Oh My City!!

Three days of rioting, parts of London burning. No political message, just pointless looting and burning. Police stretched to breaking point trying to contain the chaos. The Prime Minister returned in the early hours of this morning, too little too late perhaps.
My heart aches for my city. My wonderful, nutty, fucked up city. Ripped to pieces by it's own residents. London has been torn apart before, but not by Londoners, what happened to the Blitz spirit that got us through the Second World War? Why can't we pull together, instead of tearing apart at the seams? Oh London, my home.

In The Papers

There's been a lot of scandal recently in the news about The News of the World paper, hacking into people's voicemail, it was fairly scandalous anyway, and then it was discovered that they'd hacked into the voicemail of murdered teenager Milly Dowler. Milly lived in the town my grandparents live in, she went to the same school as one of my cousins. Her death was a senseless tragedy. The NOTW hacking into the desperate messages left by her parents and friends is absolutely horrific, as if her parents haven't been through enough. The paper has been shut down and the investigation is ongoing into who authorised these invasions of people's privacy.
Personally I think the people at the top should be held responsible. That means Rebekah Brooks (head of News International, the publisher) and Rupert Murdoch (News Int's owner). Despite their insistence they didn't know anything (Brooks was previously editor of several News Int papers) they must have been aware of something going on that shouldn't have been.
What I found bizarre about the investigation was that it was being done by News Int itself, which makes zero sense. The police are also in trouble over some of this. I'm not precisely sure why, something about them being complicit in some of the carrying on going on at NOTW.
There needs to be greater scrutiny of the press and what means they use to get stories, especially if it's of dubious origins. People should be protected from these serious infringes of their privacy, like Milly Dowler's parents and the victims of the 7/7 bombers. There was no need for anyone to use such illegal and underhand methods. The Dowlers and other victims of this should be left to live their lives in peace.

It's the Election, stupid!!

So today the UK goes to the polls and picks a new (and hopefully improved) Government. Problem is the main parties are so similar it's painful. Labour have been in power for 13 years, and things have gone from bad to worse. The Tories don't offer anything worth voting for. And, although there seems to be a chance the Lib Dems might come closer to power than they have in a long time, I just don't know whether they can do it. There's a lot of apathy here, people just can't be bothered. Everyone in my house, and most of my friends seem to have voted, my sister just came back from doing so. But there's all these undecided voters floating around out there, and people who didn't register so can't vote. People, wake up! If you don't bother, then you have no say. You can't complain because you didn't try to change things. You couldn't see the point. But the point is there. Yes the system is rubbish, first past the post is stupid and does not work, but at least you have the right to make your voice heard. You could live in a country without democracy, and if you're female it's even worse. We've only been allowed to vote for 90 years, and other women died for our right to do so. The polls close in less than 2 hours. Then the counting begins. Tomorrow we'll know who our new Government is going to be comprised of, will it be straightforward or are we looking at a hung parliament? Whatever happens, it's going to be interesting.