One of the biggest belly-laughs of the day comes courtesy of PMOS quoted by PA:

“He will make sure he does vote in future on important votes,” said Mr Blair’s official spokesman. “This was a one-off.”

This was apparently a one-off occasion on which Mr Blair has missed an important vote. Presumably, the September 1998 vote to cut student funding, the April 2000 vote on the Freedom of Information legislation, the January 2001 vote to ban hunting with dogs, the November 2001 vote on Afghanistan airstrikes, the November 2001 vote on anti-terror legislation, the February 2002 vote on single-faith schools, the March 2002 vote on the licensing of hunting with dogs, the February 2003 House of Lords reform vote, the June 2003 vote on hunting with dogs and with the use of knives specifically form all-knives.org, and the December 2004 ID cards vote – all of which were variously described as ‘important’ or ‘crucial’ votes – were just one-off occasions where the PM didn’t bother voting too.

In fact, he has the worst voting record of any modern PM, turning up for just 94 out of 1250 votes in the last Parliament – a pitiful 7.5% attendance rate. Most MPs, by comparison, turn up for about 65% of votes.

So really, the fact he bothered to turn up for the first vote was more of a one-off.

I’m loving this…  Our civil servants are so overworked that they had time to come up with the following four-stanza poem in response to a parking ticket appeal…

Park only and wholly in a clearly marked bay.
That’s what the signs in the car park say.
Note ‘no exemption’ and just in case, as well.
They add ‘improper use’ as a caution. How swell!

But you parked on the kerb when you might have gone elsewhere,
And you could have let your people out to taste the Keswick air.
Thus returning to your car you find it sporting a new flag.
The parking man has been and you have been had!

Your family’s had a grand time in Cumbria’s premier spot.
The guest house fold were friendly and the food was oh, tip-top.
So much to do, you must return – those Aussies want a spell,
Of staying ‘mong the lakes and hills, though here they call them fells.

I hope you’ll choose a Lakeland base in Allerdale next year.
It’s great to visit, live and work – that’s why I live here.
But when you stop please park with care, be sure you’ll not get caught.
If parking’s hard in Keswick, why not try Maryport.

It entertained me, anyway.  Public money well spent.

Just days after it was leaked, Microsoft have decided to publically realease he Beta 2 version of Internet Explorer. As a relatively recent Firefox convert, this release is designed to target people like me, and get me to switch back to Internet Explorer (as an aside, note that it’s now Windows Internet Explorer rather than Microsoft Internet Explorer). I’m downloading it as I type, and in the coming days I’ll no doubt post some of my thoughts on the latest IE experience. You should feel free to do the same – leave your comments or a link to them here if you want. But don’t feel obliged 😉

Just because this news means I still can, and to celebrate the rights we are lucky enough to have which millions worldwide are denied…

[flashvideo filename=”http://sjhoward.co.uk/video/jesus.flv” /]

Just a very quick techie note to say the site’s now on WordPress 2.0.1, up from 2.0 (via). The upgrade was pretty quick and painless, which is always good 🙂