Defragged!

Apologies for the lack of posts today

Every now and then you need to give your pc a good clean out, get rid of old files, find duplicated files, back up your documents and settings, back up ‘my computer’, save all of your music, pictures, documernts, and essential software to disc, and then delete them from the hard drives to save or create space.

The registry requires cleaning, ram needs to be reorganised and optimised, tcp settings need to be optimised, and then your volumes or partitions to be defragmented otherwise the whole machine starts to slow down. It’s a bit like spring cleaning your house!

So that’s what I’ve been up to most of today and while these volumes were being defragmented I took a good long leisurely walk through Marsden’s old quarry and the Crags in South Shields, taking my brother’s advice to carry the long lens and keep an eye open for kestrels. The weather was perfect, warm and sunny with just a little breeze, there were people on South Shields golf course enjoying a round, and dog walkers in plentiful supply. With the sky being almost blue with just a few high clouds the views to the north and west were superb and even St. James’ Park in Newcastle was able to be seen (as Prince Charles might have said “like a huge carbuncle on the face of humanity”.) However, I didn’t spot the kestrels.

I managed to come back with some useful material for South Shields Daily Photo which will be featured over the coming days, and I also managed to escape the cacophony of noise generated by some the political wannabes driving around town with megaphones mounted on their chariots blaring out “the line” on who we should vote for on Thursday. Despite the pilot tests in recent years on new voting methods to encourage greater electoral participation (vote by text, by email, via internet, by post etc.) it seems that the old tried and tested ways still have their advantages in South Shields, besides, the “pilots” singularly failed to increase turnout. Thursday will probably prove the point that political engagement is still lacklustre throughout the country, don’t expect any massive turnouts breaching the 40% barrier anywhere other than London.

If you get a chance, say tomorrow, to have some exercise in a more rural environment, take a close look at how many plastic bags are snagged on hawthorns, brambles, and gorse bushes, see how many empty bottles and cans are buried in the undergrowth, and then you can decide how well your local council deals with waste and how well our education system is working with the youth of our generation.

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Lib Dems in a flap!

Not Clegg’s finest hour

So the people of South Shields and Jarrow will not now be able to partake in a referendum over the EU Reform Treaty, courtesy of Nick “cluck cluck” Clegg, who ordered his Lib- Dem MPs into a flap by directing them to abstain in the Commons vote this evening. His sham excuse of wanting an “in or out vote” on the EU was nothing more than a smokescreen to hide his intentions of denying us a referendum on a treaty which less reforms than creates a new European super federalist ideal with a treaty so like the constitution rejected by the French and the Dutch that they could have been twins.

Clegg’s capitulation “leadership” resulted in three of his front bench team tendering their resignations and ten of his backbenchers joined David Cameron’s Conservatives to vote in favour of a referendum. Of the three main parties, the Conservatives are the only one to have honoured their promises to the electorate at the last election, Labour and the Lib-Dems both promised us a referendum and both reneged!

This has not been Clegg’s finest hour in his short term as leader!

Other blog reactions

• Well done to the 13 LibDem MPs who voted for a referendum. Glad to know that 20 per cent of LibDem MPs have the courage of their convictions. Shame about the rest - Iain Dale’s Diary
• Last night’s Paxman interview was excruciating, Clegg at one point attacked the Labour Party for “reneging on its commitment to a referendum”. The government uses exactly the same sophistry as the LibDems. So he was condemning himself by those words. - Guido Fawkes
• How long before another leadership contest? Third time lucky for Huhne? - Dizzy Thinks
• Through no fault of my own, my own political party turned me in to a liar. I told fibs on doorsteps, not deliberately, but because I was under the misapprehension that the Liberal Democrats would be true to the manifesto that was published. - (Lib-Dem) Norfolk Blogger
• The guilty men:
• Gold prize for guilt: Brown and the vast majority of the parliamentary Labour Party for breaking their election manifesto promise.
• Silver prize: Nick Clegg for putting his pro-Europeanism before his party’s traditional commitment to democracy. 13 LibDem MPs defied Clegg’s instruction to abstain.
• Bronze prize: The five Tory MPs who said they were voting against the people having a say. - Conservative Home
• The public can see this rank hypocrisy and deceit for what it is, and whilst some Lib Dems may not be able to break their word and will vote with the Conservatives today, the public have seen their party for what its is: dishonest, unreliable, hypocritical and deceitful. - Man in a Shed
• Lord what fools these mortals be! If you kept your word and said what you mean you wouldn’t get into these difficulties, Mr Clegg. Does he really think these contortions are the way to help restore faith in politicians? - John Redwood
• The burning question is of how much damage has been done to the Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems. - The Coffee House
• As the full scale of the Lib Dem revolt becomes clear, it didn’t go unnoticed that Vince Cable (who harbours his own doubts and has appeared on an Open Europe platform) chose not to take his customary seat next to Nick Clegg on the Liberal Democrat front bench, but chose to sit in the row behind… - Red Box
• The Liberal Democrats want to be everything to everyone - to the left of Labour for disillusioned Labour voters, and just enough to pose on the centre-right to attract disillusioned Conservatives. It is easy indeed to promise paradise on earth when you know there is no chance you will ever have to deliver. - Cranmer

Any guesses why the Liberal Democrats chose the colour yellow?

Save the pigeon cree!

North East MP calls for pigeon cree to be saved!

Frazer Kemp MP for Houghton and Washington East has tabled the following Early Day Motion, and I kid you not!

That this House supports the campaign by the Ryhope Allotment Holders to maintain and protect their environment which includes the world’s only listed pigeon cree; calls upon the owners of Worktalent Ltd to withdraw their notice to terminate the lease; and believes that these historic allotments should be held in trust by the community and provide facilities for local children to enjoy and understand horticulture and the care of pigeons.

Yes, that’s what they spend some of their time in Parliament doing, launching campaigns to save pigeon crees! Good grief, it’s even a “listed” cree, what type of list that it’s on is not clear, but what certainly is clear is that folks like to criticise the North East for being a little insular and backwards looking at times, in contrast to the efforts of politicians that I witnessed yesterday. Frazer Kemp does little to promote the best interests of North East regeneration with motions such as these. The pigeon cree may well deserve to be relocated (the birds would take some time to reaccustom their inbuilt GPS systems, for sure), but it’s hardly the most pressing matter for the region.

The famouse grouse

Note for bloggers, if you are intending to make use of this graphic, a link back will be much appreciated!