I'm Going Flat Screen Mad!

So this month has been a frenzy of new business meetings. Melvin and his current employers are working hard to capitalise on the ‘green shoots’, such as they are. This means that Yours Truly has been in lots of clients’ office buildings, taxis, airports etc. Thus, I have observed an interesting phenomenon that has quietly swept across our nation without any comment.

As I blog, I am sitting in the departrure lounge in Terminal 3 at Manchester Airport. In front of me in the lounge are two very large flat screen TVs. Both of them are tuned to Sky News. The news looks interesting. But alas, I have no idea what the news actually is because, despite viewing it in glorious HD colour, I can’t hear a word the presenters are saying because the sound is turned off.

And so it has been in every location I have visited. Enticing pictures. No sound. No idea WTF they are talking about.

I ask you, what is the point of these silent flat screens?

Where did this almost obsessive requirement come from that every building must have expensive, electricity guzzling, CO2 producing flat screens on every available wall? When did that law get passed then? And why is the sound always turned off, rendering all TV viewing almost impossible?

Every reception area I have visited in the last month is festooned with flat screen TVs, sometimes whole walls of them. Always with the sound turned off. WTF is this all about?

I never sit at home with the TV turned on but the sound off. Do you? No.

I seem to be locked in a new 21st century version of Dante’s Hell – wall to all TV pictures but no sound.

Is this an attempt to look, in this media obsessed world, ‘cool’ because we have flat screen TVs in our office buildings? Is that how we define cool? And if it is, as we all now have silent flat screen TVs bolted to every bit of available corporate wall space, doesn’t that now make it ‘uncool’?

How much energy is sucked from the grid each day by these TVs that no one can hear? What is their carbon footprint, I wonder?

In the last few days, I have become slightly obsessed, counting how many silent flat screens I see each day. So far today – petrol station, Gatwick Airport, Manchester Airport, three separate corporate office buildings, one hotel and now back to Manchester Airport – I am up to 48. And it’s still only 1820 hrs. Still time for some more to greet me at Gatwick and on my drive home.

Someone save me from this silent flat screen hell.

Facist Racist Wankers

The BNP are a hateful bunch of fantasising bigoted, fascist, racist, homophobic, Islamophobic, anti-Semitic tosspots. That much we all know. So I have no need to go over the whole Nick Griffin/BBC debacle. Let me focus instead on some of the side stories that got lost in this week's news:

1. Was Peter Hain hung out to dry? I didn't see many NuLabs supporting him on his one man hysterical attempt to redefine democracy, did you? The silence of NuLab support for him was deafening.

2. Is Nick Griffin mad? I thought his behaviour on QT was very strange. What was all the silly giggling about? Why did he clap when someone attacked him? Why could he not come up with a better answer to the most obvious question of the night - Q. Are you a racist? A. I have not been convicted of racism. Duh! Is that your best shot, Nick? With your Cambridge degree, that was the best you could come up with?

3. Why are the Tories and Lib Dems not landing serial punches on the real reason that the BNP has gained support - the pathetic and risible immigration policy of NuLab. Jack Straw looked ridiculous trying to defend the indefensible and Sayeeda Warsi and Chris Huhne failed to land even a light slap!

4. Why have the Tories not landed serial punches on proportional representation, the electoral mechanism - adored by the Lib Dems (for obvious reasons) and implemented by NuLab in Scotland, Wales and London - by which extremist fringe politicians always get elected here and abroad.

5. Why did the BBC focus all the questions on QT on the BNP? To expose these morons for what they are, a single issue extremist campaign group, where were the questions on the economy, foreign policy, social issues, the NHS, the post strike etc? Griffin would have imploded with nothing to say at all on any other issue than immigration.

The best way to fight extremists is to:

a. Take them head on in debate - their lack of logic, re-writing of history and poisonous views are then laid bare for all to see, and

b. Keep 'first past the post' for all elections.

I'm Back!

"Due to popular demand, I feel compelled to blog once more. You have all been nagging me, even begging me, so I am casting my own wishes to one side and putting myself forward again to serve the people. If I can help in my small way to make this world a better place, then who am I to stand in the way of progress. Melvin Cragsbury, at your service."

...is how some jumped up wanker of a politician would put it. The truth, of course, is that with two new children arriving in the Cragsbury household at the same time, there was rather a negative impact on that most precious of commodities....my time.

Now that the muppets are more under control, and the politics of the UK are increasingly pissing me off, I can't remain silent any longer. I need to rant.

Let the rant continue.....