Visiting South Kensington this afternoon, I was puzzled to see people queuing around the block. The line went on so far I couldn’t see where it ended, or, therefore, the reason for it.

On my way back, I noticed the French flag hanging from a building near the back of the queue and realised the people were French voters waiting to cast their votes at the embassy for the French presidential election. This was confirmed by a Frenchman overheard commenting, “If the queue is that long, I won’t bother voting.”

And here they are:

The American administration has done some dumb things, along which invading Iraq stands tall. Although the President declared “Mission accomplished” soon afterwards, it’s fair to say there are still a few sceptics on both sides of the Atlantic. One of the US Government’s plans to win people over was to release onto teh internets a host of Iraqi documents that predated the invasion. They hoped that the internet people would help to translate these and would come across something incriminating that would retrospectively prove their war justified.

Unfortunately, according to the New York Times, in their haste, they managed to put online information on how to build an atomic bomb.

The government had received earlier warnings about the contents of the Web site. Last spring, after the site began posting old Iraqi documents about chemical weapons, United Nations arms-control officials in New York won the withdrawal of a report that gave information on how to make tabun and sarin, nerve agents that kill by causing respiratory failure.

Good work, guys. The West is saved once again. (Via dKos.)

I was planning to watch the second episode of the annoyingly-titled The Amazing Mrs Pritchard this evening to see what all the fuss was about, but now I see that More 4 is starting to show flaccid American drama Commander in Chief tonight at exactly the same time. Having caught an episode before (in the way one catches a cold, which coincidentally I had at the time) I’m not expecting great things, but I’m tempted to take a look at the first episode to see if it started any better. (Oh – they appear to be making a TV movie.)

In a similar vein to Mrs Pritchard, opening this Friday in the US and appealing to those who think that Jon Stewart should become President with Stephen Colbert as his running mate (look at the comment on Daily Show clips on YouTube – these people do exist) is Man of the Year , a film about a non-politician who runs for President. Except rather than being a female supermarket manager he’s a male Daily Show style comedian. No idea when the film will open in the UK – not for a while at least, so you’ll have to settle for Jane Horrocks and Geena Davis for the moment.