There is a scene in ‘America’s Sweethearts’ where John Cusack holds his head in his hands and chants “I am grateful for the sun. I am grateful for the trees” and so on ad infinitum. The general depression of my temporary unemloyed exile in my parents’ home in mouldy Glasgow (it has not stopped raining in three days) is generally alleviated by reminding myself of the two things that are here and here alone which I am grateful for: I am grateful for my dog and I am grateful for 500-odd channels of digital entertainment that my Dad pays for.

Last night’s launch of More4, with its eye-roll-inducing branding that I suppose the marketing men thought was “risque” “quirky” and “zany,” reaffirmed my thankfulness for digital. For a start, there was a joke on the “Daily Show” (heretoafter remonikered the “Day After Show,” as it is yesterday’s American edition) that, I am sure, I alone among the millions of Britons tuned in ‘got.’ What I was waiting for, however, was the “controversial” (read “quirky,” “risque” and “zany”) comedy drama “A Very Social Secretary.”

Without trying to step on Nick’s toes, he doesn’t seem to have digital, so I am going to attempt a review.
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As Thomas Hobbes almost said, the lives of many of our ancestors were nasty, brutish and short. While nastiness and brutishness may still be making the rounds, the duration of life in modern Western society has expanded beyond the wildest dreams of our forefathers.

We now laugh in the face of the infections that only a few generations ago would have carried us off to an early grave. More and more people are surviving, and surviving for many years, the types of cancer that even a decade or two back would have proved fatal. We are pushing death ever further away, and are likely to continue doing so. But death still claims all of us in the end, even if our manner of approaching it, fighting it or welcoming it is increasingly the subject of painful debate. Read More

Via Crooked Timber, I read that Niall Ferguson, writing in the Los Angeles Times, decries the decline of Christianity in Britain (evil registration required, or use BugMeNot):

* A void left in ‘Christendom’ by pervasive lack of belief may be creating a soft target for the religious fanaticism of others.

Americans tend to assume that what is going on in Europe today is a struggle between Islamic extremism and Western — or Judeo-Christian, if you will — tolerance. But this is only half right.

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Bloomberg is reporting a Saudi defence contract:

Saudi King Approves $5 Bln BAE Aircraft Upgrade, Digest Says

Oct. 9 (Bloomberg) — Saudi King Abdullah approved a plan to upgrade and replace 96 Tornado fighter aircraft made by BAE Systems Plc at cost of as much as $5 billion, Middle East Economic Digest reported.

Saudi Arabia will upgrade 64 of the aircraft delivered under the 1985 Al Yamamah agreement and replace another 32 in the biggest agreement for BAE in the Persian Gulf kingdom in a decade, the London-based weekly magazine reported today, without saying how it got the information. Still, the contract hasn’t yet been signed, MEED said.

BAE has about 2,000 U.K. workers in Saudi Arabia. Under Al Yamamah, BAE supplies weapons to the kingdom in return for payments linked to the price of oil. Average annual revenue from the weapons sales amounts to almost 1.7 billion pounds ($3.1 billion). BAE’s customer solutions and support unit, which oversees the program, generated a fifth of the company’s sales in 2003.

The news item doesn’t say what the 32 Tornados will be replaced with, but if they are being replaced with new jets from BAe, the natural candidate would be the Eurofighter Typhoon. So is Saudi Arabia buying the Eurofighter? It isn’t confirmed yet, but if it’s true, it is to be welcomed.
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Apologies for the slight lateness in posting my review this week – various reasons mean I’m spending the week in the Midlands, so finding the time to sit down and write has been hard. However, the silver lining is that I now have access to the full delights of cable television, so next week’s review will feature much of the bizarre, the wonderful and deformed that fill those obscure channels.
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Choice is the buzzword of everyone these days. We like choice. Choice is fundamental to capitalism. Every day we make decisions on an enormous number of things. In fact, we take choice so much for granted that we don’t even think about it when we make that “decision” between a Mars and a Snickers. Either way, it lines someone’s pocket somewhere.

So, then, it would not be alien to us to make choices in areas where choice is taboo. The public sector for instance. Starting with schools, then hospitals and ultimately which ambulance you’d prefer to be driven in because it has a lower accident rate and higher quality speed drivers.

The question is, do we really want that choice? And if so, will it achieve anything?
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This week’s ranter: is Double-Edged Sword, who prefers to remain anonymous.

Terrorism rules, ok?

Before beginning, I’ll nail my colours to the mast. I find the exercise of violence morally repugnant: its use is only acceptable by a fully accountable state in its duty to protect citizens by necessary and proportionate measures.

But our own government legitimized the carnage of the 7th July. Terrorism is a crime under international law, but as one of a succession of governments, it has been shameless in its preparedness to sacrifice principle to achieve its ends in Northern Ireland. I refer to the release of murderers, the moral equation of British soldiers with IRA and Loyalist terrorists, and the constant flow of concessions negotiated outside the Belfast Agreement in response to Provisional threats, solely to ensure that IRA bombs did not go off in London. Blair sacrificed both UUP and SDLP because they did not have guns. He’s more than willing to institutionalize the most sophisticated terror network in the western world — and watch democracy subverted by its use of criminal proceeds to undermine rival, non-violent parties. (Though to be fair, it wasn’t Blair’s government that used Loyalist terrorists to assassinate Pat Finucane.)

Terrorism is here to stay. When the crossbow was introduced in Europe, allowing commoners to slay Knights by the keep-load, it was declared an abomination by the Pope. This was mirrored by the introduction of the arquebus. So, terrorism is just a tactic that we are unaccustomed to. The exemption of civilians from terror is a recent invention enshrined by twentieth-century Geneva Conventions — nor has it always been observed. Our generation is unused to terror, but times change and societies become desensitized. Soon, only the families will be devastated. We’ll simply shrug our fatalistic shoulders. But this government is not just guilty of hypocrisy: its behaviour has informed terrorists that their actions can be validated, and moreover, that they are effective.

The first part of a new weekly feature, coming to you each and every Monday Tuesday Wednesday (probably). Whether the idea is going to work or not I have no idea – but am always open to suggestions for improvements.

The aim? To explore the land of blogs and their near brethren, six at a time, opening up new areas of this here interwebnet for your delectation. Starting from my own place and taking the blog most removed in subject matter from my own on my blogroll, I intend to follow links and see just how far I can travel around blogland from Anglo-European politics, hopefully discovering all kinds of interesting new places along the way.

The only criterion? Other than the very first entry, these must all be sites about which I was previously unaware before starting this online journey. It is, if you like, the internet equivalent of sticking a pin in a world map to decide on your holiday destination. A kind of cyber travel writing. A kind of blog roundup/carnival, but with no overarching theme and where those featured would by definition have discounted themselves had they tried to ask to be included.

Today, from European politics (my place) to Japanese paper lanterns – by way of Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, epistemological psychology, catblogging and Edward Lear…
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London isn’t like other cities. It’s better than all the others put together, for a start. More importantly, like the one or two places that could mistakenly be considered its peers, London depends on trains and buses to survive, while cars are an irrelevance. However, our creaking public transport network is held together by gaffer tape. This is partly because the government prefers to squander money on Celts, but also partly our own fault…
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Paradigm, n.: a cognitive model for explaining a set of data; a set of tacit assumptions and beliefs; a general agreement of belief about how the world works.

“The fact these are British-born Muslims changes the paradigm of terror. The crucial issue now is, can we engage with the community so they move from being close to denial about this into a situation in which they really engage with us?” – Ian Blair, 15th July 2005

“I do not think there can be any question that this changes the paradigm, the context of community safety.” – Ian Blair, 6th September 2005

“Since 7/7 it’s a new paradigm – it’s a new world.” – Ian Blair, Any Questions?, 23rd September 2005

When someone like Ian Blair starts talking in polysyllables, two questions suggest themselves. Firstly, what is he talking about?; secondly, how scared should I be? Read More