we should be taking a closer look at some of the music of Burns’s great contemporaries before anybody decides on a new Scottish national anthem? Maybe we can do a lot better than the mawkish ‘Flower of Scotland’ or the other songs suggested in a series on the Scotsman last year.
news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=366132005
Posted by Simon Holledge at 04:32 PM | TrackBack
April 06, 2005
Scotsman on tactical voting
According to Fraser Nelson in the Scotsman, about 10 per cent of the British electorate voted tactically in the past two general elections. Given all the interest now being generated in the subject, I can only assume that even more people are likely to do so this time. Maybe 15 per cent, or 20 per cent?
However, as Nelson points out, many people in Scotland will be unfamiliar with their new constituencies and won’t necessarily know if they are in safe or a marginal seats, so voting behaviour could be erratic.
news.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=361692005
Posted by Simon Holledge at 11:08 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
April 05, 2005
Good timing for Backing Blair
The Backing Blair truck at Westminster.
Congratulations to Backing Blair for getting their first poster truck on the road in London the same day as the prime minister (and target of the campaign) called the election.
The truck, decorated with a Orwell/1984-style Blair ‘No Alternative’ poster, travelled from Buckingham Palace to Waterloo via Greenwich, The Strand, Regent Street, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, and Westminster.
www.backingblair.co.uk/weblog.html
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4409935.stm
Posted by Simon Holledge at 01:30 AM | TrackBack
April 04, 2005
Biodiesel now under production
Argent Energy have started producing biodiesel (made of used cooking oil and tallow) at their plant in Motherwell. They hope to produce 50 million litres a year, which will be mixed with mineral diesel for sale at filling stations. The resulting fuel will contain 5 per cent biodiesel to be marketed under the name Bio-plus.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/4409369.stm
www.argentenergy.com/articles/news/article_31.shtml
Posted by Simon Holledge at 09:56 PM | TrackBack
Nuclear fusion - and fission
Nuclear energy from fusion (rather than fission) could eventually be the answer to our need for clean, waste-free energy. This was the message delivered by David King, the government’s chief scientific adviser, at the Edinburgh International Science Festival. He wants more investment to make nuclear fusion a reality.
We need energy sources that are inherently carbon-free. In the longer term I believe that fusion power stations are a reality. It is just a question of what timescale we are talking about. We need to be investing today in the development of fusion power so we have that additional power supply to come.
Significantly, he also pointed out that modern fission reactors remain an option in the fight against climate change.
We are part of the international community that is working on developing new, safer, more efficient fission power stations so that governments have that option. They also produce much less radioactive waste per unit of energy produced. So, if we were to replace all of our existing power stations in the UK with today’s technology of nuclear power stations and ran them for about 50 or 60 years we would add a total of 10 per cent to our radioactive waste stockpile.
news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=348962005
Posted by Simon Holledge at 02:19 PM | TrackBack
Nuclear fusion - and fission
Nuclear energy from fusion (rather than fission) could eventually be the answer to our need for clean, waste-free energy. This was the message delivered by David King, the government’s chief scientific adviser, at the Edinburgh International Science Festival. He wants more investment to make nuclear fusion a reality.
We need energy sources that are inherently carbon-free. In the longer term I believe that fusion power stations are a reality. It is just a question of what timescale we are talking about. We need to be investing today in the development of fusion power so we have that additional power supply to come.
Significantly, he also pointed out that modern fission reactors remain an option in the fight against climate change.
We are part of the international community that is working on developing new, safer, more efficient fission power stations so that governments have that option. They also produce much less radioactive waste per unit of energy produced. So, if we were to replace all of our existing power stations in the UK with today’s technology of nuclear power stations and ran them for about 50 or 60 years we would add a total of 10 per cent to our radioactive waste stockpile.
news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=348962005
Posted by Simon Holledge at 02:19 PM | TrackBack
April 03, 2005
Nuclear debate
The question of whether or not we should build new nuclear power stations is one of the most difficult we face. Arguably it is also the most important.
Time is running out. Climate change is accelerating. Carbon dioxide emissions have been rising, not falling, under the Labour government. We would all prefer to use clean renewable energy, and Scotland is ideally suited to developing wind and wave farms, however progress in bringing them on line has been too slow. Is the answer to build new nuclear power stations? One or more nuclear power station could be producing large quantities of clean energy within five years.
The Scotsman has made this the subject of their latest ‘debate’, argued in this case between Brian Wilson MP (Labour) and Alastair Carmichael MP (Liberal Democrat).
news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=342732005
Posted by Simon Holledge at 10:50 AM | TrackBack
April 02, 2005
North Sea warming
Many warm water species are moving into the North Sea: whales, dolphins, squid, sea bass, red mullet, pilchards and anchovies, sea cucumbers and velvet crabs. What are the implications for fishing?
www.guardian.co.uk/fish/story/0,7369,1450802,00.html?gusrc=rss
Posted by Simon Holledge at 11:47 AM | TrackBack
April 01, 2005
BREAKING NEWS: Tony Blair website blitzed
The Blair government website was blitzed in the early hours of the morning by a line of spinning green capsules. The attack may have been bioviral or cyberoptical. Software was wiped out; hardware losses are still unknown.
First attack - off target, but closing in
Click to enlarge the image.
First attack (detail)
Second attack - direct hit!
Click to enlarge the image.
Second attack (detail)
Posted by Simon Holledge at 05:15 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack