Privatising the mail
So Peter Mandelson has pledged to proceed with the part-privatisation of the Royal Mail despite strong opposition from Labour MPs.
The main reason given in justification is that the Royal Mail needs a substantial cash injection in order to modernise. Leaving aside the point made in the linked article that it has already received a loan [...]
Miliband “get’s it”
Sometimes bashing the government can be a bit boring - however much the latest idiocies from the likes of Blears, Woollas and Purnell deserve a good kicking it’s nice to actually be able to praise a government minister for making a serious and thoughtful statement, and on a topic of real importance. Which brings me [...]
The thin blue line
Once again Britain’s finest have come under attack after it was revealed that claims that 70 police officers were injured in clashes with climate change protesters at Kingsnorth power station were not quite accurate
Only four of the 12 reportable injuries involved any contact with protesters at all and all were at the lowest level of [...]
Human Rights and responsibilities
Today sees the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and it’s good to see that Justice Secretary Jack Straw is commemorating the event by, er, planning to water down our own human rights laws. In an interview with the Daily Mail he has vented his frustration with the Human Rights Act
The Justice [...]
Pot, kettle (or possibly…fish, barrel)
One aspect of the Damian green saga which seems to have upset some people is the suggestion that he was “grooming” his mole, the objection being that this phrase is often associated with predatory paedophiles and was therefore inappropriate in this case.
One person who has particularly taken offence is Richard Littlejohn
In her [Jacqui Smith's] [...]
A “soft touch”?
In his recent tirade against asylum-seekers and their advocates Phil Woolas was keen to point out that the primary purpose of the government’s immigration policy was to “reassure the public that the government is in control of immigration”. As I pointed out at the time this would indicate to me that its priorities are rather [...]
An open letter to Barack Obama
Over at Liberal Conspiracy, Conor Foley has posted the following letter from Orzala Ashraf Nemat, an Afghan friend. I would recommend to anyone that they read the full text.
I witnessed a historical moment in Washington when I first learnt of Obama’s victory. I joined the crowed of victorious young and old on the streets of [...]
Phil Woolas…the new Richard Littlejohn
Not content with his previous they come over here and take our jobs rhetoric about immigrants, Phil Woolas has now turned on asylum seekers and those who act on their behalf.
In an interview with the Guardian, Woolas described the legal professionals and NGO workers as “an industry”, and said most asylum seekers were not fleeing [...]
Gordon Brown - the White Queen of British politics
Another day brings yet another eyebrow-raising pronouncement from Gordon Brown.
In Sunday’s Observer he was singing the praises of progressive governments like our own Labour one for having the right kind of policies to help people through the current financial crisis and denouncing the kind of economic policies which have got us into this situation. Steve [...]
Conor Foley book launch report
As promised…
On Thursday evening I went along to the launch of Conor Foley’s book Thin Blue Line, which took the form of a debate on humanitarian intervention and Western foreign policy between Foley, Oliver Kamm and Dennis McShane (who had to leave early so I won’t dwell on his contribution).
Foley started off by giving a [...]