±«Óătv

THE WESTMINSTER CLUB
(Beats the Bullingdon into a jaunty cocked hat – don’tcher know?)

PLEDGE: In exchange for the wholly unwarranted title of “Honourable” and access to19 bars and a gravy-train, I promise never to challenge the iniquitous voting system whereby parties are, to a gross degree, differentially favoured; or to stand up (for the ordinary voter) and shout: “This charade is an utter disgrace” without saying “Mr Speaker” first. I further promise to walk about at election time as a subservient rosette-stand, knowing that the sad few who still vote, are looking right past me to the rosette. I agree to constantly shoot from my seat like some Victorian mechanical toy, in the hope of catching the Speaker’s eye, but never to say: “This is b---dy ridiculous” for fear of becoming invisible to him for the rest of my political career. I will adhere to the credo: “My leader right or wrong, weird or pathetic, disingenuous or plain liar” and defend him when called upon, with dedication to the indefensible, that only gets Brownie Points an anachronistic club such as this. I will howl, whinny, cheer and flap my order paper, whenever my side scores in a Punch and Judy exchange, while doing a lot of pointing, mouthing and grinning across the two swords width that separate us.
All this I do in the name of “The Mother of all Parliaments.” God Save the Queen
SO HELP ME GODS OF ALL FAITHS.

GRAND INVASION TONY V

I cannot help drawing a parallel between the enthusiam for shooting Taliban (particularly as exuded by Prince Harry) and general zest for mayhem coming from Grand Theft Auto IV warriors. Is it possible that both are about illusory gain by violent means, being symptoms of a male dominated world?

Nearly a million school children speak English as a second language. That's rather high don't you think?

The number of primary school children that speak English as a second language has risen by about 1% in the last 12 months, compared to a 1.5% rise in the percentage of secondary school chidren from ethnic minority backgrounds. In 2004, before the main European Union expansion, 10.5% of primary school children spoke English as a second language. Now, in 2008, that figure is 14.4%.

So EU expansion is "only" responsible for 1/3 of the primary school children that speak English as a second language or about 4% compared to a total of 14.4%.

So why is Newsnight focusing on Poles when then non-EU figure is bigger?

The breaking news on Newsnight Scotland about the oil dispute sounded positive. It
sounds like breakthrough may have been achieved - and encouraging to see John
Hutton (UK Energy Secretary) going out
of his way to pay tribute to the key role played by The Scottish Government led
by Alex Salmond in dealing with all this.

There is even a picture of Hutton with
SNP Finance Secretary John Swinney
on the ±«Óătv Scotland news web-site:

I live in Liverpool which is not really a Conservative stronghold by any means, it has been Labur and Liberal over the last few years that I recall. Yet that said, there are a few thousand of us who do support the Conservative Party. What I would like to know is this. I have received details of what all the main parties stand for, including may I say the BNP - all pushed through my door, where I live, but absolutely nothing from the Party that I paid membership to for support. Whilst I can guess what the local candidate may be standing for policy wise, it is a guess because I have not received any leaflets or a letter - nothing from my so called representative. I have received the ballott paper in which I am expected to mark the x in the correct box, but why should I even dream of doing that? The reason whay I have been forced to vote Tory is not just because I am a Tory, but also to reduce the votes that the opposing parties may want from people like me.

Frankly, if the Shadow Minister for Local Government was doing his job properly, he would get his team of workers out into those streets - not middle class well to do areas - but the run down areas too, and areas like mine whcih are not too bad, and push leaflets, and knowck on doors and get those of us who are Tories out there to vote this coming Thursday. I think the way that my party of which I am a member and pay a fee each year to join, have treated us supporters very badly, and it is really quite despicable. The way to win seats is to get out to the public and pursuade them of what your policies are - come to my place and tell me, and then, just then, I might vote for you.

Donald Knox-Richards.

The dreadful British Council has just been hit by another earthquake with the shock
resignation of its Arts Director Ms Venu Dhupa who has quite after less than a
year in post. Her proposed changes had
led to a wave of protests from the likes
of Tracy Emin. Why not try to get reaction
from, say, Jude Kelly of The South Bank -
or Zenab Bhadawi whose reticence over all the scandals at British Council is surprising.
Both Kelly - and Bhadawi - are BC Trustees.

Full list of British Council Trustees attached
along with webpage for your own DJ Nihal who replaced the Head of the FCO on this!



/radio1/nihal/biography.shtml

I've got a good idea. Why don't you censor all criticism of last night's programme?

Those who complain over the language problem in schools have obviously never taught Year 10 and 11 lower sets.

Communication is either via a series of grunts, squeals or a gabble and mumble, over which I always asked "now repeat that in English as my alien translator must be faulty". However I found that immigrants do make every effort to be understood.

Why do children today have to shout at each other when only standing next to each other? Is it perhaps it is the only way they can be heard/get attention at home over the noise of the usual TV, Ipod and gaming programmes?

Q: Bill Bradbury asks "why can't British youth speak the Queens English?"
A: Dunno, maybe it's coz their British teachers have never taught them how to speak proper?

It's easy to blame British children, isn't it? They are too young and inarticulate to defend themselves. But it's not their fault, they are just a product of their environment. It is their elders who have failed them; it is the older generations who are the ones to blame. What does it say about the modern British liberal way of bringing up children, when immigrant children that have had an old-fashioned traditional upbringing are considered to be superior by the likes of Bill Bradbury?


There are more English as a second language pupils than there are private school pupils:
800,000 pupils speak English as a second language
500,000 pupils go to private schools

newsnight should have overan to cover the London election result...this is where the Beeb wins and the others lose