A bird in the hand (is worth two of George Bush)

A report indicates that privately owned fisheries deplete slower and remain viable longer than the habitual free for all of the commons. It neglects to go into the tricky subject of policing or the morality of foreign owned stocks.

Common birds are in freefall (flap, my beauties, flap) all over the planet as climate change and environmental degradation take their toll. It occurs to me that once they (and the frogs) have gone, there's going to be an awful lot of extra insects around (but not bees).

I can't help but have one more slug at the financial f*ck-up. The New York staff of the bankrupt Lehman Bros are to be rewarded for their total incompetence with billions in collective bonuses whilst the likes of you and I are looking at increased taxes to pay for it. Marvellous. Surely there must be some actual moustache twirling going on somewhere, to the soundtrack of heavily echoed BWAHAHAAHAARs

At the Manchester "Labour" party conference - I saw John Prescott standing unguarded, chatting in the street yesterday, in marked contrast to the wailing multi-vehicled cavalcade taking Gordon to lunch. I'm not particularly getting at Brown there. The leadership nonsense is a sideshow. It just showed up how things have changed from old to new labour; from ordinary bloke to celebrity. The streets are blocked off with attractively made barriers that seem designed to distract you from the fact that you are no longer allowed to approach your elected representatives during the congress of the People's party.
I've never seen so many police in the city centre, drafted in from all over the show to rummage through the rucksacks of students and look sideways at foreigners. All very cosmopolitan.