And I almost forgot to talk about last night’s TV. Somehow I found myself watching the Jamie Theakston-narrated “documentary” Shops, Robbers and Videotape last night. This hour of unquestioning pro-CCTV propaganda wasn’t exactly balanced journalism, of the kind you might, foolishly, expect the BBC to generate. More a cheap homegrown version of all those police ...

Oh, and speaking of anniversaries… Hypocrisy is a wonderful thing. The third leader in today’s Guardian bemoans the curse of what it refers to as “premature anniversitis” (anniversaries being noted in the media at length for weeks around the actual event, as with recent coverage of the 50th anniversary of the Everest ascent). The column ...

There’s much to write about today – the line-up, last night’s TV, six months ;), Blair in Kuwait and the missing WMDs, the backpedalling of the Bush administration over WMDs, the interview with Salam Pax in the Guardian… where should I start? As ever, with the line-up, it’s the clashes that stand out. I mean ...

It was “only Brit in the room” territory again last night, when I went to see Melbourne’s Something For Kate at the Mean Fiddler. To be honest, never having heard either band before, I think I got more value from the support, The Mutts (lazy pseudo-music critic generalisation: BRMC meets The Music, er, backstage at ...

Something like the second sentence that my mum said to me when I finally got back home to Southport on Friday night, after the long day at work and the three hour train journey in true Virgin trains comfort (complete with complementary drunk bloke singing loudly from Crewe – and nearly-as-drunk scouser telling him (almost) ...

Now that I have that off my chest, I can remark on the fact that it’s Friday. woo, and indeed hoo! This week seems to have absolutely flown by. Now that the hangover has cleared up, I’m looking forward to a relaxing bank holiday weekend in sunny Southport.

If there’s one thing worse than all the spam I get, it’s the spam I get from real people. The other day, I was sent a forwarded email that I was sure to find funny and interesting. It wasn’t, and I didn’t. It was an email that is currently doing the rounds that purports to ...

I’ve been having a bit of a mare today. It started around 7.30 when the alarm went off and I couldn’t really believe it was time to get up already. Then I broke the shower. Well, I say “shower”, but I use the word in the loosest sense of the term. It’s really just a ...

I’ve talked about Metro before, and, as I said then, I really shouldn’t bother reading it. The letters page, however, continues to provide a rich source of comic material. If ever there was an illustration of the insidious right-wing obsessions of middle England, this is surely it. In today’s edition, under the headline pregnant moaners, ...

Now that you’ve registered at the NY Times site (what, you mean you don’t just blindly follow every link I put up here because I tell you to like you have nothing better to do?), you’ll be able to read this opinion piece on the dangers of private ownership, which is particularly scathing about everybody’s ...