tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-383947042009-12-23T06:15:31.456ZMusings on politics, rugby and theatreBernardnoreply@blogger.comBlogger217125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38394704.post-89739716514587499272008-02-21T23:38:00.002Z2008-02-21T23:44:08.376Z

I have been amused to see that the end of our road is now adorned by a billboard announcing that Virgin Media (officially supplier of multimedia to the Wooley household) are the only broadband supplier with super-fast cable broadband. Unsurprisingly, ever since said billboard has gone up my connection has been slower than an arthritic snail. Hello, ASA?

Bernardnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38394704.post-26532759749616562962008-02-19T20:07:00.002Z2008-02-19T20:18:03.771Z

News from the US reaches me of a revolt against trendy Math(sic) teaching. Apparently parents can't cope with the fact that their little ones are being taught differently to how they where. Anyway not of much interest in and of itself, except to add to my list of stories that prove there is nothing new in the world, as the following song written in the '60s by a Mr. Tom Lehrer proves.PS. other

Bernardnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38394704.post-25635311891714600662008-02-14T20:30:00.002Z2008-02-14T20:39:40.536Z

I'm not sure who are the biggest muppets in the story of the £2m given to the wrong Newcastle. The official who got confused between Newcastle-under-Lyme and Newcastle upon Tyne and gave the small potteries town £2m of the Geordie's LABGI money, or the officials at Newcastle upon Tyne for not being sure enough of their figures to not have forced CLG to rectify it sooner. In my experience when you

Bernardnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38394704.post-73129583208294615512008-02-12T20:50:00.001Z2009-08-11T07:48:57.849+01:00

Blogging is likely to remain light for a while yet but I had to break radio silence to protest about the latest attempts by the US Government to discourage anybody foreign ever going to the US ever. As the other half is a US citizen, and currently living in the US (this week at least), I have a vested interest in travel across the pond being as easy as possible. But trying to look at this

Bernardnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38394704.post-26112286604767639232008-01-26T15:57:00.000Z2008-01-26T16:23:00.640Z

File this under geeky, but did the Labour Whips screw up on Friday morning? Michael Fallon's private members bill on planning and energy passed its second reading in the Commons 45 votes to 0. Not all that surprising you may think, after all all the parties now (officially at least) support renewable energy, which Fallon's bill professes to promote. But the Minister responding to the debate (

Bernardnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38394704.post-54624586647362718932008-01-20T19:19:00.000Z2008-01-20T19:24:33.219Z

... or very very dense. Either way I think I would be coming round just about now if I had been on the receiving end of this:Hat Tip: rugby dump

Bernardnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38394704.post-21245311904953543322008-01-07T17:54:00.000Z2008-01-07T18:01:39.995Z

Still in South Africa, but think it is necessary to break off the Holiday to pimp up the Hobbit Hotel in Bloemfontein (so called because Bloem is Tolkein's birthplace pub quiz fans). Not only is our luxurious suite (well after a week in backpackers) beautifully kitted out, and cheap at only 900rand; but how many Hotels provide you with a large teddy bear to cuddle during your stay? made my

Bernardnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38394704.post-11039582260974991052007-12-29T18:38:00.000Z2007-12-29T18:50:14.410Z

I'm currently traveling around South Africa with the Girl (hence the even lighter than normal blogging schedule), but the thing that struck me today was just how bad things have become in Zimbabwe. Picking up my complimentary copy of the Saturday Star in Joburg Airport this morning what jumped off the page was not that Zuma the heir apparent to the SA Presidency had been charged with corruption

Bernardnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38394704.post-13141620417631055922007-12-22T18:46:00.000Z2007-12-22T18:52:29.124Z

You can tell that it is a slow news day when the BBC news website is leading with the 'news' that Tony Blair has converted to Catholicism. Not sure when man does something that it has been well known he was going to do for years actually became news, nor why the BBC thinks that former prime minister decides to believe in slightly different version of fairy story is more important than say ... (

Bernardnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38394704.post-53035340392039361042007-12-22T10:24:00.000Z2007-12-22T10:34:04.266Z

A couple of evenings heavy drinking have wiped from my mind all the clever things I was going to say about Sam West's revival of Dealers Choice which has won a deserved west end transfer from the Menier. Suffice to say I really enjoyed Marber's study of the losers who congregate in the basement of a restaurant to fritter away their earnings at the poker table. For a more considered view see

Bernardnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38394704.post-44895279727323515362007-12-17T20:15:00.000Z2007-12-17T20:15:16.234Z

One for the converted perhaps, but if you have a couple of hours to spare the new video from the Richard Dawkins Foundation the grandly titled "The Four Horsemen" is worth a look (you can download it here). The title is rather misleading. This has the feeling of a self-help group for atheist intellectuals rather than the full bore attack on the godly you may expect, as four of the more high

Bernardnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38394704.post-16140771439044079362007-12-10T21:07:00.000Z2007-12-10T21:17:47.925Z

Great news from Caribbean, the West Indies have formed a unified rugby team to compete in international rugby competitions.So if Mark Evans is looking for somewhere to take Quins on a pre-season tour next year I can think of worse places. Who knows we may even win a few games...Hat Tip: Scrumbag

Bernardnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38394704.post-2224290362413283482007-12-08T12:08:00.000Z2007-12-08T12:23:51.532Z

Most of my none Lib Dem friends can't understand why I'm willing to give up chunks of my spare time and leave allowance to putting focus leaflets through people's letter boxes. Why waste my time (and increasingly money) supporting a party that has no hope of wielding power, especially when my job prevents me from doing a lot of the more interesting stuff like going to conference or standing for

Bernardnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38394704.post-66059898947580112152007-12-07T20:09:00.000Z2007-12-07T20:25:35.072Z

With the Iowa Caucuses less than a month away I've started to tune back into the Presidential race. After a year of rhetoric, bluster and frantic money raising it could potentially all be over on the Democratic side a week tomorrow when the people of New Hampshire vote in their primary. If Clinton comes into the 8th with a win in the Iowa caucuses I suspect that a win in the Granite state would

Bernardnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38394704.post-47161520463233449022007-12-05T17:56:00.000Z2007-12-05T17:57:44.601Z

With my long legs it is not often that I leave a theatre wishing a play had gone on for longer, but Doubt at the Tricycle left wanting more (and not in a good way). The playwright John Shanley has been quoted as saying that he has deliberately left the second act for the audiences imagination, which is all well and good, but maybe he could have been so kind as to fill in some of the gaps in the

Bernardnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38394704.post-17086631583190850692007-12-04T18:44:00.000Z2007-12-04T18:46:05.857Z

All the signs point to the fact that the lib dem leadership election is effectively over, thank goodness. For those Huhnistas still in denial lets look at the facts:1) That yougov poll, putting Nick 12 points ahead with probably around 2/3rds of those who are going to vote having voted (if I recall turnout last time was around the 70% mark?). Yes with such a small sample it has a large margin of

Bernardnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38394704.post-21604636326396010702007-12-02T13:26:00.000Z2007-12-02T13:33:15.856Z

... but in the view of the ongoing diplomatic incident over a teddy bear (a teddy bear for heavens sake) and his death on live TV last night (Marcus what were you thinking?) I think these these are particularly appropriate...

Bernardnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38394704.post-50230712000912170682007-11-26T22:29:00.000Z2007-11-26T22:42:53.119Z

.... but I was slightly surprised to learn that the returning officer for our local party elections didn't think it necessary to bring ballot papers to the AGM the other day. Cue much scrambling when it turned out that there were some contested elections.Not that the elections were supposed to be a stitch up, of course not, we are democrats you know. Next you will be suggesting that the front

Bernardnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38394704.post-77511849827390979362007-11-26T22:04:00.000Z2007-11-26T22:23:03.505Z

Retaining a line like 'some jokes don't travel' in a new translation of a foreign comedy is perhaps tempting fate. But Alistair Beaton has decided to take that risk in his new translation of Max Frisch's The Arsonists currently playing at the Royal Court; and generally he gets away with it. Following a strong opening gag this is rarely a laugh out loud production, but it does produce a steady

Bernardnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38394704.post-33627259265477823152007-11-25T15:29:00.000Z2007-11-25T15:59:59.836Z

Michael Pennington is a bit of an obsessive about Shakespeare. At age 11 he was inspired to become an actor by a production of Macbeth, has spent, at his own estimation 20,000 hours performing the Bard, and even went as far as forming the English Shakespeare Company in the 1980s when he felt that the theatrical establishment weren't addressing the politics in Shakespeare's writing.He has

Bernardnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38394704.post-64674677287714596792007-11-22T23:20:00.000Z2007-11-26T22:54:02.188Z

The Masque of the Red Death is one of the hottest tickets in London theatre, with its complete run now sold out (although there are rumours of an extension). Following the spectacular success of Faust (which I unfortunately never got round to seeing) this is not surprising, but does it live up to the hype? Well its certainly not a show for those wedded to conventional theatre, nor claustrophobics

Bernardnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38394704.post-89699913908452346912007-11-20T08:14:00.000Z2007-11-20T08:21:29.403Z

For most of us Jerry Springer the Opera faded from view a couple of years ago. Fun at the time, but not really something of lasting value apart from its ability to annoy the more excitable elements of Christian right.Well it appears that some people have longer memories than me. Christian Voice are still trying to prosecute the BBC for blasphemy, and are going to the High Court to try and get

Bernardnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38394704.post-91888937680277168212007-11-18T15:34:00.001Z2007-11-18T15:48:51.833Z

... its the fact that it looks like Chris has lost control of his campaign.To be honest I couldn't give a toss that Chris' campaign is putting out negative briefings, after all they are both big boys and quite frankly a nice positive campaign on the issues is just a little bit too dull for my tastes. I know that makes me a bad person, but I've been involved in too many campaigns against Labour to

Bernardnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38394704.post-87605868350580793352007-11-17T08:32:00.000Z2007-11-17T08:32:23.482Z

The balance of opinion amongst the Lib Dem blogs appears to be that Chris Huhne shaded the Question Time debate on Thursday evening. I think they are wrong. Not because of anything Chris said really, in fact on the few substantive policy debates I think he had the edge (even if I do tend to lean more towards Nick's views on them).But, TV debates and more importantly being a modern political

Bernardnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38394704.post-10954830712545612142007-11-15T21:11:00.001Z2007-11-15T21:29:44.681Z

Ways to get yourself beaten up in a country pub number 57: call your quiz team 'free the Dando one' the week after Barry George was convicted (other effective ways include standing up for the Brass Eye paedophile special, and outing yourself and the bloke sat next you 10 minutes before closing).Anyway you may have guessed that I was never convinced that Barry George would have convicted had he

Bernardnoreply@blogger.com1