steverogerson

Here's my review of The Forgotten by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright, the new Blake's 7 novel from Big Finish:

The Forgotten review

The Radio Times is running a poll for the best ever TV ending and B7 is in the shortlist. Vote here:

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2012-05-01/what%27s-the-best-tv-ending-of-all-time

The decision of whether or not to vote for having an elected mayor in Nottingham bugged right down to the wire. When I walked into the polling station, I didn't know how I was going to vote. When I stood, pencil in hand looking at the voting slip, I didn't know how to vote.

In the end, I voted for having an elected mayor and was pleased when the result was announced an hour ago that we'd voted against. Maybe I need therapy.

We have a referendum coming up on Thursday on whether or not to have an elected mayor for Nottingham. Now, I must admit I haven't really followed the history of how this came about, so I have missed all the background. On the face of it, it sounded a good idea to have a mayor elected by the people rather than one by just the councillors. However, the local Labour party seems to be running a campaign for sticking with what we have got. The problem is that the leaflets they put out are full of a lot of sensationalist headlines and without any reasoned arguments.

A lot of their concentration for example is that having an elected mayor will cost £1m, but it doesn't say how much it costs to have a leader elected by the councillors and why it would cost more to have the mayor elected. It also doesn't say anything about what extra powers a mayor might have compared with the leader elected by the councillors. And they make a big play of the fact that the mayor might be of a different party to the majority of the elected councillors, but if that's what people vote for then that is what they want.

I am still twiddling my thumbs over this so would appreciate any comments from people who have looked at the pros and cons of this in more detail.

A review of Dark Storm by Sarah Singleton

Review of Dark Storm by Sarah Singleton

The BBC's Scottish lesbian drama Lip Service returns for a second series on Friday 20 April 2012. Here's my preview:

Lip Service Series 2 Preview

My preview of the Australian Grand Prix:

Australian Grand Prix preview

Here's my preview of season two of Scott & Bailey, which includes a look at the show's lesbian subtext:

Scott & Bailey Series Two Preview

Here's my review of the first Blake's 7 CD box set from Big Finish:

Review of The Liberator Chronicles

It has been a fairly stressful week but for a nice reason. I had a load of work that I needed to get finished by today as tomorrow I am setting off early for Manchester Airport and flying to Florida on a work trip. I've never been to Florida before - I'll be based at a place called Cocoa Beach - so I am looking forward to it, especially as the trip will include a visit to the Kennedy Space Centre.

My aeroplane book is Lethe by Tricia Sullivan.