bushytailedfox

I learnt something about words and colours on Friday.

I was house hunting in Toronto in the pouring rain when I got stopped by a man asking me to read the signs outside a hospital. The signs he was interested in turned out to be advertising for Sunnybrook Hospital, and it was a slogan with each word on a separate coloured background. I read off the text for for him, only to be asked, "But what does it say?"

I read off the words again for him, trying to edge away, but he still wasn't having it. "It's not a red word is it? A good green word though". He should be in advertising...

As it was, he was in the street; in the rain; in his shirt; getting soaked.

And yes, care in the community works almost as well here as it does in the UK. I bought him a coffee and escaped.

The Guardian has now published the contents of the super injunction that prevented it reporting on Parliamentary Proceedings. It has been annotated by them.

It can be found here:

http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2009/10/20/SUPER-INJUNCTION.pdf

Someone cloned my debit card recently, and the bank started an investigation. The bank's investigation has now had an investigation of its own...

I asked on Friday if the investigation was now completed. What investigation, they asked. The one you phoned me about, that one. Come back on Monday.

I waited until Tuesday (today). Then I asked if the investigation was now completed. What investigation, they asked. The one you phoned me about, the one you said come back on Monday. That one. But there isn't any investigation, you should call this number.

"This number" were rather surprised and asked me to call into their branch. Their computer wasn't showing any investigation being under way either, but they went off to another, apparently more secure computer, and decided (eventually) that yes, indeed there was an investigation under way. But it hadn't been started when the original fraud was identified (which is odd for other financial reasons)but last Friday after I had left the branch. They're still investigating why that might be.

More anon (I fear).

The latest BNP membership list is apparently about to be published again.

This may, or may not be the one you can find at Wikileaks (a search for "wikileaks bnp membership" will find it).

It's depressing to see how many members they seem to have accumulated in my old town back in the UK.

On balance, I'm in favour of publication. Not just of the BNP, but of all parties (but not necessarily phone numbers or email addresses which appear in this version - too much easy opportunity to cause harrassment). If you are going to fund a political party, and try to manipulate the public into voting for it (which is essentially what you do by joining a party), then there should be full disclosure. That has to be supported by strong anti-discrimination legislation; no-one, not even a BNP member should be turned away from a shop, or with a few exceptions, from a job.

Footnote:

Since the last publication, the number of BNP memebrs in Canada seems to have grown quite significantly, mostly over in British Columbia and Alberta. Presumably all British expats.

The Trafigura Art Prize has been cancelled.

It was being run by the Cynthia Corbett Gallery in London, UK. In a press statement today the gallery says:

18 October 2009, London – Gallerist Cynthia Corbett today announced that her Art Prize will no longer be sponsored by Trafigura, and will instead be renamed the Young Masters Art Prize.

Cynthia explains “Since the prize was conceived 2 years ago we approached various art foundations and corporate organizations to sponsor an art prize. We feel that the recent events involving Trafigura are detracting from the main purpose of the prize, which is to celebrate emerging and newly established artists.”

Trafigura - it's a gas (read my earlier blogs for more on this most toxic of companies).

Shadow Culture Secretary Johnathon Hunt said today it was a matter of when, not if, the BBC Trust would be abolished and that he was also considering tearing up its royal charter. His reasons? because the BBC is "Out of touch" and and wants to crush media competition.

James (as in Rupert) Murdoch recently attacked the BBC demanding exactly that. Then the Murdochs changed allegiance from Labour to Tory, and hey presto, their innocent hopes and dreams became reality.

Move along now. No link there, nothing to see. Not attempt to destroy impartial BBC news reporting for personal and coprorate gain.

The original FT article:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8d7f2e74-bc22-11de-9426-00144feab49a.html?nclick_check=1

Our favourite purveyor of toxic waste, Trafigura, have finally accepted the inevitable and allowed their Minton Report that I summarized a couple of days ago, to be reported. Essentially they and their lawyers, Carter-Ruck have thrown in the legal towel on hiding the report from public view.

Not that they are accepting liability, or accepting they might have erm... killed 15 people and seriously poisoned 30,000 others, but it's a start.

Just to remind you of what we are talking about, this is what Trafigura's dumping of hydrogen sulphide (amongst other, equally nasty chemicals)  acheived:

Both Marks and Spenser, and Nestlé, have today pulled online advertising from a Daily Mail artile that made homphobic comments based on the death of singer Stephen Gately.

A spokesman for M&S said:

"Marks & Spencer does not tolerate any form of discrimination. We have asked the Daily Mail to move our advertisement away from the article."

A spokesman for Nestlé said:

"Nestlé has no influence on the editorial content of the publications in which it advertises. The views expressed in the article are from the author and are not shared by Nestlé. The company has consistently emphasised the importance of mutual respect and tolerance, regardless of culture, religion or nationality. This a core company value as expressed in the Nestlé corporate business principles."

Aoparently those sentiments are not shared by the Daily Mail and General Trust who allowed the artile to appear in their rag.

The Daily Mail, guardian of all that is pure and wholesome, are attacking gay people, and civil partnerships, through the death of Stephen Gately and how the "ooze of a very different and more dangerous lifestyle has seeped out for all to see". The link to the article is below:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1220756/A-strange-lonely-troubling-death--.html

Words almost fail me. ACPO say the number of violent homophobic attacks in the UK are on the increase. In fact there have been three murders in London alone this year, including a man stabbed and kicked to death in Trafalgar Square (his life support machine was finally switched off this week). And then you get the Jan Moir's of this world stoking up even more trouble with this nasty vicious homophobic diatribe.

Well Jan, for the record:

I'm gay. I have a civil partner and, been married for over 2 years; we have been in a loving relationship together for over 10 years.

Oh yes...

And we have wild, wild sex, sometimes even with other people we bring home. We dress up, use sex toys, play games, and watch porn. We find the only thing that oozes is the K-Y Jelly.

It's great, you should try it.

It seems I am the victim of bank card fraud.

I had call from my bank today informing me that my debit card had been used at a location being investigated for fraud.

I was asked not to say how much or under what circumstances as the investigation is ongoing. I have, however, gotten my money back before I even knew it was gone...

I'll blog the full story when I'm allowed.