First off, happy birthday to dakegra - have a great one! With lots of coffee and also cake.

I see Gordon Brown's been scaremongering about Scottish nationalism again. There are problems with nationalism, but anyone who's tempted to just believe Gordon's "The sky is falling!!!" words of doom should remember that for him an independent Scotland would be a nightmare, because it would mean he wouldn't get to be UK PM.

The article says:

"It is very important to recognise that Britishness and Britain itself is not based on ethnicity and race," he said.

"It is founded on shared values that we hold in common: a commitment to liberty for all, a commitment to social responsibility shown by all, and a commitment to fairness to all."

He said there was now a dividing line in Britain which pitted "those of us who are prepared to support the shared values of the union" and "those who are prepared to play fast and loose with the union and put the whole future of the union at risk".

I wanted to comment on this because it's a new application of something that tends to pop up in discussions about religion, and annoys me every time. He's taking some general qualities or values, saying that they apply to people of the UK, and then making the completely inaccurate and rhetoric-based jump that they don't apply to anyone else, and that us people who have them should stick together. I'm sure he doesn't really think that only people in the UK have a commitment to liberty, social responsibility and fairness (and I'm almost sure he's not naive enough to think that everyone in the UK shares these commitments, either), yet he's saying "We should stick together because we have these values", implying that nobody else does.

He says there's a straight divide between "supporting the shared values of the union" and "putting the future of the union at risk", thus implying that it's impossible to be an independence supporter who also has these values. He is, in fact, turning into George W - "You're either with us or against us". "If you don't support the union then you must be against liberty, social responsibility and fairness". Fuck off, Gordon.

In other news, cavalorn links to a youtube of The Snake by Johnny Rivers, proving that laerad and gwinniegirl were quite right when they said it was identical to the cheery Doctor/ Rose song Love Don't Roam, by Neil Hannon (and Murray Gold), that was in the Christmas special. Second link there's to a fanvid. You might be surprised to learn that I sort of am a Doctor/ Rose shipper - as long as it's Nine/ Rose, and as long as it's an adult relationship that understands that *saving the world is more important*. (Yes, I detested Ten/ Rose.) Love Don't Roam is available for legal download, should you wish to join us in trying to get a Who song into the top 40 now that downloads count.