Stuff

It’s snowing here today. It had been spring, but now it feels like it’s December again. And really snowing, not messing about with a few light flakes either. There were about 7 cm on the car this morning and it’s still dropping heavily. (And it is extremely heavy snow). No idea when it will stop, but it’s 11.30 as I type this and it’s still falling as heavily as ever. When will this bloody winter ever end?

Tomorrow, it is St George’s Day. I know this not because I am English and he is my patron saint, but because there is a nearby town called St George (or actually Szentgyeorgy/Sfantu Gheorge – with the usual misspelling provisos), and they have a festival on this weekend. We are supposed to be going, but if it continues snowing like we won’t be able to or (or we won’t want to much either). I noticed when I was in England one or two shops trying to whip up support for a St George’s Day celebration of some sort. Now in principle I’ve nothing against England having some kind of national day – as far as I am aware it is the only country that doesn’t have something of the sort (whether it be independence day, or revolution day, or constitution day, or St somebody’s day), but I am reluctant to support this one as it smacks of being organised by the UK Independence Party with their “England for the English” type line. I’m also somewhat unsure about naming it after St George. I mean what did he do really? He is famous for slaying a mythical beast. You know, something that didn’t exist. The man was a genius of self-promotion. “I went into that forest over there, and there was this big dragon who was just about to come in and destroy all our lives, so I killed it for you”. And everyone believed him. Put like that it doesn’t sound that dissimilar to Tony Blair on WMDs.

Who made him Saint anyway? It was that organisation which just elected a misogynistic, homophobic old bastard who’d rather that Africans die of AIDS than use condoms to it’s highest office, wasn’t it? That’s a recommendation to be proud of. Make it Shakespeare Day and I’ll support it.

I did a quiz to find out who I should vote for in the UK election, and found out to my surprise that I am a very strong Liberal Democrat (and happily a very strong anti-Tory). I thought I would be a Green, but apparently, by the terms of this quiz I ought to vote LibDem. Surprising. Here's my results, and a link should you be excited enough by this revelation to do the same:

Who should I vote for?

Your expected outcome:

Green

Your actual outcome:

Labour -14
Conservative -73
	Liberal Democrat 108
UK Independence Party -16
	Green 84

You should vote: Liberal Democrat

The LibDems take a strong stand against tax cuts and a strong one in favour of public services: they would make long-term residential care for the elderly free across the UK, and scrap university tuition fees. They are in favour of a ban on smoking in public places, but would relax laws on cannabis. They propose to change vehicle taxation to be based on usage rather than ownership.

Take the test at Who Should You Vote For