To strive, to seek, to find…

1) Targeting the suburbs.

I was surprised to see Bozza canvassers lining Hornchurch High Street when I was down there a few weeks ago, but why? Havering is a true-blue Tory area, always has been, and his minions were preaching to the converted. Didn’t get much of that when I went to vote just off Richmond Avenue, once home of T. Blair.

Make it all the way out to zone 6, and you’ll also find that they love their cars. Figures.

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Seek and ye shall find. Ob-sessed.

[Derek] Jarman gave Barnbrook his first film camera. He also introduced him to the future Oscar-winning actress Tilda Swinton, whom Barnbrook has since described as an ex-girlfriend.

But Barnbrook’s time in this liberal artistic milieu will always be remembered for his writing and directorship of the 58-minute film HMS Discovery: A Love Story which archives describe as “Marxist Gay cinema”.

Ho ho ho.

(I didn’t write the entry btw, it was like that when I found it!)

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Johnson - or to give him his full name, Boris LOL!!!! what a legernd!! Johnson!!! - is a TV character loved by millions for his cheeky, bumbling persona. Unlike the cartoon MP, he’s magnetically prone to scandal, but this somehow only makes him more adorable each time. Tee hee! Boris has had an affair! Arf! Now he’s offended the whole of Liverpool! Crumbs! He used the word “picaninnies”! Yuk yuk! He’s been caught on tape agreeing to give the address of a reporter to a friend who wants him beaten up! Ho ho! Look at his funny blond hair! HA HA BORIS LOL!!!! WHAT A LEGERND!!!!!!

Thank you Mr Brooker.

And why? Because he is a cartoon character. He is not real and he does not exist. Voting him in would be quite a lot like voting in a giant haystack that’s had elocution lessons.

Beej has promised to “beef up” health services in London. The last time someone said that, P.G. Wodehouse gasped and said, “How quaint! I really must put that in one of my books.” Boz has also threatened to “fight for a lasting legacy for London; the after-effects of the Olympics must be felt for decades.” He thinks “Congestion has now risen above pre-Congestion Charge levels.” Do you need more?! Okay then…

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In the end it came down to a single-page letter, written in Hebrew and Arabic and hand-delivered by an Israeli army officer who knocked at the front door. The letter spelt the imminent destruction of the whitewashed three-storey home and small, tree-lined garden that Bassam Suleiman spent so long saving for and then built with his family a decade ago.

It was a final demolition order, with instructions to evacuate the house within three days.

From The Guardian

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Gotta love Berlinale comments.

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This is crying out to be made into a hard-hitting, occasionally lightened by humorous comic moments, documentary. Or a really boring Bond film:

Council uses criminal law to spy on school place applicants

· Couple’s anger over surveillance admission
· Officials accused of playing James Bond

The authority said it had used such “physical surveillance” on six occasions under RIPA, which allows councils to carry out surveillance only if they suspect serious crimes, including terrorism.

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