Interesting article on the Ricin Ring debacle, which has been removed from the The Guardian website for “legal reasons”. What, like there is an election or something.

Hate this bullshit and the fact that our politics is now full of it. Hate, even more, that freedom of the press means so little - and the press can’t/don’t stand up for themselves, unless it’s a Beckham story, or similar. Is political debate actually dead in the UK?

(Via and here and, originally, here.)

It’s been a bit of a Star Wars day here in the Gene Puddle. Not only is excitement brewing about the release of Episode iii next month, news of both live action and cartoon series to fill in the background story can only have a true fan salivating at the possibilities (and given the quotes from Lucas, sending in CV’s for one of the writing jobs!).

Equally exciting, however has been the discovery of both the Darth Blog (via) and the tie in between Nokia and Episode iii (via).

To much excitement in one day!

Oh, and the break in service, only one explanation/excuse. I noticed a grey hair glinting in my fringe at the end of last week. The end is obviously nigh!

Yesterday, on the way home from work, I heard both the new Coldplay single “Speed of Sound” and the new Oasis track “Lyla”.

I really wanted to like them both. I’ve always had a certain fondness for Oasis (although, at heart and during the rival days of the 1990’s Blur had me - well they had me from “There’s no other way..” but that’s another story for another time). Big tunes, Beatle-esque and Bad Lads to boot. I feel there is often something to be said for mainstream acts - and Oasis in the early days (Champagne Supernova, Cigarettes and Alcohol, etc.) was such a bolt from the blue, you had to sit up and take notice. Coldplay, on the other hand, was a grower. The Other Half got into them. He had both CD’s, I think, before I really realised they existed. I go through periods with Coldplay - love or loathe. I’ve never quite decided. At the moment, I find them incredibly depressing (much, much more so than either Radiohead or The Smiths, both of whom, on the whole, I find quite up-lifting in a curious sort of way) and I was hoping that this was just down to not having heard anything new in a while. At the end of the record - and despite the “oohs” and “aahs” of the DJ, I felt like I’d just listened to something I’d heard before. Then I remembered, part of the track sounds just like Kate Bush (Running up that Hill?) or something of that era and ilk.

So, it’s like I said earlier. Bored, new things needed. Any advice/options for me to consider?

It must be Spring. I’ve started to get bored with everything and everyone and restless for something different. Roll on the Summer months!

Peter Law has decided to stand in Blaenau Gwent despite having been recently diagnosed with a brain tumour. Blaenau Gwent was, at the last General Election, the safest Labour seat in Wales (majority in excess of 19,000). Some thoughts on this:

1. Peter Law has been an Assembly Member since establishment in 1999. He was, briefly, a cabinet minister. He has his own agenda. However, most AMs, MPs, etc do. He has consistently been a thorn in the side of the Party and particularly the leadership in Wales.

2. He was hacked off, royally, when the seat that most would have said would have been his on Llew Smiths retirement was closed to men, as an All-Woman shortlist. I have issues with “all-anything” lists. I object to jobs being “only applicable to..” unless there is a bloody good reason. Usually, if you dig, there isn’t. It’s more to do with the way the organisation “looks”. I really get hacked off when, as in this case, it is to prevent something, rather than opening up the democratic process. Real life is all about getting where you want to be by fighting hard. You are either the best person for the job or your not. Simple. Women used to have a problem getting jobs (and seats in parliament), but with the equality laws there really is no longer a need for any form of positive discrimination. It reeks of undemocratic process and does nothing to put at ease the populace, who see it only as another example of those in power ensuring they maintain it.

3. The local party were so against this list, 85% boycotted the election process and only 10% finally voted for Maggie Jones (the winner from the All-Woman shortlist). Since then, the majority (if not all by now) of the Party’s Local Committee has resigned and, by all accounts, the mood in Blaenau is very anti-central Labour.

4. If you don’t live around here you may not appreciate that this is Labour heartland. It used to be a constituency called Ebbw Vale until it was renamed. This is Nye Bevan, Michael Foot as well as Llew Smith (one of the most out-spoken left-wingers left in the last Parliament). If they can’t win this, it will be a disaster (think Port-a-loo and Twigg in 1997 - a bit dramatic, but nonetheless).

5. By standing as an independent in the election, Peter Law has to be expelled by the Labour Party at the Assembly. That means they no longer have a majority. Stalemate in the Bay.

6. Blaenau was, in the 2001 census reported thus, “one of the highest numbers of people in poor health and is the cheapest place in Britain to buy a house, with an average price of £44,000.”

I would love to see Labour lose this seat. Despite everything about him, Peter Law does tend to have a viewpoint and stick to it. Like standing. It’s a matter of principle for him. The fact that Maggie Jones is being parachuted in to Blaenau Gwent (yes, she comes from Cardiff originally, but like it or not, this is payment for services rendered to the Party, pure and simple) has the resident’s backs up.

So, unlike previous elections, where the Vale of Glamorgan and it’s slim majorities have hit the headlines, this year’s election, in Wales at any rate is going to revolve, I fear, around one Blairite Woman, one Left-Wing Man and a brain tumour. Bad taste, possibly, but the media love this kind of stuff. It’s all about the triumph of right over power. Will it come to that? Who knows. Probably only the people already rigging the postal ballot!

There are several things about the fact that we are now parents that get me really annoyed these days. They include:

a. Complete strangers coming up to us in the supermarket and talking to us like they’ve known us for years. This is really annoying as the Other Half and I are generally really bad at remembering the people we DO know, so it takes ages before we work out that this is just one of those bizarre people who wants to speak to us solely about and because the trolley has a small person in it.

b. Friends no longer call. AT ALL. They don’t call about nights out. Even though I know that I would be complaining if they did call about nights out and then we couldn’t go, at least we’d have been thought of. I don’t think we come into the mix anymore. Similarly, they don’t call for a chat. The few that do, call early (”We didn’t know what a good time would be..”) and not stay on the phone for very long (”Anyway, you must have SO much to do..”). (N.B. - This last comment excludes my Brummie Sculptor Friend, who called last Thursday at 9.45pm and chatted for two and three quarter hours (you do the maths!)).

c. If you run out of essentials (for which, in my case, read cigarettes/alcohol/food), tough. I mean it. Once Junior is in bed, if you are in on your own, it’s just tough. The amount of planning is more than any human should have to undertake.

d. Which brings me onto watches. No longer can I wake up in the morning and not put my watch on. Not that I ever did, to that extent, but on the odd days, it was sometimes nice. In ten and a half months, I’ve only attempted it twice - neither time a success.

e. And, as for lie-in’s beyond 8am, forget it. I used to love my lie-ins. Especially the ones that lasted beyond 11am and ended with breakfast and the papers in bed. Lovely, lovely breakfasts of coffee and Danish pastries and a Guardian (Saturday) or Observer (Sunday). Haven’t had one of those in nearly a year, either.

There are other things that reduce me to rants of swear words and near tears. However, if I start on those, I will get more stressed.

However, as a finishing comment and before it appears in the comments box, right now, I’m not at all sure that it’s “all worth it”. Perhaps, in hindsight, I’ll think it is. Right now, I’m wondering what happened to my once quite social life.

Reading around the blogshpere this morning, I happened across this election cock-up from The Labour Party.

Made me smile, which is something just short of a miracle, given that some Chav Wanker drove into the side of my car last night and didn’t have the decency to stop. I now have the most attractive scrape/stripe running the length of my door and was only lucky that my wing mirrors aren’t fixed. It wasn’t as bad as the neighbours van (which he’d obviously also collided with - only causing about £1k of damage!). The police response was “what can you do?”. What can I do? I can spend all night sat outside my front door with one of those stinger devices and any car, whose stereo I hear before I see it, will loose it’s tyres. If it’s got a Knight Rider grill (or fringe, they now seem popular) I’ll take a shot-gun to the rear (N.B. I neither own nor would know what to do with a shotgun. It’s dramatic effect - not reality). They use our road as a race track, which is why the cats are only allowed through the back door. They also sit at the junction opposite the house and rev their engines some nights. God, that’s awful too.

With thanks to The Honourable Fiend for the original link.

You don’t fucking say!

I’ve decided, to this point, to ignore the fact that Glastonbury is happening this June. I mean, despite a friends protestations to the contrary, it really isn’t easy to get away for 4 to 5 days (partially in the working week) leaving small child and Other Half unsupervised. Do you have any idea how much damage could be done to either of them - or the house?

However, I have to concede that “it’s” happening and that, like last year, I won’t be going. Given the rigour of the security checks (and that’s IF you manage to get a ticket), I do wonder whether, year by year, it is actually losing it’s charm - and becoming a corporate opportunity. In 2003, one of my over-riding memories was that I could charge my mobile at the biggest Orange stand I had ever seen. This change of emphasis was highlighted by The High Rise, who listed some of the ideas people had for “essential equipment”. I, like Vicky, erred more towards cigarettes and vodka - but without the unpleasantness of losing them to some vindictive little twat.

So, there will be a Glastonbury and like last year I will be watching from home. At least that way I don’t have to worry about packing my snowboard.

The Gene Puddle is situated in one of the marginal Labour constituencies that Pundits and the media keep talking about. From memory, it will take something like a 5.5% swing from Labour to Conservative for the seat to go blue again.

Despite the fact that myself, friends and family are at the middle of this political whirlpool (ahem), nobody is interested. Not one little bit. Confusion reigns supreme. This isn’t helped by the local daily leading on “Our Demands for the Welsh Health Service!” All very well, but the UK government devolved this to the Welsh Assembly on its establishment. I know this, because that’s why my job was created. However, to Joe Public, it’s just an added level of confusion. There is NO point asking a prospective MP in Wales about health, education, culture, industry, rural affairs and transport amongst others. Whatever platitudes they give you, they will have NO say on the way these services run or issues are addressed. Our current MP was very sympathetic to the problems we were having around the closure of local neo-natal services. Very, very sympathetic. However, all he could do was write to our AM - which we’d already done (although we never got much of a response - oh, hang on, she was Health Minister at the time, which probably made it difficult for her to get involved).

Locally, therefore, the most frequent response to any question about the Election is “I’m not bothering - there’s no point!”. So, for those of you not planning to vote, My Society have produced a board for you to register why. You can have your say over at Not Apathetic. Thanks to Honourable Fiend for the link.

Personally, I have no idea what to do - or how to vote. Literally for the first time in my life, I am seriously questioning whether, in a two-horse race, which is the most accurate description of our constituency, I register my protest by putting my cross on the donkey that is more likely to come in fourth. It’s a waste of a vote, it might mean the area turns blue. However, at least I’ll feel like I’ve had my say.