"There was never any reason to suppose Johnson could be a successful prime minister. Nothing in his record suggested he was fit for the job. His sole success came in living down to expectations. If he had been a tolerable success as mayor of London that was, in large part, simply because the mayoralty was, in his hands, little more than a PR job. As foreign secretary, rather more importantly, he was palpably out of his depth." Alex Massie says goodbye and good riddance to Boris Johnson. Michael Crick argues that Keir Starmer will come to regret purging the Labour ...
Sat 10th
18:09
HDAC inhibitors and Gene Expression (The Sirtuins are not longevity genes) - Resveratrol etc
I have been reading up on the issues around acetylation of the histone and I have some ideas as to the interplay between acetylation and deacetylation. There are two steps in creating proteins. The first is called "transcription". This is where a complex called RNA Polymerase II (RNA Pol II or RNAPII) travels down the gene creating messenger RNA (mRNA) as essentially a local copy. The second
Sat 10th
15:54
J.W. Logan was the first MP to hold both the Chiltern Hundreds and the Manor of Northstead
Despite what disaffected Conservative MPs are announcing, you cannot resign from the House of Commons. Wikipedia explains: To circumvent this prohibition, MPs who wish to step down are instead appointed to an "office of profit under the Crown", which disqualifies them from sitting in Parliament. For this purpose, a legal fiction is maintained where two unpaid offices are considered to be offices of profit: Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds, and Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead. But only one MP, to the best of my knowledge, has held both these offices. Step forward this blog's hero ...
"Enemies of the People" that is how The Daily Mail described the UK Supreme Court Judges who ruled that the government could not bypass parliament in implementing Brexit. The same cry is being taken up by populists and autocrats the world over. Increasingly they are either attacking, packing or controlling the courts. It is a core principle of democracies that the actions of politicians are subject to the same laws as everyone else and those laws are based on centuries of tradition and legal precedent. The laws are ineffective if the courts are controlled by political diktat. The courts are ...
Picture courtesy of the Daily Star First, it was Nadine Dorries, departing in apparent disappointment at not being handed a peerage by her long-time chum, Boris Johnson, and then the former Prime Minister himself, leaving the Commons in disgrace, shortly after awarding seven peerages, five Damehoods, six knighthoods and twenty-six other honours to his closest chums and allies. The narrative adopted by Johnson was pure-Trump. The former prime minister angrily accused the privileges committee investigation of trying to drive him out, and claimed there was a "witch-hunt under way, to take revenge for Brexit and ultimately to reverse the 2016 ...
Trump and Johnson. Two peas in a pod both 'shelled out' yesterday. A great day for all who believe in democracy and the rule of law. Two great dramas played out on our television screens yesterday. The downfall of both ... Continue reading →
I'm sitting here in my shorts at barely 9am, fully suncreamed up. This, I can assure you, is an extremely rare state of affairs for Scotland, even at the height of Summer. It is also serendipitous that our warmest day of the year so far coincides with no Lib Dem meetings or other such commitments. So a day in the garden with books it is for me. And I need to take advantage because it is due to rain tomorrow. To brighten my mood further, yesterday, two unpleasant right wing narcissists went at least some way to getting the come-uppance ...
Hannah Wright writes for the Institute for Government: The House of Lords Appointments Committee (HOLAC) has confirmed that it rejected on the grounds of propriety no fewer than eight individuals who Johnson had proposed to ennoble. With seven new peers making it onto the list, that represents a rejection rate of over 50%. The previous average has been around 10%. This fact, combined with Johnson's indictment by the Privileges Committee for misleading parliament, will further cement his reputation for constitutional recklessness. Sign up to get the latest news and analysis
