Over the last couple of days my reading on the train to work has been Lee Rotherhams book "Ten Years On Britain Without The European Union"

 

 

The book is well worth spending a couple of hours over, especially if for those of the Eurosceptic persuasion or indeed if you just wish to understand more about the impact of the EU on our everyday lives.

 

Judi & myself both received complimentary copies of this short book in the post over the last week or so - if anybody would like our "spare" please drop us a line.

Damian Green MP has launched a campaign called "Return My DNA".

 

More details may be seen here, but briefly Mr Green wants the DNA records of over 1million Britons who are innocent of any crime removed from the police / Home Office database.

 

I feel this to be a very worthy campaign - in recent years this country has started to adopt worrying aspects of a police state with "officialdom" intruding into and trying to micromanage our lives to an alarming degree.

 

I sincerely believe that the Conservative Party should actively try to restore "freedom" to the people and minimise state intervention into our lives - indeed this is a core principle of the Conservative Way Forward Group.

 

There is an online petition availalble which you may wish to sign to show your support:

 

I wonder if there is any substance to the article in todays Mail that there is a Tory plot to replace John Bercow with Frank Field as Speaker after the next General Election?

 

This would be preconditional on:

 

 (1) There being a Tory majority

 

(2) Bercow beating Nigel Farage in Buckingham

 

(3) Field wanting the job

 

As much as I disliked the way that the Labour Party arranged Bercow's election i can't help but feel it would be a poor reflection on Parliament if he was ousted by the Conservative Party effectively pulling the same trick.

 

However if Bercow was to lose his seat to Farage and, lets be honest, it is quite possible that many Tory voters in Buckingham may loan their votes to UKIP then I could see Frank Field being an excellent Speaker.

Every so often I hear something on the radio that surprises me.

 

On this mornings BBC Radio 5 breakfast show there was a report talking about the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk in 1940.

 

The presenter, perhaps trying to make the report more relevant for "younger" listeners, said that the events at Dunkirk had been dramatised in recent films such as Atonement (fair enough) and Saving Private Ryan.(Oops).

 

OK, we all make mistakes but this was on a pre-recorded report, not a live discussion.

 

Wouldn't you think that somebody at the BBC might have twigged that Saving Private Ryan was about D-Day and the American army?

 

I don't like the review system being used in the current South Africa v England Test Match series.

 

I have previously commented that I believe this system undermines many of the values and traditions of the game and has devalued the roles of the on field umpire.

 

Some of the (numerous) problems with the system were well illustrated by two decisions in todays play.

 

Firstly Mark Boucher was given out LBW by the review when "Hawkeye" suggested that the ball just about clipped the top of the wicket.

 

Not long afterwards Morne Morkel was given not out to an LBW appeal by the review when "Hawkeye" suggested the ball would have clipped leg stump.

 

I can't be the only fan who is left bewildered by this inconsistency.

 

Both of these were real borderline decisions that the technology, with it's margins of error, simply couldn't say were in or out with any real certainty - in other words no better than the on field umpires decision.

 

It seems to me that the review system is really only any good at eliminating errors resulting from real umpiring "howlers" when a blatantly bad decision is made.

 

We are, of course, subjected to endless propaganda from the SKY TV commentators who seem to place great faith in Hawkeye - of course this is nothing to do with the false sense of televisual drama that the review system generates!

 

I do wonder how Botham, Hussein, Atherton et al would have reacted to all of this nonsense when they were players rather than employees of Mr Murdoch?

 

Update 13:37

 

Why on earth was Andrew Strauss not given out just now. The TV pictures gave no clear evidence that there was an inside edge and then the Hawkeye system wasn't even used to check if the ball was going to hit the wicket.

 

I thought Umpire Dars original decision was spot on and that on the basis of a ropey TV replay he has been totally undermined by this useless system.

 

It took over 3 minutes to make the decision - great stuff, well done ICC..............