21/09/2008 by admin.

Whilst not a general admirer of focus groups conducted ‘American style’ by Frank Luntz , I thought his pieces on Newsnight last week were interesting . To put it shortly Labour voters and Labour-inclined floaters didn’t like Brown but were either too ignorant of possible successors or too lukewarm about Alan Johnson and Jack Straw, who seemed to emerge as the two front-runners, to recommend them. The general feeling seemed to be that we should allow Brown to go ahead and lose the next election. But this is not healthy; it means that for at least 18 months we are saddled with a PM who neither the elctorate nor his Party trust. We shall see whether he manages to rally the troops on Tuesday with his soul-bearing speech. I wonder who has written it? It needs to be good.

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17/09/2008 by admin.

At last we have some glimpse of the sun again. This is always welcome but especially at times like these when share prices are falling, one of our biggest clearing banks is struggling and we are in danger of being leaderless!

The time has come when The issue of the leadership of the Labour Party should be settled once and for all. Perhaps there are more resignations in the offing which will force the issue Surely there are people - other than D. Miliband - who want office? Or are there? Something about a poisoned chalice I suppose. But brave souls will vanquish!

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10/09/2008 by admin.

The LHC has been started without, as yet, dire consequences. Really large collisions are about one month away, so far as I understand it, but continue to monitor! It is possible of course that we have all slipped into a parallel universe but, if so, it is still very like the first. These wilder sci-fi musings to one side it will be very interesting to monitor progress. Will we find the Higgs boson or other unknown particles? Will we be able to see the theory of everything? Will teleporatation on a large scale become possible or is that sci-fi again? It would certainly be more comfortable than flying cattle class though maybe a shade more expensive at first.

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09/09/2008 by admin.

We are assured by those who know - and how do we question them- that there is only a 1% chance of the Large Hadron Collider producing mini black holes and no chance of these coalescing and drawing the whole earth into a large black hole. Notice however that the same scientists do not use probablity here; they say there is no chance but even if the probablity is infinitely small would you start it up? Anyway we shall all see tomorrow afternoon. Watch this …space? For reassurance see http://blogs.indystar.com/geek/2008/09/large_hadron_co.html

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08/09/2008 by admin.

All praise to China for staging the paralympics just as cleverly and thoughtfully as they staged the “main” Olympics. The TV coverage in GB, however, has been sparse by comparison even though, so far, team GB have done remarkably well again. The Chinese seem to be overcoming their fear of disabilty but have we?

 Perhaps Joe my Chinese correspondent will comment.

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01/09/2008 by admin.

Why has comment on Alastair Darling’s astounding statement on the economy been so muted? It was an unprecedented and unforgiveable statement to make but, apart from Jack Straw’s well-rehearsed comment, there has been so little ministerial reaction. Why? One assumes it is  because Mr Darling is just about to be offered an alternative job which he definitely can refuse!

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