The only vote that matters - 2 comments

More fun for your Friday afternoon. The Thimble and Norm both cover the New Statesman's Heroes of our time list, which is suitably wacky.

Says T:

No.7 in the NS poll is Noam Chomsky, who is to academic rigour what Dan Brown is to literary fiction. Tony Benn, Hugo Chavez and George Galloway fill spots in the top-50 too which indicates the Euston Manifesto may have a point about the moral bankruptcy of sections of the Left. With heroes like these who needs bogey-men.

And says N:

John Pilger comes fourth. Margaret Thatcher comes fifth. George Galloway comes somewhere, would you believe it? Nineteenth, in fact. Which means that he beats Amartya Sen, Desmond Tutu, Bob Dylan, Toni Morrison and Andrew Flintoff, among others. I have seen the light - polls, I renounce them.

Some of the comments are hilarious. This about Chomsky, for instance:

An international intellectual figurehead for opposition against American hegemony. The incredible accuracy of his work shows a man who is dedicated above all to the truth.

And this, about Castro:

He has survived 47 years of onslaught by the various terrorist governments of the US and managed to provide his people with proper education, health and public services, despite an illegal blockade.

And who could this be about?

He uses his fame bravely. He has brought attention to so many distressing situations in the world. He is the voice for those whose voices are not heard.

Bono, silly.

A bit more unintentional humour (my emphasis):

I were [Chancellor Gordon] Brown and I were, in the argot, seeking to renew the Labour Party, I'd be disturbed that not a single reader of this magazine considered my work and purpose to be in any sense heroic.

No, there's only one vote that counts this weekend, and it's here.

Yes, Eurovision fever is sweeping the continent once again. I've only missed one show in the past, god, 15 years or so, when I briefly had a life during the late 90s. I have cleared the diary for Saturday, and will sit there with a pen and paper, reviewing each entry. Other fine minds will be watching, and hopefully cheering on the Finns (pictured after receiving President Putin's hamper - allegedly):