Hypocrisy is the greatest luxury

'Careerism, opportunism, can turn the politics into cartoonism'.

I'm not usually that keen on Catherine Bennett's comment pieces, but I liked this one. At last - someone who's not prepared to give Cameron an easy ride.

Especially refreshing after reading the Mail gushing about the 'surfer dude' with his 'slicked back hair, toned pecs and trendy wetsuit'. (Part chipolata, part black pudding I thought, 'though you have to admit, his wife looks pretty good in a bikini).

Still, it gives me the excuse I've been waiting for to post a pic of a real surfer dude.

And here are some great quotes from Point Break too. 'You know nothing. In fact, you know less than nothing. If you knew that you knew nothing, then that would be something, but you don't.' Right.

Lazy flies

Article in today's Sunday Times. Not of much interest to anyone except those who might have an opinion on the use of the word 'inertia'.

And while we're on the subject, here's a diagram illustrating different 'moments of inertia' for a solid disk versus a thin pipe. Two wheels of the same mass and radius roll down incline. Different speeds are recorded. Different moments of inertia are calculated.

Total Energy = Potential Energy at the top of the board = Translational Energy (m*v*v/2) + Rotational Energy (I*w*w/2). Since the hoop has an I value of M*R*R and the wooden disk is half that, the hoop will only have 3/4 of the velocity of the disk at a particular height. By the equation V2=V2o+2a(x-xo), the distance the hoop travels by a particular time will be the square root of 3/4 times the distance travelled by the disk.

Hope you've got that.

Living for the city

Don't know quite what I'm doing up at this uncivilised hour on a Sunday morning. Can't sleep. Anyway...

Have been doing a few interesting things this week. On Friday I met GPs from Charlotte Keel Health Centre, who are concerned about the Government's plans for extended opening hours and the PCT's plans for another GP service at Eastville Health Centre. The thrust of what they were saying 'though, is that the Government's primary health care agenda doesn't take into account the differences between running 'normal' GP practices and inner-city ones.

First issue is about funding. They are paid according to the number of patients on their books; they have 17,000. But, they say, whereas a GP service in Westbury-on-Trym might have a similar number of patients, the amount of attention they require is vastly different. In Westbury, an average patient might pop in to see their doctor once a year, if that. They are pretty good at managing their own conditions. At Charlotte Keel, it's a different picture. Many patients have a multitude of problems, from chronic illnesses to mental health problems to what could be termed lifestyle issues (drug addictions, obesity, poor housing conditions). A very high proportion are from BME communities; many have English as a second language or don't speak it at all. A fair proportion are asylum seekers, or failed asylum seekers. So even the process for registering a new patient takes a lot longer, and then there's the need for interpreters, longer appointments, etc. But it doesn't matter whether a patient comes in once a year, or twice a month; whether they take 2 minutes to ask for a repeat prescription, or 20 minutes to explain with the aid of an interpreter what exactly is wrong with them. The funding is the same. (I've had similar representations made to me by the advice services sector - running a CAB in central Bristol is a different kettle of fish to running one in Tunbridge Wells, but they get funded on the same 'average case' basis.)

The second point was about choice. Their argument was - to summarise very crudely, possibly at the risk of misrepresenting them slightly - that choice is a middle-class issue. Their patients don't need extended opening hours (mostly because they don't work, or could take time off or don't like going out after dark) and shouldn't be using walk-in centres because GPs there wouldn't have experience of dealing with people from BME/ deprived communities and they wouldn't be able to explain their conditions to a GP who didn't know their full medical history. (Although some of this could of course be addressed by a shared database). I wasn't convinced by their arguments on these points, but I did appreciate their unhappiness that GPs tend to be portrayed in the media as overpaid fatcats who want to knock off early so they can go and play golf, whereas the reality for an inner-city GP is very different. (Same with solicitors - being a Legal Aid lawyer and a corporate lawyer are completely different jobs - and I speak as someone who's done both - but they get lumped together (although in defence of the latter, they do work incredibly long hours for their hefty pay packets). And a big difference between being an inner-city MP and Sir Somebody-or-Other who represents a leafy constituency in Surrey or Hampshire. But I never seem to get anywhere when I make that point, so let's leave it at that). I'm going to do a constituents survey on GP opening hours soon, and this has served as a reminder that I ought to make sure some of those surveyed live in the inner-city wards.

One of the interesting minor points the GPs mentioned was Vitamin D deficiency. They said it affects a huge number of people on their books, particularly within those BME communities who tend not to expose their skin to sunlight, or, indeed, to go outdoors as much. It can be easily treated with vitamin drops but, the GPs said, it would be far better if these were distributed to people as a matter of course, e.g. given to everyone in inner-city schools, or available for cheap over-the-counter purchase. That would be far more effective than requiring GPs to diagnose a deficiency and then prescribe treatment. I'm going to look into where we are on that issue; I know it's not the first time it's been raised.

World domination

Last night I started trying to write something about Georgia, but decided there were probably other people out there far more qualified to do so. But here's my two pennyworth... Last time I was in Russia (I did Russian at uni, been there 5 or 6 times) the persecution of Georgians was becoming widespread, with mass rounding up of ethnic Georgians (even those born in Russia), deportations and racial attacks. I met someone involved in the St Petersburg Youth Movement, who told me about an anti-racism campaign, where everyone wore T-shirts in sympathy declaring 'I'm a Georgian'. No-one else at the Conference - which was a couple of years ago - would admit there was a problem at all, which is typically Russian. There was 'no racism' in Russia. This was at a Conference of centre-left/ left Russian political parties.

The other thing I was going to mention was the fear that the Crimea could be next; it's part of the Ukraine, but ethnically Russian and obviously strategically important. About 60% I think are Russians, cf 25% Ukrainians and 12-13% Tatars; nearly 80% speak Russian as their first language, but Ukrainian is the only official language. When I was there (2003 I think, went to Simferopol which is a god forsaken place and then took the world's longest trolley bus ride down through the mountains to Yalta, which is much nicer, tho' a bit touristy) I asked a few people whether they'd prefer to be part of Russia; some did, some wanted to be independent. Needless to say, both would be resisted strongly by Ukraine.

The milkman of human kindness

I've been browsing a vegan blog by Soul Veggie, where he describes his 'vegan tipping point' - i.e. what finally made him decide, after 22 years of vegetarianism, to go vegan. It was a column by the No Milk Man, also known as Robert Cohen:

'Robert, bless his feisty soul, pulled out statistics from the U.S. government detailing the average measured amount of pus cells per liter of milk by State. 400 millions cells is the European limit (little over half of ours). He wrote: "...we learn that pus cell counts continue to rise in America. They have been doing so since the advent of genetically engineered milk. Stressed cows become sick and their milk contains more pus. It's as simple as that."

Robert pointed out that the U.S. numbers were ALL over recommended European levels.

Sick cows. Pus cells. It wasn't the hormones, it wasn't the fat, it wasn't the relationship to many bodily disorders, it wasn't that it was Mother's Milk from another species. It wasn't these truths and the inhumane conditions the cows were raised in, that tipped me over. It was the cold, hard, and unassailable fact: you drink milk, you eat cheese, you consume cow pus cells. They are concentrated in cheese and our government allows this to be.

It was like eating an Apple at the Garden of Eden. Once ya know, ya can't forget.

Pus cells...... "I be Vegan!" I declared to myself. And that was that.'

Good technology

The Bristol Blogger has been having a bit of a rant on his site (a 'self-declared rant' in fact) about the Council producing a DVD on recycling. MPs get sent loads of such things. We don't watch them. We don't have time. A few get chucked at researchers, and I try to convince them that yes, I really do expect them to take them home and watch them. Most recently there was one on the Regional Spatial Strategy - what's not exciting about that? (And yes, I know the RSS is important - but essential Saturday night viewing? No).

At the last couple of elections Labour - and I guess the Tories too - produced videos of candidates in marginal seats, distributing them to 1000s of households. I wonder how many got watched? One of my colleagues in fact produced a DVD of his TV highlights, set to the tune of 'Search for a Hero' by M-People (which is enough to put anyone off). Can you imagine mine? Here's a clip of Kerry talking about buses on Points West... And here's another.... And another....

Anyway, what does work - for me at least - are emails with links to YouTube clips. But only if it's something like seals being clubbed, where you need to see it for yourself. And only if they're short. I can't quite see the Regional Spatial Strategy being a YouTube hit.

Embarrassment

I can't claim to know much at all about the candidates for the leader of the Scottish Labour Party - and this isn't a picture of one of them. But according to the Guardian, one of them is 'self-declared vegan'. (That must be why Tom's backing someone else!)

So while I struggle to come to terms with no longer being the only vegan in the village, can I ask: why the 'self-declared'? Isn't that a bit like 'self-confessed axe murderer'? The answer is of course, because it's always been more than a little embarrassing to admit to being vegan. Despite evidence to the contrary - my sister, Jonny Boy, my intern Rebecca, in fact most of the vegans I know - part of me still thinks that vegans are self-righteous and humourless and wear one red shoe and one green (from Vegetarian shoes of course) and get more upset by chickens being squashed in cages than by children dying in Darfur.

I've blogged about this before, so let's get back to Cathy Jamieson. Looks like she outed herself in a debate on agriculture in the Scottish Parliament in June 2000 (and said some interesting things about intensive farming in the process). What is also interesting though, is that she seems to support the Scottish cashmere industry.

Of course hardline vegans (or should that be 'proper vegans'?) don't wear wool. I do, mostly cashmere because I find other sorts too itchy. Here's the vegan argument against wearing wool, which has some pretty gruesome details but nothing I can see that couldn't be addressed by better animal welfare laws. And nothing that particularly relates to cashmere, which is produced by combing the soft undercoats from goats, rather than by shearing. Doesn't seem to me to be inherently cruel...

Juxtaposed with U (2)

By which I don't mean Juxtaposed with U2, which doesn't sound at all appealing.

I've just been looking at Sadie's Tavern, and she's talking about Femail too. Second day in a row, actually. But so far I don't think either Sadie or Michael White have mentioned bingo wings, so there is still a small spark of originality contained somewhere within my blog.

Have also just looked up inertia on Wikipedia. Not a good idea. (You have to see previous comments on Juxtaposed with U to know what I'm on about). Then I looked up the dictionary definition, which is this. Surely 'disinclination to motion, action, or change' includes 'can't be bothered to blog'?

On a completely unrelated point, I saw a shop in Southmead yesterday called 'Your Smak'. I assume it's a Polish word as the Polish delicatessen up Church Road is called 'Smakus'. Quite amusing I thought.

Feel good hit of the summer (2)

Sorry, sorry - I got it all wrong.

How the **** did I forget Dido?

Juxtaposed with U

My blogging inertia over the last few days has partly been because of Deasy (turned out it was a massive heart attack; surprising because he kept himself in good shape, exercised a fair bit, ate healthily, smoked, but please let's not go there) but also because I've been looking at more other blogs than usual. And whenever I've had the germ of a blogging idea in my head, you can guarantee someone - or usually several someones - has already beaten me to it. So you end up with blogs which simply refer to other blogs, in ever decreasing circles and with ever greater repetition, until we're all saying exactly the same thing, and before you know it, Blogs will Eat Themselves. Hence my focus on music, and girlie things, and disturbing dreams about my whiteboard being violated. (I had an even more disturbing dream last night about my eldest sister morphing into Nadine Dorries... well, she's blonde, she lives in Mid Beds. I think it was an anxiety dream about the fact she's coming to stay with me in August).

Speaking of girlies, I've been looking at Lucy Powell's blog on The Guardian website, about latest Lib Dem strategy. And this comment, from a pleasant fellow called Rob:

"For Christ's sake girlie, didn't the tactical voting, predominant in the South-West that went on in the late 80's due to Lab-Lib stitch ups bother you?
Oh no.
You're far too young, naive and inexperienced to know anything about it.
Strangely, despite this ignorance, you consider yourself suitable to become a member of parliament.
Heaven help us all."

Well, Lucy is 33. She's been a Labour Party member for 18 years. She went to Oxford. She worked for a Government Minister (Bev Hughes). She ran Britain in Europe, which took her to high-level meetings in No. 10 on a regular basis. And yes, she's done normal, non-political things too. She's fighting the Manchester seat where she grew up, went to school, etc, and was described to me by one Cabinet minister as 'the perfect parliamentary candidate fighting the perfect campaign'. (Worth noting too that her age/background isn't much different to that of two present party leaders when they got into parliament, and Labour's last one - except she's not a product of our public school system).

She's making a perfectly valid political point about the Lib Dems getting into bed with the Tories, and in doing so, reminding disillusioned Labour voters that voting Lib Dem might well result in a Tory/ Lib Dem coalition running the country. And yes, I'm sure she's well aware that a lot of Labour supporters voted Lib Dem in the 1980s/ 90s, and vice versa, to try to get the Tories out. (Dorset being a prime example). So? That doesn't in any way invalidate the point she's making. What is noteable is that Rob is resorting to the tactic employed by many who comment on blogs - attacking the person, not the post. After all, it's much easier to describe a woman as a naive, ignorant girlie than it is to construct a proper critique of what she's saying, isn't it? (See more than a few of the comments on my site too, if you want more examples!) I can't say I've conducted an authoratitive survey, but it does seem that women are particularly likely to be subjected to this kind of response. But of course that's only to be expected if we have the effrontery to express political opinions in public.

P.S. In checking out Lucy's blog I noticed that Michael White's blog begins: "As regular reader(s) may well have spotted I love quarrelling with the Daily Mail, many of whose vices I have been enjoying first thing in the morning for decades." See what I mean? There is nothing new in the blogosphere. I'm going to check out Nads' site now to see what she's saying about my sister.

Typical girls

I have something of an unhealthy addiction to the Daily Mail website. I justify this on the grounds that I need to know its take on current burning political issues, although quite how this necessitates looking at blown-up pics of Posh's bunions or Anne Robinson's bingo wings, I'm not sure.

What's really fascinating is the fact that it's a paper aimed primarily at a female audience, and yet it doesn't seem to like women very much. The underlying political agenda is clear - they love stories about career women coming a cropper: leaving it too late to have babies; turning to drink; husbands leaving them for 23 year olds; or ideally, 'having a career left me fat, broke, infertile, friendless and alone, with only a cat for company'.

On the Femail pages, there's a very clear formula: one story about spotting someone's 'baby bump'; one story about how quickly someone has 'lost her baby weight'; and one story about how a new mother has 'let herself go' (Tamzin Outhwaite today, Ulrika earlier this week - which is usually followed up by an interview in which the new mother proclaims herself very happy with the situation indeed and has a bit of a dig at new mothers who think it's more important to get back into their Alaia and Manolos within seconds of giving birth).

Then there are the weight stories: someone's 'piling on the pounds', someone else is looking 'worringly thin', and someone else with a near-perfect figure has been photographed showing a bit of cellulite. And the age stories: doesn't the 60 year old Helen Mirren look great in her red bikini? But have you seen Lulu's knees? The rest of her may look fanastic, but they're a dead give-away, aren't they? And then of course there are the WAGs, and Sienna Miller's relationships, and fitness video stars (Jade Goody, Sonia from Eastenders) slipping back into their old, fat habits, and Kate Middleton just being Kate Middleton. Lastly, you have the young starlets going off the rails stories - falling drunk out of nightclubs, friends being 'worried' about alleged drug use, Amy Winehouse being Amy Winehouse, Lili Allen not shaving her armpits...

I wonder if the editorial team meetings actually acknowledge this formula. Well we've had Lulu's knees this week, can we get a close-up of Kate Moss' wrinkles for next? Do they have a birth chart on the wall, where they plot who's about to drop and a reminder to check out just how flabby they still are in a couple of weeks time? If they do cellulite one day, do they have to move onto bingo wings the next, and unsightly veins (see Madonna, Angelina, SJP, etc) the day after?

It's very rarely expressed as 'my God, doesn't she look a state'?! It's usually wrapped up in fake concern (friends are increasingly worried about.....), or faux compliments (she's great for her age, but shame about those tell-tale saggy bits which look really bad when you photograph them in bright sunlight) or, isn't it great that she doesn't care about being fat/ being caught without make-up/ dressing like a bag lady/ not having a husband?

Admittedly they do have the occasional picture of Jonathan Ross or Simon Cowell showing off a bit of belly in their swimming shorts, but I don't think women are particularly interested in that.

As ever, I'm not sure where I'm going with this post. I am probably just trying to justify having read all these stories by making a political point out of it. Which is.... That women are women's worst enemy? That this obsession with women's physical appearance and fertility is not 'a good thing'? That feminism still has battles left to fight? Possibly.

Over the wall

Entertaining spat on the Spectator site between Melanie Phillips and Daniel 'the Badgers' Friend' Kawczynski MP although it seems to have ended with apologies all round.

Also worth checking out her original article (which, for the avoidance of doubt, isn't an endorsement of her views!)

Neat neat neat

We have a whiteboard in the Bristol office, which I recently filled in with a month-by-month plan of projects for the rest of 2008. Yesterday one of my staff filled in some of the blanks, and although he'd used his neatest writing, it was in lower case not capitals and I was agonising whether to rub it out and write it in capitals, or whether they'd all think I was being even more anal than usual.

But on arriving in the office today, after my constituency surgery, the extra writing had disappeared.... And the staff looked completely blank when I asked them about it.

That's when it dawned on me I'd actually dreamt it all last night. I realise how sad that makes me sound.

Feel good hit of the summer

Given my colleague Tom's brave attempt to cheer us all up by listing his Top Ten feel good summer songs, I thought I should also rise to the challenge. Except I couldn't think of anything really... so I consulted the chaps at the Curry Club who, true to form, reacted as if I'd suggested a Top Ten all-time classics from the wonderful world of Andrew Lloyd-Webber musicals. As sung by Michael Ball.

Apparently the very concept of enjoying oneself whilst chilling on a nice summer evening is a bit off, if not downright weird. This is why they're my mates. We don't really do 'pleasant' or 'enjoying ourselves'. Usual Curry Club get-togethers consist of the lads doing their grumpy old men/ Statler and Waldorf routine - 'and another thing that really gets me is...', 'yeah and don't you just hate it when...', 'yeah, and people who...!!!!' which they can keep up for hours - while I sit and read the Sunday papers and completely ignore them. As I tell them, it's a Curry Club, not a Conversation Club.

Anyway, being thorough miserabilists, we ended up getting rather animated instead by the idea of a Top Ten of records which are so vile, so irritating that they're absolutely impossible to listen to; you'd rather listen to the shipping forecast. And they have to be songs that someone, somewhere thinks are good, not the Agadoos and Birdie Songs of this world.

So here they are, in reverse order:

10. Anything by Joni Mitchell. Or Joan Baez. Or that 'Midnight at the Oasis' song. My father's been trying to get me into Joni Mitchell, after I told him I'd only heard 'Big Yellow Taxi' and hated it. So I got 'Blue' for my birthday - which was very kind of him - but the itchy finger on the iPod trigger spontaneously leaps into action within seconds of her opening her mouth. Ditto Joan Baez: the Dylan documentary, 'Don't Look Back' is a great film - but not the bits with her in.

9. Power rock ballads by blokes with perms. Whitesnake, Foreigner, Bon Jovi ('Dead or Alive') and yes Tom, that means REO Speedwagon too. And for these purposes, Jennifer 'Power of Love' Rush is an honorary bloke-with-a-perm (but with a deeper voice).

8. Coldplay - 'Yellow'.

7. Gun 'n' Roses - 'Sweet Child of Mine'. This wasn't my choice, but the lads were unanimous. Especially Jonny Boy, who works in a guitar shop. Customers who play this, 'Smoke on the Water', anything by Eric Clapton or 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' are lucky to leave the shop alive. (Teen Spirit is of course good, but it's like someone singing My Way at karaoke. It's been done).

6. Kate Bush - 'Don't Give Up'.

5.Starship - 'We Built This City on Rock and Roll'.

4. James Blunt. We almost thought of banning him, on the grounds that it's so obvious. But recollections of being stuck in a taxi while 'You're Beautiful' was playing came back to haunt me. He has to be in here somewhere.

3. B52s - 'Love Shack'. Wacky. Wacky is not good. And why do they have to shout so?

2. That 'hot dog, jumping frog' song by Prefab Sprout. Who was more annoying - Wendy from Prefab Sprout or that girl who made the train noises on Deacon Blue songs? (Sorry Tom!)

1. And the winner is: 4 Non Blondes - 'What's Going On'. I bet for a moment you thought, how does that go? And then you remember: 'And I try, oh my god how I try....' And now it's in your head and it will be there forever unless you stick your fingers in your ears and go la-la-la-la for the next hour but even that probably won't work. Pure evil.

Untitled II

Fellow councillors pay tribute to John Deasy in the Evening Post.

Untitled

I heard some very sad and shocking news earlier today. John Deasy, the long-serving councillor for St George West, has been found dead at his Beaufort Heights home. We're not sure of the details at the moment, but it appears that his neighbour heard him coughing or choking; by the time an ambulance arrived, he was already dead. John - who was a personal friend as well as a Labour Party colleague - had represented St George for the best part of two decades, along with his fellow Labour councillor Ron Stone. He worked on the buses for much of his life, where he was a T&GWU rep, and then at SARI; he was passionate both about his trade unionism and about fighting discrimination. More recently he'd got a job working with people with disabilities, which he loved; he brought a group of them down to parliament for a day trip last year, and had an obvious rapport with them. A sad loss, to the Labour Party and to St. George.

The local Labour Party was also saddened by the news today of the death of Frances Easton. Along with her late husband, George - who was a well-known local councillor - and her sister, Margaret Davey, Frances was a stalwart of Bristol East Labour Party and was also active in her local church, St. Lukes in Brislington. Frances, who was in her nineties, had been ill for some time. She gave many years of service to the Labour Party, and will be remembered with great fondness.

Too much too young?

Lucy Powell (my former boss, fact fans!) socking it to Michael White on votes at 16. One of those commenting says it shouldn't be allowed because although he was interested in politics at that age, he had stupid views which he has subsequently renounced. Well some people have stupid political views from the age of 8 through to 80, and we don't legislate against that.

Also worth noting it's only 7 comments before Godwin's law comes into play.... is this a record?

World leader pretend

One very persistent correspondent has been sending the same email to all MPs for the past few weeks now.

It starts like this:

==============================================================
Only addressed persons should view this letter. All low-level staff does not have right to delete or stop this letter. Please note that it is an unpardonable crime.
==============================================================

Dear Gordon Brown,

Good day to you.

Your Roman Catholic Christian Pope Benedictus – XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) of Vatican City recently remarked that – "Alas! There exists now spiritual vacuum in the world".

Why so?

"Because, prominent World Leaders like you became utterly selfish people (far, far beyond the normal allowable limits with highly deplorable don't care attitude). Even though I wrote hundreds of letters requesting you to help me to rise up as another World Leader, alas! You always ignored or neglected my letters for the more than last 2 years.

MY TERMS

1) For rising up as a World Leader, please give me at least 100 Millions pounds immediately.

Please note that this amount is the minimum amount for rising up as a World Leader. Please note that the amount that I am requesting you to give me now is a far, far less amount than the total military expenditure that you have spent for the last 10 years or so.

2) Provide for free to and fro air-travel today from India to London, without any passport and visa restrictions. Also no security checks please.

3) Provide for free (vegetarian) boarding and lodging.

4) Please deposit 30,000 pounds in my savings account given below (as pocket expenses).

He's not asking for much, is he? And I like the bit about vegetarian board and lodging. If anyone has a spare £100 million (and the rest), let me know and I'll pass on his details.

You're the reason our children are ugly

As the more culturally aware of you may have spotted, the July challenge - set by the grumpy old men at the Sunday night curry club - was to use song titles for every post. Not that difficult, although I had to depart slightly from my original aim of only using songs I like or at least have on my iPod. (I'm now thinking I should have gone for 'Use it up, Wear it out' rather than 'Wombling Free', which was more than a tad obvious, but there you go.)

I'm not actually that keen on the Smiths, but you've got to admit, Morrissey gives good song title - in fact quite often, the song consists of little else ('Some Girls are Bigger than Others' being the most obvious example I can think of at the moment). I've always thought the songs seem like a bit of an afterthought: 'Shoplifters of the world unite', 'Please please please, let me get what I want', 'Never had no-one ever', 'You just haven't earned it yet baby' ... etc. I suppose 'The Queen is Dead' has lots of words, but he makes a little go a very, very long way in most of the others.

Anyway, seeing as I have by no means exhausted the back catalogue of Super Furry Animals, Arctic Monkeys, Pavement, Flaming Lips, Half-Man Half-Biscuit (genius song titles, but try matching a blog post to them), I'm going to try to keep it going through the silly season. You can have fun suggesting what I could have used instead.

And tonight I've finally got the chance to use what has to be the absolute best song title of all time. (Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty, before you start Googling). There's a story in today's Guardian that one in five fathers are wrongly identified in Child Support Agency claims. This is actually more than a little misleading, as it only applies to cases where a DNA test was ordered - so presumably excludes cases whether neither party has called the parentage into question. But still, interesting. What's the solution though? Compulsory DNA tests before all births are registered? No, I'm not suggesting that, but I can't think of anything else that would stop this happening. Apart from men being a little bit more careful, I suppose! And yes, I know that wouldn't help where a couple have been trying for kids, but the woman has been unfaithful - but I suspect most of these cases don't fall into that category. Better stop.... I'm sounding like Jeremy Kyle. But I am right, aren't I? (And I got to use that title.)

This land is our land

Interesting article from the International Herald Tribune, about tourism in Somaliland.