Kiss and tell: or, hell hath no fury?

The question not yet raised in the Triesman affair is why did she turn him in? Why did she go to the date armed with a tape-recorder in the first place, and why did she think that it was right for her to sell a private conversation thing in this way? Without more information than that provided by the Daily Mail (wash my mouth out), it's hard to understand such extraordinary behaviour.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1278706/FA-chief-Lord-Triesman-Spain-bid-bribe-World-Cup-referees.html
Interestingly, if you Google 'Melissa Jacobs' you get a pornstar. If you add 'FA' you get this one.

Ashes to Ashes

For systematists, the world exists to put in order. For Harold Pinter it is for dissembling, through which the good and the humane find a way to seep out through the bureaucratic cage of ingrained reflexes. In a ruthless analysis of the totalitarian, he illuminates the pain of the individual. Throwaway lines sting, little words corrode, what is half-said crushes, what is tacit forebodes catastrophe. Pinter, the tailor's son, scissors language, allowing the action to originate from the voices and rhythms of the characters. Thus, there is no given plot. We do not ask: "What will happen next"? Rather, "What is happening"? The words are instruments of power. Words are repeated until they resemble truth. In a time of over-information, Pinter frees words from describing reality and makes them reality itself, at times poetic, more often oppressive. At the end, it is only through language that we can erase our destiny and recreate it. (Per Wästberg, presenting the Nobel Prize for Literature, December 2005)

Who's a wuss, then?

So General John Sheehan thinks that allowing gays in the army makes it soft (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/19/gay-dutch-soldiers-srebrenica).
I'd like to see him repeat that nose-to-nose with Gareth Thomas (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/welsh/8421956.stm).

Result!

It's lovely when you watch a columnist getting better and better, waiting for them to hit gold, and then they do. Marina Hyde, you have scored!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/06/ashcroft-mp-expenses-unelected-influence

Creaming off the profits

So Lord Ashcroft has managed to achieve what so many have campaigned for: a political party funded by the taxpayer. Nice one!

Orange and gold

I’ve found a lovely new trick. I take one (or more) of those oranges, tangerines, clementines etc that lurk in the bowl because you know that even if you go to the labour of peeling and pulling them apart the pleasure they give will be absolutely minimal – dried up, manky things. I stick my little magic stabbing juicer into them and squeeze whatever’s there into a bowl. Then I top it up with Havana Gold. Then I drink it, and smile.

The dregs and the cream

As I said, BBC Parliament is a gem. Yesterday I left it running with the sound off, so it was there again when I started Firefox again today. Glanced at it once or twice but it was tedious House of Lords stuff. Then later in the afternoon happened to catch the Welsh Affairs debate, with the nauseating David Davies going on and on and on and on, managing to be so insufferably dull that one longed for some of his nastiness. In the end I turned the sound off again and carried on working. When I switched back later I caught Adam Price making what may well be his final speech to the House of Commons (he described it as a valedictory). Utterly assured, full of apt quotations and historical references, vintage Price, but also incredibly gracious to his Labour opposites - Paul Murphy struggling not to be charmed, but Don Touhig simply rolling over to have his tummy scratched. And then the sting in the tail - let's make this a decade of investing in Welsh industry, enterprise and knowledge, and let's conclude it by bringing the World Fair to Britain for the first time in 150 years, and specifically to Wales - and a challenge to Labour, Conservative and Plaid to make it happen. Truly the man is brilliant. Let's hope he makes good use of his time in the US, and returns soon to the role of leadership he was born for.