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Duncan Bruce

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50 Years Of James Bond Celebrated By Royal Mail

I am currently doing a bit of editing around the James Bond films so I thought I would just do a quick blog post about the 10 new James Bond stamps which are being released later this year to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the release of Dr. No, the first James Bond film back in 1962.

Members of the public were asked to vote for the favourite 10 posters out of the 22 films and the results came in as follows:

Casino Royale 7.03%

From Russia With Love 6.12%

Dr. No 5.83%

For Your Eyes Only 5.82%

Goldeneye 5.40%

Goldfinger 5.38%

The Living Daylights 5.37%

Live and Let Die 5.04%

Moonraker 4.53%

On Her Majesty's Secret Service 4.51%

I think its credit to the producers that films representing all 6 bond incarnations (Connery, Lanzenby, Moore, Dalton, Brosnan and Craig) have been selected, clearly all the various portrayals of James Bond have left impressions in the minds of UK residents. I also think its a credit to Royal Mail that they are doing this for the 50th Anniversary, James Bond has produced some amazing talent and its british technicians and crew are second to none in my opinion.

Final Oscar Predix

So these are the final Oscar predix I submitted this morning.

Best Picture
The Kings Speech

Best Director
David Fincher, The Social Network

Best Actor
Colin Firth, The Kings Speech

Best Actress
Natalie Portman, Black Swan

Best Supporting Actor
Geoffrey Rush, The Kings Speech

Best Supporting Actress
Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit

Best Original Screenplay
The Kings Speech

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Social Network

Best Foreign Film
In a Better World

Best Animated Feature Film
Toy Story 3

Best Documentary Feature Film
Restrepo

Best Cinematography
True Grit

Best Film Editing
The Social Network

Best Art Direction
The Kings Speech

Best Costume Design
Alice In Wonderland

Best Sound Mixing
The Kings Speech

Best Sound Editing
Inception

Best Visual Effects
Inception

Best Original Score
The Social Network

Best Song
Toy Story 3

Best Make-Up
The Wolfman

Best Live Action Short Film
-------

Best Documentary Short Film
Killing In The Name

Best Animated Short Film
The Gruffalo

Jim Hanley

Don't want to say much about this - still can't believe it. I didn't really know Jim well but the times we spoke he was incredibly kind and always willing to listen to me, his responses we're always reasoned and intelligent while also being in many cases quite funny (Which cheered everyone up). I will look back on him in fondness.

My thoughts go out to his family at this time.

Final Oscar Predix

So these are the final Oscar predix I submitted this morning.

Best Picture
The Kings Speech

Best Director
David Fincher, The Social Network

Best Actor
Colin Firth, The Kings Speech

Best Actress
Natalie Portman, Black Swan

Best Supporting Actor
Geoffrey Rush, The Kings Speech

Best Supporting Actress
Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit

Best Original Screenplay
The Kings Speech

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Social Network

Best Foreign Film
In a Better World

Best Animated Feature Film
Toy Story 3

Best Documentary Feature Film
Restrepo

Best Cinematography
True Grit

Best Film Editing
The Social Network

Best Art Direction
The Kings Speech

Best Costume Design
Alice In Wonderland

Best Sound Mixing
The Kings Speech

Best Sound Editing
Inception

Best Visual Effects
Inception

Best Original Score
The Social Network

Best Song
Toy Story 3

Best Make-Up
The Wolfman

Best Live Action Short Film
-------

Best Documentary Short Film
Killing In The Name

Best Animated Short Film
The Gruffalo

Negativity = Reading Liberal Democrats

Cllr Warren Swaine

I've spoken to a few people on the door who have expressed concern about how negative the Liberal Democrats have become in Reading.

Since campaigning started for the local elections this May, the Liberal Democrats have been using the tactic of attack and negativity. Its something which has surprised me as I remember Daisy Benson saying to me on Twitter when I first became active early last year that the one thing the people in Reading don't like is a slagging match and negative campaigning.

I have semi-taken the attacks as par for the course. I was deeply offended when Cllr Warren Swaine accused me of being a killer for supporting labour and having the blood of our dead soldiers on my hands. I like many families across the UK have a family member serving in Afghanistan and so the comments really did shock me.

Since then I have been made aware of even further comments by Cllr Swaine on his blog where he at Christmas he relates the FICTIONAL tale of a Labour member in Reading who ends up dead in his own vomit. How on earth can this be appropriate from an elected official and someone who represents Reading Borough Council?

Cllr Glenn Goodall with the sage that
is Cllr Daisy Benson.

Yesterday I was made aware that Cllr Glenn Goodall had made comments on Twitter to Reading Young Labour accusing them of being complicit in murder and torture and having blood on their hands. The irony of this is that Reading Young Labour was set up this year to give a voice to the huge numbers of young people who were joining the party after the general election. Many of these members are between 16-21 and are having their first taste in politics. So again, what planet are the Liberal Democrats in Reading on where they think its appropriate to say to newly active young political activists that they are complicit in Murder?

I really think this begs belief, and as someone who is from Reading I find it deeply offensive that these Cllr's are making comments like this.

Photos: Courtesy of the Reading Post

Tory/LibDems crush the Save our Forests Motion - Do they know what they are doing anymore?

In what was sad but not a surprise the Conservative and Liberal Democrats united to defeat the Labour motion calling on the government to stop the sale of our nations forests.

The coalition government is now planning on selling off over a quarter of a million hectares of forests. The government alleges that this will raise £250m from sales including selling some forests to timber companies, however Whitehall have advised the government that the cost of selling off any land would outweigh the revenue. In other words the tax payer will loose money on the sale of the forests and it will end us costing us more money.

This marks a key moment for the coalition as they have now taken an action not supported by there own party members (In fact there is a petition with almost 500,000 signatures on it at 38 Degrees). Tim Montgomerie of ConservativeHome has pointed out that Conservative MP's are starting to feel like passengers on a ship rather than the crew working together. Liberal Democrat MP's are also said to be divided and unsure of their leadership.

Fundamentally I think the government will have to u-turn on this decision I don't think the electorate will stand for treasures like The New Forest, The Forest of Dean, Sherwood Forest and Kielder Forest's being sold off.

If you would like to sign the petition there is still time. Visit 38 Degrees

Jim Hanley

Final Oscar Predix

So these are the final Oscar predix I submitted this morning.

Best Picture
The Kings Speech

Best Director
David Fincher, The Social Network

Best Actor
Colin Firth, The Kings Speech

Best Actress
Natalie Portman, Black Swan

Best Supporting Actor
Geoffrey Rush, The Kings Speech

Best Supporting Actress
Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit

Best Original Screenplay
The Kings Speech

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Social Network

Best Foreign Film
In a Better World

Best Animated Feature Film
Toy Story 3

Best Documentary Feature Film
Restrepo

Best Cinematography
True Grit

Best Film Editing
The Social Network

Best Art Direction
The Kings Speech

Best Costume Design
Alice In Wonderland

Best Sound Mixing
The Kings Speech

Best Sound Editing
Inception

Best Visual Effects
Inception

Best Original Score
The Social Network

Best Song
Toy Story 3

Best Make-Up
The Wolfman

Best Live Action Short Film
-------

Best Documentary Short Film
Killing In The Name

Best Animated Short Film
The Gruffalo

Final Oscar Predix

So these are the final Oscar predix I submitted this morning.

Best Picture
The Kings Speech

Best Director
David Fincher, The Social Network

Best Actor
Colin Firth, The Kings Speech

Best Actress
Natalie Portman, Black Swan

Best Supporting Actor
Geoffrey Rush, The Kings Speech

Best Supporting Actress
Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit

Best Original Screenplay
The Kings Speech

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Social Network

Best Foreign Film
In a Better World

Best Animated Feature Film
Toy Story 3

Best Documentary Feature Film
Restrepo

Best Cinematography
True Grit

Best Film Editing
The Social Network

Best Art Direction
The Kings Speech

Best Costume Design
Alice In Wonderland

Best Sound Mixing
The Kings Speech

Best Sound Editing
Inception

Best Visual Effects
Inception

Best Original Score
The Social Network

Best Song
Toy Story 3

Best Make-Up
The Wolfman

Best Live Action Short Film
-------

Best Documentary Short Film
Killing In The Name

Best Animated Short Film
The Gruffalo

Rob Wilson MP's '5 Days To Power'

I don't consider myself very tribal, don't get me wrong I am without doubt Labour but I am interested in the views of all parties and so that’s why I chose to read Rob Wilson's (Reading East Conservative MP) book '5 Days to Power'.

So here is my review. I thought the book was overall very good, and an enjoyable read (for those that are interested in politics). Rob sets out to use a chronological structure which, due to the events, is the best way to structure the book; he also removes himself from the book until the last chapter when he offer's his own opinions on the development of the coalition.

The book is perhaps more interesting for the development of the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition rather than the attempts of Labour to form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats.

It’s clear from the book that the Liberal Democrats believed that a hung parliament was likely and preparations for that eventuality had begun months in advance of the May election. For me as someone who is young and only graduated last year, the revelation that the Liberal Democrats actively deceived young people by pretending to stand behind the NUS pledge and promise to abolish tuition fees really stung home. Rob quote’s this internal communication from the Liberal Democrats on the subject of tuition fees before the election:

‘On tuition fees we should seek agreement on part time students and leave the rest. We will have clear yellow water with the other [parties] on raising the tuition fee cap, so let us not cause ourselves more headaches’

In fact during the negotiations to form the coalition, the Liberal Democrats did not raise the issue of tuition fees once, however that was not the only election promise the Lib Dems made which was abandoned in the talks:

Abandoned before the election. The NUS Pledge.
‘The Liberal Democrats had raised VAT as an important issue during the election. However, during the negotiations on the economy and despite the speedy progress across issues, it was never raised. One negotiator told me: ‘We had no discussions at all on VAT’’

I realise that coalitions are about compromise but it starts to become clear in the book that half the promises the Liberal Democrats had made during the election did not in fact matter to them.

It also becomes clear that Nick Clegg, Danny Alexander and David Laws wanted a Liberal Democrats/Conservative coalition and actively tried to prevent a Labour one, even though Charles Kennedy, Ming Campbell, David Steel and Paddy Ashdown were all advising Clegg not to form a coalition with the Tories. In fact Clegg, Alexander and Laws began spinning the media that a coalition was not possible with Labour and that Gordon Brown had been argumentative with Clegg on the phone (something which wasn’t true). The clear goal of this was to persuade both the Lib Dem Parliamentary Party and its membership that only a Conservative coalition was possible, in other words a coup was forming within the Liberal Democrat party.

The real wish of the Liberal Democrats was above all get the Alternative Vote, and they proposed and suggested that this could be done without a referendum and without consulting the public. This was something both the Conservatives and Labour thought was an impossible stance.

On the economy Clegg chose not to ask Shadow Chancellor Vince Cable to sit in on the negotiations, as a result:

‘Surprisingly the arguments [on the economy] presented by Osbourne did not appear to have been rigorously or independently checked by the Liberal Democrats’

The reasons why Cable is not in on the negotiations is never clear, although he personally did have many conversations with Gordon Brown as he himself was very concerned about forming a coalition with the Conservatives.
-
I myself was against the idea of forming a coalition with the Liberal Democrats, not because I don't believe in coalitions but simply because the electorate had delivered a very clear verdict in my eyes. The Conservatives had almost 50 more seats and over a million more votes so any attempt by Labour to try and bypass that defeat would have been unforgivable in my eyes. What did shock me though was the fact that Liberal Democrat MP’s and PPC’s we’re going round universities and low income areas to spout the danger of increasing tuition fees and the VAT when by all accounts they had already decided to abandon those pledges.

Quotes from of '5 Days to Power' by Rob Wilson MP. Publisher: Biteback