DEFENCE

As with all departments there is going to be a lot of tension in the MoD over cuts to its budget.

What worries me though is that despite promises otherwise it will be the frontline that will bear the brunt as always.

The MoD has a history of cocking up and protecting the suits in Whitehall rather than those whose job is the physical defence of this nation.

To get the cuts, all desk pilots will have to be reviewed - is there a reason why they are there? If not, out you go.

Secondly, start buying off-the-shelf rather than costly "projects". If a UK firm is good enough then they will compete. Military industry is one of our major exports after all.

Thirdly, those projects already on the go - the Eurofighter, Aircraft carriers etc. Enforce non-closure penalties if there are actually any. If not, warn the manufacturers that you consider it a breach of contract if the projects go further over budget/over-time.

HITCHHIKERS...

Rich is bigging this up and I wholeheartedly agree

The HitchHikers Guide to: The Daleks

PAC MAN

Wakka wakka wakka

Do you remember Pac Man, that crazy little yellow sprite eating pills and gobbling ghosts.

Well the creator of Pac Man Toru Iwatani was at the NLGD Festival of Games in Holland earlier this month and with him came two original sketches of the game.

How cool?




ht: 1up

AKIRA

One gorgeous, seminal piece of manga/anime that I love is Akira.

It's viscarel language - both in art and story - was an eye-opener to me, things that hit me round the head and beat me up senseless in a darken alleyway.

And it's going to be a live action film...

Yay


From Hollywood....

Oh

PG13...

AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

RULE BRITANNIA

Dan Hannan talks about his countrymen:

"yes, we can be a difficult people: morose, drunk, bellicose; awkward neighbours when times are good. Still, in a crisis, there is no one else I’d rather have around me."

Indeed!

NEARLY THERE

Good luck England, you need it

Pic HT: Rantin Rab

DOCTOR WHO - POSS SPOILERS

The last episode is on Saturday and there is a clip out right now...

If you haven't seen The Pandorica Opens, look away now...


you gone?



Honestly?


OK...

You were warned...




And a stone dalek






HT: the good Blogtor

A DISGRACE

Manu Tuilagi is 19, he came over here with his family six years ago. He plays for Leicester Tigers and is a capped, under-18's England International.

In its wisdom the Home Office has refused a working visa and he is now under threat of deportation to Samoa, somewhere that he considers the ancestral home, England is his home.

Although his five brothers have, and for two still do, ply their rugby in this country that is because they played international rugby for Samoa. Manu wants to play international rugby too - but for England.

I really don't know what the Home Office is doing. This isn't the first time that they have wanted to deport someone who grew up here and wants to contribute to Britain, yet there are immigrants who get in here via family and promptly jump onto benefits.

Despite the support his club, the Premiership, and the RFU, the Home Office refused and because of this, he doesn't even have the right to appeal.

Quoted in The Rugby Paper, UK Border Agency deputy director Simon Excell, pompously commented: "[Manu] has never applied for permission to work. Clubs that wish to employ skilled sportsmen or women from overseas must check that they have the right to live and work in the UK."

Now, Ok Manu came in on a visitor's visa when he was a kid and it should have been sorted out but isn't he precisely the type of person we should be welcoming to our shores?

Head of the Tigers rugby operations Simon Cohen commented: "...they will presumably serve a deportation order on him...if they are going to come to the training ground and take him I would suggest they bring a lot of people!"

Indeed

AWE

Just beautiful and awe-inspiring - a trip round the known universe

FRANK SIDEBOTTOM RIP

Here

WHERE'S MY TRAIN?

This is good!

A live map of the tube!

ht: Theo

NEW LOOK

So like many others, I have used the new settings on blogger to vamp the site -

what do you think?

SPORT

Well sport in general really.

It's Wimbledon time again and the papers will be full of rubbish about how the Scot could win.

Nah, he won't. he can't. He's part of that spoilt, over-paid, breed that is tipified by the English football team.

This breed thinks itself apart from its support-group, the fans. They are overpaid, underacheive and have a go at those who spend thousands, travelling in hope that this time the team/player will actually have the nerve to go for it and win.

Take Rugby. It used to be the most honest sport ever but for over a year we have had the manager who use to encapsulate all that we thought good in Rugby, spouting rubbish about taking the right steps, blah, blah, blah.

Yeah they won at the weekend but it doesn't hide the innate problem, which is in all sport.

As England/british supporters, all we want is to see a team give its all. If it loses then as gutting it maybe, at least the team/player, gave everything to the cause.

Not as we have seen in the last couple of weeks, two national teams who gave nothing but incompetence and a lackluster display.

That Mr Rooney is why they booed you. If you were beaten after busting a gut then fair enough. To gift Algeria a point when they should have been given a battering, is why!

Oh and while I'm at it - any chance of the papers apologising to Rob Green? Yeah he made an error but as my football-hating wife put it:

"So they are having a go at a goalkeeper for making a mistake. Why aren't they have a go at the team for failing to score more goals than America?"

Exactly!