Voices From The Pulpit (Ramblings of an Inadequate Messiah)

Hmmm.... we'll see when an actual General Election is called but very good news for the Lib Dems as they're polling in second place in national polls here in the UK.

"The paper (The Telegraph) also features an ICM poll which suggests more people intend to vote Liberal Democrat than Labour in the next general election.

The survey put Gordon Brown's party in third place for the first time since 1987 on just 22% - three points behind the Lib Dems and 18 behind the Conservatives." (MP Claimed For Church Donation; BBC News; Saturday 30th May 2009)

Of course before a General Election is announced and fought we have this coming weeks European Elections. It's going to be a very interesting affair - made even more interesting by the complete meltdown (to varying degrees) of the main three UK political parties due to the expenses crisis that's been all over the UK press for the last few weeks.

I'm reckoning the big winners will be UKIP (The UK Independence Party) and, to a lesser extent, the BNP (British National Party). I also think the Lib Dems could actually gain some votes too from this - although am expecting some of their support to be lost to the Green Party as a protest vote about their (Lib Dems) part of the Expenses Scandal by virtue of being one of the 'Big Three' and having MPs involved in it.

So...

Conservative Votes - drifting to UKIP and the BNP
Labour Votes - staying at home or drifting to the Lib Dems
Lib Dem Votes - drifting to the Greens

One of the many nice things about living outside of London...

Being able to jump on a bus for less than 30 minutes and end up in Avebury for an afternoon of fine food (Red Lion), stone circles, writing, thinking and lots of sun.

I hate to say it (and never thought I would if I'm honest) but I'm not missing London in the slightest at present and moving away from The Big Smoke is probably one of the best things I've ever done.

I love London, and it'll always have a special place in my heart, but life is so much friendlier and less hectic (and less expensive) outside.

I was a bit skeptical about Google Wave when I saw a friend mention it on his Blog. What would email/communication be like if it was built today and not 40 years ago?

Having just seen part of the Google I/O presentation all I can say is wow.

Looks good. Builds lots of different ideas into one system - including a tool which would revolutionise blogging to a certain extent (or atleast make it much more open and easy for people to reply and keep track of things without ever having to go to the blog in question).

Google Wave is planned to 'Go Live' later this year.

http://wave.google.com/

I'm currently reading 'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy. The writing style took some getting used to  - and I almost abandoned it fairly early on because of the unconventional style. I'm glad I didn't though as it's proving to be a very enjoyable - and gripping - book.

There's a film adaptation coming out this autumn starring Viggo Mortensen. Here's the trailer...