Lest we forget...

...this used to happen quite a bit on the news in the 1980's.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m50rq6BgQg

A warning from history. Well, Canada.

I thought this was an interesting  politics piece from BBC online. It covers a R4 programme that went out this afternoon (Sunday) recounting the collapse of the governing party in Ottawa to only seats in the space of a single General Election. I worked in the Canadian Parliament a few years ago as an intern, so it was easier to understand the state of the parties and the politicians involved, but the comparison is clear for the UK Labour party. The Canadian parliament is bicameral, based on the UK system and the procedure and terminioogy are similar, making the comparison even more real to the listener.

The politics  page piece:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8226525.stm

The iplayer link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00m8p81/The_World_This_Weekend_30_08_2009/

Ted Kennedy by Lucy Mangan

In my opinion, a very brave and accurate appraisal of the late great, but flawed Ted Kennedy. I also share her view of Dylan and Big Brother covered in the same colunm:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2009/aug/29/lucy-mangan-this-week

Another football related post

Sorry for the lack of posting today- nothing to report except this man is still a legend. My team Spurs have won every game under Harry Redknapp (below) as manager this season. The sequence up to now has been 2-1, 5-1, 2-1, 5-1, 2-1. This suggests Spurs will win 5-1 at Manchester United next Saturday!

West Yorkshire Young Labour

West Yorkshire Young Labour (WYYL) Treasurer and Publicity officer Alex Ross has created four different posters which can be printed out for campaigning purposes and also be used for blog/website/Facebook thumbprints etc, highlighting the real concerns of Cameron's happy shiny new Tories. The latest one refers to Cameron's education policies. Another three were all options as posters for use on our WYYL website at http://www.westyorkshireyounglabour.co.uk/

Enjoy pursuing those and for the record, ‘nice guy, shame about his party’ was the favourite poster. Please contact us with any ideas and/or queries. Alex can also be found at http://alexross.wordpress.com/

WYYL are also at http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=59035038279&ref=ts Not to be confused with West Yorkshire Young Labour Club also on Facebook. This was an earlier, discontinued page!

The intention of the group is to meet up for a drink, a meal or occasionally even at party events and allow younger party members to engage with and debate political issues. There may be the odd bit of canvassing on an add hoc basis as well, but this isn't compulsary.

Still funny

I blame Thatcher

Those of you familiar with my earlier work that is my Facebook status update will know I don't like Margaret Thatcher and blame her for many things in life. Rain. Uncovered bus stops. Standing in the rain at an uncovered bus stop. Standing in the rain at an uncovered bus stop because I live in a part of Leeds where the ideally placed local train station 500 yards away was shut many years before (Kirkstall, yes it's on the map). That last one has nothing to do with her, but it's still her fault.

I was reminded of everything being her fault when the marvellous Gavin Hayes popped up on my Facebook feed saying his local pool is shutting and everyone should stop following Barnet council's lead in "no frills" services. Lord Northern of this parish has the same Guardian link.

I grew up in Finchley under Thatcher as both the PM and my MP. I've recently returned to Leeds after 6 months living in Finchley again under said Barnet borough council. Finchley used to have a nice Lido, built in 1932 when Finchley was itself a borough council and no-one knew Thatcher would be their MP for 33 years. That's it above.

The Lido was closed in 1992 and demolished, later re-opening as a leisure centre still using the Finchley Lido name but with no Lido. I should say that this had nothing to do with Thatcher, but who cares, it's still her fault!