Beer Man Floor

BrewDog, a brewery in Scotland has developed a new beer, Tokyo*, which weighs in at an eye-watering 18.2% alcohol content. Unsurprisingly, the brewer has come in for a bit of stick from anti alcohol abuse groups who claim that such a drink would encourage binge drinking. Given that each bottle contains 6 units of alcohol, this is not an unreasonable assertion. In a beautiful inversion of logic however, BrewDog argues that this would in fact help combat binge drinking because people would drink it in smaller quantities. Genius! I think this calls for a beer...

The sky is falling!

Anyone else think there has been a curiously high rate of transport-related incidents /accidents/disasters over the last couple of weeks?

These are a few that I've noticed...

• RAF tornado crashes in Scotland.
• Light aircraft crashes down in Salford (next to Manchester)
• Yemeni plane crashes into Indian Ocean
• Driverless train rolls off tracks near Liverpool
• Air France plane crashes into Atlantic
• Train explodes in Northern Italy

Anyone noticed any other incidents? Is this all down to the unseasonal weather across the globe? Or, as many suspect, the product of an elaborate neo-con conspiracy?

A cocktail fit for a recession

You've all heard of a Kir Royal, the refreshing French summer cocktail made by mixing a shot of creme de cassis (blackcurrant liqueur) and some fine champagne.

Conscious of the austere times in which we are living, I have developed a recession-proof version of the old French classic. I call it the Kir Fitzroyal. As before, add a shot of creme de cassis to a glass, and instead of topping up with some costly champagne, simply load it up with some of the cheapest, nastiest Spanish cava (or Italian prosecco) you can find in order to complete the beverage.

Those of you in the know will recall that "Fitz" literally means "son of", from the French "fils", which I think works well as a label for our new recession-friendly tipple. I have heard it suggested that Fitz may also have been used to refer to a "royal bastard", but I suspect this may be apocryphal. If anyone knows otherwise, please let me know.

Now, all that remains is to grab your drink, sit back on your plastic garden furniture, take a deep breath and relax as you watch the global economy slowly spiral down the plug hole. Cheers!

One Man

A lot of commentators have pointed out the dangers of pinning all our hopes on Barack Obama. "He's just one man" they chime. "What can one man do?", "One man can't change the world", and so on...

Now perhaps I missed something over the last eight years, but George W. Bush is one man, and held the same office as Obama now occupies. Does anyone deny that George W. Bush has changed the world?

I'm not totally naive regarding Obama's capactity to change things, but if one man can make such massively regressive steps, push science back decades and create a global climate of fear and instability as George Bush, then just maybe one other man can do the exact opposite! Let's at least afford him the opportunity.

Lack of sustainability conference?

The 5th International conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability is a conference which holds no truck with irony or any of its close relations. Picking one of the least accessible countries on the planet, the organisers clearly felt holding the conference in Mauritius would send out a strong message on their attitude towards sustainability in general. And they were right. After all, what's a measly 15-hour flight and a carbon footprint an SUV-driving Sasquatch would be proud of when you can be smug for 3 days at an international sustainability conference?

Not really in the club

A nicely tongue-in-cheek piece of art has been unveiled outside the European Council building in Brussels. In the sculpture (which can be seen here on the BBC website), each EU country is represented from a stereotyped perspective. For example, the large lump that represents France simply has a banner draped over it with the word "Grève", meaning "strike". Germany is represented by a series of large motorways that looks alarmingly like a swastika.

However, the most insulting/apt/incisive representation (depending on your political leanings) is that of Britain, which is simply represented by its absence. I know the phrase is usually "a picture speaks a thousand words", but in this case the lack of a picture speaks even louder.

If Britain needed any further evidence of how it's participation in the EU (or lack thereof) is viewed by its neighbours it need look no further. Since Thatcher's reign, Britain's commitment-phobic approach to the EU angered, aggravated, delayed and annoyed many in the EU. Sooner or later Britain is going to have to make an actual decision on this - is she in or is she out?

Please, please, please can we join the Euro?

To Euro or not to Euro

One of the most annoying things about travelling to other countries in Europe is the need to change currency in advance or be face exorbitant handling fees when withdrawing money abroad. Now this may seem like a minor quibble, but this particular annoyance goes well beyond a personal pet peeve. Every time a friend or family member visits the UK from a eurozone country, they are annoyed. Every time exchange rates fluctuate so as to make British imports more expensive, people are annoyed.

Now I have always been pro-Euro, while the majority of people in Britain have always been anti-Euro. While times were good, it was virtually impossible to make convincing arguments for why Britain should join the euro; the pound is strong so we don't need anyone else. simple as that. However, with our global economy souring somewhat over the last year, the fragility of the pound has been laid bare. When markets began collapsing, investors and currency speculators dumped the pound en masse, seeing massive falls against the US dollar, Japanese yen and the euro. If Britain had been part of the eurozone, the sheer bulk of belonging to the world's largest currency (having surpassed the dollar in 2006/07) would have offered protection from such market turmoil, providing some much needed stability and perhaps also alleviating mild annoyances.

Now it seems the time has come again for this debate to rear its head. There have been recent murblings in the UK press, with Time Dowling of the Guardian suggesting Britain should join before it has to beg, as well as Jose Manuel Barosso (president of the European Commission) suggesting that Britain is closer than ever to making the leap into the Eurozone.

I sincerely hope Britain is readying itself to make this leap, as my mild annoyance could easily bubble over into something resembling nettled disgruntlement. And no one wants to see that!