Shock! George W Bush is bigger than Jesus! (That must mean Jesus was a pretty short geezer).

The 101 dumbest moments in business awards for 2005.

I like this one:
"Hormel Foods is forced to recall 104,000 pounds of Stagg canned chilli— labeled "hearty beef with a kick of green chilies"— after the kick turns out to come instead from the ground-up parts of a plastic handheld calculator."

OK, in response to a request from Balders... here it is. The egotistical old get of a Chairman apparently playing football. Don't ask me which one he is supposed to be (perhaps he's the figure running the touchline in the background)

Three days left before the transfer window slaps us in the face again and the disgrace that is our Chairman has spent less on new players than he has on his own fat salary. I know it is wrong to wish harm on people, but the thoughts I have about Ellis are only equalled by the same hateful thoughts I harbour about Thatcher.

The BNP accuse the Tories of playing the race card! Pot to kettle... come in please.

On a more positive note, the Philosophy Football (click on dissenters) people have produced a T-Shirt designed around an image of Great Britain and Ireland created from the names of almost 100 refugees from Isabelle Allende to Emile Zola who have made such a positive contribution to our culture. Less than a tenner... all profits to The Refugee Council.

Sandwell Council's Planning Committee are (once again) to consider an application to turn a pub in a residential area into an all-night casino. Once more into the battle, comrades. We live here and wdo not want this Casino.

Shurely Shome mistake! Shouldn't that be "Compulsory - Make the Tories History"

Good question

If there is a war against terrrr, George Monbiot asks "Why isn't Mark Thatcher in Belmarsh?"

I was never that hot at economics, but...

...I thought I understood the law of supply and demand. From the early 1980's the Tory Government's council house sales programme encouraged tenants to buy their council houses for whacking great discounts. Local authorities were not given the capital receipts to plough back into housing, and in any event, who was going to build new houses when they knew the tenants could buy them and leave the council with the debt. Building Works Direct Labour Organisations were privatised with compulsory tendering, did everything as cheaply and proftable as they could, and those houses that were not wanted by purchasers fell into decline. Councils governed by all three main parties started selling off whole estates (or their complete stock) to so-called social landlords who prided themselves on charging 'market rents' comparable to the private sector.

The result? Less houses for those on average to low incomes, greater demand for the 'Barretts Boxes" that were being built... house prices rise due to the shortage, making it even more difficult for those on low incomes to find somewhere to live. Followed by politicians from all three political parties making fatuous remarks and blaming each other. No doubt the construction companies and Rachmanite landlords are rubbing their hands in glee. Those who have got somewhere to live can feel smug about their rising property values... and the banks and building societies jump for joy in anticipation of those self same smug owners having to remortgage to try to get their kids on the property ladder. The economics of the madhouse.

Shock eh? Rat leaves sinking ship!

Just remember this... although a hung parliament is only in Cheesie Charlie's dreams
Letter in The Guardian:
"I'm delighted to answer Mr Smith's question about hung parliaments (Letters, January 19). I am quite clear that the Lib Dems will fight this election on an independent ticket. We will put forward our own policies for government and we would not prop up an unpopular Labour administration which had lost a three-figure majority.

But I am equally clear that there is no question of joining forces with the Conservatives. There is little in their emerging policy platform which I agree with, and there is an irrevocable divide between us on the issue of Europe. If you vote for the Lib Dems at the next election, you will vote positively for us; and I suggest that if there had been more Liberal Democrat MPs in this parliament, with a smaller Labour majority, our opposition could have averted the disastrous entanglement in Iraq."
Charles Kennedy
Leader, Liberal Democrats

Tell that to the Lib Dem voters in Birmingham who saw their votes go to a Lib Dem/Tory coalition!

Images from the war in Iraq (many of which are best not viewed on a full stomach) including some horric photographs taken after the 'liberation' of Fallujah.

.. and Robert Fisk provides the commentary.

Oh gawd...

Apparently Charles Clarke wants to educate young black people on "inclusive citizenship" so that they can learn about our national heritage. Should be interesting!

Tom's back... but will it last this time, or will he be further promoted after the next election and be forced to stop by those nasty whips?

Art or what? Join the debate at Occupied Country.

Lib Dem President Simon Hughes told Radio 5 this morning that it was not right for MPs to defect and that if they did they should resign their seat and fight a by-election. Hmmm. Does anyone remember the Liberal Democrats saying this when Paul Marsden and Emma Nicholson defected to them? (Via Lib Dem Watch)

Not to mention the Founders of their party, David Owen, Roy of the Radicals, Shirley Poppins and Bill Rogers, who all stood as Labour candidates and the switched to the SDP. Come on Hughes, vent your bile on them.

In an age of prima donna millionaire sportsmen, where even the mediocre whinge if they have to put their boots on for less than twenty grand, the sheer hard work, enthusiasm and genuine commitment of Matty Hoggard make him my nomination for Sportsman of the Year for 2005 whatever else happens in the next 11 months.

Lest we forget

On the day the Tories start their election campaign The Guardian has some photographs taken by Don McPhee in his 33 years in their Manchester office.

Battle of Orgreave

The summer of 1984 and the Miners Strike witnessed some of its most violent scenes as battle lines were drawn between the police and pickets at the Orgreave coking plant near Sheffield, South Yorkshire.

Making ends meet

Striking miners pick coal from pit waste sites during the 1984 strike.

Please, don’t take this personally, but in all honesty, if you are asking us “Isn’t the world a safer place without Saddam?” think again, because you have got the wrong person Mr. President.

The world would be safer without you too, and the likes of you.

There's more about the phantom weapons at antiwar.com.

"Thank god my father wasn't around to see this..." (shame about your mother though.....)

An endearing profile of "Thickie" Thatcher... the multi-millionaire bonehead who seems to have bought his way out of the slammer. Apparently a banner saying "Save me mummy" was draped over a building opposite the court.

OK... it's official... there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. All those palm trees hiding missile silos, lorries converted into rocket delivery systems, sattelite pictures displayed at the UN by Colin Powell, all absolute and total rubbish. It would appear that the people who didn't tell us in advance about the plot to crash aircraft into the World Trade Centre were the same incompetents who did tell us about weapons of mass destruction that didn't actually exist. Perhaps someone could give us a ballpark figure, to within a million pounds or so, of just how much money this country and the US spend on "Intelligence" every year.

Oh yes, could someone also tell us, if there were no chemical or biological weapons, exactly what did "Chemical" Ali do for a living?

The emerging Farmers' Market in Bearwood is back again this Saturday. If you are in the locality, give it your support. As featured on the excellent Big Barn website. (Type B67 into the postcode box to find us). Also, if you know a local (to us that is) vegetable producer who may want a stall... let me know.