timsellers.net/blog

22/02/07 : Blair, cars, tax, money and stuff

I was thrilled today to receive a personal Email from Tony Blair. Well, I say personal - about 1.7 million people received the same message . . . yes, I was one of those people who signed the Road pricing petition. Not because I'm a petrol-head or anything - although I shamefully admit to finding Top Gear entertaining - in fact I'm quite green minded. I agree that there should be fewer cars on the road. I just don't think this sort of tax works. I'm also not overly fond of the idea that my car will be constantly tracked.

There are two problems making people pay to use certain roads at certain times.

1. If you happen to live (or work) in the wrong place, you're pretty much buggered.

2. The fact that poor people [Warning: anti capitalism rant ahead] will be affected while the rich can carry on and do whatever the hell they want (at the slight inconvenience of shelling out more cash).

Actually, If I had my way, there would be no such thing as money. People would still work, but only for the minimum hours necessary (as there wouldn't be a capitalist system to support, with the ridiculous number of steps between producer and consumer where profits have to be made on every step of the way and too much stuff is made and everyone is in competition with each other etc. etc. etc.). Everything people needed would be provided so there would be no point in stealing anything. Concepts like "greed" and "poverty" would die out.

This subject has popped up in conversations before and people generally think life would be boring with no "challenge" if there was no cash to desperately try to grab. Surely there are better challenges than making money and trying to gain power? What about making the world a nicer place to live in? What about creating great works of art, having the freedom to do so without following trends and fashions?

[pointless rant over, night night]

UPDATE:  Charlie Brooker seems to have the same opinion of money as me (although, as one commenter points out, he does at least have some).

02/02/07 : "January"

The month has been a bit shit really, ending with the entire family being ill. I spent two days in bed with a ten-tonne head, my uncontrollable shivering interrupted only by violent coughing fits in which my body tried to expel great green globules of crap from my throat. I then spent several days feeling pathetically weedy, where all I wanted to do was snuggle up under the duvet against warm flesh (I'm not talking about sex, it's just that a cuddle is so much nicer when it's against an actual person rather than a bundle of clothes. Similarly, sex isn't the same with barrier methods of contraception - it's more like two people using each others bodies for mutual masturbation. And as I appear to be digressing, I'd like to warn people that Complan contains milk powder, so make it with water not milk to avoid it being overly rich and making you feel worse. Note however that this does not apply to Alpen - which, despite containing milk powder, should under no circumstances be made with water).

Other than that, not much to report. So, to the news.

The most memorable story had to be the racism thing in Celebrity Big Brother. I am truly amazed how seriously this was taken. I mean, it's just a shitty T.V. programme in which has-been or not-quite celebrities desperately try to make themselves appeal to the public in the hope of starting or rekindling a career. I don't think there was any real racism anyway - at least not intentional racism, just someone unpleasant having a rant using some badly chosen words (and plenty of people are guilty of that).

Then there was the Catholics, insisting that they are not discriminating against gays, but wanting to be exempt from anti-discrimination laws . . . I wonder if they would consider the matter of a Neo-Nazi doctor refusing to save the life of a dying Jew because it was "against his beliefs" an entirely different thing?

Finally, the editor of the Daily Mail (if you've read stuff I've written elsewhere you'll know how much I hate the Mail and everything it stands for) having a go at the BBC and accusing it of having a left-wing bias. Right wingers are always accusing the Beeb of having a left wing bias. Such people seem to have a "if you're not with us, you're against us" attitude, as if not sharing their right wing views means that you're automatically a communist or something. He (the Daily Mail editor) said that, as the majority of people have relatively conservative views (probably true unfortunately) the Beeb, being publicly funded, should reflect this. What he's done though is completely miss the point. The BBC isn't supposed to reflect the majorities views, it's supposed to be impartial. That means reflecting different views. Showing things from all angles. Which it does better than anyone else. Look, I like the BBC. It's not perfect, but has the most honest news service around and, for the most part, makes the best programmes. And I also support the licence fee, which allows it to be impartial. As well as ensuring that what you're watching isn't interrupted by patronising adverts every 15 minutes. And the website is great too.

Ok, that's it for today - see you next month?