You Can Get it if You Really Want

The Conservatives have just launched a new campaign trying to reach out to new online friends of the Party and dispel the myth once and for all that we are the "nasty Party". The £500,000 campaign focuses on ten key issues where the Conservatives can really make a difference:

• A home of my own: Abolish stamp duty for 9 out of 10 first-time buyers (read more).
• A good school for my children: Teaching by ability for every child and tough discipline in every classroom (read more).
  
• My money in safe hands: An end to economic incompetence and no more reckless borrowing (read more).
• An NHS I can count on: Stop the closure of A&E and maternity units (read more).
• The retirement I've worked for: Raise the basic state pension and protect people's savings (read more).
• A neighbourhood I feel safe in: Cut paperwork and get more police on the streets fighting crime (read more).
• Pass something onto my children: Abolish inheritance tax for homes under £1 million (read more).
• Can work, will work: Help people into jobs and cut benefit for those who won't work (read more).
• More help to go green: Get paid for producing your own energy (read more).
• Reduce the pressure: Proper controls on immigration so our public services can cope (read more).

A new video was also produced to coincide with the launch. In it David Cameron introduces a new brand of positive campaigning - no more garish cartoons with demonic eyes or mile long dole queues but instead highlighting the benefits the new brand of Conservatism could bring to the nation. Listen to David on YouTube:



New friends of the Party, who can choose to contribute as little or as much as they like, will be kept in the loop with regular updates and invitations to local events. They will not have the same rights as full members of the Party.

Not long now until the May local elections!

Tom on Bebo

I've just added a few bits to my Bebo page. See how creative I was with 'my photo' - it is meant to be me in a lab coat (not that I ever bother wearing one).

I'm still a n00b so if anyone knows where I can get a nice skin from please let me know. I'm thinking something associated with NE England would be appropriate - maybe some nice moorland or one of Tyneside's special views. Bebo is just something extra - I'll probably not write too much there, but you never know.

If anyone wants to add me then go for your life. I might even accept when I figure the darn thing out!

Throw Away Culture

It's a sign of a slow day's news when most of the newspapers have completely different banner headlines on their front pages. Yesterday was one such day and one of the issues highlighted by the Daily Mail was the adverse effect of discarded plastic carrier bags on the environment. The Mail led with an image of a turtle swimming in a tropical ocean with a bag wrapped around its body.

I'm not what could be described as an ardent environmentalist but I have written in the past about the considerable problems Britain's throw away culture has led to in some of the furthest most impoverished regions of the world.

My article 'Plastic Recycling Shame' went on to explain how recyclables collected here in the UK were quite often transported to China and Taiwan to undergo environmentally damaging reprocessing. The release of unfiltered carcinogenic by-products to the atmosphere has resulted in squalor and birth defects in industrialised Chinese towns and villages. My article 'Saving the Planet' gave a brief description of how increased carbon emissions caused global warming. It also gave the worrying statistic that the US, a nation with only 5% of the global population, was responsible for a staggering 25% of global carbon emissions.

Readers of these articles should spot a pattern emerging. Western democracy is keen to outwardly appear green. Unfortunately greenness has a cost attached to it and market forces dictate this is passed down to the consumer - who is also the voter and tax payer. Inflicting green charges on the electorate is not a shrewd political move, so the recycling problem is outsourced to somewhere where it is out of sight and out of mind.

Anyhow, back to plastic bags. Plastic bags are probably one of the most overused and unnecessary resources of everyday life. It's as if shop workers are programmed to offer a bag with every purchase - as trivial and unbagworthy as that purchase may be. A glaring example of this happened to me yesterday in WHSmith - I bought a newspaper and was offered a plastic bag (which I refused). I could almost understand if it was raining, but it was actually quite a nice day. The supermarkets are by far the worst offenders because it is not just plastic bags with them - it is also obscene over packaging of their products.

The average polyethylene plastic bag takes more than 100 years to decompose. Even when it does it creates a harmful organic sludge which leaches away into nearby waterways. Everyone could adjust their lifestyle to use fewer bags and make better use of the few bags they do have - even if it's just shoving your newspaper inside your jacket like I did yesterday. My house is far from the ideal model of environmental efficiency but we are quite good with plastic bags. If we're shopping on foot for a single item then we avoid taking a bag. If we're doing our weekly shop by car then we load the goods straight into the trolley without putting them in bags. The few carrier bags we do have are stored in a kitchen drawer and are either used as bin liners or reused for shopping trips.

But as long as these cheap and nasty plastic bags are available at supermarkets people are going to make use of them. We really need the supermarkets to take the lead an provide alternative sources of bags and packaging for their products. Yet again Marks & Spencer are leading the field with their packaging efforts. For several years now most of the store's own brand food has been packaged in recycled cardboards and with transparent rice film taking the place of plastic. They also sell and encourage use of their own hessian type carrier bags. The company has just announced that it plans to charge customers 5 pence each for their standard (cheap and nasty) carrier bags. But Marks & Spencer, as dependable an innovative a British firm they are, are spread thinly on the ground and accounts for less than one percent of all supermarket sales.

It is the big four supermarket brands - Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrison's - that must show some commitment and investment in greener, less voluminous and wasteful packaging solutions. Together these chains represent 75% of all supermarket sales.

Until those four retail giants pull their finger out I urge you to do your bit by pre-planning your shopping trips, making fewer journeys and accumulating fewer plastic bags.

Earthquake Hits UK

Epicentre of today's UK earthquake (picture from BGS).

The biggest earthquake in 25 years has shaken homes on the east coast of England. The quake, currently measured at 5.2 on the Richter scale, occurred just before 1 am and was centred near the Lincolnshire town of Market Rasen.

There are no reports of injury although there has been several instances of minor structural damage in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. Tremors were felt as far afield as Tyneside in the north, London in the south and Merseyside in the west.

Local people have been talking about their experiences of the quake. Speaking to BBC News Market Rasen resident Bev Finnegan said: "It felt like the roof was going to fall in. There were people coming out in their dressing gowns wondering what it was. It was quite an experience."

According to a press release issued by the British Geological Survey (BGS) earthquakes of this magnitude occur approximately every 30 years on mainland Britain. Today's quake is the largest since the Lleyn Peninsula earthquake in 1984.

Wheelie Grinding My Gears

Sir Walter Raleigh famously laid down his cloak so that Queen Elizabeth I wouldn't get her feet wet in a puddle. What a gentleman!

Standby for a good old rant.

Do you know what really grinds my gears? It's inconsiderate and downright rude people who think they have more right to use the pavement than I do. I am thinking in particular of people on bicycles, people pushing prams and selfish drivers who park their vehicle where I want to walk.

I was walking home earlier today and a middle aged couple were pushing a pram down the inclined pavement towards me. I stepped aside making way for them to get by without having to graze their elbows against the adjacent wall or negotiate the steep kerb on the other side. For all my opinionated writings on here I am quite a courteous person by nature and I don't mind one bit making room for someone whose need is greater than my own. But I do mind being taken for granted. It wouldn't have taken them any effort at all just to acknowledge the fact that I was walking on the road, dodging oncoming traffic just so they could progress unabated.

Getting home I also see that the next door neighbours, who have thankfully just sold their home, have parked their 4 x 4 slap bang in the middle of the pavement yet again. What makes this act doubly irritating is the fact that their ample driveway, just another 5 seconds driving time further afield, stands completely empty. A perfect demonstration of arrogance and idleness in the extreme. The sad thing is that these are the very same sort of people who cry the loudest when someone accidentally scrapes by their car.

It is one of the major failings of the UK at the moment that people have simply forgotton the meaning of good manners and considerate behaviour. Good manners cost nothing and a little kindness really can go a long way.

It appears that the age of chivalry really has died.

Hard Drive Meltdown

I'm what you could describe as a power user of my PC. I spend several hours each day typing documents, working with numbers and surfing the web. I also have several blogs to maintain which involves lots of file downloads and little bits of coding here and there. It has all taken its toll on my machine. After four years and literally tens of thousands of hours of use my hard drive finally decided to die.

Just my luck. For the last couple of days I have been relegated to using my old Acer Travelmate with its whopping 10 GB hard drive, 256 MB RAM and 2 GHz processor. In the words of Captain Edmund Blackadder: I have made as much progress as an asthmatic ant carrying some heavy shopping. To say I am not amused is an understatement.

There's only one thing more inconvenient that having your main PC out of action - that's waiting for your brother to fix it!

Common Scientific Misconceptions

I found this list of humorous scientific misconceptions as I was surfing the internet. The problem is that the same school kids who believe these are fact are getting grade A at GCSE! If you think I'm kidding you want to take a look at what the examination boards amusingly call "21st Century Science" - it's an absolute joke.

• Water, carbon dioxide and light are plant foods.
• They are actually the building blocks used to make sugar during photosynthesis.
  

• Plants breathe in oxygen at night and carbon dioxide during the day.
• Plants absorb carbon dioxide during photosynthesis. They excrete oxygen as a byproduct of photosynthesis.
  

• Plants photosynthesise but do not respire.
• Photosynthesis is the process of plants converting carbon dioxide, water and light energy into sugar. Respiration is the process of converting sugar into a readily accessible source of energy. Plants do both.
  

• Living things are made of cells which are as small as atoms.
• Living things are made of cells, but they are not as small as atoms. Not much is smaller than an atom!
  

• Atoms and animal cells are about the same size.
• Again, cells are composed of many molecules which in turn are composed of many atoms.
  

• Air does not weigh anything.
• Air does weight something, but not a lot.
  

• Sugar disappears when it dissolves.
• The ordered, rigid arrangement of the sugar molecules in the solid become disordered in the solution.
  

• When ice is heated its particles melt.
• Similar to the sugar solution, the ordered arrangement of molecules in the solid form become disordered in the liquid form.
  

• Particles in a liquid are smaller than a solid.
• Not if they are the same substance. The arrangement of the particles is different.
  

• Electricity gets used up as it goes around a circuit.
• You get out what you put in.
  

• Light travels further at night than in daytime.
• Regardless of whether it's day or night, light travels at the same speed.
  

I wonder how many adults had those misconceptions too?!

Gambler Suing Bookie

In another glaring example of the absurd British compensation culture a Tyneside gambling addict is suing William Hill.

Greyhound trainer Graham Calvert, 28, wants the high street bookmaker to pay back in excess of £2 million in gambling losses because they failed in their duty of care. The claim arises because Mr Calvert, who lost £347,000 in a single bet on the outcome of the 2006 Ryder Cup, was able to open another gambling account with the company despite being engaged in William Hill's voluntary self-exclusion scheme.

Mr Calvert's legal team argue that William Hill were negligent in allowing the second account to be opened at a time when he was excluded from the first. I argue that no-one forced him to gamble at gunpoint and if he's so inept at it he looses £2 million then he's got no-one else to blame but himself. Whatever happened to self restraint?

What sort of a message does it send out if he actually wins his ridiculous claim?

Gateshead Angel Reaches Decade

This week the Angel of the North, often referred to as the Gateshead Angel, reaches its tenth birthday. The giant sculpture, designed by Antony Gormley, is constructed of treated steel and concrete and stands loftily over the surrounding countryside. The giant wings, spanning some 56 metres tip to tip, are angled slighty to surpress prevailing winds and the structure is firmly anchored by a 20 metre deep concrete foundation.

I remember when the Angel was being built back in the mid-nineties. There was a lot of vocal opposition to the £1 million white elephant. It was branded a huge waste of National Lottery money. What could possibly justify spending such an exorbitant amount on a rusty coathanger embedded in a Gateshead hilltop? I was one of those cynics. I didn't appreciate the beauty or meaning of the Angel back then but now, as I glide by on my train journeys below, I recognise the iconic landmark it really is. The Angel has become the new Tyne Bridge. It is a symbolic focal point for the entire NewcastleGateshead community, the wider North East region, to rally around and claim as their own.

I'm glad to have the Angel in my region.

Forgetfulness

I was speaking to my good friend Doctor Death on the telephone the other day. Doctor Death, a fellow first aid trainer, earned his nickname because he tends to overcomplicate matters when he's training. He used to work for the ambulance service and has watched a few too many episodes of Casualty. Who said anorak!

Anyhow, he was asking me about the training I did at Berwick two weekends ago - did it all go okay and did I achieve what I'd set out to do? It took a while for the penny to drop. "What first aid training?" I asked him. "Up at Berwick last weekend" he replied. I'd done that many first aid sessions up at Berwick that I had completely forgotten about that specific occasion. That's quite bad given that only a week had elapsed.

I've been doing a lot of that recently - forgetting things. It's been a problem for the last few years. Strangely I can actually remember times when I've been forgetful. It normally happens with silly little routine things - things you do every day with barely a second thought. For example, I often walk to the kitchen to put the kettle on and completely forget what to do when I get there. I'd sometimes go looking for Blu-Tac or Sellotape and end up rummaging around the salad drawer at the bottom of the fridge. I'd end up looking in the microwave for a carton of milk - of course everyone keeps their milk chilled in the microwave! Are these the actions of someone who is sound of mind?

Well, actually I think they are. For all I forget where I put down my coffee five minutes ago, I can remember the weirdest of details long term. I am the only person I know who can recite his bank account, National Insurance, driving licence and passport numbers digit-perfect. Likewise I can remember the entire script to the original Star Wars trilogy word for word. That's a lot of long term storage capacity wasted on trivial little things, but my short term recollection is shot to bits.

I wonder if I'll be able to remember in ten months something which I have forgotton doing ten minutes ago. Whatever that may be.

Neighbours on Five

Hey fellas - have you heard the news? Neighbours has moved to Five!



In the grand scheme of things not that important but I can't help but think that Five has played an absolute blinder in snatching the long running Aussie soap from the BBC. Neighbours, at least for me, was the programme that settled me into an afternoon of relaxed viewing on BBC1. No Neighbours on BBC1 means no more afternoon viewing of the channel for me - especially since Five has scheduled it immediately before Home and Away. A whole hour of original programming on Five or yet another repeat of Diagnosis Murder on BBC1? Not too much of a decision.

So just what exactly does the BBC have left to offer? Apart from a load of obscure radio stations no-one actually listens to.

B&Q Shoplifting Blunder

Last week I was watching the regional news when I saw the story of 72 year old Thomas Radcliffe who was wrongly accused of shoplifting at B&Q in North Shields.

Mr Radcliffe had visited the DIY giant on the hunt for a new plug for his bathroom sink. Because sink plugs come in all shapes, sizes and designs (news to me, but apparently so) he took his old plug along to make sure he purchased something similar.

As he stood at the cash desk the shop assistant serving him noticed he was playing with the old chrome plug. She was curious as to why he wasn't paying for it, to which he replied "I brought it from home" and attempted to leave the store thinking nothing more about it. Just as he was about to leave he was accosted by two security guards and accused of attempting to steal his own plug.

Mr Radcliffe, obviously shaken by the ordeal, told the Telegraph: "I was handcuffed and marched through B&Q in front of all the customers. I even saw some of my neighbours and they looked shocked, obviously wondering what I had done. I have never felt so ashamed."

To add insult to injury it later transpired that the DIY store didn't even stock the type of plug that Mr Radcliffe had supposedly tried to steal. I was feeling really sympathetic towards this unfortunate gentleman up until this point, but the wheels were to turn.

B&Q acknowledged they had made a mistake and sent Mr Radcliffe a £100 voucher and bunch of flowers as a gesture of goodwill. This seems generous enough to me given it was a genuine mistake and there's not really any long lasting damage done. Furthermore, as Mr Radcliffe's case has now appeared on regional TV and in several national newspapers, it's not as if anyone will still think he's guilty, is it?

Unfortunately it doesn't seem that Mr Radcliffe is satisfied with that so now he's called in a lawyer to ensure he is adequately compensated for his traumatic ordeal. So in one foul swoop he's gone from persecuted pensioner to ambulance chaser. Not bad for an afternoon's shopping!

No More Pizza!

Pizza Hut - the family friendly restaurant.

The Daily Mail reported yesterday that a group of nine transsexuals and gay men were refused service at Pizza Hut when they turned up for a bite to eat.

The incident happened in Blackpool last summer when the group, mostly dressed in women's clothes, entered the restaurant to the laughter of diners before being told by staff that they had run out of pizza and to try somewhere else.

Michael Kemp, who was dressed in female attire, told the Daily Mail: "We couldn't believe it. Who's ever heard of a Pizza Hut running out of pizzas? It was clear they were embarrassed by us, especially because some of us were wearing women's clothing, and didn't want us in the restaurant."

Now three members of the party; Mr Kemp, Paul Barnabus and his partner Iain Buck; are claiming up to £3000 in compensation for sexual discrimination. Mr Kemp, a professional flower arranger (no shit), explained: "We felt humiliated, shocked and down-trodden by being refused a table."

Of course had Pizza Hut allowed the high-heeled, knicker-wearing men to stay they could have also been sued for the other customers choking on their food in a fit of hysteria!

PMQs

Welcome to Britain - English jobs for Scottish politicians.

For anyone who doesn't know Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) is a half hour session each Wednesday at noon at which Members of Parliament (MPs) question the Prime Minister on Government policy.

I try to watch PMQs every week for one reason and one reason alone - the Prime Minister's consistently woeful performance at the Despatch Box. Pathetic really is an understatement about the way in which Gordon Brown fends off questions from Opposition MPs. Careful observers will notice that nine times out of ten he dodges the question by turning it back on the person asking it. It is not uncommon for Brown to ask more questions than he answers in an attempt to sidestep the thorny issue at hand. Indeed he seems completely incapable of giving a straight answer to a straight question and he fools no-one.

PMQs is always stacked in favour of the Government because the Prime Minister always gets the final word on every question. That's quite a bonus because it allows him to say just about anything without closer probing from the House. If he gets asked a question on defence and backpedals to give an answer on education, not a rarity with the current incumbent, then no-one can challenge him on the relevance. Another advantage the Government has is that, being the largest party, they always get more friendly questions from the own MPs than challenging questions from anyone else.

It is refreshing for me, as a Conservative, to see David Cameron pick substantial holes in Government policy week after week. But I think we could do even better in seizing the political high ground. We need a more personable and talented orator standing face to face against the Prime Minister. That man is William Hague. I still have hope.

Ten Universal Laws

I received this list of Ten Universal Laws by email:

• Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
• Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.
• Those who live by the sword get shot by those who don't.
• Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.
• The 50-50-90 rule: Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there's a 90% probability you'll get it wrong.
• If you lined up all the cars in the world end to end, someone would be stupid enough to try to pass them, five or six at a time on a hill, in the fog.
• The things that come to those who wait will be the scraggly junk left by those who got there first.
• The shin bone is a device for finding furniture in a dark room.
• A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.
• When you go into court, you are putting yourself into the hands of 12 people who weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty.

Some of those strike home.

Pancakes and Electioneering

Today is significant for two reasons - Shrove Tuesday and Super Tuesday.

Shrove Tuesday is the day immediately before lent - a traditional time of fasting for Christians. The idea was that people would empty their pantries and larders of rich ingredients like eggs, milk and sugar thereby removing temptation during the fasting period. These ingredients were mixed together into pancakes, doughnuts and basic pastries which is why the day is also known as Pancake Day here in the UK.

Super Tuesday is the day when the largest number of US states simultaneously select which delegates are to go forward and vote in the next phase of the presidential candidate selection. Sounds kind of complicated. The delegates selected today, each of whom has pledged support to a particular presidential nominee, attend national nominating conventions at which their party's presidential candidate is finally decided. A Democratic candidate requires 2,025 delegates at the party's convention to secure their nomination. A Republican candidate requires 1,191 delegates on side. I can't get too excited about that. There are too many dynasties in US politics meaning it isn't actually as democratic as it should be.

I leave you today with a pancake recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
• 3.5 teaspoons baking powder
• 0.75 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1.25 cups milk
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted
• Optional: 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  

Directions:

• In a large bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Make a well in the center and pour in the milk, egg and melted butter. Mix until smooth.
• Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 0.25 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

I may post again later because I have a humorous email to share.

Frosty Sunrise

I've been away at Berwick this weekend doing first aid training. I had hoped to bring you some pictures of the historic border town but unfortunately my camera failed - an all too common occurence of late! Anyway, the image above shows sunrise over Heckley Crag slightly north east of Alnwick. It was taken at about 8 am on Saturday just gone. It's not great because it was taken on the move, but it still represents a colourful skyscape.

Malicious Allegations

With this new fangled BBC iPlayer thingy I was able to watch Waterloo Road earlier this evening. I am becoming a bit of a Waterloo Road addict - maybe because it seems so much more exciting than my time at school. We never had dead bodies found under the school field, stabbings in the yard, cute teachers with Scots accents or an ex-hooker as the head. Come to think of it, it was all pretty routine - a conveyor belt of going to school, doing your work, going home and then going back to school again. Monotonous? Well, not really because your friends helped to break the monotony. Repetitive? It certainly was.

The theme of this week's Waterloo Road was a malicious allegation of assault made against Scottish NQT Jasmine Koreshi. Miss Koreshi had intervened when she saw school troublemaker Michaela trying to coerse a younger pupil into dipping for CDs through an open car window. Scheming Michaela wasn't best pleased at being tackled by the young English teacher and fabricated a tale of events to make it look as if Miss Koreshi had over-reacted and misunderstood the situation. Michaela's claims that Miss Koreshi had a grudge against her fell on deaf ears with the school management team. Michaela then claimed that Miss Koreshi had assaulted her in the school corridor - an allegation given extra credance by the fact that she had arranged to have a mark on her face. Given that all of Michaela's gang had rehearsed their story diligently there was sufficient doubt in the head teacher's mind to suspend Miss Koreshi pending further investigations. The story will continue next week and I'll be glued to the screen to see what the outcome is.

Unlike bodies under the school field, stabbings in the yard and ex-hooker head teachers the problem of malicious allegations in the classroom is a real and significant one. Every day some maligned pupil fabricates a story against their teacher because they feel wrongly disciplined, have been given too much homework or they simply don't like them. The system being what it is the teacher is invariably suspended, which has the undesirable and often incorrect connotation of guilt. The pupil on the otherhand is allowed to remain in the classroom, possibly giving them time and opportunity to refine their story about the aforementioned teacher.

Of course it's entirely possible that the teacher is guilty of the misdemeanour of which they stand accused, in which case they should be firmly disciplined in line with regulation and precedent.

What concerns me is the disparity in the way the teacher and pupil are treated before the case is proved one way or the other. Whereas the potentially innocent teacher has their career and lifestyle turned upside down, albeit temporarily, the potentially guilty pupil is allowed to continue their routine completely unabated. That's not right.

Of course the educational puritans would argue: "well, you can't suspend the child from school when they haven't done anything wrong." Why not? That's exactly what happens to the teacher more often than not. It's important to draw the distinction that suspension does not naturally equate to guilt - what better way of doing that than treating the accused and accuser in the same manner?

I'll conclude by a very controversial statement. Any child who is found to have made malicious career and reputation damaging allegations against their teacher should forfeit their right to a state education.

Another Failed Photo Attempt!

It has been snowing again today. In the early afternoon the snow was particularly heavy and the gusting wind meant it was drifting up in places. It wasn't lying too deeply, but I thought I'd go exploring around the town anyway to see if there were any good photo opportunities. Unfortunately it was the dreaded brown slush by the time I had walked down there and good snapshots were in very short supply. Chronically short supply actually - I didn't take any until I got back home. Above shows the wintery scene looking south over the bungalows below my home. Note the snow thick in the air, although not so much on the roof tops.

It's still snowing here and the forecast is for a hard frost tonight. Hopefully the stillness of the night might allow the snow to lie a little and I might get some suitably artistic shots tomorrow.