Pop Buzz UK

Gordon Brown became Prime Minister on June 27th of 2007 when Tony Blair retired from his position as head of the British government.

Since then, the economy has taken a jolt, and there have been numerous problems for the dour Scot to overcome. But would the Beckhams really do a better job?

According to a survey commissioned by Current TV, the British people, or at least the 2,000 odd who gave their views on Britishness. would rather see David and Victoria lead the country than Gordon Brown.

The responders were asked: Who would be the worst people to run the country?

Ex-Big Brother contestant Jade Goody topped the poll with 24% of the vote, while junkie singer Amy Winehouse wasn’t far behind on 16%. In third place was Ex-Atomic Kitten singer Kerry Katona, with current Prime Minister Gordon Brown in fourth place on 11%.

Peter Andre and Katie Price received 9% of the votes while 6% felt the Beckhams would be the worst leaders of the UK. So by default, we’d prefer to have an over the hill footballer and a woman who has made a career out of not being able to sing in charge of the country rather than Brown himself!

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The X Factor Judges are at it again, trying to upstage the acts as usual, and this time, surprise surprise, it’s over money. For once Simon Cowell isn’t actually involved, as he’s sorted. He’s currently in the middle of a three year contract with ITV which sees him get paid £20 million. Nice work if you can get it.

The rest of the vultures though, Dannii Minogue, Sharon Osbourne & Louis Walsh, are after more money because they’ve been asked to work an extra day a week during the next series. Yes, that means 2 days a week instead of one… ah diddums.

Basically, because of the unexpected success of the BBC1 show, Strictly Come Dancing, the next series of The X Factor will run over two days a week instead of one, with the results show being moved from Saturday night to Sunday.

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Jeremy Beadle, the man best known for being a notorious television prankster, has sadly died of pneumonia in hospital at the age of 59. Beadle had previously battled cancer of the kidney, and then leukaemia, both of which he fought and beat, but died in hospital after contracting pneumonia and being admitted to hospital earlier this week.

The TV funnyman leaves behind wife Sue, daughters Cassie and Bonnie, and stepchildren Leo and Claire.

Beadle was born in Hackney, east London in 1948. He had an unsettled childhood, having to spend multiple times in hospital being treated for a rare genetic disorder called Poland syndrome. This condition stunted growth in his right hand, a disability for which he was mocked in later life.

He started a writing career after a number of different jobs came to nothing, and a career on radio and television beckoned. When he was young, he provided material for stars such as Terry Wogan, Noel Edmonds and Kenny Everett.

He became a well known celebrity in his own right after becoming a presenter on Game for a Laugh, where alongside Matthew Kelly, Henry Kelly and Sarah Kennedy, he would set members of the public up in small pranks.

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Noel Gallagher - What, who, where, when? I know he’s cool and all but I’m not sure that the Oasis guitarist and occasional singer deserves to top Zoo Magazine’s 2007 Coolest Blokes List.

The top 100 coolest men in the UK was voted for by Zoo readers, and Noel Gallagher did indeed top the list. In the process, he beat Doctor Who star David Tennant, David Beckham, Daniel Craig and Lewis Hamilton.

Gallagher is definitely the coolest member of Oasis, showing none of the false bravado and smugness of his younger brother Liam, who, incidentally came 22nd in the list.

The thing is, as good as Oasis are, they’re not the force in British music they once were, although last album Don’t Believe The Truth was a return to form. But then that came out in 2005, so can’t be counted for this poll.

Noel just pipped Liverpool, and England footballer Steven Gerrard to the top spot. David Tennant was in third, and latest James Bond Daniel Craig was in fourth.

David Beckham was a surprise fifth place, seeing as he’s moved to Los Angeles, been paid an absolute fortune and failed to live up to the hype. He also helped England fail to qualify for the Euro 2008 Championships, so I certainly wouldn’t have voted for him.

Becks even beat Lewis Hamilton, who could only make it in to sixth place, despite going from a nobody to just being pipped at the post for the Formula One world championships.

Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner made it in to the top ten, and deservedly so. Here is a man who has taken the success of his band in his stride, and gone from being an arkward young kid to a singer with pure class.

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I live in the UK, and at times it’s bloody depressing. It DOES rain all the time, we don’t seem to belong anywhere in the world, kind of being European, but not, having a friendship with America, but disagreeing fundamentally on some policies, crime is rising, immigration is continuing at a pace that our island is struggling with etc etc.

And it seems that I’m not the only one getting a bit down on the whole thing, as anti depression tablets are now being prescribed at a massive rate.

A News of the World study found that over 32 million anti depressant prescriptions are issued each year in Britain, which roughly translates to one every SECOND.

Middlesbrough, a town in the north east of England has it worse than anywhere else, with people fromt he area taking £7.58 worth of the drugs each per year.

The whole of the north east of England does badly, with neighbours Gateshead, Redcar, Cleveland, and Newcastle coming next on the list of the saddest places in the country.

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Michael Parkinson has been simultaneously interviewing the biggest celebrities, and delighting audiences around the world for over 30 years now, but every career has to come to an end, and Parkinson is no exception.

Earlier this year he announced, via his Radio 2 show, that he would be making this latest ITV1 series of his chat show, the last ever. So to commemorate the occasion there will be three specials to end his reign as the king of chat show hosts.

The second of the specials, to be shown on ITV1 on December 15th is the big one, as it comprises Michael Parkinson’s wish list of guests. He hand picked every person who would appear, a mixture from his many years, and people he looked up to, enjoyed interviewing, and counted as personal friends.

While filming the show, he is reported to have had to fight back tears, no surprise seeing as this seems to be Parky’s final bow in broadcasting, with him also quitting his radio show to write an autobiography and do some travelling.

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Oh dear, what a week that was for English sport. First of all we had the England football team putting in a shocking display and losing to a controversial penalty against Russia. A result which may lead to us not reaching the Euro 2008 finals, and also manager Steve McClaren being fired from his job. You can read the full post about that here.

Then on Saturday, England played South Africa in the Rugby World Cup final in Paris, and lost 15-6. Okay, we weren’t expected to reach the latter stages of the competition in the first place but once we’d reached the final there was a massive amount of expectation on the team. In the end it came to nothing as South Africa just managed to pip us at the post, quite literally.

It had started so well, and looked like carrying on the same vein until England had a sure try unjustly disallowed. It looked perfectly good to me as Cueto sailed in and stuck the ball over the line.

The television match official watched replay after replay before deciding that his foot had narrowly gone in to touch before the ball was down.

I’ve since watched the replay numerous times myself and still think it was too close to call a definite out. Surely we should have had the benefit of the doubt given?

The Springboks took over from then on, and in the end easily beat our boys.

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Ooh look at that, we even have a picture now! 451 has changed their rules for posting and so the weekly review has been changed a bit. I hope you like the new changes, please let me know by commenting!

Picture Of The Week: Is This Madeleine McCann Or Not?

Debating: Jose Mourinho’s Sudden Departure From Chelsea

Gossiping: David And Victoria Beckham Arriving Back In London

Reading: ‘Wintersmith’ by Terry Pratchett: Part Of The Discworld Series

Playing: ‘John Woo Presents Stranglehold’ On The Xbox 360 & Ps3

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Debating: The continuing saga of Madeleine McCann’s disappearance

Gossiping: Britney Spears’ continuing slide towards career oblivion

Reading: ‘Atonement’ by Ian McEwan ahead of seeing the film

Playing: Super Paper Mario on the Nintendo Wii

Viewing: The MOBO Awards in London on Wednesday

Watching: Still ‘Run, Fatboy, Run’ directed by David Schwimmer

Listening: The new James Blunt album ‘All The Lost Souls’

Buying: ‘Harry Potter & The Order Of The Phoenix’ DVD

Searching: ‘International Talk Like A Pirate Day’ Information

Learning: Zsa Zsa Gabor is related to Paris Hilton

Madeleine McCann, Britney Spears, Atonement, Ian McEwan, Super Paper Mario, Nintendo Wii, MOBO Awards, Amy Winehouse, Run Fatboy Run, David Schwimmer, James Blunt, All The Lost Souls, Harry Potter, Order Of The Phoenix, Talk Like A Pirate Day, Pirate, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Paris Hilton

Today saw the memorial service take place to commemorate 10 years since Princess Diana died in a car crash.

The memorial service took place at the Guards’ Chapel near Buckingham Palace with both Princes William and Harry in attendance.

Prince Harry said:-

“To lose a parent so suddenly at such a young age, as others have experienced, is indescribably shocking and sad,”

“It was an event which changed our lives forever, as it must have done for everyone who lost someone that night,”

“But what is far more important to us now and into the future is that we remember our mother as she would wish to be remembered, as she was: fun-loving, generous, down to earth and entirely genuine.”

The Bishop of London gave a sermon at the memorial and used it to call for an end to the sniping between Diana’s fans and detractors. The debate carries on as to how Diana died, and who was to blame. There is also continuing views and disagreements on how the Royal Family dealt with the event of Diana’s death in the days after it happened.

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Wow, what a few days it’s been in the Big Brother UK house! Starting with last Friday, when Charley the bitch was finally evicted, and this time there was no going back in the house.

She was up against Tracey in the public vote, and unsurprisingly got evicted with 86% of the vote. There were the obvious boos and hisses as she came out, and despite Davina claiming “It’s all panto” as she usually does, on this occasion I think the crowd actually meant. I know I was really pleased to see her out as she is pretty much the most vile house mate there has ever been in Big Brother.

Then straight after her eviction, Big Brother sent 5 new housemates in, but not to the main house, instead to a ‘Halfway House’, where they would stay until 2 of them got chosen by the main housemates to become fully fledged contestants.

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Debating: The continuing floods blighting the UK

Reading: Reviews of Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows

Playing: Transformers: The Game

Viewing: The Top 5 Phone Pranks on YouTube

Watching: The Transformers Movie

Listening: To Anyone But Rihanna

Buying: Kate Nash’ Catchy Single ‘Foundations’

Searching: The Lyrics for ‘Rehab’ by Amy Winehouse

Anticipating: The Spice Girls World Tour

Learning: There is an itch gene.

UK, Britain, England, Floods, Flooding, Transformers the game, Transformers the movie, Harry Potter, Phone Pranks, The Simpsons, Rihanna, Kate Nash, Amy Winehouse, The Spice Girls

Debating: The Smoking Ban which came in to effect July 1st

Reading: ‘Whitethorn Woods’ by Maeve Binchy

Playing: Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix

Viewing: The Live Earth concert from Wembley Stadium

Watching: ‘Shrek the Third’ starring that green ogre thingy

Listening: Jack Penate with ‘Torn on the Platform’

Buying: The Traveling Wilburys Collection album

Searching: ‘Cloverfield’, a new film by Lost’s JJ Abrams

Anticipating: The Enemy’s debut album ‘We’ll live & die in these towns’

Learning: Tony Blair proposed to Cherie while she was cleaning a loo.

Smoking, Smoking Ban, England, UK, Maeve Binchy, Harry Potter, The Order of the Phoenix, Live Earth, Wembley Stadium, Shrek the Third, Jack Penate, Torn on the Platform, The Traveling Wilburys, Cloverfield, Lost, JJ Abrams, The Enemy, Tony Blair, Cherie Blair

Debating: The foiled terrorist attacks in London and Glasgow.

Reading: ‘Marshmallows For Breakfast’ by Dorothy Koomson

Playing: ‘Forza Motorsport 2′ on the XBox 360

Viewing: The ‘Concert for Diana’ on BBC1 on Sunday

Watching: ‘Captivity’ starring Elisha Cuthbert

Listening: The Editors 2nd album ‘An End Has A Start’

Buying: ‘Scrubs’ Series 5 on DVD

Searching: ‘Grand Theft Auto IV’ Trailers

Anticipating: The last week of Wimbledon tennis championship

Learning: Peanuts can be made into diamonds.

London, UK, Terrorist, Terror Alert, Marshmallows for breakfast, Dorothy Koomson, Forza Motorsport 2, XBox 360, Concert for Diana, Captivity, Elisha Cuthbert, The Editors, An End Has A Start, Scrubs Series 5, DVD, Grand Theft Auto IV, Trailer, Wimbledon, Tennis, Peanuts, Diamonds

Debating: Whether Bernard Manning was brilliant or vile

Reading: ‘A Place Called Here’ by Cecilia Ahern

Playing: ‘Colin McRae: Dirt’ on XBox 360

Viewing: Glastonbury Festival coverage on BBC3

Watching: Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer

Listening: Maximo Park, Arctic Monkeys & Bloc Party at Glastonbury

Buying: The Editors 2nd album ‘An End Has A Start’

Searching: Transformers Trailers ahead of it’s cinema release

Anticipating: Harry Potter! The release date is approaching fast

Learning: 1,200 people are employed at Glastonbury to pick up rubbish

Bernard Manning, Cecilia Ahern, A Place Called Here, Colin McRae Dirt, XBox 360, Glastonbury, Festival, Fantastic Four, Rise Of The Silver Surfer, Maximo Park, Bloc Party, Arctic Monkeys, The Editors, An End Has A Start, Transformers, Harry Potter