The events of today, and indeed the past few days over Damian Green strike to the heart of our democracy. Let nobody believe this is a storm in a political tea cup, some bit of trivia. It is wrapped up in the whole basis of our free, representative, parliamentary democracy. But do not let the Tories claim it is about the right to oppose. The fundamentals are about the power of Parliament, not
Apologies for the (over a) month long hiatus. I've been wrestling with NaNoWriMo for the last month. No I didn't make it. I'm currently back in the UK and flicking through the press here. More content to follow soon.
I am shocked to note I last posted almost two weeks ago. I have a good excuse, having been unable to make the short journey from my bed to my PC - no emails, no Facebook, no Lib Dem Blogs - no Looz Muze...........perhaps the world is a shinier place with me hiding under the duvet coughing for England! But, I was given some wise advice a couple of weeks ago by a fellow blogger (who will remain nameless but a prize for anyone who picks up the clue!), who felt I should consider putting my blog to bed - ...
'Are you happy, Peter?' Gordon Brown asked Lord Mandelson the other day. 'If you are happy, then I am happy,' the Prince of Darkness replied. Rather an odd exchange, one might think. But even odder was the fact that Peter Mandelson began his Hugo Young Lecture at Chatham House this evening with this anecdote. Some [...]
In launching the Queen's Speech, the Government has said that fighting the economic downturn is its over-riding priority for the year ahead. It's difficult to see how many of the Bills will make any difference on this front. Waging a war on booze and lap-dancing bars, which as far as I can tell is the sum of what the Queen's Speech adds up to, will have the opposite affect - these may be the only home grown sectors that remain profitable! The most bizarre idea is to give local councils the power to levy a supplementary (additional) business rate. How ...
The Baby P tragedy has dominated the headlines, and has again brought the whole issue of how children in the UK are treated - or mistreated, to our attention. We're told that a society is judged by how it treats its older people, but what then does this say about the way children are treated? Ruth Gilbert and others have produced shocking research that in high-income countries in Europe, one in ten children suffer physical, sexual and emotional abuse and neglect. Its seems in countries, like the UK, where the birth rate in slowing, and where we have an increasing ...
Last night the Ethnic Minority Lib Dems (EMLD) successfully merged with the Ethnic Minority Election Task Force, at our Special General Meeting, creating a single, focused organisation within the Party leading on greater BME representation and participation. At a very well attended meeting of black and minority ethnic (and white) activists, councillors, and a group of young Lib Dem supporters attending their first Lib Dem meeting, we had lively debates, and heard from Party Leader, Nick Clegg, and Simon Hughes. The election of Barack Obama has energised many young black people to get more involved in politics. Many feel that ...
I have to confess to having a bit of a soft spot for the old pomp and circumstance. Despite this being the eighth State Opening of Parliament I've attended, I still get a buzz out of the ceremony, the carriages, the marching and the bands. The Lords is packed with spouses and partners, diplomats and dignitaries, many of them in national costume, as well as the Peers themselves in their red robes. The Hereditaries tend to have robes which have been passed down to them, whilst the Life Peers usually hire theirs from Eade & Ravenscroft. Most are still trimmed ...
Listening to Michael Martin's statement on the Damian Green arrest was enough to make the middle of my body sink into itself, like a particularly unsuccessful cheese souffle. Speaker Martin is either an utterly pathetic excuse for a man or the police have got one hell of a case against the Home office mole. No "Have you got a warrant?" No "Have we got a choice?". Just utterly, utterly pathetic
The Amnesty website reports that speak at an event at the Human Rights Action Centre, 17-25 New Inn Yard, London EC2 on 10 December. His address will be followed by a conversation between Nick Clegg and Krishnan Guru Murthy of Channel 4 News and questions from the floor. The event starts at 6.30 p.m. and is free of charge. Book via the Amnesty website. Thanks to Liberal Conspiracy.
Not a very edifying performance, was it? Fraser Nelson at the Spectator Coffee House blog asks some searching questions.
I've got six or seven people in the Shadow Cabinet capable of working in the government. The rest are useless. So said David Cameron, apparently. Flight to Inverness are still available from the BA website.
The public meeting I referred to in an earlier post is now confirmed and will take place on 15 December at 6 30 at the Bridge Chapel Centre on Heath Road. This will be a good chance to ask questions of planning officials - something not possible at previous meetings. The Waste Disposal Authority also plan to be there (although it must be made clear that this planning application is not theirs it is a private application by a commercial company). It is possible that the applicant will be there also - although I suspect no one's minds will be ...
I did watch the Speakers statement but didn't find time to blog about it before. Personally I think that he came under a lot of fire from MP's and that was welcomed by me and many other bloggers who are saying the same thing. Speaker Martin made many mistakes in this whole case from the start and he needs to take full responsibility and stop shifting the blame on the Sargent and other officials! Iain Dale has a strange tweet about how he thinks Harriet Harman fancies David Cameron, personally I think that if she does and anything was to ...
As the Speaker pithily put it, I have to acquaint the House that this House has this day attended Her Majesty in the House of Peers, and that Her Majesty was pleased to make a Most Gracious Speech from the Throne to both Houses of Parliament, of which I have, for greater accuracy, obtained a copy. In other words, today was the day for the Government to spell out its legislative programme for the year ahead. Masochists can enjoy the whole darned thing courtesy of Hansard here; for those who prefer their information distilled by the BBC click here. You ...
The way US Presidential elections are run is enough to disturb many people. It's a first past the post system in each state, which acts like a constituency. That's no proper way to elect a President. It's why Al Gore won the popular vote in 2000 and lost, as well as Bush committing fraud in Florida. Of course the World would be so different today if Al Gore had rightly become President. And had that happened in any other country in the World, we would have refused to accept the result. Obama has been appointing some Senators to his new ...
I was digging around the Parliamentary website yesterday (someone has to!) and came across this comment from Jack Straw, made in May 2007. "It is utterly irresponsible!" he exclaimed about the Lib Dem administration that had just taken over Hull City Council. The issue at stake was the Council's 31% stake in Kingston Communications PLC. The Lib Dem administration decided that it was time to cash
It was more than a little disappointing that the chamber virtually emptied for Nick Clegg's response and Gordon Brown's obvious indifference to Clegg's remarks was irritating too; however, lets draw out some positives. Finally, we got some acknowledgement that maybe; just maybe the Conservatives have no answers when it comes to civil liberties and a hat-tip to legislation brought in by the previous government was welcome. I liked the fact that Clegg appeared to be edging towards some sort of 'broken politics' narrative but stopped just shy of outright saying it was which in my eyes was a slight mistake. ...
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1. Grammar schools can kill A tragic story of a schoolboy who died in as-yet-unknown circumstances at home is given the Daily Mail makeover and suddenly transforms into a tale of how free, state-run grammar schools are so terrible that their pupils die within weeks of arriving. Ms Taylor had been sending him to the fee-paying Steephill School in Fawkham, Kent, where it costs £2,245 a term, but had recently moved him to nearby Wilmington Grammar School which is state-run and free of charge.You have been warned. 2. You can't be injured by a carrot In full "ridiculous compensation culture" ...
Lib Dem Leader Nick Clegg comments on the Queen's speech. Today the Government laid out its programme for the next year. They've shown yet again that they just don't understand the hard times facing millions of families across Britain. At a time of unprecedented economic crisis what people need is help. But all they're getting is more of the same tired ideas from Labour, while the...
Never let it be said that the House of Lords is not a progressive institution, as the State Opening of Parliament is one of those rare occasions when the spouses (and families) of Peers get to be part of the show. Only those Peers who own, or have borrowed, the red robes topped with the pelt of some poor hapless creature who would much rather still be alive and attached, get to sit in the
Local Councillors are calling for 4 Avon Buildings on the Lower Bristol Road in Twerton to be released from the Highways Road widening account, where it has been held for the past decade. 4 Avon Buildings is in a derelict state and would make a good family home but it has been kept in the Highways account just in case it is needed for any potential Road widening of the Lower...
This time on the Labour side where Huw Lewis has taken exception to yesterday's much-heralded announcement by the Plaid Cymru Economy and Transport Minister on roads and trains. On his blog Huw writes: 'It was with deep dismay that I looked over the Trunk Road announcement made by Ieuan Wyn Jones yesterday. There's no surprise that the Minister has been dodging questions on the Heads of the Valleys road for over a year. The answers, when they finally came, were totally unacceptable.' Huw says that the dualling of the A465 was always meant to be an ambitious programme, but now ...
Just before I went into the Cabinet meeting last night I received a phone call from Will, my son who is serving with 45 Royal Marine Commando in Helmand Province. He sounded pretty shook up, having just witnessed his first casualty in battle. During November, five Royal Marine Commandos were killed in Afghanistan. Yesterday, Will's sargeant, who he was out on patrol with, had a leg blown off.
there are sometimes as a councillor that you truly despair. yesterday was one of them. almost a year ago we debated the state of the city. this is what it's about: a new labour consultation cliche hoping to raise the very essence of what Bristol wants and needs. yes community is important. yes the bristol partnership is important. bringing together business, health, police and voluntary sector is key. yet do we need to debate the state of the city so soon again? it seems this new labour administration seems to want to navel gaze and consult rather than lead. this ...
Over 35,000 people in the South West have been turned down for a crisis loan in the last year, Liberal Democrat research has revealed. Applications for the loans, aimed at low income families and pensioners unable to get credit elsewhere, have risen nationally by more than 40% in the last year to 2.5m. The figures come at a time when the Government is encouraging banks to...
From the Ofsted report into Haringey and Baby P's death: The reliance on national and local performance indicators is too great and does not enable understanding of the quality and effectiveness of service provision on the ground. A warning about what can go wrong which applies to many areas of councillors' work, and not just the tragic circumstances of Baby P's death.
Every time we have a recession in this country, we start to talk about and take notice of unemployment. If this discussion on the BBC website is anything to go by, there's not a lot of public sympathy for the unemployed - with the view that they are 'scroungers and spongers' seemingly prevalent. But I think we should have focussed more on long term unemployment when things were going well and the economy was growing. Unemployment is not just a problem for times of recession. What seems to happen is that we decide to worry about the holes in our ...
Guido is distinctly underwhelmed at the Speaker's statement. Iain seems to think he is on his last legs and MPs took pity on him. For my part, I think that he has got away with it. He has announced a debate on Monday which I fear will be dominated by the Sir Patrick Cormacks of this world. It will be lots of MPs saying how important they are and that the Police were bang out of order. It will be a parade of pomposity. David Winnick started the ball rolling today by demanding that a Policeman be called to the ...
The attitude of David Lammy (MP for Tottenham, one of the two constituency in Haringey) towards evidence of problems with Haringey's children's services has been coming under increasing scrutiny and it doesn't look good. David Lammy was warned by a whistle blower of severe problems in Haringey six months before Baby P's death. Yet as Paul Waugh pointed out in the Evening Standard, David Lammy was happy to defend Sharon Shoesmith and Haringey Council even after this warning and after Baby P's death (a defence that was prominent on both his website and in the links on his Facebook profile ...
The following information has been released today from Bury Council. Bury Council has being working hard over the last 24 hours to provide help and support to vulnerable residents and ensure that local residents stay safe whilst the weather remains icy, snowy and cold. Information provided by the Met Office to Bury Council indicates that conditions are set to get worse over night with heavy snow fall is predicted. The council will continue to monitor developments and plans are being altered as necessary as the day progresses. Parents concerned about school closures tomorrow should listen for announcements on local radio, ...
From Politics Home... Mr. Clegg said that the Queen's Speech was a "disappointment" and a "missed opportunity". "I think it's a huge missed opportunity after the year people have had. People are really worried about keeping their job, keeping their roof over their heads."The Queen's Speech doesn't offer any help; it abandons people. People are going to be very disappointed," he said, highlighting the omission of housing matters from the speech. When asked about Damian Green, Mr Clegg said: "questions remain about which communication occurred between Home Office officials and the police." 12:31 Sky News Later Mr Clegg said that ...
I am sitting here laughing whilst posting this, as the Conservative HQ have told employee's that they will be sacked because of the low poll results and the credit crunch. The Post by Conservative Home says: The difficult financial climate - and recent (probably temporary) slippage in the polls - has hit fundraising and forced CCHQ to take a close look at how it uses all resources. Now that is very interesting and I would have thought the Conservatives would get through the recent low poll ratings with they're heads above the sand but this isn't happening! Will George Askew ...
Today's Queen's Speech is another fine example of government meddling and failure. One Bill after another is being introduced to interfere with people's legitimate freedoms and try to paper over the cracks in their interventionist system. I have recently written on the phenomenon that government intervention is doomed to fail and that in doing so it encourages further intervention as governments try to repair the unintended consequences of their own legislation. Clear examples of this are to be found in the Queen's Speech. There is too much in the speech, and there is too much as yet unclear, to make ...
Today's lead story in the Western Mail that 64,000 DNA samples from Welsh children are being stored on a police database is no surprise, though it is no less shocking for that. In fact this story is a follow-up to headlines such as this last year in which it was revealed that the number of innocent children placed on the Government's vast DNA database for life had quadrupled to more than 100,000. Clearly, the size of this database has grown exponentially since then. In fact around 80,000 innocent children are likely to be added to the database every 12 months, ...
I was recently at a meeting where plans to build a new school to replace two local secondary schools were discussed, and thought I should bring to light an utter absurdity of Government education policy that came up in the meeting. Thanks to recent laws, councils now have less control over who runs schools in [...]
Welcome to the second edition of Lib Dig Pig, being a roundup of non-Lib Dem oriented gems on the internet, as voted by Lib Dem members using Lib Dig (if you aren't one, and are a Lib Dem member, sign up here: http://libdig.co.uk). The rules for inclusion here are simple: they must have been "dug" for the first time in the last seven days and they can't be Lib Dem-related or come from a Lib Dem blog. The top rated article of each category will be listed, along with three runners up, will be listed here. And finally, for the ...
From ConservativeHome: ConservativeHome has learnt that 16 to 24 jobs are likely to be lost at CCHQ in coming weeks. Staff were informed yesterday. The difficult financial climate - and recent (probably temporary) slippage in the polls - has hit fundraising and forced CCHQ to take a close look at how it uses all resources. Read the full story here.
A colleague of mine sent this so I claim no credit for it. Compliments to Tom Dommett instead. "My Lords and Members of the House of Commons who aren't currently under arrest. "My Government's overriding priority is to avoid any blame for the problems with the British economy which are due to the global economic downturn. Get that? 'Global Economic Downturn'. It's not our fault. 'Global Downturn', remember? Look into my eyes: 'Global Downturn. "The strength of the financial sector is vital to the future vibrancy of the economy. It's been pretty vibrant recently! Ha, ha, ha, sorry, I can't ...
Yesterday Senator Saxby Chambliss held his Georgia Senate seat and in doing so prevented the Democrats gaining a super majority in the Senate.
In response to an article on Lib Dem Voice inviting members to join the Party's Policy Panel - from which members of formal party working groups are chosen - I agreed to write an article here on how these working groups work and what role members play. Policy working groups are appointed by the Federal Policy Committee (FPC) to develop policy proposals against a remit agreed by the FPC. The FPC considers carefully what policy development it believes is needed over a parliament and sets its schedule accordingly. As a rule of thumb, each major portfolio area (such as Education, ...
Last week I had the dubious pleasure of attending a meeting in Portcullis House. Perhaps it is indicative of the almost non-existent esteem in which I hold our political institutions that I felt physically nauseous being in a building so full of meddling, superfluous, smugly self-important functionaries and flunkies. Having a day off today, and finding myself watching the Queen's Speech shenanigans, I have to say I admire her very much more today that I have for a long time. How she can stomach what must be a three hour preparation and get out, all those flunkies in tights doing ...
To the current question 'define the LDs in a single phrase', I have always believed the answer is simply 'equality of opportunity'. This means giving everyone a fair start in life, with a decent home, a good education, good healthcare, the prospect of a good job and support in situations where people are unable to work. You could even simplify it to that one word: opportunity. Opportunity comes from living in a fair, free and just society. So there you have it. I will send an invoice for my fee by the end of the week. Used fivers only please. ...
Via ginasketch and The F-word: Amanda Palmer has been dropped by Roadrunner Records for being "uncommercial". Why have they decided that she's uncommercial? Because she refused to let them airbrush her belly in this video, to make it flatter and more appealing. Jesus wept! If THAT is a fat belly then I'm Jo Brand's bigger sister! And aside from anything else, how many MALE metallers can we think of who actually ARE fat and don't have to justify themselves musically because of it? I bet there's several on the Roadrunner label. I fully endorse The ReBELLYon, and will be sending ...
All opponants of this Labour government will now need to be adamantine in their discipline this afternoon. The disgraceful intervention by the poisonous figure of Lord Mandelson is a deliberate attempt to pour petrol on the flames of justified indignation over the detention and arrest of Damian Green MP. To accuse those who are already extremely angry at the contempt of Parliament that the executive has shown of being "self-serving" is outrageous. It is also a deliberate attempt to wind up the opposition and ensure that the effectiveness of their attack on the partisan and incompetent Mr Speaker Martin is ...
My earlier post about Islington Conservatives choosing a wannabe lap dancing venue for their Christmas party has attracted a bit of attention. It's still not clear if the Tories didn't know about La Piragua's lapdancing license application - currently withdrawn - or if they just don't care. After all, while many people find lapdancing [...]
The government are trying to open up a completely new argument in respect of the arrest of Damian Green. They are trying to approach it from the perspective that the motivation of the leaker matters. The point about parliamentary privilege is that communicating with an MP is privileged meaning that it cannot be criminal to talk to an MP. If it cannot be criminal then it does not matter what
Stephen Tall, in a terrific post at Lib Dem voice, has made a challenge: to sum up the idea of the Liberal Democrats in a single phrase or sentence. He points out that Conservatives can sum themselves up as supporters of "wealth creation", and Socialists as supporters of "equality". It is of course very difficult and may be pointless to try to sum up the richness and power of liberal ideology in a single phrase, after all the Wikipedia article on the subject of Liberalism is one of the largest. Nevertheless, in response to challenge from the former Deputy Lord ...
So there I was yesterday chatting to some green monkeys in Barbados. Apparently 70% of the polio vaccines in the world are derived from these monkeys - I really don't want to know how. They can be a bit of a nuisance to farmers, but they are captured carefully and either passed to the animal reserve where I saw them, or to laboratories. After all these years I can't get...
In a startling change to centuries of tradition, the doors to the House of Commons will not be slammed shut when Black Rod approaches the chamber this morning. Instead, to mark the subservience of the legislature to the Crown, Black Rod will walk straight into the House of Commons unimpeded and accompanied by a phalanx of [...]
There is a National Climate Change march this saturday if you are in London as part of the Global Action Day. There are four main themes 1) NO to a 3rd runway at Heathrow and the runaway expansion in aviation expansion. 2) NO new coal - no new coal-fired power stations as planned at eg Kingsnorth in Kent 3) NO to the expansion of agrofuels - with negative impacts on forests, the climate and world food supply. 4) YES to a renewable energy revolution and green jobs - a "Green new Deal" For more information see links above.
So, the Conservatives have finally released their tape of Damian Green's offices being searched (above) and finally the Conservative Party is starting to lose it's virtuous shine. Even it's own supporters are turning against it; Benedict Brogan reports this morning of 'nervousness amoung Tory MP's' that the Conservatives are 'overplaying their hand'. Peter Riddell in The Times says; "contrary to many furious comments since last week, parliamentary privilege applies only to what is said and does not give MPs or their offices within the Palace of Westminster any special protection from the law and police inquiries." Meanwhile, Iain Dale says; ...
I didn't know we had one. Anyway with this aside the Lib Dems and the Conservatives are going to work hand in hand today and raise the issue over the arrest of the Conservative MP. David Cameron with his video blogs over at Web Cameron has released a video footage of the thugs breaking into Damien's parliamentary office. Like I have said in the past, the police should have just called the MP up and invited him in for an interview, that would not have lead to this mess with the raid! Anyway to read a report by the BBC ...
Where we are now in December 2008 Bray, the third of the five blocks making up the Chalcots estate is due to be signed off by the Independent Certifier (IC) 19th December.However, problems still remain in resident's homes, such as leaking radiators, faulty windows and poorly regulated central heating controls, despite the IC sign off process. All the remaining problems will be transferred to the "snagging" process.Security remains a "key" concern of the residents at Bray and indeed the whole of the Chalcots.Inadequate lighting and no provision of a canopy to the entranceways continue to be a BIG concern for ...
It's no secret I'm not a particularly Christmassy person - read here about why I don't like the orgy of commercialism - but I do like to send cards out. In the main this is to a group of people I don't talk to much but don't entirely want to lose touch with. So I send a jokey card from Private Eye, and one of those much maligned Xmas newsletters (here's last year's) about what the cats have been getting up to in school, etc. And people send me cards too. This year, I'm definitely getting organised to do something ...
I have just finished reading Friends Like These by Danny Wallace. It was brilliant, poignant and at times sad but I would recommend it to anyone my age - just a bit past thirty or approaching thirty.
Over at "Letters from a Tory", the question has been posed, how would libertarians have protected BabyP. It is something I thought about quite a lot when the story first broke and I've written a long response to LFAT in the comments there. But I thought it was worth posting in its own right: I go further, in theory at least, than even LFAT's definition of libertarianism (as one who believes the state should enforce the law). I am more of an anarchist. Though people often misunderstand that as meaning absolutely no controls on what people do and no institutions ...
Haringey Council Chief Executive Ita O'Donovan turns out to have held a senior post at three different councils where the children's services were so poor that the Government had to intervene directly. Not only is she currently the Chief Executive of Haringey Council, heavily criticised over the death of Baby P, but she was previously City Manager (the most senior staff role) at Stoke-on-Trent where the Government warned children were being put at risk in the month she started at Haringey, but before that she was Assistant Chief Executive at Newham Council (1998-2001). In February 2001 the Government ordered the ...
Chers Adhérents, chers Sympathisants, Fin d'année animée pour notre parti : les libéraux, en ces temps de crise, ont beaucoup à dire et à faire. Nous regrettons que la prudence de la Chancelière allemande, Angela Merkel, ne soit mieux suivie en Europe. L'argent dépensé en urgence pour cautériser les plaies de la crise ne règle pas les causes de cette dernière : une mal-régulation financière, corrompue par un interventionnisme mal placé sur le crédit. Cet argent échouera également à traiter les conséquences de la crise : au contraire, il les accentue en favorisant le retour du protectionnisme. Il faut désormais ...
Following Nick's being overheard on the flight to Inverness, Danny Finkelstein reminds us that he has previous. In May 2006 Kevin Maguire wrote: That thrusting young Minger Nick Clegg should learn to swivel his head to spy who is sitting within earshot before shouting into a mobile phone about an aged Olympic sprinter off to a poor start.While waiting on Bournemouth station for the London train, it was impossible for your columnist not to overhear the Lib Dems' home affairs chap itemising, between sips of Red Bull, his leader Sir Ming Campbell's political crimes. Ming the Mediocre, according to Clegg, ...
Nick Clegg has just recorded an exclusive interview about what should be in the Queen's Speech.
Yesterday I reported the striking news that a Conservative councillor from Croydon had resigned her cabinet post after admitting she had close ties with the Provisional IRA in the early 1970s. Time reviewed Maria Gatland's book, which was written under her maiden name of Maria McGuire, in 1973: Dave O'Connell, the Provisional I.R.A.'s political-military swing man, took Maria along as interpreter on an arms-buying trip to Europe. Their mission began as Irish low comedy and ended in fiasco. In Amsterdam their cover was blown, their planeload of Czech bazookas, rocket launchers and hand grenades was impounded, and Maria and Dave ...
Unmitigated England pays a visit: The tramway closed in 1966, but you can still see the space in front of the houses where it ran, and the odd crumbling shed. There is a dinner table game where you proffer a time in history you would like to visit. After Doctor Feelgood doing Route 66 at the Kursaal in Southend around 1972, I think the hour's journey on this railway amongst the cabbages and sugar beet comes a close second.
Why is it that people insist on seeing the current times as far more dangerous than previous decades? How often do you hear or read someone justifying an intrusive measure or scare with some throw-away comment about the terrible modern age (where, one assumes, armed terrorists lurk around every corner)? Such comments are rarely, if ever, challenged. I guess those rose-tinted spectacles are partly to blame. We forget not only the constant threat of nuclear war from the '70s and '80s but also how much terrorism there was back in those days. And the immediacy of modern news has an ...
From Liberal England comes the frankly bizarre story of a Conservative councillor (yes, a Conservative councillor - you know, the unionist party) who has resigned over links with the IRA. Read on.
{by Martin Rowson in the Grauniad} One of the problems with Jacqui Smith protesting innocence and the high ground quite so much about the whole Damian Green scenario is her choice of words. Take this example: 'Ms Smith added that for Mr Grieve and Mr Cameron to assert that the systematic leaking of government material was not serious as it did not relate to national security was "wholly irresponsible and entirely unfit for those who seek to hold high office". 'Where does one start? Systematic leaking of government material by an opposition MP, not taken as serious as it did ...
There is to be a by-election in Seven Sisters ward. It is the south -eastern Corner of Haringey, that runs from the edges of Finsbury Park, along the Seven Sisters Road through south Tottenham towards Stamford Hill. It has been caused by the very sad death of long serving Labour councillor Fred Knight (see earlier post) Convention normally demands that you wait until after the funeral to provoke any election activity, but the campaign has been started by someone, probably from another local political party, who has formally moved for the by-election to take place. Apart from being very disrespectful, ...
Following the debate for and against university fees, LSE lecturer Tim Leunig gives his take on that contest. What are the benefits of going to university? Going to university is profitable for individuals, on average, and for any given A-level grades. Although a handful of degrees (e.g. medicine) are particularly profitable, once you take into account A-level grades, most subjects are equally valuable (classicists earn more than media studs grads because classicists generally have better A-level grades). Second, the "profitability" of going to university remains even as graduate numbers have increased. This tells us that demand for graduates is elastic: ...
For the Christmas mood... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7761822.stm I really feel for the people of Peterlee. But watching the video report does bring what I love about the North out. The quick, cutting wit and complete irreverence is great. Reminds me of Welsh wit, too! My favourite line: "My toilet brush's got more branches than that!"
Mat: She's flirting with Kirk! Already! Me: Of course she is. She's female, and she's in Star Trek. And the fearless warrior woman with perfect directional sense just said to one of the men "You gotta get us out of here". * sigh * Sometimes I wonder why I love this show so much. And then there's a hilarious slashy moment and all becomes clear... If you were expecting sense tonight, by the way, you've come to the wrong place. I spent several hours this evening helping my daughter tidy her room. By which I mean, of course, tidying her ...
Following on from a discussion over at the Letter writing Tory's blog, I thought I'd do a blog post because, yes, it's a troublesome issue. We seem, as a society, to want crimes against children not just punished but prevented altogether. As a society and a species though, we're not really very good at this. We don't even try most of the time, although individually we avoid certain high risk situations, we watch our bags and pockets, we lock our homes and remove valuables from our cars. But infanticide at the hands of a child's own parents or guardians? Can ...
Dear Mr Khalid Mahmood MP,
