Bigging up Biggins

Morrissey on immigration: Heaven knows he's miserable now

Morrissey is suing the NME for alleged defamation. The singer was quoted saying, amongst other things:

The change in England is so rapid compared to the change in any other country. If you walk through Knightsbridge on any bland day of the week you won’t hear an English accent. You’ll hear every accent under the sun apart from the British accent.

I am just gob-smacked that anyone would choose Knightsbridge as some sort of exemplar of modern Britain. The man obviously earnt too much through his records. I suggest he goes to Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight, or Yattendon in Berkshire or Southwold, Suffolk if he wants to hark back to the Britain of fifty years ago. I mean, some of these places still have haberdashery shops!

Have Tesco got far too big for their boots?

Roland and Pauline Hodgson and their daughter Georgina spent £300 during one trip to Tesco. This included a meal worth £20 at the store restaurant.

Model customers, you would think.

How did Tesco reward them? Extra Clubcard points? A handshake from the store manager? The gift of a Lady Shirley Porter memorial keyfob?

Oh no, Tesco sent them a snotty letter telling them they took too long!

Brilliant.

Hurrah for Archbishop Desmond Tutu!

It's very old fashioned to say "I would like to associate myself with the views expressed by the last speaker". But, my goodness, I would certainly like to whole-heartedly associated myself with the views expressed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Radio 4's Moral Maze:

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has criticised his own church for being "obsessed" with homosexuality.

The South African Nobel laureate said God "must be weeping" at seeing that the Church had such misplaced priorities. He also criticised the Archbishop of Canterbury for not demonstrating the attributes of a "welcoming God".

Speaking on a BBC Radio 4 programme, the archbishop, 76, said: "Our world is facing problems - poverty, HIV and Aids, a devastating pandemic, and conflict. In the face of all of that, our Church, especially the Anglican Church, at this time is almost obsessed with questions of human sexuality."

Tutu said the Anglican Church had appeared "extraordinarily homophobic" during the debate over whether Gene Robinson, an openly gay priest, should become the Bishop of New Hampshire.

Tutu said he felt "saddened" and "ashamed" of his church at that time.

When asked if he still felt ashamed, he said: "If we are going to not welcome or invite people because of sexual orientation yes. If God as they say is homophobic I wouldn't worship that God."

He also rebuked religious conservatives who say that homosexuality is a choice gay people make.

He said: "It is a perversion if you say to me that a person chooses to be homosexual. You must be crazy to choose a way of life that exposes you to a kind of hatred. It's like saying you choose to be black in a race -hate infected society."

Criticising Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Tutu said: "Why doesn't he demonstrate a particular attribute of God's, which is that God is a welcoming God?"

A quiet victory for justice

From Liberal Democrat Voice:

Waltham Forest Labour councillor Miranda Grell lost her appeal today over her conviction for falsely smearing her Liberal Democrat opponent in the 2006 elections.

..And to think that Labour initially pledged to help fund her appeal and, indeed, did fund it up until the last moment.

Gender balance in blogging

There's been an excellent comments discussion on Jo's Jottings' posting: "Campaign for gender balance, Jo Swinson & female bloggers". It's worth reading.

Alix on People's Republic of Mortimer has also posted on an allied matter: "Wimminism and the People's Republic".

Huhne is "campaigning like a rabbit on crack"

It's a great line. Unfortunately, Iain Dale thought of it. Never mind. Under the title "Is Clegg heading for a calamity?", Iain writes:

Where on earth has Nick Clegg disappeared to? While Chris Huhne has been campaigning around the country like a rabbit on crack, very little has been heard of Nick Clegg for some time. Is his heart in it anymore? ...I reckon the result of this leadership contest is going to be very close indeed. A month ago I'd bet my house (if I had one) on Clegg walking it. No longer. And before LibDems accuse me of spinning things in favour of Huhne because he will be less of a danger to the Tories, I'm no longer so sure of that either. Huhne has demonstrated in the last few days that he is a tenacious campaigner who has an eye for the media. Clegg has demonstrated the very opposite.