Taboo foods - summary

So the least likely to be eaten items in the recent polls were Donkey, Seagull, Rat, Cat, Dog and Primate. No real surprises there.

There were a few results that surprised me though. I was surprised that so many people had eaten horse (9) and kangaroo (24); the former because of sentimental associations of horse and the latter because I was surprised that so many people had had the opportunity. The biggest surprise though is that 89% of you had eaten raw fish. Of course if one excluded the vegetarians from the sample, the proportion would be even higher. So sushi/sashimi, which as recently as 20 years ago was regarded as downright weird by a pretty high proportion of people outside Japan or Korea, must now be considered entirely mainstream, more so indeed than that English cultural icon, blue Stilton.

Clare vs. John

Clare Short speaking to the BBC earlier:

"What we're getting is a bubble of these clever people who've captured the state, don't need a party, don't need any members, don't have turbulent people having opinions, who then get money from rich people and run our state without consulting anyone else."

She's absolutely right of course. The key issues in creating a healthy democracy are reducing the power of the centre and finding ways to involve more people in the political process in a way that actually influences outcomes. There's a word for it. It's called democracy.

John Prescott a little later:

"To my mind it'll lead to the conclusion of state financing. I think there is an argument for capping but I think all the political parties certainly need to sit down...and come to a decision so we can have healthy financing for a healthy democracy."

Poor John, he really doesn't get it. The last thing any of us need is more of our money being handed over to the gangsters so that they can persuade us to keep them in office How will state financing of parties reduce the overweaning power of party leaders and their unelected cliques? Don't bother to answer that.