Democracy? what's that?

The "shock result" of the Palestinian election shouldn't really have surprised anybody, as the group that got into power had a clear mandate from the people.
For the life of me I can't see what Mr Bush imagined was going to happen: just because a system had been set up to collect votes, how was this going to change the beliefs of the voters round to support his point of view?
It's not as if voting helped prevent Adolf Hitler coming to power,in fact it had the opposite effect, he was voted in.
Time we stopped pretending that democracy was simply the act of voting, which would somehow magically make everyone peacefully inclined, no matter how badly they felt themselves to have been wronged!
Democracy will only really exist when the voters can actually vote on a daily basis for the immediate issues of the time, we do not have democracy now, we have Party Politics, where you are asked to endorse one set of rogues or the other, then put up with them for a period of years, no matter what a foul up they make.
I doubt whether there would have been any British participation in the invasion of Iraq had we had a couple of Yes/NO buttons on our TV sets to permit us to vote for or against it!






























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Another brick in the wall

I note sadly that Google have fallen into the trap of going along with the great firewall of China.
When will everyone learn?

My Scooter

I went out on the scooter again today, pleasant as the weather was dry and sunny,though cold.
The bike is a Honda Dylan 125cc, pictured last April.
In the background you can see oilseed rape in full bloom. This extends for miles almost to the coast.

Google World on BBC2

The Money program did a documentary, made me wonder what made me start using Google: I guess it was simply because it was new at the time, more importantly it wasn't from Microsoft!
Once the habit had started, it just continues!
I went off Microsoft a long time ago, to the extent that I have been using Linux for some years now,
The only time I bother with windows is when,like this week, a friend brings round a sick computer for me to resurrect.
This week one appeared that had the slowest hard drive I've ever come across, it was little faster that a floppy!
With a new hard drive and system it certainly perked up, would have preferred to give them Linux, but they struggled with windows and wee too timid to change for the better.
Went out for a short ride on my Honda Dylan 125cc scooter, pleasant, apart from the stiff side wind, the local roads are a mud bath at this time of year.

January 18 2006

The winter has been mild so far, more wet than anything, today was mild at 8 degrees C, and with little wind, it felt as though spring is on the way.
My wife and I drove the fifty miles to Scarborough ( the original english seaside resort) and found it fairly busy, with people walking their dogs on the beach, and the local council busy dredging the lake in Peasholm Park.
Last weekend when we were there we watched the surfers (about twenty of them!) in the North Bay, though what excitement they can get from waves less than a metre high and temperatures around freezing is hard for us to understand!
At the weekend there were literally hundreds of cars parked on the seafront and all the cafes and amusements were open and doing a roaring trade.
The reason for the huge gap in dates on this blog is simple.
I lost it!