Gordon Brown might start worrying

The latest Guardian opinion poll (steady on, I didn't BUY it, it's online) in the UK puts the Tories 9% ahead of Labour on 40%, with Labour on 31%, the lowest since the 1987 election (which the Tory’s won). The Socialist Demagogues (Liberal Democrats) are up 5% to 22%. Full details here. It appears that the public is sick of Labour, and is going two ways – either supporting the new age everything to everyone Tory Party of David Cameron or the anti-war on terror, born again old Labour LibDems (which are always the refuge of traditional Labour or Tory voters whose stomachs churn at voting for the “other side”).
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With current electoral boundaries, this would give the Tories a small majority, depending on whether the LibDems gain Labour seats or take away Labour votes in electorates where the Tories are second. Labour’s losses appear to be in the middle classes and the wealth creating south, while it is steadfast in the working class north. The Tories are now ahead for both women and men.
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The likelihood is that if polls continue to track like this, Blair will be gone in months – as Brown will want to try and bolster Labour support. He’ll have a hard task – Cameron has moved the Tories to the centre, he is younger, more vigorous and he isn’t Scottish. People in England are less likely to want to elect a Scotsman as PM, when the people who vote him in wont be affected by many of his policies.

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The times are changing in the UK – on a not too dissimilar parallel to NZ.

Greens' answer to Overlander - petition and subsidy

NZ Herald reports The Greens are running a petition to encourage the government to spend your money subsidising the Overlander – a train you’ve probably never caught and hardly likely to catch – for two years. Their press release says they got hundreds of signatures at Wellington railway station from people who probably will never catch the Overlander – when it would be far more useful to hand out leaflets promoting the train, or engage in a promotional campaign more generally. However it is typical for a party that has little understanding of economics to make other people pay for a train they don’t use, instead of marketing it to people to choose to use. I’m sure Tranz Scenic could supply the Greens with publicity material to send to their members to encourage them to ride it for starters. It is also typical that they don't use it when it is not threatened, but jump up and down and take publicity stunt rides when it is - like Sue Kedgley being driven to Palmerston North to ride the train to Wellington, a few weeks before the Bay Express was cancelled.
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You see the Overlander is unprofitable because most people travelling between Wellington and Auckland, or points in between, would rather save time flying, save money catching the bus or enjoy the convenience of driving. Only some tourists and others who prefer the train catch it – and it isn’t enough to make money. Like I said before, it is doomed because it simply isn't economic and the environmental arguments don't stack up.
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However, the Greens have a fetish for trains. Odd when you consider that a train pollutes (it doesn’t become more fuel efficient or environmentally friendly than a bus until it is carrying more than 3 full bus loads, whereas the Overlander is carrying at best just over 1). Jeanette Fitzsimons says “It is easy to forget how essential the Overlander is to the communities along the route.” Well that’s because it is not. I doubt Jeanette ever took the Overlander when she was going from Wellington to Palmerston North, Auckland to Hamilton or Auckland to Wellington, with good reason – it is a one off scenic trip, kind of convenient if you ever go to Otorohanga from Wellington, but hardly enough to sustain a train service.
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You see lots of communities survive and thrive without passenger train service. Here are some of the largest ones:
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Whangarei
Rodney District
North Shore City
Thames- Coromandel
Tauranga
Whakatane
Rotorua
Taupo
New Plymouth
Wanganui
Gisborne
Napier
Hastings
Nelson
Timaru
Dunedin
Queenstown
Wanaka
Invercargill
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How have THEY survived? The answer is that most people have a car or access to a car. In a small community, you can get around on foot or bike. If you want to leave and you’re on a major highway (in other words every stop of the Overlander) there is a bus service.
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Jeanette’s suggestion that it will be more successful when the track is “fixed up” is hardly on the ball. At best, the service can run no faster than 10.5 hours Wellington-Auckland, hardly a difference compared with flying or driving. You can give up ideas of French or Japanese style high speed trains unless you have a good $10 billion to throw away (cheaper to buy everyone a car or free plane tickets for life). The idea that marketing it would help assumes this hasn’t happened before. The service as a scenic trip has been promoted, in one form or another for decades. It is NOT the most scenic trip in the country, the profitable TranzAlpine from Christchurch to Greymouth through Arthurs Pass is. It bypasses the tourist spots of Rotorua and Taupo, and for at least half the trip passes through rather unimaginative countryside between Auckland and Te Kuiti, and Hunterville and Paraparaumu. That’s all dead boring.

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The Greens' proposal is full of mistakes. The Overlander is not a "kiwi icon". It has not been running for 97 years, passenger trains between Wellington and Auckland have, but daylight ones only started running in the 1940s during summertime, because the trip was so long it needed to be overnight. Typically trains left early evening to arrive mid morning the next day. The Northerner was the last version of this, but it disappeared with nary a mention from the Greens. The "Overlander" itself has been running since 1991. Besides, why should anyone be forced to pay for an icon - the Greens don't like mentioning that almost everything they advocate is about forcing people to pay for what they like - not exactly the action of a peaceloving group. It needs a subsidy of over $1 million a year and apparently the Greens want a viability study - paid for by you - much like the Southerner viability study of 2002, which proved it was not viable. Apparently, the private sector doesn't understand viability as much as a bunch of socialist MPs who never use the train. The nonsense that rail isn't subsidised but roads are doesn't bear close examination. Most of the extra money Dr Cullen is putting into roading came from road users through petrol tax, in fact now for the first time in decades, all of road user taxes are being spent on roads (with a couple of hundred million extra for the next few years). Rail is getting $200 million in subsidies over five years from the taxpayer - not rail users, and that doesn't include the millions spent subsidising Auckland and Wellington passenger rail which comes from road user taxes and ratepayers. Rail doesn't get a raw deal because New Zealand doesn't subsidise like other countries - we may as well justify going back to massive agricultural subsidies because "every one else does it". This is the childlike train fetish mentality of the Greens. "Steel wheel on steel rail good, rubber tyre on asphalt baaaaad, aluminium and jet engine on air worse" could be the mantra.
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There should be no subsidisation of the Overlander – as I said before, if you want to support this service – use it NOW! Ride on it several times before it ends, and make demand for it so significant that Tranz Scenic will want to keep running it. If it matters so much to you, forget the car, bus or plane next time you travel on the route – catch the Overlander, and if it isn’t convenient or cheap enough, then you’ll know why others don’t do it.

Jeremy Clarkson for Mayor of London

Jeremy Clarkson, the world's funniest car journalist has written in The Times about what he would do if he were elected Mayor of London. He wouldn't be perfect, but since he has, half jokingly, declared what his manifesto would be, I am not in disagreement with the fundamental end objective- abolishing the Greater London Authority.
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The functions of that entity either do not need to be performed (planning or the Greater London Development Agency) or can be performed by others (Metropolitan Police Authority could be administered by the boroughs, Fire Brigade could be privatised, London's arterial road network can be corporatised and then privatised).
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Abolishing the GLA would save over £60 million a year at least, and its transport functions can be transferred elsewhere (the tube and buses could all be commercially viable if stupid policies like free buses for under 16yos were abolished).
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Clarkson would get rid of the personality cult mayoralty of Livingstone, not welcome dictators like Hugo Chavez at our expense and stop nannying about with nonsense ideas like registering all bicycles. He'd get rid of bus lanes, whereas I'd just keep them if the bus companies were willing to pay for them, or make them toll lanes anyone could use, at a price.
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However, it's a start - a Mayor that would abolish the office of Mayor. What more could one ask for?

You know you’re culture is at a low point when…

Half of all TV viewers in Britain Saturday night watched Big Brother – to see Pete Bennett, a 24yo man with tourette’s syndrome – win £100,000. I don’t know how proud people can be making a spectacle of a man uncontrollably throwing about furniture, and then winning while he says “wankers” under his breath. To his credit he seems a very nice guy, but there is nothing inspiring about watching this bunch of rather ordinary people playing up on TV every night. With Pete Bennett, there is the relationship with Nikki Grahame, who was once anorexic, who was regularly voted back in because of her manic emotiveness about anything and everything, crying, having tantrums and no doubt because she wore tiny shorts all the time.
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To Pete’s credit, he has raised awareness and tolerance of Tourette’s Syndrome, though how much of it will be seen still as a joke is unclear, he is also giving the money to his Mum (bless!). However, it is clear that the new form of entertainment on television is no longer talented people producing drama, thrillers or comedy – but untalented people doing nothing. LoveIsland has been ITV’s effort at competing with it, and has failed miserably.

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Today, everyone regardless of talent or abilities, can think they can be rich and famous for doing absolutely nothing - that is height of culture in the UK today.

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The single highlight of Big Brothers recently has been Russell Brand - the funniest and possibly the most shaggable man in the UK - more on him later!

Iran's fruitloop of a President starts blogging and the FAQs of Islam

Yes, it's true - the holocaust denying, genocide supporting, non-transparent nuclearphile President of the Islamic Republic of Iran is now blogging - and using technology from the great Satan to do so. He even has a poll on whether the US and Israel are trying to start another word (sic) war, which is running 56% AGAINST the notion (probably helped by the Daily Telegraph publishing the blog details).

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So go on, comment on his blog if you can, and show him how unwelcome he is on cyberspace. Remember he advocates wiping out another state - wiping out its people, and he hates Jews just as Hitler did. He also advocates Islamist fundamentalism applied as law... you will find this with a couple of clicks from his blog in the FAQs on Islam posted on the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's site. That gives you some interesting reading.

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This includes the beautiful statements like:

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"Q: What is Allah’s ordinance regarding the deviant Bahā’ī sect in cases of car, furniture, flower and the like which have nothing to do with purity or najāsah?

A: Any sort of social intercourse with the deviant and misleading Bahā’ī sect should be avoided."

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Nice people.

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"Q: Is it prohibited to use American products in general?

A: Any transaction with a company whose profit is used in helping the enemies of Islam and Muslims or for supporting the Zionist regime is not permissible. "

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Well damn well enforce it then, be strict about it, don't buy anything from the western world, it will keep you in your place.

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"Q: I would like to know if wearing a tie is ḥarām?

A: It is prohibited to wear a necktie that contributes to the spreading of western culture. "

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A prominent Green party member once said that ties separate the heart from the head hmm.

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"Q: What is the ruling of listening to women’s singing whose words and tune are neither lahwī nor rubbish?

A: If women’s singing is of the type which is sexually exciting or listening to it brings corruptive consequences, one is not allowed to listen to it."

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Poor Shakira. Although it seems singing isn't allowed at all given the following answers.

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"Q: What is your opinion about listening to children’s songs? Are the children allowed to sing for their homeland, parents, etc. while using singing equipments?A: Listening to ghinā’ is impermissible no matter whether it is sung by children. Also, the parents should not provide their children with musical instruments to be used in songs even though children are not bound to religious duties. "

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Ghina means songs. So you cannot listen to songs, even those sung by children, and children shouldn't be exposed to musical instruments. Don't try to sing or hum to yourself too, you heretic!

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Q: A not very religious Muslim recently became faithful. Is he allowed to sing/hum — to himself or in front of his friends — the songs he learnt by heart?

A: He is not allowed to sing the ḥarām ghinā’ even to himself, let alone in front of his previous friends.

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Don't be wearing dark blue clothes girls, unless you get attention - from dark blue fetishists!:

"Q1355: Is it permissible for a young woman to wear clothes that are dark blue in color?

A: There is no objection to it in itself unless it attracts the attention of other people and leads to bad consequences."

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you can figure the theme here - women make sure you are wallpaper and not seen:

"Q1357: Is it permissible for a devout woman to wear glittering black shoes?

A: There is no harm in wearing any type/color of shoes unless the color or the design attracts the attention of other people, or makes her conspicuous."

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If you had any doubts about its sexism, check this out:

Q1251: Is it permissible for the woman to use contraceptives without the permission of her husband?

A: It is problematic.

Q1252: A man with four children underwent an operation of vasectomy, without the consent of his wife. Is he guilty for not obtaining his wife’s approval?

A: Its permissibility does not depend on the consent of the wife and he is not liable.

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So a wife can't do what her husband can do. Her body is owned by her husband, and before that her father or grandfather. Shame we see so few feminist activists burning Iranian flags or getting angry about this. Lucky female circumcision isn't compulsory:

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"Q1299: Is girls’ circumcision obligatory?

A: It is not obligatory. "

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However, Islamic Iran seems to believe in intellectual property, more than some in the West:

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Q: Some of the computer soft-wares work for 15 days only and are made by foreign companies. What is the ruling of breaking the protecting system of these soft-wares to make them free and work forever or taking the ready-made broken file? Knowing that these soft-wares are useful and are so expensive in the market and one can download them from the company’s site to be tested on the computer. Moreover, when breaking the protecting system, nothing is stolen from the company or the market and by this act I will benefit many people who cannot afford the soft-wares’ price. Also, what can I do with the cracks I used? Can I just use them instead of making them?

A: As long as the soft-ware companies – be it foreign or local – have the right that nobody can use these programs by breaking their protection without their permission; it is impermissible to break the protection and use these programs without the consent of the producing company. The mere intending to benefit people by breaking or high prices and inability of most people to take advantage of these programs due to their price does not justify, according to shar‘, violating others’ legal rights. As per the crack you have used until now, you should acquire the agreement of the original company in this regard; otherwise, you are not allowed to continue with using them.

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So, that is the redeeming feature of the regime, it enslaves the population, hangs teenage girls for sex, bans singing, but hey Microsoft can relax, it doesn't support piracy (although you can't buy their software as Microsoft no doubt supports anti-Muslim activities somehow, probably by paying enormous amounts of tax to the Federal government).

Apparently 9 is the age of puberty for girls and 15 for boys, which also represents when they can be tried and sentenced like adults.

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Some people damned Bush for calling these people Islamofascists - look at all of the rules of fundamentalist Islam and tell me that this allows room for people to live their own lives - it is a form of slavery, because some men believe their ghost is a reason to kill. This is a political system and culture that says that children shouldn't be allowed musical instruments - by the end of the 21st century NO regime should be ruled by people who are such stoneage sexist joyless murderous control freaks.

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How deranged does one have to be, to believe that one's life should be micromanaged by rulings from old men who still think women are inferior?