chrisp65

When my current MP was a lowly Assembly Member he took expenses to rent a property in Cardiff Bay because the commute home (11 miles) was considered too arduous. For his troubles, he's now been voted in as an MP and has now become Wales Secretary, with a substantial listed property at his disposal in Westminster. What exactly does the 'Wales Office' do? How we stop all this waste and actually make all these layers upon layers accountable and honest is a massive issue we need to address. In every last tier of government.

Believe it or not The Fall are fairly new to me. I know they've always been there in the background for a hundred years, but I've never really listened. They always struck me as a bit worthy and a bit too exulted by the serious unsmiling music people. A bit like Joy Division, or the Manic Street Preachers. Then I stumbled across Latchkey Kid by accident and decided to give them a try. By coincidence, YFOC got a re release as double vinyl & MP3 so thought I'd start there. With Imperial Wax Solvent probably the next one, most likely followed by me suddenly discovering Japanese psych folk or eurasian punk harp ten years after everyone else has been there and moved on. Back to the Manics. I did quite enjoy that they released a song that, as is there way, references depression, cheating Scots and the death of a fan in '85. Then 24 hours later Super Furry Animals released their football song, with the lyric, bing bong bing bong bong bong bing.

I didn't go, never seen the Manics. Quite a few of my footy chums are nuts about them and have seen them a couple of times on this tour and are currently raving about the Editors.

and still nobody has beaten PussEKatt's plan to go back to the Roman Empire and invent snooker...

I set out to buy 'Your Future Our Clutter' by The Fall. It was out of stock, but Ash the shop owner was keen to tell me she had seen them live last night. It would appear the keyboard player was sacked somewhere between putting up the keyboard stand and plugging in the keyboard. Same old same old Mark.

and next up tonight. Laura Kuenssberg on why the weekend weather in Florida will be an absolute disaster for Jeremy Corbyn and next up tonight, Laura Kuenssberg on why the delayed release of the i-phone 7 will spell a collapse in support for Jeremy Corbyn and next up tonight, Laura Kuenssberg on why food colouring in angel delight in the 1970's could mark the end for Jeremy Corbyn

ahh, you're a good man! As it happens, the parking was one of the bits I could claim expenses on which dampens the bill down a little. The office knew it was a work trip / family break combo. The guidance I was given on expenses was 'just don't take the piss'. This rule has come in since one of the Directors had 2 kiddy meals and a family entry to Longleat on his entertaining expenses. Subsequently, lunch for four had to be somewhere 'proper' and not Coconut Brunhilda's Bouncy German Pirate Land (which I believe Paddywhack and the guys might have gone to).

It would have to be pretty bad to be worse. I know it's easy to be sniffy about a long awaited Stone Roses release, but it just felt so lightweight. I'm on a computer with no sound today, the SFA video looks euro poptastic. They'll be hard pressed to beat this though.... Wales 4 : 3 Brazil

My trip was a good few months ago now, before Christmas. We did British Airways out of Heathrow T5, used the futuristic pod parking. Landed in Tegel airport which is the older but closer one. Had a taxi waiting at the airport to take us to the hotel. The idea was minimum drama and give the kids a look at T5 and a trip on that sort of robo monorail system from the car park. Living like kings on expenses! We stayed in the Tiergarten Novotel, the kids loved the giant stereotypical German waitress on the first night that delivered their pizzas and declared in a booming voice 'you vill enjoy it!'.

We were going to do the free walking tour. Then we realised how easy and 'safe' it was to just go and explore by yourself. By safe, I mean even when I got lost (two of us out on a reccie for fast food) down the zoo end of the Tiergarten, in the dark, next to the river and ended up in a tunnel by the bus terminal with a load of rough sleepers, I still felt everything was calm. I was stood there, in the dark, with a glowing smart phone in my hand and the guy wrapped in cardboard and blankets looked up from his book. I nodded, he nodded. I asked (in english), 'how's the book?'. He responded (in english), 'it's ok, thanks, you ok or lost?'. I passed him the next day and called across the street 'did you finish the book?', he did the international sign language thumbs up. Wife utterly bewildered that I could possibly know a Berlin rough sleeper. Youngest nipper helpfully explained to her that we'd met him the night before in a tunnel!

A pair of 1970's British made Leak speakers in teak. Price started rising so I bailed out. The obvious trick is remembering that you need to be able to sell for a higher number than you bought for. Sounds simple, but people get competitive and find they buy stuff for around £50 when the going rate is around £50.

a sort of common sense has now prevailed, Labour and Plaid are due to have fresh talks tomorrow..... @snowychap I'm genuinely baffled by that whole UKIP vote thing, apparently disgraced cash for questions hamilton received 3,400 votes, but was on a bucket list under the PR part of the system and got in via that. I'd really love to know what qualities people saw in him and liked.

Politics is a funny old game isn't it. In the local hot air factory down the road from here the National Assembly was supposed to vote in it's El Presidente yesterday. Labour as by far the biggest party presumed their man was a shoe in. Plaid said slow down let's talk about it, you only have 29 of the 60 seats we could 'co-operate'. Nope, Labour happy to govern alone as a minority. Let's all vote for Carwyn. But at the vote 29 Labour and the 1 Liberal voted Carwyn. Plaid, Tories and UKIP all voted for Leanne Wood. A draw, 30:30. Welsh Labour have totally lost it over the following 24 hours accusing Plaid of dirty deals with UKIP. They've tweeted and briefed and shouted about how horrible UKIP are and how you should never ever deal with the sort of low life that UKIP has in it's ranks. They've gone on local tv and said they hope people that voted Plaid take a long hard look at the sort of people their Plaid representatives are now in bed with. They've declared themselves genuinely shocked and upset. This afternoon there has been a split in UKIP, and two of them are now siding with Labour. Labour have declared this change of heart by UKIP as a victory for grown up mature politics, hoping it now draws a line under the matter. Politicians, eh.

Alas, those were not my fine words, they were direct from the big man upstairs. Michael Jackson. (couldn't find a decent one of Jarvis)

There comes a time when we hear a certain call, when the world must come together as one. There are people dying, and its time to lend a hand to life, the greatest gift of all. We can't go on pretending day by day that someone, somewhere will soon make a change. We are all a part of God's great big family and the truth, you know, Love is all we need. We are the world, we are the children, we are the ones, who make, a brighter day. Have you truly never found comfort in someone else's child?

re Pixies and Stone Roses..... new single due out tomorrow from Super Furry Animals I am refusing to get my hopes up that it will be anything but a Gruf Rhys novelty record set to an indie rock background with some computer blips at the start and end.

Sometimes when they burn someone over at the crem, you will see what looks like snow coming out of the chimney.

I'm a pale skinned dark haired orphan child, one of a number of strikingly similar children, all raised in South America. My time will come.

yeah, right.... let's tell everyone what's available for less than half the price I know I could sell it on for.... It's not going to make me rich, I'm trading hi-fi bits n bobs in the £20 to £99 bracket, but it is turning in to a hobby/distraction that funds itself, buy it on e-bay, sell it on gumtree or trade it on forums, repeat.