Merry Christmas!

The People's Republic would like to wish all our readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Be prepared for more subversive Second City blogging in the New Year...

Birmingham Born, but not a Hero

Listening to the Ashes is truly depressing (especially on Radio 4 LW where they keep interupting it at 9am every day to bore us with the "highlights" from the previous day at Westminster). There is however some delight in seeing Birmingham-born Andrew Symonds turned-convict giving his wicket away on a regular basis for the Aussies.

Andy Symonds turned down the chance to play for England A so he could be selected for Australia. To show that he is a fair dinkum Aussie he says.

"I had the Baggy Green in my hand a few days ago and smelt it. I love the smell - it smells of sweat and beer."

And traitors.

It's Terrorism John, but Not as we Know it

Over the last couple of weeks we have had a man murdered with a radioactive chemical and an attempted terrorist attack on Stormont, the home of the parliament of Northern Ireland. Yet the silence from Prime Minister Tony Blair and Home Secretary John Reid has been deafening.

Shall I start a rumour on here now that Islamic terrorist groups were involved? That will ensure a string of government pronouncements and further attacks on our civil liberties and race relations that will last long after Christmas.

If we survive Christmas...