Nosemonkey has an interesting post today about Blair’s latest scheme to blame anyone but himself for anything – and his new scapegoat is the British people. (Via.)

Changes to FM licensing rules will come in to force on December 8th that mean the iTrip and similar products which allow music on MP3 players to be transmitted to stereos via radio waves will become legal. This is good news for those wanting to get the best use of their digital music.

The BBC report credits consumer demand and persistent pressure from the LibDems. Don Foster, the party’s Shadow Culture Secretary, commented on the changes when the draft regulations were published last month:

“I am delighted that music lovers all over the country will finally have the right to enjoy this technology, without the threat of large fines or prison hanging over them.

“For the past two years the Liberal Democrats have repeatedly called for changes to legislation that, we believe, unfairly penalised iTrip users.

“It’s still not clear to me why it has taken this long to find a workable solution, but at least now I can put one of these devices on my Christmas list.”

I am putting an iPod on my own Christmas list this year so, if Santa determines I’ve been a good boy, this is one deregulation I could find very useful in the future.

For Doctor Who’s 43rd birthday today I watched first episode of the Patrick Troughton serial The Faceless Ones, which provided ample opportunity to spot actors who subsequently returned to the series in serials with “Time” in the title: specifically, Time and the Rani‘s Donald Picking, Time and the Rani‘s Wanda Ventham, and The Invasion of Time‘s Chris Tranchell.

This was one of the handful of Doctor Who episodes I’d not previously seen and holds up pretty well. The interior, studio scenes, part of the then contemporary 1960s setting, have a feel akin to scenesfrom The Avengers or Adam Adamant Lives! There’s an interesting mystery, an unpleasant looking creature and a good cliffhanger.

My only criticisms are of a slightly circular plot and one moment where the Doctor appears completely out of character: his companion Polly, who he knows has witness a murder, vanishes and the Doctor pretty much shrugs it off, choosing to search for someone in authority to try in vain to convince rather than attempting to find her himself. It’s fortunate this first episode exists, but with only one of the other five episodes left in the BBC archives, it’s hard to assess the serial as a whole.

I’ve flown British Airways a few times recently and the flights were cheap and very pleasant, so I would have no intention of boycotting them over their ban on visible crucifixes even if I didn’t think their position was reasonable – but, as it happens, I mostly do.

They seem to have bent over backwards to allow the employee in question, Nadia Eweida, to wear her cross: they told her it was fine to wear it under her uniform and offered her alternative work where she wouldn’t need to wear the uniform at all, but she insists that she should be allowed to wear it – because religion apparently deserves special treatment.

“It is important to wear it to express my faith so that other people will know that Jesus loves them.”

Oddly enough, when I fly I’d like the cabin crew to keep me safe and provide me complimentary food that isn’t too cardboardy. I don’t fly for reassurance that a particular religious icon is rooting for me. It wouldn’t be acceptable for Ms Eweida to hand out copies of the Watchtower with the inflight magazine, so why should she tell get to me Jesus loves me in other ways?

Now, that said, I have no objection to people expressing their religious beliefs and it makes little difference to me whether BA’s uniform allows jewellery or not – interesting, and here’s where I do disagree with BA, they “accepted the cross was not jewellery”. But a uniform code is a uniform code and it’s the expectation the religion should be a special case that I object to. To take a facetious example given today’s date, I watch Doctor Who more often than many people who tick “Christian” on the census go to church, but would I have a leg to stand on if I worked for BA and wanted to wear a Davros badge on my uniform (to show people that Terry Nation loves them, perhaps)? Of course not.

Update: Joe Otten has written a typically thoughtful post on the same issue. I’m inclined to agree with him that British Airways’ best way of avoiding this sort of issue is to be less restrictive full stop, but I do think that, from a marketing point of view, their uniform does have a role to play in promoting them as a “quality” brand.