Bibliogryphon

Michael Goldberg who wrote the screenplays for Cool Runnings and Snow Dogs has died aged 55

Thank you CheerSquad for that. The good news is that the link is for a news item about a benefit concert for Percy Sledge who has liver cancer and not an advert trying to sell you via**a.

But Ireland are supposed to be our friends, plus Rock Bottom was a big hit over there. Oirish eejits. But back then the public had no say, it was all down to 'industry experts'

and with all his subsequent releases

and Duncan's horses did turn and eat each other......

Oh dear now you have pushed me into a situation where I have to defend David Cameron. The logical extension of your argument on if you can afford it you pay for it is the start of a slippery slope that some Conservatives would like to go down. We have seen this with Child Benefit which was a universal benefit and now is going to be means tested. Healthcare needs to be free at the point of delivery so you don't arrive at A&E and the first thing they ask you for is your credit card or elligibility status. Yes the Conservatives are using this as an emotive issue to demonstrate Cameron's personal committment to the NHS. If you start questioning whether Cameron should have used the NHS you are doing the Right wing Tories work for them. The other important point is that in general the NHS is a weak spot for the Tories so if they can tie this to a Cameron vs Milliband personality issue then they can make electoral advantage out of it.

Did someone do their degree in Irony?

We still wouldn't have won, we ended up 15 points behind France. Both Greece and Switzerland gave us nul pointe too, but awarded France sept pointe and douze pointe respectively, so I blame them. So does the rest of Europe: They've never won since... I was interested to see this paragraph in the independent obituary In 1977 she and Mike Moran started writing songs together and “Rock Bottom” was the UK entry for the Eurovision Song Contest. They had written the song for Blue Mink and unfortunately it was not the right material for the Contest, and fared badly Fared badly? Second? Any UK entry in the last ten years would take second even to the French than over the dismal showings we have put in.

The recent revelations about the enquiries into sex abuse by politicians and her friendhsip with Jimmy Saville seem to me to illustrate a naivity that Margaret Thatcher possessed as though she believed that people didn't really do evil things and that every one would do the right thing. In the same way there was no provision in homosexual criminal law which dealt with lesbians because Queen Victoria didn't believe in them. If you extrapolate this it may help understand why Thatcher applied similar thinking to economic arguments. She did not expect people to be greedy.

Those of you who take notice of such things will realise that I am not David Cameron's biggest fan but his speech this week proved why he is the leader of the Conservative party. He was right when he pointed out that Labour could not criticise him with regard to the NHS and his relationship with it. However the important point is that the General Election 2015 should not be a popularity contest between him and Ed Miliband it is about electing a group of people to run the country. There have been tory MPs who have gone on the record about how the NHS is a millstone around the neck of the country and we should have a system similar to US or Singapore. So the question is are the Tory MPs hiding behind a moderate, pretending to be more Eurosceptic than he actually is, personable and articulate leader?

Our posts crossed. I put it in Curse of the Eurovision with a link. It would be handy if there was a function where you could post to mutiple topics at the same time. Please no......

I thought I remembered that, but there's no mention of him in the BBC report, although various other blokes are namechecked. I think you're confusing her with Stephanie de Sykes. I stand corrected. Although Lynsey did write for Stephanie.

No! Honestly? Which bit? Aaah my knowledge of her out put is pretty much rock bottom.

No I think he was already quite good at it.

No! Honestly? Which bit?

I quite like some of the stuff on Tony Banks' solo albums Bankstatement and Still where he uses a range of guest vocalists including Nik Kershaw and Fish. A lot of hit and miss but some really good tracks.

She did manage to turn up for Robin Williams' memorial service at the weekend. No pictures though.

Our posts crossed. I put it in Curse of the Eurovision with a link.

Lynsey de Paul who represented the UK in 1977 with Rock Bottom has died aged 64. She was the partner of Angus Deayton for some years.

What is happening here? I am sure a couple of years ago Penny was being touted as a definite hit in the coming year and made the DDP Drop Forty but things have gone very quiet. Good news or bad?

A cocked eyebrow, no doubt... No, that'd be Spock, not Avon. Avon would probably have just shot at them.... Or made a over the top declaration. Does anyone remember the Burger King advert?

DJ Dr Fox has been arrested for allegations of sexual assault although this is not Yewtree related.

In a small act of defence for Mr Collins if you think We Can't Dance is bad the Collinsless Calling All Stations is much worse.

Jonathan King is not a paedophile. Fact. Bit of a grey area all round, The Daily Mail seem content to use the words "child sex abuser" in the context of his conviction for abusing teenage boys: http://www.dailymail...ry-Genesis.html There's no grey area at all, Tempus is just being weird for the sake of being weird on this particular matter..... Paedophile has a very specific definition, as King's youngest victim was 14 he can't be classed as a paedophile. You don't think he would of abused children if given the chance ? I'm sure Johnathan king wouldn't of turned away at the chance to abuse a 10 year old, or younger and for all we know he may well of done given what happened at the BBC with Savile and co. He looks like one Creepy bas**rd even his wiki profile pic is creepy him in a dressing gown posing for a selfie . Whose wiki profile pic is a pic they took themselves in their dressing gown at home. The guy is a paedo end of story and he is one of the few celebs i genuinely hope dies as soon as possible, well maybe not until I have picked him in 2015. haha Im not comfortable making a blanket assumption that somebody who "is into" teenagers is automatically going to be into pre pubescent children. Its like suggesting that all homosexuals have an unhealthy interest in underage boys because, well, they are queer, right? There is a big difference between teenagers and young children, if there wasn't then scum like Robert Black whouldnt have targeted the victims he did, would he. Well if Johnathan king was simply into teenagers why didn't he just shag 16 to 18 year olds legally ? People change alot from 12 to 16 , when i was 14 i was still very much built and acted more childlike by the time i was 16 i had grew nine inches and was built more like an adult . It also said he abused the trust of the kids parents , so I'm guessing he groomed them . 5 of the boys he assaulted were 14 to 15 surely if he was into teens he would of at least had 1 or 2 victims aged 18 or 19 etc . The homosexuality analogy (no punt intended) is nothing like that . A man convicted of shagging young boys (not the swiss football team haha) is clearly in my eyes a paedo whereas two homosexual men have consensual sex has nothing to do with paedophilia at all . The other thing to remember is that when these offences were committed the legal age for consent for homosexuals was higher.

Not sure where to post this but here seems as good as any. The situation in Hong Kong is very worrying. The Chinese government are in a quandry. If they give in they potentially start a creeping process of democratisation which they are not yet prepared for but if they clamp down (to whatever degree) they run the risk of ruining HK's reputation as a safe place to do business. Apparently BBC website is off in China and they have shut down access to Instagram. I think people should be paying a lot of attention to this. In the worst case this could make Libya look like a Sunday school picnic.