Me and my phone

I’ve been tagged by the geekalicious Political Penguin to write about my cell in exactly 139-words.

So here goes…

Yeah, I use a BlackBerry.

I’m one of those people.

It’s only my second BlackBerry, I had the 8800, but my new Curve is much better.
No it’s not 3G, and that’s an issue on the move — but it does have a full keyboard, WiFi, video, 3.2MPxl camera, and launches and runs apps quickly.

Obviously a BlackBerry’s USP is its handling of email. This is truly peerless. And as I was using my Nokia N95’s 3G connection mainly for email, I don’t really miss the faster net access.

The thing that has impressed me most is the apps. The ÜberTwitter and facebook apps are awesome, and fully integrate with the BlackBerry’s brilliant OS. If Vodafone had the iPhone, I’d probably have that, but as a second choice, the 8900 has proven to be capable, well-designed, and powerful.

There. Pithy? I think so. I’ve utterly sold the phone short — but 139-words are the rules.

Sunny on Iran

Agreed.

But…

The election was a fraud. ~ Sunny Hundal

I can’t help but wince when people claim that the result was fraudulent. We don’t know that. We suspect it, but we don’t know it.

The western press, as we know, polled the urban young. Many warned, prior to the election, that non-urban areas are far more conservative and that there Ahmedinijad is very well liked.

It’s apparent that some intimidation occurred, and the election result is questionable, but we should be careful about being so certain that any foreign election we don’t like is rigged.

And – this folks is the huge elephant in the room – it’s highly unlikely that the installation of Moussavi would lead to the rapid liberalisation of Iranian society.

That said… Sunny is dead-right. Conservatives demanding action are dead-wrong.

Know-nothing Republican senators and vacuous Tory blowhards should keep their traps shut. What would a “strong statement” actually achieve, apart from justifying the Iranian establishment’s claims of foreign chicanery?

If we can help the Iranian progressives logistically, we should. But help should come from western citizens, not moronic conservative politicians trying to score political points.

Iran is at a crossroads. We should allow the people of Iran to determine their own destiny.

*Yeah, I know I’m on hiatus, but I needed a rant*

Break

Okay, it’s time again for a wee break.

I have a lot on, and the week has been very stressful indeed. I need a break from the internets – to switch off, and recharge.

See you soon.

Obama swats fly like Sensei

Griffin is finally legitimised. Thanks New Labour!

And so finally, fascist flabby arse-wipe Nick Griffin has achieved national political legitimacy by winning a seat at the European Parliament.

And guess what?

We put him there. The progressives. Or so-called progressives, anyway.

The New Labour project, that brave centre-left experiment to bring Clintonian Third-Way politics to a post-Thatcherite Britain, is over.

Yeah, Slippery Dave promises us pragmatic politics without “isms”, but we know that’s a crock to triangulate the Tories for the maximum haul of MPs at the next general election. Cameron will use his majority to remind us what a bunch of twat-necks the Tories are, and always have been.

I’m not a socialist. I’m a centre-left liberal. I believe in robust markets and social liberalism. Labour’s failure is not its adoption of Ordoliberalism, but its failure to deliver it.

The State has spent millions on management consultants, yet it has been proven incompetent at improving systems and controlling costs — two pillars of good management.

Look at the colossal clusterfuck that is tax-credits. Hard working families have found themselves repaying thousands back, because the system is convoluted, over-complicated and utterly mismanaged. Brown’s gargantuan tax-system is an operational catastrophe that has ultimately failed the working poor.

Then there is Labour’s abject failure to communicate to the working classes. New Labour’s kowtowing to the Murdoch press and its rabid commitment to spinning a narrative to the bloated middle classes, have ensured it no longer speaks directly to the poor and disenfranchised. Whenever a section of society is ignored and marginalised, the predatory fascist right move in to fill the vacuum. I predicted this years ago, as did many writers and commentators.

The final nail was the expenses scandal, which was a plague on all their houses. But it was Labour, with its huge majorities, which could have reformed the system — had they not been abusing it like alcoholics at a free-bar.

Our politics is broken, but the Labour Party is shattered. It’s on life-support and few people actually want to see it pull-through. If we forget tribalism for a second, wouldn’t the progressive cause actually be helped by the quick suffocation of The Labour Party?

We need to reclaim the conversation from the far-right. We need to address, both rhetorically and practically, the concerns of the working poor.

Progressive politics must have a carnival of ideas. We need to experiment with proven policies that have been successful across Europe and the world, and we must remain focussed on efficiency and delivery. These are lean times, but it doesn’t mean we can’t work towards better times.

Labour will lose the next general election, but it lost a commitment to progressive politics a long time ago.

I won’t be voting

Like Chris Dillow, I won’t be voting. But my reasons are less considered.

I got to the polling station to be told I was on the postal vote list.

I get home and I can’t find the letter. It’s probably been shredded.

I’ve been democratically disenfranchised by an unholy affair between my Commie wife and her Staples electric shredder. The scheming bastards.

Cloverfield

Rather late to the party, I watched Cloverfield last night.*

*follow link to my other site

— ad —