Speaker’s wife in “didn’t spend college days doing ironing” shock!
I can’t say I have any interest in the recent revelations about Sally Bercow, wife of the speaker - what people got up to in their college days is a matter for them as far as I’m concerned. However, I couldn’t help noticing this in the Mail on Sunday yesterday.
Mrs Bercow, 40, shocked the Commons [...]
Thoughts on assisted suicide
I have to say that euthanasia is one issue on which I genuinely find it impossible to reach a firm opinion. Still it’s right that the CPS has issued guidelines clarifying the law on assisted suicide - if people really feel moved to carry out such a drastic act they should at least know where [...]
An unsatisfactory conclusion
So Abdelbaset al-Basit al-Megrahi has abandoned his appeal against his conviction for the Lockerbie bombing and will now presumably be allowed to return to Libya on compassionate grounds, to live out his last days there before he finally succumbs to his prostate cancer. And a long and controversial chapter in British legal history somes to [...]
When Straw did show mercy to an old and frail man
I can’t say I have any strong views on whether Ronnie Biggs should be released from prison. Yes it may seem harsh to refuse him parole given the parlous state of his health, but he refuses to show any remorse for his crime, a normal condition for parole, and if he had stayed and served [...]
Standing in the way of control orders
Of the various illiberal and authoritarian measures introduced by Labour in the last few years one of the most pernicious is the use of control orders against people who are suspected of terrorist activity. People subjected to control orders are effectively under house arrest - they have a curfew of up to 16 hours a [...]
Sort out MPs’ expenses once and for all
In the least surprising development since Allen Stanford turned out to be a bit dodgy, it seems that Gordon Brown’s plan to reform MPs’ expenses has backfired on him. One really has to wonder what he was thinking of - the weird Max Headroom style video was a bad enough start, then he failed to [...]
A banker writes
No doubt by the time you read this I and my colleagues will be manning the barricades, creating makeshift shelters from upturned desks and filing cabinets in order to repel the rampaging hordes at our doors, at least if the combined wisdom of the media and the City of London police is to believed. As [...]
I won’t be beating my wife (well at least until 2012)
Justin at Chicken Yoghurt points out that Labour MP Tom Harris is compaining about the blogosphere not taking notice of the government’s decision to deny bailiffs the right to break into people’s homes and use force against them in order to recover debts.
Presumably it doesn’t occur to Harris that the reasons for this are
1. [...]
Tony Blair’s diary (exerpt)
27th June 2007: Got appointed Middle East envoy on behalf of UN, US, Russia and EU. Told assembled press that a solution to the region’s problems would require “huge intensity and work”. Gosh!
1st March 2009: Visited Gaza for first time.
The Liberal Democrats’ “Freedom Bill”
While Labour continues to devise yet more illiberal policies and the Tories fail to convince that they will be an improvement, it is heartening to see that at least one of our major parties is making a firm and principled stand on the issue of civil liberties.
The Liberal Democrats have unveiled their “Freedom Bill” aimed [...]