I posted about this London/Afghan charity before, and the good work that they do offering training, education and a good living within Afghanistan. Now I have an example of the craftsperson’s work on my floor and it is utterly stunning.

It’s so nice to get something for the home that is fair trade and will last a lifetime, and the next lifetime, rather than some piece of MDF that is just biding time before it becomes landfill. This is a work of art that will become an heirloom, assuming I get some heirs at some point.

They have carpets starting at £200, which is fantastic for a hand-made object that is fair trade and beautiful, and is packed with so much good karma that you can spend every Sunday lying on it and watching Star Trek reruns totally guilt-free for the rest of your life. They also sell great ethical gifts.

Rave review for Afghan Action…thanks for making my house look less like a student squat and making me feel so good doing it!

What the hey-hey? His family calls him Alexander.

“When I was three months pregnant, we travelled to Mexico City by Greyhound bus. It was very uncomfortable, I was desperately sick. We stayed with a man called Boris Litwin, who drew me aside and said: ‘You can’t travel back like this, here are two first-class air tickets’.

I was so grateful, I said: ‘Whatever the baby is, I shall call it Boris.’”

In fact, she named her firstborn Alexander Boris de Pfeffel.

Well, he can’t be a toff if his parents went to Mexico City on a Greyhound bus, surely?

Also I’m surprised that he’s so keen on the Routemaster, with his mother to remind him of the difficulties that disabled bus users face.

All this and more at The Telegraph.

See more LOLBorisez at I HAZ A LUNDUN! Please make more and submit them. I sense a rich vein of comedy here.

We love to mock the Americans for electing the clownish, idiotic George W. Bush: now we can boast the same honour.

By 140,000 votes (of 2,188,738), Boris Johnson is the elected leader of the largest electorate in Britain.

Here’s hoping that he’s neither the fool nor the bigot that he pretends to be. The Guardian calls it “his first really grown-up job“…and we all know how fun it is to work with a newbie.

I welcome your comments, especially disagreeing with me and welcoming a brave new Boris world: I sincerely hope you’re right.

Photo and graphic courtesy The Guardian

In response to a question in the comments from eoinhouly:

…I do not view this mayoral election as meaningful. All major decisions regarding education, healthcare etc are made at parlimentary level and I feel this reduces the significance of the role they play.

They look after transport, policing and what else?

So, what is the point of voting in the local London elections tomorrow?

I’ve already ranted about how valuable it is is just to keep out the BNP. Keeping fascists out of power, locally or nationally, is no small thing. You don’t hove to man the barricades, just vote.

But what about reasons to vote for someone, rather than against someone? What does the mayor and assembly do?

Transport, police, fire and emergency services, cultural strategy, economic development and local policy relating to waste, culture and sport, health, and climate change.

Hey, that’s a lot of stuff [see more about it at the Mayor of London website]. Especially in a city of 7.5 million people…practically a small country in some ways.

For me, planning and development is very important. Building and land use in London is something that will effect my quality of life directly, and shape the city for many years to come.

Culture and sport may sound superficial, but even if the local council isn’t out there making foreign policy (although ours kind of is) these things do effect our day-to-day life, especially for families living in London.

Not to mention that old voting cliché: if you don’t vote, you can’t complain. And god, I love to complain!

We have entered that springtime phenomenon known (by me) as crazy fucked-up bug mania in London time. It’s when there seem to suddenly be a million bugs everywhere. Each new year, a new range of bugs going procreation mental.

It’s a great thing we can all bond over. “What is with all the frickin’ wasps this year, man?” “No kidding! It’s like killer wasp attack central!”

This year it seems to be moths and some medium-sized flightless black beetle that I’ve never seen before. I’ve literally never experienced moth damage, and now they are eating my shiznit. And the beetles are, for some unknown reason, obsessed with my bathroom and will break in by any means necessary. (I swear my house is clean.)

Usually I am all Ghandi about bugs and gently relocate them, but this time of year it wears me down and I start killing them in some fruitless attempt at persuasion. “For every one of you that comes into my bathroom, I will kill ten beetles in your village!”

Photo courtesy wurzeltod via Flickr

FixMyStreet is another wonderful, simple app from MySociety. Use it to quickly report graffiti, fly-tipping, broken streetlighting, or whatever blights your morning stroll.

All you have to do is enter your postcode, click a map to locate the issue, and even upload photos of your favourite eyesores. I reported a burned out scooter that brightens up my daily commute.

I also had a jolly time looking at posts from other complainers; very satisfying curtain-twitching.

Photo courtesy of El Freddy via Flickr

Politics may not be your bag. You may find it all overwhelming and depressing these days. You may prefer to vote for ice-dancing celebrities than boring people in suits. But it is more important than ever that you vote in this year’s London elections on May 1.

It is more important than ever that you vote in this year’s London elections on May 1

Whether you love Red Ken, find Boris charmingly hilarious, or fancy the pants off Brian Paddick (I do, all of the above, oddly).

You don’t even have to vote for mayor, if you can’t stomach it. Write “screw you, New World Order” on your mayoral ballot. But vote in the London Assembly vote, and vote to keep out the BNP.

That means voting for anyone else. This is because the London Assembly has ‘proportional representation’: any party that gets 5% of first choice votes is in with a chance of an assembly seat under the system.

According to the BBC, at the last London elections the BNP got 4.8% of the vote and the party is confident it will get at least one seat this May. The BNP has tried hard to change their image and hide their white supremacist hate views. Check out Searchlight’s Stop the BNP site to learn about the real BNP and their candidates.

Your vote does count in the London elections. The more people vote, the less likely it is that extremest parties of all kinds will win seats. The BNP is working hard to get out every single voter that will support them. All we have to do to stop them is get out every single voter that will support anyone else!

You don’t even have to be a British citizen; if you are a Commonwealth or EU citizen you can also vote. You must register to vote, but you have lots of time until the April16 deadline. (Being on the register of voters also helps with things like loan and mortgage applications.)

If you have never voted before, this is your chance to vote and know that it will make a difference!

If you’ve ever peeped curiously through a gap in a boarded-up window or wondered why the building you pass every day is looking distinctly the worse for wear, this is very definitely the book for you.

The Independent Asylum Commission has released its report of the state of our asylum system, and they call it ’shameful’ and ’seriously below the standards to be expected of a humane and civilised society.’

Please let this be a wake-up to the fact that refugees are suffering in this country. Listening to the news, which helpfully points out any crime or allegation that involves an asylum seeker, you would think that they are the source of all of our problems. In fact, they suffering in a system that ‘combines incredible complexity with systemic incompetence.’ I’m talking about unlawful incarceration of families, children and torture survivors, combined with the hell of endless, fathomless court dates.

Humane treatment is simply what is needed.

Photo courtesy Independent Asylum Commission