Cinema Chains Refuse to Show Jedi Advert

From the Guardian

The UK’s three leading cinema chains have refused to show an advert by the Jedi Council that features the words of Yoda, citing fears that it could offend people.

The 60-second advert was due to be shown before The Ten Commandments, released on 18 December and which has smashed records for advance ticket sales at UK cinemas.

It was cleared by the Cinema Advertising Authority and the British Board of Film Classification, but the Odeon, Cineworld and Vue chains – which control 80% of screens around the country – have refused to show the advert because they believe it “carries the risk of upsetting, or offending, audiences”.

The council warned that the move could have a “chilling effect on free speech” and said it was at a loss to understand the logic behind the decision.

Obi Wan Kenobi, director of communications for the Jedi Council, said: “The prospect of a multigenerational cultural event offered by the release of The Ten Commandments on 18 December – a week before Galactic Liberation Day – was too good an opportunity to miss and we are bewildered by the decision of the cinemas.

“The Star Wars movies are watched by billions of people across the globe every day and in this country has been part of everyday life for decades. The force permeates every aspect of our culture from YouTube videos to toy shops and Comic-Cons. For millions of people in the United Kingdom, Star Wars is a constant part of their lives whether watched on TV, or playing Battlefront".

Killer Arguments Against LVT, Not (351)

Even The Times has tired of wheeling out Poor Widows In Mansions...

In my Father’s house are many mansions, Jesus said. Which may be bad news now that Labour is preparing its mansion tax.

Figures presented to the General Synod show that the average value of a Church of England bishop’s home is £2.26 million, putting it above the £2 million tax threshold.

It has also emerged that 26 diocesan bishops live in a property with seven or more bedrooms...

Wiki says there are 66 bishops of all ranks.

Wiki also says that the Church of England has total income from various sources and expenditure of around £900 million a year.

Let's assume that these palaces fall into the £2 - £5 million band and the Mansion Tax is the same as the ATED charge of £23,350 a year.

66 x £23,350 = £1.5 million, i.e. one-sixth of a per cent of the Church's total income/expenditure every year (or a small fraction of its direct government subsidies).

Hardly the "threat" suggested in the headline to the article, is it?

Fun Online Polls: Snails & Christian countries

THe responses to last week's Fun Online Poll were as follows:

Have you ever thrown a snail into a neighbour's garden?

Yes - 41%
No - 28%
I don't do any gardening - 31%

Thanks for responding. that seems about right to me.

The Royal Horticultural Society society did a similar survey and only a fifth of gardeners said that they did. Maybe they did their survey face-to-face and people were somehow ashamed to admit it?
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This week's Fun Online Poll.

David Cameron made the claim, for reasons best known to himself, that England was a Christian country, which generated many acres of verbiage, response and counter-response, a fine example by Peter Hitchens here.

So that's the question: "Is England (still) a Christian country, and is that a good or a bad thing?"

Vote here or use the widget in the sidebar.

Reader's Letter Of The Day

From The Metro (26 November 2012, page 14):

Joe Alvarex said David Cameron's stand on the failure of the Church of England to approve female bishops is 'disrespectful and risks huting the independence of an important institution'.

I'm afraid he is wrong. The Church and state are not separate in this country. They are linked together. This is seen most clearly in the House of Lords, where 26 bishops sit as the Lords Spiritual.

If the Church is to have a say in the laws of this country, it should have to stick by those same laws and not be exempt from equality legislation. Bishops are allocated 26 seats in parliament - where females are woefully under-represented - that women don't have a change of filling.

While the Church has the opportunity to influence our laws, then we should have the right to demand equality from it.

Sheila Fairlamb, London.

Christ on a bike flagpole

From The Metro:

Vicar Mark Binney has been banned from flying a flag of Jesus Christ outside his church because council officials reckon it advertises Christianity. Rev Binney was threatened with a £1,000 fine as he did not receive planning permission to fly the pink flag at St Andrew's Church in Evesham, Worcestershire.

The 52-year-old had hoisted it up a 30ft pole outside the church to celebrate Holy Week at Easter, prompting a complaint from the public which led the council to take action.

He told reporters he reckons the "appalling" move is part of a gradual erosion of Christianity in the UK. "You see blatant advertising everywhere, especially at election time, where lots of people are completely flouting the law," the vicar added, "But we can't display a flag for one week – the most holy week of the Christian year."

All your bases are belong to us!

Hypocrites of the week

From an article in today's FT headed "Church accused of hypocrisy after archbishops' attack on short selling"...

Hedge funds pointed to the willingness of the church commissioners to lend foreign stock from their £5.5bn ($10.2bn) of investments - an essential support for short selling - and derided the [two archbishops] for not understanding shorting. "They are trying to shoot the messenger and . . . deflecting attention away from the dramatic incompetence of bank executives," said Hugh Hendry, of hedge fund Eclectica Asset Management. "Short selling is the pursuit of truth." ...

As well as aiding shorting by lending stock, the church commissioners had £13m invested in Man Group, the biggest listed hedge fund manager, at the end of last year. The commissioners also sold a £135m mortgage portfolio last year, says their annual report, despite Dr Williams' criticism of trading debts for profit. Through the Church of England pensions board, which manages another £847m, the church invested this year in a fund from Auriel Capital, a London hedge fund, which aims to make money from currency trading - including short selling currencies.

And their excuses are the best bit ...

Andrew Brown, secretary to the commissioners, said they did not invest in Man's products, only its shares, and none of their managers used shorting. "We can assure you that the commissioners' stocks have not been used to facilitate the shorting of financially vulnerable institutions in the US and UK, including HBOS," he said. "Nor will this happen."

Ahem. That's like saying "Although we invest in arms manufacturers we do not buy weapons. We used to be involved in shorting financial stocks, but we stopped doing it recently once public opinion turned against, although we still short other non-financial stocks. And we're not going to short sell financial institutions any more because it's illegal now."