Bleep

They've got a better selection of cat food - so I'll be using it. No ginger beer though.

I'm on Plough Lane and have yet to receive contact lens deliveries and other Play orders from over two weeks ago. Might as well never use my home address again I reckon.

Traktor

I live opposite it, but I've yet to go as it's shut by the time I get home. Do they serve chestnut honey?

Just had a lunchtime beer there...burp. One thing, they really don't need to play loud music in there during the day

Anyone on an xbox playing GTA4 online yet?

Holland or Italy to qualify from that side of the draw for the final. I can see the Italians frustrating the Spanish in the Q-F and winning on penalties or in extra-time. The semi-final will be a cracker. Difficult to tell from the other side. Turkey could surprise Croatia, and there's no reason why Germany can't beat an arrogant Portugal. Germany haven't played particularly well yet, and one senses that Ballack has got the bit between his teeth - he knows this is probably one of his last chances of glory at international level. I think that Q-F will be a cracker, and the Germans might sneak it.

I see the unfortunate erosion of civil liberties in this country as a part of what I would term the "surveillance/terrorist" complex, which is similar to what Eisenhower dubbed "the military/industrial" complex in the US after WW2. We built up a network of surveillance in London and the SE during the IRA bombing campaign, and once that had finished, a whole organisation and attendant policies were lying dormant waiting to be used. 9/11 and 7/7 unfortunately accelerated the drive for its need. The only thing I can say is that the penalties for the misuse of data are enormous, but that doesn't deflect the suspicion that it's already going on. I can't find the specific article in the Telegraph a fortnight ago, but it highlighted some council's use of a term called RIPA where essentially what they can do is comandeer data and intelligence for specific things such as benefit fraud and the like, but instead were using it to haul up people for inconsequential offences.

Oh yes I love Scott. His last LP was amazing - properly out there. Am going through a huge Soft Machine phase at the moment.

I missed the Acid Temple Mother gig. I run club nights at Corsica, and sometimes need a break from it, but it's easily my favourite venue in London. I'm at Yellow Magic Orchestra at the RFH on the 15th which should be special. Saw Harmonia there recently, which was fantastic.

If you're selling 2nd hand dance music, check www.discogs.com for prices. That's the place to sell them.

Hello, I have a nice balcony/patio that I'd like to populate with pot plants. Has anyone got any tips for planting times and what to plant etc? Lavender Shrubs/Herbs are on the agenda as it gets a lot of sun during the day.

Funnily enough this was the last article I read before being made redundant from the Telegraph on Friday. Well done Dulwich Mum. As usual, so many people get the wrong (Telegraph readers that is) end of the stick when reading these sorts of articles - because they think they're "real" as such. That's why you never get articles like this in the tabloids.

Still staggered that people trot out the notion that the Conservative party under Thatcher would be the same as the one voted in at the next election. By the time the election comes around, she would have been gone nearly 2 decades. It's like a Conservative in 1997 trying to convince the electorate that New Labour would be like the Callaghan administration - i.e p***ing in the wind. The trouble is that nearly 30 years of entrenched government with at least 3 terms in power has produced generations of voters with no real, working clue of what life was like under various administrations. As such, we now have many people of my age (34) who have no real experience of practical Conservative government (1990 - 1997 under Major was always fighting to restore some of the balance caused by Thatcher's radicalism). Thus you get people saying "oh but I couldn't possibly vote Tory!"... er why? And then it comes down to some ridiculous notion like "oh they're all toffs" or something. The core issues of what people vote for - their wallet and security in employment - are ultimately very different now to what they were when Thatcher came to power, which is the last time when our country was in real difficulty. What topics that surround elections now are ones that both parties scrabble to claim for themselves and ultimately show that it's much less about ideologies and now just policies and their ability to deliver and administrate them. Conviction and passion will be diluted by this, which is why less and less people are truly motivated to vote, or more importantly believe and trust those that make the leap to become politicians. The reality I feel is that Britain is by default a Conservative country. We're an island - resistant to change, and when it does happen, it's synthesized slowly. It required Labour to become conservative to get successive terms in office, which I think is all you need to know.

Digital Rights Stall at a Summer Fete? What is the world coming to?