The Three Conference Speech Wordle Comparison

So David Cameron has just completed the cycle of leaders' conference speeches. So how do they compare as far as key words go here are the comparative Wordles

Nick Clegg

Main words

• people
• economy
• right
• Labour
• easy
• government
• every

Ed Miliband

Main words

• people
• values
• Britain
• country
• right
• change
• economy
• work

David Cameron

Main words

• people
• country
• get
• know
• back
• economy
• one

Five on the Fifth October 2011

It is that time of month again to celebrate the 5th of the month with 5 pictures that fit into the theme chosen by Stephen Chapman. Stop by the link to have a look at what everyone else has done.

Therefore it is with great pleasure that I present to you this month's selection on the theme of pleasure.

I cannot tell a little lie, the weather here for the past few days has been terrible, so bar one of these the pictures are not recently taken (wouldn't be much pleasure in that). However all are from the last month.

It is conference season and I get an inane pleasure from getting up in front of people and actually speaking so here I am.

And when our conference is over, well I've been watching the others laptop in hand and sometimes playing chess as I watch.

Of course it no secret that I enjoy a certain sport and play it summer and winter. The weather may have turned but this is what I enjoy.

One thing I wish I could afford to do more, is sail, but every time I have it has given me pleasure.

Finally, a few comments were  that my apparel at a recent family wedding brought great pleasure. So here I am enjoying myself.

Sorry Luv this Ambulance Ain't Going Sarf o the River

This Sunday UK Uncut plan to block Westminster Bridge. It isn't clear for how long they intend to do this.

However, as their press release notes:

Westminster Bridge, one of London's most iconic landmarks, lies between the Houses of Parliament on the north of the river and St. Thomas' Hospital on the south. UK Uncut claims that "by blocking Westminster Bridge, we symbolically block the bill from getting from Parliament to our hospitals". In a message to supporters entitled "Block the Bridge, Block the Bill", the group encourages participants to adopt tactics including lying in pools of fake blood, performing pretend operations and having picnics overlooking Parliament.

There is an issue with this.

St. Thomas' is the main hospital for the City of Westminster, the bridge is the normal access point. With a blocking of the bridge and possibly a police presence around the area to deal with the protest access to St. Thomas' Hospital is liable to be restricted. Therefore forcing emergency services to have to try and get to Guys or St. Barts. This could lead to a delay in these emergency services .

Some of the above would apply on a normal day. October 9th isn't a normal day. The Bridge will already be closed off as part of the Royal Parks Half Marathon route. So ironically UK Uncut will be blocking off an already blocked off bridge but on top of that will be causing disruptions around an NHS facility possibly causing it to refuse to take emergency cases.

Cat on a HRA Tin Roof?

Did you hear the one about Theresa May, the Human Right's Act and the Cat?

Well earlier today the Conservative Home Secretary said in her speech to the Tory faithful.

We all know the stories about the Human Rights Act. The violent drug dealer who cannot be sent home because his daughter – for whom he pays no maintenance – lives here. The robber who cannot be removed because he has a girlfriend. The illegal immigrant who cannot be deported because – and I am not making this up – he had pet a cat.

Only she was kidding them somewhat.

The cat wasn't the reason that the immigrant couldn't be deported but was merely evidence that the immigrant had a relationship of some time standing. Indeed as the Telegraph at the time reported.

As part of the application and as part of the appeal, the couple gave detailed statements of the life they had built together in the UK to show the genuine nature and duration of their relationship. One detail provided, among many, was that they had owned a cat together for some time.

The appeal was successful and when giving the reasons for the success the judge did comment on the couple's cat. It was taken into account as part of the couple's life together. The Home Office asked for the decision to be reconsidered. They argued it should be reconsidered because the decision was wrong in law, and one error they cited was that too much consideration was given to the couple's cat. 

The home secretary mentioned the case in the context of her plans to change the rules to stop convicted criminals resisting deportations on the basis of article 8 – family ties. But the Bolivian man – who has never been named – was not even a convicted criminal.

So not only was the cat only part of circumstantial evidence that the man was in a relationship with another human being, not a feline, but also he wasn't a criminal as the Home Secretary, whose remit includes policing and immigration, almost seemed to imply by adding him to this list.

Indeed the Home Office had failed to carry out its own procedures regarding unmarried partners which is why the cat and the other factors were brought up to show that the relationship status was that of partners not housemates. So British authorities had failed to acknowledge their own procedures in bringing this man before  British judges seeking to expel him.

Ken Clarke has even challenged her that nobody has even been refused deportation purely because they owned a cat. However, May has been back pedaling since she left the stage saying that the fact checking of her speech was done from the press, maybe she puts too much trust in the Daily Mail's reporting of this story. Why not the court papers themselves to which she would have access?

May got a knee jerk reaction to her speech from the conference faithful, just as Nick Clegg gained a great cheer for saying we would not be scrapping the Human Rights Act in his speech at Lib Dem Conference. The difference is that Nick Clegg knows the history of the Human Rights Act, as he demonstrated in his speech, Theresa May was just playing to the crowd.

We are right to stand up for civil liberties. No retreat to the illiberal populism of the Labour years. We are right to insist on keeping the tax system fair. Asking the most of the people who have the most. And we will always defend human rights, at home as well as abroad. The European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act are not, as some would have you believe, foreign impositions. These are British rights, drafted by British lawyers. Forged in the aftermath of the atrocities of the Second World War. Fought for by Winston Churchill. So let me say something really clear about the Human Rights Act. In fact I'll do it in words of one syllable: It is here to stay. Nick Clegg in Birmingham 21 September 

Update The BBC have made it possible download the original judgement here

Notes:

The European Court of Human Rights came into being21 January 1959 by virtue of Article 19 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Convention was founded out of the Council of Europe at the end of World War II.

The Council and what it were seen as required to do were laid out by a speech from Winston Churchill on (fortuitously for my memory my birthday) 19 September, 1946.

In the meantime some cats.

Daily Fail publish the story they wanted about Amanda Knox

At 8:50pm the Daily Fail published the news from Perugia. Only it wasn't the news that all the rest of us were seeing.

In what appears to have been a pre-written story ready to go live when the verdict was give the Daily Mail is unique in not actually reporting the news. As events were happening on the 24 hour rolling news the Fail decided to print the following (I'm fisking in red)

Judge Claudio Pratillo Hellman also ruled that Raffaele Sollecito, 27, Knox's former boyfriend, should remain in jail and confirmed the original 25-year sentence on the computer studies graduate.

Making up the verdict of a judge, isn't that contempt of court?

As Knox realized the enormity of what judge Hellman was saying she sank into her chair sobbing uncontrollably while her family and friends hugged each other in tears.

There were no seats everyone, including Amanda was standing. She did slump but into her sister's arms.

A few feet away Meredith's mother Arline, her sister Stephanie and brother Lyle, who had flown in especially for the verdict remained expressionless, staring straight ahead, glancing over just once at the distraught Knox family.

Prosecutors were delighted with the verdict and said that 'justice has been done' although they said on a 'human factor it was sad two young people would be spending years in jail'.

Of course it was the defence team who were saying that Justice had been done. But that we mustn't forget Meredith whose young live had been ruined in such a voilent way.

So someone at the Daily Fail had written the News before it had happened. Someone had published it when this wasn't what was happening. The Daily Fail have shown that they don't care about facts, in fact they will write the story that they want. Nick Pisa whose byline is on this piece is no more than a writer of fiction, not a very good foreteller of the future and a poor excuse for a journalist, but then look at the excuse of a newspaper that he works for.

Update The page has since been taken down. But I have screen prints of the entire article.

Anything Jone Samuelson can do....

Yesterday Mark Cole brought you the delights of possibly the longest headed goal in footballing history.

That was in a Norwegian match. Well those crafty Spaniards hate being outdone by one of the smaller footballing nations (come to think of it they hate being outdone by Germany, Italy or England as well). So step forward Eduardo Gonzalez for a perfectly timed sliding tackel on Valencia's Sergio Canales who had already but his team one up against Granada.

A sliding tackle you say, how can that beat a long headed goal? Well because Señor Gonzalez was the man in black, and actually in black. So this may be the first time that the referee has executed a sliding tackle on a ball dribbling player.


Slide tackle referee Valencia vs Granada by greekgoalsellas

L, the U and Everything: A-Z of the Music I have C is for Crowded House

I was looking through my Cs in my record collection and came across the fifteen year old Farewell to the World album by one of my favourite bands, especially live. I do have all the studio albums as well. Of course the farewell only lasted 10 years as other bands were coming back in the mid 90s so too did Crowded House.

A little bit of Crowded House trivia for you the Finn brothers were actually called Cornelius Mullane and Brian Timothy. So I reckon that they got the best possible names out of what their parents gave them to be pop stars. Corny and Brian Finn, no that's not right.

However, my choice is the live version of the song that I quite often think of in Ireland or Scotland.