Git News is a daily rant on life, politics, humour, food & drink, art, books, film, travel
Talking of the past, one of the most persistent – yet quickly disprovable – myths concerns the fact that the national euphoria created by England winning the World Cup in 1966 helped Harold Wilson to his election victory that year. I even saw it repeated in a long and discursive article (what the Americans call a "thumbsucker") in the Times this week. It’s easy to check. General election of 1966: 31 March. World Cup final: 30 July – 17 weeks later. Yet I suspect nothing as humdrum as facts will shake this belief.
Reader David Ray was at Essex University during the 1980s, at the same time as John Bercow. He has kindly sent me a copy of the Conservatives’ manifesto for the time Bercow was standing for president of the student union.
There was a great deal of upheaval at Essex in this period, and Bercow was all against people who think they have a "divine right" to stop other people speaking. (Cecil Parkinson had been driven from the campus by an egg-throwing campaign.)
Actually his declaration of principles seems extremely moderate: "We need to protect the interests of all students, not just a minority of egotistical political hacks," which seems a good definition of his present job.
The back page of the leaflet asks if you might really be a Conservative. "Do you like having fun, drinking, Clint Eastwood movies, making money, playing sport? Do you never wear sandals, men’s earrings, dope pouches, Palestinian scarves, Oxfam coats?" Bercow lost, but probably for the last time.
She revealed many weaknesses in 2008, she has limited policy knowledge, she is associated with weird fringe groups, she gave weak performances on TV – but when did any of these bar someone from running for the presidency.
Sarah Palin is running in 2012 – God help us – I wish I could trust the American public to tell her to get on her bike.
Election leaflets are one of the main weapons in the fight for votes in the UK. They are usually targeted, effective and sometimes very bitter. This brilliant new website is fascinating and most of the Norwich North by-election leaflets are up there already. I shall be posting all our leaflets there from now on.
Yesterday, the Minnesota state Supreme Court that Al Franken (D) won the Nov. 2008 senatorial election by 312 votes. The court rejected the claim by Norm Coleman (R) that the lower court made major mistakes and should be reversed.
Thus Al Franken will be sworn into the Senate when after the recess next week. However, Franken could take the oath of office from a local judge if he wishes. It has been done before. Franken would then be allowed to start hiring staff so he can hit the ground running Monday.
That end the longest thread by Salopblog and Gitnews – what a way to run an election!
I never leave a card tip now and will avoid Cafe Rouge and Strada from now on.
Cafe waiters fear the axe over cash tips
Observer probe reveals undercover diners are monitoring credit card payments for gratuities
Fresh evidence that one of the country’s biggest restaurant chains is using scare tactics to deter waiters from asking for tips in cash has been uncovered by the Observer
Employees of Tragus – which owns Café Rouge, Bella Italia and Strada – have come under pressure to ensure service charges are paid by card, and at least one waitress has told the Observer that they are being threatened with dismissal if they do not generate enough card tips. Some have been told that undercover staff posing as diners will check that gratuities are not being pocketed.
Cash tips go directly to staff, but those paid by card go to the company. A spokesman for Tragus denied the claims: "Service charge collected by waiters is reviewed by management for the purposes of identifying potential cash frauds on the business. No member of staff will be disciplined or sacked because a customer wants to pay their tip or service charge in cash."
I spoke to Rick Crowley yesterday for the first time in 45 years since we were at school together. I had seen that he was on Friends United and that he was involved with document scanning/processing/management. This came up on my current project and I Googled him and gave him a bell – he was right on the money and had already supplied scanning services for over 4m docs on our project already – I hope we can do biz – small world ain’t it! I first heard of the ‘paperless office’ at college yonks ago and hope for the first time in my business career I can make it happen with a purchase ledger system (read accounts payable) i.e. destroy the invoice as soon as recieved – looks very likely now! To hell with the Statute of Limitations – all parties (inc HM Revenue) accept a scanned document as better than the original as it is more accessible
Norm Coleman may be on the verge of losing his Supreme Court case against Al Franken for the US Minnesota Senate seat but since June 12 there have been at least four jokes at Coleman’s expense from Bill Maher, David Letterman and Stephen Colbert.
• “They had elections today in Iran. Apparently, it’s still too close to call. They say if the vote is still close by tomorrow, there will be a runoff election next week and then the usual series of lawsuits from Norm Coleman.” Maher, June 12
• “So now they’re going through the recount. They’re recounting the ballots cast in the Iranian election, and today they found 14 more votes for Norm Coleman.” Letterman, June 17
• “The supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, said, ‘This election was not rigged, the results are final, and you can protest all you want, but if you keep doing it, we’re going to start cracking heads.’ Now, if we could only get this guy to call Norm Coleman.” Maher, June 19
• On Iran’s decision to get rid of 3 million suspicious votes: “To put that in perspective, that’s enough to put 9,615 Norm Coleman’s in the Senate.” Colbert, June 23
This Ludlow Festival 50th anniversary open air production at Ludlow Castle was bawdy, brilliantly acted and musically a triumph – never seen it played like this but the words are as fresh as when they were first written. Did not get a universal crit approval but whoever cared about the crits.
Costume and setting evoked a feral, primitive world on the edge of anarchic collapse, reminiscent more of Mad Max. A steel spiral staircase dominated the stark, austere set – the music throughout is menacingly percussive, stripped of any lyricism or sense of ritual order. The Capulet ball is more of an All Blacks haka than a dance of harmony.
Crits say it lacks romance and maybe of the old fashioned kind but it evokes love as it is seen in the 21st century – for good or bad – I loved it. Air and breath come to mind not necessarily in that order!
But a good night out in Ludlow – off to Romeo & Juliette tonight and then WORK Thursday. Thanks to Charles I borrowed some which was meant for his lawn mower!
Sir David Frost entertains
Ludlow Assembly Rooms
Celebrated broadcaster Sir David Frost entertained a capacity crowd at Ludlow Assembly Rooms as part of the 50th Ludlow Festival.
For the first half of last night’s event, he regaled the audience with anecdotes from his career and showed clips from his landmark shows, That Was The Week That Was, The Frost Report and Breakfast With Frost.