The Right Student

Hello folks! We have now moved from Blogger to Wordpress.

To visit our new site, click here or just go to www.therightstudent.com

We've loved blogging on Blogger for the past 18 months but felt that it has run it's course and we now need some more visually appealing software. See you over there at the other side!

I can't say it any better than Iain Martin blogging on the Telegraph site:

"free beds and blowjobs in first class."

“Screw the share price, this is a fare war.”

"Yes I have taken a pay cut, I don't care though because I'm rich!"

“However, further terrorist attacks in London could have a downward impact on passenger volumes and yields,”

“The European consumer would crawl naked over broken glass to get low fares.”

Genius!

Sorry about the messy blog at the moment - the only way to access is through www. before therightstudent.com ah well!

Also, we're hoping to upgrade to Wordpress by Saturday and in the meantime we seem to have lost our blogroll. Apologies to all on there, we will add you back again once we've migrated.

Not long to go! We're packing up and getting ready to upscale!

I agree with MP's on this one - their home addresses are private and should not be published. Just as teachers, lawyers and police officers' addresses aren't. I would be very uneasy if I was an MP and my home address was available for all to see. What if you voted on an issue that split voters or angered an extreme thinking group? I'd fear for my safety as Jacqui Smith seems to with her armed guard at her door (well her sister's door but that's another kettle of fish).
Why would anyone want to know their MP's home address? If they want to write to them, they can write to their office. I can't for the life of me imagine why a consitutuent would want to know where their local MP lives (unless it's not in the constituency!)

The sister site of The Right Student, Right Revue has been launched. It's the absolute opposite of TRS and there are blogs on celebrities, music, film, TV etc.

So if you're in the mood for a bit of light entertainment then look no further. Anyone linking will get a link back so if you want a new type of reader then feel free!

Hope to see you all over there.


Coming up at 9.20pm on TRS: Why MP's addressed should NOT be published.

Sharon Osbourne is being sued by a former reality TV contestant over an
altercation during an episode of the star's Rock of Love Charm School show.
The incident, which was screened on VH1 in the US in January, shows Osbourne
exchanging insults with Megan Hauserman before pouring a drink over her.
According to Los Angeles court papers, Ms Hauserman claims Osbourne, 56, hit
her, pulled her hair and scratched her.

OK, seems rather nasty, doesn't it? I would expect Sharon to maybe face a charge of assault or something like that. But oh no, this is America. Home of ridiculous, money-grabbing suing cases:

The lawsuit states that Hauserman was "grievously and permanently injured
and hurt in her health, strength and activity" and "will be prevented from
attending to any occupation in the future".
She has alleged battery,
negligence and an intention to inflict emotional distress. A jury trial has been
requested, along with possible punitive damages to include past, present and
future medical expenses, loss of earnings and loss of business opportunities.

What? Pulling hair, a drink being poured and scratched? I've had a lot worse things being done to me and I was fine ten minutes later. I do hope Britain doesn't go that way and any court cases like this are laughed off and told to stop wasting time.

The BBC reports that -

Gunmen have attacked a bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team on its way to play in the Pakistani city of Lahore.

What shocking news. Details are still sketchy, but I reckon this will either be a Tamil Tigers related endeavour, or something related to the problems in the North West Frontier province. Which ever it is, though, this is appalling;

Not just for the dead and wounded, though. This is appalling because it illustrates the continuing disintegration of Pakistan. Nuclear armed Pakistan.

Pakistan is going the way of Afghanistan, and just imagine what a Taliban style organization would do with nuclear weapons.

It seems my predictions of the last ComRes poll being a rogue for the Lib Dems was correct. In fact, it could be that the entire poll was a rogue as they have changed dramatically since last time. Maybe the pollers just sat in the pub all day filling the forms out. Anyway, as predicted the Lib Dems go back to 17%, the Tories and Labour would most likely have their figures affected by the tragic news of Ivan Cameron and how Brown reacted but since the initial shock, the media had gladly been reluctant to print any more on the issue (unlike Jade Goody). However, I can see Cameron and Brown being slightly buoyed by these figures and Brown will certainly look to improve on them after his trip to the White House. I, however don't expect him to get more than 30% as a boost from the trip due to the fact he is reportedly only spending 30 minutes with Obama and the press conference has been 'called off'.

Off topic; Right Revue, the entertaining little sister of The Right Student will be launched later today so stay tuned on here and my Twitter to get the latest news regarding it.

I have just read a very interesting piece on GOP Utah Governor John Huntsman. In it he warns against the Republican Party retreating to a 'core vote' position, where it only appeals to a narrow, right-wing, segment of society.

He seems to equate the 2008 Presidential and Congressional elections with the aberration that was Britain's 1997 to 2005 period. From what I can tell, Huntsman seems to be positioning himself as a Cameron type figure. However I reckon that it is not time for that yet, the Republicans will follow the same path as the Conservatives did, with a divided and discredited party facing an incredibly popular opponent. If Huntsman gets the 2012 nomination, he would probably end up as less of a Cameron, and more of a Hague. Which would be a shame.

The article is worth a read, you should have a look.

Apologies for the mildly profane title, but I felt no other way to express my concern. And it is wonderful to say something which emphasizes your Yorkshireness, every so often.

Harriet Harman suggests that -

And it might be enforceable in a court of law, this contract, but it is not enforceable in the court of public opinion and that is where the government steps in.

So let me get this straight: Government minister argues that laws don't matter, it is actually public opinion which should drive action. If this is the case, I expect to see a change of policy on peadophile punishment and the death penalty soon.

Compared to the losses RBS have, £16m isn't that much of a big deal so why are the government going on and on and on and on about it? Simple. Remain in the public eye, let people think they're doing something for the 99% of society who don't earn millions and get a few extra headlines. It's pretty pathetic, they don't care about his pension, they just care about getting more votes the nearer to a General Election we get. They should be working out how to make RBS work, not chase some guy up for a few million pounds out of his pension.

Organised chaos has written a fantastic piece defending Margaret Thatcher against the 'trying-to-be-hip' folk who love lambasting her. Here's a little snippet.

The idea that we can blame the current recession on Lady T is ludicrous. She’s been out of office for 19 years. I fail to understand the need to blame all the ills of the world on her. We didn’t blame her for the problems in the 90s. She may have de-regulated the City but blaming her for the situation we’re in now is like blaming the designers and makers of cars for traffic accidents.

If you are looking to blame someone I suggest you look no further than our current Prime Minister, and former Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown. He had a decade to ensure that the City wasn’t getting out of control. Indeed it was during his tenure that the City reached some of its worst excesses. But during the good times he became complacent, spending like there was no tomorrow, failing to put money away for a rainy day.

Read the full story here.

The Lib Dem figures keep changing at the moment showing that there must either be rogue polls about or many people are undecided who to vote for. When they lose interest in the main two parties, a vote for the Lib Dems is usually gained. At the moment, British Politics is in the headlines a lot and I can't see the Lib Dems getting much more than 15% for the foreseeable future. The Conservatives will be hoping they can get higher tha 41% as they need to be as close to 50% as possible. I remain confident they will be in the late 40's come the General Election. I believe Labour will be pleased with the 31% they have as I expected them to drop into the very late 20's at this time - there's many more chances for that to happen.

As for the BNP apparently 'gaining Tory seats', I certainly feel that those who responded that way would have been a protest vote. We see the Greens, BNP and other minor parties doing well outside of a General Election and when the big vote comes around, they come to their senses and vote for a sensible party. The Tories shouldn't lose any sleep over this.

(BTW, to stop three blogs or more being posted in a row, I have enabled 'future posting'. I wrote this at 1.30pm so if anything has changed I do apologise.)

That phrase scares me. Gordon Brown used it today, in relation to Sir Fred Goodwin's massive pension.

When this first came up, I was quite disgusted, as I am sure many of you are. I mean, how can it be right that a man who was so instrumental in worsening Britain's current economic problems is given a £650k per year pension? And when we are disgusted, we all go to the same place, don't we? We all think 'This is an outrage, something must be done!'.

Such feelings are inevitably preyed on by populist governments. But think about it;

What sort of precedent would we set, if we had the Executive interfering in the financial affairs of an individual? Would we really want the Government to have the power to arbitrarily remove the pensions of people, just because it was dissatisfied by their actions as the head of a private sector company? I think not.

People calling for Fred Goodwin to have his pension stripped from him, by the Government, need to think again.