The BBC's flight of fantasy

Cancelled flights, baggage delays and a temporary suspension in check-in have blighted the opening day of Heathrow's new £4.3bn Terminal 5.

And who really gives a damn?

Obviously all those passengers who it affects but the BBC web and news sites should remember that the majority of us will neither use T5, let alone Heathrow, and a good majority of the public oppose the increased passenger capacity at airports.

Its not as if they haven’t got something else to have as their headlines throughout the day, such as the Anglo-French summit between Brown and Sarkozy or the continued unrest in Tibet.

I know we have had an on/off love/hate sort of relationship with the French throughout history but nothing has come between us more in recent times, not even fishing quotas, than the rift between us over the Iraq war and the interpretation of UN resolutions.

Now is a chance for us to once again pick-up with our second closest neighbour, or are they even closer than the Irish as the metaphorical crow flies?, and work closer on subjects not only relating to the future power needs of both Countries [and the possibility of being held to ransom by the Russians over gas supplies one would suspect] but also the need to control immigration, not to mention world poverty [especially in those far off colonial bases we either abandoned or were evicted from – what is it will Mugabe? What a nutter!]

I am hoping that we can somehow extract ourselves from this apparent world view that we are more aggressor than peacemaker by working closer to and with our European partners.

The new French Presidents wife looked quite pretty too, but then again if you wish to learn more about how she dressed and looked then read the BBC website, you will probably find her in the column under Heathrow’s T5.

Hello girls

It was late last night when I was looking to either move away from blogger or to change my template when I committed a cardinal sin when I failed to make a back-up of my site, as a result I lost some of the amendments I had made to my original blog, such as my blogroll and a list of books I had read, hence the lack of information down the right hand margin.

I am forever telling my girls [that is my daughters, I do not own a harem or run a model agency or such like, I fantasize now] to back up files, to save and save again whenever they are creating on the PC.

A huge bonus to the day though is waking up this morning and discovering that I have two comments to a posting, well three actually but one from the same person, so I am more than happy to welcome bedrockgirl Tina to the site, whom I discovered via yellowdog granny’s site, naturally.

Hello ladies.

I will be updating the missing elements of my site soon and you will both be sited in the blogroll, in the meantime I will drop into your sites for a browse and post to my own later.
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I am for the first time in a while taking my partner out for lunch today, my eldest daughter who is still off work for the Easter break, is taking our youngest out for the day and we will be able to have some time to ourselves again. The only trouble with being alone without having our soon to be three year old is not having nothing to say to each other, which we do, but how naked we will feel when the little one is not with us for the day.

We will be losing her to nursery school soon and I have no idea how we will cope with that, but having three other grown-up daughters between us you would’ve thought we would be used to it by now.

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Despite the presence of ladies, but mainly because of the template change, my text is going to be pretty 'Blue' from now on!

A return to Christianity, until Christmas that is.

In an Easter speech the Bishop of Lichfield has said there was "a kind of longing in the air for a return to real Christianity".

"With a new financial crisis in our nation, the bubble of borrowing on the never never collapsing, people are coming to their senses," he added.

"The brave new secular world where everyone is meant to have choices has proved unworkable without values that come from somewhere."

The "financial crisis" was encouraging more Christians to go back to religion, the Rt Rev Jonathan Gledhill said

So, it would appear that the more fickle in our society, the poor sods that do not have the common sense not to borrow too much money, are now turning back to religion for guidance, and perhaps a few prayers asking for a lotto win.

Question: How long will those returning to the church have to wait for their prayers to be answered?

Answer: Until this coming Christmas then they realise that God is not going to play Santa and will not be delivering their kids their Nintendos and Xboxes.

Religious voice, not in my name

Whist Gordon Brown faces a revolt over the embryo bill I think other questions should be asked in addition to those already raised concerning the ethics or otherwise of stem cell research.
Every voter in this country should look at their Member of Parliament and question their ability to represent them on the grounds of their Religious beliefs.
I believe there should be a free vote on all issues and especially this one and not because the head of the Catholic church in England believes there should be one 'because Catholics and others will want to vote according to their consciences', or because the likes of Ruth Kelly threatens to resign.
Tony Blair was too scared to declare his religious leanings because he feared he would be classed as a crank, he probably achieved that without much effort, but now that he has gone the religious voice is raising its head more and more.
I shall not be voting Labour [new] in any future elections whilst those who were afraid to speak out against the war in Iraq are not more than willing to speak out on religious grounds on other issues.
Where was the religious vote on the run up to war?

If only he was never there

The author of an ode to Tony Blair that has been doing the rounds is puzzling MPs today.

At Downing Street upon the stair
I met a man who wasn't Blair
He wasn't Blair again today
Oh how I wish he'd go away

Who is behind the poem, based on the quatrain by US poet Hughes Mearns? [Guardian politicsblog -Helene Mulholland]

He is my own take on the poem, again relating to Tony Blair

As once I voted, because I care
I saw a man, who wasn't there
And now that he has gone away
Oh how wish it had began this way

OETM 2008

Happy Eostre

If Easter is the oldest and most important Christian Festival, the coming to life of Jesus after death, then why is it not celebrated as much as Christmas?
Probably because the established Winter festivals were hijacked by the Christians who could not account for the whereabouts of their religious leader throughout his formative, and probably spotty and sullen teenage, years.

Oh, and before Christians condemn me to a living hell may I remind you that they also besieged a pagan festival, from the English word Eostre, which is a time for celebrating new beginnings with the coming of the easter bunny [hare] from the festival surrounding the Goddess Eostre.

I was told by a Christian when I was growing up that Easter eggs represented the rolling away of the stone in front of the tomb in which Jesus lay, nothing to do with the origins of Eostre when celebrations centered on the painting for bird eggs.

I prefer the Pagans view that the egg represents the cycle of seasons with the yolk and egg white representing the Sun and the Maiden Goddess respectively.

Whatever your beliefs, may I wish you a Happy Eostre.

[If any of the above can be proved factually incorrect then please do not hesitate to point it out, however no Easter, Esotre or Pesach [Passover] celebration can claim to be either]