Eurovision - one week later....

Been neglecting the blog again - wish there were more resposes to what I write. I know people do read it, but few ever respond....

Anyway, Eurovision was last Saturday. I won't write a full song by song review, but some of my thoughts.

First, that the winner was deserved. It was a good song, well sung, and clearly Russia were going to win at some time. Why not this year?
However, the victory has brought forth the most unacceptable selection of anti-Eastern European bile I have seen for a while on some of the ESC fan websites. Hardly appropriate.

Second, the UK did badly, as usual. I thought it was a good song this year - but it wasn't particularly memorable and in a field of 25 and a televote it needs to be.

Third, none of the novelty entries did particularly well, and that can only be a good thing....

My faves: Russia, Portugal, Israel (excellent performance) and Poland. Norway, Bosnia and Georgia also very good.
Worst: didn't like Ukraine , Greece or Sweden, but performance wise, Germany was simply embarrassing. What is it about girl groups and the ESC? Why are they so inevitably unable to sing in harmony? Indeed, sing in unison!

Eurovision - two days to go

Its been quite a Eurovision week - with two semis, and a performance of Eurobeat to see in Manchester!

Most of my faves made it through to the final - Belgium didn't, which was always touch and go, nor Moldova, which was no surprise. The Swiss singer was very nervous tonight, and the only real surprise for me was Hungary not making it

Portugal were fantastic tonight and is my current fave, and I also rate Russia. Other good ones are Poland, Bosnia, Georgia, Norway, Israel, Romania, Serbia and the UK!

HF&E Bill

I was pleased to see that all the clauses in the Human fertilisation & Embryology Bill were passed, and that no change was made to the abortion regulations.

I find it bizarre that anyone would want to prevent research which may be able to take us further in combating appalling diseases, and to try and prevent parents from helping their existing children. The Tories proved that homophobia still runs all too deep in their party. There are some honourable exceptions, but on the whole, they are still the same old Tories.

As for abortion, again, the right decision was made, and the usual gore-fest tactics of Vatican plc and the anti-abortion movement failed to work. I really feel that the Church must understand that it has no right to force through its will and stop others from making their choices - for inevitably, that is what Christianity does and is - simply a method of controlling the lives of others. How I didn't see through this before I don't know - perhaps I heard what I wanted to hear.

Malcolm Bailey RIP

Had some sad news at the weekend - an old friend of mine from university days, Malcolm Bailey, died from a second brain tumour. He had battled against and defeated the first, but the arrival of the second seemed to be just too much.

We hadn't seen that much of each other in recent years with the geographical distance between us - always something one regrets afterwards. There's never much one can say under these circumstances. I hope that his widow Debbie and their children are coping.

Life certainly isn't very fair.

Abortion

With largely religionist MP's attempting to force vulnerable women to be banned from having very necessary terminations, this article from Zoe Williams in the Guardian is well worth reading. Remember that the aim of the anti-abortion movement is to ban all abortion - nearly all of them are conservative religionists and have an (im) moral attachment to banning abortion. The nonsense about reduction of weeks is a smokescreen as they then go on to talk about their definition of life, which includes a clump of cells in a petrie dish.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/may/07/gender.health

Cannabis

The Government have, unsurprisingly, jumped on the ludicrous 'classification' bandwagon in order to reclassify cannabis.

They appear quite unable to see that this entire approach has dome absolutely nothing to reduce the use of drugs. Will anyone currently using cannabis stop doing so because of reclassification - of course not.

I don't use cannabis or any other illegal drugs. However, what always appears to be absent from any government discourse on the topic is that people use them because they like them and because they regard them as fun.

We already have a dour, boring PM who comes over like some sort of semi-retired church minister. Now we have yet another piece of repressive legislation.

Expecting imagination from any government on this topic is far too optimistic - but until they realise that people who use drugs do not care about the scare stories and the 'danger' message will not work, we won't make any progress and the same old tired arguments will continue.

Celine Dion

... saw her in Manchester last night. Fantastic - what a show!

Local elections

I'm not currently a member of any political party, though I suppose associate myself still with Labour. But Thursday's results were not only predictable, but deserved. Not only has the government run out of steam, but they are doing some things which are just plain wrong.

It seems to me that the Tories will have to start actually talking in greater detail as to what they actually intend to do, though. The detail is threadbare at best at present.

As for Labour: well, these will naturally be ignored, but as they claim to be listening....

• Get rid of Brown, preferably via his humble resignation. Could anyone have disappointed more? I think he needs to face up to the fact that he is damaged goods. There is something....odd about him. On the Nicky Campbell show the other day, he was asked what he thinks about first thing in the morning. he launched into a complicated response about house prices. That's weird. Its not what people think about first thing in the morning.
• Reverse the 10p tax rate decision. Forget about the so-called measures to compensate. It needs to go.
• Accept the fact that 1997 was a fluke and 2001 was won because the Tories were a shower and utterly inept. This means that some seats won in those years were flukes and should not be aimed for again.
• Linked to this, what is needed is to motivate the basic Labour vote. Those voters who lent their votes to Labour only did so because the Tories were so awful. Now they are credible they have gone home. They will remain there at least for the next election. Forget about them. Instead, think about measures to re-invigorate two core voting blocs - the core labour vote feeling the pinch, and the middle class intellectual vote.
• For the former - do something about housing. That, above all, is the cause of distress in many areas, and causes most of the angst with regard to immigration. That means COUNCIL housing, and these should be public sector not open for the RTB. Secondly, reorganise the tax system - tax credits are a disaster. Instead, simplify by removing the low paid from tax altogether. And lets have a higher tax rate , please, for the best off.
• For the latter, get out of Iraq, and start distancing from the US expansionist nightmare. neo-con nonsense needs to go, forever. It has no place in a left-of-centre party. Secondly, abandon some of the authoritarian measures which are unnecessary. Third, stop trying to compete with the Tories to win White Van Man. This group is far more loyal to Labour, and they all vote religiously - and its those very policies that alienate this group, but fail to win over any converts.
• Finally, any party which has become so right wing that people like 'Business' Secretary John Hutton can be a member has problems. I have heard countless interviews and not once has he said anything which wouldn't be more appropriately said by a Tory.