Wolverhampton named fifth worst city in world

Gordon Griffiths / CC BY-SA 2.0

How could I not possibly comment on this story!

Wolverhampton (my hometown) has been named as the fifth worst city to live in the world on a travellers' website.

The list compiled by travel website Lonely Planet puts the West Midlands city below Detroit (USA), Accra (Ghana), Seoul (South Korea) and Los Angeles (USA).

Now, don't get me wrong, Wolverhampton isn't one of my favourite places in the world! I openly admit that when I was looking at University courses, I wanted to move as far away as possible and I chose Winchester because it was such a nice place compared to the city where I spent nearly 20 years of my life.

But to say that it is one of the top five worst places to live in the world is completely laughable.

Detroit is statistically the most dangerous place to live in the US and Los Angeles has a huge gang culture and an ever increasing number of deaths per year from gun crime among a host of other social and economic problems.

How on earth can Wolverhampton be mentioned in the same breath as these places?

Channel 4's annual list of the best and worst places to live revealed that Wolverhampton wasn't even named in the bottom 20 of worst places to live in the UK in 2009.

I refuse to accept there is not a more deserving place to be named in the bottom five than a small city in the Midlands. One comment on the website even ludicrously compared Wolverhampton to Ground Zero in New York!

I don't know what the criteria was for voting on the worst places to live so if anyone knows could they please comment on this page.

Can't afford that ideal Christmas present? Just steal it!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/goatopolis/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Interesting story on the BBC News site today that is sure to lead to some interesting debates.

A priest from North Yorkshire has advised people to shoplift if they find themselves in hard times.

Speaking at St Lawrence and St Hilda in York, Reverend Tim Jones said people should steal from big chain stores rather than small businesses.

He told the congregation: "When people are released from prison, or find themselves suddenly without work or family support, then to leave them for weeks and weeks with inadequate or clumsy social support is monumental, catastrophic folly.

"We create a situation which leaves some people little option but crime."

Father Jones was blasted by Yorkshire police who said his actions were "highly irresponsible".

Defending his actions, Jones said he was trying to encourage people to give to charity to avoid those in need becoming so desperate, not trying to rally people to shoplift.



I thought I would try and get some reader participation on this story!

Do you think what Rev. Tim Jones said is right, or is he encouraging people to break the law? Is shoplifting ever right?

Vote on my poll and feel free to leave your comments.

The UK's £1000 train fare, surely there must be a cheaper way?

It is a rainy and cold Tuesday evening, I am stuck inside reading BBC news online so I decided to undertake a bit of investigation work.

The BBC reported today that the UK officially has its first £1000 train fare. The journey travels from Cornwall (in Newquay) to Kyle of Lochalsh (in the Scottish highlands). As someone who regularly takes the train, I found this particularly interesting as well as being totally outrageous.

Long story short, I decided to research other methods of making this journey and this is what I found..

Read More >>

BNP question time

It has been brewing since the announcement that the BNP leader Nick Griffin was set to appear on BBC Question Time and today the anti-BNP protesters turned nasty.

Over 500 people were involved in demonstrations outside the BBC studios in White City.

3 police officers were injured as 25 protesters beat BBC security to gain entry to the reception area of the building.

Meanwhile Griffin entered via a side entrance, licking his lips and rubbing his hands.

This whole over the top media coverage coupled with the-now-violent demonstrations has played right into the hands of the BNP. It has made them look like victims and has given them credibility.

Griffin even had the audacity to call the protesters "yobs". Although he then went on to reveal his real right-wing paranoia by denouncing that all the protesters "have been bussed in from around the country by groups funded by Labour councils".

Griffin has done what any self respecting racist party leader would do and hidden behind the banner of free speech and since the protesters are denying him this 'right' he can now play the innocent victim.

There is a danger that Griffin can successfully play this role well and turn himself into the textbook pantomime bad guy.

Lets see if he can keep up this facade on Question Time tonight at 10.35pm on BBC 1. It promises to be pretty explosive.

New robotic hand can 'restore sense of touch'

The BBC reported a story on the development of what is thought to be the first robotic hand that has feeling.

It work by connecting nerve endings to electronic sensors.

I thought it was pretty amazing so I decided to post the link for your enjoyment:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8313037.stm

Barmy Blaney's Blarney

Browsing the news websites this morning I stumbled across a fine example of a giant waste of time:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8285954.stm

For those of you who didnt bother to click the link then basically a blogger called Donal Blaney managed to get a high court injunction preventing someone writing under his name over a fake twitter account. Some of the provocative tweets posts included:

“So the Iranians were lying all along. Time for the RAF to start practicing bunker bombing...”

“Now Obama, who the eurofederasts [sic] love, is happy to leave us to the mercy of the mad mullahs...”

All very amusing.

An equally effective, less time consuming and certainly less over-the-top solution may have been to email the nice people at twitter and ask them to take the account down.

In a shameless display of egotism Blaney then wrote on his blog that: "It is, as I have said in the media, the day the scales of justice were tipped back in favour of innocent victims".

Lets hope this doesnt set a precedent for overly sensitive drama queens wasting legal time and resources on trivial matters.

Oh and Blaney my name is Matt Clifford, thought it might make my injunction easier.