Syria and the Arab League

The Arab League has sent an "urgent message" to the Syrian government, denouncing "the continued killings of civilians" taking part in protests.

The league's ministerial committee on the Syrian crisis also urged Damascus to "take the necessary measures" to protect civilians.

The ministers also said that they had held "frank and friendly" talks with President Assad on Wednesday.

This is the same tone used by a parent in a supermarket to their small child as they slide down a shopping aisle on their stomach.

“Don’t do that Tarquin, otherwise mummy will get cross in a minute.”

If the videos just beginning to surface of Gaddafi’s capture, showing him being beaten, repeatedly stabbed in the arse with a knife and then finally being shot in the head don’t persuade Assad to go, somehow I don’t think that a ‘frank and friendly’ chat with the Arab League will do it.

Gaddafi, what, no exit plan?

Now, I’m not a dictator, mad or otherwise but if I was running a country I’d make bloody sure that I had an exit plan in place for when the people turned on me.

You know what fickle ungrateful bastards the people can be, just ask that nice Mr Mubarak who was running Egypt for 30 years.

Hussein’s exit plan was to hide in a hole covered by a sheet of polystyrene; Gaddafi’s to hide in a drainage pipe and then hope that the person who finds you has a sense of humour. But these pale into insignificance when compared to Hitler’s exit plan. Which was to wait in a cellar in Berlin until the Russians surround it and then marry your long-standing significant other, poison the dog and then commit suicide. Me, I’d have a private jet fuelled up and ready to go at the slightest whiff of popular unrest, a villa in the Caymans and a Swiss bank account.

Bob Buckman’s obituary

Extract from Bob Buckman’s obituary in today’s Independent.

Robert Alexander Amiel Buckman, doctor, writer, presenter and performer: born London 22 August 1948; Professor, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto; married 1977 Joan-Ida van den Ende (two daughters), secondly Patricia Shaw (two sons); died 9 October 2011.

Buckman was born in London, where his father was an import-export trader and his mother a barrister. He gained a love of acting while attending University College School and, at the age of 13, even appeared in the West End as the Midshipmite in the Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera HMS Pinafore (Savoy Theatre, 1961).

After graduating in medicine from St John's College, Cambridge, Buckman became a junior doctor at University College Hospital, London. Alongside his work and stage appearances with Beetles, he contributed scripts to the television sitcom Doctor on the Go (1977) and the satirical radio series Week Ending. He and Beetles also appeared in The Secret Policeman's Ball, the 1979 Amnesty International fund-raising comedy gala at Her Majesty's Theatre.

During his early years in Canada, he continued to be seen occasionally in Where There's Life, contributing reports from across the Atlantic. He also presented two ITV series of The Buckman Treatment (1986, 1989), surveying "the American way of health".

Later, he wrote and fronted the What You Really Need to Know About... series of films (1993-2000) aimed at patients and made by Video Arts, John Cleese's production company. Then, they launched the Videos for Patients series, whose releases in 2000 covered illnesses such as Parkinson's disease. Each would begin with a doctor-patient scenario acted out by Cleese and Buckman, before the humorous doctor explained the medical facts.

As well as being the author of more than a dozen books – includingNot Dead Yet: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Robert Buckman (1999) – Buckman contributed to Punch magazine and the Toronto newspapers The Globe & Mail and the Star. In 1999, five years after winning the Canadian Humanist of the Year award, he became president of the Humanist Association of Canada.

Buckman never fulfilled his greatest ambition, which he once revealed to be to meet his first great-great-great-grandchild. He died in his sleep on a transatlantic flight from London to Toronto after a week spent making a series of short films titled Top Ten Tips for Health.

I am always amazed when I read an obituary like this, how on earth do people find the time and talent to achieve so much?

I remember watching Bob Buckman in a TV series in the 1970’s called the The Pink Medicine Show and for some obscure reason one sketch has stuck in my mind.

A patient is lying in bed and a doctor ask if he has any problems, only one replies the patient, my bowels. What’s wrong? Asks the doctor. Aren’t you regular? Oh no replies the patient, every morning at seven o’clock. So what’s the problem? Asks the doctor. I don’t wake up until eight o’clock. Replies the patient.

The government is to announce that the Olympic Stadium deal with West Ham and Newham Council has collapsed, sources say.
Legal challenges by Tottenham and Leyton Orient, plus an anonymous complaint to the European Commission, have led to fears that court action could drag on for years while the stadium remains empty.
A ministerial statement is expected around noon, saying that the stadium will remain in public ownership and leased out to an anchor tenant following a new tender process.
It is likely that under the new tender process any costs of transforming the stadium after the 2012 Games will be covered by the Olympic Park Legacy Company. Prospective tenants will then be asked to bid for the stadium with the running track remaining in place.
The tenants would pay an annual rent to the OPLC, which could actually prove to be less costly for the likes of West Ham.


Several points spring to mind on reading this.
Why does anyone bid for the olympics? It always results in over spending, debt burdens and stadiums that no one wants.
Prestige? 
It must be a huge comfort for the Greeks as they approach financial ruin to look back upon the 2004 Summer Olympics.
Legacy?
The Olympic village will be turned into housing. Why do you need to host an Olympics to spend money on housing and infrastructure? I'd settle for the amount of money  they spend on bidding for the Olympics to be spent on housing and infrastucture.
The east end of London will have a 60,000 seater athletic stadium that no one wants, but apparantly it will be usefull in our bid for the 2017 world athletics championships.
Finally on a footballing note. I have watched football at stadiums with running / dog tracks around them: The old Wembley, the old Stamford Bridge and the Olympic Stadium in Munich (a stadium that Bayern München couldn't get out off quickly enough) and to put it mildly from a spectator's view point they were all terrible.

I'm not psychic but.......

To follow up on a previous blog:


Sally Morgan ‘Psychic Sally’ who was accused of being a charlatan has apparently been filmed wearing what appears to be a hidden earpiece.
She launched a spirited defence after being accused of having information fed to her during performances - and has threatened legal action against anyone who repeats the claims.
A new video  on YouTube shows the entertainer walking off stage after a show in which she appeared to communicate with some of her audience's dead relatives.
She can be seen taking wires out of both her ears. The device in her right ear is a microphone but a second black earpiece is also taken out of her left ear.
During the stage show itself, a side-on close up of Sally's head appears to show something black sitting inside Sally's left ear.




Now I'm not psychic but I suspect that the last place that 'Psychic Sally' wants to appear in is a court of law.  A court of law depends on evidence and tangible proof, both of which are alien concepts to 'Psychic Sally'.  

Hellraiser Courtney Love opens up about her tragic husband Kurt Cobain in a frank interview with Vanity Fair.
The 47-year-old mother says she still carries anger that Cobain killed himself back in 1994 by shooting himself in the head.
Speaking to the publication, the Hole singer mused that she would 'kill' the Nirvana frontman if 'he came back right now'.


There's not a lot you can add to that.


Reminds me of what George Best's ex wife, Angie said when she heard of his death.
'It was the last thing I thought he'd do.'