Dear Chief Secretary to the Treasury,
I'm afraid to tell you there's no money left.
Signed, Liam Byrne

(Outgoing Labour Chief Secretary to the Treasury. May 2010)
.
.

Tuesday, 6 April 2010

Gordon's manifesto

Mrs Rigby wasn't going to vote for them anyway, but she thought they might at least try to change her mind.

This, from the Guardian, doesn't offer even the faintest glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. It's an utter farce - from a political party that's been in government for thirteen long years we get this as their 'draft' manifesto.

Perhaps they've realised we all know they can break their promises, and do things they didn't bother to mention, so they've come up with this lengthy list of promises and pledges :-
• Provisions for the management of inefficient police forces to be taken over by efficient forces. "Where service is not good enough, it will be taken over by the best," the draft says.

• Simultaneous referendums on a new voting system for the Commons and a 100% elected second chamber.

• A national youth service alongside votes at 16.

• Rights for football supporters to take over football clubs.

• A living wage of £7.60 in Whitehall, funded by a cap on the salaries of the most highly paid public sector employees.
So, they want kids still in school to be able to vote, but they can't drink till they're 18 and can't buy alcohol till they're 25 - and they think these same kids will like the idea of a compulsory youth service, where they'll be told what to do.

These are the same kids who now have the right to be on staff interview panels, and who can text school's senior management if they don't like the way a lesson's going.

They reckon one Police Force is better than another? Wrong - they're all useless, thanks to the target-led culture. What'll happen? Manchester Constabulary, for example, will take over Norfolk? Hardly likely, not in a million years.

What'll happen, if they have their way, is they'll all merge to one super-state force, led by Whitehall and ACPO - and that'll be the end of any civil liberties, anywhere in Britain.

They reckon the most pressing 'need' for the electorate is voting reform, and they reckon we believe we'll get a referendum - just like Lisbon.

They reckon the most pressing public need is to run a football club.

They think people on the national minimum wage of £5.80 won't mind seeing their counterparts working in Whitehall getting a pay rise of almost £2 an hour. That's just the ones in Whitehall, not the rest of London, not the south east, not the home counties - nobody else in the most expensive part of Britain will get Mr Brown's pay rise. Talk about selective.

You really couldn't make it up, could you?

Oh, and ...
"Brown's team promised his campaign will be distinguished by meetings in canteens, living rooms and town halls. "
Whoopee blimmin doo!

He probably won't be bothering to try to meet anybody in Rigby Town - the Town Hall's up for sale for redevelopment, and there aren't any canteens left because all the factories have gone, thanks to him and his.

As for the slogan
"GB on the road campaign"
Hmmpf!

Suppose he's lucky his initials just happen to match the abbreviation for Great Britain, or maybe he always thought it was his destiny.

Maybe it'd be better to tell them it's a wonderful manifesto, then they won't change it!

Too late in the day to say any more, but Mrs R can't imagine she'll see this any differently in the clear light of day.
....

Sunday, 4 April 2010

Easter according to St John

John 20:1 (NRSV)
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Mag'dalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb.
2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him."
3 Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb.
4 The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.
5 He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in.
6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there,
7 and the cloth that had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself.

8 Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed;
9 for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.
10 Then the disciples returned to their homes.

11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb;
12 and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet.
13 They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him."

14 When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus.
15 Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away."
16 Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbou'ni!" (which means Teacher).
17 Jesus said to her, "Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, "I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"

18 Mary Mag'dalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"; and she told them that he had said these things to her.


....

Simnel Cake

A Simnel Cake is a 'traditional' cake, these days it's eaten on Easter Sunday.

It's a light fruit cake. The very best ones are home made and are baked with a circular layer of marzipan through the middle of the cake. Once baked and cooled, the top of the cake is decorated with a layer of marzipan and eleven marzipan balls round the outside edge - to represent the 'True Apostles'.

Picture from UtterTrivia

Some people toast the top of the cake, others sprinkle it with icing sugar.

Want to have your own? The easiest way is to buy a ready-made fruit cake, top it with marzipan and pop it under the grill for a few minutes.

Delia has a recipe, but includes an iced topping, which isn't strictly correct. Nigella has one too.

There are some interesting stories here and here

It would seem that the Simnel Cake was originally linked with Mothering Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Lent, which was when, according to this site, people took offerings to the Mother Church.
‘I’ll to thee a Simnell bring
‘Gainst thou go’st a mothering,
So that, when she blesseth thee,
Half that blessing thou’lt give to me.’

Robert Herrick 1648
Here's an extract from Wikipedia (treat with the usual caution)
A religious festival celebrating motherhood had existed in Europe since Neolithic times. In the Roman religion the Hilaria festival was held in honour of the mother goddess Cybele and it took place during mid-March. As the Roman Empire and Europe converted to Christianity, this celebration became part of the liturgical calendar as Laetare Sunday, the fourth Sunday in Lent to honour the Virgin Mary and the "mother church".

During the sixteenth century, people returned to their mother church for a service to be held on Laetare Sunday. This was either a large local church, or more often the nearest Cathedral. Anyone who did this was commonly said to have gone "
a-mothering", although whether this preceded the term Mothering Sunday is unclear.

In later times, Mothering Sunday became a day when domestic servants were given a day off to visit their mothers and other family members. It was often the only time that whole families could gather together, since in other days they were prevented by conflicting working hours.
....

Friday, 2 April 2010

UOTC numbers fall by more than 50%

What a suprise!

According to the BBC
The number of students joining the Army Officer Training Corps has more than halved since their pay was withdrawn as part of a cost-cutting programme.
A BBC reporter kindly, and often erroneously, explains (my bold):
The army's University Officer Training Corps offers first year students the chance to train alongside the Territorial Army at least one night a week with no obligation to join the forces afterwards.

They were paid a small sum for a weekly drill and up to £60 per day while taking part in military exercises.

But at the end of last year the payments were ended as part of a £54m cost-cutting scheme.

Senior army officials removed all but travel and subsistence costs.

The figures, released by the government in a written Commons answer, showed that in February 2009, 2,946 students took part in the scheme compared with 1,387 in the same month this year. The monthly average for last year was 2,250.
Let's unpick this a bit, and also note the suggestion that around 2,000 UOTC Cadets previously cost the MoD a whopping £54m.

First of all this appears to be the question and answer the BBC refers to, dated 16th Mar 2010 : Column WA362
Asked by Lord Astor of Hever
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many officer cadets serving in the Officers' Training Corps (a) regularly attended training prior to the suspension of their pay, and (b) regularly attend training currently. [HL2596]

The Minister for International Defence and Security (Baroness Taylor of Bolton):
The number of officer cadets serving in the University Officers Training Corps (UOTC) that regularly attended training prior to the temporary suspension of pay was 2,250. This is the average attendance figure for October 2009. The average attendance figure for February 2010 was 1,387.

UOTC attendance patterns are to some degree predictable. For example, many first-year students do not sustain their interest in cadet activities beyond the first term. Second term attendance figures are therefore always lower. Attendance is also usually weak during examination periods.
We'll look at those figures later, but first let's backtrack to, and correct, things mentioned in the BBC article.

"first year students"?
A moment or two on the Army's UOTC information pages will show:-
The basic requirements you must meet to join us are that you must have 2 years of an undergraduate degree left to study, be a full time student in our catchment area, satisfy our medical, fitness, and nationality requirements, and be selected on our selection board (September/October).
alongside the Territorial Army
Nope!
Even though UOTC is classed as part of the TA for funding, and some TA staff will train UOTC, cadets rarely come into contact with TA proper.
OTC members are classed as Officer Cadets (OCdt) and are "Group B" members of the Territorial Army, paid when on duty. As part of "Group B" they are neither trained nor liable for mobilised (active) service.
UOTC training offers a carefully worked out three year syllabus (Army link).

"up to £60"?
Nope!
The rates of pay for OCdts varies between £35 and £57 a day depending on time served and qualifications/rank gained.
The maximum amount that could be paid for " ... training over 8 hours and proportional rates are awarded for specific shorter periods" - to those who are suitably qualified. Bear in mind that a weekend exercise covers more than 16 hours.

All these payments were removed, every penny. UOTC cadets have not received any wages since returning to their training in October 2009, and nor have some of their trainers.

"Senior army officials"
Who, in the Army, is expected to make decisions? Would they expect a private, fresh out of initial training, to have the nous to make fairly crucial financial decisions?

The Army was given a budget, an allowance, for the juniors then that budget was reduced. Somebody, or a group of people, had to make drastic cuts yet also try to be able to function as an organisation.

They had to make the least worst cuts - something that no other department has been forced to make, and which no other department has been willing to volunteer, and they did it without shouting from the rooftops too, it's been down to others to state their case in Parliament and on blogs and on internet forums.

The armed forces are not allowed to make ripples. Mrs R understands that no member of any branch of the regular forces is allowed to be an active member of any political party (for obvious reasons) - but this government seems to believe that every soldier and every army officer is a potential Tory voter, and treats the Army with derision and contempt - including the junior volunteers.

Mr Brown has even lied to Chilcot and Parliament when asked about overall military spending, whether this was because he was ashamed of being spendthrift during a war, or whether he was deliberately trying to hide the truth, is something we will never know.

So, yes, UOTC travel and subsistence costs were removed by the Army, the decision was made by Senior Army Officials, but it was made only because MoD funding was taken away from the junior volunteer services at the same time as it was removed from TA. This was a 'least worst' cut they could make.

Funding for TA was, in part, reinstated, but it was not reinstated for UOTC or ACF. The Army merely tried to keep UOTC (and ACF) going, against all the odds. The financial effects are confirmed in this response to a written question/answer 5th January 2010:-
Mr. [Mark] Lancaster: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what categories of service personnel train at the Officer Training Corps; and which of those categories (a) receive and (b) do not receive payment while undertaking such training. [307272]

Bill Rammell: The categories of service personnel involved in training at the Officer Training Corps are as follows:

Permanent Staff Regular Army staff;
Permanent Staff Group A Territorial Army (TA) staff; and
Territorial Army (TA) Group B Officer Cadets (Students).

Following the temporary in-year savings measures introduced in October 2009, the only categories currently receiving pay are Regular Army personnel, group A TA staff and those group B officer cadets who are TA second lieutenant instructors delivering military leadership development programme levels 1, 2 and 3 training. Bursars are receiving their bursars grants but are unpaid for officer cadet activity.

All remaining officer cadets have temporarily had their pay suspended.
Bear in mind, if you will, that the UOTC 'year' commences in October.

Freshers' Fairs are at the end of September/beginning of October, selection is at least a couple of weeks later. The cuts were announced at the end of October - after selection, so new recruits may well have thought they'd been duped, tricked into applying for what they thought was a good 'job' only to find it offered no wage for at least six months.

It would appear that the timing was carefully chosen, to have maximum impact and to demoralise new recruits who would find it almost impossible to attend UOTC meetings - because they couldn't afford to get to the training centre, but it hasn't worked, because some of them have been so enthusiastic that they've gone without other things (e.g. food) in order to be able to get to their training.

These are, you must remember, young people who are away from home for the first time in their lives, who have to fend for themselves and make their own choices and decisions. Most first year university students are 18 years old - and this is how government treats them. Compare this with how the feckless and fecund are showered with money.

Fair play to Mark Lancaster, he's been plugging away with similar questions again, and again, and so have other MPs, but they don't get a straight answer to a question. All they get are more fudged numbers trying to make things look good, on the surface, whilst their empty words are kept as a permanent record of broken promises, written down in Hansard for all to see, and cross-reference.

Here's another example dated 22 March 2010. (A mere seven days after the Lords answer quoted above, which gave the February 2010 figure of 1,387 UOTC Cadets)
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what recent discussions he has had on (a) the funding and (b) the participation of students in officer training corps units at universities; and if he will make a statement. [322613]

Mr. Kevan Jones: The Government fully recognise the value of the University Royal Naval Units, The Officer Training Corps, The University Air Squadrons and the Defence Training Undergraduate Scheme. They allow individuals to develop skills that are extremely valuable in a future career either within the armed forces or without.

Each of the services is looking at how best to support the University Training Units; until those decisions are finalised I cannot speculate about future funding levels.

No University Training Units have closed as a result of changes to funding during this financial year. Despite some reduction in attendance by Officer Cadets at University Officer Training Corps they remain oversubscribed against their establishment. The average actual strength in 2009 was around 3,500. This is against an establishment figure of 2,946.
The Defence Undergraduate Training Scheme, for example, is a completely different thing, and 'actual strength' includes the funded URNU and ACF alongside UOTC.

Note Kevan Jones' very careful use of language, suggesting there are too many enthusiastic undergraduates and too many UOTC centres, more than they want - so a little hint that funding can be further reduced? After all, UOTC has carried on without any money, so they don't really need it.

Kevan Jones' staff knew the exact numbers, and he should have to explain why he quoted figures from 2009, not 2010.

The numbers he should have quoted are written down - it's something the Army does particularly well, and it's a good habit because it means they don't lose anybody in a dangerous place and then have to waste time trying to find them again.

Also, Bill Rammell quoted figures in a written answer in January 2010 when he also said, as earlier quoted :
A number of UOTC commanders have reported reduced attendance since the suspension of cadet pay.
It's hardly surprising is it?

People doing voluntary work tend to get paid expenses, and their 'work' is protected by laws and rules, these rules apply to students who carry out voluntary work - nobody is exempt.

It's hard to imagine that anybody truly expects even the most decent and reliable undergraduate - who, if English, is already burdened with huge compulsory debts to pay for hefty tuition fees and accommodation/subsistence - to pay (out of their overdraft) for being a member of a voluntary group, to fund their own travel to a designated meeting place that could be 50+ miles from their own University, and to give up evenings and weekends also for free?

Bill Rammell thinks they should, because he also said, in January 2010
Our intention is to restore cadet pay in the next financial year and we hope that the majority of officer cadets will be able to ride out this temporary difficulty.
What other sector of the population has quietly, and without a fuss, tried to "ride out this temporary difficulty"? Certainly not MPs, whose generous expense allowances would more than adequately cover the costs of UOTC. Certainly not the wannbe-striking rail workers and certainly not Unite members of BA.

Looking aside, briefly, at ACF, which tends to draw from the poorer sections of the community. Many of these young people would, at university, aim to join the more senior voluntary group - UOTC. This suggests that all UOTC members are not from wealthy families.

The UOTC (and ACF) appear to be being treated as a very special case by this government, and seems to be being deliberately starved of cash.

We're already into the next financial year but there's been no announcement regarding reinstating of UOTC funding - just the BBC article that hints at how well-off UOTC cadets used to be, and how few of them there are now.

It's a pity that the BBC is so often used to soften up the public before an unpleasant government announcement.

Despite the government's best efforts, and despite the government continuing to fund both the URNU (Navy) and UAC (Air Force), over 1,300 young men and women continued with their UOTC training.

These young people should be applauded, because they are both dedicated and determined to succeed - against all odds.
....

Parsley

There are all sorts of 'old wives' or folk tales about parsley, including that it should be sown on Good Friday (when the Devil's busy). The idea has recently come back into fashion, but not for any religious significance.

We're told that seeds work with the seasons, they react to natural forces and one of the most powerful of nature's forces is the Moon. It regulates the tides and can do the most weird things to people too, but that's by the by.

Apparently if parsley seeds are sown as close to a full moon as possible they germinate more quickly - other seeds need other phases of the lunar cycle. If you read Guide to planting by the moon or Planting by the Moon Phases you'll learn far more than Mrs Rigby can tell you in one short blog post.

And if you'd like to know why Good Friday was chosen as a good day to plant parsley you'll see that it matches a full moon, because the church calendar sets the date of Easter according to the lunar calendar, as follows :
Easter Sunday is the Sunday following the Paschal Full Moon (PFM).

In June 325 A.D. astronomers approximated astronomical full moon dates for the Christian church, calling them Ecclesiastical Full Moon (EFM) dates.

From 326 A.D. the PFM date has always been the EFM date after March 20 (which was the equinox date in 325 A.D.).
Yep, it's a bit wordy, but that doesn't matter too much as it's enough of an explanation.

If you don't believe sowing seeds according to the Lunar calendar works then why not try a little experiment. Sow some parsley seeds now, or tomorrow, or on Easter Sunday and sow some more in at weekly intervals until you've used up the whole packet. See which germinate first.

You might be surprised - we Rigbys were last year, but aren't sure if the same will happen this year because it's so blimmin cold and we don't trust this new-fangled lunar science thingy - at least not yet.
....

Not a good Friday?

The day after Mr Brown
praised Catholicism for often being the "conscience of the nation"
it is reported that
Britain’s most senior Catholic admits ‘evil’ clergy abuse has led to ‘great public humiliation’ of [the] Church
and
the cover-up of “evil” paedophilia by senior clergy “brings shame on us all”
Phew.

Cranmer perhaps explains the timing of the church's announcement, by suggesting that
Christians endure what Josephus referred to as ‘that most wretched of deaths’ on Good Friday because of the sure and certain hope of the Resurrection: it sustains them through the despair.
So, maybe, the Catholic Church is trying to do the right thing by letting this announcement be published on Good Friday, the most holiest of days.

On the other hand, Mrs Rigby doesn't think Mr Brown's words are more than a cynical attempt to garner votes from a section of the population, and a cynical attempt to link with what he knows has been bad news for the Catholic faith. Mr Brown was, perhaps even hinting they are the epitome of evil Britishness - he tends to do things like that, and says things that can be taken in more than one way.

Mr Brown is, as are his wife and children, a member of the Calvinist Presbyterian Church of Scotland. He worships at St Bryce Kirk in Kirkaldy, where his father, Rev John Brown, was a Minister.

Mrs Rigby thinks Mr Brown should remain true to his religious persuasion, even in public life, to do otherwise suggests a lack of confidence in his belief.
....

Thursday, 1 April 2010

Unite imposes £700k fund-raising levy

Mrs Rigby thought she heard this mentioned on the radio the other day, but as she wasn't listening properly she thought she might have imagined it, however the story was carried by BBC on 29th March.

It appears that Unite union is to raise £700,000, and is planning to do this by imposing a levy of approximately £230 on each branch.

The money is, according to BBC, needed to pay £60 to each of the union members who were balloted (i.e. not necessarily only those who took strike action).

BBC quotes Mr Woodley as saying:
"This is an unprecedented move and it shows that Unite is absolutely determined to give our members all the support they deserve in winning this battle against ... BA"
Yes, it is unprecedented, and Mrs Rigby thinks it's a most peculiar thing for a union to do, especially as it's been in receipt of quite a bit of public money and appeared to be fairly wealthy - see here (about Union fees) and here (government funding).

Mrs Rigby thinks Unite must, surely, have made sure they had enough in their coffers to fund strike action so quite naturally wonders why they need this additional income - and need to raise it quickly.

The Mail carries a similar story but says
A proposal for a mandatory 2 per cent levy for the next quarter to support the BA strikers was approved by the union's general executive
and goes on to say that the money would
... go on strike pay and other ways of supporting union members involved in the dispute
Okay, fair enough, but the BBC reckons it would only be enough to give the strikers £60 each. Assuming the numbers quoted by Unite are correct - 12,000 strikers - it leaves them £20,000 short and doesn't allow for any of these extras.

But the Guardian 29th March said
Unite, which is paying cabin crew £30 a day, has agreed to pay crew for the duration of their roster duty if they walked out on a long-haul shift. Its main cabin crew branch, Bassa, has incurred expenses by hiring football club premises near Heathrow as strike headquarters and leasing minibuses to drive striking crew members to picket lines around the airport.
Mrs Rigby scents a large rodent - the figures simply don't add up and who, these days, can expect to pay their household bills (including mortgage etc) on the £30 a day quoted by the Guardian?

£30 a day is less than minimum wage.

Is the union out of touch with reality?

This isn't the 1970s and these people aren't impoverished labourers - and to be honest, £30 is a bit of an insult. These BA staff are used to earning considerably more than £30 a day, more than £60 a day too and are probably used to a fairly decent standard of living and are likely to have fairly high living costs.

So, will there be a next swathe of action? Can the union afford it? Can the strikers afford it?

As an aside, Mrs Rigby doesn't, actually, like what these pictures from the Mail show. It may be that these pictures indicate that the strikers aren't necessarily 'wealthy' enough to pay for decent childcare during industrial action

Children should have no place on, or near, the picket line, but their parent(s) and/or carers must have thought it was a reasonable place to spend a day out - either that or the children had nowhere else to go.

It would be interesting to know what Social Services would say if one of the parents/carers was a smoker as well as a striker.


....

Immigration

Borrowed from The Last of The Few
If you cross the North Korean border illegally you get 12 years hard labour.

If you cross the Iranian border illegally you are detained indefinitely.

If you cross the Afghan border illegally, you get shot.

If you cross the Saudi Arabian border illegally you will be jailed.

If you cross the Chinese border illegally you may never be heard from again.

If you cross the Venezuelan border illegally you will be branded a spy and your fate will be sealed.

If you cross the Cuban border illegally you will be thrown into political prison to rot.

If you cross the UK border illegally you get :-
1 - A Job,
2 - A Driving Licence,
3 - Social Security Number,
4 - Welfare,
5 - Family Credit,
6 - Credit cards,
7 - Subsidized rent or a loan to buy a house,
8 - Free education,
9 - Free health care,
10 - A lobbyist in parliament
11 - Billions of £'s worth of public documents printed in your language
12 - And the right to carry your own country’s flag while you protest that you don’t get enough respect
Although all the listed benefits offered by UK might not be available to all immigrants from some parts of the world it would appear it's generally correct, especially for those who arrive here with nothing, and could perhaps be one of the reasons why Mr Brown deliberately chose to fudge the figures a bit in a podcast he made, which led to Sir Michael Scholar of the UK Statistics Authority sending him a letter of complaint. Which in turn led to a Downing Street spokesman saying
“We accept that some of the statistics used in the Prime Minister’s podcast were not strictly comparable and as a result were unclear,”
Unclear?

Mrs Rigby thinks deliberately so, therefore deliberate obfuscation.

P.S.
(2nd April)
Mrs Rigby has noticed that Ken at PopeHat offers up to date guidance for Potential Immigrants To The United Kingdom.
....

How to make up a Prime Minister.

How to make up a Prime Minister in four easy steps
1. Transparent Brush. Foam all over.
(This is believed to be an illuminating foam to give the PM's face that certain glow.)

2. Small pot under eyes, dimple, creases, blend in.
(This refers to the use of concealer to smooth out facial bumps and blemishes.)

3. Clinique. Super balanced make-up.
(All over again, like painting a wall, and ears. Shut eyes over lids then with make-up pad smooth over liquid. This tells the PM to trowel foundation over his whole face.)

4. Powder (dark brush) terracotta Guerlain, all over.
(Slap on fake tan bronzer.)
No no, don't shake your heads in disbelief. This is real, even though today is April 1st.

A pile of documents was left in a taxi way back in May 2009. The taxi driver, naturally, passed the documents to the Sun, who wrote an article and then passed the file back to the Prime Minister, who persuaded a "No10 spokesman" to say:
"The bag was accidentally left by a junior member of staff. We thank The Sun for returning it. The PM, like everyone on TV, is required to wear make-up."
But is everybody who goes on TV expected to wear quite as much?

Found via Iain Dale
....

Brownbirds.

Harriet Harman has announced the latest bit of meddling, gender-equalising, vote-hunting, legislation, and has decreed that in future the common name for Turdus merula, the Blackbird, which is named after the black feathers of the male of the species, shall be called the Brownbird - after the female, which is a errm, a dull brown brown colour that blends quite nicely with the background when she's sitting on a nest.

(Images from BBC) The male is on the left, the female on the right - feeding the fledgeling.

Harriet Harman has also said she thinks this renaming is particularly appropriate
because it will be a lasting memorial to the current Prime Minister, Mr Gordon Brown.
Source
....