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Archive for 2006

Factoid May 30

Something I’ve learnt today, having never previously felt the need to read Matthew Taylor’s official profile. Turns out the LibDem MP’s dad is Ken Taylor, who wrote, among other things, the excellent BBC adaptation of Sleeping Murder. It’s one of my favourite Joan Hickson Miss Marples (yes, ITV, Miss Marple), with a particularly nightmare-inducing climax.

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Funland May 30

On Sunday night I was in a club in Blackpool which had a free internet café. I hope I gain a little street cred for not logging on and posting a blog entry despite the temptation. I was down for a stags do – my sixth trip to the town but my first not attending NUS conference, having skipped party conference last September.

Yesterday morning I went to the Doctor Who Museum on Blackpool seafront. It’s much more focussed on the “classic” series than the Brighton exhibition (now in Cardiff) with only one room and a few props for the new series. It was nevertheless good fun and full of classic costumes and props. Original Hartnell walking canes were very cool, as were the Melkur and Bessie (I realise this sounds slightly sad). Certainly worth a visit if you’re in the area and a fanboy.

Here are a couple of cameraphone photos from the bit where photography was allowed.

Blackpool TARDIS
Blackpool Cybermen

Spring cleaning May 25

It’s that time of year when the blog needs a bit of a spruce up. It’ll carry on changing a bit over the next few days, but first off I’ve switched to a fresher-looking two column theme. I hope it will make posts a bit easier on the eye.

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Hands off May 25

As mentioned earlier, I listened to James Graham on Resonance FM last night. As well as talking politics generally, he was promoting Hands Off Our Future, his new website (and forum) promoting the issue of generational equity. With pensions – erroneously often not considered a young persons’ issue – in the news today, it’s well-timed. With older people much more likely to vote, there is a danger of the country providing more and more benefits to well-off retired people at the expense (literally) of debt-saddled younglings who can’t get on the housing ladder. With plenty of pressure groups speaking for older people, it’s almost a taboo to suggest that – for example – free TV licences for the over-74s are a gratuitous subsidy for many comfortable septagenarians.

Of course, the issues aren’t as straightforward as that and stripping away all non-means-tested benefits for older people isn’t the answer, but there’s an important debate to be had about the legacy – environmental and economic – that future generations will be left with.

The highlight of the radio show for me, incidentally, was James’s conjuring up of a media-hungry Mark Oaten sitting at home working his way through a pile of KitKats in the hope of finding a golden ticket