RED TAPE GONE MAD
Boris Johnson, in his Daily Telegraph column out today, cries out that:
Too much regulation is being foisted on people, with all its fiscal consequences.
See here or below for the text.
Monthly Archives: December 2004
Blunkett’s kiss and tell
The Spectator’s leading article in the copy out today claims that Mr Blunkett is responsible for the latest media frenzy and intrusion into the privacy of his lover’s family life. The debate seems to swing between those in support of the Home Secretary and others in support of his lover and her family – leaving open to question the matter of responsibility at the root of this relationship leading to the chain of events sparking the current saga.
The feature argues that the escalation of this media intrusion and high profile spat is a sure sign of degeneracy.
Postscript: The answer may lie here – Peter Oborne. Agree with you mate for once – “only the eternal truths will save them: …above all Christian love”. For how else can we reconcile the ambiguities of our time? Criticise the speck in someone else’s eye only to forget the plank in our own? Eternal truths: beauty, love and faith. The ability to look above + beyond and consider the raw beauty of sunset skies, mountain streams, horizons beyond. No words – for seasonal peace, love and goodwill – just silence, as the Archbishop of Canterbury would wisely counsel (and he so brilliantly and stupendously did on Dec 6 Parliamentary Carol Service at Lambeth Palace ~ Blunkett was there an’ all would you believe, gave him a strong comforting squirmy word in support)
Peter Oborne piece here.
[just blog webmaster’s views btw for now of course…filling in while megaboss really prepares to hone his blogging skills – still a new boy at this game. How about this resolution for 2005 – full of pep ‘Blogging Johnson’?]
Microsoft gets the blogging bug
Software giant Microsoft is taking the plunge into the world of blogging. It is launching a test service to allow people to publish blogs, or online journals, called MSN Spaces.
See BBC News.
Getting the sack
*Boris’s column in the Daily Telegraph touches on his recent sacking experience*
He recommends getting humiliatingly sacked as a means of awakening a new compassion, in friend and foe alike. It truly does appear to melt the hearts of all rivals… (how else could he have featured on page two of a national newspaper in Argentina recently?)
By contrast he also refers to the tens of thousands across Britain who sadly face the loss of their jobs, through no fault of their own. This is very largely owing to the trend of the public sector growing at too fast a rate, thereby involving much waste. For example, from April 2003 to April 2004, the number of officials in Whitehall expanded by 12,280. There is too much political correctness and a massive transfer of wealth has taken place from the productive to the non-productive sectors of the economy.
Read on… here
Blog is the top word looked up in US dictionary
Hot off the press..
The term “blog” has been chosen as the top word of 2004 by a US dictionary publisher.
Merriam-Webster said “blog” was the word that people have asked to be defined or explained most often over the last 12 months.
A spokesman for the Oxford University Press said that the word was now being put into other dictionaries for children and learners, reflecting its mainstream use.
“I think it was the word of last year rather than this year,” he said.
“Now we’re getting words that derive from it such as ‘blogosphere’ and so on,” he said.
“But,” he added, “it’s a pretty recent thing and in the way that this happens these days it’s got established very quickly.”
Read the full piece on BBC News.
Thatcher spotted
I was giving tea to some constituents from Chinnor in the Pugin Room and doing my best to show off about the famous people sitting around in the leather armchairs.
“And there,” I said, “is George Foulkes, the former Labour Minister for Overseas Development!” My friends nodded with due reverence to George.
But as we were wolfing our eclairs I noticed that I seemed to have lost their attention and out of the corner of my eye I saw something in powder blue, and I looked up and there she was again! It was Baroness Thatcher, looking just as transcendentally dynamic as when Melissa and le tout in Portcullis House spotted her last week having coffee.
“Did you organise that especially for us” said my awstruck friends, and I did not deny it.