A helpful suggestion

I was shopping in Tescos the other day - I normally shop at Asda - and was reminded of their helpful approach to labelling and allergy advice. Following all the recent horse meat unpleasantness, I think they should follow the same model.

So labels on burgers should read:

• No horse
• Not produced in a facility that handles horse
• Cannot guarantee that this product does not contain horse

That should do it.

Merry Christmas 2012

Well, given current events I thought I'd just go ahead and determinedly NOT BE FUNNY. Just good old applied copology.

Not done a printed version this year. What with austerity and all. More like not having the time until it was too late, really.

Too happy

It's like the old saying about banging your head against a wall. Nice when it stops. I guess I was always aware that by working in the state machine, I was wading nose deep in stupid. I just wasn't aware of what a relief independence would be.

The down side is that it's become much more difficult to do the comic. I don't have the same anger any more. The anger of "this time it's personal". We all know that it's not really personal as far as bureaucracy is concerned. In a bureaucracy, we're all worthless. The process is king. But that's what gets the eyeball twitching.

Without my daily dose of bile, I'm left in a state of... happiness. Which dulls the venom a bit. I'm sure I'll get there. I've got a story planned out, but I just feel it lacks a bit of a spark. So I'm holding back until it feels right.

Secret Message

Dashboard!

I was so delighted to hear on the radio this morning that Downing Street has its own Dashboard App for whatever iKit the Prime Minister has. Really took me back.To this and this. I can really see him hunting down the Guilty Men. Also David Cameron comes over as such a tech innocent, he'll definitely be operating the virtual Levers of Power and Joystick of Strategy and going "Vroom".

It also tries to get around those slow-coaches in the Office for National Statistics by trawling the internet. I'm sure there's plenty of scope for consultants selling something along the lines of  "search engine optimisation meets LIBOR fixing" as a way of influencing policy. Hmm. Could be a nice little earner.

Strawberry Night

I've been amusing myself by watching Japanese movies and TV dramas that I get mainly from jpdorama.com.

The TV series Strawberry Night has been really enjoyable. It's a cop show, and like all cop shows, it's about work. In a dysfunctional hierarchical bureaucracy. Just my sort of thing.

This one is centred on Reiko Himekawa, a lone woman Assiustant Inspector (Shunin) in a very male environment. There's something about her that reminds me of a boss I used to have (yes, THAT boss). As you can imagine, life is pretty frustrating for her, but she manages to inspire extreme loyalty from her team.

I've been quite amused by the way that despite being quite a slight woman, she can be quite bloke-ish. This does help with fitting in with the culture, and (as in life) we are left to guess whether this is a deliberate strategy or not. It's just the way her character is, drinking beer with the lads etc..

And her boss has this way of cutting off conversations once he's got over what he wanted to say. I think I've commented on this trick of senior managers before, but I can't remember seeing it in drama.

Anyway, I'd really recommend this one. And because cop shows are cop shows the world over, the cultural differences really stand out.

Lady Godiva's Navigation

Went to Rugby yesterday to see a giant animatronic Lady Godiva, the original Tax Rebel and defender of the Liberty of Coventry, on the first leg of her journey to London from Coventry.

There, she will do battle with a giant avatar of Danny Boyle dressed as the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man for the hearts and minds of the British People. I know who I'll be cheering for.

I hope we can count on your support. The tour takes in Northampton today, Milton Keynes tomorrow, then Luton, Hatfield, Waltham Abbey and Waltham Forest on Sunday 5th.