Reasons not to allow comments of our time, number 9349 If you're religious, you're wrong. A wonderful post that deserves a lot of links, and to spark discussion across the interweb. And not to centralise discussion in one place.

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posted 24 Oct 2005, 18.11 +0100

Hither thee to Crawl Across the Ocean for a diagram of how laws are made. It's ... well, it's complicated. Those of you who remember Alan Partridge's Soccer-o-meter will know just how complex.

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posted 25 Oct 2005, 19.08 +0100

I don't think there's a huge amount I can say about the recent upswing in violence over in Lozells. Commentators here, here, and here have the facts of the story covered.

One point I think bears further examination is the role of the pirate radio stations in all of this. There are three or four pirate stations active amongst the Afro-Carribbean community, and the current unease was sparked when one of them broadcast a rumour that a young Jamaican girl had been raped by Pakistani men. Attempts to trace the youngster concerned have been fruitless, suggesting that she never existed. Most of the pirate stations are strictly local, with a radius of only a mile or two, but one of them, Real FM, booms in to my stereo about six miles away. They were calling for calm as early as last Friday.

Why is there such a proliferation of unlicensed broadcasters? Because the licensing system has completely failed the community. Those of Asian heritage have the medium-wave station XL, and the BBC's Asian Network. Those of "black" heritage don't currently have an official broadcaster to call their own.

Sure, they've had something in the past. Buzz-FM, when it launched in the late 80s, was an Incremental station, aimed specifically at the Afro-Carribbean community. By the time its signal increased enough to reach me, it had watered down its format to become a standard hit radio show. Buzz ran out of money and was replaced in '95 by Choice, a very listenable station with a bias towards soul and local content. Sadly, Choice was sold to Chrysalis in 1998, and the resulting Galaxy brand is a dull identikit dance station, with a first duty to make money for its owners.

While there are plans for local stations in Aston and Handsworth, much of the gap is filled by these pirates. They don't have the usual requirements to ensure their news is accurate, or their presenters don't voice opinions. Being beyond the regulatory authorities allows them to say what they want, and to stoke the flames of public opinion in a manner they couldn't if they were regulated.

I'd suggest that if there was a legal "black" station in Birmingham, there would be a fraction less alienation between communities, and there would - perhaps - be a little less tension between the ethnic groups. In turn, perhaps this week-end's upsurge of violence might have been avoided. However, I accept that this wouldn't resolve the resentment of some elements in the Afro-Carribean community against those from the Indian sub-continent. That is a bigger problem.

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posted 25 Oct 2005, 19.17 +0100

1994: The BBC launches an Arabic television news channel. It's heavily criticised by Saudi Arabia, the dominant power, and is effectively forced off air within 18 months.

1995: The remaining journalists from BBC Arabia form al-Jazeera.

2005: al-Jazeera launches a world-wide English-language service.

2006: BBC cuts programming in ten languages to launch ... a new Arabic television news channel.

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posted 25 Oct 2005, 19.32 +0100

Dear Trainline

Congratulations! By imposing a flat-rate fee on credit card bookings, you would have added 7.5% of my journey costs, for no reason other than to increase your profits.

Furthermore, your cited explanation fails to give any adequate justification for this usurious charge.

Please rest assured that I shall not be patronising your site unless and until you remove this fee.

Yours, W

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posted 26 Oct 2005, 18.30 +0100

mathematics theorems of all time. (With thanks to John Gushue.)

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posted 26 Oct 2005, 20.06 +0100

A bit of stuff about this blog.

* RSS feed. If I can get the .htaccess file to work correctly, I'll be redirecting the Livejournal bot to a special Short-RSS file from early next week. The main purpose here is to reduce the load on your columnist's page. Long articles will be summarised, and the weekly IRT chopped substantially. Shorter posts, probably the majority of posts, will remain intact.

There may be a slight delay to the Livejournal syndication, because .htaccess is still a bit of a dark art for me. And because Livejournal is a bit tetchy sometimes.

* Comments. Well, you have collectively asked for it, so you shall get it. Comments will be enabled on the front page, weekly summaries, and individual entries, from next Monday. This will be a trial service, I shall be reviewing the situation in mid-December.

* Premium browser features. With immediate effect, certain items - both on the website and via RSS - will be available only to those running a premium browser. Those still running Internet Explorer will wish to obtain Firefox or go to the Opera. This website looks perfectly good in Lynx, and as far as I'm concerned, it's a Premium Browser.

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posted 27 Oct 2005, 20.33 +0100

Ever wondered why your table wobbles, Mary? Because one leg's shorter than the other, June.

But you don't need to get out the hammer to repair it, or stick paper under the wobbly leg. Just twist it around until it balances.

"No, waiter, I'm not trying to crowd the aisle, just stop the table from wobbling."

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posted 27 Oct 2005, 20.34 +0100

A listing of selected television and radio broadcasts, with a deliberate emphasis on culture and intellectual programmes.

Saturday

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

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posted 27 Oct 2005, 20.51 +0100

The quarterly radio audience listening figures were published last Thursday. Here's my analysis for national stations, and those available in this part of the west midlands.

The cited figures are for reach (listeners per week - millions for national stations, percentage for locals) and average hours per person per week. The figures are on a weighted average over the past six ratings periods.

National stations

Radio 2 loses a little ground, still clearly the one to beat. (13.2m, 3h30)

Radio 1 continues to climb, now above 10m for the second quarter. A success for the most coherent daytime schedule since Simon Mayo left. (10.1m, 1h53)

Radio 4 is now clearly back in third place, no real change this quarter. (9.5m, 1h28)

Radio 5 doesn't seem to have done as well as it might out of the Ashes -TMS listeners will be counted for R4LW. (6.1m, 59m)

Classic fm will be disappointed to have dropped below 6 million listeners, though the hours held up. (6.1m, 55m)

Kiss gains listeners but loses hours. Still the second largest commercial station, which surprises a lot of people. (2.4m, 15m)

Talk Radio has lost half a million over the last six months, though hours are stable. Must be attracting a lot of people who only listen to the odd show - their regular listeners seem to clock up huge times. (2.2m, 23m)

Radio 3 (2.0m, 15m) is back above 2 million listeners and clearly ahead of...

Virgin, where the slow decline continues. (1.8m, 12m)

World Service had a spectacularly good quarter, boding well if the slow mutation into a proper news service takes off. (1.3m, 8m)

Xfm has its best-ever figure, a great exit for Christian O'Connell. (0.7m, 5m)

BBC7 storms past 600,000 listeners and 3 million hours this quarter, a remarkable feat. (475,000, 3m)

Asian Network is losing hours, though not listeners. (483,000, 3m)

Planet Rock (280,000, 2m) is slightly down from last quarter's fantastic reach figures, but hours are barely changed. It's still the leading digital-only station, and now ahead of...

6 music which had a very quiet quarter. (259,000, 2m)

Primetime has a good quarter. (163,000, 2m)

Oneword (119,000, 0m) no change, but still just ahead of...

Core, recovers some lost ground, but it was still more popular last year. (116,000)

Arrow retains its 80,000 loyal listeners.

Cube continues to trickle along the bottom. (47,000)

BBC local stations

Steady performances for the two market leaders, Shropshire (30%, 3h37) and Hereford and Worcester (25%, 2h41). Leicester (22%, 2h33) is losing hours at quite a rate, Oxford (17%, 1h49) is losing them more slowly. Gloucestershire (16%, 1h50) feels like it's a station on the rise, thanks to a new man at breakfast. WM (15%, 1h46) and Coventry and Warwickshire (14%, 1h34) went their separate ways at the start of September, after sharing services for the past ten years. Finally, the Asian Network (4%, 17m) continues to provide a small service.

Local commercials

Of the heritage stations, FOX (33%, 3h22) continues to be absolutely massive in its Oxfordshire market, as does Mercia (31%, 2h29) in Coventry. Heart West Mids (25%, 2h06) has lost 10% of its listeners, but gained hours this quarter. Wyvern (26%, 2h38) continues to enjoy a near-monopoly, but lost audience noticeably this quarter. BRMB (25%, 2h05) recovers slightly this quarter, but the historic trend is down. The station's recent relaunch sounds better than the "New" gimmick they had for eighteen months. The Bear (25%, 2h41) is down a little in its Stratford area, while Wolverhampton's Beacon (21%, 1h50) is recovering from recent lows. Galaxy (17%, 1h20) continues to bobble along without really encouraging people to listen for a long time. Heart East Mids (16%, 1h28) re-launched this quarter from Century, the next quarter will be vital. Saga West Mids (12%, 1h28) and Saga East Mids (12%, 1h26) didn't do much, but it's worth noting the way these listeners tune in for long periods. Bottom of the market is still Kerrang (8%, 36m) in spite of their best listening hours.

Of the smaller stations, Rugby FM (43%, 4h23) remains the single most popular station in this very competitive market. Kix (22%, 1h13) is losing hours badly in Coventry. Lichfield's Centre (22%, 2h03) holds steady, but Fosseway (17%, 1h44) loses hours in Lutterworth. Wolverhampton's Wolf (15%, 1h03) continues to struggle.

Finally, very poor results for the three AM services. Mercia am (5%, 33m) is down a little, Xtra-am (3%, 16m) in Birmingham is down more, and WABC (3%, 16m) in Wolverhampton had one of the worst quarters in the country. Just 22,000 listeners per week, a share of 1.7%, and just less than 10 min/person/wk. Time to take this station off the air and replace it with a recording of the speaking clock, and wait for complaints. They won't get many.

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posted 29 Oct 2005, 16.48 +0100

Short cuts from the week.

The BBC on adverts in Ukraine.

Asked if the row between George Galloway and the Senate committee might damage the special relationship, the PMOS said that there were some issues which one learned to stay out of. This was top of that list. - Downing Street Says

The Madness of David "Whore" Plunkett, from the Torygraph, registration required.

It's not a problem in the UK, for the sleepers don't run, but what do long-distance trains do when the clocks change?

Michael Kinsey offers a brief primer on CIA-gate.

The F*x Lies Channel through history. (This doubles as a game of Spot the Anachronism.)

And finally, letter and campaign of the week:

It's depressing to note once again the appearance of Christmas decorations in shops and arcades, more than two months before the event itself. In Cheltenham, the Campaign for a Shorter Christmas was set up earlier this year, with a view to rallying public opposition to the extension of the Christmas season into the early autumn. Most people, we feel, would prefer to have a proper break between the end of summer, with all its holiday expenses, and the start of the Christmas commercial feeding-frenzy.

The campaign has a website and, although the focus has been on Cheltenham this year, visitors are welcome from all parts of the UK. Here, they can sign up to an online petition, and can also download complaint flyers to hand in at shops where decorations are already appearing and where, before long, shoppers and staff will be tormented with endless loops of "Jingle Bells" and Slade.

ED ADDIS, CHELTENHAM

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posted 30 Oct 2005, 18.33 +0000

They have no taste in Germany, how else can one explain Bert Bills having the number one record. Everywhere else has gone Eurovision crazy. Céline Dion (Switzerland 88) is back, but only in French-speaking areas - her lead-off single Je ne vous oublie pas is number two in France, three in Belgium, and nowhere elsewhere. Irritants Ilona Mitrecey and Pinocchio also have huge new hits, but the less said about them, the better. Strange scenes in Norway, where A-ha's (Norway 96, after a fashion) Celice is up to number two, twenty years after their big breakthrough single. Reigning World Idle champ Kurt Nielsen has worked with Venke Knutson on When the stars go blue.

Stranger still in Sweden, where the highest new entry comes from a group called the West End Girls. They are to the Pet Shop Boys what the A-teens were to ABBA, and Domino dancing is their big new hit. Eurovision rejects Nanne (Sweden 04) and Tatu (Russia 03) sandwich this year's winner Helena Paparizou. The advantages of hosting Eurovision 50 haven't paid off for Reynars Kaupers - his band Prata Vetra (Latvia 00) are knocked off the top spot in Latvia by Depeche Mode. Looming just outside the top ten is the newie from Julia Savicheva (Russia 04), a song with the snappy title Esli v serdce zhivet lyubov'. And in Lithuania, their 2001 entry Skamp have a hit with a song called Reach. It's a cover...

*20 NE McFly - I wanna hold you
 19 re Juanes - La camisa negra
 18 19 Pinocchio - T'es pas cap Pinocchio
*17 NE Arctic Monkeys - I bet you look good on the dancefloor
 16 13 DBT - Listen to your heart
 15 10 Kelly Clarkson - Behind these hazel eyes
 14 15 Crazy Frog - Axel f
*13 NE Rammstein - Benzin
 12  9 Franz Ferdinand - Do you want to?
*11 14 Bob Sinclar - Love generation
*10 12 Alex Parks - Looking for water
* 9 16 Coldplay - Fix you
  8  7 Daniel Powter - Bad day
* 7  8 K T Tunstall - Suddenly I see
* 6  6 Tatu - All about us
  5  5 Pussycat Dolls - Don't you
  4  2 Depeche Mode - Precious
* 3  3 Robert Williams - Tripping
* 2  4 Sugababes - Push the button
* 1  1 James Blunt - You're beautiful

Irish wasters Pestside are, apparently, still going, and their umpteenth single is a cover version of the old Frankie hit Relax. With different lyrics. And a revised tune. It's their biggest seller so far in Ireland, apparently, which is a wonderful testament to the depth of Louis Walsh's car boot. The lead single from their forthcoming "Songs You Might Have Heard On X-Factor, If You're Watching That Nonsense" album is also number one in the UK, but the big news is below, where the Arctic Monkeys would still be number one if it wasn't for Louis's pet wankers' cover of Josh Groban. The Sugababes are number three, ahead of Kate Bush's King of the mountain. It's her biggest hit in twenty years, since Running up that hill peaked at number three. Hillary Duff and the Backpassage Boys also have top ten records this week. Good stuff lower down... hmm... a re-working of Pump up the jam at 22... ah! Magic Numbers (Love's a game) and Test Icicles (Circlesquare, which sadly isn't a Wonderstuff cover) just miss the top 20, while Supergrass's new record stalls at a dismal 52. Which is still seventeen places above the Corrs.

On the album list, the over-promoted and dull-as-shit Robbie Williams lands at the top, ahead of the Prodge and Sugababes. Old stuff re-hashed from Destiny's Child and Supertramp makes the top ten, and though Depeche Mode fall from 6 to 20, they're still ahead of Alex Parks, whose Honesty album only makes 24. El Presidente (57) and Bert Bacharach (60) also have new entries.

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posted 30 Oct 2005, 20.05 +0000

A week under the influence of strong south-easterly winds ensured it was mostly dry, and unseasonably mild.

24 Mo cloud, rain         11/16, 17.8
25 Tu showers, sun        12/15,  5.1
26 We cloud, showers      11/16,  1.3
27 Th sun                 13/18,  0.0
28 Fr cloud               13/16,  1.8
29 Sa cloud               12/15,  0.0
30 Su rain to sun         13/16,  4.8

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posted 30 Oct 2005, 20.06 +0000

older writing... write to