Tom has created I think I upset Google, which amused me muchly, as well as reminding me that my habit of self-Googling about twice a day is not a particularly constructive use of my time.

A terror attack on London is inevitable, says Met Commissioner Sir John Stevens. If so, then shouldn’t he be fulfilling his duty as London’s chief police officer and devote as much time as possible to making sure our emergency planning is adequate, instead of wasting his time investigating the death of Princess Diana?

Well, the Socialists have won in Spain, an election result swung by the Madrid bomb, or to be accurate, its aftermath and the Aznar government’s hasty attempts to pin it on ETA. This has cued a lot of fury from the right-wing press (as excellently documented by Harry’s Place and Chris Brooke), at best saying the terrorists have won, and at worst accusing the Spanish people of moral cowardice. This is an extraordinary slur, especially after the dignity of their peaceful protest on Friday, and ignores the fact that long before the bombing, 90% of the Spanish populace opposed the war in Iraq. Additionally, the turnout for Sunday’s election was one of the highest in recent years, so if anything, the bombings have shown how strong Spanish democracy is and how the Spanish people’s desire to keep it that way. True cowardice in response to a terrorist attack, say, would be using and twisting its legacy to bomb and invade countries that had absolutely nothing to do with it.

I had initial concerns about the result of the election and the message it might send, but the more I think about it the less I think it is significant. The destructive philosophy of Al Qaeda is not concerned with Which political party is democratically elected to govern which country. Al Qaeda’s intent is to promote jihad against the West, destroy the Jews and restore the Caliphate. Democracy is irrelevant. The Aznar government’s actions in Iraq, if anything, helped this cause by stoking aggression in the Middle East and turning more and more Muslims against the West, so it’d be wrong to say electing the Socialists is helping the terrorists. Regardless of who actually did the bombing, this election result does not send any message to Al Qaeda, as Al Qaeda are not listening - ‘they’ simply do not care.

Not satisfied with his quest to destroy every civil liberty in Britain, David Blunkett has come up with a new wheeze - charging victims of miscarriages of justice for the food & lodging costs they incurred while in prison (found via Sore Eyes). Quoth:

Spokesmen in the Home Office say it’s a completely “reasonable course of action” as the innocent men and women would have spent the money anyway on food and lodgings if they weren’t in prison. The government deems the claw-back ‘Saved Living Expenses’.

[...]

The Home Office said an “independent assessor appointed by the Home Secretary takes into acccount the range of costs the prisoner might have incurred had they not been imprisoned”. The spokesman said the assessor was “right” to do this, adding: “Morally, this is reasonable and appropriate.”

No it’s fucking not. It’s utterly morally reprehensible to demand innocent people pay for the mistakes the judicial system did. It was their lives that were being destructively robbed, not the Prison Service.

Just what is going on in Blunkett’s mind? Is he thinking something like “That’ll punish ‘em. All these years of pretending to be guilty so they could get a free bed and three square meals, greedily robbing the state blind, it’s what they deserve.” What next? Charging dead people’s families for the waste of NHS money spent on them? Demanding payment from the Afghans and Iraqis for the bombs we dropped on their heads?

The case is up in the Royal Courts of Justice this week, I really hope there is some law (The “Fuck Off, You Evil Bastard” Act?) that stops this abomination of a policy from going ahead. The Scottish Executive have already said they would not follow the directive, which gives me (and everyone else) another good reason to move north of the border. I’m praying for the right decision to be made, either that or some sort “reasonable and appropriate” (i.e. fatal) accident to befall the Home Secretary.

As part of the idle speculation around the Madrid bomb attacks on Thursday, someone picked up the fact that the date of the bombings, March 11th 2004, is 911 days after 9/11. SPOOKY, EH?

Cue the usual conspiracy theory nutjobs going on about the symbology. Only problem is, it isn’t 911 days, as they forgot to remember the fact that this year is a leap year and so it’s actually 912. Never mind…

My long accounts of my BBC experience, and the recent random amusing links may make it look like I’ve been ignoring the Madrid bombings, actually I spent most of the day listening to the news online and reading articles online when I could.

The thing is I really can’t say much about it. It is a despicable act, the bloodthirsty murder of innocents and I am disgusted by it. But beyond that, I can’t find very much to say - no-one has much idea of who did it or for what ’cause’, and anything I say about the bombings themselves is going to be little more than idle speculation.

One thing - the mass demonstrations in Spanish cities this evening. It was heartening to see so many European leaders (Raffarin, Ahern, Prodi and even Berlusconi) in the streets as well expressing their solidarity, as well as the fraternal support across European cities for Spain. I was less impressed by John Prescott and his flustered tribute on BBC News (I’m sure he meant well but a message of condolence on behalf of the nation really does need to be conducted by someone with gravitas). But even more overwhelming was the sheer scale of the millions in Madrid marching, something quite different to how we do things over here. Would we ever put millions on the streets in unity, even after a terrorist attack? In Britain we have a much more muted history of activism and protests. Last year’s Stop The War demo in London was an overwhelming exception and even then, the one million figure here paled with the three million in Rome that same day (my Italian housemate was scathing about the lack of enthusiasm for going out marching here).

We don’t ‘do’ protests here so much, maybe as part of the national character, maybe because of our more fragmented society, maybe because we’ve had a more stable recent history than the Spaniards have. I saw tonight’s demos and deeply admired the Spanish people, seeing a nation united against the thugs who threaten their democracy and peace. I hope that just because we are less likely to take to the streets doesn’t mean that we don’t appreciate our hard-earned rights and values as much as they do.

The Man with the Smallest Penis in Existence and the Electron Microscope Technician Who Loved Him.

Apparently the film itself isn’t very good. Shame. (via Nik Rawlinson)

Although some Firefox users don’t think so: Bug 233525: Background of Download Manager looks like one-finger-salute.

Also, you know those annoying Channel 4 adverts where celebs say their favourite sandwich filling or whatever - even more annoying than the BBC’s version of “Perfect Day” - there’s fianlly a decent one, for their favourite swearword. Good unclean fun, though I was disappointed with Sarah Beeny’s relatively tame ‘bugger’ - was expecting/hoping she’d be a bit dirtier.

What we need now is someone to do a Flash game a la Buffy’s Swearing Keyboard where you have celebs and you could click on their faces and they’d swear at you or something. I am *tempted* to do it, if I have the time…