LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Monday 24th March 2008

Comics Final Crisis

Just back from my occasional jaunt down to central London to pick up my comics from Gosh!. I have to admit I’m making these trips with ever decreasing levels of enthusiasm these days, for several reasons. Firstly, there is the fact that I generally feel out of touch with the market these days. This problem started about 18 months ago when the UK’s comics trade paper Comics International vanished, only to reappear a few months later under the guise of a new publisher. The transition has not been a happy one, with the magazine struggling to come out on a ...

An appalling insult to mothers and fathers

Appalling, quite appalling: A Tory councillor has claimed that there should be compulsory sterilisation for parents on benefits ... Mr Ward, who has sat on Medway Council in Kent for eight years ... said, "I think there is an increasingly strong case for compulsory sterilisation of all those who have had a second (or third, or whatever) child while living off state handouts."The Daily Mail has the full story on their website.

Criticism, hyperbole and censorship - why being a liberal blogger isn't so easy

One of the difficulties with blogging is fighting the urge to control debate. As a liberal, I believe in the concept of freedom to publish. On the other hand, there is a responsibility to protect the wider society where hurt or offence may ensue. As a publisher, I want to propagate my views and, by attracting favourable supporting comments, gain greater credibility for them. This, in turn,

Derek Conway: The CPS are wrong

I have been away for a family wedding in Dorset. Away from the internet and any chance to comment in public on the decision by the CPS that Derek Conway should not be investigated by the police. The whole issue has become interwoven with the issue of MP expenses. But it has little to do with the wider issue. The fundamental issue in the Derek Conway case is simple: Did his sons do the work that

Tibetans have a just claim to self-determination

The Chinese premier's talk is of smashing and crushing the Tibetan rebels. It is as if the UN's principle of self-determination of peoples had never been heard of. The Chinese regime is doubly illegitimate - without any democratic legitimacy in its own country, and an invader in Tibet. Why are Western leaders and diplomats so keen to humour the Chinese leadership's obsession with saving face To call a spade a spade, it seems to me the Chinese Government's stupid and oppressive policies are entirely to blame for the current crisis in Tibet. The Tibetans are desperate and their demands for ...

Be wary of Labours electoral reform programme

Patrick Wintour, in todays Guardian, reports that Labour Ministers are considering a significant overhaul of electoral legislation to give voters a second vote, open polling stations at weekends and make [voting] compulsory to increase turnout and improve the legitimacy of the Commons. Labour has introduced new voting systems for the European Parliament, the Scottish Parliament, and the Assemblies in Wales and London. The Alternative (second) Vote system is already used for the London Mayoral Election, while the Scottish, Welsh and London representative bodies all have a top-up mechanism based in some part on party list proportionality. The UKs representatives to ...

Hillary in Tuzla: The Tale of Bosnian Sniper Fire

Hillary Clinton’s claims that she bravely visited Bosnia in the mid-1990s, dodging sniper fire in a trip far too dangerous for the US President to make, have been coming under scrutiny in the past week, prompting this hilarious Youtube video:

Was there any justification in the Iraqi war

5 years ago I wasn't political. As far I was concerned war was wrong. However I was clever enough to understand once we started the invasion, stop the protests there's no point, it's too late. Once you've invaded you've got to hold onto the responsibility. Until of course you can hand over the power as we are. A blogger on the guardian made some very good points about the situation at the time: "* failing support for international sanctions against Iraq which were, in any case, hurting the wrong people *Saddam Hussein's record and continuing ambitions, buttressed by his own ...

50,000 deer poached a year-in Britain!

50,000 deer are murdered by night-poachers a year in Britain. There are 1.5million deer in Britain. Deer can be worth £50 a carcass so it can be big business. It's a crime very hard to control, out in rural area's the only people available to confront the poachers are ordinary citizens, but the poachers have guns. It's the rural equivalent of urban armed robberies. This problem could get worse because it's good business. Police and government should start looking at how to tackle the crime.

Iraq: 5 Years On

Bush-What Endangered Species

The Bush administration has deliberately been making it harder to declare species in the USA endangered. There are 280 species on the waiting list, but none have been declared endangered in the last two year. In his seven years in office only 59 species have been designated as endangered, compared with his Father George H.W. Bush (1 Term) who designated 231 species and Bill Clinton (2 Terms) 521 species designated as endangered.

Pakistan's new PM vowes to free judges

The New Pakistani PM Yusuf Raza Gillani (PPP) has vowed he will release all of the detained judges, that were detained under Musharrafs emergency rule. He sacked them for fear as the Supreme Court was investigating whether his re-election was legal. This is great news for the rights of Pakistan and the rights of having an independent judicial process. It is great news for the democracy of Pakistan. Gillani won the Parliamentary vote 264:42

US invaded Iraq to stop China getting the oil!

China has been growing power in regions outside its border, particularly Africa. It does arms deal with Sudan, fuelling their genocide in Darfur. It takes oil from Ethiopia and has dodgy mines in Zambia. So one theory of the reason the USA went into Iraq was to stop China getting oil from Iraq itself and creating a Chinese influence in the middle East. Its one of the theories presented by Gwynne Dyer. I think there may be a chance it played a small role in the USAs decision, but only a small part of a bigger picture.

MacShane on Parliament

A possible new contender for the George Orwell Prize For Doublethink has emerged: Labour MP and former Europe Minister Denis MacShane. Discussing the Government’s decision not to hold a free vote on the upcoming Human Embryology and Fertilisation Bill, the sage Mr MacShane said: “I respect the Catholic and other religions, just as I respect CND [...]

3 days to go and counting

3 days to go and counting. The local election campaign kicks off on Thursday with the opening of nominations. I have had a busy weekend putting together the finishing touches to make sure we hit the ground running or as the Lib Dems like to call it 'a flying start'. Thankfully I have the first two weeks off so I will hopefully be able to get my house into order rather than a mad rush that was

Radford Street woes

Last week, two events occurred which again highlighted the problems facing traders in Radford Street. For years, shopkeepers and owners of businesses here have tried to keep their heads above water despite doing business on the ‘wrong side of the tracks’, that is, on the far side of the one way system. Cut off from the rest of the town, they have felt that they are often forgotten or ignored when things happen in the rest of town. A good example was when Radford Street businesses were initially excluded from the MTI Shop Front Improvement Scheme. It was only after some ...

Incredible Tibet Images -Wikileaks

Wikileaks has some incredible images of the violence in Tibet and protests from across the World. Please look at them. There are also videos available. You can download the things straight of wikileaks. If you can help wikileaks get the information past the great firewall of China, please do.

Those wedding photos - yet another photo exclusive!

As promised, the exclusive, Hello style pics from my sister Esther's wedding last Thursday.Starting with the bride and groom themselves, Esther and IanLily does her royalty impersonationclick your heels together and you'll be back in, errr, GatesheadDavid and Jayne discuss the merits of wearing fishnet stockings to weddingsBest men, bridesmaids and

B is for ......

Bernard. A 'Lib Dem activist, former local councillor, journalist, culture vulture and real ale fan' from Inverness, Scotland. It seems Bernard has been kind enough to link an earlier post of mine 'On this day in 1933' to one of his own. Thank you Bernard. To quote Margaret Thatcher; "I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left." .....

The War against the Great Firewall of China

Youve probably heard about Chinas censoring of the internet, Google and Yahoo collaborating with the Chinese Authorities, etc. In China you cant find out about TankMan or the Tibetan Protests on the internet, just Chinese government propaganda. But that doesnt mean people dont try to get around the Great Firewall of China. Wikileaks has made 35 videos of the Tibet crisis available. Wikileaks has several different addresses aimed at getting round the wall, which move regularly. It encourages people to place material on their blogs and websites with cover up links to get around it. Wikileaks is a site aimed ...

If I can watch Congress on YouTube why not my own national Parliament

Being able to see YouTube clips of Congressional Committees makes even more silly Parliament’s paranoid refusal to allow any webcasting of its proceedings. I hope all Liberal Democrats will get behind Jo Swinson’s sensible call for change.

Climate Change Accelerating

We're always hearing reports across the news of Climate Change is worse than previously thought, ice caps are melting faster than previously thought, sea level rising further that previously though, temperatures increasing, more pollution than, etc. The latest is the growth of developing regions in Africa, Asia and South America has meant electricity production is increasing more than previously thought. Most of which are coal fired as it is cheap. Annual growth of global electricity production is now at 5% rather than previous 3.3%. It's said that the countries must act immediately. We must invest more in renewable energy, it's ...

Dear Lynne Featherstone

Sometimes I wonder why I keep you on my reading list. Mostly you post about very local matters, which I am sure are fascinating to your constituents, but I'm afraid I tend to scroll past them. Very occasionally, when I'm getting to the point of my reading list being unconscionably huge, I consider removing your blog from the list. Then you post something like this, and I remember why I added you in the first place. It's because you rock. I'll try not to forget again. sincerely, Jennie.

Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill: vote in online poll

I see Liberal Democrat Voice has now got an online poll on the question of the medical research proposals in the bill - so go and vote!

Bob Shaw and censorship

Over on the House of Cards, Bob Shaw is making a complete idiot of himself. He's put up this posting about the Catholic Church's opposition to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology bill, which is stupid enough in itself. Comparing the Church's opposition to a particular bit of legislation with the Nazis' abolition of democracy in Germany is utterly ridiculous and many people would find it offensive. If you go there now, you will see that there are two comments: one from me making this point, and a reply from Bob thanking me for taking the time to comment. What you ...

What would a 2nd pref. vote do for the Liberal Democrats

Many people choose not to vote LibDem because they're in a labour tory marginal like Worcester. If they voted LibDem it would be a wasted vote, and actually they're right. That's why we support proportional representation. "Under the alternative voting system, ballot papers would allow for a second preference vote which would be redistributed from the lowest-scoring candidate's share until one candidate has more than 50% of the vote. " Guardian. Polling stations may be open on weekend and voting could be compulsory. So in Worcester and other tory labour marginals people would perhaps could put Liberal Democrat as their ...

Tibet Protests-Picture

Look at this picture; its one you cant see in China. These things get blocked of the internet. Protesters got across to the lighting ceremony which was very secure and disrupted the speech by the president of the Beijing organising committee and Beijing Communist Party Secretary. The protests really are spreading and people are hearing of the horrors of China. Darfur, Tibet, Human Rights Abuses, no freedom of press, etc. it is important that this message is getting out to people. I wouldnt ask the government to boycott the Olympics and stop athletes going. But I think we should support ...

New poll: Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill

It’s time for a new poll on this site, and this time the question is: Do you support the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill’s proposal to allow animal-human embryos for medical research Cast your vote in the Poll section in the column to the right. The final results to our previous poll were: Do you think a party political [...]

Sam Seaborne and electric cars

An Easter treat for some of you. A brief extract of Rob Lowe giving real evidence to Congress about the environment.

Gretna and Third Lanark

The Guardian has an article on the travails on Gretna FC, whose meteoric rise to the Scottish Premier League threatens to be followed by a meteoric fall. This brings to mind the last Scottish league club to go out of business: Third Lanark. I can dimly remember hearing the classified football results being read out on Grandstand and hearing Third Lanark's game described as "cancelled". The photograph - taken from the Kerrydale Street site - shows what remains of the club's Cathkin Park stadium in Glasgow. The overgrown terraces now form part of a public park.

This Labour MP's Norman Tebbit moment

A third of the workforce of Northern Rock is to be made redundant over the next three years. That equates to 2000 jobs being lost. And the response of David Clelland, Labour MP for Tyne Bridge He says in the Journal and on his website, "If we can't save some of [the jobs], there are other jobs available in the region." Remember Norman Tebbit's "Get on your bike" speech. I am reminded of it by

Labour warms to electoral reform

A significant overhaul of electoral legislation to give voters a second vote, open polling stations at weekends and make it compulsory to participate is being proposed by the government to increase turnout and improve the legitimacy of the Commons. Ministers will begin a consultation effort on the plan after local elections in May, and hope the [...]

Tyrants love Olympic ceremonies

Congratulations to the pro-Tibet activists who attempted to disrupt the lighting of the Olympic torch this morning. Last year I suggested that the overblown ceremonies that accompany the modern Olympics have their roots in the Nazi-choreographed Games held in Berlin in 1936. Now Malcolm Redfellow's Word Service provides chapter and verse from a book by Maurice Roche: At the opening ceremony the symbolic Olympic flame was dramatically lit for the first time ever by a torch from the torch relay carrying a flame originally lit at Olympia. The world's biggest ever aircraft, the 300-metre long Hindenburg airship flew over the ...

New blog on the block

The Bevan Foundation have started their own blog. Read it here.

Organ Donor Card event

This morning, along with other City Councillors, I attended an Organ Donor card event at the City Chambers, hosted by the Lord Provost. The event was jointly arranged with REVIVAL (see http://www.revivaluk.org/), a local charity that assists patients who have received or are about to receive an organ donation. We all signed up on-line to the Organ Donor Register. It's simple to do - click on the headline above and you can do so in a couple of minutes. There are a substantial number of local people waiting for an organ donation so hopefully this event will encourage more residents ...

How green are the Conservatives

“Acting swiftly to reduce carbon emissions across the world could be as economically imprudent as it would certainly be morally reprehensible.” Andrew Tyrie, Conservative MP for Chichester, 5 March 2008 Hat tip: Rupert’s Read

Turn up for school in Whickham

I have just spoken to Tom Hopper, chairman of the governors of Whickham School. He is advising that despite the fire that destroyed the sixth form/staff common room block on Friday, the school is expected to be open on Tuesday. Pupils should turn up for lessons. The main hall will be used on a temporary basis to replace the space lost in the destroyed block. Police are continuing to investigate

Brazil, Land of Tomorrow

Brazilians have a favourite running joke, namely ‘Brazil is the country of tomorrow — and always will be!’ This mixture of cynicism and resignation was for a long time understandable, as government after government promised to deliver a better life, while all that happened was a continuation of social injustice and rampant inflation. However, some things [...]

The Orange Book-1 Reclaiming Liberalism: a liberal agenda for the Liberal Democrats-David Laws

I'm going to start reading the Orange Book, which is thought as controversial in being part of the Market Liberal wing. So I'm going to review it, to show what I think of it. Please feel free to disagree with my opinions in the comment box, it will help me to understand it. Today Chapter 1: Reclaiming Liberalism: a liberal agenda for the Liberal Democrats by David Laws. David Laws starts of explaining the means of four types of liberty. Personal , political, economic and social. The idea of economic liberalism has always seemed so controversial for me. But Laws ...

Rochdale Lib Dems call for Euro-referendum

Or so the headline in the local rag says. Lib Dems in East Middleton are planning to ballot local residents about the future of controversial Councillor David Murphy. The mini-referendum will simply ask the question Do you believe that Councillor Murphy should be residing in South-Western Europe at tax-payers expense The Lib Dems have also [...]

The Awakening Councils aren't getting paid

Now this is really foolish. The Awakening Councils, Sunnis in Anbar paid to fight against Al Qaeda as part of Petraeus' larger surge strategy, are threatening to go on strike because there fiver a day isn't being paid. They are claiming that they were used to battle Al Qaeda, the fight against which has been described as "so last season" by Michael Ware, and now are being ditched. This must be viewed as terrible strategy. Piss off the tribal thugs that are keeping Anbar relatively docile Hmmm, wonder what their response might be. Come on Petraeus, you decided to get ...

Name : Charles Clarke - Occupation : MP and Former Minister - Specialist Subject : The Bleeding Obvious

Apparently, in some piece of work of psephological genius, Charles Clarke (the former Home Secretary) has worked out that an increase in the Conservative vote could lead to Labour MPs losing their seat. I know, it's an astonishing claim, but you've got to take your hat of to Charles Clarke for stating the bleeding obvious and trying to pass it off as words of wisdom. But in simple terms, Charles Clarke has told us nothing we did not know before, except to again muddy the waters about his own constituency. Charles Clarke does, you see, face a stern task next ...

More on Prefetch

Some more research into the prefetch tag turned up an article by ChuckOp on the same subject from 2005 which expresses concerns about non-standard browser operations. There are few references to the status of the tag in Internet Explorer (it is clearly not recognised at present by my IE) though I did find this reference to its exclusion from IE7. So, at present, ‘prefetch’ seems to be a Firefox only tag, and even then only used by certain sites such as Google. You can clean up any cookies that are delivered as a result of its use - thanks for ...

Channel 4 Newss Jon Snow in baby-eating scandal*

The Channel 4 News website has an article about a new IPPR report on children’s use of teh internets (Young people ‘are being raised online’). The news story avoids much of the usual scaremongering, although it’s typical of the IPPR to suggest that because “parents need to be reassured about what they are looking at” the Government must intervene. There’s some high class, in depth research in the report too: The researchers found that on YouTube, a search for the term “happy slap” delivered 117 videos posted in the last week and “street fight” 312 videos. My motivation for highlighting ...

Feeling Old On an Easter Monday Morning

I stumbled, well he was actually shouting out from Lib Dem Blogs in the quietness this morning, across a very erudite, young, Liberal Democrat blogger this morning, and boy did he make me feel old. He's only 15 only starting his blog last month but he has some well worked out opinions already on selling cigarettes, Dafur and is going to make his take on The Orange Book, almost three years after

Living up to the wired reputation

A few years ago, we in the Lib Dems were billing ourselves as Britain’s most wired political party - I remember all too well because I had to watch my typing very carefully or risk printing tens of thousands of leaflets calling us Britain’s most weird political party. Our netted reputation is going from strength to [...]

Love as the "secret" of Catholicism and the dangers of "atheistic secularism"

Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor writes intelligently in today's Guardian, emphasising that love is the great secret of the Catholic Church. He argues that, contrary to popular belief, it is religion that permits the freedom of the human spirit because it takes us to the core of our relationships and our nature as moral human beings. Conversely, atheistic secularism "kills the human spirit under the pretence of liberating it", because it reduces humans to "chance products of material processes". I think this is a brave attempt by his Eminence to overturn the negative impressions that many have of the Church. I agree that ...

Birds of prey on Fortune Green

A huge well done to Mark Stonebanks and the team that are the committee of the Friends of Fortune Green. On Saturday they had an open day type event with a exhibition of birds of prey. To quote Camden Council website: "Birds of prey fascinate people. On Saturday 22 March between 11am and 3.00pm you can get up close and personal with a range of native owl and other species, many of them rare. "They will be on display as part of our ongoing work to raise awareness about nature conservation and offer hands-on opportunities for children and adults." It ...

Supplementary vote is neither proportional nor radical

Backing a plan to bring in supplementary vote (having a first and second preference in an election) is hardly radical, as Jack Straw and the government seem to think. Supplementary vote suffers from many of the problems moving away from first-past-the-post should intend to avoid - many ballots will not be counted (in FPTP, any votes not for the top two parties are largely irrelevant; in SV, votes not for the three most popular are largely irrelevant). A huge number of votes are effectively wasted. What would be radical is a move towards a fully proportional electoral system - one ...

Speech for Head Boy-1st Draft

I need your help here! Im writing out my speech for my application for Head Boy. The speech is to be in front of Year 10 students and tutors. Then there is a student vote and a teacher vote. I estimate 40-60% of students will vote intelligently. So I need to get that vote as well as secure the vote by encouraging voters to intelligently vote. At the same time I need to balance populous things for students without knocking support from teachers. Being a good student I should already have a good chance at securing the teacher vote, but ...

Is it bad that I'm hoping Boris wins the London Mayoral election

If Boris wins then he'll behave as Boris will: sticking broadly to Ken's spending policies, making a tokenistic gesture like scrapping bendies for Routemasters, and basically proving that there isn't really a Rizla to slip between the two main parties on how they run things economically. And then maybe some of the young impressionable things I know, who don't remember living under a Tory government, would be maybe less inclined to believe that they actually ARE a party of small government and economic competence rather than just posturing as one because it's electorally expedient. And then they'd be less likely ...

Whats wrong with the debate on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill

No surprise that this Bill took up a good chunk of the time when I appeared on The Westminster Hour yesterday but, as ever, the discussion was largely about process. Should it be a free vote or not Focusing in on the question simply of whether or not there should be a free vote on the bill (or on parts of it) misses two main points. First this political process story is presenting it as if the only way that Labour MPs will get to vote with their conscience is if there is a free vote. Thats wrong a vote ...

Government spends £93 million pounds and doesn't catch anyone

From the “you really couldn’t make it up” school of government administration: The Government spots there is a problem with bogus passport applications. The Government introduces a £93 million scheme to tighten up security on passport applications. This includes blanket interviewing of 38,391 people when they apply for their passport. Of these, 99.4% are given the go ahead to get their passport, and only 0.6% are referred on for further checks. Oh, and none of those ongoing checks have yet found a fraudulent application. Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said: “It was predictable that this would be ...

You think you've seen Star Wars

You ain't seen nothing yet. On a Windows PC, click Start, then click Run and type intelnet towel.blinkenlights.nlThen click OK. (If you've not got a Windows PC, well you're smart enough to know how to run telnet anyway aren't you)

MPs for sale

That’s the question posed by a new piece of academic research which shows just how much richer Conservative (though not Labour) MPs have ended up by the time they died: While the role of money in policymaking is a central question in political economy research, surprisingly little attention has been given to the rents [...]

Safeguarding the health of our children or just more government interference

Public Health Minister Dawn Primarolo wants cigarettes stripped out of vending machines and removed from behind shop counters because she feels such a move would teach children that "smoking is bad". What an excellent idea Ms Primarolo! But why stop there Why not go the whole hog and remove anything remotely tempting to children that could eventually damage their health For example, just as children who smoke are putting their lives at risk" children who drink alcohol are putting their lives at risk too. So, as well as hiding cigarettes, lets get shops, pubs and restaurants to remove all alcohol ...

Cigarette's shouldn't be displayed

The rows of cigarettes displayed behind a shop counter are a common sight in our newsagents and shops. But should shops be forced into having to hide them instead Thats what ministers are proposing, they are also considering tighter rules on vending machines in pubs and restaurants. Apparently this is vital to convince youth, smoking is bad. Im not convinced by that. Surely hiding the cigarettes could make it seem more rebellious and secret. Some people also say how it would simply more expensive for shops do deal with the measures. Im not convinced this measure would make a difference ...

Pakistan to appoint new PM

The general elections in Pakistan were a triumph. Musharrafs party did terribly, the PPP did brilliantly and there would accusations of fraud, and they were free and fair. There was a huge sigh of relief from the International Community. Ex-parliamentary Speaker Yusuf Raza Gillani from the PPP is nearly guaranteed to be elected as PM. He will have to keep together a difficult coalition. He faces what to do about Musharraf, how the tackle the Islamic insurgency and economics. Musharraf has pledged to support the coalition.

Bhutan holds first elections.

Bhutan is holding its first ever elections. The country will be electing a 47 seat assembly and going from absolute monarchy to constitutional monarchy. Although most people were quite happy with the old system, people are excited about the new one system. Thats what democracy is like, its exciting. There are two parties taking part, who are relatively similar, promising similar things. One has a leader with relation to the Royals the other seeks to represent ordinary people. They may be similar but in the time the parties will have more of a difference and politics will take on, its ...

So what do those under-age drinkers drink

The Echo last week ran with a story about the Police confiscating alcohol from under-age drinkers. They published a table of what was taken and had a picture of the haul. {Under-age Drinking} Now was it like what the Tories were saying That the problem is with alcopops and super-strength booze Nope, here are the figures: Beer - 157.69 litres (78%) Cider - 25.52 litres (13%) Wine - 7.5 litres (4%) Spirits - 4.2 litres (2%) Alcopops - 5.72 litres (3%) and whilst the beer and cider figures don’t separate normal from strong, the picture clearly shows a large number ...

Weekly Catchup 17th-23rd March

Welcome to Bank Holiday Catchup - reading Lib Dem Voice so you don’t have to. A quieter week than many, but we still had time for all the usual, and much much more. Guest contributors included fast-becoming-regular Darrell Goodliffe marking the anniversary of the war in Iraq; Linda Jack talked to us about taxes; Martin Land [...]

Labour Ministers ARE backing Alternative Vote

Following on from yesterday’s musings from Andrew Rawnsley that Labour might support proportional representation in order to cling on to power, The Guardian is reporting “A significant overhaul of electoral legislation to give voters a second vote, open polling stations at weekends and make it compulsory to participate is being proposed by the government to increase [...]

Patricia Hewitt - a nice little earner

At a time when the credibility and the integrity of politicians is under enormous scrutiny in relation to feathering their own nests, I personally abhor anyone of any party who behaves in a way which further undermines that credibility and integrity. So the news this morning that Patricia Hewitt has taken on a role as a non exec director of BT, pocketing herself an additional £60,000 in the process wound me up a tad. It is not just the cosy relationship between senior politicians and big business and the suspicion that they may be feathering their future nest by being ...

Out of sight, out of their minds

There is an activity which is perfectly legal but has a proven ill effect on people's health. While its incidence has been reduced in recent years, more still needs to be done to stop people taking up the habit. In particular, stopping youngsters from taking it up must be a top priority and the temptation for them must be removed by taking it out of public display. I am of course referring to New Labourism, in particular media appearances by ministers such as Nanny-in-Chief Dawn Primarolo. Her appearance on Radio Five Live this morning to justify the Government's ridiculous idea ...

Joy

Just watch this. Pure joy: Hat-Tip : Andrew Sullivan

Grasping at straws

I read over the weekend that Labour Ministers were starting to regret not supporting electoral reform when they were flying high in the polls and had a three figure majority. The implication was that if they tried to grasp that particular nettle now that they trail behind the Tories and look like a government in disarray then it would look like a last desperate throw of the dice by a fading political power. Well, they have done it anyway. Today's Guardian reports that a significant overhaul of electoral legislation to give voters a second vote, open polling stations at weekends ...

Handbag Flying Ends Rumours of Great Gnat-Con Alliance

Well the talk last week was of a possible link between the Tories and Scottish Gnats after the general election. However, Annabel Goldie has probably put and end to that strange possibility with a veritable rocket launch akin to the other Iron Lady of that ilk. She attacks the SNP adminstration of finally starting to reveal their extreme left-wing agenda, even going as far as saying they make

Texts and twitters

16:08 recovering from a long walk in the park. This requires chocolate. It is chocolate day after all. # 17:42 rather amused by the bunny in this video: matgb.livejournal.com/291201.html # 00:59 laughing watching someone teach a dog to twitter. And thinking buying something you can afford and want can't be a bad thing. #Microblogging by SMS, it's all the rage donchaknow. Using LoudTwitter and Twitter.

Monday 24th March 2008

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