[connex] booted out of melbourne

The company which helped decimate Britain's rail services and then went downunder, has now been given the bullet after destroying Melbourne's train services.

Where will Connex go next?

[the nvq society] and the uprooted flowerbed

You might first like to cast your eye over this post about June Turnbull, in order to get the picture.

Well, it's happened again - Angus covered it yesterday:

No good deed goes unpunished A retired florist has been threatened with criminal prosecution by a council after planting a flower garden on a neglected patch of land in a car park.

Jayne Bailey, a retired florist, gave the concrete island on her housing estate a makeover as the cobble-stones were coming loose and she thought they were dangerous.

Mrs Bailey, 60, removed loose cobbles and planted flowers in a display that has been supported by some of her neighbours.

So, was there an unveiling speech, with the local mayor praising initiative, selflessness and hard work? Not a bit of it. Those qualities are not desired in our society today, are they? Jayne Bailey is now retired from her horticultural work and as she doesn't possess a current NVQ [that is, paid out a huge sum of money for nothing] , she can't possibly know the first thing about horticulture.

Plus she's white and aged, which translates now as 'unwanted'. And what was the council's reaction?

"They also threatened that they would go to the police and report me for criminal damage.'

A spokesman for the council said:

"In this particular case no agreement was sought to carry out the works. Several complaints from residents have been received concerning the planting."

Complaints about her planting a garden on what was a bit of crumbling concrete? Oh yes? Maybe we can see the text of those 'complaints'?

So there it is - the new NVQ society, the forcing of people into narrow specialist areas, each with its new jargon and methods of exclusivity - this is union demarcation disputes taken to a point of madness and visited upon the whole community.

I have to ask you, 'Do you really want to live in such a society? Isn't there something we can do to reverse such bureaucratic madness?'

[who's the daughter] seems it's difficult

Hints: Naples, well-known politician, grand-daughter of a dictator

All right, obviously it was too difficult even for Welshcakes - Alessandra Mussolini

[michael jackson] r.i.p.

Nothing really to add to that.

[optimism] better for the mental health

Life likes to teach some lessons. There are essentially four major blows which could befall me and it's been like this since I came back to Britain. One happened today but it's still too early to know the extent of the fallout.

Naturally, my friend said, 'Don't worry about it.'

Right at that point, I saw this:

Farrah Fawcett, the "Charlie's Angels" star whose feathered blond hair and dazzling smile made her one of the biggest sex symbols of the 1970s, died Thursday after battling cancer. She was 62.

When you see the nature of her cancer, it does put things into perspective. I've had, for a month or so, a very mild form of tinnitus but I was reading the other day about the bad stuff and it's anything but what I have. Mine only partially intrudes but heaven help those who have the full-blown version.

Still, there are ways to come to terms with tinnitus, there are ways to get round my own little matter in a few months but there's no way to come to terms with Farrah Fawcett's cancer.

Everything is relative, really, isn't it? I admire eternal optimists who can't see how our society has been brought to the impasse it has and their enthusiasm is infectious. They genuinely believe we're about to turn the corner and maybe we should just throw in our lot with them and adopt their point of view.

[neda latest] seventy professors detained

From Maildotcom:

Seventy university professors were detained in Iran in a widening government crackdown on protesters, according to a website affiliated with Iran's key opposition figure, Mir Hossein Mousavi, who says he was robbed of victory in a rigged presidential election.

Hundreds of protesters and activists are believed to have been taken into custody since the June 12 vote, in which Iran's ruling clerics declared hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner by a landslide.

Still, the most senior dissident cleric in Iran, Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, warned the authorities in a statement that trying to snuff out dissent would prove to be futile.

The darkest hour is just before the dawn.