Geordie Saviour

So Alan Shearer is still the Geordie Messiah, and despite relegation is still the man to turn things around at Newcastle. When will people realise that you can't just hire an ex-player with no decent managerial experience. Mike Ashley showed his confidence in Shearer with the quote

"Bringing Alan Shearer back to Newcastle United was the best decision I have made"

What results is he looking at?
Shearer managed for 8 games, losing 6, drawing one game with Stoke and beating relegation bound Middlesborough. Come on..that is shit. Compare that with his predecessor Joe Kinnear, an experienced manager who played 23, won 5, drew 10 and lost 11. Kinnear drew 1-1 with Chelsea, Shearer lost 2-0 to Chelsea (at St James Park).
Look at other recent player-to-manager movers - Ince (sacked), Keane (sacked), Southgate (relegated), Adams (sacked) - the list goes on. All of the sacked people were replaced with good old fashioned football managers who kept their teams up and rescued them from the mess these players had left them in.
Hey ho, give Shearer a few million and the gravy train goes on.

Eastenders

So the BBC are being all edgy and modern:

Gay Muslim story for EastEnders

Syed's mother has been trying to set him up with women
EastEnders is to tackle a storyline which will feature a Muslim man embarking upon a gay affair.

Newcomer Syed Masood, played by Marc Elliott, will fall for openly gay man Christian Clarke (John Partridge) and the pair will share an on-screen kiss.

The plot is expected to hit TV screens from next month.

"I think EastEnders would be doing the programme a disservice if they didn't give a voice to various communities," Elliot told the BBC Asian Network.

"I think that's really important because I think London is a very ethnically diverse multicultural place, and EastEnders has a job to reflect that in the storylines it gives people and the characters they have on board."

His character, who joined the cast recently, has been trying to make amends with his family.

His mother Zainab Masood, played by Nina Wadia, has also been seen trying to set him up with various women from "good families".

However, the gay storyline has been criticised by Asghar Bokhari of the Muslim Public Affairs Committee.

"The Muslim community deserves a character that represents them to the wider public because Islamophobia is so great right now," he said.

"There's a lack of understanding of Muslims already and I think EastEnders really lost an opportunity to present a normal friendly Muslim character to the British public."

But the show's executive producer Diedrick Santer said it was important to tackle issues which reflect real life.

"It's really important that on EastEnders we give the Masoods big stories.

"Sometimes there's a danger of being too careful with black or Asian characters that we might go into territories that might offend.

"But it seems to me if we steer away from any controversy, they don't stand a chance of being a great EastEnders family - they'll just be in their kitchen unit making curries for years and years and that's not going to be very interesting."

Yusuf Wehebi from Imaan - an organisation that supports gay Muslims - agreed with him.

"It is high time that the invisible minority became a visible minority," he said.

"It is entirely possible to be Muslim and gay and there's many of us in Britain today.

"It is great that the BBC have had the courage to raise such an important social issue in our society today."

So how will this plotline pan out? An honour killing? Stabbing and burning? Or maybe his family will come to accept his diversity in a modern and pluralistic way...I wonder which one..and which one is actually representative of modern Islam in London.

Money Laundering

It is interesting to compare parliament's current difficulties over expenses with the much maligned un-regulated financial markets. This crisis didn't happen overnight - the chap in charge of the fees office told Michael Martin that there was a problem more than five years ago.
Whilst claiming these expenses isn't money laundering (its more like theft), the general case applies that in banking:

If you assist a money launderer – max 14 years’ imprisonment, a fine, or
Tipping off a money launderer – max 5 years’ imprisonment, a fine, or both;
Failure to Report a money launderer – max 5 years’ imprisonment, a fine, or both

Michael Martin has clearly failed to act upon reports of theft and fraud yet he faces no sanction. So much for bankers taking lessons from politicians.

Homophobic Conservative?

Nice to see that sly homophobic references are alive and well in the Tory blogosphere. Donal Blaney, that cuddly figure from YBF, has posted about MPs expenses and dropped in a not-so-subtle jibe at Alan Duncan's sexuality.
I'm no politically correct prude but why juxtaposition Alan Duncan's name with the phrase 'Uphill Gardener'
He has a track record of this kind of homophobia which isn't a nice thing to see.

Expenses

Its all very simple. If they know claiming all this money is wrong now, then surely they knew it was wrong when they spent ordinary people's taxes doing up, remortgaging and profiting from their second homes whilst literally getting fat at our expense. There should be criminal proceedings.

Hazel Blears is a cunt

Hazel Blears was on the news today trotting out the same line about her claims being in line with the rules of the house. She isn't the worst of them but since she has dared to show her stealing little ginger face, she can get my ire this morning. She redesignated her second home 3 times in a year in order to get money out of the taxpayer. She is a thieving cunt, if not in law, at least in the spirit of decency.
Then look at her own website: Lots of support for homeowners there!

Burning Books

Further to yesterday's post, it seems that Michael Savage is planning to sue Jaqui Smith for banning him. Reading what he is accused of, he doesn't seem to have said too much which marks him out from many thousands of people.
He famously described Autism as:

"a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out"

and called the Koran a "book of hate".
Its nothing that controversial really.
Are we going to ban Denis Leary, the popular comedian and Obama supporter who said

"There is a huge boom in autism right now because inattentive mothers and competitive dads want an explanation for why their dumb-ass kids can't compete academically, so they throw money into the happy laps of shrinks... to get back diagnoses that help explain away the deficiencies of their junior morons. I don't (care) what these crackerjack whack jobs tell you — your kid is not autistic. He's just stupid. Or lazy. Or both."

I don't particularly agree with him but where do we draw the line?

Nanny State

The BBC report today that a list has been published containing the names of all those people who are banned from entering the UK. On this list is the usual few oddballs and nutters but the language in the report does suggest a worrying trend.

Talk show host Michael Savage - real name Michael Weiner - is also excluded. His views on immigration, Islam, rape and autism have caused great offence in America.

I'm pretty sure there isn't a law here against causing offence. In a free society I don't want my government saying what I can or can't be offended by. This kind of thing does our country no favours.