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You can't have missed this wonderful Irish Comic on television over the years in shows like "The Apprentice: You're Fired!" and of course "Mock the Week" which believe it or not has now been going for over 9 years, with the new series starting 12th June 2014 (A date to pencil in your dairy).
Mock the Week is topical celebrity panel game which is based around improvised topical stand-up comedy based around stories and headlines in the news, which was created by the makers of "Whose Line is it Anyway?". It can at best be hilariously funny and at worse keep you chuckling from the start of the show until the end, with Dara Ó Briain being the perfect and funny host of the show. For a topical game show it is up there with the best you can find on British television at the moment.
By all accounts Dara Ó Briain, as well as being a presenter is a fine live comedian by all accounts and attracts the intellectual audience with his smart nerdy observational style and quick thinking. From the reviews I have read and what people have said I know I would enjoy his live shows. He certainly is someone I would love to see the stage, something I miss from the past caused having children and then when I came to Rutland children and no babysitter.
In recent years the show has taken a bit of flack in the press, with some comedians claiming it is scripted, however if it is or not is irrelevant as long as it makes you laugh. Lets hope it isn't unlucky series 13 and after the new series there will be more commissioned by the BBC, presented arguably by Britain's favorite Irishman.
The Government in their desperation to build our way out of a rescission and please the Conservative supporting building industry are increasing allowing the use greenfield land for housing development. In the last three years developers have given some £3.3 million to the party, including large gifts from companies seeking to develop rural land in the UK. However this is not the whole picture of the power of the developers, the Conservative Planning Forum raises around £150,000 a year for the Conservative party funds and it charges members £2,500 to meet senior MPs to discuss policy and planning issues.
Recently in a report by the think tank Civitas which is based on Government figures there is enough brownfield land in the United Kingdom to build between 1.5 million to 2.5 million homes. Of course the Government dispute this figures even though they are based on their own statistics, but this is what you would expect from a Conservative government that walks hand in hand with the developers and clearly has a
hidden agenda. The fact remains that we should be developing this land before we start digging up the farmland of Britain and covering it concrete and tarmac, especially given that in many cases this available land is in the areas where housing is actually needed.
The problem with developers is that are reluctant to clean up brownfield sites before development as there are no incentives to do so financially which would make it economically viable. Depending on the site this can be expensive and it is problem the Government is avoiding addressing. This is poor thinking by the Government since a lot of the brownfield sites scare our cities, adversely affecting the value of land and communities around them. These brownfield sites are often ugly blots on the landscape that need to be cleaned up and best way to do this is to utilise the land rather than letting it remain idle and derelict. In fact most cases communities welcome such developments since they add to the environment rather than take away from it.
Even where I live, which is in a village in rural England there an example of successful brownfield development. The village once home to Ruddles Brewery which stopped making beer in the village in 1999. This left a large brownfield site at the edge of the village which has since been successfully developed into housing. Although the development is not without some degree of controversy within the village, as the architecture of the buildings which isn't in keeping with the rest of the surrounding buildings, nearly all would agree it was better than having a derelict industrial site on the edge of the village.
The question then is how should the Government approach the cleaning up and redevelopment of these brownfield sites. Well they need to look to see what other counties are doing. For example, in the United developers get full tax relief to cover the costs of cleaning up contaminated land this could be introduced into the UK and to it added a greenfeild development tax to encourage the use of brownfield sites and ensure that Government didn't lose out in too much revenue. These are two really simple measures and add to that changes to the planning laws that could be introduced to protect the countryside from the developers, we would see a move to develop brownfield land.
Surely it is just common sense to develope brownfield sites that could go a long way to helping solve the housing crisis rather than using beautiful and productive countryside in a country that already can't feed it own population. We need that countryside for your children and there children's children. We can't cover the countryside in houses, especially when there is land available to develop houses where they are actually needed. It is time to think and protect the countryside while using the land we have wisely and not like fools.
It has been a long season for the blues with some highs and lows. At one point I thought they would be in a automatic promotion place at the end of the season but then they hit lean times and the wind was knocked out of their sails but they rallied and managed to get a playoff place only to be knocked out today, despite being the best of the two sides over two legs, but that is football for you.
The boys have done well this year when you consider all the problems the club has had in recent years. I would have put them middle of the table if I was to be honest and not in one of the play off places. I think if we build on what we have done this year and carry on building the squad we could be in with a good chance of getting a automatic promotion place next year and be assured of a play off place at least.
At last we have a good manager again and a man that wants to see the club go far and I'm sure he can make it happen. Lets home the money problems of the past are just that and we get the new ground too, we are going to need it if we go up at the end of next session.
If you were wondering what has happened to this years The Apprentice it has been moved to the Autumn to avoid the World Cup. It was felt it would be detrimental to the show to have it compete with such a major sporting event and I can imagine that the summer was ruled out because of the commonwealth games.
The good news is that it is returning and filming started this week for the new series and pictures are circulating on the Internet of the filming of the show. It will be a closely guarded secret if the filming has really started but if it is I can't wait to see the show, which will be completed long before it hits the screens.
The rise of nationalism in the UK in the last year in the form of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) is frightening.
It is clear that some of the party members hold views close to those of “Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei” and probably have the same sort of ambitions as its leader, one Mr Adolph Hitler. That party blamed the Jewish financiers and the Bolsheviks for the state of the country's economy back in the 1930 and came to power, while this one blames Europe for all the problems in the UK making out leaving Europe will instantly fix everything.
Of course the truth of the matter is it won't fix anything, in fact things will get worse and this plays right into the hands of the nationalists that sit waiting in the wings to take over UK Independence Party. This new nationalistic and right party, born out of the old UKIP, will continue to blame Europe for kicking us in the teeth but will add to this the ethnic groups who will be promoted as being seen doing well while the indigenous population suffer, so causing a violent backlash against ethnic groups who are then interned into repatriation camps.
One of the reasons the “Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei” gained power was due to people voting for the party as a protest against the main political parties in Germany at the time. Little did they know back then where it was taking them and the world. There is the same risk in the UK today.
A vote for UKIP in the coming European elections is vote for Nationalism. Something my father, his friends and people died for this country fought against in the Second World War. It time to stop UKIP now before it is too late, get out and vote, but don't vote UKIP. If you want to get out of Europe vote any party that will give you a referendum on Europe not a bunch of nationalists with no real polices.
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