Paper talk

"It's The Sun Wot Won It" was the famous headline from Britain's favourite newspaper (apparently) after the Tories won the general election in 1992, and The Sun claimed a big part in helping them do so.

And now, this morning, 17 years on, we wake to read that The Sun are making their political persuasions and election predictions fully known once again. This time, they are withdrawing their support from the government, claiming that "Labour's lost it".

It's a bold and damning statement, though Gordon Brown and co claim they are not getting too worried by it, saying it's not newspapers that win and lose elections, but that it's "It's the British people's views I'm interested in."

I feel Gordon is being a bit naive there and, although he won't admit it, I'm sure he is hurt by this deliberate move against his party from a newspaper read by three million voters every day, and many more non-readers will be influenced by this statement too.

In many ways, none of this is very surprising. The Sun is really only jumping on the bandwagon (and seeking publicity) of a swell of public opinion. Labour's been on a downward spiral since the heady Cool Britannia days and 'things can only get better' in 1997. Decisions made over matters including terrorism, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and health cuts have turned the British public against Labour, and Gordon Brown, in my eyes, isn't a strong enough leader for this country.

The alternative, however, is David Cameron and a Tory party with lots of unanswered questions and a history of failing the nation. They are sitting in pole position as we edge towards a general election next year. It's a shame, in my opinion, that the refreshing and forward-thinking Liberal Democrats aren't closer in the reckoning.

The Sun won it for Major in the early-90s; it's very likely they will do Dave a favour in 2010.

News week

In a break from the norm, here are five news items that have especially caught my eye this past week.

Ade goes crazy - The football story of the week (Coventry's glorious victory apart), the day that Man City Emmanuel Adebayor went nuts, stamping at a former teammate and then running the length of the pitch to goad fans who used to love him. A silly boy - he deserves being banned. Premier league footballers are paid oodles and should remain professionals at all times in my view. I'm sure other players have had worse aimed at them and managed to keep it together.

Could Elton sacrifice it all for an orphan? - We've had Brad, Angelina and Madonna and now Elton John wanted to get in on the act. Old Reg Dwight wanted to adopt a one year-old Ukranian orphan who had "stolen my heart" - but was turned down flatly because of his age and marital status. Celebrities shouldn't be allowed to do things like this on a whim. Could you really have seen him give up his lifestyle so that that little boy gets the attention he deserves? Much better to give money to Ukranian couples who can't have kids so that they can adopt the lad instead.

A sick fantasy goes unpunished - I read in disbelief this week that two teenagers have got away Scot-free (apart from six months remand) from their 'fantasy' plot to bomb their school in Manchester. A jury cleared Matthew Knight and Ross McKnight from potential murder - despite their obsession to copy the Columbine killings. I've heard a number of cases recently where officials (social workers, police, etc) have failed to spot warning signs in people who've then gone onto do terrible things. I really hope this isn't one of those situations. These are not good fantasies to have.

Sunny day for Vera - The news that wartime favourite Dame Vera Lynn has become the oldest singer to reach the top of the UK albums chart is a heart-warming one. The 92 year-old quietly snuck in to beat all of the The Beatles' (much-hyped) remastered albums to the number one slot. Whilst her music does nothing for me personally, people seem to still enjoy the golden oldies. Gives the likes of Cliff, Status Quo and Robbie Williams hope doesn't it?!

Tall order - (And finally...) Turkish giant Sultan Kosen has strode into the record books this week as the world's tallest person. Standing at a staggering 8 foot 1 inch tall, Kosen came to London - in search of love it seems! He hopes his new-found fame will find him a girlfriend. A lady with her own stepladder would fit the bill best. At a reasonably tall 6ft 3 myself, and lanky with it, I struggle with certain things in life (insufficient legroom and regular backache are just two) so I really feel for Kosen. Still, as the BBC piece says, at least he can change a lightbulb easily, eh!

Is Derren's number up?

Amazed. Intrigued. Baffled. Disappointed. There's been a wide spectrum of reactions to the latest high-profile trick of Derren Brown, the celebrity illusionist.

On Wednesday, Derren (surely either a stage name or a typo on his birth certificate!) predicted all six main balls of the National Lottery and then last night presented an hour-long show that showed how he did it - and how we can too (yeah, right).

I tuned in to see 'the solution', and I found it interesting and watchable although a little tenuous and long-winded in places. I remain unconvinced by the method Brown used, which involved using 24 volunteers (who became very friendly through bonding exercises) coming up with random numbers and then finding the average to get the numbers.

The whole thing was a wind-up and cleverly marketed - a bit of harmless fun (except for the loose handwriting techniques to draw numbers, which was dodgy and weird). It leaves us still trying to work out how he did... or if he really did.

Illusionists are all about trying to tap into the way people naturally perceive events, and play on doing cleverly doing something while our eyes are fixed somewhere else - slight of hand.

Maybe Derren Brown somehow messed around with his balls while the watching public looked elsewhere. I do hope we've not been duped by computer technology.

Whatever the real outcome, it's certainly got people thinking and talking about maths, probability - oh, the greedy cry of 'How can I win the lottery too?!'

(Photo credit: Dominic Campbell)

Pudding-brains (can I say that?) change dessert's name

First it was 'rainbow sheep' instead of that famous nursery rhyme. Then it was swapping the term unemployed to 'unwaged'.

Oh, there have been many more - but today a new example of "political correctness gone mad" (the stock phrase wheeled out for times like these) caught my eye and is currently the sixth most read thing on the BBC website (beating the divorce of Katie Price and Peter Andre, no less!)

The much-loved (not by me, but by many others I'm assured) pudding, Spotted Dick, has been taken off the menu of a council canteen in Wales - and replaced by the less-accurate and more-tricky-say-quickly Spotted Richard. Oh, and the even-less-impressive Sultana Sponge too. Apparently childish comments by 'a small number' of staff members led to the change.

A local councillor is outraged, calling the decision 'ludicrous' and claiming decision-makers would be 'frightened by their own shadow' - a little OTT and harsh, methinks.

It's crazy that we've turned into a country where people are so concerned about frightening others by what is said or written. You're never going to please all the people all of the time, so why - in this case - even contemplating changing the name of a pudding that's been called a certain name for 150 years - just in case some people (whoever they are!) are offended in some way. Dicks refer to 'dough' in this case and have nothing to do with men's genitalia.

Why don't we go through every element of the English language and English culture to come up with new words and new phrases that are meaningless and dull? We don't because all of this is so, so trivial. It's fodder for terrible newspapers like the Daily Mail and dangerous organisations like the BNP.

In fact, why am I spending so much time writing this and thinking about it... (because I find the whole situation hilarious, that's why!) And your comments are welcome please - as long as you don't offend me and that you PC-spellcheck every word!

(Photo credit: Chuck Coker)

The Arctic: a hot topic

Been a bit blowy in the UK this week, hasn't it? Strange for early September. But down under, Australia has been experiencing its hottest-ever winter, with some places getting higher temperatures than in summer! Barmy!

However, if you need a true indication that climate change is happening (and it is... quickly), take a look at the Arctic. It was revealed this week that Arctic temperatures are now higher than any time in the last 2,000 years.

Fancy graphs show that there have been peaks and troughs of warmer and cooler times in the Arctic - but it's never been as bad as now. And what happens there is not merely a local or global problem - there are ramifications for the whole world in terms of rising sea levels and changes to ocean currents.

I've been recently reading about the Arctic in New Internationalist magazine - fascinating articles about the importance of that white splodge at the top of the spinning globe, which is often overlooked. The area contains a quarter of the world's remaining oil and gas reserves, and superpowers and energy giants are squabbling over these precious resources without a thought for local people and wildlife.

I very much hope the plight of the Arctic - and the impact on the rest of the world - is a focus at December's UN climate summit. UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon visited the region last week to see the crisis first-hand - I trust his reports will influence others in taking positive action on carbon emissions. The situation has a real feeling of now or never about it.

(Photo credit: P J Hansen)

Don't you just love official reports? I've just been reading a BBC article about one generated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development called, a little cheesily, 'Doing better for the children'.

It compares the well-being of children in different countries - and the results for the UK are a mixed bag.

According to the report, our kids are generally not bullied too much, enjoy a high quality of school life and don't experience a great deal of poverty. But before we pat ourselves on the back too much, the report has discovered that we have more underage drunks (and especially girls) than any other country, more than double the rate than the US, France and Italy. It also highlights the UK's well-publicised high teenage pregnancy rates.

First-off, I'm a little skeptical about reports like these, querying where OECD get their precise percentages from. In this case, are they actually out on the streets counting the teenagers that gather to drink their cider (and do other things besides)? I doubt it. It's probably done by doing a small survey and multiplying up - dodgy stats!

Not that I am denying the drink and pregnancy problem among youngsters in this country, which is a real issue. I actually feel the schools are doing what they can in educating today's teenagers - and it's actually down to parents being better role models for their children, particularly in alcohol consumption, doing a little better in keeping tabs on where their offspring are on a Friday night - and providing safer alternatives.

Of course, all of this is easy for me to say. My eldest starts school for the first time tomorrow (whilst my youngest reaches the grand old age of two later this month) so I have years before this becomes real issues for me and my parenting skills - I hope! I shudder to think of the state of this country by then.

(Photo credit: Bernard Laguerre)