The men were all white and in their early 20s

The news that a man was attacked leaving him with head injuries after he tried to stop three others throwing rubbish around early one morning is saddening. Trying to do the right thing resulted in him being punched and kicked in the head near the Abode Hotel in Manchester at the weekend.

What caught my eye from the news article was the line I used as the title. How often do you read about violent attacks and the ethnic background of the suspects is not mentioned?

helmet

The Northern Ireland assembly is to vote later today on a bill that would make it an offence to ride a bicycle without a helmet punishable with a £50 fine. Anti-motoring organisation the CTC is up in arms about this, spokesperson Tim Edgar claiming

"We want to make cycling as safe as possible, just like the supporters of this bill. But there's robust evidence that making helmets compulsory puts people off cycling in the first place."

Sorry Tim but your organisation has spent years campaigning for tougher restrictions on motorists to improve cyclist safety and now you're facing the same kind of overbearing legislation being placed on the activities and lifestyle that you've chosen you don't like it? Why is that Tim?

On the same thread on the CTC forum that discusses mounting an opposition to the proposed legislation there is also a discussion about changing the speed limits directly from m/h to km/h to reduce traffic speeds by 37.5%. The 'restrict everyone but me' attitude of your members would be laughable if it wasn't so sickening.

It is my opinion that helmets can help to prevent head injuries. I've seen more than a few accidents where the helmet has borne the brunt of an impact, some where the helmet has split with the force of the crash. I know personally of at least two examples of riders who are brain damaged after accidents when they where not helmeted.

On the subject of riding helmeted or not I as a (less frequently than I used to be) cyclist don't really care if people do or don't. I choose to wear one when riding cross country but not when I pop down to the shops but then I believe in choice and personal responsibility.

So, even though I find your attitude towards motorists, your calls for tougher restrictions on motorists, appallingly cuntish I find myself having to agree with you that this proposed legislation should be rejected.

gangbos

I've not had much interaction with gangs in my lifetime, never knowingly witnessed the suffering that these collectives are reported to cause. However new legislation that has come into force in England and Wales concerns me.

Powers to restrict the movements of people accused of gang membership have come into force in England and Wales.

Police and local councils can seek gang injunctions in the county courts against adults who they believe are involved in gang-related violence and crime.

So if you are accused of gang membership, or your local council thinks you are involved in gang crime, you can have your freedoms curtailed thanks to this Labour conceived legislation. The BBC article goes on to explain that

The exact extent of gang-related crime is not clear in the UK partly because it is difficult to define a gang, when someone is a member, and the role that the groups play in specific incidents.

So how do you define a gang? Many of the definitions I've read describe a gang as "a group of people, through the organization, formation, and establishment of an assemblage, share a common identity" or similar. Sounds similar to a political party to me.

The scope for misuse of this new legislation, as described by James Brokenshire on BBC Breakfast this morning, is enormous. He talked repeatedly linking gangs to violent crime and how this new legislation would be another tool for the police to use against them (whatever the definition of 'a gang' is).

If a crime has been committed then the police should gather evidence, suspects should be tried and found guilty or innocent in court rather than relying on accusations and suspicions to restrict an individual's freedom of movement and apparel.

I thought the Coagulation was going to repeal the illiberal laws from the last 13 years?

green?

Recycling rates are falling in the city with the country's first Green MP. Despite an improving national trend for reusing household waste, Government figures show just 27.45% was recycled in Brighton and Hove in 2009/10. This is down from 29.5% for 2008/9 and below the regional average of 35%.

The support for the green party in the city doesn't end at Caroline Lucas as they also currently have 13 of the current 53 council members. So what is going wrong for them then? A high profile general election victory and seemingly 25% of the city supporting their aims should result in an increase in recycling rates.

Is it that the greens managed to get every single supporter of their cause to vote for them while other parties couldn't so the results are skewed in their favour above and beyond the will of the general population of the city?

Is the large transient student population affecting the results in their favour?

Is it that people think that voting green is sufficient to save the planet* and they have therefore 'done their bit'?

Is it that the council has overcomplicated the recycling system which has confused and annoyed the vast majority of the residents?

Maybe other locals have started their own illegal recycling projects that then don't appear in the official figures?

I don't know the answers but it makes me want to laugh.











*assuming they think the planet needs saving

happiness

BBC Breakfast is running a series of segments about happiness and the efforts of a new charity to promote a happier way of life. The charity, Action for Happiness, has produced a downloadable document[.pdf] for you to try at home.

I had to know more about this brand new charity so I had a look. They say they are "currently part of the Young Foundation" who are an established charity with plenty of accounts lodged with the Charity Commission. So I took a peek at their latest accounts[.pdf] and laughed. The Young Foundation gets a huge chunk of its funding from the public purse including contributions from the Cabinet Office, DCSF, NHS Institute, Office of the Third Sector, Audit Commission, Dept of Health, DEFRA, Haringey Council, Lewisham Borough Council, Local Government Association, Manchester City Council, Newcastle City Council, Suffolk County Council, Equality and Human Rights Commission to name but a few. The total income for accounting year 2009 was reported at £4,422,910 and well over 25% of that comes from these sources.

So a potential addition to the fakecharity pages sets up a new charity to encourage 'happiness' and is then promoted heavily by the BBC? One has to wonder why?

health scare of the day

So there is some new evidence that comes from proper research that can prove a definite link between cyclists, pollution and respiratory illness? Er, no. In fact, as you might expect, the whole article is complete bollocks. The author even tells us that

However, hard evidence on the impact of air pollution on the health of the general population is inconclusive.

but that doesn't prevent her telling us

It is critical however that we raise public awareness about the effects that air pollution has on the respiratory system - both in the short and long term.

So we must be warned of the dangers of something that might actually have no impact on our health? Fucktard

But hang on a moment. Is this the same Amanda Dryer who, back in 2005, was chosen as a respiratory champion for The Association of Chartered Physiotherapists in Respiratory Care (ACPRC)? The same ACPRC that was trying to generate interest in it's calls for cleaner diesel engines? Now this piece makes sense! Enrage cyclists by telling them that they are being damaged, fuel their hatred towards other vehicles on the road so hopefully they will start demanding cleaner engines. Let's just hope they are too stupid to realise that you've told them there is no firm evidence of a link between pollution and health of cyclists?

essential sign language

Copied shamelessly from ZanyPickle

spot the mistake

[click for much larger]

We were flicking through the Annabel Karmel cookbook we have at home trying to work out some meals for the kids for this week when we saw this page. Can you see what made us laugh?

fungus

processes

When the question "Shall we go for a drink?" is asked it sparks a different process in a man's brain and a woman's brain said the email I received from one of my ex-employees.

[click for bigger]

I laughed.

small margin of error

Apparently the star Betelgeuse (yes, that one) is due to go supernova and burn brightly like a second sun in the sky. This phenomenon is imminent as it's nearly at the end of its red supergiant phase. It could happen before the end of the year or at any time in the next million years.

So you'd better start preparing.


Or not.

single

It looks so lonely on its own .. .. ..

sadness

As I was returning to the garage to collect my car after an expensive repair I had the opportunity of walking down The Drive in Hove. I have a special attachment to the road because my grandparents used to live there in the magnificent old block of flats pictured above*. The inside of the building was wonderful with an open cage lift, staircases wide enough to drive down, huge high ceilings, ornate plasterwork, tiled floors, a red stair carpet with brass restraints on every step.

As I approached I had intended to write about the fond memories of visiting them there, walking down the ramp at the side of the building to the gravel area in front of the row of garages (completely out of bounds to us), their grey collapsible sofa bed which they used to trap us in to wake us in the morning, cups of tea from glass cups and saucers**, the piece of seaweed hanging outside their kitchen***, their unique smell, black and white TV, card games around their walnut table, complimented by a snapshot of the fabulous façade. Instead I find myself filled with a great sense of sadness and loss.

I have no idea why or how this building has ended up in this dilapidated state but seeing it in like this, a shell, a ghost of it's former glory, was a shock to me. The blue plaque that once adorned it's front to mark the residence of the novelist Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett has been removed and the whole thing is boarded off and boarded up. I can only hope that it will be sympathetically brought back to life but, given the price and pressure on property in the area, I greatly doubt that it will be.













*Not as one of the extremely rich residents but as the caretakers of the block.
** A fetish that I still carry on today. Tea drunk from a glass mug is the only way.
*** If the seaweed was wet then it was raining .....

snigger

They must have taken on staff from the Telegraph .. .. ..

strangers

We should all be scared of strangers right? Strangers could be nasty people who want to do terrible things to us .. .. .. but not always. Just over a week ago my wife suffered from some kind of debilitating attack. We don't know what caused it but we do know the symptoms, half of her face is numb, the right hand side of her whole body is weak, speech is extremely difficult and was initially quite slurred, seem very much like those associated with strokes. She went to her GP the day after the episode and he referred her to the hospital who saw her the following morning. The consultants at the hospital are 99% certain that she has not suffered a stroke although they cannot tell at this stage what is causing this.*

On Sunday night, while I was waiting for her to compose a reply on MSN** I threw up this quick tweet.

The response was overwhelming. A bunch of strangers all expressed concern, offered advice, offered support, listened while I worried. People that I've not met, don't know, am unlikely to know, reached out across the internet and showed humanity in it's best light. None of the respondents had anything to gain from what they did, none of them had any personal interest in her plight and yet they still took the time to offer assistance. Even now, days later, many are still enquiring as to the state of her health and if there has been improvement***. Strangers .. .. .. dangerous people eh?

We need to have more faith and less fear of people. Years of successive governments, and large media organisations, telling us about threats and dangers in an attempt to control us has left us so suspicious of each other and each other's motives that we are often too afraid to engage in simple conversation. People have become increasingly isolated from each other and this has fuelled the mistrust that permeates our conciousness.

I can't think of a simple solution to completely reverse the descent into fear and paranoia. There are some pretty sick, twisted, sadistic people out there who would do us harm but they are so few and far between that they barely even constitute a minority. The vast majority of people are decent and good and we need to make an effort to emphasise that. Let's say a cheery hello and smile at the people we pass in the street. Let's stop and chat to the person in the queue for the train, the bus, the checkout of the supermarket. I know it isn't the whole answer but who knows? If enough of us do it .. .. .. ..





* My best guess is that it's stress induced. If you've been reading this blog for a while you might have an inkling as to why I think that.
** We were sat next to each other just using the service to replace vocal communication.
***There is some improvement in her speech but we're still waiting for the MRI appointment

the student brewer speaks up. again.

If Jack has £1 to spend on alcohol, at the moment he'd go to the supermarket. He can't afford the £3 in a pub. Put the prices up in the supermarket to £1.50 - he can't drink. But he still wouldn't be spending money in a pub - so how the hell does reducing disposable income of customers help pubs?

I agree it's fucking ridiculous! Pop over and read the rest .. .. .. .. ..

who's office is this?

As I was out and about today I drove past this huge office of a well known organisation. Can you guess who is housed here?

orange

Something big is happening? What is it? What is it?



*snigger*

yellow

I took this snap with my phone while the kids and I went for a constitutional walk this morning up on Lancing Ring. It was cold but the sun was out and there was very little wind. Lovely!