The joy of extracts

To continue today's theme of excellent news extracts...

UK military spokesman Major Mike Shearer said: "We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area."

Full story here.

Warning to all iPod users?

Given the weather we're having at the moment, this story is perhaps even more worrying that it otherwise would be. The report (of someone being struck by lightening whilst listening to his iPod) contains the quite wonderful phrase:

"The victim had earphones on and had been sweating from jogging so this was a case of disrupted flashover and the earphones transmitted the electrical current into his head"

Ouch.

Tory defects to Lib Dems in Ealing

Not good news for DC's Ealing by-election team today with the news that the Deputy Chairman of the local Conservative Party has defected to the Liberal Democrats.

Brij Mohan Gupta is protesting at the imposition of an outside candidate against the wishes of the local party (sound familiar), so expect the Tory A-List bloggers to ignore this one.

A quick quote from Mr Gupta:

"This by-election reflects Mr Cameron's contempt for local Conservative members. His spin doctors ignored our wishes and forced the branch to accept someone whose commitment to the party is less than a week old. Almost all local Conservative party members feel like I do.

"When Mr Cameron came to Ealing Southall he did not have a single local official with him.

"The Conservative candidate cannot win in Ealing Southall. As the last General Election showed it is the Liberal Democrats who are challenging Labour here.

"I am backing Nigel Bakhai, who will be Ealing Southall's next MP."