Blogged elsewhere: TV companies take mixed approach on Paddy Power ad

Broadcasters are taking mixed approach to Paddy Power's Transphobic ad, which is currently under referral by the Advertising Standard Authority.

Read more about the current state of play on LGBT+ Lib Dems Northern Ireland.

It's Friday...so two centenaries and someone turning fifty

There are a number of centenaries today.

The first is the man who said these words before adding his maniacal laugh

The foulest stench is in the air

The funk of forty thousand years

And grizzly ghouls from every tomb

Are closing in to seal your doom

And though you fight to stay alive

Your body starts to shiver

For no mere mortal can resist

The evil of the thriller

Yes, Vincent Price was an unlikely rapper but that is just what he did on Michael Jackson's Thriller. But he had a film career of over 50 years making his name in the horror genre. Here is a tribute to his career, set to the song he had no small part in making memorable.



The man who lost to Richard Nixon in 1968 was Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey, who was over his father's drug store in Wallace, South Dakota 100 years ago today. He is the only second generation Norwegian (on his mother's side) to have served as either PotUS or VeeP. Here is his acceptance speech for nomination to be Johnson's running mate in the 1964 election.





Finally, no she's not 100 years old, but Peri Gilpin the actress who played Roz Doyle in Frazier is half way there today. Many happy returns, so to celebrate here is a montage of Roz moments.

Lib Dems in the Thick of It

One of the consequences of the coalition Government has been some hasty casting for the next series of The Thick of It.

We'd already been introduced to the Shadow Minister Peter Mannion in the 2007 Specials and his team, and saw more of them in Series three earlier this year, with the opposition sensing they were on the edge of victory and poor Malcolm Tucker the Government spin doctor on the verge of a nervous breakdown. However, as creator Armando Iannucci has admitted there was no reference to the third party and therefore some hasty casting has been done.

I expect from intra-Department tension will spring from the Secretary and Minister of State being from separate parties with different ethos and ideas. After all there is nothing like a bit of tension to spark off comedy. Good for comedy no doubt would be to have someone the anti-thesis of Mannion who may even have the senior role in Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship especially if they are tasked with a referendum on voting reform possibly within the remit.

More Lovers Than Clegg

Once upon a time.

Not so Long ago, there was the news story that one of the party leaders had had no more than 30 lovers.

But also not so long ago there was a little shop. It was different from other little shops in that is didn't sell anything. The things in it's window had all been found and repaired by a couple of rag dolls, ornaments on a Mouse Organ, a carved wooden bookend in the shape of a woodpecker and a saggy, old, cloth cat, baggy, and a bit loose at the seams but whom Emily loved.

Well it would seem that more than just Emily loved that dear Bagpuss, Old Fat Furry Catpuss. As he has just topped a poll as the favourite Children's TV animal of all time.

Just be careful if you are one of his firends and lovers because when Bagpuss goes to sleep all his friends go to sleep and we know how sleepy that striped cat could be.