Scott McCarthy BA

No minions, the initials after my name do not mean I have begun working for British Airwaves. They signify that, on Tuesday afternoon, Burgess Hills Favourite Minor Celebrity officially graduated from the University of Gloucestershire as a Bachelor of Arts

While most of my friends were able to call themselves graduates way back in the summer, for some unbeknown reason my university decided to wait until the very end of November to hold their ceremony and give out the certificates. This meant that it was freezing cold and the ceremony took place in the pissing snow. Far from ideal circumstances, I am sure you will agree. Anyway, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and here is McCarthy receiving his degree from some religious chap. Shortly before, when exiting the stage, my hat fell off.



In other news, the snow has caused an utter rape scene. No football this weekend, the usually reliable Mac Mobile stuck in the driverway and a delay in production of the Christmas video which I am pleased to say is finally available on the main mac-i site for your own enjoyment.

I am particularly happy with this years effort. It was a more challenging, slower song and this presented more problems along the way. However, each of the performers who were kind enough to lend their vocals to the track rose to the occasion marvelously. It is a true work of art. Much like Scott McCarthy BA

NUS Demolition - That was Fun

So, on Wednesday Burgess Hills Favourite Minor Celebrity and Chief Advisor Bert Lloyd decided to head to London and exercise our democratic right by protesting against the governments plans to treble tuition fees to up to £9000 a year. The irony of this is, of course, that neither of us are students anymore. And that I happen to agree in principal with the idea.

Currently, you pay £3000 a year and pay if off as a percentage of your wage when earning £15000 a year. While the plans involve whacking the price up a lot, the threshold by which you pay it off will increase to £21000 a year, and I believe the percentage per month will decrease. It did make somewhat of a mockery of the claims that the Conservatives are aiming to take the poor out of education - nope, they will still be paying the money for people to go to university so there will be no purge of the lower classes - it will merely mean they pay out more and you pay back more later when you are earning enough to do so.

Things began pleasantly enough, a nice march from Horse Guards Parade down to Westminster with around 30,000 other people was jolly good for a lunchtime stroll. It was when things got to Millbank that joy turned to confussion, as Bert and myself witnessed the storming of Conservative Party HQ. This was, in fairness, lead by red flag waving, masked socialists who were probably just looking for any excuse to kick off. Getting the students riled up though was easy, and they didn't help themselves by charging into the building, smashing windows and throwing eggs.

After around twenty minutes of watching this sorry sight unfold, McCarthy and Lloyd became bored and so decided to do what every trip to London must involve - visit a number of the capitals watering holes. This meant that, unfortunately, we didn't see it escalate to fires, people on the top of buildings and general carnage. No, we were too busy getting drunk.

Anyway, here is the small documentary video that we captured from our undercover position on the march, including when things turned nasty at Millbank: http://www.mac-i.co.uk/tv/nusdemo2010.html

If only the students had played up to stereotype and taken that attitude - then they wouldn't look like mindless thugs and lost a fair bit of sympathy from the working, tax paying people of Britain (and the unemployed. Like me)

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

An important set of lessons were learnt this weekend by Burgess Hills Favourite Minor Celebrity. Never get a haircut when drunk. Never ask a man who is drunk to carry out that hair cut. And never, ever get a man whoms eyesight is best described as shocking and whom you have spent many years taking the piss out of for being bald himself to do the deed.

Yes, in the early hours of Saturday morning I asked Andy Rumble to give me a "quick trim." This quick trim saw him shave a huge line of hair off the back and then an even bigger chunk out of the front. Once this had happened, there was really no choice (well, there was of course looking like Jimmy Saville, but that wasn't an option). It all had to go. The result being that, for the first time since the birth of Scott McCarthy, I am bald. Not entirely bald - there is still a thin coating of hair - but pretty much, shiny bonced.

What has been cut can be regrown though - and I have no doubts that my hair will rise once again to be the envy of all of Christandom. And if it doesn't, then the world of the Gail Porter look-a-like awaits

What's occurring?

Some of you may be wondering whether I have found a job yet. The answer, as the total overhaul of McCarthy Industries suggests, is a very simple no. The total redesign of the site has been my way of staving off the boredom that working for 8 hours a week in a petrol station brings to you. I am a 2:1 Bachelor of Arts, yet find myself unemployed. Fan-bloody-tastic

Tom McCarthy himself raised an interesting point the other day when he questioned why I don't sign on. Indeed, I could make more money on the dole than I do with my eight hours a week of work. The simple answer is that I do not wish to take the governments money if I am indeed able to hold down a job. Sadly, this is not true of my fellow human beings

The most amusing part about that is, of course, that these are normally the same people who support the BNP and complain that they can't get a job because of immigrants. A closer examination of the jobs that these chaps from foreign countries do indicates that this simply not true - for example, the dole-queuing Brit is unqualified as a doctor or in a manual trade, so can't have one of those jobs. And they think that, more often than not, jobs such as road sweeps, McDonalds workers, and dare McCarthy say it, petrol station employer is below them. The fact is listeners there are jobs out there but the unqualified person believes themselves to be better than it - and so they remain on benefits (thankfully, this trend looks like it is going to be resolved by George Osborne and the cuts to the welfare state which are frankly well overdue)

This is, from the point of view of a BA with a 2:1 degree, very frustrating. Depressing even. But, we must nonetheless soldier on in the vain hope that, one day, a position will become available and I begin to pay back my debt to society in terms of the large sums of money owed thanks to student grants. And if not, then expect McCarthy Industries to have another total overhaul in about two months time

Leon Knight on the Phone

My latest financial crisis has seen, for the first time in about three years, Burgess Hill's Minor Celebrity not go out at all this weeked. This lead to one of the more bizarre moments of my life, when on Saturday night I had a ten minute phone call with Leon Knight

Leon was top scorer when Brighton and Hove Albion won promotion to the Championship in 2003-04, including slotting the penalty that won the play-off final against Bristol City at the Millennium Stadium. Since then, his career has gone downhill quicker than a wheelchair carrying a man with no arms to pull the brakes, and he now finds himself clubless after being released by Queen of the South up in Scotland.

To cut a long story short, Mr Knight is somewhat hated by the majority of Albion fans, so naturally it seemed a good idea to interview him for our podcast, the Albion Moan In. For somebody who back in the day came across as a totally arrogant prick, he was suprisingly nice on the phone. You can read the interview and listen to the audio HERE

In other news, McCarthy will finally achieve a life times dream this Saturday when he flies to the Motherland, Russia. A four day stay in the capital of Moscow is argubaly going to be the best week on Burgess Hill's Favourite Minor Celebrity's life, with activites including Red Sqaure, some sort of football game, drinking a hideous amount of vodka (which McCarthy absolutely hates!) and, ultimately, seeing the embalmed body of Vladimir Lenin. Excited doesn't quite cover it!