Entitlement ID Cards

Apparently, the poor misguided soul that is David Blunkett firmly believes that the UK public will support use of an ID card. Personally, I’m unconvinced – first of all, you’ve got to find something to persuade the Daily Mail readers that ID cards are a good thing. There’s no way the Mail won’t sit there and batter on about it being an invasion of privacy, and so on.

And then you’ve got to persuade Joe Public. Some will go for it – hell, some of them will stick their heads into plate-glass windows if you tell them it’ll be good for them – but I think most people won’t. There’s still all too much of a feeling of Big Brother (as in 1984, not the shonky Channel Four series) for most of the populace to like the idea of ID cards.

Hiatus Unintentionale

Blogger has been tits-up all day, hence no other updates, except for the flowers. There’ll be more in a bit, when I’ve re-tracked-down the bits I was going to say about earlier.

Flowers too

Also, during the last two blindingly sunny days, two of the lilies I’ve been growing have bloomed. So of course photos were required – and have been placed on the plants photo page. I’ve never managed to get lilies to flower before, so I’m bizarrely pleased about having managed it this time. I know, it’s hardly newsworthy, but what the hell, it’s my site, and I’ll say what I want. *Grin*.

Lazing on a Sunny Afternoon

It’s been a lazy day, thankfully. The last few weeks (and weekends in particular) have left me feeling fairly drained, so it’s been really good today to be able to just go out and sit in the sun by the canal, and finish John Connolly’s “White Road“. Very relaxing, even with the bunch of pissheads slightly further down the canal-side. But all things considered, it’s been a fine day, and one where doing chuff all really doesn’t seem like that bad an idea. *Grin*

Only in local government

I’ve just been given a potential contract for the next six months working for one of the local councils, twatting about working with their website, and building a Content Management System. In the contract, it says I’ve got to work a 7.20 hour working day, leading to a 36.40hour working week.

Now, I’m assuming they mean 7hours 20 minutes – but that’s not the same as a 7.2hour day. Needless to say, I don’t think it’d be approved by the Campaign for Plain English.

A political gesture

Nice to see John Prescott living down up to his nature, and making a V-sign at journalists in Downing Street. I’m sure they all responded with the official sign-language denoting a politician. (A loosely clenched fist waved gently side to side).

Oddly enough, the same gesture is also used to denote bank managers, estate agents, lawyers, and football team managers.

What about the femail ones?

The Royal Snail has announced that it will be phasing out the use of overnight mail trains after 170 years of using them. (And somewhere there’s still a letter from the first train – still undelivered, of course) Quite how they can say they want to stop using them “because of poor reliability” without getting flattened by thunderbolts is beyond me. A more perfect illustration of “pot calling the kettle black” you couldn’t wish to see.