Ahh, the bracing English seaside…. Those buildings are two stories high! Even though the weather wasn’t the best it was still great to get out of London for a few days. Being from NZ I’ve always lived by the sea, and I’d forgotten how much I missed it. So even though the waves were breaking over the houses, it was great to be by the ocean again.
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They arrested Dr Who!
A time traveller made $350 million on the stock market. It sort of reassured me to know that in 200 years there will be no drastic change in human nature. He claimed that he was going to make some money without attracting attention to himself and then got carried away. Yes, I nearly did the same thing when I went back to ’87….
I saw that this car down the road that had done a poo on the street. I guess it’s arsehole is at the front….
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anti-war March, #5
Sometimes things get blurry, I hear convincing arguments that go against all of my beliefs. It doesn’t shake my conviction to my stance, but I know that my argument is not a complete answer. Bugger.
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anti-war March #3
mr b, thanks for reminding me that propaganda and empire are alive and well. I thought that they were nightmares from the past and that in our society we were enlightened, progressive and open. Why do you still rely on these obscene artifacts to conduct your political affairs?
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anti-war March
Here it is, my own anti war March. Every day in March, an anti-war statement from yours truly:
mr B, please don’t allow greed to let you forget what suffering means.
(apologies for the cheesy pun) -
George Bush and the bogan
Am I just trippin or what? The massive US build-up in the gulf indicates that they are gearing up for something bigger than the feeble Iraqi armed forces. There’s the scenario that we are hearing all about on the news, that the regime will collapse in the face of the pressure. Or maybe they are expecting something else, maybe an uprising from the surrounding countries when the US seize the oilfields.
Jay says he has square palms. Tash says that we were laughing at her wrists. And who the fuck is this guy on our couch?
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St Peter’s Plaza
After living in London for a year and a half, I have decided what my favourite newspaper is. The Guardian gets my seal of approval, and beats off competition from The Independent and The Times , both of which, IMHO, are also very good. I really like the international news in The Financial Times . My favourite tabloid is without a doubt The Mirror . I also quite like The Sun . I’m amazed at the completely untrue stories that The Sun seem to get away with printing. A man whose conversation I listened to on the train said that at the end of the day in the office tea room, it was always The Sun that was mixed up and scattered around the room because so many people had read it. The FT, The Times, and all the other respectable papers had only been read by one or two people and were still immaculate. Yep, that’s my experience too. It still amazes me that The Sun is by far the most popular paper in the UK.
My least favourite are the junk papers that appear to be serious newspapers and contain puerile editorial content that is packaged as news. By these I mean the likes of The Evening Standard (which is very popular but full of trash) and The Daily Express. At least when someone reads The Sun it is taken with a grain of salt (it’s hard not to with the sensationalist nature of the reporting).
The funny thing about the press in the UK is that it is regarded as a sign of your political orientation. This is not without good cause as all the papers seem to have a political affiliation.
It can be quite personal though. On a reality dating type TV show I saw ages ago, one of the contestants said something to the effect of “Oh dear, he doesn’t read The Telegraph. This is not going to work out.” The newspaper that you read is a reflection of your personality. People seem to have quite strong opinions about what type of character reads what. For instance, a bigoted, child-eating Daily Telegraph reader may say of a Guardian reader that they are a limp-wristed bleeding-heart liberal.
The situation in New Zealand is not like this at all. I really enjoy the diversity of the English press, and will often buy a range of papers, including ones that I don’t particularly like in an attempt to get broader coverage and opinion of events.
(Oh – I was joking about Telegraph readers being bigots – really.)