Well, we're two weeks into the new series of 'Doctor Who'.
It is currently the most-watched television programme of Saturdays, hurrah!
'Smith and Jones' opened up the first episode with Freema Agyeman as new companion, Martha Jones and episode two with 'The Shakespeare Code' was very-Harry Potter in more ways than can be described, but in a good way. The special effects really are excellent and gosh isn't this what Doctor Who missed years back.
Any how, it's back to New New York next Saturday (as long as the FA Cup Semi Final doesn't go in extra time) and we re-meet the Face of Boe in an episode entitled 'Gridlock'. And then it's those pesky little pepper pots from Skaro.........
Tuesday, 10 April 2007
Belated Greetings for Easter
OK, so I've not done the blogging for some time.
I just did not seem to get the time, poor excuse, but where does the time go? Any how, belated Greetings for Easter!!
The last couple of weeks have not been the best of times, deaths of close friends and political colleagues and attending funerals not the best of things. Just as we had the funeral of Mary Neuner, I heard of the deaths of two other former Mayors. Les Collis and Bill Budd, former Mayor of Camden.
I went to Bill's funeral in Bedford last Thursday. Bill was a really lovely and warm guy who welcomed me with a grand smile when I became Mayor of Haringey back in 1995 and everytime we met up at meetings of the London Labour Mayors' Association he would always ensure that no one was standing alone. The service was really nice and I could not believe just how good the weather was. What I didn't know was that Bill had, during the War, been a bodyguard to then PM, Winston Churchill. I hope so say a few words at the next Council meeting, in the meantime my thoughts go out to Bill's family and friends.
Visited my Nan in Letchworth on Saturday gone, she'll be 94 next month and she puts me to shame. Whilst I've been complaining about my aches and pains for the last month or so, there she is meeting me at the station, making sure I'm OK before going to lunch. We talked about our younger days, mine as a child, hers as a mother and wife looking at old photos and just generally having a great time as Grandmother and Grandson.
It has also been a very thoughtful time as well because of Easter and what it means to me as a Christian and making sure that I've been in Church on Good Friday, Easter Saturday and Easter Day for those Services. Sadly, hearing of a death of a local resident who always had a word of advice for me did not help things.
It all seems quite negative and low. I hope that Summer will be bright in more ways than just the weather.
I just did not seem to get the time, poor excuse, but where does the time go? Any how, belated Greetings for Easter!!
The last couple of weeks have not been the best of times, deaths of close friends and political colleagues and attending funerals not the best of things. Just as we had the funeral of Mary Neuner, I heard of the deaths of two other former Mayors. Les Collis and Bill Budd, former Mayor of Camden.
I went to Bill's funeral in Bedford last Thursday. Bill was a really lovely and warm guy who welcomed me with a grand smile when I became Mayor of Haringey back in 1995 and everytime we met up at meetings of the London Labour Mayors' Association he would always ensure that no one was standing alone. The service was really nice and I could not believe just how good the weather was. What I didn't know was that Bill had, during the War, been a bodyguard to then PM, Winston Churchill. I hope so say a few words at the next Council meeting, in the meantime my thoughts go out to Bill's family and friends.
Visited my Nan in Letchworth on Saturday gone, she'll be 94 next month and she puts me to shame. Whilst I've been complaining about my aches and pains for the last month or so, there she is meeting me at the station, making sure I'm OK before going to lunch. We talked about our younger days, mine as a child, hers as a mother and wife looking at old photos and just generally having a great time as Grandmother and Grandson.
It has also been a very thoughtful time as well because of Easter and what it means to me as a Christian and making sure that I've been in Church on Good Friday, Easter Saturday and Easter Day for those Services. Sadly, hearing of a death of a local resident who always had a word of advice for me did not help things.
It all seems quite negative and low. I hope that Summer will be bright in more ways than just the weather.
Friday, 23 March 2007
A week to go
Yep, a week to go and the third series of Doctor Who begins.
The trailers look brilliant. Are they Sontarans in the first episode? Will Martha Jones be able to return to Earth? What are the witches doing with William Shakespeare? What secret will the Face of Bo explain to the Doctor? What evil plan do the Daleks have in Manhatten? Who is Mr. Saxon? And does Captain Jack hold a grudge?
And to cap it all, a fourth series has been commissioned and David Tennant WILL be the Doctor throughout. A master stroke for the all involved. He he he he he (for those WHO know).
The trailers look brilliant. Are they Sontarans in the first episode? Will Martha Jones be able to return to Earth? What are the witches doing with William Shakespeare? What secret will the Face of Bo explain to the Doctor? What evil plan do the Daleks have in Manhatten? Who is Mr. Saxon? And does Captain Jack hold a grudge?
And to cap it all, a fourth series has been commissioned and David Tennant WILL be the Doctor throughout. A master stroke for the all involved. He he he he he (for those WHO know).
Blair's Gay Gordon
It seems that the Prime Minister did "a little skip" at seeing the first Civil Partnership ceremony on television.
Tony's speech to the lesbian and gay rights campaigning group Stonewall is just as important as the positive policies introduced for LGBT people since Labour came to power in 1997.
Who would have thought that a Prime Minister would address an LGBT function of this kind years ago when all the parties had hostility towards gay rights in their numbers? But here we are and it is a big step. Of course we cannot rest as there are those who would still deny LGBT people the hard won rights.
In the meantime, I am left with the thought in my mind of Tony sitting in Number 10 with a G&T doing his little skip and thinking, was it a Gay Gordon? I imply nothing!
Tony's speech to the lesbian and gay rights campaigning group Stonewall is just as important as the positive policies introduced for LGBT people since Labour came to power in 1997.
Who would have thought that a Prime Minister would address an LGBT function of this kind years ago when all the parties had hostility towards gay rights in their numbers? But here we are and it is a big step. Of course we cannot rest as there are those who would still deny LGBT people the hard won rights.
In the meantime, I am left with the thought in my mind of Tony sitting in Number 10 with a G&T doing his little skip and thinking, was it a Gay Gordon? I imply nothing!
Admitting mistakes
I want to take this chance to explain something, bear with me and you'll understand.
Like many others, I reluctantly supported the war in Iraq and hoped for a quick end and for the minimal number of deaths and injuries. The final total may never be known.
In the run up to the war I called for a UN-route and believed that the Inspectors needed the time necessary to find the so-called weapons of mass destruction (WMD). I remember watching Colin Powell addressing the UN saying where the weapons were and of course Iraq, under Saddam, did use WMD, especially against his own people.
However, we went in and once in it is right to support British troops and whatever people think of the war, I believe that the vast majority of British people do. We will pay for years to come for the decision to go to war, it has split communities, families and friends and made others feel insecure.
Of course in hindsight it is easy to be proved right or wrong. I remember in one Labour meeting saying at the time that I wanted the anti-war people to be right and people like me to be wrong. The thought of Saddam's Iraq using WMD against other countries and peoples is to horrible to think about and thankfully the decision taken by Blair and Bush is something we'll never have to do.
I was wrong and should have been more vocal and stronger against the war. I want British troops to come home as soon as is possible, but of course worry about what will happen in Iraq when they do come home. I am delighted that Saddam was caught and his reign of terror is at an end.
However, it is by learning from these mistakes that I could not and will not support military action against Iran as some American hawks seem eager to do. We must learn the lessons of Iraq.
This particular blog could appear to be how wonderful I am in seeing the light, it is not that at all, in fact if we could turn the clock back of course it would be easier for all of us, but we are where we are. We live in a democracy and learn by our mistakes, my mistake was listening to the intelligence which proved to be wrong and because of that thousands of Iraqis and alliance troops have been killed or injured rather than letting jaw jaw work.
I am not saying there should never be war again, we don't know what the future holds, but I do hope that in future we allow a bit more talking and a bit less action.
Like many others, I reluctantly supported the war in Iraq and hoped for a quick end and for the minimal number of deaths and injuries. The final total may never be known.
In the run up to the war I called for a UN-route and believed that the Inspectors needed the time necessary to find the so-called weapons of mass destruction (WMD). I remember watching Colin Powell addressing the UN saying where the weapons were and of course Iraq, under Saddam, did use WMD, especially against his own people.
However, we went in and once in it is right to support British troops and whatever people think of the war, I believe that the vast majority of British people do. We will pay for years to come for the decision to go to war, it has split communities, families and friends and made others feel insecure.
Of course in hindsight it is easy to be proved right or wrong. I remember in one Labour meeting saying at the time that I wanted the anti-war people to be right and people like me to be wrong. The thought of Saddam's Iraq using WMD against other countries and peoples is to horrible to think about and thankfully the decision taken by Blair and Bush is something we'll never have to do.
I was wrong and should have been more vocal and stronger against the war. I want British troops to come home as soon as is possible, but of course worry about what will happen in Iraq when they do come home. I am delighted that Saddam was caught and his reign of terror is at an end.
However, it is by learning from these mistakes that I could not and will not support military action against Iran as some American hawks seem eager to do. We must learn the lessons of Iraq.
This particular blog could appear to be how wonderful I am in seeing the light, it is not that at all, in fact if we could turn the clock back of course it would be easier for all of us, but we are where we are. We live in a democracy and learn by our mistakes, my mistake was listening to the intelligence which proved to be wrong and because of that thousands of Iraqis and alliance troops have been killed or injured rather than letting jaw jaw work.
I am not saying there should never be war again, we don't know what the future holds, but I do hope that in future we allow a bit more talking and a bit less action.
Wednesday, 21 March 2007
A mixed day
What a day it has been!
This morning my work colleagues and I had a meeting with our Managers to talk about restructuring of our work. We are told that this is not to do with redundancies and this will be avoided if at all possible. Some of the work that we do will be shipped out to India. Well, it's meant to save the NHS money, i.e., lay off British workers and send to other countries where they probably pay a pittance for the work that we do. Of course, I will have the pleasure of knowing that if my job does go it will pay for another manager in the NHS, that seems the usual thing these days. How all of this is meant to help patient confidentiality and get patients seen quicker I do not know. However, on the bright side I found that we'd won £10 on Saturday's lottery and I won an extra kit-kat!!
Of course it's been Budget Day, never the most popular of events and is expected to be Gordon Brown's last as Chancellor. As a single person I have always been taken by the talk of hard working families and yes, sometimes, I do feel that a thank you to hard working single people would not go a miss. We pay our taxes as well. That aside, I cheered at the shock announcement of the 2p cut in income tax saying to my colleagues "where will that come from?" to find the 10p lower band will be axed. That worries me. That is being mild and I fear that our Labour Chancellor may be making a mistake on this and it will be low paid people suddenly finding themselves paying more tax and getting into debt because of it. I hope that Gordon is doing the right thing. I do however welcome an increase in ciggies, though one smoker feared an even higher increase, I too personally would have liked to have seen an increase of 20-30p for a packet of 20. There will be extra help for pensioners with insulation costs and the Budget is certainly aiming at the green agenda.
A mixed budget for a mixed day, still at least the NHS can now have some more managers with the extra investment. They don't send management jobs off to India for some strange reason!
This morning my work colleagues and I had a meeting with our Managers to talk about restructuring of our work. We are told that this is not to do with redundancies and this will be avoided if at all possible. Some of the work that we do will be shipped out to India. Well, it's meant to save the NHS money, i.e., lay off British workers and send to other countries where they probably pay a pittance for the work that we do. Of course, I will have the pleasure of knowing that if my job does go it will pay for another manager in the NHS, that seems the usual thing these days. How all of this is meant to help patient confidentiality and get patients seen quicker I do not know. However, on the bright side I found that we'd won £10 on Saturday's lottery and I won an extra kit-kat!!
Of course it's been Budget Day, never the most popular of events and is expected to be Gordon Brown's last as Chancellor. As a single person I have always been taken by the talk of hard working families and yes, sometimes, I do feel that a thank you to hard working single people would not go a miss. We pay our taxes as well. That aside, I cheered at the shock announcement of the 2p cut in income tax saying to my colleagues "where will that come from?" to find the 10p lower band will be axed. That worries me. That is being mild and I fear that our Labour Chancellor may be making a mistake on this and it will be low paid people suddenly finding themselves paying more tax and getting into debt because of it. I hope that Gordon is doing the right thing. I do however welcome an increase in ciggies, though one smoker feared an even higher increase, I too personally would have liked to have seen an increase of 20-30p for a packet of 20. There will be extra help for pensioners with insulation costs and the Budget is certainly aiming at the green agenda.
A mixed budget for a mixed day, still at least the NHS can now have some more managers with the extra investment. They don't send management jobs off to India for some strange reason!
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