No, not a good night in Africa. England blunt at the front and vulnerable at the back still expect to qualify.  Only occasionally from Lennon and Johnson was any attacking flair shown and even then the final cross into the middle was more a hopeful punt than a thoughtful pass. Gerrard played better than I’d seen him for England and Rooney was sucking their attention which detracted from his play but was probably good strategically.

Whether it was frustration or a bad night the vuvuzela’s and poor commentary and punditry on ITV only made it worse.  Even after the match the BBC News24 commentator was drowned out by excessively loud music. Might this be the Loud World Cup, better than a silent world cup but please turn it down a bit.

Standing at a distance it seems another case of a union bringing out its sledgehammer over what seems a minor issue although a large number have voted in support.  Are the unions taking advantage of this period before the general election because they think the government will try and sort it behind the scenes rather than it appearing to be another 1979 winter of discontent. Union leaders and politicians scent weakness and like to make the most of it.

Across England; Lincolnshire and Norfolk seem to be similarly poorly represented.  Is it that these were more cut-off when large properties were being built, are they in private hands or council owned.  Probably the first.  In the area I can only think of Lytham Hall that might be of enough stature to become an NT property although it hasn’t much inside it.

At over £70 a year for a family membership you need to visit at least 6 properties a year to get value from your membership, although some might not view it that way.   After a while Dunham Massey, Quarry Bank Mill and Tatton Park become a bit too familiar.  Speke Hall is quite good but it’s a bit close to the city and not as relaxed to reach.  The best houses in Cumbria are privately owned: Holker and Levens.

National Trust, what are you doing for Lancashire?

‘I know that engagement with repressive regimes lacks the satisfying purity of indignation. 

I also know that sanctions without outreach –  condemnation without discussion – can carry forward only a crippling status quo….’

I can think of a lot situations where it sounds a bit naive but it can feel good to take the moral high ground. We’ll see.

Tonight PNE take on Newcastle at Deepdale. After having a bit of a lean spell PNE should be out to show they’re still in there. On paper Newcastle have a Premier League side but you can’t guarantee they’ll play.  No doubt there’ll be a good following from their long suffering fans, but then again you could say PNE fans are long suffering but don’t have the same expectation, except tonight.  Then onto Blackpool next week, their ground is looking better now and they’ve maybe gone over a peak which PNE might catch at the right time.

9th – Lloyd - nice bloke, a bit overwhelmed, voice not strong.

8th – Ollie – started great, seems to be losing his sparkle but might be a winner.

7th – Danyl – great voice, loads of confidence, seems too easy and too many teeth on the high notes.

6th – Lucie – great voice, looks a very nice person, best performer on big band but doesn’t suit the action. Could do it.

5th - Jamie – great voice, good performer, not sure if there’s enough variation, age might tell.

4th – Twins – great show, loads of cheek, let down by singing unless a niche is created.

3rd – Joe – nice bloke, great musical voice, can perform, best performer on Robbie Williams show, somebody has to be next. Could win.

2nd – Stacey – good voice, can do it, very likeable, thinks she’s not worthy. Would be worthy winner.

X-factor winner – Rachel – good voice, able to perform, right age, was good in auditions, has learnt after struggling and might be on an up if handled right.

The above is trying to be logical my personal choices are Lucie, Jamie, Stacey with Joe to win.

Could hedge my bet and say 1,2,3, 6, 8 could be winners as each week I’ve changed my vote.

I wish I’d watched this show before.  A great example of endeavour at the end and delusion in the auditions.

Who-ever in Microsoft invented ‘compatibility view’ must have had a very strict upbringing, it’s a completely unnecessary discipline. Firefox has been the recommended tool for checking websites and I find nothing has changed.

Microsoft also upset some people by enforcing use of the Outlook Connector on Hotmail accounts.  It forced me to tidy up my e-mail accounts and it was goodbye to Hotmail.  If you own domains you can use forwarding addresses so changing isn’t difficult.

The latest version of Windows (Windows 7) is out tomorrow and seems to have had good reviews to date.  I’ll let it settle as Vista seems pretty good now.  Although I wonder if we’ll ever get to the time when you turn on your PC and start work immediately. My Quad core Vista PC takes minutes to boot up.

With the digital switch-over I’ll miss terrestrial TV teletext in that I can put on the TV and go straight to the football results in seconds – unless it’s one of those multi-page ones. The BBC Digital Text on Sky takes about 2 minutes to come on and switching it off is something else.  Maybe using mobile phone web is the faster answer but it costs. We step bravely into the future and it seems like walking in mud, overly complicated mud.

What about older folk. It wasn’t too bad once just turning a switch to operate the TV.  We once had a TV with a little box screwed on the back containing a fairly substantial metal rod which you pulled to get ITV. Set top boxes aren’t new.

Oh no, just remembered we turn off our Sky Box as a ‘green’ measure but find that after switch on it takes 5 minutes to find all the channels.  Teletext will be so missed. It’ll be 5 minutes to get the channels, 2 minutes to get to the text.  Then another couple of minutes to load the page. So it could be 10 minutes to get the football results with a Sky Box. Need to think about that!

The programme touched on a few things that I’ve often thought such as the north grew out of industry and now the industry is gone what is the future.  Does it have a meaning?  A study was discussed that said some towns – I noticed Blackpool, Wigan and Blackburn on the list – should be left to rot as their purpose was gone.  To which John said if those people that could moved out you’d be left with the old and the unwanted which would lead to major social problems. So jobs must be moved to people. Although maybe his social problems could also include a fear of extreme political parties getting seats in parliament.

Yet these jobs need to have some meaning and ambition.  The region needs to have a meaning and some symbolic industries yet it seems hard to imagine what that is at present except for a mixed portfolio of foreign owned industries.  The few major industries remaining include defence and chemicals. Some headquarters need to be located in the region. The only ones I can think of are the Co-op which isn’t industrial and Pilkingtons which somehow managed to be taken by over a smaller  Japanese company. After 12 years of a government that you might think would try to spread wealth around the country it seems the north has a fairly transitory base and the only businesses based here were devastated by the credit crunch and allowed to collapse - Bradford & Bingley, Northern Rock to name two. A bit depressing if you let it be.  In someways a case for a breakaway country from the south could be made but I’d have no confidence of its success and I’d imagine it would be an unhappy socialist enclave. Although some Welsh and Scots think they can do it and I’d think the Welsh are further downhill than the north. So like the recession maybe this is a low point and the future is up but some higher than others.

Manchester gets more impressive each time we go. I was particularly impressed by the Spinningfields area with its modern buildings, open areas, apartments and cafes. Although there was one building right in the middle that looked a bit 70′s shabby.

The extension to the Arndale is a nice bright area making the old one look ancient although that’s been facelifted as well. There’s quite a good circular route down King Street, Market Street, back into the Arndale and the extension then onto the Triangle, Selfridges etc to St Annes Square.  There was a food market in St Annes Square that looked interesting.

Another thing I hadn’t seen before is the HMV GameBase in the basement a room of monitors and gamestations for computer battlers. Pretty impressive I thought although there was no-one using any at 11am on Saturday so I wonder where the trade is coming from.

Overall a pretty good day out, didn’t spend anything except £5.40 to park the car and a lunch, although my wife did. Can’t see Preston matching that even with 5 Tithebarn Projects.

The IMF is looking to reform to be more representative and it has been suggested that countries like the UK might lose their seat. I guess this could also be a precursor to losing a Security Council seat as well. On the other hand the UK is the 7th biggest economy and has political and military influence that is significant both historically and from it’s position as a major member of the EU. If the G20 is symbolic of how these things run it’s a bit of an odd grouping as the 20 aren’t the biggest in any one sense so even in an economic grouping financial clout isn’t the main factor. There is nothing to suggest at the moment that the UK will cease to be in the top 10 economies for many years so how any restructuring occurs is subject to debate.  Although personally I favour the EU representing Europe in duality for now but perhaps taking over from individual nations at some point. Although for me it’s complicated as I’m pro-pound, pro-EU and think David Cameron is OK but I’m not certain.

The SNP are demanding a seat in any debate of leaders that is shown in Scotland. I agree with this. It is probable that the SNP will be the biggest party in Scotland after the General Election and as such they should be given equal billing in Scotland.   The Conservatives will likely get into power with a predominantly Southern England base and although this might once have seemed a non-issue, nowadays it questions the validity of the electoral process. Gordon Brown has hinted at some kind of reform but I wouldn’t like to hold my breath even if he was likely to win.

Another interesting point is that the SNP are looking to hold a referendum on Scottish Independance. It isn’t clear if they have enough power to do that at present or if they’d win. But if a Conservative government was elected by Southern England with no seats in Scotland I’d think it would strengthen the SNP.  Although, as a side point, is it possible in some cases for votes to be split between SNP and Labour to give the seat to the Conservatives. So going back to the original point in this post, assuming Scotland became independant and knocked 8% off the size of the UK then it might reduce the ability to defend the seats at the IMF and UN. On the other hand the World Bank forecasts that even with a 10% reduction the UK will still be the 7th largest in 5yrs time. Although Brazil, Russia and India are on a trajectory that might change that in 10yrs, but there are so many if’s here. So the Scottish effect although significant isn’t critical for now in powerplay. Although I’d think it will have some effect.