Dead

Speaker of The House of Commons

Good luck John Bercow!

The Nasty Party

Good to see that bad taste on the internet isn't restricted to the Tories and strange members of Conservative Future. A chum pointed me in the direction of UKIP's former Director of Communications who stood for parliament for them in 2001 and 2005 so is probably still an active member who saw fit to take the piss out of 228 dead people on the Air France flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.

Bill Killed

and in a kinky way!
I guess this scene from Kung Fu seems relevant:

Master Po: Close your eyes. What do you hear?
Young Caine (Carradine): I hear the water, I hear the birds.
Po: Do you hear your own heartbeat?
Young Caine (Carradine): No.

Integrity and MPs

I was talking with some chums over the weekend and inevitably the topic of MPs and their expenses came up. One of the guys mentioned Iain Dale's blog and his "integrity pledge" and whilt first I had just dismissed it as an empty pledge made when a candidate knows they are unlikely to win a seat, it played on my mind a while longer, particularly the point about second jobs.
BAsically, my view on this is that it is silly to ban second jobs since they give MPs vital real world exposure when they are closeted away in Westminster and these people need to get jobs once they leave parliament. Further to that, I believe that if Iain Dale were selected to parliament now, he would find it tricky to stick to his pledge...
Why? I hear you ask.
Well...Iain's blog is nicely monetised and attracts a very healthy number of readers from whom he can make some dollar through advertising, Additionally Iain makes money from blog related TV appearances and from selling books through his website's Amazon links. So on becoming an MP, would Iain shut down his blog?
There are 3 options I guess - shut the blog, keep the blog running as is, keep the blog running and de-monetise it, hence making it non-financially rewarding and hence not a job.
However, by keeping a blog running, Iain would essentially be keeping a business running, waiting until he leaves parliament when he could re-monetise it which is little different from MPs undertaking part time consultancy or legal work to keep their skills fresh. If Iain shut down the blog then his readers wouldn't automatically return to him 5 years later as they would have moved on. It would make sense for Iain to therefore keep the blog running unless he got a safe seat which would keep him secure for life.
If Iain, or any other MP is selected to a marginal constituency then they need to be aware that their job is quite likely to be made redundant after 4 or 5 years and so they need to keep their skills relevant and keep their hand in business for when they leave. My much laboured point is therefore, if Iain were to keep his blog going whilst in parliament, isn't this essentially having a second job?
This blog is looking like a bit of an Iain Dale obsession but the great man is at the heart of the Tory blogosphere and so a lot of interesting angles lead to him!

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.