EVERY RECORD SOUNDS THE SAME

Madonna pitches an accurate critique of her latest track as song lyrics.

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TO SPEAK A SINGLE LANGUAGE IS TO BE ENCLOSED IN ONE CULTURAL POSSIBILITY

The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) has released figures for the amount of applicants to UK university courses during the past year. The data indicates that the amount of applicants is down 7.4% overall. Amongst the general decline in many courses, applications to study European language are down by 11.2 per cent, those to non-European languages are down by 21.5 per cent. Are these figures adequate to mark a growing dissinterest among the British toward learning modern foreign languages?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/feb/05/will-hutton-learn-foreign-languages

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ANALYSE, WRITE COHERENTLY, THINK QUANTITATIVELY: VOCATIONAL SUBJECTS CAN DEVELOP ALL THE SKILLS LISTED ABOVE

The government have acted on the advice delivered in last year's Wolf Review. Their decision to stop many vocational qualifications having GCSE equivalence will soon be coming into force. Read closely some comments by Alison Wolf and pair them against the government agenda. Is this move heavy-handed?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/jan/31/gcses-gcse-equivalent-qualifications-reduced

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OF COURSE REWARDS FOR FAILURE ARE UNACCEPTABLE

George Osborne speaks some truths and makes other, more fanciful, claims.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-16937804

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YOU CAN'T STRIP AWAY A FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHT

A poignant phrase. A federal court in California have deemed the state-wide ban on same-sex marriage as unconstitutional.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/07/prop-8-california-gay-marriage-ban-struck-down

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IF POLICY IS NOT BASED ON PRINCIPLE BUT INDIVIDUALS, THE GOVERNMENT WILL CARRY ON BEING BLOWN IN THE WIND.

Ex-chancellor Alistair Darling suggests that the Government's decision to strip Fred Goodwin of his knighthood is nothing more than tokenism and rash misdirection.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newsvideo/uk-politics-video/9054486/Alistair-Darling-Fred-Goodwin-annulment-leaves-a-bad-taste.html


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FORNICATING HIPPIES

Let's see if we can jazz Boris Johnson's slur up a little shall we?

Those who look at others as simple, two-dimensional caricatures fuel the rage of the dispossessed.

So London Mayor Boris Johnson has flung more mud at London's Occupiers. It seems the protesters now accrue "fornicating hippies" to their ever-expanding set of identities. As Patrick Kingsley observes, this latest flurry is hardly the most scathing of Johnson's attacks. His commentary is laughably out of touch. I'd be tempted to leave his bigotry for humour to expose were it not for his standing as a high-profile public official. Given the man's position there is nothing funny to be seen in his words. Much the opposite.

One wonders if the caricatures often painted of Boris aren't enough in themselves to discourage his small-minded, quick-tongued venom.

Who knows what is said between consenting adults in corridors

The government is set to rule whether to approve News Corporation's bid for complete control over BSkyB. The culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has it on his head to navigate the crevices of this particular conundrum.

It is right that such important decisions - ones that could widely affect the balance of power in the media - are made off the back of cold, hard deliberation. The decision falls on Jeremy Hunt's shoulders after Vince Cable's position became untenable by his overt bias in opposition to News Corp.

Let us hope that Hunt's positioning does not suffer equal bias; albeit one on the opposite end of the political divide. This could be a difficult one to sell however when Cameron has recently been spotted accepting party invitations from Mr Murdoch himself.

We cannot watch Mr Hunt 24/7 so it would be mere wild speculation to suggest that Mr Cameron is intercepting his cabinet colleague on occasion to beg a small favour for a friend...

YOU'RE NOT THE ONLY ONE THAT TIME HAS GOT IT IN FOR, HONEY

A NOISY, SCRUFFY AND COLOURFUL CHALLENGE TO THE WAR-WAGING TENDENCIES OF THREE PRIME MINISTERS.

Brian Haw, 1949 - 2011

YOU CANNOT HAVE A SITUATION WHEN HUNDREDS AND THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE DIE BECAUSE THEY ARE EXERCISING THE RIGHT TO PROTEST

Do you still feel younger than you thought you would by now?

Bonus points for spotting whose advert I have appropriated for this - rather unnecessary - Love Is A Laserquest lyrics poster.

BRIAN SHOWED US WHAT A QUIESCENT AND SUPINE COUNTRY WE'VE BECOME

Mark Wallinger on Brian Haw, the peace campaigner, who died on Saturday.

On social media as a double-edged sword to spur political and social change.

I need to be able to find a positive arising from the Syrian "Gay Girl in Damascus" blog hoax fiasco. It's too upsetting to see the good-nature of people being exploited without some good coming from it. For every ounce of effort made in this particular case, the same has been denied from a cause of genuine worth.

Is it enough to rely on the generosity and inherent goodness in people to involve themselves time and time again in appeals that they cannot be certain are genuine? No, it is not.

The real progress will be in seeing this particular case in a wider context. It will involve closer scrutiny of our own international actions and convictions. Given the amount we have already invested into helping the people of Libya liberate themselves; is it not correct that we continue to hold our intervention up for questioning, testing our belief that we are truly helping enact the will and aim of the majority?

Would it also be correct to suggest that part of this process would involve our own media's ability to report truths? Given the sway they command, it is right that they install more robust controls on what they send to the front page unqualified.


(Regarding the poster: allow me the "Irrelevant Actor" visual joke.)

THERE'S NOTHING PAST THIS

My original concept for the recent Death Cab For Cutie inspired poster.

THE ROLE THAT THOUSANDS PLAYED IN THIS DISGUSTING EVENT NEEDS TO BE SCRUTINIZED

I would normally shy away from using remarks that strongly convey an abject opinion. I fear a cementing of subjectivity as fact. Sometimes it becomes a necessity, especially when human behavior breaches through into the undeniably wicked.

I sat with mouth agape as the news reports filtered through on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning. It appears that many of the ice hockey fans who had gathered in downtown Vancouver to watch the Stanley Cup final laid waste to the city following the Canucks' defeat to the Boston Bruins.

The images of shopfronts being smashed and looted; cars upended and set alight; police trying to contain the situation; all seemed very familiar. These were identical examples of the mob mentality that has frequently marred many a day's political activism in Central London over the course of this past year.

I find Wednesday's destruction much more contemptible. Regardless of the sinister nature of much of London's recent violence, it remains - in the most part - politically motivated (however stretched this definition becomes). Mass criminality in the name of sporting losses has no justification. It is mindless, and in cases where innocent people were injured: evil. I wholehearted support the sentiments of Gary Mason printed in The Globe and Mail on Thursday.

POLITICS SHOULD NOT BE LEFT ONLY IN THE HANDS OF POLITICIANS

These words, made yesterday by Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa, were removed from Chinese state media broadcasts.

It is a simple statement that should resonate for everyone, regardless of nationality or political culture and ideologies.

IF THE DAILY MAIL IS SO WORRIED ABOUT THE SEXUALISATION OF CHILDREN, ALL THEY HAVE TO DO IS HIT 'DELETE'

Charlie Brooker makes some interesting points in a piece in today's Guardian. Whether one can be quite as blasé as he about the dangers posed by exposing children to images of a sexual nature is a matter of opinion; his comments regarding the hypocrisy of the Daily Mail are undeniably true however.

How the Daily Mail can point fingers at broadcasters and celebrities while its website openly contains graphic examples of the type of image they object to is a clear case of double standards (putting it lightly). The sinister issue of the Mail's false accusations directed at ITV for broadcasting material that it did not is simply icing on the cake.

They suffered another scathing critique last week too, where this same publication was labelled in the House of Commons by speaker John Bercow as a "bigoted comic". Whether or not such comments should have been made in Parliament is a different issue of course; but it sure is a good quote for a poster...

WANTED FOR CRIMES IN FAVOUR OF DEMOCRACY

Self explanatory really.

Ai Weiwei is still in the custody of Chinese officials. No one has heard from him since his arrest on April 3rd 2011.