Hard of Understanding

I'm no football fan, nor a Mancunian (technically, I'm from one of it's satellite towns in the conurbation) but I do have a degree of admiration for how the council and GMP handle the disturbances when the Glaswegians kicked off.

"The Police were heavy handed." I'm a liberal, and I thought that they did a good job with a great degree of restraint. It would have been so easy for them to re-group and scatter the crowd whilst knocking a few heads on the way.

"It wasn't a good advert for the city." On the contrary, it showed the expertise and professionalism of both the police and local authority to deal with a less than ideal situation. It would have been easy for the city to have been overrun and left like a wasteland for weeks (which many cities would have managed) but when things got tough, they got on with sorting it.

Basically, they got more Scots than they were expecting to see (by more I mean on the scale of tens of thousands!) and sure enough something went wrong, doesn't it always?!? The Police dealt with it without too much grumbling and the local council tidied up the mess, again without too much grumbling other than about the cost.

But, it showed to many sporting and other bodies that not only can Manchester host a high-profile event, it can also properly deal with the fall-out if anything goes wrong (and believe me a few thousand rioting Scots is a good test of that resolve!!!!!)

And too the local business that whinged about the mess: events like this have always increased the visbility and profile of the city in a good way, which in turn creates extra business. You need to take the rough with the smooth!!!!

The one disappointment is that Utd fans may not be able to have their parade now as GMP are pissed off. Come on, they have just won two massive championships, these people are in their home city, they want a party not a fight. Don't piss on that parade!

So, ITV is in trouble with the regulator again. As a broadcaster they seem to be making more trips to the headmaster's office then I ever had too at school.

This time it was for not spending enough of their production budget outside of London. Seems reasonable.

They had spent 44% of their budget making programmes outside the capital, with Ofcom describing that as significantly below their budget.

I should friggin hope so too....... 44% that's a bloody disgrace!!!!!!!!!

What makes it even worse is that Ofcom's target is 50%. Why, does half the population live in London? Is have the landmass of the British Isles within the M25?

So not only do ITV Productions not seem to realise that there is more outside of London than Emeerdale Farm and Coronation Street, but Ofcom don't seem to realise that more than 80% of the population also live outside the M25.

Sort it!

Decided that I really need a wish list on Amazon. Nothing vain, just time I organised and prioritised my purchases. After the last parcel fell through the door, and I realised that there were more important things to buy I started it.

Funny how it ties in with the "Your store" page.

I put one bloody Cary Grant film in my wish list and that's it: all of a sudden I'm being offered everything in his back catalogue, a lot of musical theatre items and Barbara Streisand albums.

My god, Amazon thinks I'm gay!!!!!!