Four thousand six hundred and ninety-one irradiated haggis

The yet-again-ressurected Hammer Films actually seem to be getting somewhere this time. Not only do they have The Woman In Black on general release very soon (when the trailer came up before SH: A Game of Shadows magister and innerbrat and I all did happy squeals in unison when the gret big Hammer logo appeared; we're all fans of the original and the trailer looked very good indeed) but their restoration team are pulling out some proper gems.

We got the BluRay of the restored Quatermass and the Pit just before Christmas, and it is a stunningly beautiful print. I am now literally salivating at the thought of Plague of the Zombies, which is one of my utter, utter favourites; and the fact that they have found some cut footage to restore to the 1958 Terence Fisher Dracula is just awesome.

If you want to follow the restoration team's blog it is at http://blog.hammerfilms.com/ (or syndicated to DW at hammer_films_blog_feed)

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X-posted personal blog, brit_horror, fantastic_films

I'm going to participate in the SOPA strike tomorrow, even though I don't live in the US and can't affect its legislators, because, like Milena says, if it affects the internet, it affects us all. I really recommend you read her post, actually. It's a very intelligent and well-reasoned one. Also, I like this one on The Hathor Legacy.

This means that from lunchtime-ish tomorrow until the early hours of the morning on Thursday I shall be officially On Strike.

And tomorrow being Wednesday, and therefore my day off, this will actually be more of a hardship than might at first be apparent. So when you don't see me on here or G+ or Twitter, remember to feel terribly sorry for me, won't you?

I possibly got it wrong, but I thought the leadership programme was supposed to be to help people who were disadvantaged in means to get political experience to get ahead in the party. I didn't realise it was just a not-pale-and/or-male preferred candidates list. Disadvantaged, to me, does not JUST mean being a woman or being LGBT+ or BAME. If you've been an elected mayor, or you are the Deputy Chair of the Parliamentary Candidate Association, or you are the wife of a currently serving junior minister, that does not scream disadvantage to me.

Please note that I am not saying that any of the people on the list would not be great MPs: I'm sure quite a lot of them would - I was particularly pleased to see one of my favourite people, Belinda Brooks-Gordon, on there - but I am very worried that my definition of disadvantage is radically out of step with the rest of the world. I love Belinda to bits, but she's a very canny political operator and (I hope she won't be offended by me saying this) is someone who most local parties would happily select as a candidate, not someone who needs an extra leg up to get ahead of the competition.

I genuinely think some elements of this list are a total gift to our detrators. I hope I'm wrong.

... is trying to work out which is more depressing:

1. the number of people I know and trust who, when gven a free vote, still decided that the government's idea of bashing the disabled was a good one, totally against the will of Conference, or


2. Mark Littlewood winning Liberal Voice of the year

Now, on the face of it, the first one wins by a clear margin. It affects far more people, and affects those people far more, than the result of an internet poll which can easily be gamed. And yet... There's something that my gut says is very indicative about a rabidly right-wing Libertarian winning that LDV poll.

For the first time in a long time, those two things have combined to make me feel like I'm not welcome in my party any more. I suspect I need to brood on this.