Condi in the UK

So Condi Rice is in the UK. Couple of points on this. First, who is organising the protests? According to the BBC, the protestors were shouting 'Condoleeza Rice Go Home'. Now fair play to them, they went out in their coats and scarves and protested in the weather that she complained to schoolkids about, but you guys need some work on your slogans. First off, brevity is good. 'Rice Go Home', or something like that. Something rhyming is always good, vis 'Rice ain't Nice'. Allliteration is also good 'Condi Conned-Us!', the chant treating the second piece as if it were one word - 'Con-Di Con-Dus' and so forth. If, however, you're fed up with rhyming, brevity and alliteration, you could always try 'Go Home You War Mongering Facist And Stop Lying And Breaking International Law And Bombing And Torturing Innocent People.' Or something like that.

On the second point, why is she attending Liverpool Philharmonic's Celebration as European City of Culture 2008 on Friday night (tonight, in fact). This is a little ridiculous. It's only 2006, and March for goodness sake. Last Sunday in the Liverpool Everton football match, both number 8's became '08's to highlight the thing. Now the venerable city of Cork didn't engage in any of this tomfoolery. No, no. As European City of Culture 2005, they were nice and orderly, had a big party on New Year's Eve, and kicked things off from there. And by the way, since you asked, Patras in Greece is the European City of Culture 2006. Next year it's Luxembourg, which apparently has to share the honor with Sibiu in Romania. Following that, Liverpool apparently has to share with the Stavanger region in Norway. Cork? It didn't have to share with anyone. Doutcha boy!