I rang up P&O in the morning to check that they were still sailing, all was fine with them, so we went to Ashford International train station to catch our 8:30am train. And we waited, and waited, and waited. Every 10 minutes they would add another 10 minutes onto the expected arrival times, which just tells me that they didn’t have a clue when the train was arriving, and after an hour of waiting we decided that it really wasn’t worth it. Even if we were able to get to Dover, we had missed our original sailing, and even if we did manage to get to Calais we wouldn’t have as much time as we wanted , and then there would always be a possibility that we couldn’t get a sailing back, and even if we did then there was no guarantee that we would be able to get a train back to Ashford.

I was a bit annoyed at not getting to go to the Christmas Market, but seeing all the problems with the trains and how many people were left stranded then I guess a lazy Sunday indoors wasn’t too bad an alternative.

I suppose I should also be happy that I managed to go on the Eurotunnel last Tuesday considering all the problems they’ve been having.

For your amusement though you will see below a photo I took at Carrefour on Tuesday.

A myriad of stuffed animals

Yes, those a real taxidermied animals sitting with the meats!

The Twin Towers

So it’s September 11th again or 9/11 as it’s most commonly known as since that day 8 years ago. I guess there will always be that ‘where were you when it happened’  question and I know that I was in a University lecture when I found out what had happened and spent the afternoon watching reports on the TV in the Union bar. 9/11 a defining moment in our history.

Now I’m going to get a little controversial here and I will expect a backlash so apologies from me at this point. 9/11 was a very bad thing and I can’t even imagine what it must have been like especially with so many lives lost, but a little part of me is happy intrigued by the fact that there can still be chaos in the world and that a small group, or even an individual still has the freedom, the possibility, to do whatever they want. In times where everything is controlled, and our personal freedoms are being regulated and restricted someone can do something as extreme as hijacking a plane and causing massive devastation.

I don’t condone it. Not even for a second. Let’s get that straight, but it shows that we are not all drones and we could all do anything we wanted, but of course we are all pretty comfortable going with the flow and running through the motions.

I’m kind of not sure where all this is going, I guess I’m a fan of Hollywood action movies where one man can do so much, kick some ass, get the girl, and all against such great odds.

I suppose it takes something like this to shock us into realising that the world isn’t always a rational, neat place, and nothing is ever under our control. We think we have everything sussed but that isn’t the truth and it only takes one person to completely alter that perception. Take nothing for granted.

So this brewery is making bottled beer with an 18.2% alcohol content, which in 330ml bottle provides 6 units of alcohol, twice the recommended daily limit. hmmm. It’s quite easy to immediately jump on the band wagon and criticise but I think further investigation is required before simply dismissing this as another promotion for binge drinking.

On reading this article I’m sure you imagined under-aged drinkers necking this stuff and ending up comatose but I can guarantee this won’t happen. Why? Because upon visiting the Brewdog website (the beers brewers) we find out that this is a stout. Yes, a stout, think Guinness for those who aren’t sure what that means, and it will cost £9.99 per 330ml bottle and so it will never appeal to those who crave sugary sweet alcopops, or the watery taste of cheap lager.  I like stout, especially imperial stout which is darker and stronger and will often have a bottle of Dark Star which comes in at 10.5%, but a bottle or two is usually enough.

Selection of beers

Where Brewdog has maybe gone wrong is with their visuals and their marketing which certainly look like they are trying to appeal to younger people, peope who are motivated by buzz words. I am still young(ish) and I don’t fall for buying something just because it’s called Trashy Blonde, Punk IPA, Hardcore IPA, or in this case Tokyo*, but people in their teens and early 20s probably will. Then again maybe this is what is needed to get a wider range of people into drinking real ale?

I do encourage small independent businesses and Brewdog falls into this category, set up in 2007 by two 24 year-olds, and if they are able to succeed then I am happy for them, and perhaps Tokyo* will get them on the map, but Brewdog should be careful that they don’t become the Two Dogs of this decade.

Their beers look interesting and with online ordering on their website I’m sure they will see an increase in sales after this recent publicity, although I’m sure that we will probably see Tokyo* as a limited run.

Alan Johnson, Home Secretary

Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, today announced that ID would no longer be compulsary and will now only be issued on a voluntary basis but the question has to be asked why they’re even bothering at all and not just scrapping it?

If you want to find out about what ID cards were all about then see this Q&A,but the gist of it was that everyone over the age of 16 in the UK would have their biometric data, finger prints and face scans added to a national register which would allow them to keep tabs on everyone. This brought up a great furore not only because of the infringements on civil liberties (see No2ID) but also because of the governments projected cost of £5bn to which London School of Economics says the true cost will be between £10bn and £20bn, with over £250,000,000 already spent on the scheme.

All in all it sounded like a bad idea right from the start but the Labout government wanted to force it though even though there was oppostion from the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats who both said they would scrap the scheme if they came to power. Most other political parties in the UK, including the SNP, Plaid Cymru, the Green Party and UKIP, are also against ID cards.

So I am happy that we will not have to have ID cards although this is probably not because the government realised they were pointless, but more than likely because they do not have the funds for it after bailing out the banks. At least they have admitted the suggestion the cards would help combat terrorism was exaggerated and the Home Secretary accepted the Government should never have allowed “the perception to go around that they were a panacea for terrorism”.

The card will now be focused on youngsters so they can prove their age when buying alcohol… what a turnaround and what a completely pointless reason for still rolling out the cards.

I’m also a little cynical that perhaps they have chosen to release this information at this current time due to the news being swamped with Michael Jackson related news, knowing that the Tabloids will ignore this news in favour of poring over a celeb’s death.

At least there has been this turnaround and hopefully in the near future it will be decided that the whole scheme is bollocks and it will be scrapped.

Update 1/7/09: BBC News – ID scheme is an ‘embarrassment’

On the This is Kent webiste there is a story today showing the new Euroferries Express (formerly Bonanza Express) which will be running the proposed service between Ramsgate and Boulogne.

Thanet South MP Stephen Ladyman had a ‘helper’ take these photos and he says :

“I know Thanet council and Euroferries are working hard on finalising agreements and I hope they will conclude them now as rapidly as possible so that this new service can get underway and start boosting our local economy.”

If you want to read more about the ongoing saga from those in the know then you might want to visit the comments on this previous post. The service if you remember was meant to start in Spring but hasn’t materialised yet and their website still says it will commence imminently… but we shall wait.

( Roslan Rahman/AFP/Getty Images)

I read this article about a white tiger that mauled to death a zookeeper in New Zealand and although shocking, it’s also a plain fact that a tiger is a wild animal, a predator, and will always have these instincts, so when you walk into an enclosure you run the risk of this happening.

What I did find shocking was that the tiger was later destroyed by wildlife park staff which is terrible when this is a rare animal who was only doing what is natural and surely cannot be blamed for it’s actions.

In this news report it criticises the management and handling of animals for endangering keepers. It emerges that keepers there took bigger risks even though the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) bans direct contact with big cats “unless an animal is hand-reared or suitably conditioned”.

I personally feel that the zoo and its keepers have brought this on themeselves and the tiger cannot be blamed.

Daily Lies

The newspapers I read are either The Independent or The Guardian. I’m not being a snob, they are just the one’s I read and I feel that they are a lot less biased and hypocritical than a lot of the other newspapers available. Sure, they will have a slant in certain directions but I feel it is minimal.

There are however many many other newspapers who have their own agenda and distort stories to fulfil this and that makes me mad. What makes me even madder is that the readership of these papers, a very large readership,  do not seem to understand this, taking it as gospel, and then blindly accepting this view as their own.

If you are intelligent then you will already know the papers I’m talking about: The Sun and The Daily Mail being the main offenders. Some of the stories they write are so astoundingly biased, so absurd,  that it’s amazing that everyone can’t see through them and the politics behind every item, but no that is not the case.

There are however quite a few blogs that like to point out these and here are a selection:

• The Sun – Tabloid Lies
• Daily Mail Watch
• Angry Mob
• The Daily Quail
• Tabloid Watch

I’d recommend that you add these to your daily rss feeds so that you can get a view of the kind of tripe that the masses are fed daily and how ‘journalism’ can make any story out of just a few facts (even incorrect ones), usually with a smattering of xenophobia or homophobia thrown in for good measure.

The lesson is to look at the big picture and ask yourselves why they are writing these stories and what their agendas are.

This would be a lucky escape for KCC after continuing to deposit money into the banks even after the credit rating for the banks dropped from ‘acceptable’ to ‘adequate’.

To read the rest of the story go here (BBC link) and here (Kent News).

Of course this still means that £10 million may never be recovered…

The statement from the City of London Coroners Court overturns the initial assessment that the newspaper seller died of natural causes.

Just because the offender is a police officer he has been suspended where as if this were anyone else then they wouldn’t been charged by now. Do not think that I am out for blood but this cannot be swept under the carpet.

The officer has been suspended, as is the same with the mystery officer from the G20 incident, but is a suspension enough? If at the end of this the officers have not been punished and have not faced criminal action then I will know that there is something seriously wrong with policing and the law in this country. Have a read here and tell me how these differ apart from the fact that the attacker is a policeman.

To read more about this latest incident and to see the video then go here.