fancy a beer?

try this one

brewed in "the Holy Land" or under licence in Germany. Not, of course, available in Gaza. that would be disproportionate, would it not? This is A Good Thing. And the proprietor looks like an excellent bloke from his picture on the site. Seriously, I am not a beer drinker, but where can I get this stuff? Although they brew excellent beer around here (and Kronenbourg too) I would like to get some of this stuff to offer to friends and guests.

cities make us civilised

because if we live in a city we have some measure of loyalty to others who live there (even if we don;t like them, we acknowledge that we live in the same place and to some extent at least belong to that place) and those others do not belong to our tribe or family. This is a great step forward for humanity. Hat-tip Norm for this on the subject.

the man who doesn't like women

is as any fule kno an adaptation of the title of the French translation of the first book in the Stieg Larsson trilogy, filmed as "Millennium" (its title in the original Swedish) and for some reason called in English translation "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo". But I am not talking about the books (have read the first two and the third is going to be brought round by that nice Mr. Amazon any day now, and have seen the first film, did wonders for my French having to concentrate hard on the subtitles as I do not speak Swedish). No. I am talking about that Geordie bloke who used to lie for a living when he was in politics and now does it just for fun. Howarth, that's the chap, can't write or spell, remember "Your Better Off With Labour"? This morning I was putting off starting the day's work so I read the stuff he wrote about himself on his "blog" (which in the best tradition of the Reading Labour boys is not interactive, broadcast not receive, tell the people what they ought to think, that's the way). There are five posts, all purporting to tell the tale of his life, and each accompanied by a photograph of himself at the relevant stage in his life. It's too early in the day to inflict those on you, but I did notice that two of the posts included gratuitous pieces of old-fashioned misogyny. A mention of dungarees provoked the phrase "shrill man-hating feminists" and a mention of the male menopause (don't ask) brought on "bitter and twisted fifty-something females". Dear oh dear. This won't do, John. You don't get girls that way. You really don't. Your ex-wife Jane is I think fifty or so, the partner you left her for is apparently called Jane too, I do not know how old she is or whether either of them is bitter and twisted, though your ex-wife used to throw plates at your head when she was pissed off with you, I was told.

I am fifty-something and my name is Jane too.

I thank you.

ten years on

from the Paddington rail crash - even His Master's Voice gets in on it here. We heard plenty at the time in Reading - Messrs Salter and Howarth standing up at Labour Party meetings saying "John Prescott's days are numbered " (hi John!) and Salter telling the press "My girlfriend won't travel by train any more", striking a blow for gender equality as ever. Channel 4 did a special programme soon afterwards from Reading, which featured the appalling Trot cow "lawyer" Louise Christian saying she was "campaigning for justice" for the victims of the crash. Hah. Did they have justice? As someone once said, "Justice? There's no f***ing justice!" More people from the southern hemisphere died in that crash than Reading people. I appeared on a local radio programme a couple of weeks later, doing a kind of "Desert Island Discs". I had chosen my records before the crash happened on 5th October and did not look at my list again before the broadcast - with hindsight perhaps "This Wheel's On Fire" was not the best choice. Great song though.

I'm not usually very personal on this blog, but I will just say here that following the death from cancer of a close friend on 9th September I have had two sessions of bereavement counselling (thanks, French health service!), and cannot recommend this more highly. Organisations like Cruse provide an excellent service in the UK as I know from people who have benefited from it. But I firmly believe now that professional bereavement counselling should be provided, within a month of a death, to those close to the person who died, whether they ask for it or not (I didn't). Productivity in personal and professional life plummets at a time of bereavement, and those two sessions gave me the opportunity to get it back and move on, which is fair to others close to me and lets me grieve (which everyone must do, whatever the circumstances of a death) without unnecessary baggage.

OK, back to the usual ramblings and musings now (Good, that last bit was dashed un-British. Ed.)

I'm a Stoic

but I knew that. Try taking this quiz - what Philosophy Guru Are You? Maybe everyone comes out Stoic, I don't know - just a bit of fun...

Homophobic? Moi?

the life of a gay Tory is not always a happy one. The Daily Mail published a nauseatingly homophobic piece in its Ephraim Hardcastle column about gay blogger Iain Dale's bid to become the Tory candidate for the Bracknell constituency. Dale sought an apology. He got one, but it was a fake. Then he got told to be a bit "less sensitive". We have all been here before. See the story here. I know that Tories think the Daily Mail is the voice of their supporters, so when it is racist and homophobic, as it regularly is, they have a problem. In fact the Daily Mail has its finger on the pulse of the nation - most of the time. Not this time. Most people are not homophobic. Most people do not like homophobia. I would bet that most people in Bracknell do not like homophobia either.

Oscar Wilde wrote: "He who lives more lives than one, more deaths than one must die." That was his fate, and it was the fate of most gay men in his time. You wouldn't think it would be today, would you. But it is. A gay friend of mine died last month, at the age of only 43, and while he was out to most if not all the people in his life, he too lived more lives than one, it emerges from his papers. Gay men very often die young, and not because of AIDS. Discuss.

Lily Allen sings: "You say it's not OK to be gay, well I think you're just evil." Also discuss.

vote today!

if you are a member of the Parti Socialiste that is. There is a renewal plan for the party under Martine Aubry (of whom I am a big fan) , whose main points are these:

"primaires" - primaries for candidates. Yes to that.

"non-cumul" - elected representatives to hold only one mandate. It is normal in France for deputies to parliament to be mayors, for ministers to be regional councillors, and so on. Yes to stopping that.

"parite" - equality measures to try to do something about the male domination of the politics of the left. Despite the fact that the Parti Socialiste and the Communists both have female leaders, Sarkozy's cabinet looks, and is, a lot more diverse than the other parties. This won't do. So yes to that.

We are voting in our branches today, as above. We are also voting on who should head the list for the regional elections, due next March. Apparently the line for this region is Jacques Bigot. He's a white bloke in a suit. I also discover to my dismay that foreigners like me are not eligible to vote in the regionals, though we can in the municipals. Chiz.