Tractor Production Up!

From the Independent
Exam boards are today expected to announce a further rise in the percentage of scripts being awarded an A-grade pass – pushing it up from 25.3 per cent last year to about 26 per cent. A slight rise in the overall pass rate is expected, which would put it up to 97 per […]

Olympic Viewing Figures

from The Guardian:
The Saturday highlights show lost out to another showing for Brendan Fraser movie The Mummy on ITV1, with 3.6 million viewers from 4.50pm, while the Sunday show was beaten by ITV1’s Heartbeat, with an audience of 6 million.
More people want to watch a 9 year old movie than the Olympics.
How about instead of […]

Censors…

via The BBC
YouTube has been criticised by MPs, who say it must do more to vet its content.
I’ll bet YouTube are pretty nervous about that, seeing how they’re an American company who I’m sure keeps their servers in the US, where they’re protected by the right to freedom of speech. Short of blocking them with […]

Religious Discrimination

I have to wonder how far one could go with this:-
A Christian registrar who refused to officiate over same-sex civil partnerships has won a discrimination case that could redraw the boundaries of anti-discrimination laws.
Lillian Ladele is set to receive thousands of pounds in compensation after an industrial tribunal on Thursday ruled that Islington council unlawfully […]

Presidential Race

I’m not sure that I particularly like Barack Obama’s policies, but I do feel a bit like the contestants on 3-2-1 when they got rid of dusty bin.

Birth Certificates

via The Times
All fathers will be required by law to sign their child’s birth certificate under new measures designed to increase parental responsibility.
The new law will give birth registrars powers to pursue reluctant fathers who do not want to be named. It will also prevent mothers from keeping the name of the father off […]

Conservative European Policy

I spotted this on Iain Dale’s Diary about Ken Clarke’s possible re-instatement to a Cameron cabinet:-
1. Would he sign up to Cameron’s European policy?
Interesting question, but before anyone could answer it, surely they’d have to know what Cameron’s policy on Europe was.
I asked Iain himself, and he rather unhelpfully suggested I Google for it, a […]

President of Soil Association on the 3rd World

Just doing a quick peruse of Comment is Free when I found this:-
Asked about that modern green dilemma - whether it is better to buy organic fair trade from developing countries, Monty’s reply was uncompromising and a little politically incorrect. “Maybe the third world countries also have to suffer a bit as a result of […]

Irish Friends…

Please Vote No For Me in the referendum.
(I promise I’ll have a few sessions on Guinness if you vote the right way, but don’t expect me to buy any Louis Walsh records).

NHS IT Delays

NHS IT 4 Years Late
It will be at least 2014 - four years later than planned - before a single NHS electronic patient records system is in place in England, say auditors.
What the hell? This was started in 2002. It’s going to have taken 12 years to deliver a patient records system?
But an NAO […]