Happy St.George's Day!

The day when we English are asked by the BBC if we should be celebrating our Englishness.

Do you celebrate St.George's day? they ask.

It's also the time when people are told to take down their national flag to avoidning offending those who aren't English.

Shopkeeper in St. George's day row

Just one example of someone ordered to take his flags down, apparently for health and safety reasons. It's more likely for political correctness reasons.

Another shopkeeper..
"Ted Leighton, a shop owner in Covent Garden, said he had been told by a passer-by he was a "Nazi" for displaying the English flag." more

Even the suggestion of celebrating Englishness is seen as being racist by those on the left of the political spectrum.

If there are some idiots (those who have too much power and have been promoted to positions beyond their intellectual capabilities) who think flying the national flag is racist, then it's they who are making it that way by not leaving law abiding people to fly their flags in peace. Why let a tiny minority of extremists take the Union flag or the flag of St. George as their own. It's time to take the flags back! Although i'm not that convinced they are seen as being racist symbols by most people. It's only because of the number of times these stories of flags being banned comes out and the number of idiots who claim they are racist without anything to back up their claims that gives the impression they are symbols of racism.

The other nations of the United Kingdon celebrate thair own patron saints' days and there's never any controversy about them, so why shouldn't we?

The far left in the UK seem to believe there's something innately racist in the English. I'd suggest they go and look at election data of other European countries (and beyond) and still be of the same opinion.

The Apprentice (UK)

There's no doubt that the best programme i've seen which is classed as "Reality TV" is almost certainly The Apprentice (the UK version in this case) The BBC showed the US version months ago but i wasn't motivated enough to press the 2 button on the remote... if they had shown me a trailer then i may have been tempted.

Last week (week 10 - shopping channel task) Sir Alan Sugar fired Miriam for no good reason at all (how dare he!) after he praised her performance in this week's task on the shopping channel. The way Sir Alan was talking in the boardroom facing Paul, Tim and Miriam it looked as if Paul was for the boot (i knew there was a twist coming at that moment) then he turned to Miriam and said "You're fired!"

This week's finale was probably the closest yet. I was expecting Paul or Tim to be out the door though.

In the third week (after i'd sorted out who was who) I predicted that the winner of the series would be either Miriam or James. I am more confident now that James will win. Sir Alan has made it obvious he likes Paul, but I believe when it comes to the end Paul's rough edges which have been displayed throughout the series will defeat him. I think James' ability to remain calm under pressure (like last week when Saira was shouting down his earpiece whilst he was live on TV) will be what gives him an advantage.

Saira's behaviour is supposedly everything that Sir Alan dislikes so I think we can rule her out. Big Brother would suit her better.

Tim is unlikely to win too. Although it's hard to remember him putting a foot wrong all series, it's also very hard to remember him putting a foot anywhere. He is the last of the grey men/women (more of an off-white than grey)

If Saira ends up winning i'll be so disgusted with the result that i'll sell my TV on ebay just after the show finishes.

Televisual wallpaper

I've just done something worrying. I've visited the Big Brother forum at digitalspy.co.uk. This year's series doesn't begin for, i assume another 3-4 weeks. And I was actually planning on avoiding it this year. I read something weeks ago that they were extending it this year, from 9 weeks to, if my memory is correct, 16 weeks. Rumour was that it would be the last series. But sadly this week's news that it'll be on for at least the next 3 years seems to indicate something different.

Since having access to E4 i've watched so many hours of housemates sitting around doing nothing on Big Brother live. (i'm still wonderng why) And yet have seen relatively few of the highlights programmes.

The show is all fake (like all television regardless of how genuine it does occasionally appear) and it's filled with moronic people who are desperate to be famous. They don't mind that they haven't got an ounce of talent, they just want to be famous.

A good example to illustrate the last paragraph (marco - BB5)

I couldn't believe a show about the selection of contestants a couple of years ago claimed they try and weed out those kind of people. I think the evidence is overwhelmingly opposite to that.

Why do i watch Big Brother live? I mean, there's only something interesting happening for about 2% of the time. (ok.. maybe a slight exaggeration.. unless you consider watching someone making a cup of tea as being interesting). The producers seem to want to make it as dull as possible. The idea is if you stick a load of people inside a house and give them nothing to do, it forces them to talk to each other. Talk for long enough and tensions arise. The paranoia created by the unique conditions provide the fuel for that conflict.

Please channel 4. Pull the plug on this crap! I want a change of wallpaper.

Lee Bowyer - Footballer/Thug

So... Newcastle midfielder Lee Bowyer has got himself an extra 3 game ban to go with his mandatory 4 game ban and add to that a £30,000 fine by the FA along with the £200,000 (6 weeks wages) fine from Newcastle for the little on-pitch incident (generally referred to as a "punch up") with team-mate Kieron Dyer. The FA should have hit him with another £200,000 fine.

Looks like two red cards are... on the cards.

I can't believe that the Newcastle bosses haven't got the sense to sack him as it's hardly his first offence (the most serious ones being off the field). Do they not care about the image of their club? Bobby..err... I mean, Sir Bobby Robson must have gone temporarily insane when he signed the Leeds thugs (Bowyer and Woodgate) a couple of years ago. Football managers on the whole don't seem to care about who they sign if they think that it'll help move their clubs up the table. Not that the signing of Bowyer has brought any noticable benefit to Newcastle's fortunes.

I'm surprised that Bowyer is able to run five yards with all that baggage he's been carrying around with him all these years. Bowyer is the kind of person the game can do without.

A 3 game ban. Hmmm... I would have preferred a couple of zeros following closely behind the 3.

Harsh but fair.

Oh, isn't that nice... all is well again.

Bread and Butter - The best thing since...

It's my new blog. How exciting!