Politics Blogs

Quote of the Day: Louis Walsh

Iain Dale's Diary (Free subscription) | 59 minutes ago

"Gordon Brown and Simon Cowell both have something in common. Neither of them know what the public want." Louis Walsh on X Factor (referring to John & Edward)

What’s the 2010 campaign going to look like?

politicalbetting.com (Free subscription) | 2 hours ago

Wikimedia Commons What’ll be the messages that chime with the voters? While we wait to see if the Sunday papers have any polls or sensational developments I thought it might be useful to ponder on what the coming campaign is going to look like. What are the messages the parties will try to get over and what is [...]

Your Ideal Political Dinner Party

Iain Dale's Diary (Free subscription) | 4 hours ago

I was talking to someone the other day about the demise of the dinner party. And it set me thinking. If I held a dinner party for twelve people in politics who I know, who would I invite to guarantee the sparkiest conversation? Anyway, this is the list I came up with... Christine Hamilton Yasmin Alibhai-Brown Gyles Brandreth Professor Peter Hennessy Jeremy Paxman Michael Cockerell Ann Widdecombe Emily...

Labour figures linked to huge Libya contracts

The Red Rag (Free subscription) | 7 hours ago

The Daily Telegraph has revealed that a number of huge contacts in Libya including the construction of “Gaddafi Tower” and a five star hotel have been awarded to firms with Labour links. The contracts are likely to lead to renewed scrutiny of British trade links with Libya in the wake of Mr Blair agreeing a controversial deal with Colonel Gaddafi during his final months in Downing Street....

Because CiF Will Surely Zap This One...

Ambush Predator (Free subscription) | 6 hours ago

...a reply to Eleanor Gore's CiF article : Alongside the disturbing trends in disability poverty and discrimination revealed by our survey, many of the disabled people reported improvements in their experiences . Paradoxically, increasing discrimination in the workplace and in access to goods and services - and unacceptable levels of disability hate crime - were coupled with a sense that, when it comes...

Alcohol Laws - Nice Little Earner for the Treasury

SUBROSA (Free subscription) | 7 hours ago

I haven't, as yet, written about the proposed changes in how Scotland intends to curb its alcohol culture but if this story is anything to go by then we need to ensure the words 'common sense' are somewhere in the policy. Sue Savage from Cranbrook, Kent, was shopping in the town's co-op, accompanied by her 6 foot, 15 year old daughter Tara. Ms Savage was purchasing alcohol for a drinks party along...

Lets hear it for informed journalism

Samizdata.net (Free subscription) | 8 hours ago

I am grinding my teeth trying to restrain myself from commenting on some of the drivel being written about the recent murder of US soldiers by a muslim US army officer... but this is just a measure of the ignorance that permeates the profession and which is directly responsible for the growth of so called 'new media', i.e. things like blogs. Nick Allen writes in the Telegraph in an article titled "gunman...

How the Righteous kill their pets.

underdogs bite upwards (Free subscription) | 1 hour ago

Emma Thompson's towering intellect has noticed that there are an awful lot of white people in England's south-west. She provides no explanation of where she was expecting them to be, nor where else they might be accomodated but she does give an idea of who she expects to find living in Devon and Cornwall. Africans. Geography is evidently not on her list of qualifications. Neither is biology. The reason...

We Mustn't Be Afraid of Risk

Iain Dale's Diary (Free subscription) | 10 hours ago

If you were a teacher, would you seriously think about taking pupils on a school trip? With all the 'lef & safety' provisions that now exist you'd have to be either brave or stupid to take kids on the kind of foreign trips and geography field trips I went on in the 1970s. Take this story from the front page of the Daily Telegraph today... Pupils are ordered not to wade into ankle-deep water unless...

• No paddling on school trips children told - The Telegraph
• Brit kids banned from paddling in water during school trips! - Sify

"What can we do to change the whiteness of Devon and Cornwall?"

Ambush Predator (Free subscription) | 8 hours ago

To which the only sensible response is: "Why should we want to?" Emma Thompson, the actress , has described Exeter as a place where BNP leader Nick Griffin "would feel very comfortable" because it has so few black faces . I'm amazed that Exeter didn't run this rich, dim line-speaker out of town on a rail... The Oscar-winner said her adopted son , Rwandan-born Tindyebwa Agaba, known...

All Quiet on the Western Front and the warmongers of 2009

Neil Clark (Free subscription) | 1 hour ago

video: Inspector Foyle It’s Remembrance weekend- so to mark the occasion here’s a clip from what for my money remains the greatest- and most powerful- anti-war film of all time: All Quiet on the Western Front. At about 7.15 in to the clip, you can watch the wonderful scene when Paul, who has returned from the horror of the trenches, visits his old school and turns on his warmongering teacher...

Irony free zone as BNP copy campaign website from “Afrocentrist racist bigot” Barack Obama

Political Scrapbook (Free subscription) | 2 hours ago

Scrapbook had this timed to autopost on Monday but Alex Smith has run it over at LabourList. It appears great minds think alike keep an eye on the BNP’s website! Nick Griffin called Barack Obama an “Afrocentrist racist bigot” but it’s amusing to see this didn’t stop him from the wholesale thievery of the American president’s website [...]

The Change We Need?

Bad Conscience (Free subscription) | 4 hours ago

Today I attended the Fabian Society’s The Global Change We Need conference. With an impressive performance from David Miliband kicking things off and two excellent debates, it was a day well spent. However, during the exchanges one thing kept coming up again and again: the issue of what progressives want to bring about, of how to [...]

'Stitch-up' reports on MP expenses

The Red Rag (Free subscription) | 10 hours ago

There have been accusations of a "behind-the-scenes stitch-up" following reports that key elements of the proposed plan to clean up the system of MPs' expenses could be scrapped. Earlier this week Sir Christopher Kelly, the chairman of the Committee for Standards in Public Life, published his keenly awaited plan to clean up the system in the wake of the expenses scandal. However it was reported...

• UK & World News: 'Stitch-up' reports on MP expenses - Liverpool Echo.co.uk
• UK News: 'Stitch-up' reports on MP expenses - icWales
• See the 7 articles on the same subject

What's important, Obama?

Constantly Furious (Free subscription) | 3 hours ago

Barack 'one term Barry' Obama was called upon to address a conference, but before he could jump into his favourite place - the limelight - he was told of a tragedy. An Army psychiatrist, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, opened fire, killing 13 and wounding 29 in a shooting rampage at a Soldier Readiness Processing Center in Texas. So, did Mr President change his words to reflect the sombre situation?