AUTOCASH ROBOT
Subscribe To
Posts
All Comments
Error in deserializing body of reply message for operation 'Translate'. The maximum string content length quota (8192) has been exceeded while reading XML data. This quota may be increased by changing the MaxStringContentLength property on the XmlDictionaryReaderQuotas object used when creating the XML reader. Line 1, position 9026.
Does royal fiancee Kate Middleton's roots lie in a fine Lancashire town near Manchester? Photograph: MCP/Rex Features Fellow subjects! There can be only one place to turn to at this joyous moment and that is … Middleton. Who can doubt that Our Kate's roots lie, way, way back, in this fine town near Manchester, or that its local weekly Guardian was her forbears' mentor.
It is a place of interest and history, home of the only surviving Peterloo banner and responsible in the past for producing many a cotton twist and bathroom flannel. It has its place in the pantheon of investigative journalism, too. During the Sudan campaign, in which Winston Churchill famously rode in the British army's last great cavalry charge at Omdurman, the Middleton Guardian reported on a Lancashire fusilier who had been ordered to bayonet every enemy survivor, dead or alive.
This week, its dramas are domestic: "A widow went on a drunken binge after work and crashed into two cars as she drove home." Fortunately no one was hurt by the antics of the mother of two, who underestimated the power of a bottle of wine. She was heard by neighbours shouting: "Everything will be OK – it happens."
This lifts an otherwise mundane account, although the paper also has quiet fun linking the police's subsequent visit, after the woman had "changed into her pyjamas", with her solicitor's comment in mitigation that the arrest was "a wake-up call". Her drunken cry might also make a good modern substitute for Middleton's motto Fortis in arduis, which up to now has been translated as "strong in difficulties".
The Guardian also has an excellent picture gallery, which features readers' photographs of Middleton and surrounding scenes. Some show the redbrick terraces becomingly wreathed in mist – almost like a bridal veil. Another has the sunshine of a new day streaming through woodland at Boggart Hole Clough.
There is also – rejoice, ye cliche-mongers of the North – an exceptionally fine pigeon hurtling towards the camera of Middletonian Mike McGrath. But my favourite in the 40-strong gallery is reader Anthony Jennings' photo of the moon. Photos, rather. He was so interested that he took one in January and another in August. It is the same moon that we have in Leeds, and that will shine over William and Kate's wedding night. But he has photographed it very well, and it made me think fondly of honeymoons.
There is only one pub in England officially named after our earlier Queen Kate, whose personal loyalty was a model, even if it led to the dissolution of the monasteries and the English Reformation. The Katherine of Aragon sits on a Yorkshire hillside at Osmotherly, the patch roamed by staff of the Northern Echo.
This week, they are more interested in Catterick up the road, where a metal detectrist has found a right royal mediaeval seal. Ivor Miller's silver trophy comes with all the enjoyable theorising which surrounds such discoveries underground.
"Some have speculated that a medieval farm labourer may have found the Roman jewel, a semiprecious stone, and handed it to their noble or lord, who placed it into their correspondence seal," says the Echo cheerfully, without fear of contradiction or correction. Equally, it may have been flung gaily out of a casement at Catterick's long-gone castle, by a young prince over the moon at his beautiful girlfriend saying "Yes".
Its mysteries are protected by an unknown jumble of letters, thought to be some sort of mediaeval code. Miller gives off nothing but simple contentment. He tells the Echo: "I had a feeling it was something nice. I can go out for months and find nothing but shotgun cartridges and ringpulls."
Note meanwhile, that Osmotherly's solitary Katherine of Aragon is also an exception to the many Elephant and Castle pubs, which are also named after the sad queen, but disrespectfully. The weird combo was the nearest English sots in Good King Henry's reign could get to Katherine's Spanish title, the Infanta of Castille.
I've had a jolly week myself, dealing extensively with the Twittersphere, a world into which I occasionally send fusillades of connected 140-word bits of pith. This method is cheating but I haven't got time for précis, and anyway the Twitter case involving Robin Hood airport was a bit complex to condense into the system's official requirements.
Like everyone else, I found Judge Jaqueline Davies a somewhat severe figure at Doncaster crown court, but the appeal by Paul Chambers, who made the notorious tweetjoke about bombing the airport, wasn't brilliantly handled for reasons I try to explain in my own tweets. It's interesting meanwhile to read the headline in this week's Doncaster Star: "Deadly haul of weapons at Robin Hood airport".
It shows why staff there can be twitchy. A crackdown operation by the UK Border Agency has found travellers armed with over 100 weapons, including stun guns, clubs and samurai swords (though unfortunately, given the airport's name, no bows and arrows). Some of the kit was plainly souvenir material, but what on earth were mother and son, Jayne and Jack Allen, doing on holiday in Bulgaria?
The Star reports that they were stopped at Robin Hood carrying three canisters of CS gas, four knuckle dusters, three batons, three finger- knives and a back knife. I know the Bulgarians carried out that weird umbrella murder of a dissident in London years ago, but they can't be that dangerous.
The Star can suffer Daily Mail-style hissy-fits, though, as it does with another headline which reveals excitedly: "Ed's grandad a communist". The piece about Labour's new leader, who is also MP for Doncaster North, goes back beyond his late Dad Ralph, a very well-known Marxist academic, to Grandpa Sam who actually "fought with the Red Army".
This would have been a badge of honour in Donny in times past. Maybe it still is, although the former citadel of mining and socialism elected an English Democrat oddball as its mayor in May. Judging by the thread beneath the piece online, everyone is staying calm. The first comment consists simply of the word: "So?"
From Donny to Scunny, and in my preferred role of bringer of joy from the North, I was genuinely pleased to read this: "Bumper pre-tax profits have led to a directive for production on the Scunthorpe Tata steelworks to be stepped up by 10,000 tonnes a week."
The report in the Scunthorpe Telegraph may be a surprise in the current climate of cuts and financial worries, but it suggests an underlying recovery. If steel is reviving, many smaller-scale business will follow. Tata reports that profits from Scunny and the rest of its European division in the first half of 2010 were £315m, compared with a loss of £512 million last year.
The firm has asked local staff for a 10,000 tonne increase of weekly steel production from the current 68,000 tonnes. Mind you, the group's net debt still stands at £6.7bn according to the Telegraph, so we'd best be cheerful but not too giddy.
Martin Wainwright recommends: on holiday in Slovenia, one of my sons inscribed the visitor-book at a local attraction with "A museum of cheese! What could more exciting?" I feel the same, albeit without his youthful cynicism, about the first-ever Encyclopaedia of Leeds, just published by an excellent local journalist called Mick McCann. Even if you couldn't give a toss about the city, your £9.99 buys an extraordinary Lucky Dip of fact, opinion and assertion, which reminds me of Dr Johnson's famous dictionary, additionally fuelled by some powerful local substance such as Tetley's ale.
You can get a copy from Armley Books via updateleeds@hotmail.co.uk and I will be dishing them out as Christmas presents.
On the outing front, why not pay a visit to dear little Kettlewell, either for a weekend meal at one of the three pubs, tea and a cake at the many cafes and/or a march along one of the lovely stretches of the Dales Way?
The other reason for going is to admire the impressively skilful scarecrows of children and their teachers which greet you to the village beside a "Save Our School" sign. More on this next week in Guardian Education; meanwhile make a long-range planning note of the Kettlewell Scarcrow festival one of the country's best, which runs next year from 13-21 August . If the school does shut, the festival could eventually be a victim too.
Parameter name: request
Translate Request has too much data
Parameter name: request
Rapper Jay-Z gave a talk at the New York Public Library 5.30pm ET / 10.30pm GMT: Time to get into an Empire State of Mind and, yes, actually I did have to make that poor excuse for a joke: tonight Jay-Z will be talking about his upcoming and already critically lauded book, Decoded, at the New York Public Library with Cornel West, almost certainly the only Princeton professor who has collaborated on an album with Prince.I'll be there, liveblogging away. Well, I say liveblogging but there is a strong chance I'll be so starstruck by Mr Z that I won't be able to see my keyboard. But I'm a professional journalist and so I promise you this: if Beyonce turns up, I'm totally touching that booty.
6.34pm ET / 11.34pm GMT: Greetings everyone from the fourth row of the New York Public Library where, in just 30 minutes, Jay-Z will be discussing his upcoming book, Decoded, with Cornel West.Now, I'm going to lay my cards on the table with y'all from the start - I am stupidly excited. Tragically, I don't think I've ever been so excited in my life. Shawn Carter! 20 feet away from me! And the icing on the cake is West, a man as floridly outspoken as he is facially hirsute, and, most importantly, he appeared in The Matrix Reloaded. AND I have a copy of the Jigga man's book here and I can exclusively reveal that it is - and you can quote me on this - most interesting looking. Let's have a look through the book until the talk starts...
6.43pm ET / 11.43pm GMT: So I should have said this event is packed to the max – and with a pretty diverse demographic, which, to say the least, is not something one sees at most New York events.Anyway, the book, Decoded. So it mixes up Jay-Z decoding (ah yes, we see what he did there) his lyrics, with tales from his childhood, explanations about hip-hop's connection to the ghetto and then a wider audience, and chapters that begin with sentences like "I met Bono years ago, in the cigar room of a bar in London with Quincy Jones and Bobby Shriver." So pretty much as expected but slickly packaged and a lot smarter than it could ostensibly get away with. In other words, it's definitely Jay-Z's book.
Beyonce update: no Beyonce. Yet.
6.47pm ET / 11.47pm GMT: Wonder if he'll talk about Big Pimpin'. He recently gave an interview saying he was ashamed of the lyrics and, yes, Andrea Dworkin probably would not have approved of the song's overall sentiment. But, purely from a rapping point of view, it probably was his high point. I have a girl friend who once took three days off work to learn those lyrics. True story.6.50pm ET / 11.50pm GMT: In Decoded, he says he uses the "most selfish, least romantic ways to describe sex" in Big Pimpin', which is true, although I must confess that I didn't even know the lines "need a nut" and "beat the guts" even referred to sex. What an innocent I am. I think this evening will be most educational.6.55pm / 11.55pm: Ooh here he is in the book, talking about when Noel Gallagher foolishly dissed him and said "I'm not having hip hop at Glastonbury." Classily, Jay-Z doesn't take the opportunity to diss the English embarrassment back but merely says that he played Wonderwall at Glastonbury and "it went over big": "The show was amazing, one of the highlights of my career. It was one of those moments that taught me there really is no limit to what hip-hop could do, no place that was closed to its power." Suck on it, Gallagher.7.03pm / 12.03am: Here's a story about the first time he met Barack Obama, before the primaries in 2008. He knew Obama was special because "he sought me out and then asked question after question... It was extraordinary." Um, OK.7.07pm / 12.07am: Apparently, before the 2008 election Obama called Jay-Z and said "he wanted to close it out like Jordan." Whether this was Obama's actual phrase is not specified but note, jumpy readers, this is not a reference to the Middle East nor coded confirmation that Obama is Muslim. Just to clarify. What it actually meant was that Obama wanted Jay-Z's help by performing some free shows to encourage people to vote. Which he did.7.07pm / 12.07am: Seven minutes late starting. Well, punctuality is SO uncool.7.11pm / 12.11am: Of the inauguration, which he attended ("needless to say, the first inauguration of my life"), he says "we all had chills", and yes, that means him and Beyonce.Beyonce update: still no sign.
7.14pm / 12.14am: He compares the line in December 4th "They say they never really miss you 'till you dead or you gone" to Joni Mitchell's line from Big Yellow Taxi "You don't know what you got 'til it's gone." Who'd have thought it, Jay-Z has Joni Mitchell on his iPod.12 minutes late now. There is some seriously baaaaad muzak playing. Jay-Z, I'm not asking for punctuality but could you at least sort out the tunes?
7.20pm / 12.20am: Jay-Z seems a bit meh about Obama now: "Since he's been elected there have been a lot of legitimate criticisms of Obama. But if he'd lost, it would have been an unbelievable tragedy." I'm guessing Obama won't ask him to rock the vote for him again in 2012. 20 minutes late and still no Beyonce. Or Jay-Z, for that matter.I'm guessing it won't start for another 20 minutes. Whole rows of VIPs haven't turned up yet.7.23pm / 12.23am: I've just been informed by Cornel West's friend who is sitting next to me that it's 'Dr West', not 'West'. So apologies for earlier faux pas, Dr West, any demotion was unintentional.7.27pm / 12.27am: Announcement: "Starting in about 10mins." Emphasis on "about", one suspects. And a room groans. Back to the book.7.27pm / 12.27am: Harry Belafonte just walked in! I don't know about you, but I think that's kinda awesome.7.36am / 12.36am: Yup, still waiting. To pass the time, I'm reading a story about how Biggie once tricked Jay-Z into smoking something unspecified and got him "high as shit." Not a story one usually finds in the New York Public Library, it must be said.7.38pm / 12.38am: Ooh, the music is stopping! Lights are dimming!7.39pm / 12.39am: Lupe Fiasco has just sat in front of me. He is wearing sunglasses but, as he immediately stresses to a neighbouring friend, they're prescription. No explanation on why he's wearing a hat inside. Yes, I know I sound like my mother.7.41pm / 12.41am: Predictably, they're now playing December 4th as the warm up track.7.43pm / 12.43am: The director of Live from the New York Public Library, a man who looks like a librarian, comes out and shouts "Are we excited? Are we excited?". Bless.7.44pm / 12.44am: Apparently, Keith Richards was here giving a talk a few weeks ago. Libraries are more exciting these days than they were when I was a kid.7.46pm / 12.46am: Cornel West comes out to a standing ovation and a little dance to Marvin Gaye.7.47pm / 12.47am: Jay-Z! The room, predictably, erupts. Jay-Z!7.49pm / 12.49am: He looks unexpectedly small next to Cornel, but that might be because Cornel's hair makes him look enormous. He also seems a little nervous, fiddling with his trousers. He's wearing a tie-less suit, by the way, fashion followers.
Princeton professor Cornel West and Jay-Z at New York Public Library. Photograph: Kevin Mazur/WireImage 7.50pm / 12.50am: Librarian man reads out an excerpt from Decoded. It's a great passage but the librarian puts the emphases on all the wrong words, which is ironic for a book by a rapper.7.52pm / 12.52am: Jay-Z says he liked the way the librarian said "bounced." He seems so nice I don't even think he's being sarcastic. I would have meant it sarcastically, though.7.54pm / 12.54am: He says his parents liked all kinds of music so he "doesn't have those prejudices about different types of music" (take that, Gallagher.) He says he likes "anything from Thom Yorke to Ol' Dirty Bastard". "You will lose me at times," says the librarian, the whitest man in the world. Librarian says he grew up listening to different versions of The Magic Flute. "You will lose me at times," says Jay-Z.7.57pm / 12.57am: Cornel West talking about a conversation he had at Princeton with Jay-Z and Toni Morrison and Jay-Z said, "I'd been playing Plato to Biggie's Socrates". The whole room sighs appreciatively.7.59pm / 12.59am: Cornel West's question – which seems to be – "what are you up to now, Jay-Z?" has taken him about 7mins to ask.8.01pm / 1.01am: Jay-Z's answer: "Pushing the culture forward. That's more important than having 11 number one albums, though that's fun".8.03pm / 1.03am: Jay-Z gives a shout out to Belafonte, saying he had a photo of Coretta Scott King on his wall when he was a kid and Belafonte was in the background and this taught him that musicians could have a greater responsibility and part to play in the world. Belafonte takes a bow.8.04pm / 1.04am: Librarian tells Jay-Z he is like Ezra Pound because he criticises his lyrics in his book "in a Talmudic way." To Jay-Z's enormous credit, he does not laugh. Unlike me. He is definitely a nicer person than me.8.05pm / 1.05am: After the librarian's 10minute rant, Jay-Z says a simple "Thank you." This got a deservedly big laugh.8.07pm / 1.07am: Jay-Z says he wanted to give his "stories context. It was very important to have this conversation. Oprah Winfrey was a very important part about why I wrote this book." Apparently he and Oprah had "a conversation about the N word, but we came away from the table thinking we had more in common than we thought". I'm guessing Oprah is not a fan of "the N word."8.09pm / 1.09am: He also wanted to talk to people who "memorise the lyrics but don't know what they mean, and to people who think that rap is all about bitches and hos." The librarian says, "I must say, reading your book expanded my vocabulary."Cornel is now criticising Oprah, mainly because she liked the film Precious.8.10pm / 1.10am: The librarian keeps interrupting Jay-Z. It's really annoying.8.16pm / 1.16am: Jay-Z is talking about the verse in 99 Problems when the officer pulls over a car and about how this was about racial profiling as opposed to being about women. In that verse the "bitch" wasn't a woman but was the canine unit that turned up too late to cause him problems. Not sure if that argument would convince Oprah to put it on her iPod, mind.8.18pm / 1.18am: Dr West's approach to asking questions is to rephrase the same question in about thirty different ways before shutting up. "What is the connection between the hustler and the freedom fighter and the relation between freedom
fighting and hustling and" etc etc. Jay-Z's answer is that "the difference is the level of maturity." Which is a much better answer than the reiterated question deserved.8.22pm / 1.22am: Jay-Z talking about how he invited his mother to the studio in her booth without telling her he wanted to record her for the intro for December 4th because he thought she'd be nervous. "But once she got in there, we couldn't stop her. She told some stories that we had to cut out." Nope, he won't tell those stories.8.24pm / 1.24am: Lots of Jay-Z's childhood friends and cousins appear to be in the audience and he points them out from time to time. It's rather touching.8.27pm / 1.27am: Librarian reading out from the book again, after interrupting Jay-Z, again. His increasingly hyper reading suggests that this librarian needs to reduce his caffeine intake. He also needs to let Jay-Z speak, for gawd's sake.8.28pm / 1.28am: Jay-Z: "Words saved me. We enjoyed the records we had – Jackson 5, Curtis Mayfield – but they weren't speaking our language. Rap told our stories in a way that made things new. And I was mesmerised."8.30pm / 1.30am: Cornel gives a shout out to Lupe Fiasco, as well as to "Kanye and the other folk". Kanye does not seem to be here, presumably because he couldn't walk to the library because his foot is permanently stuck in his mouth.8.33pm / 1.33am: Jay-Z says his role is "to expand the genre, explain it as poetry because it is poetry". He particularly cites Lupe, saying he's "extraordinary". Young artists "shouldn't be afraid of using their own voice" and not to copy something else just because it's popular. I'm guessing he is not a fan of Pixie Lott.8.35pm / 1.35am: He says he was lucky that his first album didn't come out until he was 26 so he had already a lifetime of experiences to draw on and had the maturity to know what he wanted to say and how to say it. See earlier reference to expectations about Jay-Z's feelings about Pixie Lott.8.36pm / 1.36am: The librarian is now telling us his life story. It's lasting about 118 hours. Even Jay-Z looks embarrassed.8.37pm / 1.37am: For a librarian, this man sure talks a lot. Jeezus.8.39pm / 1.39am: Jay-Z is talking about his first notebook in which he used to write lyrics and - oh, yes, the librarian has interrupted him again.8.41.pm / 1.41am: Jay-Z says, "Big Pimpin' is not profound at all. But it is fun." So not ashamed anymore, I guess.8.41pm / 1.41am: Librarian asks, "Were you surprised by any of your lyrics when you were writing Decoded?". Uh, no, is Jay-Z's answer.8.44pm / 1.44am: Both the librarian and Cornel have the same approach to asking questions: bang on for hours about some theory they have about Jay-Z's music, and not actually ask a question. You usually see this technique in questions from the audience, rarely from the moderators. Jay-Z seems to mind this less from Cornel than the librarian, who he doesn't look at so much.8.47pm / 1.47am: Cornel now onto religion and how the death of Biggie "unsettled" Jay-Z's faith. Jay-Z says he does believe in God and that everything happens for a reason "but you have to question everything about life".
"Do you still hold onto your religious faith?" Cornel pursues. "I believe in God and that all religions pray to the same God." "Do you think the people in the Ku Klux Klan pray to the same God as us?" asks Cornel, somewhat randomly. "Uh, yes," says Jay-Z.
8.48pm / 1.48am: Jay-Z says he spoke to Biggie the night he died and he was so happy being back in LA and "that everything is great. One hour later, he was gone."8.51pm / 1.51am: Jay-Z: "Everyone always wants you to make your first album 11 times. But you have to move forward." He says this is what On To the Next One on his last album was about.8.53pm / 1.53am: Jay-Z now telling about how much he related to the Annie story, in reference to the earlier mentioned Hard Knock Life. "Annie affected my life," says Jay-Z.8.59pm / 1.59am: They're playing some Lauryn Hill now. The whole room bobs their heads in time, including Jay-Z, Cornel and, yes, the librarian.9.02pm / 2.02am: Jay-Z: "it's not enough to have talent, you have to have control", something he definitely has managed.9.05pm / 2.05am: Jay-Z talking about how rappers like Scarface and Lauryn Hill inspired him to talk honestly about his life in songs. Cornel now banging on about love. Or something. It's kinda hard to tell, despite his expressive hand gestures and, in particular, eyebrows.9.07pm / 2.07am: Jay-Z saying Mohammad Ali is one of his heroes because he said "I'm pretty" at a time when black people were not considered pretty.9.08pm / 2.08am: Cornel and Jay-Z talking about ghettos and crack. Librarian, wisely, is staying out of this conversation.Oh, spoke to soon. Librarian butts on in, with an unformed question about
Jay-Z's mother.
National League for democracy (NLD), the size of the Ribbon displays the Rangoon headquarters, four days remaining, their leader Aung San Suu Kyi (right) version of the calculation. hopefull Photo: EPAElection day has come and gone. Great Britain Embassy staff than other diplomatic missions in Burma, colleagues, fanned Rangoon and other major population centres here to see how things turn.
Sunday's events for the full image may take a few days to come. We have been working to try to get a sense of belonging, in the light of developments in key areas of the country, in particular ethnic, but Burma's size, because the remoter parts of the phones internal telecommunications problems and many of these regions as a result of their remoteness, it is some time before you can talk about confidence with certainty what happened to the nationwide.
But Rangoon, feedback to us on the first hand experience of the sources and was relatively consistent. The atmosphere was calm – just like a regular Sunday here. Low-key seems about the whole thing was.This was the first national elections in 20 years in the country around 50-60 million people. [1] [2] But has been nothing rejoicing scenes or other landmark elections saw a lot of optimism in recent memory-long queues at the dawn of the elector before, South Africa, in other words, under the auspices of the world, or after the elections in the fall of communism in Eastern Europe.
And that would be taken into account in the flat, I do not know the campaign that had gone before. What a little promotional activities should have been from the beginning of the elections undermined the eas laws which strictly limited to the activities of the opposition parties which decided the best known opposition party, for all but the NLD, impossible to run, and made the participation.
For these reasons, it is not in a hurry to get around the block in the queues, not votes on Sunday morning.I thought that I have found a sense of mechanically going to looking through the who trusts that the result was in advance with the motions of the people.
Query drives closed at 4 pm. Authorities had said that if the voters were still waiting to vote, drives stay open until everything was voted.On the basis of What we saw, would not be required to do so – almost all of which was going to vote appeared to shall be adopted in accordance with the lunchtime or soon after.
No reliable evidence of voter turnout – yet, our figures from different sources are listed in the varied from 35% to 75%, and in the absence of any previous official. [1] [2] the figures in the reliability is not, we can never really know.
Authorities were clearly eager to get people to vote – official cars were Patrolling the city, a number of areas, through the people to vote for the speakers, exhorting.
We have the session in some reports of irregularities in the vote.For more information about the impression should again emerge in the coming days, where we have the opportunity to the detailed discussions with the parties and candidates, But the day before the election. [1] [2], in particular developed sounds, which were within the Coordination Committee with a view, inter alia, the Government and military personnel, including their bosses was certainly ample anecdotal evidence of irregularities.Some conclude that has been implemented for the most part, the "appropriate measures" to ensure "right before the election result".
The results for Yourself, we have been told to wait for the first informal indications quite rapidly in other results more gradually as completed, the amount of the more remote areas.
My sense is that we should have a clear picture of the week, and quite possibly before the end of the year.
So what happens next?, attention to now focus on the results as they emerge, and next Saturday and Aung San Suu Kyi release possible.
I drove past the NLD HQ to my travel around Rangoon election day Had two great day. posters outside of Aung San Suu Kyi and the banner is to say, "only five days to go" – If you want to refer to his scheduled release date 13 day. Some voters, this may have been sparked in the mind of the nostalgia of elections in 20 years, then that produced, as well as its overall result NLD landslide scale one of the most astonishing are the modern history of the elections.
Sunday's election will not be able to produce anything such as seismic shock. is mathematically impossible to resist to win a majority of the national Parliament, but the next weekend events – in particular, whether the arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi released, and if so, whether he is shackled conditions – may well have a decisive effect on the events during the next 20 years, the military regime in Burma.
November 26th, 2010 by Peter
As I’m sure you already know, WordPress is a fantastic free, open source, self-hosted blogging tool and publishing platform that is used on millions of websites worldwide and is backed by a large, active community that provide thousands of tutorials, themes and plug-ins.
WordPress is truly a powerful tool for users from all backgrounds and abilities. Once you’ve downloaded WordPress and spent time finding a relevant theme (or even creating a custom theme for your site), what do you do next?
Once you login to WordPress, you’re presented with an admin panel with quite a lot of options which can be pretty confusing and daunting, especially if you’re new to WordPress.
I think one of the most fundamental checks/changes to make is to ensure you’re not blocking robots from visiting your website (unless ofcourse you have set this for a reason). It’s pretty easy to make this mistake especially since it’s a simple checkbox during the setup. To check that you’re not blocking robots, go to the “Settings” section of the left menu and then click on “Privacy”. You’ll then be presented with two radio buttons. Ensure the radio button is selected on the following:
Another major change to make once you’ve installed WordPress is to do with the permalink structure. What is a permalink? Well, a permalink is the “permanent URL” to your posts, categories and other pages within the WordPress installation. The default’s set “Ugly”, for example – http://example.com?p=2. With the permalink section, you’re able to convert the URL’s to “Pretty URL’s” such as http://example.com/category/post-name/
On the majority of WordPress installations, I change the permalink structure to a custom structure of “/%category%/%postname%.html”.
This will change the URL’s to be something along the lines of http://example.com/category/post-name.html
The importance of changing the permalink structure will be detailed within a future post.
Once you’ve made and checked the above two points, the rest of the options from the WordPress admin are pretty much configurable at your choice such as defining which day the new week should start.
Once you’ve changed all the initial settings for your WordPress setup, you should look to improve your WordPress site further. As mentioned above, WordPress has a large active community that provide thousands of plug-ins (both free and paid). It can be confusing at first to find which plug-ins you need to install for your site. Before I knew about SEO, I’d search the WordPress plug-in directory for hours on end, looking for plug-ins to extend and expand my site. I could have spent the time writing content for the site instead but I had no real clue as to which plug-ins would truly benefit my site.
WordPress now has a built in function which allows you to search and automatically install plug-ins that are within the WordPress plug-in directory (but ofcourse, you can also upload a plug-in manually if you wish). Simply go to the Plug-ins section and then click on “Add New”.
I think perhaps one of the most essential plug-ins to install is the all in one SEO pack.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/
The all in one SEO pack is useful in many different ways. To mention just a few features, it allows you to add a canonicalization tag to every page, generate meta tags automatically and allows you to add robot tags to specific pages (for example, adding a noindex,follow tag to the tag pages). View the above link for a full list of features. Once you’ve installed the All in One SEO pack and activated the plug-in, go to the settings page as there are a few options you need to change. Firstly, enter the homepage meta into the appropriate fields. Next, tick “Use noindex for Archives”. Depending on your circumstances, the rest of the options should already be set.
It’s also a good idea to install the Google XML Sitemap, this allows you to create a dynamic sitemap which is updateable at the click of a button.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-sitemap-generator/
From an SEO point of view, that’s pretty much all you need in terms of plugins. There are quite a few social media plug-ins that I like to install where possible. “SexyBookmarks” is a great plug-in that allows you to add selected social network buttons to your post pages. There’s almost 100 to choose from with quite a few options (of which you most likely won’t need to change) “WP to Twitter” is another plug-in I like to install, it basically allows you to update twitter automatically when you create a new post.
There are thousands of articles created by the WordPress community which will assist you in learning WordPress within more depth. I think perhaps the best way to learn is by simply playing with the platform and get familiar with it.
This entry was posted on Friday, November 26th, 2010 at 10:09 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed.If you want to link to this blog, copy and paste the following HTML code to your website.
November 25th, 2010 by steve
Social Media now plays an integral role for businesses online. Websites such as Facebook and Twitter are becoming increasingly important for those businesses which are trying to gain attention, build respect for their companies and develop their brands within the online community.
Business owners using social media often become focused on the concept of encorporating social media into their marketing mix without any objectives. However, what many of these site owners don’t consider is that social media can be utilised across all aspects of the business. For example; customer service, HR, sales, PR, research & development, customer support.
It is important that when considering social media that you define your objectives and what you want to achieve. An initial aim maybe to increase the amount of followers or friends you have. However what you need to consider is, why do you want more followers? Is it to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside OR provide them with excellent insights, listen and engage? As Seth Godin advises you need to ‘Be Remarkable’. Remarkable means ‘Worth making a remark about’. The idea is that if you provide remarkable information, content or service that people will comment, talk about you and share your idea.
Social media is a phenomenal tool. From small businesses to large corporations, social media plays an important part. A lot of online consumers now like to share their opinions and feedback with others and social media provides the perfect environment for this. If you provide excellent service to your customers or clients social media will more than reward you for it. However if a user notices your profile and remembers their issue with your company, they may well begin monitoring the information you give and how you behave, waiting for an opportunity to share their experience. So you also have to be prepared for negative content contributed by others.
Social Media Monitoring is essential for any company. If you can discover conversations happening about your company you are able to steer them the way you want them. You can thank people for their kind words or rectify negative experiences. These conversations will happen and are happening, so monitoring them is more than essential for your business.
If you want to link to this blog, copy and paste the following HTML code to your website.
Parameter name: request
Translate Request has too much data
Parameter name: request
Prince William and his fiancee Kate Middleton pose for a photograph in St. James's Palace. Prince William is to marry his long-term girlfriend Kate Middleton next year Photograph: Suzanne Plunkett/REUTERS 11.17am: It's official. There is to be a royal wedding next summer. Clarence House has today confirmed that Prince William and Kate Middleton are to marry. Here's the full statement:
The Prince of Wales is delighted to announce the engagement of Prince William to Miss Catherine Middleton.
The wedding will take place in the Spring or Summer of 2011, in London. Further details about the wedding day will be announced in due course.
Prince William and Miss Middleton became engaged in October during a private holiday in Kenya. Prince William has informed The Queen and other close members of his family. Prince William has also sought the permission of Miss Middleton's father.
Following the marriage, the couple will live in north Wales, where Prince William will continue to serve with the Royal Air Force.
I'm sure you will all want to rejoice at the news in the comments section below. The moderators have been warned.
Before you all wade in with what will no doubt be robust views on whether we shoud live blog this announcement and its aftermath, the prospect of the wedding does raise some important questions:
• The wedding is likely to be a key test of feelings towards the monarchy since the last big royal wedding in 1981. How much has republican sentiment increased since then?
• Will the wedding itself change public opinion towards the royal family – positively or negatively?
• In the age of austerity and cutbacks who is going to pay for it and how much will it cost? Will it be an austerity wedding?
Delighted for Prince William and Kate Middleton on their engagement. The whole country will be wishing them every happiness.
He won't be the last.
11.49am: What will she wear? The Mail on Sunday has been researching this key question for some time.It reports that her favourite designer is Daniella Issa Helayel. It quotes a friend: "She loves Issa's look and wears it well. Kate knows she's going to need conservative yet attractive outfits once they are engaged and she's started collecting a very enviable wardrobe."
Speaking to PA Peta Hunt, fashion director at You & Your Wedding magazine, has this crucial insight:
11.55am: Reams of pre-written copy is spewing out of PA, such as thisI can't see it will be covered in Swarovski crystals. I think it will be hand embroidered and I think with lace."
She must have some sort of crown or tiara. I would imagine shoulders would be covered at some stage. I think a high neck would look fantastic. It's quite refined and could be quite stylish.
12.00pm: Republicans are already complaining about the likely cost.
He reportedly calls her "Babykins", while he is apparently her "Big Willie".
Here's Graham Smith, spokesman for Republic:
I'm sure this is very happy news for those who know the couple, but it is a private matter and we mustn't see the government wasting limited resources paying for a major set-piece event.
William is not the head of state, there is no guarantee he will ever be head of state. This is a private occasion which I'm sure the palace will want to milk for maximum PR effect. It is not for the taxpayer to pay for any part of this event, the Windsors must cough up."
Inevitably there will be additional security arrangements for the wedding, but that must be paid for by the Windsor family from their own personal fortunes, not by taxpayers who are experiencing sweeping spending cuts.
If people are being told to tighten their belts, if the government is making thousands unemployed, if welfare payments are being slashed, it would be sickening for the government to allow a single penny more to be spent on the royals at this time.
Spending public money on this wedding or affording it any special status would be no more appropriate than if it were Ed Miliband's wedding. This is a private occasion.
We are certain the palace spin doctors will be working overtime to use this opportunity to their advantage. Republic today makes this pledge to do all it can to counter that PR campaign and continue to push the case for a modern and democratic institution in place of the monarchy.
That reads like something Republic made earlier. It is not just royal correspondents who have pre-written material on this.
12.08pm: A good day to bury bad/awkward news? According to Mirror's James Lyons David Cameron was told about the engagement, just before Downing Street announced that it would not be putting the PM's official photographer on the public payroll after all.
12.19pm: Royal wedding tat update, from my colleague Helen Pidd:12.24pm: Get yourself a good pre-nup, Patrick Jephson, Princess Diana's former private secretary, advises Kate Middleton. He told PA:Just spoke a woman from Asda, who confirmed the supermarket is planning to flog as much memorabilia as possible - "because we all love a royal wedding, don't we?".
She said Asda had already bought aline of Will n Kate mugs, and was unlikely to stop there. The supermarket has form when it comes to churning out Royal tat: in 2005, it sold a £19 replica of Camilla's engagement ring.
12.29pm: The Clarence House Twitter stream is a bit slow off the mark but it got there three minutes ago.There will be a tidal wave of sentimental slush, but you've got be practical. If she was my sister, I'd tell her to get a good pre-nup."
This is no ordinary marriage and the last decade has had these terrible divorces.
The Prince of Wales is delighted to announce the engagement of Prince William to Miss Catherine Middleton.
Elsewhere on Twitter there appears to be an I'm Spartacus campaign to announce plans to blow up Buckingham Palace, in solidarity with the man convicted of threatening to blow up an airport in a joke on the network.
12.37pm: Will the government's happiness index be ready in time for the wedding? And if it is, will the royal wedding boost public morale or send us all into a tailspin of revulsion?12.42pm: "It's great to have a bit of unadulterated good news," said David Cameron at a press conference on Downing Street.It will be great day of national celebration, he said and told Prince William so in a phone call.
Cameron also revealed that as a boy he had slept on the side of the Mall waiting to see the Charles and Di wedding in 1981. Really?
12.48pm: Wills n' Kate, as they're known, are going to do photocall at St James Palace, at 4.45pm.Don't expect any reruns of those "whatever-love-means" comments made by Prince Charles.
1.01pm: Kate Middleton is the first commoner to marry an heir presumptive to the throne in more than 350 years, writes Stephen Bates.Among Middleton's ancestors are Northumbrian miners and Kent builders' labourers. Her mother, Carole, was formerly a British Airways flight attendant – hence the snobbish jibes of some royal hangers-on about "doors to manual" – and her father, Michael, also once worked for BA as a dispatcher, making sure flights left on time and with the correct cargo. The couple met while working for BA and started their married life in a flat in Slough, just across the river from the future in-laws.
But she is still pretty posh:
At Marlborough public school in Wiltshire, she became captain of the hockey club and gained a reputation for quiet seriousness, unlike some of her contemporaries. As Jessica Hays, one of her schoolfriends, told the News of the World wonderingly: "I never once saw her drunk. Even after our GCSEs finished, she only drank a couple of glugs of vodka."
Tom Bradby of ITV 1.10pm: ITN's Tom Bradby, an old friend of William's has secured the first interview. It will be broadcast this afternoon, Clarence House has announced.Its head of press Miguel Head has also issued a mildly threatening warning to the media about the privacy of the happy couple:
We have a very good working relationship with all of you, but, if I may, I would also like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that the Middleton family remain private individuals. Particularly, may we ask you to remind your picture desks about PCC rules concerning the use of photographs that may have been taken following harassment or a breach of privacy. If you have any concerns about a photo, please refer your concerns to the PCC or to the Clarence House press office. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.
1.19pm: Alan Sugar, no less, thinks it's good day to bury bad news. He's been tweeting about little else in the last hour or so.1.24pm: Hold the front page, Majesty magazine has been forced into a hasty redesign of its latest issue, according to Helen Pidd.Today any celeb or football player should let out the scandal story they have been hiding. No chance it will be picked up with this news.
max clifford must be caling all his clients now telling them to spill the beans today so that the story will be old
1.28pm: Ladbrokes is offering odds of 1000-1 that Royal Wedding will take place in Vegas.Majesty, which "gives its readers a colourful insight into the privileged lives of the royal families of the world", has had to make an eleventh hour change to its December
edition. The Queen was due to be the festive cover girl, but has been bumped for a shot of the happy couple, managing editor Joe Little told me.
The favourite locations with Ladbrokes is Westminister Abbey at 11-8. St Paul's is second favourite at evens.
The smart money is going on St Paul's according to William Hill. "Since the announcement we have only seen money for St Paul's, which would suggest that that is the most likely venue," said Hill's spokesman Rupert Adams.
1.42pm: The Daily Mail won't like this. During the Pope's visit it was outraged that Labour activist and wife of the speaker Sally Bercow was sending out cheeky tweets about his holiness. Bercow has been in similarly irreverent form about today announcement.When the prime minister said he had slept on the Mall the night before the Royal wedding she tweeted: "fancy admitting that".
She later quipped: Take heart all worried London housing benefit claimants - David Cameron slept rough on the Mall once.
1.50pm: William and Kate are following a familiar pattern for former students of St Andrews University.A spokeswoman for the university said: "St Andrews is a special place – one in ten of our students meet their future partner here, and our title as Britain's top match-making university signifies so much that is good about this community."
Scotland's first minister Alex Salmond has also got in on the St Andrews angle.
"Of course this was a match made in St Andrews, and everyone in Scotland will join with me in wishing the Prince and Ms Middleton every happiness as they look forward to their wedding day, and a long and fulfilling married life together."
So much for his radical credentials.
2.02pm: There's much more on suspicions of burying bad news on Andy Sparrow's politics live blog. Number 10 insists that it did not hear about the engagement before slipping out that announcement about Cameron's vanity staff.2.11pm: London mayor Boris Johnson is offering city hall as possible "cut price" venue"If they want a cut-price deal with a central London venue with a view of London landmarks, the ideal place would be City Hall," he is quoted as saying in Docklands 24.
2.16pm: Aynsely China has sent us some images of wedding tat. Including this plate.Royal wedding thimbles are also available on eBay for £2.
Photograph: Rex Features 2.31pm:Prince Charles has issued a characteristically curmudgeonly response.
Speaking at his Poundbury model village in Dorset, he said: "thrilled, obviously, thank you. They have been practising long enough".
2.43pm: Charles hasn't changed much in 30 years, but what about the rest of us?
2.50pm: It's going to bring the world to a standstill, according to the Daily Mail. (I can hardly wait. But right now I've got to pick my kids up from school. Thanks for all your comments. My colleague Mark Tran is itching to take over.)
3.04pm:Thank you Matt, who can't wait to liveblog the event in all its world-stopping glory next year. Talking of tat, a quick scan of eBay shows you can pick up "Orig Press Photo Kate Middleton Princess Diana William" for $10. Will we see a run on such items in the days, weeks, months to come.3.13pm:
In case William and Kate need an astrologer, one Russell Grant is offering his services. His energetic PR has sent out this email forwarded by my colleague Leo Hickman. It says:
3.19pm:Russell Grant is currently available for compatibility readings and forecasts on the best date for the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, officially announced today. Russell was part of the BBC teams for the royal weddings of both Prince Charles and Prince Andrew, where he gave accurate predictions on the compatibility of both couples. Russell went on to become a close confidante of Princess Diana, becoming unofficially known as the 'Astrologer Royal' in the process. Former butler Paul Burrell said of Russell: "The only one (astrologer or psychic) she ever trusted was Russell Grant.
More on the dress.
Elizabeth Emanuel, who designed the wedding dress for Diana complete with a 25ft train, 10,000 pearls and sequins, ivory silk, pure taffeta and lace, thinks Kate will wear a very different kind of dress. She tells PA:
I would imagine it would be very different to what Princess Diana wore because fashion changes so much. I think that what the bride will wear will be the big question that everyone will be asking. She has a great sense of style. A royal wedding is always fabulous. It's brilliant, isn't it? It's absolutely wonderful.
Meanwhile the British Fashion Council is hinting not so subtly that Kate should stick to British design: "We have the best emerging designers in the world here in the UK and the designer that she enlists to make her wedding dress will have a once in a life time opportunity to have their work seen by millions of people across the globe."
3.29pm: My colleague Helen Pidd says the wax modelers at Madame Tussauds had better get a move on as they currently don't have a Kate Middleton figure. A spokesman told Helen, however that one is on the way. "We definitely plan to make one to go in the attraction after their marriage. We will be seeking a sitting with her in the near future." The Royals currently in London's Tussauds are Charles, Camilla, Harry, William, the Queen and Prince Phillip.3.36pm:
The tourist authorities are salivating at the prospect of thousands - maybe millions even - of visitors descending upon Britain for the wedding of the century - yes we can do hyperboles too. Sandie Dawe, chief executive of VisitBritain, claims it will bring in lots of dosh. In a typical year, she claims, "the places, events and history associated with the monarchy generate well over £500m in revenue for the British tourism industry".3.40pm:
Will there be a poem from poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, to mark the occasion? My colleague James Meikle reminds me that Andrew Motion wrote Spring Wedding when Charles and Diana got hitched.3.42pm:
First reaction from Kate Middleton's parents. They are "absolutely delighted" and "thrilled". No Charles-like gracelessness there.3.53pm:
The US press has swung into action. It's top story on People magazine and it's on the New York Times website, where its London correspondent, Sarah Lyall, writes in a chunky piece:
Interested parties can now focus on a new set of pressing issues: Who will design Kate's wedding dress? How massive will her engagement ring be? Who will be Prince Harry's date at the wedding? And, should Miss Middleton become queen – an event that would not take place until the death of both the current queen and the future king, Prince Charles -- will everyone call her "Queen Kate?" (Her name is actually Catherine.)
Surprisingly, nothing on the New York Post website yet.
3.59pm:Here's the full statement from Kate's parents as read out by Michael Middleton outside their home near the Berkshire village of Bucklebury.
.4.03pm:I would just like to say that Carole and I are absolutely delighted by today's announcement and thrilled at the prospect of a wedding some time next year. As you know Catherine and Prince William have been going out together for quite a number of years which has been great for us because we have got to know William very well. We all think he is wonderful and we are extremely fond of him. They make a lovely couple, they are great fun to be with, and we've had a lot of laughs together. We wish them every happiness for the future.
Here's that remade front page of Majesty4.09pm:
Diana's brother, Earl Spencer, who made that emotionally-charged speech at Diana's funeral at Westminster abbey, has added his congratulations. "It's wonderful news. Very exciting. My family are all thrilled for them both," he said.
The couple will give their first interview to ITV News's political editor Tom Bradby, an old friend of the prince, which will be broadcast at 7pm. They are due to appear before photographers at St James's Palace at 4.45pm. Expect lots of shots of the ring.
4.28pm: How should republicans react to next year's bash. Here's what my wise colleague Michael White suggests:
4.33pm:Republicans should see the royal wedding – the cost, the extravagance, the fawning – as an opportunity to expose the monarchical tinsel for the sham they believe it is. But snarling would be the wrong tone to adopt; not usually an effective educational tool. Good-natured laughter is better, but most of the ardent republicans I know tend not to see it as a laughing matter. Best to lie low and let it all wash over the event would be my unheroic advice, which I am confident will be ignored, thereby probably helping to boost monarchical sentiment.
Who's winning the early media skirmishes? John Plunkett at Media Guardian gives the nod to ITN.
4.38pm:First blood – if that's not an entirely inappropriate phrase – goes to ITV News political editor Tom Bradby, who has bagged the first interview with the couple. It probably helped that he is an "old friend" of the prince. David Dimbleby remains the BBC's go-to man for this sort of thing, and at the risk of hastening his retirement – the very thought – a royal wedding would be quite a way for the Question Time presenter to sign off.
Tom Bradby tweets that William has given Kate his mother's engagement ring.4.47pm:
A quick search on Google yields these factoids on that ring. An oval blue sapphire ring from Garrard jewellers, it weighed in at an "astounding 18 carats", surrounded by 14 small diamonds in an "elegant cluster setting". At the time it cost £28,000.4.53pm:
More reaction from the politicos. Nick Clegg, the leader of the Lib Dems, says "everyone will be united in delight and joy. On the British monarchy Facebook site, 4,928 "like" the announcement and counting.4.58pm:
The cameras are popping like mad as the couple walk down the red carpet. Kate in a blue dress is wearing that sapphire ring. The photographers have been told to calm down the flashes. She is asked how William proposed. She goes "Aah, he's a true romantic." She is very poised and composed.5.00pm:
The timing is right now, says William when asked why it took him so long. He says about the ring that it's very special and Kate is special too. it's my way of making sure my mother didn't miss out on today. Asked why they love each other, he says we have a fun time together. She's down to earth. She says he's very loving and very supportive in good times and bad times.5.08pm:
Pretty assured performance from Kate Middleton on what must have been a daunting outing before the world's media. She came across as someone more at ease before the press than Diana when she made her first apperances before the press, but then they have had eight years to prepare for this day.
The Queen held a reception this afternoon at Windsor Castle for leaders of British overseas territories including Bermuda, Montserrat and the Falklands Islands. One of the guests congratulated her on William and Kate's engagement, to which she replied: "It is brilliant news. It has taken them a very long time."
5.23pm:Now that they have appeared before photographers for the pictures that will be on all the front pages tomorrow, this seems an appropriate moment to end the live blog. Thank you for your many, many comments and here's a recap of the main points.
• Prince William and Kate Middleton are to marry next year. No date set yet.
• He gave her his mother's sapphire engagement ring
• Asked why now after an eight-year on-off relationship, William said: "The timing is right now, we are both very, very happy."
• Kate said: "Hopefully I'll take it in my stride."
• The Queen said: "It is brilliant news. It has taken them a very long time."
• The prince asked Kate to marry him during a private holiday in Kenya last month
The formatter threw an exception while trying to deserialize the message: Error in deserializing body of request message for operation 'Translate'. The maximum string content length quota (30720) has been exceeded while reading XML data. This quota may be increased by changing the MaxStringContentLength property on the XmlDictionaryReaderQuotas object used when creating the XML reader. Line 1, position 33133.
Presenter John Humphrys (second L) in the studio of the The Today programme at the BBC. Photograph: Graeme Robertson 
7am: It's 7am on Friday 5th November. Good morning. This is Today for one day only with Simon Jeffery and Lucy Mangan.In the absence of the BBC's own Today programme we'll be with you on this live blog from 7am until 9am unless ...
... unless well, that thing is true about the nuclear submarine commanders getting orders to assume that in the absence of the Today programme Great Britain is no more and the only recourse is to unleash nuclear armageddon. If so, we hope we get two or three minutes warning. If it comes to that, seriously now people, quit reading this live blog and call people you love. In the end, love is all we have.
But while we'll all still here and unvapourised - and seeing as the submarines appear to have been ok with Today's first missing hour from 6-7am, it's looking good so far - here are the headlines this morning.
• Thousands of BBC journalists are on strike this morning in a dispute over pensions which has caused chaos to radio and television schedules. Radio 4's Today programme is off air and flagship TV news bulletins including Newsnight and BBC Breakfast will be affected. The National Union of Journalists general secretary Jeremy Dear said "NUJ members across the BBC have consistently dubbed the proposals 'a pensions robbery'. That hasn't changed. The BBC have now left members with no choice but to take action to defend their pensions."
Dan Sabbagh is our media editor and we'll have more from him later.
• At least 49 people have been killed in the latest eruption of the Mount Merapi volcano in Indonesia. Almost 100 people are now said to have been killed in the disaster and hundreds are still fleeing from their homes.
• A plane has crashed in Cuba killing all 68 people on board. The Aero-Caribbean aircraft crashed as it was flying from the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba to the capital Havana, according to state media
• The CEO of Qantas has announced in a press conference in Sydney that there was a possible fault in the engine of the Airbus 380 which had engine failure yesterday
• and Michael Jackson's posthumous album will be released on December 14. Entitled, Michael, it is not yet clear which material it will contain
7.14am: It's now 14 minutes past seven. China is, as we all know, the world's emerging powerhouse, which means that relations between the UK and China are more important than ever. But it's not always an easy one. To help improve it, David Cameron is leading the largest ever delegation to China next week.Tania Branigan is our correspondent in Beijing. Tania.
2010 saw a rocky start to relations between Britain and China, as Beijing cancelled a human rights dialogue following London's protests over the execution of Akhmal Shaikh, the Briton executed for drug smuggling despite strong evidence of serious mental illness.
But both sides hope it will end rather better: David Cameron will arrive here on Tuesday with the largest ever British delegation. George Osborne, Vince Cable, Michael Gove and Chris Huhne will round out the team, along with around 50 business people. The focus is on partnership and that word beloved of China's leadership – harmony.
Good relations are more important than ever for Britain given the tough economic outlook. While China's growth may have slowed – in part because the leadership sought to rein it in - it remains the envy of all other major economies. But London believes it has something to offer Beijing too: its commitment to open markets makes it a useful partner as the spectre of protectionism looms.
Human rights will still play a small part; Cameron will reportedly raise the case of Nobel peace prize winner Liu Xiaobo, jailed for co-authoring a call for democratic reforms. China says he is a criminal and has reportedly pressed European governments to shun the award ceremony and avoid statements of support.
But the British will hope that has minimal impact on the first prime ministerial visit for almost three years, and – from an economic point of view – arguably the most important for a long time.
7.19am: It's 19 minutes past seven. You are reading Today for one day only and coming up in the next half hour we have Michael White's paper review, Polly Toynbee's Thought for the Day and the sport.7.25am: Twenty five minutes past seven. Over to Graeme Wearden on our business desk.7.28am: It's now 28 minutes past seven. You're reading Today for one day only.
Its a busy morning in the City, where the Royal Bank of Scotland, have just reported financial results for the third quarter of 2010. RBS, which is 84% owned by the taxpayer, made a pre-tax loss of £1.38bn between July and September - mainly due to the way it values its own debt and pays for the government guarantee of its bad loans through the asset protection scheme.
Stephen Hester, the chief executive, would rather the City ignored those elements and focused on a £726m operating profit for the third quarter. In his words "accounting treatment of some balance sheet items is volatile and can sometimes obscure our underlying story".
The bank has quantified the tax it will have to pay for George Osborne's bank levy for the first time - £225m-£250m in 2011, rising to approximately £350-£400m in 2012. The investment bank, which always faces controversy because of the bonuses that it pays out,
suffered a 20% fall in revenues in the third quarter but only a 3% fall in "expenses" suggesting that the bonus pool is still mounting.Another UK high street bank, HSBC, is due to announce its third-quarter results at 8.15am.
• We're also had results from Rentokil this morning, which warned of tough trading conditions - especially for its City Link parcel delivery arm.
• There's better news from Carphone Warehouse, though,
which has announced it will start paying a dividend to shareholders.• City traders believe that shares are likely to keep rising in London today, with stockmarkets across Asia already enjoying a good day - Japan's Nikkei gained 3% at one stage. IG Index has predicted that the FTSE 100 will jump by 26 points to 5889 when trading begins at 8am - which would be its highest level since June 2008. There is still a
sense of optimism following the $600bn quantitive easing package announced by the US Federal Reserve on Wednesday night. QE2, as it's been dubbed, has weakened the US currency. Sterling is still hovering around a nine-month high against the dollar, trading at
$1.6222 this morning.• Later today we'll also get a fresh snapshot of the situation in America's troubled employment market. The non-farm payroll, due at 12.30pm GMT, is expected to show that 60,000 new jobs were created in October across America. Sounds good on paper, but economists warn that it's only half the number needed just to keep the unemployment rate
steady.
Here is Michael White and Paul MacInnes with the paper review.
If you move the computer nearer the bathroom, you can maybe listen to this one in the shower.
7.45am: It's quarter to eight and here is Sean Ingle with the sport. Sean.7.48am: It's now 12 minutes to eight and its time for Thought for the Day. The writer is Polly Toynbee.
Good morning Simon. Although it's hardly a pleasant one for Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini, whose side lost 3-1 away at Lech Poznan in Poland last night.
That's City's third successive defeat on the bounce and the usually sauve Mancini seems to be feeling the pressure, telling reporters afterwards: "At the moment everything is against us."
Lech Poznan's Artjoms Rudnevs challenges for the ball against Manchester City's Dedryck Boyata. Photograph: Kacper Pempel/Reuters
Mancini also seemed at a loss to explain how Poznan won, claiming: "They had nothing we did not. We had more chances than Poznan to score. It's better that these things happen now that we are still first in this group and fourth in the Premier League. We have 20 good players and we can change this but only if we stay together."
Come together more like, judging by the squallid newspaper headlines about boozing sessions at student parties and squad in-fighting in recent days.
However another under-pressure manager, Liverpool boss Roy Hodgson, will be a much happier man this morning after his side came from a goal down to beat Napoli 3-1 - although he was grateful to his captain Steven Gerrard, who scored a thunderous hat-trick after coming on at half-time. "We owe a big debt of gratitude to him," said Hodgson, using the royal 'we', "but he'd be the first to join me and say it was a good team performance in the second half. We deserved to win the game."
Meanwhile down under, England have made a solid start to their first match of the Ashes tour against Western Australia. The hosts, who won the toss and elected to bat, are 156-4 after 57 overs with Stuart Broad taking three wickets for England. We'll hopefully have the latest from David Hopps in Perth in an hour's time.
Good news: a report this week shows the number of donated organs for transplant has risen to its highest ever level. This is partly driven by a government campaign since 2008 that added 200 specialist transplant nurses to Intensive Care Units, encouraging families of the dying to save the lives of others.
Less good news is that three people die every day waiting on the growing transplant list. Only 28% of people have signed up to the Organ Donor Register to make sure the corneas, livers, kidneys or other body parts they no longer have any use for can save the sight or the lives of several other people.
Why not? Many are squeamish at the thought of having their own or their loved ones cut up after death. Opinion polls show virtually everyone would accept an organ if they needed one, but very many fewer are easy with the idea of giving bits of their dead bodies.
Why is that? Some primitive refusal to accept death, a denial that this precious body – our own or a loved ones' - really is nothing when the breath of live has left it. But it will rot or burn anyway, unless you're into cryogenics or mummification. Consign it to the grave or the crematorium and there goes the chance of giving someone else the life that you have lost. It should be easiest thing on earth to give away something you will never have any use for. How much saner it would be to presume that organs can be taken from that anyone who has not specifically registered a refusal to donate – but such is the timorousness of politicians they would rather let three patients a day die than present the robust rational case.
The great advantage of writing this here instead of broadcasting a Thought for the Day is that all of you reading this have no excuse now not to click on this link and add your name to the official Organ Donor Register, RIGHT NOW!
7.51am: Right, I'm on deck, eager to play my part in this historical event - offering you a splendiferous alternative to the Today programme for - um - today. Think of me as Evan Davies without the piercings. Although frankly, if it's a slow news day, anything could happen by the end of the morning.Speaking of whom, although the great man himself is not in the studio, happily he is tweeting. Apparently his partner "is worryingly enthusiastic about the programme on birdlife in The Wash which is replacing strike-hit @r4today." Didn't hear it myself as I've been too busy trying to sleep-read the papers on the train on the way in since 6am, but I'm glad SOMEONE'S having a good time.
7.55am: Five minutes to eight and we now go over to Lee Glendinning in our Sydney weather centre for the weekend weather ahead, Lee ...Link to this video Apologies for the lack of light on Lee's face in the weather centre / her flat. I'm sure Lord Reith had these kinds of troubles too.
8am: peep peep peeeeiiiiip. It is 8am on Friday 5 November and you are reading Today for one day only. For headlines, scroll down to the entry at 7am.8.05am: Five minutes past eight. The big news out of the United States this week has of course been the Democrats' drubbing in the midterm elections. But what does that mean for Barack Obama. We go over to Richard Adams in Washington for more. Richard
Fallout from the US midterm elections continues as the Democrat and Republican parties jockey for position. There was some good news for the Democrats as the final results come in: late last night Patty Murray was declared the winner of the Washington state Senate election, defeating Republican Dino Rossi by 51% to 49%. That leaves the Democrats total in the 100-seat Senate at 53, while it's the third time Rossi has lost an election by a narrow margin. In 2004 he lost the Washington governorship race by just 133 votes.
With the midterm elections out of the way American politicians can get down to the serious task of speculating about the 2012 presidential election, and especially the identify of the candidates. But two people were more concerned with denying that they were in the running.
One favourite for the Republican nomination is New Jersey governor Chris Christie, although he insists he's not interested. "Short of suicide, I don't really know what I'd have to do to convince you people that I'm not running," Christie told reporters at a press
conference. "I've said I don't want to. I'm not going to. There is zero chance I will."So that's a maybe, governor?
For Hillary Clinton, questions about her presidential ambitions followed her all the way to New Zealand, where she curtly ruled out running in 2012 or 2016 after being questioned by journalists during her visit there.
But it didn't seem to make any difference to New Zealand's gaffe-prone prime minister John Key, who described her as "President Clinton" while thanking her at a joint press conference in Wellington yesterday.
8.10am: It's 10 past eight and you are reading Today for one day only. We are supposed to have a heavyweight political interview at this point - except we lost Michael Gove's number so that's all fallen a bit behind schedule. But expect Gove some time before 9am (this really is harder than it looks – our admiration for the Today staff is growing by the second.)8.12am: Twelve minutes past eight. One bonus of our stumbling attempts to cover all the news in two hours, is (plainly, see 8.10am) to demonstrate how good our colleagues at Today are. 
To explain why the NUJ is striking at the BBC this morning, the Guardian's Paul MacInnes spoke to Radio 4 Media Show presenter and media analyst Steve Hewlett.
That's one you can maybe listen to over breakfast.
8.14am: You're reading Today for one day only, it's 14 minutes past eight. Our correspondent Tim Dowling is just catching up with some of the newspaper stories that Michael White missed. Tim,
The Guardian reports that an Channel 4 has scrapped an instalment of the daytime game show Countdown after a contestant, presented with the letters D,T, C, E, I, A, S, H and F, came up with the 8-letter word SHITFACE.
Photograph: Channel 4
The 9-letter SHITFACED apparently did not occur to him. His answer was sadly deemed inappropriate for a daytime audience, as indeed this story probably would be for the Today programme. Not here, though.
The Daily Mail, meanwhile, claims that the government's migration cap contains a loophole exemption which could see the UK flooded with foreign DJs, magicians, models, ice hockey coaches, acupuncturists and polo grooms. The Telegraph says that David Beckham is "hoping to become an American citizen" and the Times has some kind of paywall that stops you looking at the website unless you pay a quid, so the hell with them."
8.17am: I wonder how many strikes over pensions by various institutions and corporations across the nation there have to be before the importance of having such a thing impresses itself sufficiently on my consciousness for me to sort one out?8.20am: It's 20 minutes past eight. One of the less noticed consequences of the war in Afghanistan is the sharp rise in soldiers losing their limbs. 
Amelia Gentleman talks to Paul MacInnes.
Thank you, Amelia
8.24am: Would Michael Gove have crossed the BBC picket lines if he still worked there?
Yes he would he tells Allegra Stratton in our 8.24am interview.
Gove says the Today programme can be an "irritating presence" but "like test matches, like the proms, like the Malvern hills, is just part of the British landscape so it is a pity we are not getting it this morning."
8.28am: It had to happen. Lawson-lust is about to bankrupt the country. I paraphrase slightly, but that is what I glean from the new figures released by ICM which say that the average cost of a new kitchen is now £3,950, up 45% in the last five years, apparently in an attempt to ape celebrity chefs. And that's before you add in the cost of strewing the place with fairy lights and stocking your walk in larder with organic pasta shapes, polished capers and poor women's dreams. Meanwhile the Building Cost Information Service offers an additional little amuse-bouche by estimating that the cost of new kitchens put into houses worth £1m is between £11,110 and £104,000.
As someone who is currently trying to repaint grey melamine doors hanging off sad, sad plywood frames that haunt my dreams, begging in dry, dusty, degraded-glue voices to be put out of their misery, in a colour that doesn't make me retch every time set foot in my own kitchen, these are figures that make me feel like I missed a memo somewhere along the line.
A life memo. One that explains how to make the choices in which the world of six-burner stoves, double ovens and - yes! yes! - fairy lights on every surface becomes possible. It can't be too late.
8.33am: It's 33 minutes past eight and here is Will Hayler with today's racing tips.Now just imagine some banter between Will and I to complete the Today for one day only experience
8.36am: It's 36 minutes past eight.There's been a third night of rioting at a prison complex in South Yorkshire. Helen Carter sent us this report...
After two nights of rioting at Moorlands Young Offenders' Institution, the disturbances spread to an adult unit on the same site near Doncaster, South Yorkshire.
Prison Service chief executive Michael Spurr said additional staff were being sent to the prison "to ensure stability".
A total of 166 prisoners are being transferred to other prisons across the country after officers in riot gear, known as Tornado response teams, were called in to restore order for the third night. One prisoner was seriously injured and was taken to hospital for treatment.
The Prison Service said a third incident occurred last night at Moorland prison, on the male adult Category C side, when prisoners started throwing objects and damaging the wing. By 1.25am, all prisoners had surrendered and 166 are being removed to other establishments.
Spurr added: "We have a good record of maintaining order and security in our prisons and are therefore taking these incidents extremely seriously in order to learn lessons."
8.38am: Now with details of tomorrow's Saturday Guardian we now go to Kath Viner. Good morning, Kath8.42am: Over to Tim Dowling who is live on the line with David Beckham...
Good morning Lucy. I'm here with a jokey interlude. Is this all a bit scabby? Not for me, obviously, as my bit is pre-recorded. Don't call me Kath on air please, it's Katharine. Shame Garry Richardson isn't here, he's excellent. Asks good questions. Friendly voice. A fresh approach to the racing tips. And that hair!
Photograph: Dave Hogan/Getty Images
Enough of these chuckles. In your Saturday Guardian tomorrow. We have Take That's first interview as a fivesome - a bit of a scoop, like Evan's Jay Z "can you recommend a rap piece?" interview the other day. Anne Enright on why Irish writers are so good at short stories. Sheryl Crow on her adoptions. An Arctic adventure. The real people behind Twitter spoofs (they're all middle-aged men). Robbie Savage: the unlikely voice of reason in football. And there should be some news, too, provided it knows how to happen without the BBC watching. I'm chuckling, as I understand is required at this point. The Saturday Guardian: you'd be mad to miss it! On sale from first thing tomorrow.
According to the Daily Mail, former England captain David Beckham is seeking US citizenship. But what are the implications for his career, not to say his vast fortune? We're now joined live from LA by Mr Beckham himself, who can hopefully shed some light on the story. "Hello David, and welcome. First of all, is it true? Are you really
seeking US citizenship?David?... can you hear me David? David?
Ah. Oh dear. Apparently we've lost David due to technical difficulties. We'll try to get him for you and bring you that interview later in the programme..."
8.43am: It's 17 minutes to nine, you are reading Today for one day only and here is Sean Ingle with the sport.8.48am: More than a million Poles left the country and headed for richer corners of Europe - mostly Britain - when the country joined the EU in
Hello again. And, as promised earlier, it's over to David Hopps in Perth for the latest news from England's tour match against Western Australia.
Good morning David, so how are England getting on in the first day of their Ashes Tour? A tough day, and not a particularly exciting one, but one that has turned out well for England. Stuart Broad launched the tour in perfect fashion by taking two Western Australian wickets before they had a run on the board. Notts' Adam Voges made 72 as Western Australia fought back, but they are currently 201-6. Very much England's day.
And what about Jimmy Anderson, who is playing his first game since cracking a rib sparring with Chris Tremlett on a pre-Ashes bootcamp? England's insistence that Anderson's boxing injury had been exaggerated has been backed up by his display today. He stepped things up the day progressed, took a deserved wicket, and as long as he suffers no reaction, worries that he won't be fit for Brisbane have been removed.
Photograph: William West/AFP/Getty Images
I see England picked Ian Bell ahead of Eoin Morgan. Is that a pointer to their thinking ahead of the first Test, which starts in just 20 days' time? Do you expect the team that is out there today to face Australia come Brisbane? Andrew Strauss indicated that England would field their likeliest Test X1 in Perth. So that may mean no place for Eoin Morgan in Brisbane unless another batsman looks totally out of form. As for the bowlers, Steve Finn will need to prove his right to a place ahead of Chris Tremlett.
Finally, how much do warm-up matches ultimately matter? Historically do they provide any significant pointers to what's to come during the Ashes? The last England coach Duncan Fletcher preferred 14 a side on England's last tour and they lost 5-0, so it's a relief to see England playing proper tour games again. But as long as they don't lose heavily – which really would be a worry – it's not the results that matter as much as the preparation.
Thanks David. Elsewhere, Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini has insisted he will not resign despite his side losing their third game in a row, a 3-1 away defeat at Lech Poznan last night. "For me it is totally clear. I will stay at City until they fire me," he said. "I have seen the owner Sheikh Mansour two or three times and we have a very good relationship." But, given his record at this stage of the season is worse than Mark Hughes' last season, and the rumours of strife and unrest at the club, he clearly faces a bumpy ride.
Which brings us nicely on to racing. The Breeders' Cup meeting starts tonight at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, and our racing correspondent Greg Wood goes for Harmonious in the big race, the Breeders' Cup Filly Mare Turf. How Mancini must crave some of that.
2004. Now Poland wants some of them back. Helen Pidd sent this report
Last night some of the top earning Poles in the UK were invited to a glossy event at the Polish embassy in London to persuade them that their native land has changed for the better since they left the motherland.
These high-fliers were told that while Britain braces itself for a double-dip recession, the Polish economy is now growing faster than the economy of the whole Euro zone and 1.5% faster than the average growth of all EU members. Plus Poland is currently creating more
professional white collar jobs than the UK, according to literature handed out at last night's event.Polish Professionals in London (PPL), a networking group for upwardly young Poles in the City, reports a "three-fold increase in vacancies since January this year, as well as a sharp increase in the number of Polish professionals who seek our help in relocating to their country."
"Poland suddenly became an interesting career choice," said Christopher Hume, managing director of AER International, a recruitment agency specialising in enticing expatriate Poles to return home.
How long before Britons are heading to Warsaw in search of work?
8.50am: And now over to Andrew Sparrow, who has been speaking to the former Lib Dem leader Sir Menzies Campbell about tuition fees.
The Liberal Democrats should not pretend that they agree with the Conservatives about everything. At least, that's the view of Sir Menzies Campbell, who told me this:
Where there are genuine differences, I think we should be comfortable expressing them. The public are not fools. The public don't imagine that there's been a merger. Anyone who has been following the local government results since May will know that there have been many occasions where the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives have fought each other in local government byelections. That's taking place, maybe at a grassroots level and not immediately obvious to the Westminster village. Our singularity we are maintaining. I have not ceased to be a Liberal Democrat simply because we've found it necessary to join a coalition designed primarily for the purpose of restoring economic stability in this country.
Campbell reaffirmed his commitment to vote against the government's plans to raise tuition fees.
I was asking if I would sign a document giving an undertaking [to vote against an increase in tuition fees]. I did so in the full glare of publicity. I had my photograph taken. I was surrounded by students when my photograph was taken. I've explained I'm the chancellor of St Andrews University with a particular obligation towards students. Having done that I've decided that I should maintain promise.
But Ming is reluctant to say what he thinks the party as a whole should be doing. It's up to other Lib Dem MPs to decide for themselves, he said.
The full interview will be available on Guardian.co.uk by 2pm. For anyone missing Yesterday in Parliament, we offer a link to yesterday's Andrew Sparrow politics live blog.
8.54am: Weather-out-the-window: I can say with full meteorological certainty that in N1 9GU, it is warm but quite grey. Reports from Mr Mangan in south-east London are that "it's a bit damp but the cats have gone out" and in Preston, my auntie Judy "is wearing her good coat". Which may mean it's cold but dry or it may mean that she's off out tonight. She doesn't know how to answer her mobile so I'm afraid I cannot clarify.8.55am: Simon Hattenstone, the Guardian's very own Kirsty Young, sends this breaking news. And sport. And arts . . .8.58am: Our correspondent Ian Cobain is on his way to the High Court where lawyers for 100 Iraqi men who say they were severely mistreated after being imprisoned by British forces are demanding a public inquiry. He sends this...
I was going to provide you with some news but I'm secondary picketing. However, I did hear from somebody in the know (is that correct news style, and sufficiently double sourced?), that a pilot yesterday vening refused to carry a would-be deported aslyum seeker home to his possible death. This is the second pilot within a week to come out against Britain's inhumane asylum policy (please insert neutral tone) Although it could be argued that he refused to carry the asylum seeker because he didn't want the kerfuffle on his flight because it brings bad publicity to the airline. Now for the latest sport – Manchester City lost their third game on the trot last night, proving that wealth, health and success are not always natural bedfellows. Now for the weather. It's getting lighter, but still quite grey and the old
gas works are clearly visible. It was 8.39am just a few minutes ago which takes us to our arts correspondent, who happens to be me – well the new Mike Leigh film got five stars in the Guardian today, but I still reckon the Kids Are All Right is a better bet (lesbians, straights, kids, domestic bliss, domestic hell you name it) even though it only got four stars last week
The men say they were beaten, starved, deprived of sleep and subjected to sensory deprivation while being detained at a secret interrogation centre that operated near Basra between 2003 and 2008. The Ministry of Defence says the allegations are unproven and insists it can investigate the matter itself. But lawyers for the men question whether any MoD investigation will be independent and effective.
9am: It's 9am you are listening to Today for one day only – and we are still going because we really have no idea whatsoever how to schedule or time this stuff. It's hard.So here is a shipping forecast
Hope that helps any sailors out there. (And nuclear submariners - we really want to know you're still out there with us)
9.06am: We're now crashing hopelessly into the rerun of Desert Island Discs, but here's Lucy with more news. The claim by former Countryfile presenter Miriam O'Reilly that she lost her job because the BBC was keen to bring in younger female presenters instead becomes more intrguing the more I look at it. The two main accusations of ageism are that she was warned by director Dean Jones that "you're going to have to be careful about those wrinkles when high definition comes in" and offered black spray dye when a cameraman mistook her scalp for white roots.
O'Reilly is - and this is relevant to the upcoming point, so don't start bristling before you need to - a lovely looking woman. So the fear really does seem to be identifiable specifically as a fear of older women. Or women looking older. Or possibly of women looking as if they are not frightened of getting older. Sometimes I think this last is the real fear behind such (alleged) comments. Botox and plastic surgery, after all, don't actually make you look youthful. They make you look like you've had Botox or plastic surgery. But they also say 'You've got me. I'm worried, I'm vulnerable, I'm willing to play the game." It's the suggestion of a willingness to conform that makes it attractive.
That said, I've just seen what I look like when I get up at 5 in the morning after three hours' sleep and I'm off to dip my head in a bucket of haemorrhoid cream. They say it tightens everything marvellously - as, I suppose, a moment's thought or study of the traditional application process would suggest.
9.09am: Nine minutes late, and there's still loads to get through. (How do they do it?).Ahead of the Burmese elections on Sunday, we sent a reporter undercover to talk to people on the ground in a country that is resigned to the continuing rule of the military junta.
Our reporter travelled across the country, talking to people in roadside teashops, safehouses and secure hotel rooms. Our man describes the election as being everywhere and nowhere. Everywhere in subtle references: to unreliable electricity, to untraceable taxes, to unremitting poverty.
It is nowhere because to talk openly of politics, to post a sign, to wear a T-shirt with a slogan is to invite trouble. And, of course, the most famous name in Burmese politics will not be on any ballot paper.
Nevertheless, Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi looms large still in the hearts and minds of the Burmese people, despite spending 15 of the last 20 years at the hands of the country's military rulers. Return to the site later to read our vital dispatch on the state of the nation ahead of elections that can at best be described as a sham.
9.18am: It's eighteen minutes past nine and there's a load more foreign news to cram in (John Humphrys never said that).• Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem reports that Israeli authorities have finally allowed four submachine guns into Gaza for the protection of John Ging, the head of the main UN agency in the besieged Palestinian territory. The UN requested permission to import the weapons three years ago following an assassination attempt by extreme militant groups, and it has just been granted now.
Photograph: Dan Chung • Ai Weiwei – China's best-known artist and creator of Tate Modern's current "sunflower seeds" installation - has announced he is under house arrest after saying he would hold a banquet to mark the demolition of his newly built Shanghai studio. The authorities say he built it illegally but earlier this week he told the Guardian that he believed the decision was political – he has frequently annoyed officials by campaigning on sensitive issues. Ai tweeted this lunchtime that national security officers had visited him to say he could not leave his home in Beijing until midnight on Sunday – the day he had been due to hold the party. "I feel there is no privacy at all in this land and am very angry," he added in a tweet following the police visit to his home.
• Xan Rice, our man in Nairobi, reports on a curious development in the ongoing investigations in the post-election violence in Kenya a few years ago. Xan was on the scene at the time to report some of the worst incidences and has followed the twists and turns ever since...
A senior Kenyan politician accused by local rights groups of stoking the 2007/8 post-election bloodshed has taken the highly unusual step of flying to the International Criminal Court in the Hague in a bid to clear his name. William Ruto's move highlights the deep concern among some of Kenya's ruling elite over the ongoing ICC investigation into the violence, which saw more than 1,300 people killed. Ruto is the most powerful politician in the Rift Valley province, where the worst ethnic attacks took place.
9.37am: Before we go back to bed, Steven Morris has some heartwarming breaking news from GW Hurley's toy shop in Burnham-on-Sea . . .9.43am: We're on course to crash into the pips by a record 43 minutes. But that's about it, thanks for reading. I suspect the most we can claim for our substitute Today programme is that it showed how good the folks who do the real thing are. But then we're all still here aren't we? Nuclear armageddon averted! So that's something.
It seemed to be Britain's most unwanted toy. For 40 years the cuddly lion stood on the stairs of the store, attracting the occasional admiring glance but no offers to buy.
If this had been a children's story, Hurley's Lion as the toy was nicknamed, would, no doubt, have shed a tear when the family-run shop in Burnham-on-Sea closed every evening.
But there is a happy ending. A customer finally came in prepared to stump up for the lion - at which point shopkeeper Colin Morris realised he could not bear to sell it.Morris said: "When I talked to one of the ladies in the shop about it - she burst into tears. She had just become so attached to the lion over the years - we all have. So I told them I could not sell it. I have now taken it off sale - I just wouldn't let it go."
Final thoughts Lucy?
It's been an education (for a start, I've learned that I can't touchtype before 9am - I am pecking at the keyboard like a demented chicken) but it's been fun. As long as it never, ever happens again. Come back soon, BBC. We miss you xxxxx
9.43am: We'll leave you with a final item, some tips on this weekend's cultural events and debate on whether fighting zombies can keep you fit, in the company of John Plunkett, Catherine Shoard and Paul MacInnes. Bye...