Obligatory Eurovision post:

• The UK were pap. We had a bad song written by Pete Waterman, sung by a genuinely-likeable-but-unknown singer, which wasn't widely promoted across Europe in the way that Jade Ewen was (with Lord L-W being a genuine attraction across large parts of eastern Europe). The choreography and staging were both nuts (and not in ( Read more... )

... if Daniel Hannan had arranged the attack on David Blunkett? His acceptance speech is up there with David Mellor losing his seat, in my mind.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8088541.stmHe quoted from Dr Seuss: "You can go by foot, you can go by cow, ( Read more... )

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/north_yorkshire/7704093.stm The Archbishop of York has called for a government-led campaign to encourage shoppers to buy British food.
Nope, that's a breach of Article 28 EC, and has been understood to be such for at least ( Read more... )

The overall issue here is that some people are saying that swearing an oath or pledge to the Queen and her successors is a breach of human rights for people who aren't CofE, or are Republican, or various other things. However, leaving the details of that to one side ( Read more... )

• Ireland votes "no"
• the Tory party use this to launch a renewed call for a British referendum so that they can tell Europe to bugger off
• in so doing, the Eurosceptic Tory right emerge from CallMeDave's saddle-bags, with people like the swivel-eyed Vulcan leading the charge
• a disgruntled but energized David Davies continues his activities from the back- ( Read more... )

I believe I'm possibly the only person on the Internet who doesn't give a shit about this year's Eurovision. We lost. It's not some massive global conspiracy. We lose when we put up bad songs with bad performers who perform badly on the night. Remember Gemini? Hopefully not.

• Other countries put up good, well-known, well-liked performers. I ( Read more... )