Labouring under Liberal Conservatism for UK Independence and British National pride

Yes, folks! It's election time again. Are you confused by my slogan? Not as much as I am about the 'policies' of the major (and minor) parties. Who's going to rob most of my money to give it to whom? Who's going to give me more money robbed from whom? Who's going to save my Health without regard to the health of my savings? Who will keep undesirables out when he can't keep desirables in? Who will take us out of a war that was meant to 'prevent war in the Region'? Does anybody really believe any of them? Aaah! The days of my innocent youth have gone and I am becoming a cynic. Still... it will be an interesting night on the TV, with Peter Snow's swingometer and other graphical wizardry. Who could hope for better entertainment? Watch some rise to the occasion and others suffer a humiliating electile dysfunction :-)

Karol Jozef Wojtyla is no more

So, farewell then, Karol Jozef Wojtyla; Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Jesus Christ, Successor of the Prince of the Apostles, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, Patriarch of the West, Primate of Italy, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Roman Province, Sovereign of the State of the Vatican City, Servant of the Servants of God...
You were a true Leader who commanded the spiritual interests of billions, channelling them to a narrow and deep riverbed; inescapable,invariable, unforgiving...

For four apartments and a shop...

I was given a nice present yesterday, by a Greek I used to know in Athens. It was a DVD with clips from Greek movies from 1924 to 2004; eighty years in the developement of the modern city of Athens as seen through the eyes of the cinematographer. The change in landscape, class system, morals, etc. The central theme was the anarchic expansion through re-building. People would make a deal with property developers who would build an appartment block at the site ofan old house: 4-5 apartments (out of 15-20) and maybe a shop on the ground floor in exchange for the building plot.
To anybody who had visited Athens several times during that period or lived there, this DVD will evoke some pretty strong feelings; maybe a tear or two. Greek cinema was escapist: one would see people flocking into the centre as economic migrants but the civil war that devastated the country is never mentioned, neither are the repressive regimes, the corrupt politicians who allowed the planning chaos to develop... Things just ...happen. The commentary is rich, informative. The harsh reality of abject poverty in the background of the development of the petit-bourgeoisie hard to conceal. Yet, the dream (or at least part of it) did materialise: fewer people are poor, many people are much richer, the very rich are still around, forming a new upper class that grew from grass roots.
Athens, they say, is now clean and glorious again; the dust of construction that was choking its inhabitants has settled. The salvaged neoclasical buildings renovated, people move back to formerly abandoned areas. New Athenians count in hundreds of thousands; they come from the four corners of the Universe, as far as central Asia and as close as Albania; as far west as Nigeria and as far east as Pakistan. They are all there, writing the new story.