Blog | Clarissa explains some of it

It's a start... maybe

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 11:40:33 +0100

'Decriminalise personal drug use', suggests chairman of the Bar Council. Obviously all the rent-a-quote muppets (politicians, concerned mothers etc) aren't happy but there is always the chance that this will finally provoke a debate on the stupid rules that are our drug laws and that we might one day have a policy akin to that of Portugal:

Portugal has arguably the most liberal laws concerning possession of illicit drugs in the Western world. In 2001 Portugal decriminalized possession of effectively all drugs that are still illegal in other developed nations including, but not limited to, marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and LSD. While possession is legal, trafficking and possession of more than "10 days worth of personal use" are still punishable by jail time and fines. Since decriminalization was implemented, Portugal has seen rapid improvement in the number of deaths from drug overdoses as well as a decline in new HIV infections.

More likely though he'll be forced out, no debate will happen and we'll continue blindly along with the current failed policy. Still, it'll be in good company with the many others.

Affairs of the Heart, Part II

Sat, 17 Jul 2010 13:18:23 +0100

When I thought I'd calmed down a bit from last Friday I decided to send her an e-mail asking why. Ok, it turned out to be a bit more long winded than that but I felt I had to do it. I sent this at 2311 on Wednesday.

Although everything tells me that I am unlikely to get a reply to this - and indeed I expect it might very well get deleted without reading - I felt that I at least had to write it.

After all our conversations, our text messages I thought we had something. I kept believing that even after the first eight times you broke off the arrangements we had made citing, as you did, various excuses such as illness and work.

All that however crashed down around my ears last Friday evening as I stood outside of the DLR station in Woolwich as we had arranged and slowly came to the realisation as every text message went unanswered and every phone call went straight to voice mail (a sure sign that your phone wasn't even on) that you weren't coming.

I was angry on Friday. Very angry. I felt as if I had been played. Has everything since Easter weekend been a complete lie or was it only later? Why all of this charade? Obviously anything I thought we had is gone. The trust is broken and all I can do is pick up the pieces from where they lie broken and start again. It would be nice however to know if you had any reason for acting as you did.

So maybe I hadn't quite calmed down as much as I though. However bare in mind that before I sent this I had seen that she had once again been online even if we hadn't caught each other... an advantage - or not - of being signed into IM but showing status as invisible. Actually I think I saw her signing off once (and I was showing up as online then) just as I got back to my computer. Keep this in mind as you read the reply I received.

Pardon? how dare you incinuate this... i have not been well at all.. yew my phone was off, and i a so sorry for collapsing and fitting, i will have a go at the fit next time ok.. even my friend was concerned and had the decency to email you and let you know..

Well obvious you think the worse in people, so i guess you do not want to know, well thats fine...

So her response is to guilt trip me into feeling bad because she had been ill. I never received any message (via e-mail, text, voicemail or message left on the site where we met) so wasn't to know and she herself didn't try and contact me afterwards - although it turns out she she is apparently perfectly well enough to be reading and responding to messages at 0300, less than four hours after I'd sent mine.

If I had seen any message then I would have responded with something along the lines of "Sorry to hear that, get well soon blah blah blah" and then waited for her to make contact again as contary to popular belief I'm not a completely cold hearted bitch. If I were in her position and hadn't heard anything in reply I'd have touched base as soon as I felt able to just to make sure the person had received my message.

Now I realise that not everyone thinks the same way I do and that her story might even be true but in my current mood I'm afraid that I have to say that something about it smells.

Affairs of the Heart

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 17:55:03 +0100

This is not the post I thought to be writing this weekend. I though I was going to be talking about the wonderful lady I'd met but I can't see myself using any positive adjectives at the moment.

Confused? Well here goes...

Over Easter I met someone online and we have been talking to each other on IM almost every night since. To use a variety of clichés we were getting along like a house on fire, laughing at each other's small jokes - all the sort of things that people who believe themselves to be in love do.

Eventually we started trying to arrange to meet up. She lives in London and I work there so you'd have though this wouldn't be too difficult to sort out. For the record she wanted to meet up sooner but I was the more cautious party, fearing that my personal history might be an issue. When I eventually told her she said it wasn't and my final barrier to meeting her vanished. This was at the end of May.

To cut a long story short we still haven't met. By my reckoning we have arranged to meet nine times so far and each time it hasn't happened. For the first eight there has always been some excuse - illness, work etc - which was believable enough and I was willing (read stupid) enough to give her another chance. The last attempt to meet was me meeting her in Woolwich last night for dinner followed by staying at hers until Sunday morning. I stood outside of the DLR station there for just over an hour last night without seeing any sign of her. This follows me having texted her at various points to let her know I was coming as well as calling her a few times as I stood there like a bloody lemon.

Needless to say that when I got home at 2200 last night I wasn't in the best of moods. I feel as if I've been played and I'm not amused. There has been no sign of her online - either on IM or where we met - and no excuse has been offered via any medium as to why. I think I can safely say that anything we had (or I perhaps thought we had) is over.

I wouldn't mind but I'd allowed myself to let go my usual cynicism and dream as to what might have been. Thoughts of her being there when I woke up from surgery, of going for long rides together or of just cuddling on the settee... all now snuffed out like a candle.

You'll have to excuse me if I'm blunter and harsher than normal for a bit.

Something worth reading...

Sun, 27 Jun 2010 12:45:07 +0100

Is this thought provoking post from Anna.

Sight of the Day

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 23:07:11 +0100

The taxi driver in my parents neck of the woods who, rather of flying a cross of St. George from his aerial, is instead flying a white flag with the words "I Surrender" stencilled on it. :)

Published (again)

Sat, 12 Jun 2010 22:41:30 +0100

Schmap, the lot that included one of my Chicago pictures in the latest edition of their guide for that city, have now included one of my San Francisco pictures in the latest edition of their guide to that city as well.

Yay me! :)

A Quick Guide to the Financial Crisis

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 08:57:40 +0100

Via The Devil.

It is quite funny - in a 'lemmings on the edge of the cliff way'.

The Great Repeal/Freedom Bill

Wed, 19 May 2010 12:27:53 +0100

With the coalition looking to make a start on removing some of the bad, ill thought out and downright stupid laws from the statute book - and asking the public what they would like to see the back of - I though I'd mention some that I believe need to be removed/rewritten:

The hunting ban. This was purely a sop to the class warriors on the Labour back benches and nothing to do with animal 'rights'.
The smoking ban. Is the health of the nation any better because we can no longer smoke in pubs? No, didn't think so.
Much of the terrorism legislation brought in on the back of 9/11 and 7/7. Illiberal and minor parts (such as s44) are widely abused.
DNA retention for life. Should only be for those convicted.
Contact Point. Pointless especially given that children of MPs and 'celebrities' aren't even on it.
European Communities Act. Passed on the false pretence of it being a free trade area. Let the public decide if they want to be part of a political union.
CRB/ISA. Allows for gossip and hearsay rather than proven facts. All it does in the end is prove that the person holding it hasn't got the finger of suspicion hanging over them.
Handgun ban. A knee-jerk piece of legislation which hasn't stopped gun crime?
Mobile phones and driving. Dangerous driving/driving without due care and attention already covers this.
Libel Laws. Anyone who has read the exploits of Mr Justice Eady in Private Eyes knows that these are in need of being reformed.
ID cards, National Identity Register and anything associated with it. Unnecessary. 'nuff said.
Civil Contingencies Act. Gives too much power to the government as to what they can do in an 'emergency'.

That's a quick list from the top of my head. I'm sure there are others.

Update: For an even better list go to Wikiversity: Great Repeal Bill

Reform

Sun, 16 May 2010 11:32:26 +0100

Dear Messrs. Cameron and Clegg,

Firstly may I congratulate you both on the formation of this coalition? Although I did not vote for the candidates that either of you put up in my constituency of Southend West and I can't say that I was particularly enamoured with either of your parties throughout the campaign I am, after the events of the past few days and having read your coalition agreement cautiously optimistic as to the arrangement that you have come to blending as it seems the better bits of each party's manifesto commitments.

One of the most bandied words since the result of the general election became apparent in the early hours of last Friday morning has been 'reform'. Fair enough. But how far will that reform go? The Labour years saw some partial reforms of our constitutional processes but these were half-hearted and mostly aimed at appeasing the back benchers and anyone they depended upon for votes rather than being born out of a genuine desire to change things. The end result is a situation which many in the largest part of the Union believe to be unfair to them.

There are many things in our political and constitutional process that need to be carefully looked at. Some we knew about and some have been thrown into sharp relief by events of election night as I'm sure Mr Clegg will no doubt be aware. Yet I believe that we should look at the entire system. We may find that we don't need to change some bits of it but how will we know unless they are subjected to a proper review?

Some things you have pledged to deal with as part of the coalition agreement, those being:

Fixed term parliaments
Voting reform
Equal sized constituencies
Right of recall
The status of the House of Lords
An answer to the 'West Lothian' question
Electoral fraud
Lobbying
Party funding
Devolution

There is indeed much in there to like and it is nice to see you have already made a start in implementing them. I wonder though if you are perhaps not rushing in without doing a proper consultation exercise as there are other things that I would urge you to consider:

A referendum on our continuing membership of the EU. A hot potato to be sure but it is an issue that frustrates a great part of the electorate and may earn you a considerable amount of goodwill.
Statutory Instruments and Enabling Legislation. These were well used by the previous administration to expand the power of government and pass though items without recourse to the Commons.
A reduction in the number (or preferably elimination) of non-governmental organisations funded by taxpayers money.
Stop guillotining debates. Allow free and open discussion on a bill without imposing a time limit and accept that government doesn't always know best.
Scrap the whip system. Too many MPs from all parties simply come across as lobby fodder that simply do what they are told in the hope that they will be rewarded with a junior government/select committee position.
Sunset clauses to ensure that bills have to be reviewed every so often.
More time for members bills. Governments should not have a monopoly on Commons time.

In the end I do not believe you are being radical enough in your plans. Go for full devolution: give the 4 countries of the Union complete and total fiscal and political independence from each other, leaving only a light top layer - say an elected senate - to deal with matters (such as defence) that cannot be devolved downwards.

I posit that full devolution would mean an answer to the 'West Lothian' question as no MP from the government of one part of the Union would be in a government in another part of the Union, would mean that a layer of government would be removed from Wales and Scotland (no doubt saving a large amount of money and perhaps dealing the Nationalist movements once and for all) and that the House of Lords could morph into the elected senate.

I won't claim to have all of the answers but nor do I believe that the two of you do either. I would like to see all of the points above - and any that other politicians or members of the public have - looked at, explored and if necessary referendums offered so that the public has the chance to have their say.

If you want a new, open style of government then I trust that you will involve us, the public in this exercise. Otherwise you will be no better than your predecessors.

Yours sincerely,
Clarissa Clement (Miss)

Published

Fri, 14 May 2010 12:46:28 +0100

Further to my mention last month that one of the pictures I took during my jaunt to Chicago had been short-listed for inclusion in the latest edition of the Schmap guide for that city, I found out today that it has been included.

Ok, it is only online and there are no shortage of other pictures of the Tribune Tower available either but I'm not going to complain. :)

Binding Agreement

Wed, 12 May 2010 16:15:36 +0100

The agreement that underpins the Conservative/Liberal Democrat collation has been published/leaked. Charlotte Gore republishes it in full.

At first glance I can't see anything I have serious objections about.

Thought of the Day

Sat, 08 May 2010 22:11:22 +0100

To those people currently demanding we immediately switch to using PR in general elections: PR is what gave the BNP two MEPs last June. Were you also amongst those protesting against the system back then? If so, please kindly make your fucking minds up. Else put up and shut up.

Quote of the day

Fri, 07 May 2010 16:15:18 +0100

The age of "mass branded parties" is coming to an end and there needs to be a "looser" form of organisation among politicians to allow more independent thought, Tory MP Douglas Carswell says.

A common sense statement. We have too many party drones who simply do what the whips say.

Aftermath

Fri, 07 May 2010 10:56:47 +0100

So a hung parliament it is. Can Brown manage to form a working government? I would imagine that there would be an outcry if he did although senior Lab figures spent a lot of last night/this morning making public overtures to the Lib Dems. The Tories will have the most seats and most votes so will feel that in the event of Brown failing to do so that they might be able to go it alone. We shall see. I'll have to check what the odds are of repeating the entire exercise in October.

On the results front it was nice to see Jacqui Smith and Bob Spink get show the door. Unfortunately Ed Balls and Hazel Blears retained theirs although with massively reduced majorities. Harriet Harman is still around so no doubt will want to a shot at the leadership of the Labour party if Brown goes. Can't imagine that'll go down well. :) Buckingham hasn't yet declared so don't know if the odious little toe rag is still the Speaker.

The little boys didn't do very well. Old Holborn and none of the Libertarian Party candidates got more than a few hundred and Nick Griffin didn't take Barking even though the thought of it was enough to have that constituency seeing more of Margaret Hodge than they have done for years.

An unsatisfactory night all round.

And we're off

Thu, 06 May 2010 23:02:22 +0100

No surprise in the first result of the evening. Labour take Houghton & Sunderland. Provisional swing to the Tories (based on mathematics as this is a new constituency).