<insert crazy ramblings here>

In my local seat the two parties who most stand a chance of winning there have:

• A rebellious incumbent MP who votes against his party (usually in the direction I'd want), but whose party I don't want in power.
• A local councillor for the party I'd like to see in, who doesn't really impress me with his literature, and website (and hasn't replied to an email from 5 days ago asking why I should vote for him).

[Poll #1553873]

The UK has recently changed it's immigration rules for artists. I think I first heard about when someone flying in from America with three paintings to sell to try and subsidise her trip to an arts festival was told to bin them or turn right around and get the next plane out (but my Google fu is failing me).

It seems that the creator of Piled Higher and Deeper was caught up in this.

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I have a twitter account. In roughly deceasing order mostly use it for reading, interacting, posting innane thoughts, and comics news. Given how many webcomics make a living from t-shirt sales, I have a tendancy to put my inane ideas in the form of #badtshirtidea tagged posts.

But this comic wins the bad tshirt idea game.

It's that meme that every one's doing.

( I'm a left moderate social libertarian. )
... as is the average person who has done this quiz.
But I'm slightly more left moderate social libertarian than average.

I did it. If it's a very slow news day, you can see me in a labcoat, and an Science. It works bitches. t-shirt, crouching down behind an MP, trying to make sure the stem cell billboard doesn't blow away.

In other Democracy related news:
Number of tourists taking pictures of Parliament from Waterloo Bridge; 3
Number of tourists taking pictures of the London Eye from Waterloo Bridge; 10

Comedian and activist Mark Thomas has been holding a series of one man protests outside Parliament for a while now. He's engaged in a tactic he he refers to as "defiance through compliance". He thinks the law that restricts protests within a kilometre of Parliament inhibits free speech. So on the third Wednesday of every month he holds a Lone Demonstration in Parliament square, on a range of surreal topics. However he's not alone. In an effort to flood the system, and make the law too expensive to keep on the statue books, hundreds of other people also apply for one man protests. Making sure they have filed the correct paper work with the Charring Cross police station first. There's a Radio4 show about this.

I particularly like the "hulking great Heath Robinson contraption" Graeme built to carry his large list of protests.

The most surreal part about this law is that it was probably written because of Brian Haw's years long protest on Parliament Square. The only problem is not's not retrospective. So the one man this law was drafted for is the only man who's exempt from it.