May 2005 Archives

Did you know that there are just 50 days to go until the 2012 Olympics!? Well not exactly obviously. There are 2420 days until 2012, let alone whenever the games would start.

The 50 days refers to when we find out who'll host the Games. I personally think that London will do it. I've shown my support, please show yours at the London 2012 Website.

I've no idea what this is called, or what it's for... but it's fun!

I hope you enjoy this for as long as I have - I've spent the last half an hour playing with it now!

All you need to do is click on the stuff to see what they do...

On the Make My Vote Count site, there is an opportunity to email one of your local councilors... I took up that opportunity. Here's what I sent:

Dear Stewart Golton

As a resident of the Morley and Rothwell constituency, I am writing to let you know that I have signed the "make my vote count" petition, see http://www.makemyvotecount.org.uk

I believe a referendum on voting reform is an essential first step towards restoring trust in politics. I hope you agree and that you will also sign it.

Yours sincerely...

And, although I half expected one, I received a reply which read:

Dear...

Thanks for the note. I am a signed up member, so am fully on message as far as electoral reform goes.

It really is quite disturbing to see how the share of the vote for the different parties in Yorkshire got divided up in terms of seats won. If you take into account the people who didn't vote at all, several seats really do look like "rotten boroughs".

Hopefully, this last set of results will get the PR issue back on the agenda across the parties.

Best wishes
Stewart Golton

It's really good to know that a voice is being heard, even if it is only mine. I'm sure most MPs would be receptive to any correspondence. Give them a try - write to them about something that you believe in, or are passionate about, regardless of whether it is on the national agenda or not, from this website (due to the short amount of time since the General Election, MPs details aren't available just yet. The site promises to get them published as soon as possible.)

A 93 year-old woman claiming to have been Adolf Hitler's nurse in the final days of the Third Reich has spoken of her experiences in the Berlin bunker for the first time in 60 years.

If true then it's quite an amzing story to fill in those final hours of Hitler's life. I understand that no one really knows what happened then, maybe she holds the key?

I've done a small amount of research and found this page, published the day before the election - 04/05/2005 - which has a small feature on my favourite 5 vote guy, Martin Kyslun.

Starbucks in the US have decided not to sell Bruce Springsteen's new Devils And Dust CD citing explicit lyrics. Here are the lyrics for Reno, the song they cited. They have a point:

She took off her stockings
I held 'em to my face
She had your ankles
I felt filled with grace

Two hundred dollars straight in
Two-fifty up the ass' she smiled and said
She unbuckled my belt, pulled back her hair
And sat in front of me on the bed

She said, "Honey, how's that feel
Do you want me to go slow?"
My eyes drifted out the window
And down to the road below

She slipped me out of her mouth
'You're ready,' she said
She took off her bra and panties
Wet her fingers, slipped it inside her
And crawled over me on the bed

She bought me another whisky
Said "here's to the best you ever had"
We laughed and made a toast
It wasn't the best I ever had
Not even close

See this site for a report.

[Thanks Chris]

From The Scottish Daily Record

President George Bush fled to his bomb-proof bunker when a major security alert was triggered ... by a freak cloud. Vice president Dick Cheney was airlifted out of Washington and snipers took up position when the alarms were sounded.

An anti-aircraft missile battery was raised into firing position on a rooftop close to the White House and a Black Hawk helicopter was scrambled. But they saw nothing except clouds. The big scare happened on Wednesday (27th April 2005) when the cloud triggered radar monitors on the domestic events network, the system designed to protect Washington from attack.

White House spokesman Scott McCellan said the president was only in the bunker for a short time as the all-clear was sounded 20 minutes after the scare. The cloud was first detected about 30 miles south of Washington and moving quickly.

A spokesman for the Customs and Border Protection Agency said false alarms were commonly caused by clouds, flocks of birds and small private planes. He added: "It does happen. We have to deal with weather anomalies showing up on the radar screen"

In today's Telegraph, they published an 8 page pull out special thing detailing every election result that had been declared at the time of publishing (I think two had still to be declared). Now, I guess this is only of use to people like me who are a little sad and are interested in the quirks of the system. But looking through the results, one constituency stood out for me. It was Derbyshire West.

As I said two entries ago only, 1 out of every 323 voters votes in the UK actually make a difference. I also stated that based upon the 2001 election results, I didn't count.

Now that we've had the election and the results are in, well it seems it was right... here's what the result is from my constituency: (remember that Colin Challen had a majority of 12090 in 2001)

So there you are... my vote didn't make one jot of a difference, the earthquake to change things here didn't happen, and even though Mr Challen's majority increased, there was a whole 1.2% swing from Labour to Conservative. Which annoys me greatly.

The current political make up of Yorkshire and the Humber is pretty split, with the Conservatives dominating the larger, more northern areas and Labour controlling the smaller, more dense southern areas. There's a smattering of Liberal Democrats in there too (three I think)... see a map showing this in detail (from the BBC) here.

I hope you got the result you wanted.

"The problem with theft is that the difference between getting away with it and getting caught is universally huge. If you get away with it, you feel so onmipotent, so clearly superior to everyone else milling around being so good that it all seems worth it. If you get caught, you shrivel up and die inside, looking back on the unspeakable stupidity of what you've done, wishing only that you could return to that moment of decision and choose not to steal."

Robert Llewellyn in his book "Thin He was and Filthy-haired"
1996, ISBN: 0-14-025082-4

'tis worth reading...

Did you know that only 1 out of every 323 voters votes in the UK actually make a difference?

This site gives a list of the previous 12 election results and the number of votes that made the difference. It's very interesting reading.

The Do You Count? website takes this and then works out whether or not you can make a difference to the forthcoming election. All that's required is for you to provide your postcode. The site works out your constituency and determines, based on the majority in the 2001 election, whether you can make a difference or not... here's what my result is:

YOU DON'T COUNT
Held by: Labour
Your outgoing MP is: Colin Challen
Majority last election: 12090

It doesn't really make a difference who you vote for in this constituency as it's almost certainly going to be held by the Labour party (which had a majority of 12090 at the last election).

To go into it deeper, these were the actual results from where I live in 2001:

As the Do You Count? site says, this doesn't mean there is nothing I, or indeed we, can do.

Here are some suggestions given by the site for action. Lobby your MP about electoral reform (when they get back to work!) Sign a petition calling for electoral reform.

If, however, you've decided not to vote, or are planning not to vote, then tell the world why! Show them you're not apathetic and you have real concerns and reasons for not voting.

I'd be very interested to hear from anyone who chooses to use these sites, whether you're in a safe seat or not. Please use the comment form below to get in touch - it does require a little bit of time first, but it's worth it, right?