By anyone’s measurement, and by “anyone” I mean anyone not in the Government, the Government have had a pretty poor couple of weeks. The NHS, the budget (granny and pasty tax), petrol, cash for access. All of these things have affected the Coalitions popularity and our levels of trust in their competence but was it really their fault or was it ours?

If you take a very large number of steps back , tilt your head slightly to one side and look at the much bigger picture, might there be ...

So those people may be forced, if they don't want to become homeless, into taking out a mortgage that they can't afford. The banks, that are filled up with tax payer funded bailouts, don't want to lend anyone (taxpayers) any money, so the government sets up a "get a 95% mortgage" scheme that is backed by taxpayer money to enc...

Now, as I am sure you will be aware, I am no fan of David Cameron but the Eton boy has had a good couple of weeks. Given his handling of the British press you would have thought he once worked in PR...... oh now wait. He has played the UK press like a fiddle and they have rolled over and taken it like a dog having it's belly tickled.

Firstly there was his stunt, I said stunt, in Europe, he vetoed something. “Oh yes!” rang out the right wing press with one voice, “our boy is our boy,...

Do you remember at the end of summer/beginning of autumn we had that unseasonably warm spell? One last burst of lovely weather before we plunged into the, what always seems like, endless misery of chilly drizzle. It was beautiful and I decided that I wanted to go for a swim in the sea, not something I have done for a since I was a child. There is a very good reason I hadn't done it for so long, I can't swim very well. I am verging on the point of being described as a non-swimmer. This didn'...

I have just watched the really rather excellent “Eastern Promises” directed by David Cronenburg on surprisingly restrained form, well there is quite a lot of blood and some violence but for a Cronenburg film it's restrained. It is a great film focusing on Eastern European organised crime in London, I won't tell you more than that, I don't want to spoil it for you.

This is not a blog post to review the film, I'm not clever enough, erudite enough or knowledgeable about film enough to do th...

So today is the 31^st of October, you know Halloween or the day before the beginning of “Movember” (for those who don't know what Movemeber is I have embedded a link to a website that describes it for you, all you have to do is click on the blue “Movember” and you will automatically be taken there. Basically though it's men getting sponsored to grow a moustache for the duration of the month of November, hence, “Movember”, ah I think that may have rendered the clicking on the link a...

Now I will be the first to admit that I am not the biggest Weymouth. A significant number of it's residents that do nothing but complain and have therefore lead to the council not being brave enough to do anything interesting or exciting for the town. They have allowed it to remain exactly as it was in 1983. They have touched up the faded glamour and have just painted over the rusting cracks. They had traffic going nowhere and buildings that weren't designed as much as copied from the packagi...

Whilst most of my days are pretty good, it would be churlish to moan about tiny specific items, today is turning out to be a particularly good one.

First up it is a lovely day here in Dorset, the sun is shining and the sky is blue. My Ipod has just played Echo Beach by Martha and the Muffins and then Funny Little Frog by Belle and Sebastian. Both of these are great songs guaranteed to raise the corners of my mouth but combine them with a sunny day and even the Mona Lisa will be forced into...

Let this be a lesson to you, if things take a lot of time, let them take a lot of time. Some things cannot by hurried. The best things come to those who wait, patience is a virtue and so on and so forth. What I am basically saying is yes, the 3 minute pop song is fantastic (oh yes it really is, hell one of the best ever tunes is “Highly Evolved” by The Vines and that's under 2 minutes) but sometimes it takes a little longer to express an idea.

I had a surprise day off on Thursday and ...

I'm just catching up on some of my podcast listening and have just enjoyed the Pod Delusion from April 1^st, it was episode 78. Well, I enjoyed most of it, one of the pieces made me, almost, unbearably sad. The article is by Salim Fadhley and it is an interview with comedian Roy Zimmerman. They discussed a man called Ted Haggard who, for those who don't know, is an American evangelical pastor who has, in the past, said so...

There are many phrases that have entered the popular lexicon that are annoying and lazy, “it's not rocket science/brain surgery” for instance or “comfort zone” but there is one that, above all others, grates like sandpaper on my soft bits. Like nails down a blackboard (he says using another lazy phrase). Like Piers Morgan (yes it grates that much). I hate it more than any other, more even than English people using the question inflection at the end of sentences that are not questions ...

Every time there is a natural disaster of some sort you will find some enormous douche bag trying to blame it on God or related theological silliness. After the Haiti earthquake there was Pat Robertson saying that the Haitian people collectively sold their souls to the devil to help get rid of the French (true story),

and after seeing the suffering in Japan caused by one of the largest ever recorded earthquakes and a tsunami that ...

And so I was watching BBC news 24 (no matter how bad it is, and it is bad, it's not Sky news) and I got a slight whiff of nostalgia. Now this is odd for me because I don't remember a great deal of the events that have shaped my life up to this point and it, sometimes, makes life a little difficult as those who don't learn the lessons form history are doomed to repeat them I'm told. Well that's OK if you can remember them but I can't so I will probably repeat great chunks of my life (I do hope...

I know I sometimes make a bit of a fuss sometimes (yes, I do have a little self awareness) about homoeopathy (Open Office spelling) but to be honest I don't care that much. If someone has a cold or bruising and goes to Boots (or their local supplier of nonsense) then fine, they'll get better anyway but not due to the “medicine”. They could have saved a bit of money and just purchased some generic paracetamol, they would have felt better a bit quicker as well, but no one is harmed. To para...

Yes I may be on holiday but that doesn't mean that I'm not going to get involved.

Homeopathy is nonsense, lets be honest. It's silly. There is obviously no why that it can work. Like cures like, infinite dilutions, water having memory, clearly bobbins, yet still it persists. Frankly, you people are weird but hey, perhaps you need educating. I asked my 6 year old nephew, “when you add water to orange squash does it taste more orangey?” “No, of course it doesn't” he replied.

So last ...

“Please welcome Ashton Kutcher's dad, Bruce Willis!”

Yes, there was some news on Friday and we will get to it but let's not to anything too detailed and in depth, I'm on the wind down for a rather long holiday. I'm going to be away for a month, to Canada if you are interested, but if you are a burglar, and you happen to be reading this, we have left Cerberus in our hallway and he'll give you one hell of a nip if you try and break in.

We are staying with some friends for most of the ...

On Friday the Independent published this moving article by the very brilliant Johann Hari which described the last 10 years of his Grandmother's life. She had been hit by a drunk driver at the age of 80 and had needed to be cared for from then on. The article tells of the family's struggle to find a good/adequate/not abusive nursing home for their beloved family member and the guilt that he felt when there were problems.

Chronicled within are all the fears that we have about needing someo...

Ah ha! I think we have them! I’m talking to ...

So it's nearly Christmas (I'm sure you already now that but it you don't, it's in 3 days time so best you go and buy some presents) and I have written some songs, well 2. Just the words though, I have stolen the tunes. It's just a bit of fun.

How about this to the tune of “We Wish a Merry Christmas,” it's called “We wish you would find that Boson,”

We wish you would find that Boson,

We wish you would find that Boson,
We wish you would find that Boson with your big round machine.

...