Offensive opinion...

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I think this man, Russell T. Davies - 'one of the BBC's top screenwriting stars' - like at least one other gibbering Dr. Who twat - is a savage and evil person. "There are cuts ...But I don't imagine these are the last of the cuts. This a precedent for cuts. Can you ever imagine it going back up again. No." He may be a good writer too but he seems to have no imagination; then again there's nowt as Queer as Folk.

Officially OK...

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...but the story keeps changing: he is battling for his health in a critical but stable condition but won't be back until 30th June however the fact that he hasn't actually been seen (only press photos and Twitter messages) have fuelled rumours that he could be seriously ill. So far this year Hugo has had problems with both mid-body waste disposal outlets (don't ask), a knee injury, a pelvic abcess and now cancer according to Nelson Bocaranda Sardi** in a special report in El Universal although officials still haven't confirmed this as the dawning reality of the gapping black hole in Venezuela's 'Bolivarian Revolution' becomes clear i.e. he's mortal? What the fuck do we do now...and who'll be leader?

Update: **...but not OK. Nelson Bocaranda's info confirmed 30th June. 

Other [Oxfordshire] organisational options...

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More Glastonbury news: Christopher Shale was chairman of West Oxfordshire Conservative Association, David Cameron's Tory constituency association; he has been very critical of his Conservative association to the extent that James Forsyth reports his words in today's Mail on Sunday. Shales, in suggesting strategies to increase the West Oxforshire Conservative membership, has said:

"When we are together we are not always a group of people to whom many of our potential members are going to be magnetically drawn"..."We must behave differently – try to see ourselves as others see us."

He said a few less flattering things too but to me it makes perfect sense. Forsyth makes some interesting points in his article saying that members need to be offered the chance to 'pick their own candidate' and even asks how 'many more people would sign up as Tory members if it gave them a real chance to set party policy on tax?' Interesting - and coincidental - in that I've just answered that exact same thing in an online survey for the Conservative Party! He concludes that "If the leadership are not prepared to trust their members with some real powers, then they are going to have to find a whole other way to organise the party. Otherwise, it is going to die under them"... unfortunately that's just what Chris Shales has done having been found dead today [BBC] in a toilet at Glastonbury Festival.

Overdoing outings...

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Glastonbury Fayre - 1971 *

"The National Audit Office says the BBC spends more per hour covering Glastonbury than it did on the Beijing Olympics."

David Stephenson in today's Express (sorry Paul) tells us that there are 144 hours of coverage in 83 programmes (remember it's essentially a long-weekend festival!), 263 staff ("the presenters alone cost £90,000 a day"). Can anyone come up with any decent excuse that justifies this? This year U2 finally showed up (third time lucky?) but the 'Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts' is a far cry from the 'hippie' fair in 1971 where David Bowie headlined and entry was free; the greatest irony is that it began because the organisers thought all other festivals at the time were over commercialised...* Photo credit: Geoffrey Bowler at Glastonbury Fayre, summer solstice 1971.

Opposition offensive: out of office overseas...

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This week has seen Krusty not knowing when he'll be back so is running Venezuela from Cuba: doctors haven't told him...he's in Cuba and remains in Cuba recoving from pelvic abscess - apparently. And he's turning Venezuela into another Cuba; certainly that's my opinion and it's what ex-Colombian president Uribe said in an interview broadcast by the 'The Night' on NTN24 TV: [Link Spanish] "[Chavez] is eliminating the independence of institutions, is eliminating private enterprise... ...he is confident that he will not fail like the 'old communisms' because the oil makes difference."

Update: from The Guardian June 22nd, "Hugo Chávez silence fuels fears of power vacuum in Venezuela... ...President has gone uncharacteristically quiet as he recovers from surgery in Cuba, prompting rumours over his health and warnings of instability"

Overt obnubilation...

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Overt, oh vert, green: the colour of Nature; the colour of envy; the colour of sickness; the colour of money. "Ideological money laundering"...a great blogpost and equally good comments about the corruption and fraud - using your money - in the renewable energy sector: "What is surprising is the sheer scale of this shameless enterprise".

Overturning orthopraxy...

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Berg's Ophiuchus symbol

Changing/overturning a correct action. Interesting that yesterday's post on the constellation Ophiuchus got me reading about the astrology side of it too; Ophiuchus was what British astrologer Walter Berg developed as the 13th sign of his zodiac in which the astrological signs correspond directly to the period of time that the Sun spends in each constellation. The image represents a man carrying a snake based on the Greek meaning "Serpent-bearer". Amusingly it could also represent recent news, a man doing a U-turn battling the giant snake that is NHS reform. I'm not a great fan of Alan Milburn but what he writes HERE isn't far from my own opinion.

Ophiuchus occultation...

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Like the old saying: "Once in a red moon"...the longest and darkest total lunar eclipse of the century will occur tonight and apparently the next such eclipse will be in 2141; the moon will be in the Ophiuchus constellation and the eclipse will be visible in Australasia, most of Asia and Japan, India, Africa, Europe and the eastern part of South America (guess who's in western South America right now...d'oh). Pic: "The five stages of a full lunar eclipse, as seen from Rochester, Victoria". Photo credit: Phil Hart, source: SMH Click to enlarge.

Out, out, out...

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Out, brothers out. Fat Cat** Mark Serwotka said a strike is inevitable; he has said that staff were being asked to work up to eight years longer, accept a three-fold rise in their contributions and their eventual payments halved, that average civil service pension was £4,000 a year, and "It's absolute daylight robbery," he said; "...we all face the same attacks" and that having public sector pensions similar to the private sector,"was an argument in favour of 'an equality of misery'"; I'm sure he said the same when the situation was vice versa...

Summary of cost and benefit impacts of Pensions Bill 2011 is HERE (pdf) and a handy table highlights all the impact on individuals, employers, the Pension Industry and on the Government. Needless to say Serwotka is talking shit, elaborating, embellishing and lying (no change there I suppose). Also, the 2011 Pensions Bill builds on other pension reforms that began with previous Pensions Acts in 2007 and 2008, they address inequalities, surely Markie babes should be happy?

** = just the annual pension contributions that Mark Serwotka receives are more than a full time permanent civil servant's salary.

Update: great stuff from Cranmer today on Blower and Bousted, "One really doesn’t need a degree in Posh & Becks Studies to appreciate that education is shackled by a sclerotic culture of excuses and plagued by low standards, arbitrary targets, inaccurate league tables and stifling political correctness."

Obbligato opus...

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Les Paul Google doodle - click to enlarge

The best Google doodle ever? It was up yesterday to honour musician and electric guitar pioneer Les Paul but is still up today due to popular demand; it has also been enhanced! Or maybe you could record yesterday and I didn't notice! Now you can: 1. play a tune, 2. record it and 3. get the link to the recording; the third link above says this was for US users but in reality anyone on Google.com - rather than other country code domains names - can.

One's oath: overdue obligation...

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Too many good bits to quote and it's about fifteen A4 pages long but a great post to drink a few beers whilst reading: Magna Carta Society Blog: A Summary of Evidence to Justify A Petition to The Queen Regarding the Purported Imposition of Foreign Laws by the European Union on the United Kingdom.

Hat-tip: Captain Ranty

Operation oceans...

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Coordinated consecutive blog-post titles - whoa! June 8th is World Oceans Day, which provides an important boost to ocean conservation: it's not just the big bits: the Ocean Project involves many aquariums, zoos, science and natural history museums, conservation organizations etc...green, but more blue.

Ocean operations...

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World shipping positions: brilliant (not sure why!). You have to click a few times to get the individual detail. Hat-tip: Tim on Twitter (wait a bit for page to load)

Osborne outs omissions...

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George Osborne does a fine job of halting at least part of the BBC's tidal wave of pessimism on today's TODAY: if you have 15 minutes to spare it is worth listening right to the end to catch Nick Robinson's comments - fair IMHO - too. Fraser Nelson explains GO's "flexibility" but also highlights how the Bank of England's total failure to control inflation has and will increase the cost of repayments. Just as well the IMF report he mentioned came out 'positive'! More too re the GO interview at BBBC.

Ostensible old-world option...

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Localisation: can this tried and tested idea work again? "Local currency to help keep money in city's economy" [Link]. The FAQs of the Bristol Pound 'stakeholder cooperative' website seems to set things out clearly enough - here we have the 'multiplier effect' of keeping the economic activity of the area in the area, so to speak.

Oncoming omnia omnibus...

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DONNA EDEN is now known as EUROPA and one of the members of the Twelve Stars Euro Team led by Captain Euro who 'is establishing itself as the super-hero mascot of Europe.' I wish it was a joke! "EU child propaganda: silly or sinister?" [Dan Hannan]...the evil doctor baddie is called D. VIDER! "Children can perform a messenger function in conveying the message to the home environment. Young people will often in practice act as go-betweens with the older generations, helping them embrace the euro". Not unlike the UK climate change message with drowning pets etc. Click image to enlarge.(Hat-tip Prodicus)

Overpaid, overrated ophidian...

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What snake is black, Brown and covered in green? Yes, Gordon! My bête noire, the Brownstuff himself, is raking it in: Guido mentions nearly 9000 quid in expenses in just three months (not including salary?) and a mammoth 70 grand for one speech...not to his constituents though; I doubt they see much of him, or maybe they do because he's never in parliament.