Ministry of Propaganda

Ministry of Propaganda - 11/Nov/2003: "Autumn blogging"

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Autumn blogging

This entry hasn't got much to do with autumn apart from that today was a grey and dull autumn day and I couldn't think of another title for the entry. Is that good enough? Anyway, a few things I found interesting yesterday and today:

It's more than three years since I moved from Germany to the UK and I haven't followed German politics very much since moving to the UK. But one thing doesn't seem to have changed much: The stalemate in German politics. Everyone agrees that changes need to be made, yet nothing happens because the different majorities in the Bundestag (parliament, lower house) and the Bundesrat (upper house) block each other. Mostly because of party politics, not because of valid reasons. And then politicians are surprised when voters are "politikverdrossen" (there's no exact translation I know of, it means as much as turned off by politics)?

A lot of debate about the implementation of ID cards in the UK at the moment. Quite interesting to follow for me. As a German I was used to have one in Germany, but now that I'm living in the UK I don't have one any more. Or at least not a valid one, as you can only get a new one once the old one expires if you live in Germany. If you live abroad you can only get a new passport. The BBC report I linked to mentions that 4.6m foreign nationals living in UK among first to register on database from 2007-2008 Does this mean I then get a UK ID card? That doesn't really make sense to me, guess I'll have to do some further digging.

Football shirts might not be the appropriate dress for work anyway, but Celtic and Rangers supporters might not be able to wear them to work because it could be construed as religious discrimination. Hm. Does that mean people will be asked not to wear crosses, headscraves and similar things either, as they could be linked to religion?

Happy Birthday? Not! Merry Christmas? Not!

Now did these links fit to a grey and dull autumn day? I'll let you be the judge.

End of entry

Entry trivia

When writing this entry the weather was: grey, slowly clearing up after a misty day

When writing this entry I was listening to: nothing

During the last hour before I wrote this entry I visited this website: PapaScott

End of entry trivia

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