Well it time once more to delve into my music collection this time I'm looking at the Hs.
With the MTV Europe Music Awards happening in Belfast at the weekend I could have gone Irish with a little Hothouse Flowers, but maybe that would have been too predictable. Belfast is the home of the Delorean sports car, which starred in Back to the Future so I could have done a little Huey Lewis and the News, though not that track.
There is also the possibility of a little Whitney Houston, or some Human League, maybe even some George Harrison. But instead I'm going to link this week's some to one of those that some of bowlers sang usually and ironically not quietly around town after a really good match.
Tuesday, 8 November 2011
Monday, 7 November 2011
We know the route but who will be the 8000th and light the cauldron
People all over the place are talking about the Olympic torch coming to somewhere near them. I reckon it will come within 100m of this house as it moves from Bangor to Newtownards on 3 June. But the news is also speculating about who will be the final person to light the torch.
Here is a list of the cauldron lighters over recent Summer Games:
2008 Beijing Li Ning winner of 6 Olympic medals in Artistic Gymnastics, China's most successful Olympian
2004 Athens Nikolaos Kaklamanakis yachtsman gold medalist in 1996
2000 Sydney Cathy Freeman at the time the silver medalist in 400m from the previous games, but won gold in that games. Only lighter of cauldron to win gold in the same games.
1996 Atlanta Mohamed Ali boxer who in 1960 won Gold as Cassius Clay in the heavyweight division
1992 Barcelona Antonio Rebello archery who famously fired a lit arrow into the cauldron and is so far the only paralympian to have lit a cauldron
1988 Seoul Chung Sun-Man, Sohn Mi-Chung, and Kim Won-Tak the first two were children while the last took part in the marathon at that games
I've gone that far back to show there aren't really any rules as to who can lit the cauldron, except that it is usually someone involved in sport, although in Lillehammer's Winter games His Royal Highness, Crown Prince Haakon lit the cauldron. While he didn't compete both his father and grandfather had.
So who might have the privilege of lighting the cauldron in the Olympic Stadium on the 27th July. Here are my four favourite contenders and a little bit of a wildcard.
Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson the paralympian first competed in Seoul in 1988 and by the time she retired in 2007 had won 16 Paralympic medals from 100 - 800 m in five games, eleven of them gold. As well as winning the London Marathon on 6 occasions. She would certainly be a popular choice with her connections to London through the marathon route that passes through the nearby Docklands.
Sir Steve Redgrave holds the accolade as Britian's greatest Olympian with six medals, including five successive golds over five games from Los Angeles in 1984. Clearly in contention as an option for the final accolade well know throughout the world of sport for his exploits.
Sir Chris Hoy the cyclist will hope to be competing in the "Pringle" as the velodrome is known next door to the main stadium, to add to his five Olympic medals, 4 of them gold, 3 last time out. He has already cycled into the Sports Personality of the Year Awards show. So a ramp up to where he needs to light the torch is highly possibly.
Sir Roger Bannister is one of the names associated with an historic moment, he was the first man to run under 4 minutes for the mile. He has also a loose association to the 1948 London Games at which he was listed a possible but decided he wasn't ready for that stage at the time. He therefore took part in the 1952 games which had an unexpected semi-final included and he ended up only coming 4th in the final. But that spurred him on to be the first man to break that 4-minute barrier.
My final choice is a wild card and someone you will probably all ask who. So:
David Bond the sailor. Unlike Bannister he actually took part in the last London Games in 1948 and actually won gold in the swallow class along with Stewart Morris. He is the only surviving British Gold Medalist from those games and the surviving British Olympic Gold Medalist from the earliest games. He will be 90 by the time the Games start. The games may be looking to have a legacy that lasts from this games, but here is a man who marks the legacy of starting the games after WWII to keep the young people of the world coming together every four years to compete in sports. If he has the role of lighting the cauldron I would not be surprised, it would be an honour
Here is a list of the cauldron lighters over recent Summer Games:
2008 Beijing Li Ning winner of 6 Olympic medals in Artistic Gymnastics, China's most successful Olympian
2004 Athens Nikolaos Kaklamanakis yachtsman gold medalist in 1996
2000 Sydney Cathy Freeman at the time the silver medalist in 400m from the previous games, but won gold in that games. Only lighter of cauldron to win gold in the same games.
1996 Atlanta Mohamed Ali boxer who in 1960 won Gold as Cassius Clay in the heavyweight division
1992 Barcelona Antonio Rebello archery who famously fired a lit arrow into the cauldron and is so far the only paralympian to have lit a cauldron
1988 Seoul Chung Sun-Man, Sohn Mi-Chung, and Kim Won-Tak the first two were children while the last took part in the marathon at that games
I've gone that far back to show there aren't really any rules as to who can lit the cauldron, except that it is usually someone involved in sport, although in Lillehammer's Winter games His Royal Highness, Crown Prince Haakon lit the cauldron. While he didn't compete both his father and grandfather had.
So who might have the privilege of lighting the cauldron in the Olympic Stadium on the 27th July. Here are my four favourite contenders and a little bit of a wildcard.
Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson the paralympian first competed in Seoul in 1988 and by the time she retired in 2007 had won 16 Paralympic medals from 100 - 800 m in five games, eleven of them gold. As well as winning the London Marathon on 6 occasions. She would certainly be a popular choice with her connections to London through the marathon route that passes through the nearby Docklands.
Sir Steve Redgrave holds the accolade as Britian's greatest Olympian with six medals, including five successive golds over five games from Los Angeles in 1984. Clearly in contention as an option for the final accolade well know throughout the world of sport for his exploits.
Sir Chris Hoy the cyclist will hope to be competing in the "Pringle" as the velodrome is known next door to the main stadium, to add to his five Olympic medals, 4 of them gold, 3 last time out. He has already cycled into the Sports Personality of the Year Awards show. So a ramp up to where he needs to light the torch is highly possibly.
Sir Roger Bannister is one of the names associated with an historic moment, he was the first man to run under 4 minutes for the mile. He has also a loose association to the 1948 London Games at which he was listed a possible but decided he wasn't ready for that stage at the time. He therefore took part in the 1952 games which had an unexpected semi-final included and he ended up only coming 4th in the final. But that spurred him on to be the first man to break that 4-minute barrier.
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| David Bond earlier this year |
David Bond the sailor. Unlike Bannister he actually took part in the last London Games in 1948 and actually won gold in the swallow class along with Stewart Morris. He is the only surviving British Gold Medalist from those games and the surviving British Olympic Gold Medalist from the earliest games. He will be 90 by the time the Games start. The games may be looking to have a legacy that lasts from this games, but here is a man who marks the legacy of starting the games after WWII to keep the young people of the world coming together every four years to compete in sports. If he has the role of lighting the cauldron I would not be surprised, it would be an honour
Blood Ban not lifted - just shifted sideways
Yesterday Belfast was the driving force and focus for a forward looking music industry thanks to the MTV Europe Music Awards, today we are the backward cousin of the UK once again.
The reason.
While the rest of the UK have introduced a 12 month deferral period on men who have sex with men (MSM) giving blood, here in Northern Ireland our health minister, the DUP's Edwin Poots, is still apparently making up his mind. This despite the draft SaBTO report on the issue being available since April and the other three health ministers coming to the conclusion to accept SaBTO's recommendations in September almost 2 months ago.
At a recent Health Committee session at Stormont it was pointed out to the minister by the chair of the scrutiny committee Michelle Gildenew:
There may be headlines saying that "lifetime ban" has been lifted, but if you are a heterosexual who is sexually active ask yourself one question. When was the last time you went for 12 months without having sex? Then tell me if the lifetime ban is lifted.
Of course it isn't it is merely a ban by another name, one that the Liberal Democrats refused to allow to continue at their conference in September. What we need is a policy based on the best testing regime, the best science and behaviour not a misconceived perception. One example of the continued stigma is the testing for hepatitis B and C antibodies instead of the actual virus. Why? Because those who regularly have their blood tested, especially MSM, are given inoculation against these so will have the antibodies but be protected from contracting the disease. This is the main concern apparently leading to a deferral period, because the antibodies take time to appear of course, whereas the testing for the actual disease is more rapid.
The reason.
While the rest of the UK have introduced a 12 month deferral period on men who have sex with men (MSM) giving blood, here in Northern Ireland our health minister, the DUP's Edwin Poots, is still apparently making up his mind. This despite the draft SaBTO report on the issue being available since April and the other three health ministers coming to the conclusion to accept SaBTO's recommendations in September almost 2 months ago.
At a recent Health Committee session at Stormont it was pointed out to the minister by the chair of the scrutiny committee Michelle Gildenew:
The briefing paper that we got from the Department was very helpful on compliance levels and on the current risk of HIV-infected donations being released into the blood supply. I refer you to the fact that the information provided in the paper states that, if the 12-month referral were introduced, the risk would be 0·228 per million donations. The current risk is 0·227 per million donations, so that would be a rise of 0·001 per million donations. How many donations do we get here in the North in a year? I would imagine that one million would be quite high, but the number would need to be over 100 million donations before the figures would kick in. That is an awful lot of blood for such a small placeWhen questioned on how many donations there were in the UK, the Minister said there were 2.5m across the UK a year, and that the Northern Ireland Population was 1.8% of the UK total so a divisor or 30 should be used. In other words 83,000 donations a year in the UK. Therefore the increased chance of removing the lifetime ban in Northern is one new infection ever 1204 years, or one new case by 3215.
There may be headlines saying that "lifetime ban" has been lifted, but if you are a heterosexual who is sexually active ask yourself one question. When was the last time you went for 12 months without having sex? Then tell me if the lifetime ban is lifted.
Of course it isn't it is merely a ban by another name, one that the Liberal Democrats refused to allow to continue at their conference in September. What we need is a policy based on the best testing regime, the best science and behaviour not a misconceived perception. One example of the continued stigma is the testing for hepatitis B and C antibodies instead of the actual virus. Why? Because those who regularly have their blood tested, especially MSM, are given inoculation against these so will have the antibodies but be protected from contracting the disease. This is the main concern apparently leading to a deferral period, because the antibodies take time to appear of course, whereas the testing for the actual disease is more rapid.
Cheerio MTV it's been sound, so it is.
Well last night was the MTV Europe Music Awards in Belfast, the place has been a buzz all weeks with sightings of big music celebs all over the place. Well last night they were all gathered in the Odyssey Arena for the little shindig. Of course MTV are closing down most clips on Yoputube.
First up, and I make no excuse for combining two guilty pleasures, it is the winners of the Global Idol award Queen with Adam Lambert on vocals.
But the BBC do have some images of the rest of the show as do the Belfast Telegraph.
First up, and I make no excuse for combining two guilty pleasures, it is the winners of the Global Idol award Queen with Adam Lambert on vocals.
But the BBC do have some images of the rest of the show as do the Belfast Telegraph.
Sunday, 6 November 2011
The lost opportunity because of that stupid cartoon
There was much made of the stupid cartoon that came out the Scottish Lib Dem press machine, but there is something to just what dreamworld Alex Salmond is living in over his quote about Scotland and Qatar. What he said was:
"As nations, we both have considerable expertise in oil and gas production, but as we look to the future and a low-carbon economy, we must increasingly develop new technologies.
"We discussed the remarkable similarities between our respective nations.
"Although both Scotland and Qatar have common strengths in the oil and gas sector, we are both seeking to develop our low carbon energy industries.
"This is where Qatar's focus on becoming a global knowledge hub links well with Scotland's considerable reputation as a world-leading education nation."
Scotland a world leading nation in education? Where is that league table. According to the Programme for International Student Assessment that is just average. Edinburgh may be the 36th Rank University in the World this year, with St Andrews 85, but out of 12 UK universities that is just 2. Glasgow does come in at 102, Aberdeen 151and Dundee 176, none of this is totally top of the world stuff, though not to be sniffed at.
So the real issue that the Scottish Liberal Democrats should have been attacking Salmond on was education from that cartoon. That and the commitment to green energy as Patrick Harvey did the other week. Unfortunately those ships have sailed.
Now maybe my former colleagues in Scotland are trying to pretend it is business as usual, maybe they are scared of the impact that the elections in may had. But there is something that has to be done it is choose where, when and how to attack. Sadly such insight was lacking on this occasion. With backs against the wall trying to avoid seeing Scotland swept away on a Nationalist tide you need to be smart in how to stem that tide not give it more power to the waves that come with it.
"As nations, we both have considerable expertise in oil and gas production, but as we look to the future and a low-carbon economy, we must increasingly develop new technologies.
"We discussed the remarkable similarities between our respective nations.
"Although both Scotland and Qatar have common strengths in the oil and gas sector, we are both seeking to develop our low carbon energy industries.
"This is where Qatar's focus on becoming a global knowledge hub links well with Scotland's considerable reputation as a world-leading education nation."
Scotland a world leading nation in education? Where is that league table. According to the Programme for International Student Assessment that is just average. Edinburgh may be the 36th Rank University in the World this year, with St Andrews 85, but out of 12 UK universities that is just 2. Glasgow does come in at 102, Aberdeen 151and Dundee 176, none of this is totally top of the world stuff, though not to be sniffed at.
So the real issue that the Scottish Liberal Democrats should have been attacking Salmond on was education from that cartoon. That and the commitment to green energy as Patrick Harvey did the other week. Unfortunately those ships have sailed.
Now maybe my former colleagues in Scotland are trying to pretend it is business as usual, maybe they are scared of the impact that the elections in may had. But there is something that has to be done it is choose where, when and how to attack. Sadly such insight was lacking on this occasion. With backs against the wall trying to avoid seeing Scotland swept away on a Nationalist tide you need to be smart in how to stem that tide not give it more power to the waves that come with it.
Saturday, 5 November 2011
SDLP elect new leader
The second UK political party leadership election result of the week was announced earlier today in Belfast. The SDLP were replacing Margaret Ritchie after just 19 months with a man, this is not me being sexist but a reality that there were only male candidates in the contest for party leader.
There were 348 votes cast, making the quota for election of 175.
In the first round
Alex Attwood 46
Connall McDevitt 105
Alasdair McDonnell 127
Patsy McGlone 70
Alex Attwood eliminated
2nd Round: Transfer of Attwood's 46 votes
Connall McDevitt 131 (+26)
Alasdair McDonnell 140 (+13)
Patsy McGlone 76 (+6)
non-transferable 1
Patsy McGlone eliminated
3rd Round: Transfer of McGlone's 76 votes
Connall McDevitt 152 (+21)
Alasdair McDonnell 188 (+48)
non-transferable 7
Alasdair McDonnell elected with vote exceeding quota
Alasdair McDonnell the MP and MLA for South Belfast was therefore elected to be the new leader of the SDLP.
Before Margaret Ritchie announced she was resigning she said that she did not feel it was possible to be an MP, MLA and leader of the party, but at the time she said such triple jobbing was 'a fully justifiable position'. The issue of double (triple) jobbing is one that the people of Northern Ireland find themselves in the largely unique position of finding their politicians in. The election of another double jobber as leader makes it hard to see how any of the big parties are going to break the double (triple) jobbing culture. Only the Alliance and Greens have effectively removed double jobbing from their ranks. The election of a new leader doing two jobs one at Stormont and one at Westminster by the SDLP makes it hard to see how the parties are going to get out of the two jobs mentality.
There were 348 votes cast, making the quota for election of 175.
In the first round
Alex Attwood 46
Connall McDevitt 105
Alasdair McDonnell 127
Patsy McGlone 70
Alex Attwood eliminated
2nd Round: Transfer of Attwood's 46 votes
Connall McDevitt 131 (+26)
Alasdair McDonnell 140 (+13)
Patsy McGlone 76 (+6)
non-transferable 1
Patsy McGlone eliminated
3rd Round: Transfer of McGlone's 76 votes
Connall McDevitt 152 (+21)
Alasdair McDonnell 188 (+48)
non-transferable 7
Alasdair McDonnell elected with vote exceeding quota
Alasdair McDonnell the MP and MLA for South Belfast was therefore elected to be the new leader of the SDLP.
Before Margaret Ritchie announced she was resigning she said that she did not feel it was possible to be an MP, MLA and leader of the party, but at the time she said such triple jobbing was 'a fully justifiable position'. The issue of double (triple) jobbing is one that the people of Northern Ireland find themselves in the largely unique position of finding their politicians in. The election of another double jobber as leader makes it hard to see how any of the big parties are going to break the double (triple) jobbing culture. Only the Alliance and Greens have effectively removed double jobbing from their ranks. The election of a new leader doing two jobs one at Stormont and one at Westminster by the SDLP makes it hard to see how the parties are going to get out of the two jobs mentality.
Cameron is Davidson's Prime Minister not her boss
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| Ruth Davidson, new leader of the Scottish Conservatives |
You see the thing is that the Scottish Conservatives like Scottish Labour are both going to be lead by a leader of the party overall in Scotland and not have a leader of their MSPs as previously. Or to put it in a Lib Dem sort of way some sort of federalism. I'm not sure if the same rules are being brought into the Conservatives and Labour parties in Wales but it has happened in Scotland. Surely this move can't be solely down to the fact that any party that wasn't the SNP did poorly in the Scottish Parliament elections in May.
The Liberal Democrats have always operated on a federal format with leaders and policy making for Scotland and Wales devolved to those national conferences and party members. Of course unlike the Tories and Labour that policy making is further devolved to the conference reps themselves who get to vote on the policies. Conservatives and Labour are merely handing over the decision making and policy differences to the leaderships, heaven forbid if they started to once again trust the members of their party to actually make any real decisions that actually affect the real people they see around them all the time without being told just what they need from the Westminster 'experts'.
However, it is a step that Scottish politics will it seems now be decided by the Scottish parties (in whatever way they allow this to happen). It may put a bit of a kibosh to the SNP talking about the Westminster parties when all of them can clearly point to policies that differ from Westminster to talk into account Scottish needs and situations.
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