Lucozade All Eck Wants for Christmas

Apparently the Rev I.M. Salmond First Minister to the new kirk of Holyrood wants a year's supply of Lucozade™ for Christmas. Well this does raise the questions is that in bottles or cans? How many bottles/cans does he get through in a day? What capacity bottle (if bottle is preferred option) does he use? Also does his dentist know he drinks this many sugary drinks on a daily/yearly basis? And if so, what has the First Minister's dentist got the say about it?

I follow commend Scottish Lib Dem leader Tavish Scott's wish on this wish list, though it will be somewhat delayed in delivery. He like me is hoping that Liverpool maintain their current position in the Premier League when the final, final whistles of the season are blown. For those not au fait with football that would mean Liverpool have finally won a title for the first time since 1989-90, the first under the Premier League brand and will help to keep the marauding Manchester United at bay from equalling our record of titles for at least another 2 seasons.

The Labour Leader Iain Gray wants Barack Obama's Ray-Bans™. These are probably so he can attend an East Lothian constituency party function without drawing attention to himself.

Meanwhile elsewhere Margo MacDonald clearly wants to be Willie Wonka by wanting a whole chocolate factory, maybe Margo is going to attempt euthanasia by death by chocolate. Margaret Mitchell is a bit Michael Jackson-esque is wishing for a chimpanzee and Willie Coffee wants a Star Trek™ phaser gun (this is available just up the hill from the Parliament and down South Bridge at Forbidden Planet™), unless of course he wants a fully functioning model in which case he may have to wait until after Montgomery Scott is born in Linlithgow.

Brown "Entirely Unfit...to Hold High Office": Smith

One of the problems with Jacqui Smith protesting innocence and the high ground quite so much about the whole Damian Green scenario is her choice of words. Take this example:

'Ms Smith added that for Mr Grieve and Mr Cameron to assert that the systematic leaking of government material was not serious as it did not relate to national security was "wholly irresponsible and entirely unfit for those who seek to hold high office". '

Where does one start? Systematic leaking of government material by an opposition MP, not taken as serious as it did not "always" relate to matters of national security but as part of their duties. Perhaps as Jacqui Smith points out these matters should be taken seriously and the Met should be checking into these leaks listed by Daniel Finklestein, especially as the one in July 1991 from the Defence Department. As this individual not only sought high office but has actually attained the highest one. As the last of Finklestein's quotes from the start of the current Labour regime puts it:

"None of us has the first sodding idea about what government means, whether any of us will be any good at it, or even what being good at it means....... Some of my colleagues have made a career out of being a conduit for leaks from the Civil Service to the press. That's hardly going to be much good in government."

So Jacqui, it seems actually to have been highly appropriate practice for those seeking to hold high office just over 11 years ago. Indeed more or less a career step for some to reach the highest office in the land or ennoblement via the European Commission.

Vatican Backs Death to Homosexuals

I've altered the title slightly from Malc to whom a hat tip is due. But the impact is the essence of the story.

The Vatican are mixing up a decriminalisation of homosexuality with a move to civil partnerships or even same sex marriage it would seem. They are opposing a UN resolution calling on all Governments worldwide to "decriminalise" homosexuality.

The resolution is merely aimed at the 80 countries who outlaw same sex-relations in all circumstances, and the 9 states or regions within a state where the mandatory sentence for being homosexual is the death penalty. Indeed the draft resolution makes no mention of the Churches main concern, as cited my Archbishop Celestino Migliore, same-sex marriage that is not on the agenda merely the upholding of human rights for all. Rama Yade the French Minister of Human Rights and Foreign Affairs is raising this draft resolution on behalf of the EU, of whom the French currently hold the rotating Presidency, along with violence against women before the General Assembly of the UN when they meet between December 15th and 20th.

Sadly the church of Rome cannot discern what is an act of basic human rights, that to live or be free, from its own prejudices.

The 12 Days of Credit Crunch

Due to the recession my true love is making cut backs this year.

So On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love is planning to send to me:

Twelve Turkey Drummers
Eleven Red Hot Chilli Piper Downloads
Ten Neds a Fleeing
Nine Laddettes Pouting
Eight things Made in Beijing
Seven Swan match boxes
Six Cheesey lines Goose fat lined tins
Five Cur-tain Rings
Four Calling Cards
Three Bic Pens
Two Turtle Necks
and a poached Partridge egg in Pear Jus

Chipped and HIV+

The Papua province of Indonesia has controversially proposed a law to implant microchips into citizens living with HIV. Papua has one of the worse infection rates outside Africa but the measures which also include mandatory testing, tattooing of carriers and special ID cards for those that test positive sound awfully like some of the anti-Semitic measures taken by the Third Reich.

The microchip technology is the modern version of travel permits being able to track the whereabouts of the victims of this disease. However, with much of the Papuan population cut of from towns, electricity or phone coverage even the effectiveness of such measures proposed by the Indonesian government would seem ludicrous. The aim of the chips is to seek out those who are "sexually aggressive", the meaning of which is defined by John Manangsang a lawmaker as "actively seeking sexual intercourse."

The country's AIDS Commission has said the provision is not just unworkable in Papua but a violation of human rights. "How can someone know if a person is having sex or jumping and dancing?" said the commission's secretary Nafsiah Mboi. Instead of branding and tracking HIV+ citizens help and medical care should be high on the agenda.

Top Thai Party Banned

No doubt the prospect of banning the Labour Party whilst possibly a fleeting pleasant thought across Damian Green's brain will not come to fruition here in the UK despite the news from Thailand.

The constitutional court in Thailand has dissolved the ruling People Power Party and two of its coalition partners the Machima Thipatai party and the Chart Thai party for fraud and buying votes in last year's elections. The parties' leaders including the Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat have also been banned from politics for five years. The majority of the parties' MPs will be allowed to keep their seats in the parliament but under another party name, they have promised to form a new government.

Mr Somchai is the brother-in-law of exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and ex-chairman of Manchester City Football Club. Thaksin earlier this year broke his own bail, while visiting the Beijing Olympics, from charges of corruption for which he was sentenced in absentia to 2 years in jail.

World Aids Day: Still There is Ignorance

To mark the 20th World AIDS Day much of the media has been running stories over the weekend and today. However, in Friday's times next to the tales of four people living with HIV/AIDS there was also a startling reminder that there is a lot of ignorance still out there.

Those of us who lived through the 1980's early campaign Don't Die of Ignorance will definitely be shocked at the amount of ignorance that the article threw up.

Amongst some of the startling levels of ignorance were:

"One person in three living with HIV in the UK doesn't know that he or she
is infected, putting their health and that of their sexual partners at risk.
Undiagnosed HIV is responsible for about half of all new infections.

"For many people the diagnosis is too late for them to start treatment. The
virus is more likely to be diagnosed late in heterosexual men (42 per cent) and
women (36 per cent) than in gay or bisexual men (19 per cent). A late diagnosis
is 13 times more likely to lead to death within a year.

"In a recent survey, only 79 per cent of respondents knew that HIV can be
transmitted through unprotected sex between a man and a woman, compared with 91 per cent in 2000."

Sadly after 20 years it is still ignorance that leads to more unnecessary deaths in the UK, but sadly the level of ignorance appears to be growing again.