The Guardian (Free subscription) | 19/11/2009
Five interesting speeches were given in parliament yesterday. Four of them – those by the Queen herself, David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Charles Clarke – all had something to say about the need for political and constitutional reform in the United Kingdom. Only one of them had nothing to say at all about these subjects. The exception, depressingly, was Gordon Brown. No politician who is...
Scotsman.com (Free subscription) | 16/11/2009
DESPITE Labour's promise that "education, education, education" would be its priority, when the then education minister, Charles Clarke, dismissed "the medieva
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 14/11/2009
Blairite ex-cabinet minister Stephen Byers says he will stand aside at next general election to pursue other interests The former cabinet minister Stephen Byers has announced he will stand down from parliament at the next general election. Byers said he was standing down as MP for North Tyneside "in order to pursue other interests and look to fresh challenges", but insisted he would continue...
Kaieteur News (Free subscription) | 13/11/2009
There is no record showing that Charles Clarke, for whom a wanted bulletin was issued on Tuesday, ever left the country since his return to Guyana in March. A police press release indicated that checks were made at the Central Immigration and Passport Office which revealed that Clarke left Guyana on November 10, 2008 and returned [...]
Stabroek News (Free subscription) | 12/11/2009
Relatives of 20-year-old Charles Clarke, who the police issued a wanted bulletin for on Tuesday in connection with last Wednesday’s attacks in the city, say ...
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 10/11/2009
Will plans for food-label-style tagging of degrees threaten the arts and humanities? Last week Lord Mandelson called for a new food-labelling-style system in which degrees would be tagged with drop-out rates, earnings potential and employment success, and called on employers to fund courses in return for helping to design them. How would, say, classics or philosophy fare in such a framework? Are liberal...
OberonHouston (Free subscription) | 09/11/2009
Do you remember the frurory back in the summer when the Guardian whipped up a media frenzy over the News of the World phone hacking scandal? This is where NoTW hacks were gaining access to public figures voicemail by, wait for it, phoning a targets mobile and entering the default voicemail password to listen to the owners messages if there was no answer. Hardly James Bond. This was actually a Labour...
Legalise Cannabis Alliance (Free subscription) | 06/11/2009
I have to say that I am appalled at the sacking of Professor David Nutt from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) by the Home Secretary Alan Johnson - and the support given to him by our un-elected Prime Minister Gordon Brown. David Cameron is no better for agreeing with their decision to ignore experts' advice if it flies in the face of media-led public opinion. Professor Nutt, head...
Slugger O'Toole (Free subscription) | 05/11/2009
At the risk of being pelted with bricks, metaphorically I hope, my sympathies have swung back towards MPs. I’m not alone. After they’ve rubbed MPs’ noses in it so thoroughly, much of the press are starting to clean them up again. The Indy details the anomalies that will create two classes of MP by taking five years to phase out the present system, one class, those standing again,...
Roger Pielke Jr.'s Blog (Free subscription) | 05/11/2009
It is a rough week to be an advising expert. David Nutt, chair of the UK Advisory Committee on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), was relieved of his duties earlier this week, as I mentioned here . Simon Jenkins at The Guardian has a valuable perspective : Researching drug use is pointless since policy on the subject has nothing to do with evidence, only emotion. It has to do with fear of the unknown, the...
Blaney's Blarney (Free subscription) | 04/11/2009
During this era of historical revisionism, when former communist fellow travellers such as Charles Clarke and Peter Mandelson occupy the highest seats in government, it is useful to be reminded - and to remind the young - quite how evil communism was and is. As we celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago this week (thanks, let us not forget, to the leadership and bravery of Ronald Reagan,...
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 04/11/2009
Mainstream voters routinely tell researchers that they are both angry and mistrustful of Labour over the surge in immigration levels since 1997. Hardliners see the record as a deliberate attempt to impose a multicultural society on a nation that hadn't asked for one. Enter stage left, Alan Johnson, trying to lower tempers in his speech on Monday. Angry talk was hardly new 41 years ago when Enoch Powell...
Little's Log (Free subscription) | 02/11/2009
The expenses row has turned the spotlight onto our MPs, how much they earn, how much they claim and what work they do. So it is only right that we look closely at what our local MPs are up to. Is Charles Clarke providing value-for-money? According to the research done by theyworkforyou.com, Mr Clarke is yet to speak in the House of Commons during 2009 and his only parliamentary contribution was in...
Metro.co.uk (Free subscription) | 02/11/2009
Former Home Secretary accuses Gordon Brown of ignoring his own scientific advisers.
Radio 4 - Today (Free subscription) | 02/11/2009
The Home Secretary Alan Johnson is coming under pressure to make a Commons statement following his sacking of the chair of the Advisory Council on the misuse of drugs Professor David Nutt. But what is the correct relationship between scientific advisors and policy makers? Former home secretary Charles Clarke, home affairs editor Mark Easton and political editor Nick Robinson analyse the issue.
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