spot the deliberate mistake

It's election time in Wales, and the Plaid press machine springs into action.


Plaid Attack Policy Light Tories
Plaid Cymru today responded to the Tory manifesto for the National Assembly Elections by claiming it was policy light, and that the Conservative and Unionist party was all substance no spin.

(Larijani) In the name of God. It is raining here

I want to work in the Iranian media...


ALERT-IRAN-UK-LARIJANI 2
Iran security chief says British leaders "miscalculating"
sailors' case
Text of report by Iranian TV on 29 March
The Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (Ali
Larijani) has commented on the political ballyhoo created by
the British media over the illegal entry of British military
personnel into Iranian waters. He said that the most logical
approach was for the British to show legal and technical
evidence. But doing so would have meant that everyone would
know that the British forces had entered Iranian waters.
That is why the British tried to cover the reality by
creating furore and ballyhoo and put Iran under pressure.
But they will not succeed to achieve their objectives.

(Reporter) Mr Larijani please comment on the latest
developments in the case of the British sailors who were
arrested in Arvandrud waters. The British have said that
they will suspend their ties with Tehran, what is our
position in this regard?

(Larijani) In the name of God. It is raining here and it is
not the best condition to have an interview.
The truth of the matter was that two British warships were
intercepted in Iranian coastal waters. This is not
unprecedented and British forces, who are in the region,
have previously trespassed (Iran's) coastal waters. Two of
their boats were once intercepted before. On that occasion,
they gave commitment that they would not violate (Iran's) co
astal waters any more. As you know the Convention on the Law
of the Sea has clearly defined coastal waters and the
transit areas. Based on a Majlis-approved law of the sea,
the warships that want to transit through coastal waters
should have permission.
This case is not about transiting. A ship, which belonged to
India or anywhere else, was in our coastal waters and they
(British forces) stopped by to investigate it.
It is very surprising for us that the British government,
instead of investigating the issue seriously from the legal
and technical aspects and assigning a team of experts to
probe into it, has turned the issue into a media campaign
and made arrogant political gestures.
This shows that they do not want the issue to be
investigated properly from a technical point of view. We are
not living in Stone Ages. We have electronic equipment and
GPS systems to show the route of the two boats and that they
were in our coastal waters. We have overlaid it on the map
and it's quite clear.


Source: Vision of the Islamic Republic of Iran Network 1,
Tehran, in Persian 1030 gmt 29 Mar 07
BBC Mon alert ME1 MEPol sp

29/03/2007 11:22 GMT

Non denial denials

From the Backbencher - spot on.

LORD TURNBULL: A CLARIFICATION

While I was a civil servant for many years, first joining the Treasuryin 1970 and working my way up to become Josef's perm sec, I neverimagined that comments I made to a journalist about the command andcontrol freak, sorry, chancellor, would ever be published in anewspaper. They do represent an approximation of my views, but werenot balanced in the article by some padding about the success ofGordon's Five-Year Plans, sorry, economic record. I regret the FT'sirresponsible decision to quote me and I think it ought to be veryclear to any experienced reporter when I am not speaking on and offand on the record again. The fact that Gordon will have to wait sometime before he can kick me out of the Lords naturally informed thedecision to share some of my observations about his managerial style.

Deputy leader of the pack

Joyous comment on the debate section of Hazel Blears' 'Hazel 4 deputy' site

Hiya
I’d just like to add a personal touch to this debate - why has Hazel had her hair softened and cloned like The Amazing Mrs Pritchard, the tv PM played by Jane Horrocks ? And, secondly, I’d love to buy a Hazel mouse mat but they are dead expensive, like over a tenner when you can get a free Cyberman one with a Dr Who comic ?

Global warming was made up just for fun

I have a friend who's a climate change denier, and when they showed the Channel 4 show I said it was bound to start a backlash. Well done me, I was right. The mid-markets are already claiming man-made global warming if McCarthy/Salem - how long till someone compares it to the persecution of the jews?
Andrew Alexander in the Mail may have a cool name, but he pens the paper's nth article on the subject this week, liberal media conspiracy blah blah. It's headlined 'Are we being blinded by carbon science?' - the argument being you should ignore the science because politicans are all liars, and he goes on to provide his own unsubstantiated claim: "I will be humble [ha!]. There is an outside chance that the carbon controllers are right... The chances of them right is, let's be generous, five per cent." We can all pull statistics out of our bum. I've yet to read anyone who can explain why politicans are so keen to conspire in this expensive myth, although Alexander suggests it's to win the green vote. And we all know how big that is - I hear Stroud had a green mayor a few years back.
I've given up arguing about the science with my friend because neither of us has a clue what we're talking about, but as I always say - any camp not inhabited by the Mail's more lunatic fringe is the one for me.

i'm going mad

late shifts. endless random copy. like this:


Luxembourg dismisses low loo tally
PARIS, March 8 (Reuters) -- Luxembourg on Thursday dismissed a report suggesting a dire shortage of toilets in one of the world's wealthiest countries.
"It's astonishing," Antoine Haag of Luxembourg's statistics office told Reuters when asked to explain why the country came top of a latrine-shortage list published in the report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
The Paris-based OECD, a free-market body with 30 mainly rich member countries, said the figure included in a broad review of living conditions, might be wide of the mark but that its data had been supplied by Luxembourg.
"We're looking at the figure. We believe that there may be something wrong with it," an OECD spokesman said.
Fourteen percent of homes in Luxembourg, a tiny state wedged between France and Germany, lacked a lavatory, according to the figures the OECD issued. Turkey came second and Poland third.
Haag, in charge of social statistics in Luxembourg, carried out a new calculation in response to the Reuters query and said he got a less embarrassing figure. Just 1,021 of 176,870 homes lacked an indoor, flushing toilet, or 0.6 percent, he said.

REUTERS

Zz

Expect all the papers will be bursting with the PM's speech on arts and the creative industries, which was so good I didn't see it because no one bothered to carry it live. If they go on like this, the next in the 'Our nation's future' lecture series should be on Hairdressing - Britain at the cutting edge, or the British string industry - why I haven't paid it any attention for 10 years but think it's vital to our children's children. Or just call it Find a line worth reporting in this you bastards

Black mark

Take away that gold star from Paul Flynn, he just referred to a debate on the website 'Youspace'. Either I'm behind with the times or he is, I prefer Facespace anyway

A leek by any other name

Newport's Paul Flynn has an enourmous daffodil on for St David's day. It looks like it's got its own water supply and he's had the lapel on his suit specially toughened. On St George's day I like to wear a rose, in honour of my political hero