Brand, Ross, Sachs and The Daily Telegraph

I was a bit worried about the lack of coverage of the Ross, Brand and Sachs affair so have waded in despite having no first hand knowledge of what's going on. There's an excellent piece at the Telgraph's website by Neil McCormick where he points out amongst other things that Brand's listeners on Radio 2 are also license fee payers:


The notion of the BBC as a public service broadcaster is being much cited, with rather old fashioned concepts of how it should be upholding some kind of moral code. But everyone pays the license fee, including Ross and Brand's vast legions of fans. Some people actually want edgy, reprehensible humour on their radios and TVs, and would be more offended by the stuffy blandness of most BBC output. Maybe we should start emailing Jonathan Dimbley, and demanding he get a bit more saucy?
My favourite bit though are the comments, some are relieved that some journalists are prepared to keep the whole thing in proportion, see the other side and so on. The others are patently nutjobs (the best bit "If you think they are acceptable you shouldn't be writing for the Daily Telegraph."):


They shouldn't have been engaged by the BBC in the first place - at any price - not even if they paid to do it. If you think they are acceptable you shouldn't be writing for the Daily Telegraph.
As for your infantile remark about the off switch, where is the off switch for the licence fee, where is the off switch for the hundreds of millions of pounds that are poured into the BBC from the taxpayer's coffers.
Catering to the puerile cretins who appreciate and applaud such behaviour is not my idea of public broadcasting.
Good riddance to Brand and, with luck, to the other moron, Ross.

That told them.

Business Quote of the Day, 22 October 2008

“It’s not about having shitloads of shit.”

I work in a very classy place.

Alexa Chung and *Gary Hume*

So we went out with Maria making the schoolboy error of not ordering out and staying in to watch Arsenal take Fenerbahçe apart in the Europen Cup, in the process missing Adebayor's transformation from Saturday's donkey but with a worse first touch to last night's near Henry-like prefect finisher. Anyway on the upside in the dodgy but local Cat and Mutton not only did we run into (Yol says you use this in preference to "spotted" or "saw" as it implies an intimacy that patently isn't there) the extremely talented clothes horse and TV presenter Alexa Chung but also the fabulous Brit artist Gary Hume. For those or you who know Alexa's work but not Gary's here an interview with the man himself.

Chess, game 1

I played my first game for Hackney Chess Club last night. Playing fourth board (there are only four) for Hackney against some team whose name I never learnt I lost to someone we shall call "John" (mostly because that's his name). I'm looking for some way of embedded a PGN viewer on the blog so you can play through the game but haven't found one that works with my current technology set up. In the meantime you can (if you can be bothered) play through the game and groan at my mistakes. I will add some proper notes when I get a chance (not that many games sell on the fact that they've been annotated by the loser). In the meantime some top level thoughts:
* I dicked around too much in the opening failing to develop my pieces and castle- John may not have "known" the generally-seen-as-being-good moves in this opening after move 6 but he developed his pieces fast and castled early.
* I wasn't flexible enough in my opening play
* I failed to see his threats early enough and then i underestimated them
* I blundered at the end when I might have saved a draw
I think I need to do some more work on the middlegame (and endgame and opening...)

John v. Me
16 October 2008
League Game
Golden Lane Community Centre

1. e4 c5
2. Nf3 e6
3. d4 cxd4
4. Nxd4 a6
5. Nc3 Qc7
6. Qf3 Nf7
7. Bd3 Nc6
8. Nxc6 Nxc6
9. Be3 b5
10. 0-0-0 Bb7
11. Bf5 e5
12. Be3 Ne7
13. Qg3 Rc8
14. f4 d6
15. fxe5 dxe5
16. Rf1 Ng6
17. h4 h5
18. Nd5 Bxd5
19. exd5 Qd6
20. Bxg6 fxg6
21. Qf3 Bc7
22. a3 Kd8
23. Rd3 Be7
24. Qg3 Rf8
25. Rxf8 Bxf8
26. b4 Be7
27. Bc5 Rxc5
28. bxc5 Qc5
29. Qe5 Qg1
30. Rd1 Bxa3
31. Kd2 Bb4
32. c3 Qxg2
33. Qe2 Qd5
34. 1-0