Icke on the ballot

The crushing dullness of much contemporary political debate (I was listening to Harriet Harman talking about the new Equalities Bill on the radio today and I'd love to debate the finer points of that with you, but I fell asleep) is enlivened somewhat by the list of candidates for the Haltemprice and Howden by-election. They are:

• Grace Christine Astley - Independent
• David Laurence Bishop - Church of the Militant Elvis Party
• Ronnie Carroll - Make Politicians History
• Mad Cow-Girl - The Official Monster Raving Loony Party
• David Craig - Independent
• Herbert Winford Crossman - Independent
• Tess Culnane - National Front Britain for the British
• Thomas Faithful Darwood - Independent
• David Michael Davis - Conservative
• Tony Farnon - Independent
• Eamonn "Fitzy" Fitzpatrick - Independent
• Christopher Mark Foren - Independent
• Gemma Dawn Garrett - Miss Great Britain Party
• George Hargreaves - Christian Party
• Hamish Howitt - Freedom 4 Choice
• David Icke - No party listed
• John Nicholson - Independent
• Shan Oakes - Green Party
• David Pinder - The New Party
• Joanne Robinson - English Democrats: Putting England First
• Jill Saward - Independent
• Norman Scarth - Independent
• Walter Edward Sweeney - Independent
• Christopher John Talbot - Socialist Equality Party
• John Randle Upex - Independent
• Greg Wood - Independent

Just one caught my eye - David Icke. Friends will know that ever since reading The Biggest Secret and Children of the Matrix a few years back I've maintained an interest in what the Ickester is trying to awaken us to - or defraud us with, depending on your point of view. Anyway David's site confirms that he's standing.

Unless several thousand of the people who buy Icke's books live in that particular constituency (which is possible, though unlikely) he's unlikely to get elected, but it's exciting to see him back in the news at least.

Icke's Big Brother Research Centre page (not about the TV series, sadly) is deserving of further perusal at a later date. Maybe it's time to resurrect Hal's Friday Evening Blog Review... that was a laugh.

My unlikely political hero

Up to now, I'm pleased to say that my political heroes have mainly come from the left of the spectrum. Tony Benn (who I was very pleased to see on good form at the Compass conference yesterday), John McDonnell, Vince Cable, maybe even Ed Miliband.

But now there is a new kid on the block: David Davis. The real 'Dave'. The Dave with guts and principle.

Dave D's decision to resign and fight a by-election over the '42 days' anti-civil-liberties legislation (I ain't gonna call it the 'anti-terror' legislation as that's playing into the govt's hands; there's not the slightest evidence this will actually help prevent terrorist attacks) is one of the most courageous political decisions I have seen in a long time. Because:

• the measure is popular with the public (who are largely brainwashed bovines, sadly);
• his opponent might be ex-Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie who will pull in a lot of the dickhead vote (and that could be decisive, seeing as not many people tend to vote in by-elections anyway.)

I should be clear at this point that most of what David Davis stands for is absolute arse and in normal circumstances I would sooner staple my own nose than support him. But on this issue at this time it's essential that one of the only people with the balls to say "no" to the inexorable drive towards a police state and the destruction of our basic freedoms gets support from wherever on the political spectrum he can find it. So go, Dave.

Commiserations to all those in the Essex area still commuting...

For the last month I've been enjoying my new freelance lifestyle, which generally involves working at home and not going into London for work purposes unless absolutely necessary. The reduction in stress just from not having to get on that f***ing tin box of a train every day has been enormous.

And, looking at the chaos that's occurred on the main line out of Liverpool Street these last 2 days, I'm extremely glad I'm not going into London every day... and very sympathetic to you poor bastards out there who are still having to grin and bear it.

It's symptomatic of the regularity with which shit like this occurs that the BBC website is featuring it only very low down the list of newsworthy stories, buried here in the Essex section of the site. It's even below the story about a worm found in a chicken kiev from Morrison's, for f***'s sake.

So what's goin' down? Well, the overhead power line at Ingatestone. 1 mile of it to be precise. What happened - and what keeps happening every few months - is that one of the creaking 40-year-old intercity trains which crawl up and down the line to Norwich brought down the power line. The train is still stuck there and there is no estimate from Network Rail on when they'll be able to reopen that side of the line. So the commuters have to put up with a reduced service - on one of the busiest lines into London - for the rest of the week.

The Network Rail guy interviewed on the BBC's Look East local news show (well, local is pushing it a bit - why do I care what the hell is happening in Wisbech, for instance?) was a smug moron who ignored the issues completely and said 'underlying performance has been very good'. That's like saying that the guy in the office with a poor attendance record actually has an impeccable attendance record - if you calculate his average attendance based only on the days he was in the office. Seriously, this is the lameness of the crap they try to fob people off with. The funniest thing that happened was when someone turned the sound off on the Network Rail guy's headphones feed - so the BBC guy in the studio was asking him how Network Rail was going to improve performance on the trains and he just stood there on the video link, looking like the self-satisfied twat he truly was.

I hope Barack Obama will be able to sort this mess out when he wins the US election in November. In the meantime, commuters should commandeer the trains and run them themselves in association with the drivers' union - on time and without the corporate bullshit National Express and Network Rail try to diss us with.

As ELO once said to the power line... "Don't Bring Me Down".