Fathers Day

Another fathers day, and another without all my girls. It been so long since I had all my children together on this day, or in fact together at all.

To say I miss the joy of being a father to them all is an understatment, I greave the loss of my family at times, for you never forget the people you love.

Thankfully the two daughters I have made the morning special in their way, but it doesn't stop you missing the one that seems so far away. To my daughters I love you all.

Big Brother 2013

Well the summer must be officially here with the start of the new series of Big Brother on Channel 5. This will be 14th series of the show in the UK which frist started way back in the year 2000 on rival Channel 4.
 

 
Having watched for so so many years, when I stumbled Big Brother 1 on Channel 4, I find myself still looking forward to the start of each new series and quickly find myself watching the series night on night until it ends. It seems this year will be no different for me and I'm sure I will get grpped as I have in previous years.

I know people have had a go at Channel 5 for changing the format of the show slightly, changing the voting system and the lack of live feed, but overal I think they have done a grand job in keeping the show alive. If it wasn't for them we would have no show at all.

Britians Got Talent Final 2013

In what I thought was one of the best finals on Britain’s got Talent since I first started watching the programme, the Hungarian act Attraction won the show. Tipped by The Sun newspaper to win the show by a landside there final performance was a bit of a let down and they nearly lost out to the young talent that is comedian Jack Caroll.

The act that impressed me most was Steve Hewlett, the wild card for the final, who if it wasn't for the egg thrower would have, I felt, been third in tonight’s show, without the sympathy vote that must have went to Richard and Adam. In fact in terms audience reaction, and laughs ,he did far better that the runner up Jack Carroll. He had the audience in the palm of his hand and he was side splittingly funny. I just hope someone sees this and gives him the spotlight he deserves.

So below is the final voting for the final in this years show. What I find surprising was that Francine Lewis who won the forth semi final only just managed to avoid coming last, but may be that was more of a problem with that semi final with her fellow semi finalist coming just behind her in last place. Anyway here are the final voting percentages :

1. Attraction 27% (Semi Final 5 - 1st)
2. Jack Carroll 20.1% (Semi Final 2 - 1st)
3. Richard and Adam 15.4% (Semi Final 1 - 1st)
4. Steve Hewlett 14.7% (Wild Card - Semi Final 5 - 3rd)
5. Luminites 6.8% (Semi Final 3 - 1st)
6. Jordan O’Keefe 3.7% (Semi Final 5 - 2nd)
7. Gabz Gardiner 3.6% (Semi Final 3 - 2nd)
8. Arisxandra Libantino 2.9% (Semi Fianl 1 - 2nd)
9. Pre-Skool 2.8% (Semi Final 3 - 2nd)
10. Francine Lewis 2.0% (Semi Final 4 - 1st)
11. Asanda Jezile 1.2% (Semi Final 4 - 2nd)

Based on tonight’s show there are a number or people to watch for in the future, these include Jack Carrol, Steve Hewlett, The Luminites, Gabz Gardiner as well as the two young female singers who I’m sure we will be hearing of again. It was a wonderful show and long may it continue to show case the talnet that is out there waiting to be found.

Finally one last word for the winners, Attraction, don’t do what you did in the final for the Royal Command Performance, it was good but it was the biggest let down in the history of the show for me as a final performance what they had done up to that point. Do what you have do best and grab at those heart strings and pull and amaze us again.

The Last Time

Some time ago I published a post about a very special lady, not the sort of lady that you see walking down the street but a aircraft, a Avro Vulcan, XH558. She is the last flying example in the world and today she made a reappearance over Rutland and maybe for the last time.

With the closing of RAF Cottesmore we have seen less of her but her flying days are coming to the end with the end of her engine life. Hopefully they will find away to keep her going but this could be the last summer she is in the air. It will be a great shame to she her go and I will miss her familiar and distinctive shape in our skies as much as I miss the Harriers that once flew from RAF Cottesmore.

Snoopers Charter - Take Two

Here we go again a knee jerk reaction by the politicians that makes potential criminals of us all, and for what something the current legistion gives the powers to the Secert Services and the Police to do, namley snoop on what we are doing on the Internet and beyound.

Under the The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, which was further amended in 2003, the Security Services, Police and a number of other Government bodies can collect information about a communications, but not the content of that communication much in the same way as the purposed snoopers charter, in fact this act also allows them to intercept the content of messages in the interests of national security or to investergate serious crimes. The real differance seems to be that the new act collects information on all of us. It would be far simplar to amend the current Act and adding inclusions to cover the adavances in technolgy while keeping it's scope to those people that suspected of a crime or are being investigated in the interest of national security. Clearly the police and the security services need to have upto date powers, but this seems a step to far.

What we are seeing here is the typical over reaction by a Government to something that the current laws were well able to cope with, namely the surveillance of known potential terrorist and criminals. The killers of a serving solider, Lee Rigby, in London were well known to the secret services and they had been investigated on a number of occasions, which I’m sure would have included their electronic communications under the existing laws. In fact the new powers that Government wants to spy on all of us wouldn't have helped prevent what happened that day. Even the senior security sources that talked to the Independent Newspaper are reported to have the same view as me.

The questions you have to ask yourself is do you want these bodies to have all this information even if you haven't done anything wrong, do you trust the Government to not use this data for reasons other than what is stated in the act and who is going to be monitoring the Government to make sure they aren't miss using the data? In fact given the case of police in Manchester who allowed encypted personal data to be stored on a removal USB memory sticks can we even trust them to keep the data safe? In the end it comes down to allowing the state to have vast informationion on us that could as easily be used for wrong reasons as well as the right reasons. Surely don't we all have a right to privacy unless we are surspected of breaking the law?

If you want more information about the The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 you can check out the Wikipedia page. You will be suprised how many Government bodies can actually collect data with the existing act.