Stansted, Hannibal and Blues

Essex police face a £2m shortfall in their budget because Stansted Airport refuses to meet the cost of policing itself. Stansted claims it doesn't require the extra police, so Essex police should do the decent thing and comply with its wishes. If Stansted is correct then nothing has been lost; if it's wrong then hopefully when it complains about a lack of protection it will be forced to pay the extra money being demanded for better protection.

Look out for Alexander Siddig on Sunday night on BBC1 playing the titular Hannibal in a new BBC drama. Siddig was as eloquent as ever when interviewed on BBC Breakfast this morning (the interview will appear here later if it's not already up) - he may be best known as playing Doctor Julian Bashir in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, but the Essex boy* clearly knows his stuff and it was an interesting interview that revealed a lot about Hannibal and the times. Interesting to see that Kenneth Cranham - who played Pompey in BBC2's recent Rome - provided the voice-over narration.

*Siddg was actually born in the Sudan, but brought up in the UK. His uncle is Brit actor Malcolm McDowell

The Daily Mail claims that Olivier Tebily and Julian Gray were the two Blues players who refused to play on Sunday. If this is true, then something is seriously wrong behind the scenes at St Andrews. Tebily would walk through a brick wall to play football, and I wonder if the pair refused to play to protect niggling injuries that have plagued them recently. Steve Bruce has become too fond of picking players who aren't fully fit, then wondering why they break down again while the team stutters and fails to find any rhythm. I can see him slapping Matthew Upson on the transfer list next August when Upson refuses to play because he's still on crutches...

[Listening to: Human - The Human League]