We are silly to put up with this

Having spent a good 45 mins in a queue on the M25 waiting for the Dartford tunnel the idea that this was just a bit Silly cross MiaS's mind, as it was pounded with demands for are we there yet Dad and my tummy hurts...

I have an idea - call it silly if you like - when the queue at Dartford is longer than 10 mins the bridge tolls should just be opened and people allowed to drive through for free.

That would provide an incentive for the bridge company to stop wasting decades of the lives of its victims customers queuing up to be relieved of £1.50.

Don't get me started ion how the English subsidised Scottish govt decided English tax payers should fund its bridges and the last Labour govt descided to sell English motorist into toll slavery by selling of English only assets to fund its Celtic heartlands....

#Sillyweek David Cameron calls on India to be allowed to join the EU

David Cameron today demanded that those who opposed India joining the EU were just racists and had underlying anti-Hindu/Muslim/Sikh/Christian prejudices. The fact that India has not applied to join the EU shows how strong such a backlash might be if anyone asked the question.

Mr Cameron is alleged to have said "India is on the same planet as Europe and there are clear historical and geological contacts between the two". Further he expanded his philosophy to say that the rest of the world was like a prison camp and should be free to join the EU and that anyone who opposed this idea didn't understand triangulation or appealing to voters in key marginals.

A rather bemused reported from the All India Telegraph was herd to mutter that the real issue would be the EU joining India, once population was taken into account, and that with all the unsound EU banks and dodgy accounts he wasn't sure India was ready to tie its future to such a corrupt third world economy.

Background notes.

Looks like Norwich City have just done something a bit silly

Oops - The new Norwich City kit seems to attract bugs. Norfolk blogger will be concerned....

Silliness waits for no man

So things are starting to get going out there. I'm adding links to the right as I find stuff - and there's a variety of daftness out there from the practical complaints about Italian magazine rapping, to escaped Nun yarns through to finally a good use for old toasters !

And they are not all there is - in part I've been a constrained by being frog marched out to a session of Laser Quest in very high humidity by the kids ( and somebody elses also ). The bad news is clearly my pack and gun were malfunctioning as all the kids beat me - which can't be right can it?

More exploitation by bored kids is to follow with a trip to the cinema to see the newly very expensive 3-D films.

So I'll have to pay to see it and no doubt buy the DVD later along with other merchandise - now that really is silly.

Anyway whatever your doing - its it involves a post for #SillyWeek - let me know. I'm going to try and work on a spoof one next - no idea what on yet... but I'll have a beer or two tonight to get the creative juices flowing.

MiaS.

Jane Austen - redux

H/T Today Daily Telegraph.

#SillyWeek The professionals are out of their blocks

Here we go its blogger's #SillyWeek ( why ? Well in truth just because it can be ).

But us amateurs have some stiff competition out there from the political professionals. See:

• Vince Cable MP: The banks must lend more - whilst increasing their reserves or we'll use no existent powers to outlaw freedom of commerce in deciding bonuses.
• Rory Stewart new MP: Some of my constituents keep their trousers up with bits of twine.
• Lynne Featherstone MP: Women should be like Christina Hendricks ( Joan Harris from Mad Men ). Not that many men could argue with the sentiment - but from the "Equalities Minister" ?
• Gordon Brown MP: I love being a back bencher and Africa will be the power house of the future. ( A two start oink flap rating for this one ).
  

So its time to start spotting stuff or just making it up ( within the boundaries of any liable laws in jurisdictions you think might have a go at you ).

I could give you rules - but you'd only ignore them. Just can I suggest nothing gratuitously offensive or with a 18 /X label on please !

PS I'll be doing a search of blogs / tweets for the keyword #SillyWeek to see if there's anything to report later today ! ( So remember to use #SillyWeek as a tag on your post a tweets ! Hint: I think case sensitivity may be an issue with searches ! )

Two more days

Turns out the Polys were smart

What are we being told just now about the mass holding pen for unemployment that is our University system ?

1. Vocational courses should be taught ( maybe not to target degrees )
2. Many students need to study from home to save costs.
3. Two year courses are a good idea.
4.We need to produce people trained and education for our economy's needs - not to keep academics employed.
5. Academic standards have dropped with the number of firsts rising spectacularly and anything less than a 2i being useless for anything above burger flipping.

Almost all of these points were integral parts of the old Polytechnics !

Our inverted snobbery and desire to show progress rather than achieve it lead to their abolition and reformation as supposed Universities.

Its now clear it was a terrible mistake.

Now if only we could win the argument on grammar schools as well ....

Labour's hateful ideology against some SEN kids will die slowly

It was another choking on cornflakes morning listening tot he BBC - this time R5Live.

The left is wheeling out everyone it can to prevent socialist control of the education system being undermined.

This morning the excuse against the full implementation of Tony Blair's ( and really John Major before him) academies program was special education needs (SEN in edspeak ).

The man who used his disabled son as a TV prop to try and upset David Cameron with a unreasonable rant during the general election was wheeled out. ( The BBC of course neglects to mention that he's a Lib Dem activist and work for a left of centre think tank. )

He demanded inclusion- and berated those with "ideological" commitment to choice and daring to challenge the almighty socialist state about how is destroys the lives of their children. How dare people want a choice and not accept what the all wise state demands they accept !

All must be treated equally - even if doing so destroy the life hopes of those who must be sacrificed on the road to greater socialism and equality. ONWARD ANIMAL FARM !

The truth is the state control people are the ideologues. Their failure to recognise that for some children special schools are a Godsend is either wilful and heartless ( as is required of much of the abject failures socialism creates - and yet its adherents will never tire of claiming about how they are working for the very victims they create ), or they have missed on on a vital part of their education themselves.

Man in a Shed has recently had a conversation about inclusion concerning a member of his family and the worries of those in the state controlled sector is always about their ideology and control of the money - never about the outcome.

That's why free schools and the academies and parent choice are vital to protect us from the terrible power of the state and those who would use it to crush poor vulnerable children in the name of equality.

Keep going Mr Gove - some of us are right behind you ( though you shouldn't wait for the BBC to give you a fair hearing ).

The end of term rush

Yet another blogging excuse - its the end of term and I'm running a three ring circus this week.

But just let me comment on Labour cynical attempts to stop education reform - you can hear all their opathetic and disingenuous arguments coming out of the mouths of the likes of Ed Balls and teaching Union reps. ( And the BBC, the mouth of the left, keeps on about the wrong numbers the Labour created quango gave Michael Gove weeks ago about the end of Ed Ball's fantastically wasteful school's consultants enriching program, weeks after it has any relevance. )

They are desperate to avoid their special little fiefdom of failure that damages so many children and creates the destitution and failure that socialism needs to feed on from of being damaged.

Sorry blogging's going to be light this week - but I wish Michael Gove good luck fighting for our children's futures against those on the left who think destroying those futures is their birth right.

Further: Its worth reading Andrew Gilligan who says that there is now wide spread speculation that left wing civil servants are actively trying to destroy the government. If this is true then the wide spread politicisation of the civil service must be assumed and mass redundancies of senior politicised civil servants follow.

2nd annual Blogger's Silly week is go for 26 July to 1 August

Its that time of year again. The MSM is on holiday ( or wish they were ) and any daft story gets coverage.

So its time for Blogger's Silly week.

The Aim is to Entertain ( whilst not being sued in any legal jurisdictions that your country has extradition treaties with ).

That means making stuff up and even reporting true stuff. ( Examples from last year here ).

Add #SillyWeek to any tweets and we may as well use it as a blogging keyword also ! ( I'll keep an eye on them and try to keep tags on the daftness here ).

Now to go in search for a logo this year ... ( any ideas gratefully received ).

PS The aim is to entertain, but not offend ( unless its politicians or the MSM of course ).

Update: I had a graphic - but for some reason I can't upload it on blogger right now. Must be a bug of some sort. OK managed to get it into the layout - but not the post. No idea why not.

Advice to Mr Cameron on his reported mole problem

h/t Jasper Carrott.

PS No silly week has not started - I'll tell you when ...

Plenty going on - but not much on the blog

Its all a bit busy right now, and may be so for at least two weeks more.

I had wanted to blog on the bias implicit in the BBC's new Rev series, the continuation of the campaign to deceive people as to what's going on in climate science and the BBC's talking up of a straight mistake on naming schools being closed down.

I'd like to believe me - but there's a weekend's camping to be survived and car to be packed.

Back next week.

PS Anyone want to do "Silly week" again this year ?

PPS If there's a tornado in the East of England this weekend - it'll be my fault for camping there - sorry ....

Teachers and streaming make the difference

The BBC is having great old time howling about education cuts - we'll less money bunged to the construction industry anyway.

But a simple truth is now getting aired. Good teachers teaching teachable children ( ie set by ability ) in a disciplined environment makes all the difference.

Buildings, computers, text books, trips, sports halls, equipment don't.

Which is good, since the money's run out.

Along with returning to proper A levels and GCSE's these are points we all knew yet Labour strived not to take account of ( indeed often working against them whilst borrowing billions we can't afford to spend on things that don't work ).

Common sense turns out to be the lowest cost option and the most effective. I wonder where else this applies in the public sector ?

See this from Harry Mount on the same subject.

The state and the economy

We are getting this "keep state spending going" vs "the danger of an economic heart attack if we keep borrowing" argument on the media all the time. ( Well its really in the latter case the danger of the restaurant we keep running up a bigger and bigger tab in refusing to serve us and letting us starve.

Of course they are arguing about slightly different things.

The keep state spending argument is about the next 10 minutes and the fact the ponzi scheme Labour created of ever increasing state debt has to be kept on the road.

The stop over spending argument is based on the fact that the ponzi scheme will collapse and the longer you leave it the worse the consequences.

( The left will try to argue that the ponzi scheme should be stopped when times are good - but since they ran a structural deficit last time things were good and ranted about evil baby eating Tories wanting to slash and burn when spending a little less was suggested I think we can ignore them. )

The snake may feel good eating its own tail - but the long term outlook just isn't so great.

40% is smart

The report that departments have been asked to submit proposals for cuts of up to 40% of their budgets is a smart move by the coalition. ( Though you can reply on Labour to say otherwise. )

Why ?

Because whatever cuts you ask for the department will try to include some very politically sensative ones to try to get their shre refused. For example the MOD would put cutting the red arrows as its last suggestion ( knowing that a public campaign will save it ).

The 40% plan is to create a smorgasbord of cuts choices - which a star chamber can then rule upon. It takes political control away from the scheming in the departments and makes the choices clear.

40% a smart move - even if your real target is 25%.

Obama damages US interests with his crucifixion of BP

So the Chinese are rumoured to be getting ready to buy BP South American assets, as BP scrambles around to find billions to pay the US environment economy protection racket Obama has dreamt up.

Who cares ( apart from BP share holders of course ) ?

Well the US should. China is thinking of buying up these assets for a reason. And that reason is to send oil that goes onto the markets and to US refineries to China instead.

And given the fact that the US will have its knickers in a twist about deep sea drilling for a decade to come that could very directly hurt.

A referendum at the same time as an election is anti-democratic

I'm really not impressed by the idea of running the AV referendum at the same time as the local elections next year.

This removes the possibility of effective for and against campaigns where the activists from each party realign themselves on the one question.

But then maybe that's the point. It does imply that this will be a less than democratic way of choosing a new electoral system. The irony shouldn't be allowed to pass uncommented.

PS If your interested I haven't made my mind up on AV or even PR yet. I used to be very much a FPTP person, but the power of the parties worries me. Perhaps I'd really like FPTP+ ...

Update: There's an interesting argument about "differential" turnout concerning the Scottish and Welsh devolution elections on the same day ( and I assume not in NI ). I wonder if this might leave the option of legal challange ... Conservative Home's Jonathan Isaby isn't too keen on the date and reports other's aren't either.

Suddenly Sheds are cool

A bit of shed indulgent blogging here ( ranting resumed shortly ).

As I may have said sometime, a long time before, I came to Shed's and blogging via events. The Shed was due to being away from home one weekend on a business trip to the middle east when I suddenly realised I could hear myself think for the first time since being a single man ( and certainly before being a father ! ). I knew I had to do something about that !

The blogging was an attempt to try and understand why some of the IT press and magazines were going on about blogging. Sometimes with IT and software ideas you can't just read about them - you have to use them to fully understand. ( I was doubtful, but since blogger was free thought why not ? ). Initially I assume that any opinions would be met by a torrent of abuse, especially those from a right of centre perspective - though my first few posts were on software.

So now the Shed and the blog go together.

The Man in a Shed name was designed to be a hat tip to the idea of The Man on the Clapham Omnibus - anonymous by virtue of being an everyday type person as well as by design.

There is of course a song by Nick Drake ( video below ) which I found once I'd started blogging, (My Shed's fine thanks - so no holes in the roof and romance was taken care of years ago - that's why I need the Shed - haven't you been paying attention ? )



Anyway thanks in part I suspect to the works of Alex Johnson (Shedworking) and Uncle Wilco and perhaps a few board journalists ( it is the silly season coming up isn't it ?) Shed are suddenly cool.

Even the BBC has sat up and paid attention ( not that they are planning on downsizing into wooden outbuildlings.... ). And the launch of Alex's book Shedworking has lead to reviews such as this in the Independent ( note MiaS quote some way down in the article ). MiaS has his copy - much to the amusement of my kids as Alex has a mention of this humble wooden building in it. Surely a must buy for mid life crisis male friends who need a project in their lives ...

In Australia Shed's are even seen as the salvation of man kind !

Its national shed week coming up on 5th of July ( see Reader's Sheds for details ) and I suspect that this year Shed's have really gone mainstream. ( I see local garden centres offering more and more designs and range of stock).

But this is worrying. MiaS has never really been in fashion in my life.

PS I saw the twitter tag on replacing film place names with the word shed - but I've been running a three ring circus yesterday and could only smile rather than partake ...