The Tour de France begins tomorrow and it will not surprise long-time readers that my main concern is that Lance Armstrong does not win it again. Like any sensible enthusiast I recognise Armstrong's greatness even if, as detailed here and here , I think that the Case for Armstrong is frequently overstated. Fairly or not, I've never warmed to him. This has nothing to do with him being an American since,...
I hope Daniel Hannan MEP can tell the difference between Sunder Katwala and I this time, as I’ll be debating him next week. ——————- The world of the media is changing as fast as everything else. A politician makes a speech ignored by the conventional media and it gets 1 million hits on utube. The world of [...]
Tommy Sheridan (commonly known to Scots as Tommy the Tan) has launched a bid to replace former Commons Speaker Michael Martin as MP for Glasgow North-East. A meeting of Solidarity supporters voted to adopt Mr Sheridan as their prospective candidate earlier this week and he will officially put his name forward in September to stand in the by-election which is now expected to be held in November. Over...
Home Secretary, is "identity theft" unknown in countries that already have identity cards? If it isn't, then how will Britain's ID cards solve that problem? (A problem that is, in any case, vastly smaller than you claim.) You now say that ID cards will be "voluntary". Doesn't that compromise their (putative) effectiveness? And if the case for ID cards is so compelling - as you...
By James Chapman, Mailonline David Cameron has issued an extraordinary apology on behalf of the Conservative Party for legislation banning the promotion of homosexuality in schools. He said the party had ‘got it wrong’ when it introduced Section 28 in the late 1980s. It is one of a series of apologies Mr Cameron has made for his [...]
There is something fishy about this – how does Osborne justify a mortgage for more than the house actually cost? Isn’t that maximising the interest burden on the taxpayer to an unhealthy degree? Also this two-year period where he claimed for a mortgage on his main home which he had used to finance his second [...]
Are these not the most pathetic bunch of amateur fascists you have ever seen? We may seem cold, or We may even be The most depressing people you’ve ever known At heart, what’s left, we sadly know That we are the last truly British people you’ll ever know We are the last truly British people you will ever know You’ll never never [...]
The Guardian is a great* newspaper but also an uncommonly infuriating rag. Take, for instance, this paragraph in what was an otherwise unobjectionable article about Elizabeth David: Now I should be quite clear from the outset that I've always been a little ambivalent about David. She famously moved food writing out of the dark didactic corners of domestic science and began to write beautifully and...
The Guardian is a great* newspaper but also an uncommonly infuriating rag. Take, for instance, this paragraph in what was an otherwise unobjectionable article about Elizabeth David: Now I should be quite clear from the outset that I've always been a little ambivalent about David. She famously moved food writing out of the dark didactic corners of domestic science and began to write beautifully and...
The Guardian has an interesting news report on a new ConservativeHome poll of Tory prospective candidates in winnable seats. Bad news for the idea that all MPs ought to use the state education system for their children. (Education select committee chair Barry Sheerman suggested David Cameron's intention to opt for state schools could establish a cross-party consensus on this). Unfortunately not: 9%...
Guido left the Speccie summer party early – summonsed by Mrs Fawkes who is convinced Miss Fawkes has Swine Flu. So this will probably be the first report back. Dave did his usual 15 minutes (his routine is that he shows his face at an event – tells the hosts how wonderful it is, if required [...]
The Scottish Socialist Party has selected Kevin McVey as candidate for the Glasgow North East by-election. A civil service trade union representative for 20 years, Kevin was brought up in the constituency, in Ruchazie. Kevin joined the Labour Party Young Socialists in 1984 and was expelled from the Labour party 5 years later for being a [...]
Britain's biggest fraud case enters a new twist with sources close to the cross-border law enforcement agencies dealing with the Carroll Trust Case namely the FBI Washington DC field office and Scotland Yard confirming that vigorous actions are well in place to finally arrest and prosecute the named international criminal syndicate which have executed Britain's longest running largest organised criminal
The Carroll Charitable Trust has over forty charities which are also major victims including Oxford University the seat of the Carroll Chair of Irish History, HM Queen Elizabeth's patronage of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, together with charitable organisations throughout the United States, Australia and the Russian Federation. Currently Gerald Carroll the primary victim is the subject of
Britain's biggest fraud case enters a new twist with sources close to the cross-border law enforcement agencies dealing with the Carroll Trust Case namely the FBI Washington DC field office and Scotland Yard confirming that vigorous actions are well in place to finally arrest and prosecute the named international criminal syndicate which have executed Britain's longest running largest organised criminal