Sky News shows tomorrow's front pages. I think the Archbishop has got off lightly: Express: 'MUSLIM LAWS MUST COME TO BRITAIN' - Fury at call for sharia courts by Archbishop of Canterbury The Sun: WHAT A BURKHA What chance a decent debate with those sorts of headlines No chance of the Sun printing his whole lecture, I suppose 
Linda Jack has already started a Facebook group to stop Tony Blair becoming the President of the EU council. Now the European Tribune has started a petition on the subject. I have just become the 5,655th signatory. On Today this morning, Sir Malcolm Rifkind said that the President of the EU Council does not have any power whatsoever and is purely ceremonial and will only allow the occupant to
Labour have held in the Butt Lane ward by-election in Newcastle-under-Lyme despite a strong challenge from the Liberal Democrats
On Today this morning, Labour MP Denis MacShane said "John Major was a Conservative. Tony Blair is sort of Labour". Great epitaph that, wouldn't it be TONY BLAIR SORT OF LABOUR
The first episode of the spin-off series of Life on Mars was on this evening and it proved a worthy successor to the earlier programme. I knew it was going to be a sure-fire hit when a couple of pseuds dismissed it on Newsnight Review last Friday and it lived up fully to its billing. The news series was followed on BBC4 by the very last episode of Life on Mars, which once again wowed me, made me laugh and made me wince with horror at how truly awful1973 was, even though I was only 4 at the time. It ...
I am just trying to rouse myself. I have just dosed off while reading the full text of the Archbishop of Canterbury's lecture entitled Civil and religious law in England: a religious perspective. His arguments are intricate and elaborate. So much so, it is quite difficult to work out what he means. I wish he would communicate himself through more examples. Is he, for example, simply talking
A regular reader of this blog and contributor to www.cityneighbours.com has emailed me and asked if I can identify the portraits/busts on this building in Kilburn. You can see the four roundels on the building here on the busy Kilburn High Road - it's the junction of West End Lane. I think I'm there on identifying the roundel portraits but want to just check one more bit to see if I'm correct before posting. Hang in there friend, I'm nearly there I think.
Dulwich Community Council has £370 000 to spend on the Cleaner, Greener, Safer programme.Any local person or community organisation can submit an idea for how to improve our local area. All ideas are welcome no matter how big or small. Past projects have involved things like improving open spaces, small parks and playgrounds, tree planting and public art. Last [...]
I really enjoyed Ashes to Ashes, the follow up to Life on Mars. the only bad thing was that I had to watch Ashes to Ashes to fully understand the ending of life on Mars as it never quite made sense. There were, I thought, one thing that was not quite right in terms of chronology. Firstly, the can of Tab fizzy drink they had was not a memory I had of the 1980's. According to Wikipedia, tab clear was not sold here until 1993 whilst tab appears not to have been sold here in the 1980's, although I am ...
In my love of local architecture, features, and what I see around me I now carry my camera all the time. Today was quite a little crop of pictures and will take me a few days to get them all sorted and up on here - but here's a start. This is on the corner of Dennington Park Road and West End Lane and is on the building above Lupa. It's a relatively straightforward date plaque, but it is topped by a really attractive gargoyle esq feature. Now I'm sure it's slightly sentimental but these sort of features really add ...
Republican Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has suspended his campaign in the Republican Presidential race. Despite winning a number of States on Tuesday it is now very clear that John McCain will win the nomination.
Just spotted in the reflection of the window that the person a couple of seats away from me on the train is reading "The Strange Death of David Kelly" by a certain Norman Baker MP. I'm actually reading Harry Turtledove's 'End of the Beginning', the second novel in the alternative history series about a Japanese occupation of Hawaii in the Second World War. Speaking as an historian.........As for
Julia Goldsworthy, the Lib Dem shadow secretary of state for communities and local government, is one of the panellists on tonights Question Time (broadcast on BBC1 and online from 10.35 pm GMT). Shell be alongside the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Andy Burnham, the Conservative shadow secretary of State for work and pensions [...]
Never mind that we were 25 years behind New Zealand, and that the franchise was limited to those women over 30 with a certain standing in the community, we - under Liberal PM, David Lloyd George - gave the vote to women the vote in 1918. The trouble now is over equal representation. The Liberal Democrats in Wales can take satisfaction from the 50/50 split, right from the start, in the Welsh Assembly. But more needs to be done in Westminster and in local councils. The message needs to go out that this party has always insisted on equal treatment ...
I am on the train heading home, thankfully leaving London a day earlier than normal. Tomorrow I have been booked in to do an interview with BBC Radio Newcastle about the Angel of the North, which celebrates its 10th birthday next week. But as we remember the building of one monster size construction, we note the imminent demise of another in Gateshead. The infamous Gateshead Multi-Storey Car
Liberal Democrats in Redcar and Cleveland are calling on Vera Baird MP to explain why she backed cash settlements for Cleveland Police and Fire Services that are the lowest in the country. Vera Baird voted for Cleveland Police to have a rise of only 2.5%, the lowest given to any force. She also supported a rise of only 1% for Cleveland Fire Service, again the lowest. The low rise in the amount of money from central government to help pay towards Police and Fire costs will mean a tight year ahead for local services, said Ian Swales, Liberal Democrats Prospective ...
Liberal Democrat campaigner Ian Swales is encouraging all local businesses to boost their business by logging onto the London 2012 website. Ian Swales said, Although over 500 contracts have already been signed by the Olympic Delivery Authority, the majority of contracts have yet to be awarded. So far this area has been missing out. Redcar and Cleveland businesses must make sure they get their fair share of these contracts." Businesses are now able to register on the 2012 website so that they can be made aware of opportunities for contracts as well as the chance to access and compete for ...
It is all the fault of the press says Conway (or how Derek is rewriting history, after a few short days). In a couple of interviews in the Bexley Extra and the Bexley Mercury Derek Conway has said the following: "The Commissioner's six-month investigation reported that there was a need for what Freddie did, that he was qualified to do it and that he did do it." Now let us compare this to what the
First we had the increase in ticket prices. Then we had the demand that season ticket holders buy cup matches as well even before they know where the matches will be played. Now the Premier League club owners have decided that it would be a jolly wheeze to play matches around the world. Not exhibition or pre-season games. Nor is this the proposal for a mid-winter break which happily coincides with pointless 'tournaments' in the far east. Nope, this is the idea that each Premier League club will play an extra match, for points, in a city anywhere in the ...
The Evening Standard reports today that three Conservative associations show in their accounts that they received donations from Lord Ashcroft (the controversial Conservative donor) but that these sums don’t appear in the lists of donations declared to the Electoral Commission. Of course, this isn’t the first time that an Ashcroft donation to a constituency hasn’t been [...] 
Remember how I said that McCain had already won the Republican race because the maths meant neither of the others (this was before Romney pulled out) could catch him Well the maths in the Democratic race means that neither Obama nor Clinton can win on the basis of the remaining primaries and caucuses. Why Well, according to the Washington Post: "There are 3,253 pledged delegates, those doled out based on actual voting in primaries and caucuses. And you need 2,025 to win the nomination. To date, about 55% of those 3,253 delegates have been pledged in the voting process -- ...
Heavy coverage for London Mayoral candidate Brian Paddick in the Evening Standard today with his call for Lee Jasper, one of Ken Livingstone’s senior advisers, to quit. Brian headlines a series of people from across different parties calling for Jasper to go following the revelation that a series of emails raises rather a lot of questions over [...]
PLEASE TAKE ACTION. Behnam Zare' (18) is at risk of imminent execution for a murder committed when he was 15 years old. Despite it's obligations under international law, specifically the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Iran remains one of just a handful of countries that continue to execute child offenders - people under the age of 18 at the time of their crime, Reports suggest that Behnam Zare' is now facing execution within 72 hours, The order to carry out his execution has been sent to the prison where ...
The statement from the Archbishop of Canterbury that some form of Sharia law in the UK is "inevitable", and his view that this would help "community cohesion" are the rantings of the religious nut, I am sorry to say. Firstly, irrespective of the merits of Sharia or not, cohesion is about people being trated fairly, evenly, and everyone having the same rights. In simple terms, I cannot see how creating new differences and barriers can help with cohesion as they would only serve to demonstrate more clearly differences and would be more divisive. I was, however, surprised to learn tonight ...
Now why can we have analysis like this at election time in British newspapers
Congratulations to Bridget Fox, Lib Dem candidate for Islington South and Finsbury, on earning a berth at The Guardian’s politics blog. Bridget, an occasional contributor to LDV’s comments threads, missed out on being elected in the 2005 general election by just 484 votes. Her Labour opponent, Emily Thornberry MP, is of course no stranger to LDV’s [...]
Anyone who is a real die hard football fan, be they supporters of Premier League teams or not, will see today's announcement by the Premier League that they want to have one game for each team played overseas every year as a slap in the face for real fans and nothing more than a money making venture to appeal to glory hunters in the far east. With an increasing American ownership of Premier League teams, this is a first step on the road to franchising teams. The Premier League itself says cities will bid to host games. In many ways ...
As we reported a few days ago, one of our MPs let his mouth get away with him in a recent Westminster Hall debate about hospices. Calling Ivan Lewis an a**hole seemed to be allowing the minister to get off lightly, at least as far as many of our commenters were concerned. Now party leader [...]
I have been shocked at the backlash created by the Archbishop of Canterbury's remarks about inevitablity of the incorporation of Sharia law into British law, both from politicians and from the views of the Great British Public as expressed on the infamous BBC Have Your Say message board. I admit that as a concept, the idea of incorporation can seem quite shocking. But if you cut out the sensationalism and actually read Dr Williams' remarks (something I doubt many have bothered to do before weighing in), his suggestions are quite sensible. The Archbishop makes it clear that:...nobody in their right ...
In this morning's Guardian Lucy Mangan mourns the demise of Grange Hill: You watched it in the same way that you read Bernard Ashley's books - similarly popular at the time - not so much for entertainment as for reassurance that the maelstrom of cliquery, bullying, aggression, adolescent angst into which you plunged at ten to nine every morning and from which you emerged tattered and bleeding at half past three was everybody's everyday experience. You were not the unlucky victim of a particularly malevolent god. You were simply a comprehensive school pupil.All of which makes you wonder why that ... 
So Mitt Romney is the latest US presidential candidate to bite the dust. Many will argue that his besting by John McCain in California, together with his failure to see off conservative rival Mike Huckabee in the southern states, on Super Tuesday finished off his hopes. But it seems much more likely to The Voice [...]
Apart from the idiotic views of this man could it be that he’d be wanting the same rights for evangelical christians ie allowing evangelical christians the ability to have different laws for gay rights etc
The Lib Dem MP for Leeds North West has an article on the New Statesman website about his place at the centre of the latest Westminster row. You may recall that he was heard to call Ivan Lewis, the health minister, an "arsehole". Greg writes: I may now have ruined my slim chances of getting into the cabinet, and whether using a rude word is quite up there with swinging the historic mace, I doubt. But it has been interesting to be at the centre of the latest furore about unparliamentary language. Hansard actually records that I called care minister ...
Turkey's parliament met yesterday and voted to take the first steps to a constitutional amendment to lift the ban that prevents women wearing the headscarf in universities. This is highly controversial, and already there are dividing lines being drawn on both sides of this debate, with the opposition CHP party, which used to be the party of the social demoratic left, lining up with the powerful military to oppose the proposals that they say will undermine Turkey's secular state. Academics are also split, with some lecturers saying they will refuse to teach students who wear veils and headscarves, with others ...
At last!! Proof that a taste for expensive dinners, drinks receptions, and sedentary office life does not lie at the heart of my weight control issues. It's not my lifestyle that's to blame for being a few pounds overweight - it's my genes. Thanks Mum. That should keep her quiet the next time she gets on at me for not being a size 10... Except that it doesn't add up. After all, almost noone was obese fifty years ago - and the gene pool hasn't changed much in that time. Even if some people find it harder to control weight ...
Last night I was a guest of Harriet Harman's at a glittering reception held at Lancaster House in St James', celebrating 90 years of Women's Suffrage. The successful event was co-hosted by the Fawcett Society, and attended by women from a broad spectrum, public, private and charities. Betty Boothroyd welcomed us with a great speech, and brought with her the scarf worn by the suffragette, Emily Wilding Davison, who in 1913 threw herself under the kings horse and was killed, which she draped round her neck. She also read out a framed letter, written by Queen Alexander to the jockey ...
From today’s press release: The Commission has concluded that, while Wendy Alexander did not take all reasonable steps in seeking to comply with the relevant legislation, she did take significant steps. Having considered all the circumstances, the Commission has decided that it is not appropriate or in the public interest to report this matter to the [...]
Various bloggers, including Guido, Dizzy and Iain Dale*, have got their knickers in a twist over what the Government’s counsel said in a court case brought against the Government for breach of contract over a referendum on the EU Constitution. The barrister today told the court (as reported by blogger Trixy) that: “manifesto pledges are not [...]
This morning I received a rather interesting email from Richard Kemp, Leader of the LGA Liberal Democrats. I've been invited to a Joint Away Day for Liberal Democrat MPs, County, District and Parish Councillors in Somerset on Saturday 29th March 2008. Why have I been asked Well, it seems in response to Nick Clegg setting the Lib Dems with a challenge to devolve more to lower levels of government and the community, the LGA has decided that we need to set a common and shared vision for Liberal Democrats in Somerset, which can then be acted upon in the various ...
When Moor Lane Juniors and Buckland Infants amalgamated to form Castle Hill Primary in September, we all wanted to know what would be happening to the two sites. It has already been agreed that Buckland is going to be the site for the new school, and from next September the plan is to house all the children there. The Director of Children's Services, Patrick...
There seems to be a long and rich tradition of English archbishops coming out with such nonsense that they could appear on stage at the Comedy Club. The latest offering from Lord of the Rings dropout, Rowan Williams, is no exception. Accoding to the head of the Anglican church, we should adopt aspects of sharia law to encourage cohesion among different communities. So that's adopting different systems of law for different communities to encourage the different communities to come together. In the wacky world of the Church of England that passes for common sense... Dr Williams said on Radio 4's ...
The 1984 fans at Conservative Headquarters moved quickly to erase disgraced MP Derek Conway from the Conservative website. The blank page which used to house details of the Honourable Member for Old Bexley and Sidcup is here. Unfortunately, the Winston Smiths forgot to tell Google and the page still appears as the second (proper) [...]
Our MP has disappeared. Well, let's clarify that a bit. I'm sure his wife knows where he is. His Agent probably does too. But as far as the rest of us are concerned, he seems to be missing in inaction. I'm told he's is the Tory Shadow Solicitor General. Well, that's a piece of luck. Because our Lib Dem Shadow Solictor General, David Howarth MP is the guest speaker at our annual dinner tomorrow. I'll ask him if he's seen him. Which brings me to the point of this posting. There has been a lot of fuss recently about MP's ...
During the latest hiatus in this blog, I was struck by the coverage given to Lib Dem MEP Fiona Halls call to ban patio heaters and Greg Mulholland MPs proposal that pubs should have to sell wine in 125ml measures. Both of these raise the problem of liberals calling for individual freedom in the abstract, but in practice calling for more regulation of peoples lives. Of the two I think that Fiona Halls quest is the more questionable. Patio heaters are certainly bad for the environment and it may well be true that they consume more energy (or whatever) than ...
I had a very useful visit to Tayside Police's headquarters yesterday to review CCTV provision around the Seabraes area. This follows a number of residents' concerns about anti-social behaviour here in the past and, along with our community policeman, I was keen to see the extent of exisiting provision, which I conclude from yesterday's visit is generally good. Within the West End, a clear priority has to be extending the provision westwards from Roseangle, along Perth Road to Sinderins (in other words, through the district shopping centre, especially given its vibrant night time economy with pubs and restaurants). This is ...
The online petition opposing the appointment of one Anthony Charles Lynton Blair as President of the EU has 3770 signatures as at 14.04 on Thursday 7th February. As the petition says in various languages (Full English version for signing here get access to various language versions via sidebar here): Nous, citoyens européens de toutes origines et de toutes tendances souhaitons exprimer notre totale opposition à la nomination de Tony Blair à la présidence du Conseil de l'Union Européenne. .....Seit einiger Zeit offenbaren immer hartnäckigere Meldungen den Wunsch mancher, dass Tony Blair zum ersten Präsidenten des Europäischen Rates ernannt wird. Diese ...
Last night I went along to Birmingham Town Hall to hear Michael Portillo, and to see the Town Hall as I hadn't been since it had re-opened. I am secretly (well no so secret anymore) a bit of a Portillo-fan.
Maryam Namazie is my favourite communist, by some way. She has some absolutely spot on comment about what she dubs the religious-nationalist left here. I think it would be helpful if the Arcbishop of Canterbury read what she has to say.
Words fail me. Maybe later. Share This
A very useful hour was spent in the offices of Business West this morning learning about a social enterprise company that they are looking to set up in Twerton over the next few months. A meeting in order explain what this is all about is planned for next Tuesday 12th February 11am till 2pm and will be held at Twerton Park. They have asked if people can let them know by...
A friend sent me an article detailing how Iranian trans people are allowed, and in fact encouraged by the government, to undergo gender reasssignment surgery. While homosexuality is considered a "moral deviation" punishable by death, transsexuals are said to be blameless individuals trapped in the body of the wrong gender. The government are willing to help them to adopt the traditional role associated with their acquired gender by funding surgery. The worrying implication is that some people who are in fact gay will be pressured into changing their gender in the hope of obtaining more social acceptance. This would obviously ...
Our favourite photography subject, James Purnell, is back in the news. As Dizzy’s beaten me to writing-up the story, it’s easiest to look at his blog piece instead. (Original hat-tip: Tameside Eye blog.)
Once again I post from the Estonian capital, Tallinn. Though not exactly tropical, the weather is actually unseasonably warm: + 3 degrees Celsius. In a brief moment I check out the news, and with it Mark Mardell's generally excellent Euroblog on the BBC website. Unfortunately, I end up in a kind of dispair at the unrelenting determination of the British to destroy their own national interests. Mark had blogged about the fact that the European Investment Bank had provided finance to the commercial operations of the BBC. The extraordinary howls of protest that this normal commercial transaction has provoked, marks ...
Iain Dale visits the subject of McCain's running mate to agree with Simon Heffer that it won't be Mike Huckabee. Iain points out that, at 72, McCain is after someone who could reasonably take over within 4 years and says that Huckabee is just not that person. I agree that this is what McCain wants. The trouble is that I think that Huckabee is becoming just too powerful a figure to ignore. Consider McCain's position. He is unpopular with the God brigade because he is perceived as weak on abortion and gay marriage. He doesn't play well in the South ...
Its official! Somerset County Council is the only governing body in the South West to receive a four-star rating from The Audit Commission's Comprehensive Performance Assessment inspectorate. Having already been shortlisted by the Local Government Chronicle, as the most improved council in 2007, is it any wonder that Chief executive, Alan Jones, has said that he is very proud of all our staff and councillors for their hard work and commitment. As Somerset County Council has a Lib Dem administration I think its only fitting that the following people be singled out for praise; Cllrs Cathy Bakewell, Steve Brooks, Robin ...
Once again last night the Labour party in Bury used their opportunity to question me as Passenger Transport representative to to claim that Lib Dem objections to congestion charging is putting at risk much needed investment in public transport. And once again I stated the truth in response, which is that Lib Dems support the investment, but not the tax. Labour Councillors Byrne and Boden suggested in their questions to me last night that it is Bury Liberal Democrat opposition to the congestion charge which is threatening the investment which we have bid for from the Transport Innovation Fund (the ...
Last night was Full Council, when the 51 Councillors from across the Borough come together. It was a slightly unusual meeting in that there were no motions for debate, and so the entire evening was given over to questions to The Leader. First there was public question time, with questions received about a variety of topics from speed-humps to elderly care. It was great to see that, because sometimes there arent any questions from the gallery and I wonder whether anyone knows or cares about our meetings. I was slightly disappointed that the elderly care question was brushed off ...
Following Nick Clegg raising the issue of Labour's love of surveillance (mandatory ID cards, innocent people on DNA database etc etc) at Prime Minister's Questions yesterday, there's one particular statistic that is troubling me. In the last nine months of 2006, the Home Secretary authorised 1,333 warrants to intercept telephone calls or letters. That's the equivalent of just under five each and every day - with no time off for weekends or holidays and without counting any requests that may have been rejected. Now - that Home Secretary also has to do the job of running that department (no easy ...
Having successfully predicted the outcome in the democratic race in 19 out of the 20 Super Tuesday states (damn Connecticut!), it is time to a) gloat, and b) assess where the race now stands.Tuesday was essentially a draw in the democratic race. Both campaign notched up significant victories in important states, and both were able to claim substantial points in their favour.Looking forward, however, the race throughout the rest of February strongly favours Obama. On February 9th, Obama is a favourite in the heavily African American primary in Louisiana and the caucus in Nebraska - similar demographically to the caucus states he swept the board ...
A few days ago I wrote about the huge financial headache left when tube maintenance company Metronet collapsed. Labour has now had to bail out the mess - a mess caused by their part-privatisation of our tube network in the first place. It again shines a light on one of the real problems with these sorts of PPP deals: there were sold as shifting the risk to the private sector (who also got the chance to make profits). Instead, we've seen firms making profits - but in the end the risk still stays with us taxpayers. As Norman Baker (Lib ...
{EU referendum screenshot} One of the things that “mainstream” Euro-sceptics like to insist is that websites like EUtruth don’t represent their views at all. But it is hard not to draw parallels when they insist on upping the ante with images such as the one found here (hat tip: Matthew Turner). Share This
Nick Clegg’s done an interview with Reuters - ‘Clegg sees ID card vote a decade away’ - and has also got coverage in Bradford for his views on tackling knife and gun crime. All of which is nicely timed to highlight a new (RSS) feed available from the party: http://feeds.libdems.org.uk/nickcleggmedia You can subscribe to this feed in the [...]
Liberal Democrat and Labour members of the North London Waste Authority have reinstated a subsidy for reusable or real nappies that was controversially scrapped by the Conservatives last September. The Tories had previously provoked outrage by ramming through a series of provocative measures at the authoritys September meeting when several Labour members were absent and most Liberal Democrat councillors were at their partys annual conference in Brighton. The NLWA the waste disposal authority for the seven north London boroughs is made up of five Tories, five Labour members and four Lib Dems. The Tory Chair Cllr Brian Coleman of Barnet ...
In this week’s new look Realpolitik podcast, with Richard and myself: At Prime Minister’s Questions, the surveillance society, Sadiq Khan and Brown’s general lack of competence at the weekly show. Caroline Flint’s council housing ideas. Super Amazing Tuesday in the US solves bugger all for the Democrats and a little bit for the Republicans. Juries once again under attack. The [...]
Operation Black Vote (which despite its name is about more than voting) is running a scheme with Liverpool City Council to give people from minority ethnic communities the chance to find out a bit more about politics and getting involved in politics. In particular, they are offering chances to shadow councillors to find out more about exactly what is involved in performing that role. The scheme is open to people who are 18 years old or above and who consider themselves to be black or minority ethnic. You can get informatiion from schemes@obv.org.uk or 020 8 983 5426. The closing ...
Redcar and Cleveland Council has today received a four-star rating from the Audit Commission's Comprehensive Performance Assessment for the third consecutive year. The Council's overall rating was four stars, with an 'improving well' assessment for its Direction of Travel. The CPA results are available on the Audit Commission's website.
Last night the new England manager, Capello, gave the fans a straightforward answer to why he's the man for the job, a 2-1 win in the friendly with Switzerland. While Rooney came within a whisker's breadth of some great goals, it was teamwork and making opportunities that forced the victory. (Jenus and Wright-Phillips scoring the goals.) Even the pitch at Wembley held up. More wins like that please, all the way to the World Cup. (I can think of someone else who could do with practising some straightforward answers to questions!)
This morning's Independent confirms what we have suspected for some time, that some gas and electricity suppliers are operating a two-tier pricing structure which leaves at least 13 million households paying more for energy than the cheapest deals on the market. They tell us that utilities operators such as Npower and EDF have been found to have kept online deals low to attract "price-sensitive" consumers while raising the cost for those paying by direct debit or quarterly payments: When the biggest supplier, British Gas, raised its prices 15 per cent for millions on 18 January, the company failed to publicise ...
As Glyn Davies points out, the Standards' Committee guidance to Assembly Members on the use of blogs has now been published. Reading through the note it was difficult not to feel that they were protesting just a little bit too much. In the second paragraph they assert: 'From the outset, we would like to stress that we do not intend to suggest that the use of Blogs by Members be prohibited in any way.' Just four paragraphs later they tell us again: 'Members should not be discouraged from using Blogs this note is simply trying to make members aware of ...
There are days when I think something I have heard takes the biscuit. Today was one such day. Today reminded me why, whilst I may have my own pet Tory boys, whilst I have the greatest respect for many individually decent Tories, the fact that their party not only tolerates, but nurtures, the most despicable racist, homophobic, sexist views, fills me with dread and horror. Keith Vaz had proposed an amendment to the Race Relations Act to allow for BME shortlists. Now, there is a debate to be had about that, even in our liberal party, but the approach taken ... | < | February 2008 | > | ||||
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