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Sarkozy likes the BBC, possibly!

UPDATE: 14.01.08 – Having now read more of the articles in Il Sole, I can now understand why the paper used the headline saying that ‘State TV without advertising would not work’.  The article basically argues that just about all TV and Internet, is only possible due to advertising.   Whilst this is partially true, I […]

Gun crime in the UK.

While not yet at US levels, gun crime in the UK appears to be on the increase. The recent shooting of an 11 year old in the UK, on top of a number of other killings of youngsters in the UK, have caught my attention. Knife related crimes are up too. Apparently it is quite […]

Blair’s other legacy

Many would have you believe that post-Blair Britain is a fabulous place. Many people have more money than they know what to do with and everything is hunky dory. Only, this is not necessarily true for 100% of the population, at least not according to the story which one of my students told me after […]

What could have been

There is a lovely article in several online newspapers today.  Here is one.  Apparently, around 50 years ago the French (!) PM proposed, secretly, that England and France should merge, thereby forming an Anglo-Francais European superpower sort of thing. What a fascinating thought, although I’m not at all sure the French or the English people […]

Durham

This is Durham, a city in north eastern England which boasts a castle, university, river and a cathedral, and lots of Italian restaurants somewhat surprisingly. It was a cool and wet day when this photo was taken. I have played with the RGB colour curves to get the photo to look a little brighter as […]

Some facts I picked up while in the UK

According to what I have heard the UK politicos spent 7 hours debating the UK’s intervention in Iraq, whereas all these bright people devoted over 200 hours to the banning of fox hunting.  No I’m not a great fan of foxhunting, or the war in Iraq, but it does seem mad to have spent such […]

Blogger Power

The Policeman’s Blog is a blog I admire.  The guy who writes it, who is a policeman in the UK, has been showing just how difficult it is for the police to actually do their real job – that is catching criminals and making society a bit safer for one and all.  He is someone […]

London

A friend of mine rang me up from Sloane Square in London, where he is having a short break.  The weather has been kind.  His only real comment on the big city was that it is full of haves and have nots.  The haves have lots and lots according to him, whereas the have nots […]

When life isn’t – unless you are a mouse.

Dictionary.com life (Slang.) A sentence of imprisonment lasting till death. The above definition has always been my understanding of what is often referred to as a ‘life’ prison sentence.  In simple terms, life imprisonment meant that the guilty party would spend, if not the rest of his life, a very long time in prison.  Very long […]