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Red tape has given way to black marker tape for thousands of bemused civil servants as part of a £7 million paperclip revolution aimed at ensuring that they keep the tools of their trade in the right place.

Office workers have been given the tape to mark out where they should put their pens and pencils, their computer keyboards and to indicate where to place their phones.

“We had a situation in some offices in Scotland where staff were asked, ‘Is that banana on your desk active or inactive?’, meaning were they going to eat it? If not, it had to be cleared away.�

The scariest point in all this is that these kind of stories seem no longer out of the ordinary. The government seems to excel in finding pointless ways of spending money. It’s almost Lord Irvine’s wallpaper all over again, although seems ironic that wallpaper only cost £650K and black tape costs £7.4m.

tip: Times Online

“Captain Sensible, the 70s and 80s punk icon has started his own political party, The Blah! Party. He’s campaigning for no-nonsense, straight-talking politics and aims to become the biggest political party in the UK with over 300,000 members. He’s fed up with people marching on Westminster and then nothing happening, so he wants to take the politicians on, on their own turf. Come election time he wants people to vote for The Blah! Party and register a protest vote, then they’ll be forced to listen. Your support would really be appreciated and everybody else who is currently fed up with the state of British politics.”

You just can’t make this stuff up!

tip: Boing Boing

BBC is reporting on a warning over vodka snorting fad.

Bar staff said some people were “in tears” after trying the trend, while others reacted so quickly they were seen falling to the floor as a result of snorting the alcohol.

“It will get you drunk more quickly than drinking vodka, which of course is why some people do it but over time it will damage your nose.

Some people are just a tad stupid, I mean I wouldn’t go to the pub and think about snorting a pint of Boddy’s?!?!