Tony Blair ain’t bovvered!

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair claims he was not offended at being omitted from the guest list for the Royal Wedding. Just as he wasn’t offended at being snubbed for the EU Presidency, presumably.

Official: Middlesex University isn’t crap.

Middlesex University has been awarded the prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise. According to the Barnet Times, the award was given for “outstanding achievement in international trade and is a reflection of the university’s commercial success”.

In 2004, rent-a-gob Tory councillor Brian Coleman described Middlesex University as “crap”. Middlesex had applied for permission to expand the Trent Park campus in Southgate, leading Coleman to remark: “Why should the people of north London suffer in order to attract hundreds of foreign students? They are such a crap university they only attract foreign ones.”

Four years later, Middlesex awarded Coleman an honorary degree, apparently for his ‘outstanding’ commitment to the community. One can only assume that the University was being ironic. Nevertheless Coleman accepted the award, despite the obvious hypocrisy in so doing. But whilst he is renowned for being obnoxious and outspoken, he is not known for turning down a reception where free canapés are on offer.

Hopefully, Middlesex will continue to win many more such awards in the coming years, proving once again how detached Brian Coleman is from reality.

Nick Clegg. The lying liar who lies.

Nick Clegg has accused Prime Minister David Cameron of lying in the debate over the electoral reform referendum. Would this be the same Nick Clegg who promised to vote against any increase in university tuition fees before the General Election last year, only to agree to triple the cost once his grubby mitts were on the reigns of power?

The LibDems came third in the election, yet now hold the balance of power. Under AV, this nightmare scenario will be repeated at every election, irrespective of whether Labour or the Conservatives win the largest number of seats. Unless you enjoy seeing odious liars like Clegg in office, vote No on May 5th!

Scots & Geordies

The evolution of language

According to an interesting article in current edition of The Economist, languages all have their roots in the same part of the world, but they are not as similar to each other as was once thought.

The longest words in the English language

The Oxford Debate

Prime Minister David Cameron has been widely criticised for his idiotic and erroneous claim that only one black student was admitted to Oxford University in 2009.

Typically, however, the Gruaniad has widened the ensuing debate to include the ‘disproportionate’ number of undergraduates at our leading universities who were educated in the private sector.

Universities must be allowed to set their own admissions criteria. If students from the state sector are not considered to be good enough for the rigour of academic study, then the solution must be to improve the standard of state schools, rather than lower the admissions threshold. It is not the fault of Universities if state schools are not producing enough suitable candidates.

In a civilised society, we no longer discriminate on the grounds of race, religion, gender or sexuality. Unfortunately, the trendy lefties who run this country would like to eliminate discrimination on the grounds of ability as well!

If discrimination (perceived or genuine) is to be eliminated from the university application process, then the simple and obvious solution is for all questions regarding ethnicity and previous schooling to be deleted. Instead, all candidates should be considered anonymously and on their merits alone. How radical!

By the way, Mr Cameron. How many black MPs are there in your Cabinet?

Why don’t you kill yourself?

Last week, the press reported the death of Nan Maitland, who took her own life at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland. Mrs Maitland was 84 years old and suffering from arthritis, but she was not terminally ill.

Her death re-opened the debate on assisted suicide and the ‘right to die’ and the national press has published many letters on both sides of the debate.

One such letter in the Sunday Times is of particular interest to lingusists:

It is, of course, possible that Ms MacLeod meant something entirely different, and perhaps her words were crudely edited by the newspaper. However, the most obvious interpretation of the above letter is rather shocking: “If I was you, I would kill myself.”

The power of words

Hat-Tip to Rachel

Praise be to Iceland

The Icelandic people have sent a very strong message to their government who wanted taxpayers to bail out the private bank Landsbanki: “F**k Off”.

When Landsbanki (operating in the UK as Icesave) collapsed in October 2008, the British and Dutch Governments decided to reimburse depositors, and now expect the Icelandic Government to reimburse them to the tune of £3.4 billion. The only snag was that Icelandic President Olafur Ragnar refused to sign the repayment deal agreed by his Parliament. This triggered an automatic referendum in March 2010. 93% of Icelandic voters supported their President and rejected the proposed repayment deal.

Like the corrupt and undemocratic EU, the Icelandic Government could not accept the will of the people, and another referendum has now been held. Once again, the overwhelming majority of voters have rejected the terms on offer. Icelandic taxpayers have stated clearly and unequivocally that they do not wish to bail out private banks which were badly run.

People who invested in Landsbanki did so at their own risk. The reason Icesave paid much higher rates of interest than traditional banks was because of the greater risk attached. Their economy was going to hell in a handcart, but if depositors were too stupid to check where they placed their money, why should those of us who are more prudent with our finances be expected to bail them out?

In a similar vein, British taxpayers have been forced to bail out Greece, Ireland and now Portugal, whose respective governments were even more profligate than ours under the Brown/Darling regime. The British government has no democratic mandate to give our money away. We are not members of the single currency and it is not our responsibility to rescue basket case economies.

The Government has introduced an austerity package to deal with our crippling budget deficit. Domestic public spending has to be cut, yet at the same time as soldiers in Afghanistan are being made redundant whilst risking their lives, money can still be found to piss away on this failed European project.

The people of Iceland have done a great service to democracy by reminding their politicians who is in charge. To them I say: Ég heilsa hugrekki, styrk þinn og indefatigability þinn (I salute your courage, your strength, and your indefatigability).