Oh dear god. I hadn’t seen it until now, but this year we’re being represented by a soap power – Daz – in a song that is so hilariously wrong on so many levels it achieves a certain greatness. But only while you choke back the tears.
Teenage Life is the ultimate anthem of the damned. GG describes it thusly: “imagine a rapper – and now imagine that rapper is white, and now imagine that rapper is white, over 40, and that he wears faded 1980s denim. Okay now imagine that he is rapping over a soundtrack of schoolkids singing – and now add the visual image of women in their late 20s in schoolgirl uniforms dancing and miming to that backing track.”
The really scary part is that it’s on target to be ‘our best entry in years’. I can’t hope but feel sorry for our MEPs, who surely won’t be able to live it down for months in the European Parliament if we actually win. I can imagine the French and Germans shuffling little packets of Daz between each other while the Brits look ashamed.
Now my bad old ways
Were during my school days
Messing on those grade A’s [sic]
In fact that deserves [sic] twice – both for the idea of being anywhere near ‘Grade As’ and the unfortunate apostrophe 
Ah Eurovision, don’t we all love it?
Sticking with all things Europe, the .eu domains have (finally) launched. And I bought one. In a crafty scheme. Will let you know more later if anything comes of it…
Cool People
(P.S. I’m the one you can see on the table)
I’m going to see Have I Got News For You!
Twice! 
After Joshua and I mounted a military-precision operation last week to secure tickets from the website (it involved lots of refreshing, several PCs, multiple browsers, pinging, the net connection going down, phoning up the ICT department frantically, and eventually Joshua coming down to my Maths lesson to hurriedly get my phone number) the confirmation has come through.
I’ll be in the company of Merton, Hislop and co on 27th April with Joshua, Sanna and Fabio. And then the very next week (4th May) Joshua and I are going again with our darling mothers. Awww. Credit where credit’s due, it’s my mum who found out about the electronic barriers going up at 11am on that day so all thanks to her really. 
So excited! I was terrified it’d get cancelled before this day would come. Now, I wonder if I’ll ever fulfil my secret life ambition to be on the damn show itself… Ah well – keep dreaming!
Fake Sheikh
The News of the World has been busy running round trying to gag the press – good thing I saved a copy of the photograph from that website before it got taken down 
You can still find it on Google Images, if you’re interested. I’d post it here but lawyers make such poor conversation.
Update – It’s past 4pm, the embargo is off, up goes the photo of Mazher Mahmood… fuck you Murdoch
Double Update – OK, maybe we have to wait till 5pm now 
Triple Update – 5pm! 4pm tomorrow?! Damn you courts!
Final Post – Injunction removed
Summary of the story – The News of the World doesn’t want this photo published. Clearly, therefore, it is every man, woman and child’s duty to publish this photo as much as they possibly can.
A letter from 900 NHS doctors to the Prime Minister today makes the case for ending the ‘free at the point of delivery’ mantra that has been with the Health Service since its inception.
“Rationing of services and bigger financial deficits were the inevitable result of preserving the status quo, they said.” (The Guardian)
What we see here is the continual failure to understand ‘rationing’. There is always rationing of services, in any system, and always will be. Unless, of course, we discover Socialist Utopia World* (TM) with unlimited resources, then clearly there will always be rationing!
In the NHS, services are not rationed by price but by time (‘waiting lists’) and a limit to how far the service will go (i.e. the NHS will prioritise younger patients with a greater chance of survival, and pay for the drugs with the highest success rate.) In other systems, price simply becomes another form of rationing – along with more bureaucracy, more waste and greater inequality.
To increase your ‘rations’, you have to increase supply. Hence more money going into the NHS, reform of its structure to make it more effective, etc etc. (Argue about how well this has been done till dawn if you want to.) Of course demand is also rising – an ageing population, greater demand for ever more expensive health services and so on. I think the obvious conclusion is that the NHS will always have a limit to what it provides – but just like any other system on the planet.
The public agree. “Two-thirds said the NHS in its present form was unlikely ever to meet public demands, however much was spent on it.” But there is no magic replacement system, and the NHS is the fairest and most equitable way of delivering healthcare – free at the point of delivery, regardless of the ability to pay. So perhaps those 900 NHS doctors should get back to work, on their increased pay packets.
Oh and there is one piece of good news – “Three-quarters of the sample said politicians should be removed from day-to-day management of the health service.”
*(Socialist Utopia World does sounds like a great name for a theme park. In the leaflet: How do I get to Socialist Utopia World? Keep turning left.)
Welcome to Quote of the Day, your daily morsel of the world.
Each morning at 9am I’ll post whatever line catches my eye, and you can subscribe via RSS as well as checking out the new placement on the home page. 
Some of the inspiration, by the way, comes from Queen Park’s ridiculously silly ‘Thought of the Week’ pieces at the bottom of each week’s newsletter. You know the ones, deliberately constructed to state the bloody obvious and trying to sound clever while doing it. Quote for the Day, on the other hand, will be different.
We’ll see how it goes… but enjoy the ride!
Linda Moffitt on Colombia: “Such a sweet memory of the four of you meeting up in Colombia!” Dec 2, 07:42
