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Friday Bulletin

Bite-sized chunks of wholesome political goodness


It's been a woeful week for the LibDems. Their conference at Blackpool was totally undermined by the growing disquiet regarding Charles Kennedy's leadership style and dark mutterings that his time as leader may be up. Kennedy sought to improve his profile by inching his Iraq position closer to that of out-spoken Respect MP George Galloway, though he stopped short of claiming that the Prime Minister has blood on his hands and the anticipated sensational headlines did not materialise. The party leadership was defeated in every motion it supported and the only debate that didn't split the party down the middle was 'this house believes that we should generally be nicer to the environment'. Now the fractured and seemingly rudderless party is facing an Electoral Commission into a £2.4m payment that, if upheld, could eventually lead to bankruptcy. The 'real opposition' has real problems.

The Tories this week continued the path they seem determined to follow. Various leadership factions baited and sniped at one another and David Davis announced that he will be launching his leadership bid on the same day as David Cameron. The media continue to soft peddle on Ken Clarke, knowing that his tobacco connections will give them enough ammo to shoot the Tory party full of holes if he ever becomes leader. Malcolm Rifkind, himself a leadership contender, repeated his assertion that the Iraq war was a mistake from the very beginning, however he could not shake off rumours that he will drop out of the race and support Mr Clarke's bid in exchange for a senior shadow cabinet position. Michael Howard said 'remember me' by making 'fight them on the beaches'-style comments concerning the Iraqi militia.

It's been a good week for the Government. Blair and Co. have skated through the imprisonment of a Labour peer for fire-raising (the Scottish legal term for arson) with their usual skill and aplomb. The Government kept relatively quiet, with Ministers resisting the urge to grab some headlines by commenting on the Kate Moss affair. Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain has rattled his sabre at groups loyal to the throne in Northern Ireland, but coming from a man who once marched for a united Ireland with Gerry Adams, his hyperbole surprised no one. Top of the pops this week though is the youthful Local Government Minister, David Miliband, who admitted that the Government had made a "vaulting, 180 degree U-turn" on council tax revaluation and the subsequent delay to the Lyons Inquiry into local government finance. Miliband's candid admission is a breath of fresh air in a political atmosphere stale with the fumes of spin and lies.

Posted by Ben on Friday, September 23, 2005 at 11:41 am |

Ham, eggs, toast and milk, before you ask.

Posted by Blogger Ben | Fri Sept 23, 11:56:00 am  

But if it keeps things interesting, I went without breakfast this morning. Maybe there's some sort of subliminal thing where one of us goes without breakfast every morning without fail, but the other two eat, and it's a different one every day, and we never say anything about it, it just happens?

Maybe not of course.

Posted by Blogger Matt | Fri Sept 23, 12:22:00 pm  

you could be onto something there.

Although the times when I go without eating are generally few and far between...

Posted by Blogger Ben | Fri Sept 23, 12:55:00 pm  

But the times when I eat breakfast are few and far between!

Posted by Blogger Matt | Fri Sept 23, 02:14:00 pm  

Crikey, if only we'd alternated our consumption of intoxicants like this in our youth, we could probably piece together what actually happened since we did our GCSEs…

It's all a bit of a blur...

Posted by Blogger Ben | Fri Sept 23, 02:26:00 pm  

What happened since we did our GCSEs:

1) We did our A-levels
2) We got degrees
3) We got jobs
4) We became disillusioned with Western Society and the idea of a 9-5 job, and spent the next three years becoming more and more cynical, slowly disappearing behind a facade and being more and more superficial and false in our dealings with real people.
5) We found an interest in politics and politicians.

5 is an extension of 4, really. And yes, I am looking forward to the weekend.

Posted by Blogger Matt | Fri Sept 23, 02:43:00 pm  

damnit - I was sure we'd done something in between. Like where that tattoo came from, or why there are no fish in big Jim's pond...

Posted by Blogger Ben | Fri Sept 23, 03:01:00 pm  

EDIT:
0.5) Nearly everyone we know took up substance abuse.
1.5) Jim had a lot of exc ellent parties. I fell in the pond, and several people put red wine where red wine should not go, except via other places. James peed on Jim.
2.5) Several of us had our flesh indelibly burned, and for some reason, paid money for the experience.
3.5) We did a monopoly board pub crawl.
4.5) Some of us took up snowboarding.

Posted by Blogger Matt | Fri Sept 23, 03:09:00 pm  

ahh... the Monopoly pubcrawl... we'd have made it if it hadn't been for the fact that we were pissed when we started...

we need some more pub crawl action I think.

Posted by Blogger Ben | Fri Sept 23, 03:22:00 pm  

What about later? I'm not doing anything tomorrow that can't wait til the late afternoon....

Posted by Blogger Matt | Fri Sept 23, 04:14:00 pm  

I have plans with Emma tonight...

Posted by Blogger Ben | Fri Sept 23, 04:42:00 pm  

Tomorrow? Sunday?

Posted by Blogger Matt | Fri Sept 23, 04:45:00 pm  

Actually - Caroline has a rounders thing coming up next month, perhaps we can crawl after that? Much as I'd like to go out and get obliviously drunk as soon as possible...

Posted by Blogger Matt | Fri Sept 23, 05:25:00 pm  

binge drinking?

very contemporary, I'd say...

Posted by Blogger Ben | Sat Sept 24, 09:55:00 am  

Well, I think we managed very well to drink to a ridiculous degree, after the usual licensing hours, and no-one beat anyone else up, no-one caused a disturbance in a residential area and no-one required the police. I think we demonstrate clearly the argument for relaxed licensing hours. Cause if I'd have been kicked out at 11pm, I'd have definitely headbutted a few bobbies on my way home.

Posted by Blogger Matt | Mon Sept 26, 10:04:00 am  

I had a kebab.

There's an argument against something...

Posted by Blogger Ben | Mon Sept 26, 10:23:00 am  

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The words 'hypnosis' and 'hypnotism' both derive from the phrase "neuro-hypnotism" (nervous rest) coined by the Scottish surgeon James Braid all-around 1841. Braid based his exercise on that made by Franz Mesmer and his followers ("Mesmerism" or "animal magnetism"), but differed in his concept as to how the process worked.

Contrary with a popular misconception - that hypnotherapy is really a form of unconsciousness resembling sleep - contemporary analysis suggests that it can be essentially a wakeful point out of focused attention[2[[]|]|[]|] and heightened suggestibility,[3[[]|]|[]|] with diminished peripheral consciousness.[4[[]|]|[]|] In the initial book about the matter, Neurypnology (1843), Braid described "hypnotism" like a point out of physical relaxation accompanied and induced by psychological concentration ("abstraction").[5[[]|]|[]|]

How does our unconscious thoughts influence our everyday life?

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An individual factor that is certainly for a number of is people's expectation from the procedure may be a big factor in making an great room for switch.The primary stands out as the person's willingness and potential to surrender to one thing new. By way of the hypnotic course of action there is an opportunity to study in regards to the deeper features of you and unlearn ingrained habits for a far more positive end result.

The truth is the fact that we're in and out of hypnotherapy all day long. A hypnotherapistacts as a facilitator for adjust in essence the transformation comes from inside of the customer. All hypnosis is self-hypnosis.Hypnosis comes about somewhere you can find a shift during the state of intellect.This shift in mental think delivers the ultimate area for letting go of limiting thoughts. Even though a great deal misunderstood,hypnosis is usually just what you may need for making strong transform in your lifetime.

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Rock Band

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