Safe standing - Labour loathes listening

http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,8652_3728462,00.html

Its almost impossible to count the ways that Sutcliffe has missed the point. he has ignored the wishes of those supporters who simply wish to stand at football matches; he uses a safety argument, but not necessarily the safest - that might include adding seatbelts to chairs!; he has sucked up to the money men as Labour seem prone to doing.

Still, its not a fight that they can win.

Web blogs 'need content warnings' says "web pioneer Tim O'Reilly". Do they fuck!

"Oi, you"..."

Talking cctv cameras from Josef Reid. Dont say you haven't been warned.

The return of compulsory Football ID cards?

A characteristic of some (not all) safety officers is that they lack so little control of their own lives that they become obsessed with controlling others. Once in the job, they get so aroused by the feeling of raw power that, rather like sex criminals who dont get captured early, their behaviour becomes more extreme.

After the excitement of telling a spotty youth to sit down has worn off, thoughts turn to more extreme ways of satisfying their cravings. The next step naturally is a return to ID cards so beloved of Mrs T. and perhaps the knobbiest man ever to become an MP, Colin Moynihan.

Once we've got ID cards I predict that seat belts will be installed at all Premiershi* grounds.Sadly I dont think the average football fan today, or people all through society in fact, have the balls to stand up against the Stalinist encroachment on our everyday lives.

Hillsborough for a time was used as an argument against terracing, even though the report described it as not intrinsically unsafe. Now there are just too many flaws in the all-seater argument to make it stack up, but the FLA continue with their perverse reasoning.

Whilst pensioners are willing to go to prison to fight for their beliefs, theres only one Big Brother that most people seem interested in. I dont believe the will to fight these draconian laws actually exists. I hope I'm wrong.

Inland Revenue, HRMC or whatever they're called this week

Not often you get anything back from the taxman, so naturally I was delighted to find that I'd been offered a refund because I'd filed my returns on-line.

Imagine my disappointment when I phoned and asked for the money to be transferred to my bank account, only to be told it would have to be done via a cheque!

Hardly practising what they preach are they?

Donkeys for courses

Ever been away on one of those work related courses? You know, stay in some god-forsaken outpost labelling itself as a 'University', by half past nine every evening the bar is full of blunt brains in sharp suits shaking hands and talking loudly about Matrix Management.

DDA - Did it make any difference?

So far, I've seen very little evidence of change. Many shops, pubs and clubs are as inaccessible as they've ever been. I'm contemplating a one-man campaign to either improve the situation, or make some money by legal action!