Well the world and his wife has said their two-pennorth on the Indiana Jones film, so heres my view. Prompting my first blog post for some time…

It stank. Not because it involved aliens, atomic explosions etc. I can suspend my disbelief for Indiana Jones, in fact its a pre-requisite of going to see an Indiana Jones film. The truth was, it was really badly put together, with some atrocious set pieces, Shia La Boeuf’s ‘tarzan’ schitck being perhaps the worst.

There just wasn’t any real sense of any menace throughout the film. I mean the communists were bad, but what did the main baddy want at the end? Knowledge, and the aliens evaporated her for what exactly? seeking knowledge out? I didn’t really get that. That was their ‘treasure’ and you got evaporated for it? Whats the subtext of that exactly? That seeking out knowledge is dangerous?

The thing was the communists could have been really bad, instead we got some kind of cut price female Yuri from command and conquer, when really we needed a Steven Berkoff from Rambo pursuing Indy…

It just didn’t appeal to me at all, even great actors like John Hurt (reprising his fraggle rock story teller), Jim Broadbent and Ray Winstone (i’m a traitor..i’m not a traitor) were criminally wasted and the chemistry between Ford and Le Bouef was non-existent for me. Karen Allen looked like she’d swallowed a bottle full of mogadon before filming.

Also, when Indy was expelled from his college, the film could have said something about McCarthyism being as bad as the nazis, but they just let it hang.

It was just bad. I guess at least one thing is Shia Le Boeuf didn’t get Indy’s hat. That would just have been the most appalling finish.

If you want to see a good film this summer, see Iron Man, it was much better.

There is an entire generation out there, that just don’t get gaming. Take Eamonn Holmes in this typical tabloid article.

Maybe there is an argument for the manufacturers of such games to be more accountable. But sales of GTA will, I’m sure, continue to soar. Personally, at forty quid a time, I think it’s those who buy it who are victims of the “Grand Theft”.

Do we think Eamonn Holmes played this game before making his article? I highly doubt it. He’s just recycling all the tired old myths. What about the kids who are playing this game on their PS3’s and NOT causing trouble? or would that be too difficult an article to write? If you look at it in terms of value for money something like GTA or Final Fantasy XII with over 60-100 hours of gameplay is excellent value for money. Compare that to something like a film that last you two or three hours that you will probably never watch again? I think GTA is damn fine value. Stupid tabloids. When will they employ at least half-educated people to write their articles?

The government isn’t having the best of weeks.

It tried to deport highly skilled migrants by applying a points system to them retrospectively, and was handed its ass on a plate by the high court. As the Telegraph reports.

Critics claimed that up to 90 per cent of the 49,000 migrants who came to work in the UK under the scheme faced being forced to leave because they would have to reapply under the stricter new points-based system.

They argued many would no longer qualify for permanent residency and faced the prospect of deportation with their families, despite having made their main home in Britain.

Here is a telling extract from the Telegraph.

The Government strongly disputed the allegation and contended the numbers affected were “very small” - around 1,300 migrant workers.

The judge said individuals had made statements about the hardships they would face, and asked: “If the new changes are likely to affect so few a number of people, what interest is there to be served by subjecting a limited number of people to considerable hardship which they would not otherwise have faced?”

So the government basically says, it’s only a small group of people, sod it, they shouldn’t enjoy human rights. Surely the point of justice is that human rights apply to every human being?

besides aren’t highly skilled immigrants exactly what this country needs? Am I missing something here? If only Labour would pursue the people that come here to live off handouts with such equal vigour.

A second blow to the government from the High Court came when the High Court accused the government of basically of shutting down the rule of law in the BAE corruption probe.

So we have a government that according to our high courts, tries to apply laws retrospectively, and ignores the rule of law can it get any worse?

Indeed it can, today the High Court said that sending out soldiers into the battlefield with faulty gear infringes their human rights

Again the government tries to pick upon a group of people, like the highly skilled immigrants that it thinks will have no recourse against their arbitary rule and incompetence, people that have no voice back.

and hero of the day Mr Justice Collins stopped the government from trying to gag coroners from attacking the government in their verdicts. Why on earth should the government be able to gag public officials from making their verdict? It would have been outrageous had the been able to.

I believe this is a superb verdict and I hope it is upheld.

To top it all Sir Christopher Kelly, the chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life has attacked the legal bid by the House of Commons to appeal against the attempt to keep expenses under wraps saying that it suggest is shows that politicians have ’something to hide’

So, what picture this paint of our political classes, and in particular, the Labour party?

A very poor one, we have a government that is

* prepared to pick on minority groups with retrospective laws (The Nazis surely would have approved)
* one that shuts down the rule of law because of political expediency
* a government that wants a licence to commit corporate manslaughter by issuing our troops with faulty equipment
* A government that wants to gag public officials from criticising them in the course of their duties.
* A political class that wants to protect and preserve their luxuries and perks by hiding behind the law.

Judges do get a very bad press, but in these cases i salute each and every one of the judgements. The Question is, will the government get its way in these cases? Are the judgements of our legal system worth a fig?

I’d love to hear from any Labour supporter, how can you justify voting for these cretins? And if Labour continue to override the rule of law, what are going to do about it???

The BBC asks today should we feel sorry for estate agents? because of a collapsing property market?

In a word, no. I don’t feel too sorry for them at all. From my experience of trying to sell my house (over a period of 2 years) and from experience of other people, they massively overvalue your property in the first place to try and get your custom. Then after a short period of time they tell you to make a massive cut on your price. So after your committed to their sole agency agreement, then you get the real price.

Their valuation is usually just a hook to get you to sign up on a sole agreement rather than realistic figure.

Of course there are good houses that do go for their prices and quickly. I’m not disputing that.

But on the whole the picture I’ve seen both as a buyer and a seller from a number of different agents is that they don’t perform their role honestly. I’ve seen quite a few houses that shouldn’t even be near the figure they are up for and estate agents encourage people to unrealistically chance their arm.

What I would love to see is a website that gives you a league table of agents, how they perform and how much they overvalue a house before it is sold, and how long it takes them to sell a property.

Propertysnake goes some of the way there, showing how badly people have been conned. If anyone knows of a site like with an estate agents league table, I’d love to see it and it should be acheivable now with the mass of property data available on the internet.

It would be much better if they give you a realistic value in the first place and then buyers and sellers would know where they stand, even better, make it a sealed bid situation like Scotland. Maybe even make the cost of using an estate agency a definite fixed rate rather than a percentage.

Also their franchises change every five minutes so you don’t know who your talking to from one time to another plus their charges vary wildly between agents and why? I don’t know, to me the whole industry is just seems like a massive, unregulated mess.

You also don’t have to have any qualifications to become an estate agent which means any Joe Blogs can take up a franchise. Isn’t it about time the government insisted agents attained proper qualifications to do their job? And why not scrap sole-agency agreements? Why should agents have this buffer to protect them from competition? why not let them scrap it out, and the best agents will win and the worst agents will collapse.

It also partly their fault that the housing market is going to collapse because its their over-valuations that have got us into this mess.

Thats not to say they don’t fufill a function though, they do, and there must be some good estate agents out there, and my experience of selling property hasn’t been a good one, I realise why people say its one of the most stressful things you can do.

Although I have to say that part of this reason is our absurd property law. HIPS are a disaster, they offer little but expense and money for the treasury and giving nothing to the buyer or the seller that a survey doesn’t cover, also our law of contract means that you are sweating until you have completed your offer, not like the much more sensible law in Scotland which gives you at least some peace of mind that you can complete your agreement honorably.

There should be a full government review into every aspect of property law and estate agents. The law is badly in need of change and estate agents need a good kick up the arse.

The Diana inquiry was a complete waste of money. It took ten years, three coroners and millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money to decide that there was no conspiracy theory to answer. As if a court was going to say ‘uh yeah, Prince Phillip did it’…

Another ludicrous thing was the conspiracy theories had no evidence whatsoever to back them up, and it was only really the power of Mohammed Al-Fayed and constant dodgy articles from the Daily Express that ever got the inquiry to court.

On what basic can someone get a full inquiry on such flimsy grounds? And speaking of inquiries.Isn’t it time for a much more urgent one on Iraq when many more people have lost their lives rather than two people who lost their lives because of reckless driving?

What a farce the Olympic torch relay has become, and what a waste of money and time the Olympics games are. Populations displaced and taxed for a massive, over-hyped, over-commercialised sporting event.

And lets face it, if China shouldn’t hold the Olympics because of its track record in human rights, Neither should we because of our record in Iraq. The Chinese have as much right to complain about the 2012 Olympics because of this, than we have over Tibet. At least Tibet is a neighbouring province of China. Which part of the United Kingdom is Iraq?

If we are to hold Olympic games why not just hold them in Greece every four years? Return the games to the original holders and share the cost of maintaining the stadiums between the global athletic community. That way no-one has to be displaced, no new stadiums would have to be built for a while and all the bullshit politics would evaporate away.

Can’t really muster up much to say about Partners in Crime really, in a nutshell.

* Adipose were cute kinda like little moogles made out of fat.

* Catherine Tate and Sarah Lancashire weren’t as bad (although i’m not saying she was good!) as I thought she would be.

* Some nice comic touches

* Billie is back and no-one had a clue !!

* Trailer for next week looked ok

* Liked the adipose ship - but get the feeling they might come back again - as baddies - will the Doctor regret letting them go?

* Bernard Cribbins

negatives

* Catherine Tate wasn’t THAT good. two things make me wonder about her. 1) is Who going to become more comic in tone now she’s onboard? 2) Will she revert to one of her ‘characters’?? Jury is still out for me.

* Instrumental music is becoming overbearing now, its becoming like watching an old style silent-movie at times.

* Wasn’t really a shock and awe start to the series, just a light-hearted romp. The real stuff starts next week I reckon.

Average about 5 out of 10 for me, which was better than I thought it would be.

Former prime minister Tony Blair has called for faith to be given a central role in tackling the world’s problems.

according to the BBC.

Funny that as religion and blind faith is a major cause of the worlds problems, and for Tony Blair to issue this call is even more galling considering he has caused major problems in the middle east through his actions.

Its partly his mess that politicians will be clearing up for decades.

You can only agree with Terry Sanderson in the BBC article who says,

“Mr Blair’s call for religion to play a bigger role in world affairs is like trying to douse a fire by showering it with petrol.”

Its not faith that will solve humanities problems, it can only exacerbate them and create divisions because of the dogma that organised religion causes, we need more reason and humanity not more superstition.

Well it’s Doctor Who time again, and despite my reservations I’ll be watching. Its not that I minded the Christmas special, I thought it was ok, but the appaling Sound of Drums from last season and the casting of Catherine Tate made me think twice about the new series.

Any of that shouty chav bollocks and my off button will do the talking.

But i’ll give it a go see if its any good. I think they’re might be reasons to be cheerful,

from the rumours on Outpost Gallifrey, it looks like Georgina Moffett and Julian Bleach have been cast in interesting parts (I won’t give it away, look on the forums if you are interested!)

Julian Bleach is scaring me already, take a look at this picture I found…wonder who he’s going to play?….Those are some mad scary eyes he’s got…

But can I get past my dislike of Catherine Tate? Will she prove to be more than the one-dimensional character she played in the Christmas special and the essentially same character she plays in her ‘comedy’ ?

I guess we’ll just have to see…

And also welcome to the Blogosphere to “The Watcher” who is making a new blog on the series for the Nottingham Evening Post. I’ll be watching for his reviews every Saturday….

SUMMARY
A bay fronted semi detached home offered at a very keen price. Quietly situated in popular Alvaston, a number of improvements have been carried out to the house and it offers excellent value to reflect some cosmetic improvements requiring completion. Double glazing, gas central heating

What the hell does “Quietly situated” mean? Does that mean houses can be noisily situated?