Eggs at the Ready

It's Sunday, December 31 and the local Tesco is already flogging Cadbury's Cream Eggs. An old joke become reality in the eggciting world of marketing.

Ikea Sale - hell in a flatpack

Just back from the post-Christmas sale at the local Ikea store. What did we ever do to Sweden to deserve that kind of punishment?

Blair and the Bee Gee

I don’t care whether he pays for his holidays or not but the ability of the Prime Minister to ingratiate himself with aged rockers is a new phenomenon in British politics. New Labour has had several run ins with wealthy business types (remember the Hinduja twins?), but Blair’s high profile groupie act takes hob-nobbing to new heights of ridiculousness.

 

 

Prostitution and the law

Harriet Harman's proposal to make it an offence to use a prostitute's services won't make the problem go away - just force if further into the dingy backstreets of our towns and cities - not to mention cyberspace.

Comments by the English Collective of Prostitutes in the wake of the Ipswich murders have highlighted the effect of police "crackdowns" and the danger they represent to those working on the streets.

A response has to be properly thought through, but we've got to realise, whether we opt for toleration zones, as even David Blunkett seems to have accepted during his time as Home Secretary, or legalised brothels; prostitutes have to be protected: we might not like what they do, or accept their reasons for doing it, but prostitutes deserve protection not persecution and it's about time we accepted the simple reality that not even the threat of prosecution will stop men paying for sex, and that criminalisation won't work.

Tony's bolony

Of course its natural for the police to interview a serving British prime minister - like a fish riding a donkey

Pinochet remembered

The next time Thatcher or any of her cronies start getting misty eyed about the departed General, remember this quote from Channel 4's Jon Snow:

"I had to work in Chile during the worst of his activities and it was a searing and unforgettable period of fear"

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A good friend to Britain indeed. Perhaps we should be more concerned about the 3,100 killed and/or "disappeared", or the US inspired coup that brought down a democratically elected government than remembering how Pinochet used the Falklands to settle scores with Argentina by feeding us intelligence as the Task Force sailed for the South Atlantic.

With thugs like this, who needs enemies?

Fountain at the Louvre. A glorious day in May in the city of Paris (with a nod to Van Morrison and Angelou)

Let's face it, December needs some sunshine to go with the tinsel...

Party on, Bishop

The Right Reverend Tom Butler's tired and emotional spree has given the tabloids a field day. No hypocrisy there at all, I mean, journalists never overindulge at all, do they?

Leaving aside forgiveness for a Bishop on the razzle - two issues do worry me. Firstly, why did Nicola Sumpter and her partner decide the best people to call were those working at the Sun newspaper? Surely they weren't paid for their story by those famously abstemious hacks.

And secondly, look out for the vengeful conservative evangelicals taking sweet revenge on a liberal Bishop with a record of supporting gay clergy.

Always best to watch the self-righteous brigade - you never know when they're going to fall prey to the demon drink, or even just their own pride (one of the seven deadlies, folks - in case you'd forgotten).

Good to see the fetishists getting on side with this - See Proccie's take on this.

Better still, stick with Ship of Fools - Christian unrest at its very best...