London Country Route 341

Nostalgia was texted today to me from SW. He sent me a photo of a die cast toy Routemaster Bus of the same type that used to serve on the 341 route - which as a kid I used to catch with my mum and dad back from St. Albans town centre to Marshalswick. Consequently I did a search on Google Images and found the photograph shown above.

Bent "Lords"

Lord Taylor -- Would you pay this 79 year old crook £10,000 a day as a consultant??

Lord Snape -- A rather apt name methinks!

"The power of the House of Lords is entirely dependent on its credibility. In the absence of the democratic mandate that comes from election, the legitimacy of the Lords relies on it serving its purpose well and with unimpeachable integrity. That is why the allegations against four Labour peers, that they willingly sought changes to legislation in return for payment, are so serious. They call into doubt the viability of the House of Lords in its current guise.
The allegations read like a definition of corruption. Reporters from The Sunday Times posed as lobbyists acting for a fictitious business from Hong Kong interested in amending the Business Rates Supplements Bill to facilitate the establishing of a chain of shops in this country. They allege that Lord Truscott of St James, Lord Moonie, Lord Taylor of Blackburn and Lord Snape were all ready to negotiate a price to help." -- Taken from The Times On-line.


Did anyone hear the extracts from the recordings that the The Sunday Times reporters made?... UNBELIEVABLE!!! Yep give us a £100 grand and I'll get the law altered for you. Jeezus - these scumbags have got to be sent down. Pompous and arrogant beyond belief their sole concerns are to line their own pockets. Makes me sick.


Rant over.

Slumdog Millionaire

From the fantastically grim images of Mumbai to the Bollywood style dancing at the end - this film is brilliant! It follows the life of Jamal Malik as he grows up in the slums of Bombay and is inter cut with the present day where he is a contestant on Millionaire (the Indian version) and is incredibly about to win the jackpot of 20 million rupees. Each question he faces is linked to a landmark event in his life. I urge you to go and see this film. In an age of remakes and sequels it is a breath of fresh air. Terrific.

Rating: 9/10

Beowulf

I finally got around to watching Beowulf on DVD the other day. I was quite impressed with the animation, however I still found the characters a bit stiff and dead even though they uncannily looked like the actors who were voicing them. Okay maybe Ray Winstone isn't 6'10" tall and physically very fit but facially you could see it was him. I was disappointed that Grendel was killed off in the first part of the film after a bloodthirsty battle but the dragon at the end was great. I reckon it would have been better if they had made it live action but I dare say the budget would have had to be 10 times bigger. An entertaining film and well worth watching.

Rating: 7/10

Kitchen Roll

What really irritates the hell out of me is trying to start a new roll of kitchen towel. Every soddin' time I attempt this task the top layer pulls away leaving the bottom layer behind, meaning that the first half dozen or so sheets are wasted. I bet the manufacturers do this on purpose...!

Rant over.

Patrick McGoohan

I was sad to read that the utterly brilliant Patrick McGoohan has died at the age of 80. For me he was the star of the greatest TV drama series of all time... The Prisoner.

Gas

A couple of weeks back I was going to rant about why gas and electricity prices haven't come down when petrol has... and then I read an article on MSN which asked the same question and came up with the answers. It was partly obvious ie. the providers are not passing on any kind of discount so as they can ramp up their profits and rip us off and the other part of the puzzle was that the gas producing countries (Russia, Iran etc) have decided to form a cartel much like OPEC so as they can charge an inflated price for gas. For every bit of economic downturn some git is making a mint.

On a separate note but still to do with cartels... I didn't realise what the penalty was if you are caught conspiring to form a cartel in the UK. The authorities throw the book at you (wrapped around an anvil!). Massive and I mean massive company destroying fines plus a lengthy prison sentence. So when you think about it those nice chaps in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia... in UK terms are nothing but criminals.

Rant over.

Lucy Pinder

I am embarrassed to admit that I caught the eviction of Lucy Pinder from the Celebrity Big Brother House last Friday. Okay, okay... I must be pretty sad to even accidentally watch this tripe - however I did notice a comment that this waste of space bimbo made when she thought the cameras weren't running. Immediately after they had given her the boot she said "I wonder if they will transfer my money now so I can spend some of it over the weekend". Says it all really doesn't it?

Rant over.

Lynmouth

West Somerset Railway