Breaking news - loads of kids had a day off school and lots of Scottish people had to queue for petrol! It’s hardly Armageddon and it wouldn’t make a very exciting blockbuster film (“Mel Gibson plays the distraught Scottish motorist fighting against the hordes of evil communist agitators”). Nowadays it seems you only need a one-day strike by one of the teachers’ unions and the threat of strike action at a Scottish oil refinery to get the media wittering on about another “winter of discontent” or “the country grinding to a halt”. 

One national radio station’s early evening presenters have been encouraging listeners to ring in and say how expensive fuel is in their area. There have been excited shrieks in the studio as people with nothing better to do have (presumably) pulled over to the side of the road to call in or text the news. “Yes, that’s right, diesel at £18 a litre and I was served by Elvis Presley!” Diesel demos? Unleaded unrest? Whatever next? Here’s TTRP’s potted history of the UK’s failed and somewhat selfish fuel protests.....

The great British public have been asking tough questions about the opening of the new Terminal 5 at London’s Heathrow Airport. Oh yes! Unfortunately they’ve been questions like, “can I buy Celebrity Gossip Hell in WH Smith?”, “do you think that Muslim over there is a terrorist?”, “should we forget this lark and take the train?” and “I’m going to New York so why are my bags going to Cape Town?” Still, they’re tougher questions than those being asked by the Queen and the Prime Minister. “Can I wear my red hat?” and “Is CO2 a mobile phone company?”

It’s been a couple of months since we caught Cheeky Cheeky and the Nosebleeds supporting Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong at the Soundhaus. They’d been second support that night and we’d been pretty impressed on first hearing. You can read that gig review in Great Bands – Shame about the Names? but two months can be a long time in the music business and a week ago the boys were back in Northampton, headlining their own show, supported by a local band called the Vistas.

One of the remaining perks of using MySpace* is that I occasionally stumble across a recommendation for a really good band, film or book. A sort of reward for sifting through all the friend requests from women with other photos just a click away, blokes who have ‘a great marketing idea’ or R'n'B artists who make the first two categories look relatively attractive. I started noticing a lot of people recommending The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. People who liked the sort of books I liked. So I investigated and was well rewarded. Here’s the story.....

To some it’s a time of huge religious significance. To others it’s a couple of days off work and a nice long weekend. For some, an excuse to indulge their craving for chocolate. In deepest, darkest Northamptonshire, in the heart of the English countryside, redpillboy started thinking about what Easter meant to him and came up with some disturbing conclusions. Something for consideration and hopefully some action by those with faith and those with none.

Although we love discovering new bands, occasionally we like to indulge in a bit of nostalgia, especially with bands that have something to say as well as a few decent tunes.  In the last week or so, we’ve been to see the Levellers in Wolverhampton and then the Beat in Northampton, supported by Neville Staples from the Specials. It’s not often that we can write things like, “we were particularly impressed with the didgeridoo solo” or “we kept getting bashed in the leg by the guy in the wheelchair moshing next to us”. One of those special weeks for live music......

Living in a Northamptonshire village, we’re hardly overwhelmed by overt radical activism on a daily basis.  Buying a copy of the Guardian can be considered slightly subversive and the only union activity happens behind drawn curtains after Match of the Day on a Saturday night. But in early 2008 something is stirring in the village - and not everyone is happy about it. Yes, the shopping bag revolution has arrived, led by a very determined local lady, aided and abetted by a most unlikely source.

...but it may help!  Hey, my apologies if I’ve caused any offence but in the last couple of days I received an email which left my jaw scraping the carpet and my heart very, very heavy.  I mean a lot of rubbish is delivered to my inbox but this one wins some sort of prize for stupidity, bigotry and double standards......

Here it is at last – the imaginatively-titled follow up to War & Peace 1 – The Just War Tradition!  TTRP takes a look at the subject of alternatives to war, using as our base Mark Kurlansky’s excellent book Non-Violence (The History of a Dangerous Idea). I’m naturally drawn to the idea of non-violence but have always had nagging doubts about whether it could work effectively in all situations. Would the ideas of people like Jesus, Gandhi or Martin Luther King have worked against an evil regime like Nazi Germany?