Interesting Links for 13-3-2011

[andrewducker]

• David Cameron has even less grasp of how government works than I'd thought
  (tags: conservative politics uk DavidCameron)
• Testosterone linked to men's ability to 'woo' potential mates, particularly in those with a need for social dominance.
  (tags: psychology social relationships testosterone men)
• Things that are sexier than you might think.
  (tags: sexy comic)
• A smoker switches to vapourising - with useful advice for others thinking about it...
  (tags: smoking)
• Livejournal notifications are being blocked by Spamhaus/SBL because LJ is hosting spammers.
  (tags: livejournal spam)
• Reporter quits in protest at tabloid's 'anti-Muslim' coverage - admits producing fictional stories.
  (tags: journalism culture politics islam uk)
• Please Call Me Rom (why you shouldn't use the word "gypsy")
  (tags: racism roma gypsy)
• Common Words in Titles of SFF novels. Funnier than you'd think
  (tags: books writing words statistics)

Comments

[matgb]

See, I like Mitchell and loath him at the same time. He's sort of right about Cameron, but at the same time, his point revolves around this

It's convenient to forget that bureaucrats, or civil servants as they're called when they're not being victimised, don't actually make rules, they just enforce them.

Everyone I know that's had experience of actual policy making in whitehall, everyone I know that's lobbied, worked as a minister, or similar, will tell you he's wrong there.

Watch Yes Minister again for a reminder--Thatcher wasn't far off when she jokingly referred to it as a documentary.

Friend involved tangentially in the negotiations last May said that there were three parties at the table, and only one had real power, the civil servants. The senior types had read the policy briefings for both sides, knew which ideas the other had would be acceptable to the other party, and had the ability to tilt things in favour of policies they favoured.

Alternate view, look at the thing about Control Orders. Was that really a Lib Dem vs Tory split? Or was it Tories being fed information that suited their argument by sympathetic civil servants who dislike giving away power elsewhere?

The more I learn about how power actually works in this country, the more worried I am about the power the civil service holds.

Doesn't make Cameron any less a cock for making crowd pleasing ullshit soundbites, but...

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

"David Cameron has even less grasp of how government works..."


Hmmm. Let's consider, of the two people concerned, who is likely to know more about the workings of government, and in particular civil service bureaucrats.

David Cameron
Job: Prime Minister. A job that involves dealing with civil servants quite a bit...
Education: Studied Philosophy, _Politics_ and Economics at Oxford. As part of this degree, he will have researched and written essays on the role of bureaucracy in government. I know this, because I did the same degree at the same university. He graduated with a First. One of his politics tutors was the famous constitutional expert Professor Vernon Bogdanor, who described Cameron as one of his "ablest students".


David Mitchell
Job: Actor, comedy writer, newspaper columnist, panel show celebrity (probably rather less involvement with civil servants)
Education: Studied History at Cambridge. In his own words, he "scraped a 2:2".


Don't get me wrong, as a comedy actor and writer, I really like David Mitchell. I'm a big Peep Show and Mitchell and Webb fan, although I've given up on '10 O'Clock Live', which is neither funny enough nor clever enough to be satire (or politically balanced enough for that matter), except for the odd Brooker rant and the occasional sick joke from Jimmy Carr.

This article is an example of an attitude which I find intensely annoying (hence this rant). "This person does not agree with my views, despite being far more qualified in this subject than I am, therefore he is stupid."

Grrr.

[andrewducker]

I think that, if pushed, David Mitchell would probably agree that David Cameron does know how bureaucracy works, but is deliberately misrepresenting it for political purposes.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

I wonder if the Daily Star is carrying a corresponding headline "Guardian reporter quits in protest at 'news'paper's 'anti-Jewish' coverage"...

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

How many Romany 'gypsies' are there in the UK? I really don't know, but the impression you get is that most non-hippy travellers are Irish-ethnic rather than Romany. My understanding is that Romanys (Romanies?) would refer to these (as would I) as 'pikeys', but some people don't consider that term to be politically correct. Also, I think 'pikey' derives from the word 'turnpike' and simply means a travelling person, and doesn't really refer to a specific ethnic group.

I feal a bit of 'Snatch' coming on...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE1d0G0t_G8&feature=related

[andrewducker]

I've never gotten around to Snatch, but having seen that I'm more tempted than I have been. Brad Pitt's mangling the language _fantastically_.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

I really rate it. It's the film that made me see Brad Pitt as a very good actor rather than just a movie star. If your only experience of Jason Statham is in the sort of action hero roles he does now, you'll be really surprised at him too. Then there's Vinny Jones and his "Desert Eagle. Point Five-O." Oh, and one of the scariest villains in any film. "Do you know what 'nemesis' means?" I must admit I've watched it so much, I can quote so much of it in the way many people quote huge chunks of Monty Python films.

In fact, I'm very tempted to dig the DVD out and watch it again this afternoon now!

Edit: In fact, I've just done exactly that.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

I must admit, I wasn't aware of the 'gypsy' thing. It's not dissimilar to the word 'Welsh' - derived from an Anglo-Saxon word which meant something like 'bloody foreigners'.

[andrewducker]

I only learned the gypsy thing a couple of years ago. Not sometihng I'd bumped into before that.

[khbrown.livejournal.com]

Rom makes me think of Read Only Memory and Rom Spaceknight from the late 1970s Marvel comic.

[strawberryfrog.livejournal.com]

Livejournal notifications are being blocked by Spamhaus/SBL because LJ is hosting spammers.

Aha. I was starting to wonder where they'd gotten to.