* Al Qaida - Or however you spell it. Yesterday was lots of laughs day in the UK. On the BBC TV News for morons. We had Al Qaida, Veils, Life Terminations all on the same day.

* Comedy moment 1 - Veils - Come on out with it, veils are out because we can't identify you on video surveillance cameras. Now come on you don't want the government to spend a fortune on cameras that see thru clothes do you. The current Veilist went to a tribunal and was deeply offended , no doubt, only to be offered £1,000 for being asked to unveil. She will be appealing until a more acceptable verdict and  payout is offered. The Labour government passed all these stupid laws about discrimination and incitement so here's hoping they're hoisted on their own petard.

* Comedy moment 2. The secret services announced that the UK was Numero Uno in the Al Qaida 'Get Them' list. It was revealed that they had organised themselves into small cells of activists along the lines of every group in a spy thriller (the IRA being the example of choice for MI5/ MI6). So instead of gathering in the open in there hundreds Al Qaida will be meeting in groups of four. One assumes that the USA has lost its prime position while it continues to elect Presidents of George Bush's calibre.

* Comedy moment 3. 'Help kill the ill' is back on the news agenda. A man was freed after helping his wife, an MS sufferer, commit suicide. There is a strong lobby or so it is claimed wanting the right for people with terminal illnesses to have a member of the medical services murder them. The examples given by the gerbil lovers and cokehead impersonators at the BBC all involved terminally ill patients who had attempted suicide unsuccessfully a number of occasions and needed a helping hand.
I would have thought that killing yourself was a fairly easy thing to accomplish albeit requiring a number of visits to the chemist due to restrictions on the number of tablets that can be purchased at one time. Its not as though we're talking spur-of-the-moment attempts.
Opponents to the idea of mercy killings include the seriously ill and disabled who are terrified someone might turn their assessment of what constitutes 'quality of life' on them. Who can blame them.
Supporters say it would save people having to pay for the Swiss to murder them.
They strongly reject the 'thin end of the wedge' argument that the terrified ill and disabled fear. This, they say, will not happen. In this I concur, the same argument was used in opposition to the legalisation of abortion. Abortion would require two Doctor's signatures and only be used for pregnancy due to incest or rape or where a woman's life was threatened. The high figures for abortions in the UK only shows the prevalence of rape and incest in this country and the poor state of women's health.
Fear not you without 'quality of life' for Dr Shippam will be making a home visit.