My 2010 Awards of the Year

Well with 2010 done and 2011 ahead I have decided that I may join in with everyone else and provide a list of “Awards” (In Name only don’t be expecting any money) and Predictions for the year ahead.

Working in chronological order I will start with the Awards for 2010 first and then deal with 2011 in a subsequent post.

So here are my Awards for 2010.

SPORTS

SPORTS TEAM OF THE YEAR
My sports team of the year is the England Cricket Team, whilst cricket is not my main sport I think that the team who have long been seen as underachievers (Aren’t all England Teams viewed in this way.) but this year they have quite literally taken the world by storm, Winning the third instalment of the 20:20 World Cup before days before the end of the year producing a great performance to retain the ashes – So what if most of them seem to be South African!

SPORTS HERO OF THE YEAR
My Sports Heroes of the year (Joint Heroes) are unsurprisingly from Tottenham had you asked me last year I would have hoped they would have been from England’s World Cup Winning squad (Football not Cricket.) but we all know how that turned out. So instead of an Englishman my picks are a Welshman and a Dutchman. Between Gareth Bale and Rafael Van Der Vaart Tottenham have started to not just deliver some good football – even during the last 20 cold years we have played some great football – but they have actually changed the way Tottenham feel, no longer do we have to look at the list of upcoming fixtures and dread meeting Arsenal, Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool or even Newcastle we now know that when we are on form we can beat anyone and that has come from these two figure heads for the change that has come about in the last five years.

SPORTS TRAVESTY OF THE YEAR
This has to go to FIFA for their Awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar. Now I have no issue with these two countries being made hosts of the tournaments, obviously I would have loved England to get the World Cup in 2018 but if FIFA wanted it to go to Russia and they believe that Russia can put on a great World Cup then that is good enough for me. What I consider the Travesty is the process by which they were awarded the competitions. If FIFA had already decided (As seems to be the case) that they wanted to send the World Cup to areas where it had not previously been held then why make previous host countries go to the expense and trouble of preparing bids and sending delegates when they really had no chance whatsoever.

HONERABLE MENTION IN THE WORLD OF SPORT
An honourable mention in the world of sport this year goes to not an athlete but rather an administrator, Again using my personal bias I have gone for Daniel Levy the CEO of Tottenham Hotspur PLC, The reason I have selected him is that over successive years since Levy and ENIC have run Tottenham they have moved forwards time and again and have improved right up to last seasons achievement of finally competing in the Champions League, for me what makes this all the more remarkable is that it has been achieved not through a big money donor (Although I have never thought that they have limited the money Spurs managers could spend.) but by building year on year and making very astute transfer dealings. There is a very good chance that we may not qualify for next years competition and that Manchester City could spend their way into the top four but at least Daniel Levy has shown that in this big money world there is still the ability for a club to be well managed and still make an impact on the European stage.

TECHNOLOGY

PRODUCT OF THE YEAR
Again for people who know me, very little surprise here as my choice for Technology Product of the year which goes to the HTC Desire HD, I have had the HTC Desire for just under a year now and the phone is as near to perfect as I could find, and the HD version is even better, I think that the Apple IOS and Google Android battle will run throughout 2011 and beyond (With Windows Mobile 7 a really unknown quantity at this point.) however for me the freedom represented by Android as well as HTC’s integrated apps (Friend Stream, HTC Sense etc…) really make the HTC Android handhelds stand out above Apple, and while I know there have been many people pointing at lower specs handhelds such as the Wildfire to show Apples dominance this is unfair as the Wildfire should be compared instead with Apple’s entry level smart phones (Which they haven’t got) so it is the two top products the Desire and the iPhone 4 who should be compared and for me the HTC comes out on top.

INNOVATION OF THE YEAR
The innovation that has blown my mind this year was the revelation that Google had completed thousands of miles in a self driven car, my blog post on this subject took me on a variety of emotions from being awestruck that the realty was this close to completion to worries that this could be one change to many for the world and that there was a chance that the economy could not handle the amount of jobs that may well be lost from this new technology (From Taxi Drivers and Driving Instructors to Parking Attendants and Street Cleaners) however for giving me a quick glimpse as to what I have always imagined being the future then this is my Innovation of the Year.

NOT INTERESTED OF THE YEAR
This award might actually be a surprise to some who know me as I am obviously a massive cinema fan and a big technohead but the big invention (Well proliferation anyway.) that I have had no interest in this year is 3D. The enhanced dimension cinemas and televisions that we are all being told we have to get just holds no interest for me at all. Whilst I appreciate that it gives you a greater depth of vision into the movies I really do not find myself forgetting that I am watching a film in the cinema, so what’s the point? I can follow a storyline on a 2D screen just as well so if it is not to give you a greater sense of “being part of the action” it adds nothing, and if it is to make you part of the action then it is simply not good enough to make you forget that it is on a screen. I have pledged that 2011 I will be viewing all films in 2D where possible as this is one giant leap sideways I will gladly see dropped.

CINEMA

FILM OF THE YEAR
For me the film of the year was most probably Inception, Now if you have read my review of the film you will know that it was not actually my favourite film and the ending was quite frankly laughable but in a year in which Hollywood has struggled to produce even a rudimentary amount of originality the concept of this film was as refreshing as watching The Matrix for the first time. It made you realise that there may actually still be one or two people in the movie industry who were capable of independent thought, and hopefully it will not be another 10 years before they have another one.

PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR
Obviously I understand that if you want to be taken seriously as a film fan then when Hollywood makes a new version of a non-english speaking movie, you are required to always speak about how much better the original is. However the performance of Chloe Moretz in Let me In, the US remake (Sorry Re-Imagining) of the Swedish Vampire Love Story Let the Right One in, was really a first class performance from the 13 year old which deserves recognition.

WORST FILM OF THE YEAR
This has to go to the Other Guys only the second movie I have not managed to get to the end of, From the very beginning to the point where I left (As they are caught up in an explosion) I do not remember laughing or even understanding what they thought was funny, the main characters were losers whose personalities were such that in fact you wanted them to lose with the supporting characters being equally as cringe worthy that the very idea of any of them coming good would insult every ounce of fairness in the universe.

POLITICS

STORY OF THE YEAR
There was only really one story that dominated this year politically and that is the coming together of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats to form a peace time coalition. Back before May there looked to be a wide spread fear that we may get a hung parliament and therefore have to hold another election before the end of the year, on the 5th May it looked as though in fact it would be a Conservative Government followed later on in the night with the realisation that it would be a Hung Government. Most people I think at the time were expecting a Conservative minority government but instead after a couple of weeks of negotiations we were presented with a solution. There rest of the year seemed to consist of the really not news revelations that 1) The Coalition members are not all of the same ideology (Obviously as if they were they would have all been in the same party in the first place) and 2) that the public are not going to enjoy the necessary cuts.

PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR
It may seem like a bit of a cop out here but my Political Personality of the Year goes to David Cameron, aside from obviously securing his position as Prime Minister, brokering an extraordinary coalition agreement and starting to steer the economy away from the financial melt down that Gordon Brown was heading for, This has been quite a year (and a bit) for the PM. Starting last year with the death of his Son Ivan, through the closest fought election battle in memory, including presidential style TV debates (A flop in my opinion.) and then into Number 10 followed closely by the birth of his second daughter and another personal tragedy with the death of his father. So whatever your views are on his politics or even his background (never quite sure why that matters.) you can’t disagree that this has been a very interesting year.

FALSE HERO OF THE YEAR
The False Hero of the Year Award is created especially for Julian Assange, the founder and spokesman of Wikileaks. The reason that I have selected this particular award to be presented to Mr. Assange is that he seems to being held up as a messiah of digital freedoms and whilst I really have no strong feelings of wikileaks one way of the other – I am mostly of the philosophy that the information released is not very interesting, the fact that the US ambassador thinks that a chancellor who has never been in power is inexperienced really isn’t a great shock – the simple fact is that Assange is accused of not one but two counts of molestation, something that makes him a very unlikely hero. He has claimed that if he returned to Sweden to face the allegations he will be quickly smuggled to the US to be incarcerated. Surely the attention that Wikileaks have received over the last year would make any silent transfer an impossibility and therefore the only thing it appears to me that Assange is trying to hide from is the full effect of Swedish law – Sweden which according to the corruption index is the second least corrupt country in the world (After New Zealand) – This leads me to think that therefore the only thing that Assange is scared of is that he will be found guilty in court and have to serve the sentences fitting the crimes he has been accused of.

EMBARRASMENT OF THE YEAR
My final Award is actually the hardest as politically there have been many who could well fit the bill, from the Students who think that attempting to injure Police is not a serious matter, the Train Drivers who think that they should receive quadruple pay for Boxing day as many Londoners were forced to walk to work for basic Sunday payment. Or even Ed Miliband who looks set to be the least electable Labour Leader since Neil Kinnock stood grinning like his Spitting Image doll on the stage at the Labour Party Conference so many years ago. But in the end my Political Zero of the year is Liam Byrne, former Chief Secretary to the Treasury and the cluless individual who left the note “Dear Chief Secretary, Sorry we’ve spent all the money, there’s nothing left.” And in one note of attempted comedy summed up not just the problems facing the coalition but was also to show the disregard that the Labour leaders had for the economy and the public which caused the problem in the first place.

Happy New Year

Wishing all of my Readers (Both of You) a Very Happy New Year and a delightful 2011.

Band Aid not getting enough sympathy

Driving to work this morning on very icy roads I was listening to Band Aid’s do they know it’s Christmas (The original not the travesty of self promotion that was the latest effort) However I do not think the line “There wont be snow in Africa this Christmas Time.” Had quite the sympathy creating effect it was supposed to have.

What is wrong with the Press in the UK?

What is wrong with the press in this country? I listened to Nick Ferrari on LBC (97.3 FM) this morning on the way into work, he was interviewing John Redwood (Former Cabinet Minister, Current MP for Wokingham) and Ferrari was desperate to get Redwood to say that the coalition was in trouble, obviously Labour had been on earlier getting their political points in and trying to claim it signalled a general election around the corner but John Redwood was very level headed and simply gave his opinion this seemed to anger Ferrari who on a few occasions talked over him to try and bully (Which if you have ever seen John Redwood being interviewed you should know is nearly impossible.) to say that he felt that the coalition were in severe trouble. Now if you were to ask why he was so aggressive with him when he came on I am sure you would get the usual Press response. “It’s our job to hold them to account!” an interesting concept as surely isn’t the job of the press to actually report the truth? And as Ferrari is now a Talk Show host and not an actual reporter surely isn’t his job to facilitate a public discussion between alternate sides of a debate? Not to try and pick up some useful sound bytes?

This is not an issue unique to talk show hosts however as it would appear that an interviewer who does not attack his interviewee has failed his interview. Now I am not stating that we should return to the times where the interviewer was in awe to the politicians or even to a position where they were not allowed to go in hard when it is necessary, what I am saying is that it should not be the norm. It’s not that politicians need to be given greater respect, but that they should be given the respect everyone of us should be able to expect when being spoken too.

The other issue which the press bring up with our elected officials which has bugged me for a while (And which I may well have ranted about on occasion as well) is the way they attack politicians for changing their minds, the papers are full of stories of U-Turns and Backtracks as if the worse thing a politician can do is change their mind, now it may just be my naivety but personally I would prefer to have an elected representative who is willing to admit that they are wrong and make amendments to their policy than one who sticks blindly to their guns regardless of if the policy turns out to be wrong. This was typified for me in the debate about an Asylum cap before the last election. Cameron was pushed by Brown to give a number for the Asylum cap and when he said that he would have to work the figure out each year he was accused of weak leadership – for not giving an arbitrary figure. This was then repeated in the press so that a policy of having the right cap at the right time and for recognising that the world does not stand still (so what is right for 2010 may not be right for 2025, in fact I would say that it is highly unlikely to be.) was seen, rather than realism and a good policy, to be a lack of policy.

Can Vince Cable Bring Down the Government?

So it would appear from the press that the coalition are in the process of collapsing, this stunning revelation comes from Vince Cable stating that being part of the coalition is like a constant war. Now there are a few questions that come up from this story.

Primarily, is Vince Cable really a nuclear weapon? Or is this just wishful thinking? Personally I am taking this as a bit of a naive boast. Cable thought that he was talking to two Lib Dem voters in his constituency and it is possible therefore that he decided to “over egg” his power in the coalition in order to justify the votes he received. Surely there is no one man that could bring down the government in one move, if Cameron decided he’d had enough and walked away from Number 10, it may trigger an election but even then I think you will find that in this time of belt tightening and financial pain the general public have little appetite for another general election.

The Second question that struck me immediately on hearing the story was, Is anyone else actually surprised? This is a Coalition government not a single party system, a fracture in a party is something you may not expect (Although personally I welcome it.) but a fracture between two parties is hardly news worthy, I do not believe that the Lib Dems and Conservatives have formed a single party but rather are two parties doing the adult thing and are looking to put their differences aside in the national interest, this can not be easy for any of them and a coalition government will by the very definition always be weaker than a single party administration.

Finally I want to ask if Vince is actually wrong in what he said, he has always been a bit of an uncertainty in the coalition and is definitely one of the less easy cabinet members so I doubt very much that it will shock the PM too much. I am sure that they will be having a word with him to try and ensure that he is more careful with regards to who he talks too but at the end of the day shouldn’t MP’s be allowed to express their own opinions? Surely we elect these people based on believing they are the best person to represent us, therefore why do we insist on trying to silence them all the time. I may not like what Mr. Cable has to say but if it is what he believes then surely he should be allowed to say it (It would then be down to the PM to see if he should be allowed to remain in the cabinet, and the people of Twickenham to decide if he should be allowed to remain in Parliament.) I don’t really see what it has to do with the rest of us, I personally fear a time when our MP’s are not allowed to have independent thoughts, as then you will find that only a few people shape the entirety of our society.

Automatically Sort Excel Range

Had another Excel request through – You wait a month for one then two come through at once.

This time the request is how to make a sheet update automatically when a certain cell is updated, This is how I did it (Although in all honesty there are hundreds of snippets on the net if you look for them.)

Private Sub Worksheet_Change(ByVal Target As Range)
If Not (Application.Intersect(Worksheets(8).Range("N:N"), Target) Is Nothing) Then ‘Change this Range to contain the cells you want it to trigger for
AutoSort ‘This calls the sub procedure below which does the actual work
End If
End Sub

Private Sub DoSort()
Worksheets(8).Range("L2:O49").Sort Key1:=Worksheets(8).Range("L2"), Order1:=xlAscending, Header:=xlNo 'This line does the sort as requested in this case sorting the table L2:O49 by the field in column L2 – All of these calculations take affect on Worksheet 8.
End Sub

Handy Sub to Unlock Protected Excel Worksheet

Had a request a few weeks ago from someone who needed to unprotect an Excel sheet which had been protected by someone who was no longer with the company so they could not get the Password.

here is the procedure I developed,

Sub PasswordReset()

Dim ia As Integer, ib As Integer, ic As Integer
Dim id As Integer, ie As Integer, ig As Integer
Dim i1 As Integer, i2 As Integer, i3 As Integer
Dim i4 As Integer, i5 As Integer, i6 As Integer

On Error Resume Next

For ia = 65 To 66: For ib = 65 To 66: For ic = 65 To 66
For id = 65 To 66: For ie = 65 To 66: For i1 = 65 To 66
For i2 = 65 To 66: For i3 = 65 To 66: For i4 = 65 To 66
For i5 = 65 To 66: For i6 = 65 To 66: For ig = 32 To 126
ActiveSheet.Unprotect Chr(ia) & Chr(ib) & Chr(ic) & _
Chr(id) & Chr(ie) & Chr(i1) & Chr(i2) & Chr(i3) & _
Chr(i4) & Chr(i5) & Chr(i6) & Chr(ig)
If ActiveSheet.ProtectContents = False Then
MsgBox "Your Sheet has Been Unlocked Using " & Chr(ia) & Chr(ib) & _
Chr(ic) & Chr(id) & Chr(ie) & Chr(i1) & Chr(i2) & _
Chr(i3) & Chr(i4) & Chr(i5) & Chr(i6) & Chr(ig)
Exit Sub
End If
Next: Next: Next: Next: Next: Next
Next: Next: Next: Next: Next: Next
End Sub

So next time you forget your password and need to unprotect a sheet just add this to the VBA window and run the Module. Hey Presto.

Movie Review: Mosters

Final film I am going to review today (Or the first if you are reading the posts as displayed on the blog) is for Monsters, There have been many comparisons between last years District 9 and Monsters, both stories are about a world where Aliens have arrived and are looking to be contained, there are obvious parallels looking at the subjects of racial disharmony (District 9 being a reflection of South African racial tension) and of illegal immigration (Mexico is being decimated by the Monster Attacks whilst the US has built a giant wall to keep them out) however Monsters is much more a film about the relationship of two strangers during a stressful time rather than a film about the Aliens, it is in fact this interplay that is explored along with (Apparently unintentionally) the subject of Cross border Immigration.

Gareth Edwards Directs in what is his biggest released movie to date, although still was filmed with a very small budget and staring real life couple and relatively unknown actors Scott McNairy and Whitney Able the film was mostly shot with just the two leads, a sound engineer and the Director and it is this intimacy which comes across in the filming as the giant octopi blending into the background of the story and being more the catalyst of the story rather than the story itself. The main issue with focusing so much on the story however is that the plot has holes bigger enough for the hundred foot squid aliens to walk easily through.

Firstly McNairy is told by his boss that he has to ensure that Able gets safely back to America, we are led to believe that Able’s father is a media mogul and that she is wearing an engagement ring that is worth over ten thousand pounds. There is also at no point any kind of information given that any of these aliens can fly. Both of these points lead me to question why on ensuring that she is safe and with Monster activity in the area why would he decide that the best way to ensure her safety was to head as close to the infected zone as possible to place her on a ferry, whilst an important plot point as if they are not there how would they end up having to try and cross the zone over land, surely the smart money would have been to head south to an airport and fly back to the states. There are constant Air Force flights taking place over the infected zone but even so there must be some kind of domestic flights which go around the zone? Eventually they enter into the zone and are carried across most of the zone until being left on their own after a monster attack; luckily they have a great sense of direction so are still able to find their way to the wall that marks the border in a very short amount of time. On arriving at the wall you start to think that their troubles have only just started as the wall is a few hundred feet tall and stretching as far as the eye can see, one of their guides a little earlier when talking about the wall states that in fact America is actually more like a prison trapping themselves in rather than keeping others out (Again the Director says that he did not intend it to be a commentary on immigration, which I find hard to believe.) However it is nothing like a Prison after all they can still get to Canada or the rest of the world – And as I say there must be a way to get to Mexico even if you have to fly around the zone. Anyway having made it to the wall they walk for what appears to be half an hour and find a massive gap in the wall where there is a small check point and after climbing about 12 feet (keep in mind this fence was built to keep out 100ft tall Aliens) they are able to walk into America only to discover the shocking news that this part of the US has been over run (or possibly lightly stepped over.)

The film has a few very good visuals of the Aliens right at the end although the tentacles searching the room shows that this film is not completely immune to Hollywood fashions (Skyline and War of the Worlds to name just a couple.) I would say that the main performances make this a worthy attempt at a compelling story but that I do not believe that it was not intended as a commentary on American immigration policy (Although if it was the final message appears to be that if you let immigrants in they will destroy your country and have sex in your petrol stations.) and the story that was used to add background was not thought out well enough to hold the plot in place, the small focus during a big event is very popular at the moment but unfortunately Edwards is not M. Night Shyamalan.

I would say however I disagree with the comment made by the person sat behind me in the cinema “That was the worst movie released this year.” But I guess he never saw The Other Guys!

Movie Review: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

The next film of Movie Day was the Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the third in the inconsistent series which follows the highly successful The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe and the less successful Prince Caspian. There has been considerable speculation as to why Prince Caspian was less successful than The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe however the answer is typified for me in an interview in Empire magazine with Will Poulter who plays the ever annoying Eustace in the film in which he states that his experience with the C.S Lewis series is that he “read the first book, but hasn’t read any of the others.” This is the truth of it, The Lion, The With and The Wardrobe is a book that everyone knows and loves but the rest of Lewis’ chronicles are less known and hardly loved – How many people actually know the name of the next book in the series (The Silver Chair) a few but I would guess not a great deal.

Anyway the film follows King Caspian (Played by Ben Barnes) who is joined in Narnia by Edmund and Lucy the two youngest of the Pevensie children and their cousin Eustace when the three children are submerged in water from a painting of the Dawn Treader. Caspian brings them all on board and as is usual in Narnia takes them on a quest and into great danger; the quest is to find the seven missing lords of Narnia who before Caspian became king (As seen in Prince Caspian) left for the islands out to the east. Caspian is accompanied on his quest by Reepicheep voiced in Prince Caspian by Eddie Izzard and now voiced by Simon Pegg as the director (Michael Apted) thought that Izzard’s voice was too mature to play the animated rat, who always reminds me of Puss in Boots from the Shrek series, but perhaps Izzard was simply too busy losing an election for Labour to reprise the role!

Obviously the quest does not go smoothly when as they arrive at the lonely island where they should be they find them deserted and so in true Narnian fashion King Caspian leaves all of his well armed seamen on the beach and heads into unknown dangers with just the three human children as support – Not entirely sure why all Narnians seem to think that the presence of a 15 year old girl beats a dozen armed men but that is just the way their society seems to work so who are we to argue. So with the completely useless Eustace left to keep guard (Seriously how did this guy get to be king) it is perhaps (not) surprising that that they are ambushed and taken captive by slave traders. This is all very fortunate as they are imprisoned long enough to view a woman separated from her family being sucked into a mysterious green smoke. I won’t bore you with the details but eventually they are saved by the army they brought with them and so head off to search for the citizens who were taken by the smoke.

The rest of the story is pretty normal fare with the ship following the path set out for them and all the time relying on the ability of a few children to save the world, a high feat indeed as one of them is the ever slap worthy Eustace, luckily however he is soon turned into a Dragon and so starts to become instantly likeable – A bit of a shock change as he goes from Selfish and annoying child to selfless and brave dragon in an instant which perhaps could have used a bit of fleshing out. The finale is a bit of an anticlimax although does have quite a nostalgic moment which reminded me of the end of Ghostbusters (not that there was any stream crossing.)

After the main story has finished there is a little bit hinting at the Christian nature of the Chronicles of Narnia subtext, I was actually very surprised that my companion to the cinema was not aware of the Christian message, In Which on being told she could not return to Narnia, Lucy asked if she will ever meet Aslan again, to which the talking Lion replies “That is why I bought you here, that to know me for a short while in this world will result in you knowing me for a long time in the other world.” She was therefore trying to work out who was supposed to be the Lion in another form before I revealed the connection to Jesus. (Coming Back in the first film and then transcending to another world etc..)

The ending does bring up an interesting point of continuity however as Edmund Played by Skandar Keynes aged 19 and Lucy Played by Georgie Henley aged 15 are informed that they have become to old to re-enter Narnia in the future, despite the fact that William Mosley (Peter) and Anna Popplewell (Susan) were 21 and 20 respectively during Prince Caspian. Aslan then tells Eustace that he may well visit Narnia again in the future (As he does in The Silver Chair) However Eustace is played by William Poulter who is two years older than Georgie but I guess that is probably just me getting too wrapped up in the detail.

Movie Review: Megamind

Have seen a great many films recently as we had an entire day to catch up with the ones we had previously missed, So again it look like the next three articles will be film related (I do have other interests honest.)
First up in Chronological order is MegaMind this cartoon features the vocal talents of Will Ferrell with Brad Pitt as the supporting star (Brad Pitt supporting Will Ferrell – Hollywood has really gone mad!) The film is yet another evil genius turned good (Universal’s Despicable Me being another example) but being from Dream Works you are pretty much guaranteed that there will be a few laughs – although once again it would appear that Dream Works have looked to invest their budget in big name voices.

Megamind is the Blue coloured super genius who strikes up an early rivalry (From 8 days old) with Pitts Superman clone Metro Man when their planets are sucked up by a black hole and both are sent to earth to fulfil their destiny, Where Metro Man falls serendipitously into the mansion of a wealthy family his ship forces Megamind to crash in a Prison for the criminally gifted and so it would seem that their roles are set, to battle the causes of Good and Evil in intricate plans some of which Metro Man wins, others Megamind almost wins until almost by chance Mega Mind wins and is actually able to defeat Metro Man and so take over Metro City as the evil overlord – however soon a new threat emerges to attack Metro City and Megamind is called upon to become a hero – Can he answer the call? – of cause he can, I am sure that this isn’t a spoiler as if you didn’t see where this was going then this cartoon may be a bit to intense for you. Anyway the story aside, which is a very predictable by the numbers movie (It is after all a cartoon) the test of a cartoon these days is “are there enough laughs to make the film interesting to the Parents as well as the kids?” The answer is probably Yes, although as is often the case with these things there were not many laugh out loud moments and it is reasonably difficult to remember them afterwards.

The main selling point of this film however is the voice talent and the visual scale with Metro City being carefully recreated by Dream Works which they clearly hope will be able to cover the inefficiencies in the plot and the lack of originality, I have read a review stating that the Film is not as funny as you would expect from a Will Farrell movie, which I disagree with however I have never been a Will Farrell fan as I find that I struggle to ever feel sympathy for the “idiot” character that he usually plays and so actually found the change of pace to the more cerebral, but luckless Megamind actually a much better fit with the comedy I enjoy.

Champions league draw, again

Well I was told that Spurs would never make it to the champions league, then I was told that we would be lucky to qualify, next came the certain fact that we would not qualify from our "group of death."
You can imagine how happy I am then to be waiting for the draw for the knock out stage of the competition, there are not a lot of easy teams left at this stage so anyone we get will of cause be tough, our opponents will be out of the second placed teams - not including Arsenal or Inter Milan - so it will be out of: Roma, AC Milan, Lyon, Copenhagen or Marseille. Of these I guess I would like Copenhagen and dislike AC Milan - although our last visit to Milan was definitely an interesting event.
I am very glad we finished top of our group however as things look a lot worse for Arsenal who will be travelling to Germany or Spain to face one of: Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich or FC Schalke. So I guess they will be hoping for Schalke but they are by no means an easy team, and I do not really understand Arsene Wenger's assertion that they don't fear Barcelona as they were beaten so badly last year, but I guess that's his job.

Anyway onto the draw:

We got AC Milan in what I am sure is the game of the round, at least no one can say we did it the easy way, the strategy should be to try and keep 11 men on the pitch there and then destroy them at home, it has worked so far.
Other games
Roma vs Shakhtar
Valencia vs Schalke
Inter vs Munich (so arsenal are going to Spain.)
Man Utd vs Marseille
Barcelona vs Arsenal - repeat of last year
Chelsea vs Copenhagen
Real Madrid vs Lyon
So not a great draw for spurs, but at least it is worse for Arsenal.

Harry Potter, The Deathly Hallows and the badly managed Plot

This week we went to see Harry Potter and the deathly hallows part one. I have to admit that I read the book simply as I had read all of the others, it is often said that the books become ever darker as the series continues however I would probably say that it felt more bogged down as the series continued and what is often considered depth is in fact simply over populated plot strings. This, for me, all culminated in a very, the best word I can think of here is boring, 1st half of the final book. This first half in my opinion should have been left out altogether in the movie (it could have been handled better with a five minute background scene.) Instead the fear of the ending of one, if not the, highest earning, franchises made them see fit to make it a stand alone movie.

The film starts with an overly active first set piece in which they rescue Harry and are attacked by the Death Eaters - Always reminds me of a gang of 12 year old wanna be gangsters - It then descends into a seemingly endless set up of staring, moping and sulking which seems to last endlessly and use up considerable amounts of the good will towards these characters who have been the main stay of English Cinema for the best part of a decade.

There are a couple of cringe worthy scenes, not least an impromptu, in appropriate and untimely dance sequence between Harry and Hermione which was as ungainly in it's delivery as it was superfluous to the plot. The plot is overly twisted and convoluted whilst at the same time being shallow to the point of confusing what is going on, There are so many quests all happening at once with the search for the Horcruxes that contain the soul of Voldemort as well as details of the Deathly Hallows - three magical instruments that can give the owner the power over death itself - however these details seem to be thrown in at the last minute to justify the films title, finally in case the search for these 8 items was not enough to confuse they decide the flow of the narrative is best served by throwing in a search for the Sword of Griffindor!

There are of cause some very good performances, after all the main protagonists have had 7 years experience and Helena Bonam Carter always gives a great performance as the demented Bellatrix.

Still I am happy to say that I infinitely preferred the second half of the book to the first so perhaps we may find that splitting it into two halves will leave a really great movie to close out the series, this one however in set ups for a final showstopper this movie was more Matrix Reloaded than Empire Strikes Back.

Student Tuition Fees

As the country prepares for more civil unrest from the nations students I thought I would blog my views on the subject of tuition fees. (Although I doubt anyone will care.)

Anyway, My opinion on this is that why should Students not pay for their own education? surely if someone is to pay it should be the person who benefits? that is just common sense. I have a degree in Politics and Government which I did to improve myself, why should anyone else pay for this? It is my life, my higher earning potential, my cost!

I did not go into the degree thinking the country owed me the right to study, I also worked full time whilst I was studying to keep my bills paid. For some reason though a lot of these Students seem to think that as the country needs doctors they are doing the country a favour; I wounder how many people would be going through Medschool if the wage of a Doctor was capped to Average Wage? perhaps that is what the students would prefer - all jobs to have the same pay level - I would wager that many of the popular courses today would be empty in no time.

Also it is not as if Student debt is real debt, real debt is relentless, it doesn't wait for you to be able to afford it. I have had real debt issues and managed them whilst earning below 10k a year, so I am hard pressed to feel sympathy for those who complain that they will have debt on twice that amount.

My last point on this is that, as seems to be known to everyone outside of Student populations and Government, There are too many people going to university, this is again as it is considered a right not a privilege, a privilege that should not be based on wealth, but on ability, but a privilege none the less.

A night of good results

As if Tottenham topping the group was not good enough Last night was also the night that Crawley Town booked their place in the Third Round thanks to two goals by Smith and an Own goal seeing off ten man Swindon in the Second round replay.

Crawley went 1-0 up thanks to Smith before finding themselves pegged back to 2-1 by the League opposition who were then reduced to ten men before an unfortunate own goal forced Extra Time, it was not until 28 minutes into the extra half hour that Smith struck again sending the Blue Square premier outfit through for the first time in their history.

So now they march onwards, however Championship Derby who will be visiting the Broadfield on the 8th January will be a different prospect altogether, but now is a time for celebration.

Tottenham top group of death

The group stage of Tottenham's first champions league campaign ended last night and, despite what I was assured by a Chelsea fan after the draw, Tottenham did not get shown just how out of their depth they are but ended up winning the group and in the process beating the German, Dutch and European champions - not a bad little run.

Whilst it is true that it was not an easy run - 4-0 down against Inter, losing 2 goal lead against Breman - in the end most pundits agree we were the best in the group.

The game last night really summed up our away campaign with letting the lead slip 3 times, the game started in comical fashion with the Twente keeper having a nightmare to watch a simple back pass bounce past his foot for Spurs' opener.

Twente were soon back in it however after the Referee gave a penalty, now I would obviously disagree with the decision whatever it was but this was a very soft decision with the spurs defender punished simply for the human instinct for protection, however as the next goal was the result of an even worse decision by the Referee there is not too much point in dwelling on it.

Tottenham re-took the lead through a quite sublime piece of link up play between Defoe and Lennon which showed a little of what we have missed in his absence before the ref struck again to level the game, this time a free kick outside the box to penalize Lennon for laying a hand on the shoulder of a man around 2 foot taller than himself.
Bad refereeing aside however the free kick was top class so no complaints there.

The Twente keeper who, apart from the first goal, had a pretty good game was unfortunate again for the third spurs goal as he produced a wonderful save from Palacios which fell into the path of the ever alert Defoe to do what he does best. However Twente struck back again with their first goal not directly from a bad refereeing decision (there was a touch in between the free kick and the goal) this was again a greatly taken goal and really showed how good a team Twente are,

Obviously I do feel slightly annoyed at the part the Referee played in the goals but he was not finished yet, after a Twente player went down in the box (which to be fair he should have been booked for as he went down for a tackle that never came.) The Referee, correctly told Tottenham to play on, only to bring play to a stop as Lennon was running in full stride towards the Twente goal. But the fact that the Ref seems to think that his role is to shape the game, should not be held against Twente who did well to capitalize on his vanity. so it ended 3-3 but with Inter losing to Bremen Spurs still top their group, so mixed feelings on the result but the achievements are still massive for a Champions League debut, as an aside spurs became the first team to score two goals in every game in the group stage, now if we can stop letting them in then the future looks very bright indeed.

3D Printing could be the next big step into Piracy

Saw this article on the BBC today which if it comes to pass as they say could revolutionise the way we do, well everything.

the new range of 3D printers - Printers which can build a prototype of a product you see on line - have not just become much more advanced in the recent past, the used to be little more than a plastics moulding device which it would have seemed had little ability to affect the normal persons day to day life, the usefulness in the design and manufacturing industries seemed clear, being able to send a plastic prototype across to your business partners instantly would revolutionise those businesses.

However now they are claiming that they are closing in on the ability to recreate actual usable products, perhaps the most interesting change mentioned in the article however is the Price, down from north of £2,000 to around £300 which could definitely place it within the budget of most households.

I guess the only question now is that after my recent article in which I asked how many people would lose their jobs due to Google's new AutoDrive car, will the ability to have products manufactured directly into your home simply mean there are even fewer jobs available than ever before?

Christmas Craft Market

The Crawley Conservative Association and The Crawley Conservative Club are having a Victorian Themed Christmas Craft Fair and Fun Day.

There will be over ten stalls selling a variety of Craft Items and gifts just in time for Christmas.

We hope to see as many of you there as possible.

The Event is at the Conservative Club in Jubilee Walk, Three Bridges, RH10 1LQ from 12:00 - 16:00

Skyline - Death from Above

Latest movie was Skyline (I am hoping to have some posts that are not about movies soon) Now I have already heard from one occasional blog reader that this is one of the worst films of the year but I have to admit that I thought it was ok, although ok is probably as far as I will go.

The film was directed by special effects artists Colin and Greg Strause (The guys who sunk Titanic - In the movie, they're not really old) so it is little wonder that one of the main characters, played by Scrubs star Donald Faison, is a millionaire playboy special effects artist. The male lead, Jarrad, is played by 24's Eric Balfour with his girlfriend Elaine played by Scottie Thompson formerly of NCIS, the film focuses on an alien invasion and as you would imagine given the Brothers Strause's history is very special effects driven, there are hundreds of great scenes however the actual story itself fails to live up to the great effects.

I would have to say that the biggest disappointment to me was that all of the big surprise (Well surprise is a bit of a strong term) moments were given away in the trailers. The film may well have been a lot better if I hadn't seen the trailer but unfortunately I will never know, This actually appears to be a popular trend in Hollywood these days where any suspense or big action scenes are given away long before you enter into the cinema. Aside from my disappointment of to much information in the trailer perhaps the most telling indictment of the film is that the highlight of the film is that the penthouse apartment where much of the action happens has a telescope that is linked to the main wide screen TV, how cool is that! I would like to get one but to be honest not sure that there is much point in seeing the A23 on my TV anymore than I enjoy watching it out of the window.

The idea of the film has of cause been done before and this version really adds very little new to the genre, the Aliens are relatively different and a lot of work clearly went into the depth of different EBE (Extra Terrestrial Biological Entity - The Political Correct way to say ET.) that seemed to be roaming the streets of LA. one review of the film stated that it was a cross between Transformers and Independence Day, Now as I thought that Transformers was really poor and Independence Day was good I guess a mix of the two would be Ok.

Let the Remake In

Last weeks movie trip was to see the movie, Let Me In.

Now it is important to say that if you want to see this movie you should really see the original Let the Right One In. after all the remake can not be better than the original - Although in truth I found that both films were very similar and as a result would actually prefer to watch the American version as after all it is always much easier to watch a movie in your native tongue.

Anyway the film follows the story of a 12 year old boy, Owen, (Kodi Smit-McPhee the boy from the Road) who is struggling with his parents divorce and a school bully. He meets a mysterious young girl called Abby (Chloe Moretz star of Kick-Ass) who teaches him that he should stand up for himself, leading to him striking the Bully and splitting his ear. As he becomes closer to Abby however he realises that something is not as it seems and that far from being a 12 year old girl she is in fact a very old (Actual age was never disclosed) Vampire.

The film features two very good performances from the main young actors (As did the original with both Lina Leansersson and Kare Hedebrant receiving many accolades for their roles.) the supporting cast were not as compelling but as this is really a story about the relationship between the boy and the vampire this does not detract that much from the over all movie. In fact this film could actually work even if there was no vampire in it as it is when you get down to it a romantic coming of age drama - but to be honest I watched it for the vampire.

So if you want to be pretentious or can speak Swedish I would recommend watching Let The Right One in, however if you are too lazy to spend the film reading then this is still a very good movie.

Burke and Hare - a capitalism story

I have to admit that I was torn on whether I was interested in seeing this movie or not, on the one hand it featured Simon Pegg, who I have been a massive fan of since Sean of the Dead (and Spaced but I only watched that on DVD after Sean came out.) On the other hand it also starred Andy Serkis who I have never been a particular fan off. My mind was in the end up made up by the trailer which after I saw it, I knew I definitely did not want to see it. It looked like lowest common denominator comedy which is not really my idea of a good film. Unfortunately fate had other ideas and it was the only film on at the time we had, so we saw it.

Luckily this turned out to not being a complete disaster as it was actually not so bad, the gross out element was mainly contained at the start and did not consist of much more than was seen in the trailer, and even then it was not much more than a little sidebar to the story.

The story is based roughly around a true story and centers around the two title characters as they struggle to make a living in 19th Century Edinburgh. A living they, through acts of coincidence end up making through the supply of dead bodies to teaching hospitals, a living however that is difficult given the relative scarcity of the product. They therefore decide that it may be an idea to increase the supply, in part as Pegg wishes to finance the first all female production of Macbeth for his love interest played by Isla Fisher.

Eventually, as you always knew it would, the long arm of the law (well as it is played by Ronnie Corbett I guess long is a bit of a stretch) along the way however the film, whilst in no way getting close to classic comedy, has enough to make it an average night out - not a great endorsement I agree, but much better than I thought going in.

Paranormal Activity 2 - pretty normal to be honest

Back to the cinema this week and this time the film was paranormal activity 2. I have to admit to being really disappointed with the first film, I know it received great reviews and the concept of a minimal production haunted house film is interesting, however I thought the execution lacked originality I had hoped for. However as I am a big fan of the genre I was still looking forward to the release.

The first issue with these "first person" films, is that they need to come up with the reason they are filming, this gives the unfortunate break from believability of a character who for some reason feels the need to film an intimate conversation with his wife, although essential to the plot it is not exactly the actions of a good husband. The film makes attempts to rectify this with the inclusion of a CCTV system, this however still presents an issue with the plot as it would be suspicious if all the action occurred in front of a camera however at least they have given it a try.

So on to the other limitations, having installed the CCTV system it takes an extraordinary amount of time to actually check the system once the unusual starts to happen and a large amount of the time is given over to a pool cleaner which simply added nothing for me.

All in all however I did enjoy this film more than the original and really enjoyed the way in which attempts were made to link the two films which although quite possibly creating more plot holes than they closed, including some quite astonishing leaps of guess work by one of the main characters I was at least grateful for the attempts.

Tottenham beat Inter Milan

I have refrained from too much football talk since the world cup as the early part of the season is rarely any guide to future performance, and as a Spurs fan, I am always slow to get excited.

Last night however was simply amazing, when the draw for the Champions League was made I thought that simply to see a team of the quality of Inter playing at White Hart Lane would be a great experience, but I never imagined we would, not just win, but make it look easy.

There were hints of what may happen when the ten men spurs team, well Bale and 9 support players, fought back from 4 down to come back to 4-3. Still after that however I had heard people saying we were out of our depth and would get hammered, suspiciously the same people who are strangely quiet today!

Anyway, in case you missed it the most shocking thing was that Bale was not involved in the 1st goal, and that he didn't score any himself, he set up two though so I'll let him off, spurs won 3-1 to go top of the group and within one win of reaching the next stage.

So what of the rest of the season? I would be blinded by my love of the team if I suggested that Spurs were not having a few more struggles this year than I would have liked but clearly the potential is there, we just need to unleash it.

Bale is clearly loving his football at the moment, Van Der Vaart has settled in quickly and last night we saw flashes of Modric at his best, however if we are to see off Man City's challenge for our 4th spot we need to improve.

Lennon needs to step up, with Lennon and Bale on the wings we can run any defence ragged, but he is not quite up to his best at the moment. Also our strikers need to find their form, we have really missed Defoe and the sooner he is back the better. Finally our defence needs to start to look capable of a clean sheet, obviously this is easier said than done with Woodgate, King and Dawson all with prolonged injuries.

My best Spurs 11 (assuming full fitness)

GK Gomes
RB Corluka
CB King
CB Woodgate
LB Ekotto
DM Huddlestone
LM Bale
CM Modric
RM Lennon
AM Van Der Vaart
FW Defoe

Red - the Ed Miliband story

Ok so maybe this weeks Movie review is not about the new puppet leader of the Labour Party, but as you know I can't resist making a dig, however this is mostly due to the fact it is very easy.

Anyway the film R.E.D which stands for Retired, Extremely Dangerous is actually about a team of former CIA agents struggling to come to terms with retirement when they are placed on the hit list of one of the CIA's wet teams (assassination operatives) needless to say for this kind of movie the old experienced agents are infinitely better trained and efficient than the new hot shots sent to take them out and therefore out class them at every point.

The cast is a veritable who was who of cinema greats, once again proving that Hollywood has struggled massively with decent action stars for the last 20 years. Bruce Willis takes the lead, but the supporting cast of Dame Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman and John Malkovich all prove the old saying that whilst form is temporary, class is permanent. All four prove why they have what it takes to survive so long in such a fickle industry, personally my favourite performance is from Malkovich who is great as a slightly un-hinged operative, although he is often proved right about most of his theories, and has the truly great action sequence in which he has a quick draw contest against a rocket launcher (I normally try not to reveal details of what happens in a film but as this is in the trailer I guessed it would be ok.)

Representing modern Hollywood was "Bones" McCoy - Karl Urban, obviously I am talking about the remake film series not the original television show, he does an ok job as the young ambitious agent that is tasked with neutralizing Willis only to discover he may well be out of his depth.

Whilst this film may not be anymore than you would expect before you go in, it will certainly not be any less either. My only concern is that this would appear to be yet another time when Hollywood's aging megastars come to the rescue and cover up the deficit of young talent in the action genre, and whilst their movies may suggest otherwise, they won't be able to do it forever.

Where is Gordon Brown

Just been reading www.order-order.com which has a very interesting article about our former Prime Minister, according to research undertaken by Guido Fawkes since losing the election and standing down as Labour leader Mr. Brown has only attended parliament on two occasions, one to vote and the other to be sworn in - in other words to make sure he continues to get paid.

Now I would be the first to point out that the role of an MP extends far beyond parliament, to receive pay for 6 months, yet only attend twice is clearly going to cause comment, especially as the main task undertaken by the government in this time is to try and solve many of the problems caused by Gordon's government, surely as the man who filled the two top roles in this government should be lending his expertise.

To be honest it would seem to me that his decision is probably one of three scenarios:

1 Gordon Brown knows this entire mess is his fault and that by attending he will simply give too much fuel to his opponents.

2 Ed Miliband has stopped him from attending as he fears he will be overshadowed by his old boss and wants to distance himself from the old government which he is hoping people will forget he was part off.

3 This is just one more example of how Gordon Brown wants to stick his fingers up at the tax payer one last time.

Whatever the cause I would suggest that if the former prime minister is a man of principle as he claims that he should resign as soon as possible, or start to attend parliament and actually in some ways make amends for the 428% (of GDP) of External debt he has saddled us with.

What is in a name?

A couple of things have turned my attention towards names recently, obviously Shakespeare originally asked the question in my title, however I am quite sure his prose on roses was in no way intended as a simple business guide, as in business a name, or brand, is all important.

The two recent re-brandings which have made me wonder are both television channels, I do not know for sure, but I do not think they are connected, I am quite sure however that both names were thought up by highly experienced, and I would suggest highly overpaid (regardless of what the actual figure was) advertising executives. My favourite example of branding stupidity has for years been the brand of petrol stations who after many thousands of pounds given to advertising specialists were advised that the best name for the little kiosks on their fore courts was "Shop" this story however simply shows the cheek of the advertising world, the two channels on the other hand show a complete lack of understanding of the product - a cardinal sin in marketing terms.

The first channel is a history channel, I don't think it is the actual history channel (if it is then someone needs shooting as they already had brand superiority.) I think it may actually be the new name of what used to be "UK History" either way it is now called "yesterday" which actually means that the last words on their trailers is the phrase "on yesterday" immediately leading potential viewers to think they have missed it.

The other channel is Virgin 1, a good name which links to a well known brand, as well as establishing the primacy of that channel within the brand, they have however decided to rename themselves as simply "channel 1" now I am not sure if they honestly believe that everyone has effortlessly switched to digital and the epg system, but if I said next Wednesday, 8pm on channel 1, how many of you would not head straight to the BBC? I would suggest very few!

Disabled Parking Permits

Something that has bugged me for a while are disabled parking permits. Now before I get thousands of complaints - as if I have that many readers - it is not the actual permits, or even the idea of preferential parking for those less mobile, in fact it is for this reason that I always park at the very rear of a car park, as I think any able bodied young(ish) motorist should. Neither am I going to complain about the pure amount there seem to be, in my youth they seemed very rare, but in many places now it appears that they are more common than ever, so whilst I admit I believe they are being handed out far to easily this is not the nature of today's whine.

What has got me today is that they can be used on double yellow lines, now correct me if I am wrong but I believed that double yellow lines were placed where it would be dangerous to allow parking, I fail to see therefore how safety is increased simply through the drivers disability.

This leads me to two possible options therefore, either our lives are being frequently risked by those who exercise their right to disabled parking, or, as I think more likely, many councils have used double yellow lines to fill up their car parks.

To be honest, I am happy with parking in a car park anyway, as on road parking in a town centre is always stressful. All I want is to not get lied too, why not replace the yellow lines with disabled bays, and put yellow lines back to showing where it is dangerous for anyone to park.

Post Office - Name and Shame

I normally try to avoid being too specific, after all as this is just my opinion I am sure that I could get into trouble for being too specific. However I am so furious with the post office (apparently the peoples Post Office - although I often wonder) I have had their credit card for a few years now and everything was going fine until I dared to move home! Whilst you may think that simply moving home should be a simple task and that a company as large as the post Office must be used to dealing with it however this was only the start of months of incompetence.

When I made a request to change my address it appears that they froze my account from receiving mail until the change was completed, this makes sense so it was not an issue, unfortunately they then lost my request, meaning that this stop was not listed, instead of contacting me to let me know they just left the stop in place, the first I found out about it is when they sent me a letter to say I had missed a payment and now had an additional fee. I understand that I should keep a better control of my finances, but I am sure I'm not the only person who waits for a statement to pay the bill, anyway after a few hours on the phone - including two hang ups after sitting on hold - they said it was all sorted, I paid the balance filled out another form and they refunded the fee, all good!

Or so I thought, that was until earlier this month when instead of another statement, I received another penalty charge, I called them again - only hung up on once this time - again I paid the bill and asked for my statement to be sent out, I checked the address, which was correct, and thought everything was sorted again. Still wrong however as when I had still not received the two missing statements, as they claim that my October statement has already been dispatched. I called them and was not hung up on at all, so that at least is improving, only to be told that there was a stop placed on mailings to my account, however the department which deal with this are off as it is a Bank Holiday in Ireland.

Now obviously I can not tell if these are problems with the credit card company or with the mail, but as these are all the Post Office I feel happy to spread the scorn around.

Maybe this will get solved before I get my next penalty charge!

Dispicable M-ovi-e

Starting to get my movie reviews up to date now so this weeks movie was the animated "Despicable Me." the film staring Steve Carell, Jason Segel and Russell Brand.

The film is about Carell who is Gru, a former master criminal, who has fallen into a slump in terms of schemes, when a new criminal on the block, Vector, (voiced by Segel) steals the great pyramid of Giza - Although I think that the Egypt tourist board must have cleared the ideal setting of the pyramids as you could not see the crowds of Egyptians trying to part you from your money, or for that matter the ever beautiful Sphinx KFC. - Gru and his loyal friend, Mad Scientist Dr. Nefario (Voiced quite unbelievably by Brand.) set off to steal the moon.

In order to steal the moon it becomes necessary for Gru to adopt three a orphan girls, who he has no intention of caring for but simply to use in his evil scheme - I am sure you can guess the rest.

Basically this is yet another predictable movie, however as this is a kids movie it really should be so it does not detract from the film, there are the usual laughs, often from the strange little minion creatures that Gru has working for him, and there are the usual teary moments, although I admit that this could well simply be that the smallest of the three orphaned girls reminded me of my own daughter which always gives the film a greater affect (Or else I'm just getting more pathetic in my old age.)

Anyway, the film is an ok use of time and everybody learns their lesson by the end so that is all good, there is a little bit during the credits which is also quite amusing but I do think the main secret of the films success will be in the sale of stuffed minion toys which I am sure will be massive.

The Budget Cuts have Landed

Well the cuts are out there, well to be honest the actual details will be coming out over the next few weeks but we know the kind of cuts we are looking at.

Immediately the usual complaints started, The Unions asked why the Public Sector were the hardest hit, Labour asked why young families were the hardest hit, Age UK asked why pensioners were the hardest hit, Disabled groups asked why the disabled were the hardest hit - all whilst at the same time it actually turns out that the top 2% are actually the hardest hit and the top 15% stand to be 10k a year worse off. On top of all this several analysts have actually come out suggesting that Osbourne has not gone far enough. So what does this all mean?

Personally I think that this is probably proof that the cuts are, as Osbourne has been saying, spread across the board surely if everyone is complaining (Well not the middle class as after all there is no one to speak up for the silent majority.) then it means that the cuts are spread out.

Now obviously there are going to be complaints that the poorest are the hardest hit, but as I posted previously that is unfortunately unavoidable, when the country has run out of money it will be the people who are net costs to the state who will be hardest hit. It is very simple maths, if you receive more money from the state than you give then you will be at risk, for those of us who are net contributors then we will simply have to give more, there is a clear limit to what the government can withdraw from me and that is limited to Child Benefit as that is after all the thing they give me, in actual fact it goes to my wife so personally the government can not withdraw anything from me as they do not give me anything in the first place.

The only question that remains to be asked of the government is can they get all of the disparate groups who are feeling like the victims to see the suffering that is being spread around. If the coalition can not give a sense of empathy to the public then we may see that, as predicted by Socrates over 2300 years ago, Democracy is doomed to fail. Socrates stated of the Athenian Democracy Project that Democracy is always due to fail as the demos will always vote in their own interest at the expense of society, eventually resulting in a society which is unable to support itself (Sound familiar?)

World's funniest joke?

The daily mail today carried an article listing the 50 funniest jokes, I have to admit that most of them did not even draw a smile but I did chuckle at the number 1 offering.

As most were pretty poor I won't list them all but thought I would share the winner;

A woman gets on a bus with her baby. The bus driver says: Ugh, that's the ugliest baby I've ever seen! The woman walks to the rear of the bus and sits down, fuming. She says to the man next to her: The driver just insulted me! The main replied: You go up there and tell him off. Go on, I'll hold your monkey for you.

Not sure if it is the funniest joke ever but it is a lot better than the others on the list.

It's life Jim, but not as we know it

Running a bit late with my blogging - admit it, you've noticed, well maybe not - but I am trying to catch up now, last weeks movie was life as we know it, the movie starring Katherine Heigl (the woman from every romantic comedy of the last three years - at least it is starting to feel like it!) and Josh Duhamel (Fergie's husband)

The film was once again formulaic, Hollywood seemingly going through a period of un-imagination at the moment, perhaps the writers are on strike again and they don't want to tell anyone! The jokes were either telegraphed from too far away to be funny or else given away in the trailer and so the entire film felt flat. The film followed the relationship of the two main characters as they come to terms with the death of their best friends and that they are now responsible for raising their friends daughter, but here is the twist, after an unsuccessful date years earlier they can't stand each other - bet you didn't see that coming - Heigl plays the same character as always so no fear of originality there, whilst Duhamel as a player who goes by the name of Messer, was fun enough but did not really come across believable enough as the sex symbol who could fluster a woman just by walking into the room, maybe at 37 he is getting too far away from his model of the year award (which was after all 13 years ago now.)

The supporting cast included "sexiest woman in the world" (according to Esquire) Christina Hendricks as Heigl's best friend and mother of the orphaned child, so she obviously was limited in her screen time, this is obviously a shame as I am a big fan of hers, although from her time in Firefly - as I have never seen mad men.

Over all I would say, this film is ok, as long as your expectations are low, as with a lot of Heigl's recent work, you get exactly what you would expect, and nothing more.

Success in Olympic Trial

I blogged a few weeks ago on my way to trials for the London 2012 volunteer program.

Well I am delighted to say that I have been selected to represent my company as a volunteer, there is still a while to go in the process and at the moment I have no idea what I will be doing - friends have suggested I will be toilet scrubbing but I am just really excited that I will be there at this once in a life time event.

So next steps are that my employer (EDF Energy - as the 2012 sustainability partner) will send my name on their list of approved candidates to the organising committee who will interview us to make sure we are committed, although if we weren't I doubt we would have attended the assessment centre, they will then assign us roles, so should know what I will be doing by April next year.

A slap to the face of those that protect you

I received an appeal at work today from Bexley Borough Council after some mindless vandals decided it would be a lot of fun to remove the brass plaque from the war memorial which featured the names of the borough residents who have lost their lives protecting this country.

Bexley Borough Council have asked that if anyone knows anything that they contact the council on 02083037777 and speak to the Cemeteries Office or call Crime Stoppers on 0800555111.

Leader of the Council Teresa O'Neill said "This is a callous crime. To target a memorial that pays tribute to people from [Bexley] who gave their lives fighting for this country is despicable behaviour. It shows total disrespect for those who died, for their colleagues and relatives who gather at the memorial to remember them and for today's serving armed forces."

I find this kind of crime disgusting at any time but with just a few weeks to go before Remembrance Sunday it would seem particularly repugnant, it also highlights what is for me one of the real issues with our society, a complete lack of respect for our society, after two very publicized incidents in which two university students have urinated on war memorials whilst drunk, and now this (and I doubt these are the only ones) it leaves you wondering if what these brave men and women have given, and continue to give, their lives for is worth saving.

Andrew Marr Vs The Blogosphere

Andrew Marr - BBC Political Presenter (Has the AM Show on a Sunday) has today launched a stinging attack on the many contributors on the Blogosphere, speaking at the Cheltenham Literary Festival, Mr. Marr said that Bloggers (or Citizen Journalists) are mostly "socially inadequate, pimpled, single, slightly seedy, bald, cauliflower-nosed, young men sitting in their mother's basements and ranting." Adding that "They are very angry people"

Now as you can imagine this has caused a bit of a backlash on the blogs as many bloggers feeling very offended have set out to attack Andrew for his views, personally it is not something I am about to do as despite Mr. Marr's assertions I am not single, living in my mother's basement or for that matter angry. There is a chance that this could be caused instead by the fact that I do not consider myself as a Citizen Journalist rather just someone who enjoys writing about stuff I care about and if someone wants to read it then that is great, but if not - oh well.

Anyway my view on this topic is that he is probably right in some of these cases, I have read a lot of blogs and many are very one sided and angry where the person has an axe to grind and they will grind it until they are left with just a stump, but on the other hand some blogs and bloggers are starting to invade the main stream Ian Dale springs to mind, this new type of journalism is responsive and exciting, blogs tend to break stories at a much greater speed than more conventional media and also operate outside many of the laws that hold our mainstream media firms back (Note I am not saying this is good, simply more exciting.) but again I agree with Mr. Marr when he states that these blogs are unlikely to replace older media companies as after all whilst blogs can be a great source, you still go to a recognised brand to get the facts.

Blogs are also often quite useful to a reporter on a deadline as I am sure most bloggers have has parts of their blogs used in print media as if they have given a quote directly to the press, it happened to me a few times whilst I was a local councillor, so I cannot help but wonder if the problem Andrew Marr has with blogs is due to a slightly embarrassing incident in which he lifted a story from a blog and finding it was less than true.

Every Little Helps - But this is a whole Lot

Keeping with Supermarkets (Or Starting with Supermarkets if you are reading the posts top to bottom) Another article on the Daily Mail Website was well worth a read, it is a facts and figures article about Tesco, They list 50 facts about Tesco which is the UK’s most dominant retailer (and responsible for 1 in every 3 pounds spent in the UK.)

I will not post all 50 as after all if you want to see the full list (if you are a stat obsessed nerd like me) you really should go to the source but my favourite facts are these:

£3.75 The cost of an entire Tesco Value school uniform for three to 16-year-olds this year. That’s 50p for a polo shirt, £1.75 for a sweater and £1.50 for trousers or skirts.

So you can get two full School Uniforms (And an extra pair of trousers and two spare shirts) for £10, better than rummaging around in lost property for second hand uniforms

13 days was all it took for a team of builders to create an emergency Tesco store in flood-hit Workington, Cumbria, last December. The collapse of Northside Bridge made it impossible for many customers to reach the regular store on the other side of the river.

This is quite phenomenal, whilst most people are shocked by the emergency Tesco are already looking at how they can look after their customers (No I am not so blind to think it wasn’t about the profit) shopping needs. But it is this kind of responsiveness that has given Tesco the dominant market share that they enjoy today.

173 UK jobs are created every week by Tesco.

More important than ever as the UK exits recession, once a young person has left University with one of New Labours phoney degrees (Art Management etc..) at least they will still have a job to go to.

150,000 Wetsuits sold a year through Tesco, one of its bestsellers in the Sports and Leisure category.

I love this fact, When I was a kid there was a song that went “Lets all go to Tesco, Where ‘Insert Name here’ buys his best clothes” well now it is not just my best clothes but motorcycle leathers (A life saver when you lose a glove at 3am in December) and now Wet Suits as well.

32,991,000 The total square-footage of all Tesco stores in the UK . . . that’s bigger than the City of London.

Again another great fact, obviously this is slightly confusing as if you say City of London they think of the Metropolitan Area and obviously this is actually the City Corporation Area but still an impressive fact (Although still gets beaten by the fact that Disney World in Florida is the size of Manchester)

£92 million — the value of the computer equipment that was donated to schools and hospitals between 1992 and 2004, thanks to Tesco’s Computers For Schools voucher scheme.

Another example of Tesco leading the way and the other supermarkets playing catch up, Now there is Computers for Schools, Sports for Schools even gardening supplies for schools but the Tesco scheme (Now I believe just equipment for schools as they offer much more.) was the original and giving equipment away a full 18 years before David Cameron revealed his plans for the Big Society, of which this is a great example.

£529 million — the amount of money returned to customers in 2009 in the form of Clubcard vouchers. If they were all used on Airmiles, that’s enough for 424,000 round-the-world trips.

To Declare a slight interest here My first job when I moved to Crawley was for Tesco Clubcard and whilst the job wasn’t particularly well paid (£4.50 an hour if memory serves me correctly) it did give me a real appreciation for the Clubcard rewards programme, particularly the Clubcard Deals offering in which the vouchers are worth 4 times their face value, now since then others (Well just Nectar to be honest) have brought out their own schemes but for my money these have never matched the great offer that the Tesco Clubcard offers.

Well, like I say these are just my favourites, there are many facts on the page, including the fact that Terry Leahy receives 300 times the salary of one of his check out staff, but when you look at the changes he has brought about to take the Market Stall company to the Number 2 spot in world retail (Wal-Mart and Asda are number 1 in case you are wondering.) it is hard to say he hasn’t earned it!

Asda: Giving you more for less, (But This is Ridiculous)

Just read an article on the Daily Mail Website about a Padded Bra for 10 Year Olds that has been on sale at ASDA, An ASDA spokeswoman has stated that the Item a push up bra size 28AA should have been removed from sale 6months ago following the uproar that swept the country after Primark (The Clothing Arm of Associated British Foods) were found to be selling “Sexualised” clothing aimed at young girls. ASDA however apparently decided that instead of removing the items they should simply move the bras and lace underwear (rated for age 9+) to the lingerie aisle instead.

The ASDA spokeswoman also said in her statement 'We take our responsibilities as the largest children’s wear retailer extremely seriously. Every single one of our children’s wear products goes through an in-house panel of mums to assess its suitability.” I would suggest therefore that they carefully consider if they have the right people on their panel. Now whilst I accept that as my daughter is only 1 there is not much chance of her pestering me to try and buy something I do not agree with but as a parent I can not understand how these products come to be made, after all if the only people buying the clothes were people like me then a lack of sales would soon end the product line, I have therefore often wondered what kind of people are bad enough parents to think that it is a good idea to sell this kind of product, but I guess I now know – it is the ASDA parents panel.

Sir Philip Green Set to Save us £20Bn

Sir Philip Green has completed a review into public spending and has announced that he can save the country £20bn a year in efficiency savings based on procurement and economies of scale, apparently the owner of Top Shop suggests that there is a possibility of saving 6-700M in telecoms alone. This is really just confirmation of what we have known about the Labour Governments attitude to our money all along, The attitude seems to have varied from “It’s not our money so why worry.” All the way to “We need to spend as much as possible otherwise we won’t get as much next year.” And it is this attitude as much as the actual waste that needs to be challenged if we are to ever get a real chance of closing the budget gap, and this is not just the civil servants but has been led from the politicians from the top and the Unions who seem to feel their members have a right to waste this money.

Now this £20Bn saving, if it is achieved will help protect many front line services, unfortunately it will not mean a lot in helping the Quangos and other bodies already facing cuts as after all the deficit last year was £159.8Bn so a further £139Bn of cuts are needed (Just to break even, this will not even start to pay off our now 1 Trillion of debt (or 71% of GDP) simply stop us building up anymore debt and interest. But it is 20Bn less to need to spend than if Labour had been allowed to carry on their policies of waste. After all despite what the last administration seem to believe and the attitude of many people currently living off the state – This is our Money, It comes from our hard work and taxes and it is about time someone started to look after it!

Google Car Set to Finish off Driving Instructors

I decided to go on line this morning to see if I had won the £115m lottery jackpot. Unfortunately it wasn't me, however I was very interested to read that Google have been testing a self-drive car, this is fascinating for a variety of reasons, not least of which that it shows just how diverse Google's business interests have developed - anyone else remember when they were just a search engine?
However as someone who loves new technology it is simply the idea that we may soon be driving around in real automobiles has got my mind racing.
Just think of what this would mean, on the down side it will completely wipe out the driving school industry - especially RED driving school's claims that it is a recession proof industry - I can also imagine it may increase the number of cars on the road, after all you could easily send a car off to get the kids whilst you are going elsewhere - now that I think about it taxis will be surplus to requirements as well, why call a cab when you can just call up your own car to pick you up from the pub.

Anyway onto the good, the main selling point is better safety, Google drove the car around San Francisco on what are some very challenging roads, each of The google test drives had a computer programmer and a human driver standing by and the police had been notified of the route in advance, however there was one reported incident however that was actually caused by a human driving into the back of the googlecar so if anything it could be said the problem there were not enough automatic cars not too many! Along side safety of course comes the potential to have much faster driving and less jams, the fact is that speed is not actually dangerous when driving, driving too fast is the dangerous thing, if you are driving at 200 on a completely flat straight road you should be ok (may be a bit frightening the first time, whilst at the same time if you are following someone in icy conditions at 20 you are probably going too fast, the google car should be able to plot you a route that ensures you can travel at the fastest and safest speed possible, if they were to move the technology on and actually create a mainframe of all traffic movements you could actually find that the car could easily programme you in the perfect route avoiding any need to stop at all (I guess this may put TomTom out of business as well.

Well I for one will be waiting with great interest to see what becomes of this trial and would gladly buy an auto drive once they are available (They look like ordinary cars with a sensor which reminds me of google's street view vehicle) Although I have to admit that since I started writing this I have realised just how many industries this could actually wipe out - but that would not be until the technology is very widely used - thinking about it, isn't there a Dr Who where the auto drives start killing people? perhaps I am not as big a fan as I was at the start of this post.

How I would like to improve politics

Just a quick post on a few things I would like to happen to improve politics.

Manifesto:
I would like to see the manifesto lifted to the status of a service level agreement, and as such would like to see an annual review of progress against election promises. Basically on the anniversary of each election each politician from PM to Councillor will stand before the electorate and state which of their promises they have completed, what they are still working on and what now cannot be delivered - and why.

Borrowing:
To prevent a repeat of The current system I would like to introduce a limit on public sector borrowing, no government or local authority should borrow for anymore than a single elected term, this is to stop the features of inherited good economies, becoming train wreck economies when they are passed back.

MP Expenses:
Although it is last years hot topic, I want to see the expenses revisited, instead of restricting to rental properties only I feel that on election an MP should select an apartment - up to a set level - and this should be 100% tax payer funded, after their term ends the property will be either sold by the state (if prices have gone up) or held until the taxpayer can be ensured of a return on investment.

Recall elections:
A recall election to be called if petitioned by 25% of eligible voters at any time, or 10% with proven wrong doing.

Prison System:
Reform the prison System into a two tier system, punishment and rehabilitation. All prisoners to spend the first half of their sentence in punishment and the second half in rehabilitation - dependant on good behaviour. Both tiers to include paid employment to cover the costs of the system.

Smoking Ban:
I would lift the ban but only for licensed premises, these premises would be banned from selling any foods and must be new establishments (so no one can end up working in one if they do not want to) I would then leverage the costs of smoking related diseases directly against the cigarette companies.

House of Lords:
I am a strong believer in the existence of a non-elected body in government, (as the majority are not always right - Nazi Germany for example) however if you are to switch to a wholly elected parliament perhaps we could split the duties of an MP between the houses with the Lords taking a more community focused role, with the commons being more Westminster and business based, perhaps even electing on a joint ticket. - to be honest, not something I believe in but would welcome the debate.

Like I say, these are just my ideas and would love to hear your thoughts and ideas.