Lib-Dems expose EU crisis
This bit from CMU caught my eye. It is wonderful to see the Liberal Democrats have their finger on the pulse of what is important to the average British citizen.
Liberal Democrat MP Richard Younger-Ross has called for the voting system
for the Eurovision Song Contest to be changed because, he says, countries
vote for their neighbours instead of the best song, something which, he
maintains, is “harmful to the relationship between the peoples of Europe”.
Don’t know whether his constituents have called for this in anyway, but,
nevertheless, he’s spent some of his no doubt valuable time tabling an EDM
(early day motion) which has been backed by fellow Lib Dem Colin Breed as
well as two Labour MPs, John Robertson and David Drew.Actually, not everyone agrees with Younger-Ross that Eurovision is 100%
biased. One Derek Gatherer (really, that’s his name) has spent some of his
own no doubt valuable time studying Eurovision voting patterns and he says
voters aren’t quite as biased as many say, although he admits geography can
be a factor. He says: “Less than a third of the total votes for the winning
entry were ones which seemed to have been influenced by block voting. It
does make it rather harder for us to win, but it’s not to suggest that all
the votes are necessarily given out according to these local alliances”.That said, Younger-Ross isn’t alone in expressing concern about Eurovision
voting rules this week. Elsewhere, the Malta contingent have implied that
it’s all a bit of a fix, and that the phone voting system isn’t being
properly monitored in eastern Europe, whilst Germany’s national tabloid Bild
is asking why the Western entrants should be paying shitloads of cash to
fund a contest they’re seemingly no longer in with a chance of winning. I’ve
been thinking similar thoughts myself, though Bild perhaps aren’t taking
into account the cash that it also generates for those countries. However,
Bild do have something that I don’t, and that’s a quote from this year’s
German entrant Nicole, who says: “It is obvious that Eastern European
countries engage in dirty trade with points every year. Germany should
withdraw from the competition”.What a palaver, eh? Last word to Paul Gambaccini, who told Radio 4 that he
thinks it’s all political: “Britain’s votes plummeted with the invasion of
Iraq and have stayed in the basement with the occupation. There has always
been a political dimension to Eurovision, the love-fest between Greece and
Cyprus has been noted for a long time. Now with the public voting instead of
the panel voting it is really extensive”.
Lets make sure that a band like Lordi, who are actually good and talented, never win again. The Eurovision drones are still upset about it. They don’t seem to realise that Eastern Europe think Europop is a load of ole’ rubbish.
1 commentOsama Would Be So Proud
Brutal torture at Guantanamo Bay:
An accused enemy combatant held at Guantanamo Bay told a military hearing he was physically as well as mentally tortured there by having to read a newsletter full of ‘crap,’ being forced to use unscented deodorant and shampoo and having to play sports with a ball that would not bounce.Majid Khan of Pakistan denied any connection to Al Qaeda and said he was tortured and his family hounded by U.S. authorities, according to a redacted transcript released Tuesday by the Pentagon.
Khan told an April 15 hearing called to determine whether he was rightly classified as an “enemy combatant” that he also had his baby pictures taken from him, that cleaners left marks on his cell walls and that detainees have no DVD players or other entertainment.
At one point, Kan said he wrote on his walls, “stop torturing me, I need my mails, newspaper and my lawyer.”
Khan was captured in Pakistan in 2003. The military says he has provided support to Al Qaeda and has expressed a desire to assassinate Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharaff. U.S. government authorities have said that Khan was also involved in plots to blow up American gas stations and poison U.S. reservoirs. The April 15 hearing is the first step in possible war crimes charges against him.
[. . .]
He said he has been unable to see his daughter, was denied communal recreation for 11 weeks, went four weeks without sunlight and fresh air, was deprived of basic or comfort items for three weeks, had his beard shaved twice and was forced to wear a protective suicide prevention smock.
And he complained that he was only given cheap unscented soap and shampoo, and that in the recreation room there is “no weight lifting machine, no toilet, no sink, ho hoops, and even balls them self have little air in them; they hardly bounce.”
“They know my weaknesses – what drive me crazy and what doesn’t,” he said.
Apparently it doesn’t take much. No doubt they decided that waterboarding this one wasn’t worth the effort.
Comments are off for this post
