A Good Hair Day

What do brunettes miss most about a great party?
The invitation.

Now do I have your attention you blondes out there? Because this will save your day. 

Winter can be hard on beautiful blonde hair, like yours and mine. The cold dries it and the sunlight that gives blonde hair the delicious sun kissed look is seen rarely.

But there’s no need to get desperate and resort to hair dye. John Frieda’s Go Blonder shampoo and / or conditioner really does what it says on the bottle, namely “gradually lightens hair without harsh chemicals”. And it costs about a fiver (and with Boots’ £2 off on professional hair care offer less than a glass of wine). Top it up with Frieda’s Blonde hairspray and get ready for compliments. Oh, and you’re welcome. 

Once you pop, you can't stop

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

Finland is not known as a great exporter of cinema. We have given the world Aki and Mika Kaurismaki, director brothers whose films are rather enjoyable if you’re into European art house cinema and long silences. Finland also threw up Renny Harlin, the director of such films as Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger and The Long Kiss Goodnight, but whose biggest achievement in the eyes of many, was to marry Geena Davis.  

Looking at this history, it was refreshing to see something nicely mainstream but still so very, very Finnish in the cinema last night. Rare Exports is a Christmas fairytale of sorts, set in the northern Finland where, as we all know, Father Christmas resides. But this is no Santa Baby, the real Santa is a monstrous cannibal with massive pair of horns and an army of violent elves who kidnap children and slaughter innocent reindeers.   

It’s a perfect holiday watch for anyone enjoying a little twisted take on the painfully dull reality of December. And bring along anyone over 12 (well yes, the BBFC rated this 15, but what do they know? A little nudity and swearing never hurt a teenager), they’ll love it. A visit from Santa will never be the same. 

Rare Exports, in cinemas now.

Leaking the Inconvenient Truth

The witch hunt is on for Julian Assange. He is arrested, his bank account has been closed and he is very conveniently being accused of rape in Sweden. Various lunatics politicians even call for him to be assassinated.

Is it just me or does this sound just a tad, err, undemocratic? So far the Wikileaks have given us some embarrassing private descriptions of world leaders, but  they have also revealed some rather more serious facts about international politics.

Why shouldn’t we know about these things? Why shouldn’t we know about war in Afganistan, the war funded by our tax money, being all but lost and the country being corrupt and far from democratic? Why shouldn’t we know that half of the world governments are seriously worried about Iran’s and Pakistan’s nuclear weapon development?  Or about the influence of the Russian mafia into politics? Or that Berlusconi is making secret deals with Putin? Or that Tories promised before the election that they would run a pro-American regime and buy more arms from the US if they came to power?

Everybody knows that the public is only told the minimum. The unofficial policies can be hard to justify,  sometimes they are borderline illegal. I have worked for government, I know. However, this is not an excuse. Even the unofficial policies HAVE to stand scrutiny. And if you get caught, you should take responsibility, not go running around calling for the messenger to be shot.  

We have been lied to by our politicians. Because we can’t handle the truth? Because we are too stupid to understand the reality of politics? Are the politicians trying to shut down Wikileaks to protect us? Or to protect themselves? Take a wild guess. 

The release of more than 250,000 US embassy cables
has embarrassed governments around the world.