BNP VOTERSSS!!

Guido has helpfully posted a NO to AV video that points out BNP votes would be redistributed and could choose the winner

Oh my God! The BNP voters could swing it...

Yes, as the video shows, the small amount of BNP votes would be added to the other parties, pushing the second placed party into first

I'm not sure if this refers to Labour or Tory, or even Lib Dem, it's pretty much hypothetical anyway - but it is either of these two parties that would win - that's the AV system, nothing changes - it just reinforces a two-party system

That's actually one of the reasons I don't want AV, and I'll vote against it, but this kind of argument just infuriates me - there is no logic to this

The word 'BNP' is essentially being used as a bogeyman here - it implies we will get the view of extremists, and also that these voters don't deserve a vote, when in reality we will get a similar result to what we have now and as much as we dislike the BNP, you are allowed to vote for them and there's perfectly legitimate grounds to boost a second placed party because for example, the majority is right/left but the vote is split by a variety of parties, allowing the minority view to come through the middle - this will work both ways, as UKIP, BNP, Greens, Lib Dems, and Labour all split the right or left vote

What I'm saying here is the typical AV argument still stands, it's a debatable point (and I'm not backing either side really), using the term BNP to scare people into thinking 'they' will dominate elections is just scaremongering and frankly pathetic - the real reason the second placed party wins is because they came a very close second and are more preferred by the majority of voters

And of course, it also misses the point that voting patterns would differ from those made in a FPTP system, where people are forced to back the lesser of two evils - there would probably be more votes for smaller parties with a preference system

That said, I'm still anti-AV - it's a rubbish, pointlessly complex system that no-one uses and produces the exact same results as FPTP,  which again, no-one uses (except the US) - the whole debate is a false argument

83%

Anyone would think the media types somewhat over-represent those top rate tax payers...

Yougov have produced a poll that shows 83% are in favour of this cut (sorry no reliable link)

Roughly 15% pay higher rate tax...

Yet the journalists harp on about it, when any chump could tell you the whingers are actually very few in number, even if they are very vocal on the BBC forums

Clearly, they're overpaying the journalists

I think we all agree it unfair on some level, but it's hard to have sympathy for people who earn enough to have the choice to not work and the unfairness is mostly theoretical - affecting I would bet, a few thousand lucky sods

I've seen the gripes about how these people 'can't afford it' - yes, you can, love, because I've been there and grew up on rather a lot less, and the rest of us do not even have the choice - they can whinge about two earners but the whole point is those two earners need to work, therefore you are better off in the first place!

I'm not saying you're 'rich' - but you're blind to the fact that you have the luxury of choice, which the vast majority of us don't, so welcome to our world!

They are whingeing about a benefit cut to the wealthiest earners in society, while benefits to the poorest (deserving or not) are being cut at the same time - the fact is you cannot cut an expenditure without it hurting someone

I think I've boiled it down to a simple point:

We don't 'need' a universal child benefit, we don't have a sole breadwinner model anymore and the system is not designed to prop up the housewife model (nor does it) - it's a token from a bygone age, the problem people have is that they are losing money - which we all hate, but if you never have it, you can't miss it - a BBC documentary on high earners pointed out that wealthy GPs were living hand to mouth because of their mortgages, cars etc - when we have it, we spend it

doesn't mean we 'need' it

Lies, damn lies

Following on from yet another Labour statistics lie ('mistake') - and for fairness sake I'll point out Chris Grayling was also guilty of such a 'mistake', we have another rebut from an impartial statistics comapany, this time it's Yougov

The Torygraph make some bizarre claims about their 'Labour bias' - I'll let you decide who makes a better case

As usual, I'm backing the person with more intelligence, integrity and experience - which is never the politico

And of course, Yougov will be scrutinised come about 5 weeks, the same can't be said for the tabloids

Cameron's shameless, amid other things

Am I going to say David Cameron 'reneged' or 'betrayed' eurosceptics?

Nope - as Hague says:

'now that the treaty is going to become European law and is going to enter into force, that means that a referendum can no longer prevent the creation of the President of the European Council...'

The referendum was about the treaty, it was always said in the 'cast-iron' guarantee that if the treaty had been ratified then they couldn't do anything, there is no 'U-turn' or reneging here, I believe it is in fact, worse than that

Maybe they have honestly been scuppered by the final ratification, or, as I theorise, this was the plan all along, promising a referendum in the Sun, of all places, to get the backing of the eurosceptic majority in this country two years ago - while knowing full well they would never have to go through with such a dangerous idea

Now time will tell how this pans out - he will suffer an initial backlash for seemingly 'betraying' people, but what he will be betting on is having made enough anti-EU noise to keep the support of the voters, while not actually having to do anything but make a few vague sentiments about 'repatriating powers' - clever, huh?

Cameron just wants power, anyone who actually bought that he had any intention of giving us a referendum on the treaty was being played for a fool

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Maybe people WANT a new TV

Apparently the digital switchover in the North-West, which will affect 7.2 million people, may cause 'chaos' as TVs are needlessly thrown away

I remember talking about this back in 2007, when a YouGov survey revealed that 57% of people believed that the government had provided 'insuffiecient or no information' about the switchover, and 83% did not know when the switch would be in their region (survey at YouGov archives, Society - 2007)

Neither do I in fact...but does it really matter, because in 2007 '80% of adults [had] digital television in their home'

So while a majority don't have a clue about how and when (like me), they are already completely covered and already watch digital - surely all that matters is that they have digital

The fear is that people will throw away a perfectly good tv when they could just buy a set-top box

In the past year in Cumbria, 50,000 TVs wee recycled - 'This represents an increase of nearly 70 per cent compared to same period last year.' (so that's an extra 20,500 TVs), in the south west they had an increase of just under 40,000 TVs - so we can say 60,000 extra TVs were recycled

Of the ones in Cumbria, 30,000 could have been converted - so that's at least ten thousand TVs that would have been recycled anyway, curiously the Mail do not report how many could have been saved in the South-West

So we have 20,000 'wasted' TVs reported - is that a bad amount? Does that indicate that people are confused, after adverts every five minutes saying 'all you need is a set-top box' for what, five years?

I happened to throw away a convertible (?) TV last year, it even had a digi-box on it, the reason I got rid of it? - because it was crap and we got a new LCD, it was damaged and of no use to anyone, but this would've been counted as a TV that could have received digital and was 'needlessly thrown away' - plug it in and you would throw it away too

And when the switchover happens, would you not expect a few people to think, 'time to update the TV' - maybe they don't actually want a box on their old TV and decided to get a new one - I can't honestly believe little old ladies haven't had it drilled into their skulls that they don't need a new TV, I've never met anyone who thought they need a new one - but I know plenty who bought a new one - a little upswing in dumping TVs is surely expected

It could also be explained by the chucking of bedroom tvs - I have a little old sony, I have no intention of upgrading it - would you seriously go out and get 3 or 4 boxes for every tv in the house? No, I'd just buy a new one, it's 200 quid either way - I'm not surprised if a few of those get chucked out (mine isn't btw, it can be put to other use)

I can't find good figures for the populations of the TV regions, but you can assume there are at least 1 million households in the South-West and Cumbria combined, so that's 60,000 extra TVs thrown away - 6% of households threw away more TVs than the previous year, at a ridiculously conservative guess, and assuming they were all compatible (and how many TVs are there in the regions, let alone houses)

Is that such a catastrophe?
 
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The Mail really do need to stop trying so hard

More BBC controversy - they attacked the Queen!! (again!!1!1!!)

Miranda Hart, on HIGNFY, described the Queen and the DoE as 'that Greek twit and his Kraut wife'

ooh, nasty racist jibe there - which in fairness it is, stinks of hypocrisy after they pulled that silly Hobnob joke doesn't it?

Only, the Mail left something out until a bit further down the story (after the outrage comments...)

At a Buckingham Palace event in honour of Indian president Pratibha Patil, Philip said to businessman Atul Patel: 'There's a lot of your family here tonight.'
Miss Hart joked: 'There is no place for racism in the modern world and the sooner that Greek twit and his Kraut wife realise it, the better.'

Now, does that not make a teeny bit more sense? It's satire - I am not foolish enough to believe the writers at the Mail actually think it's offensive in any way, but if anyone actually found that offensive they need a humour-rectomy

It's not actually racist, so it doesn't become an inconsistent piece of handling or 'double standards', as the Mail conclude, once again they wilfully mislead their readers in their attacks on the Beeb

There are of course some that feel that the Queen is out-of-bounds for humour - fortunately most people are not annoying royalists

...only Rebecca Adlington is granted such status

Role models

In what hardly qualifies as news, apparently David Beckham and Cheryl Cole are the top role models for our children...this will not do!!

More than half of the adults questioned - 55 per cent - said the former England captain was a good, or very good, role model.

However, not everyone believes that Beckham is someone to look up to, with 18 per cent saying he sets a bad example.

The chief role model for girls was Cheryl Cole, who came second in the poll, with 40 per cent rating her positively. She was regarded as a bad role model by 27 per cent.

Homer Simpson was voted the worst role model for children.

Hardly the most hard-hitting conclusive poll ever done, but it raises a few interesting questions

For starters - what is wrong with Beckham? Aside from the tattoos the bloke is one of the best behaved people in football - he has showed absolute commitment to his country and barely ever puts a foot wrong, for some reason the Mail focus on that Rebecca Loos thing, but I would hope most people remember the 11 years of football and 100+ England caps he gave us

I think he's an excellent role model and have always respected him as a player - even if he hasn't got a left foot...and can't run - all the more impressive really

Cheryl Cole on the other hand - more famous for being a judge on a talent show and getting into fights with her husband and nightclubbers, is perhaps less so

It is a shame that she is perhaps the most famous woman in Britain and says a lot more about our celebrity culture than children - it is the media that choose to make her the news over far better female role models - such as athletes or real singers

And why? Because she is attractive, fortunately for the males of this world we have to at least have some sort of talent to be famous (being pretty just helps) - but it is of course us who are only interested in women for their looks, and I don't doubt having these sort of people as role models has an effect on young girls

But then, when haven't we? It's always been pretty women or no-one - why do we need 'popular' role-models, our whole lives are dictated by the media, and this is just a tiny aspect of that, if you're smart you will form your own opinions and won't be a sheep who follows Cheryl Cole or Lindsey Lohan - you'll find your own role-models, a la Lisa Simpson

So in short - why should I care about the sheep?

Speaking of Lisa, it is sad to see Homer as the worst role-model - I expect the poll had a list to choose from and no doubt he was very clearly the most idiotic of the group

But Homer, who was voted the best TV character ever, remember, is actually a decent role-model - aside from the regular child-beating, gross incompetence and alcoholism, of course

He is an average man, albeit exaggerated - he is of low intelligence, has a job going nowhere, a family tying him down and has a pretty dull existence at the root of the show (we're going back a bit, before the 'crazy adventure' Simpsons) - he is all about making us feel better about how crummy and average our lives are - for the majority of us who can't become David Beckham or Stephen Hawking I think he's a pretty good role model on how to just survive everyday life (as I said...old Simpsons...like 1994 Simpsons) - he takes pleasure in the small things

Or perhaps he is the opposite - a warning to what we can become if we live by what the TV tells us and just coast through life - the Simpsons has always been critical like that, just because most people can't see through the silliness doesn't make it a negative influence - it just reminds me of George Bush's ignorant comment about the show

So frankly if you can't see past the bilge in the media, and life in general, then it's not surprising you can't find a good role model

The role models you get, you deserve, as Greg Lake might put it