One common refrain after the BNP made an appearance on Question Time last year was that if only more people went out and voted then right-wing extremists would not get elected. Of course that’s not the whole story but there’s some truth in that. Since we will have a General Election this time next week this becomes a very important point.

This got me thinking about my experience with the British electoral system. As far as I can remember, I’ve voted in every election that I have been eligible except for those when I have not been at home. In fact I was in California in this last election when Griffin was elected to the European parliament.

As I write this I should have just returned from a trip to Istanbul. Unfortunately the now infamous Ash Cloud put a stop to that before it even started. I spent a Friday evening going through cancelling my flights, hotels and tour.

Dispiriting doesn’t begin to cover it.

But I wasn’t going to let something like that completely ruin my week. Limited to the UK, I decided to go to Salisbury and the near by Stone Henge, two places that I’ve not been to for a long time.

• No sense of humour at all – “Personally, I’d love to see the Pope in a debate on abortion, where he would actually have to address difficult questions and defend his own ideas. Best idea yet would be a debate on various controversial topics, like birth control, abortion, the role of women in the church, and homosexuality…with the Pope on one side, and Stephen Fry on the other. It could be perfectly respectful, and it would be hilarious.”
• Audio slideshow: Hubble’s first 20 years – Amazing. Beautiful.
• Do liberals read only liberal blogs? – The dangers of the “long tail…” I deliberately go read Daily Mail headlines on a regular basis just to check that I’m sane. The moment I start to agree, please shoot me.

It’s spring in the UK so you can only imagine the difficulty I had finding a suitable recent image for this weeks PhotoFriday, “Sunshine.”

In the end I went back a couple of years to when we were in Egypt. This picture is from a rather stormy day in Alexandria. As you can see, the sun broke through the clouds with spectacular results.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Wheels.” I’m entry number 193.

I know I’m bucking a trend here by posting this on a Friday, but here is my entry for this weeks PhotoFriday, “Wheels.” Okay, this car has never been my set of wheels, but this is a really neat car that’s in amazing condition considering its age. Before I went to Cuba I assumed that cars like this were only visible on postcards. I quickly found that they’re all over the place. They’re also far less glamorous and practical when you get inside. Great fun though.

• Mobile Multitasking – “The new way is to rethink the fundamental deal for processes. In the old model, processes that have already been launched get priority — once running, they stay running. In the new model, the user’s intentions get priority. You press the home button, you’re going to see the home screen in a moment, whether the app that was running was ready to be closed or not. If you want to open another app, it’s going to open immediately, even if the system has to pull the plug on an app in the background to free enough RAM.”
• Please Make the iPhone Weather Application Location Aware – As per subject line…
• iPhone OS 4 and Multitasking – What multitasking on the iPhone really means. It’s all kind of moot for me anyway since I can’t run OS4 on my first generation iPhone!

You’d think that living the UK I’d have no trouble whatsoever with the PhotoFriday theme “Overcast.”Except, with so much choice, well, which do you choose?

Ultimately I thought this image from our Christmas in Iceland fitted the bill rather better than anything I could find from the UK.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Blurred.” I’m entry number 263.

I’ve not been to Oxford for… um… since I was seventeen and applying to various universities around the UK. I remember having a fun trip last time but I have zero recollection of where we went and have no photos.

At first I thought that might happen again. Not because I’m suffering from amnesia but because when I arrived it was raining pretty heavily and, for a while, it seemed that the hotel might be a better option than trudging around in the rain.

As ever I had trouble with this weeks PhotoFriday theme, “Blurred.” I have plenty of blurry pictures but this implies something a little more deliberate. So, this image of a speeding car in Wimbledon.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, Pleasure.” I’m entry number 212.

• Rejoice this day! – My sentiments exactly!
• Lost labels for your DHARMA Initiative needs – This is great. I think I’m going to have to re-label everything in the cupboard at home!
• It must have been a slow news day at ZDNet – These arguments against iPhone development come up all the time on places like StackOverflow. This is a great explanation of why they mostly make no sense.