|
|
Like pretty much everyone else I have been utterly astonished, horrified and disgusted by the recent “News of the world” hacking allegations. It beggars belief that something so crass and awful could have happened. In pursuit of a gutter press story giving false hope to the parents of a missing girl.
Being a politico, a blogger, a follower of the media and a subscriber to Private Eye I have been following this story with interest for quite some time, and been pretty disappointed that the story didn’t capture the popular imagination
Continue reading Phone Hacking, Tabloids and Collusion
This item was published first on LaboutList at the following URL
http://www.labourlist.org/there-is-nothing-wrong-with-discrimination
Yesterday I read with interest Ian Silvera’s LabourList post “How to get more women and ethnic minorities into politics: the sober way”.
Ian started by saying “Positive discrimination is oxymoronic”. And for me this is the essence of where both Ian’s article, and argument, goes wrong. Let’s be clear about this – there is nothing necessarily wrong with discrimination. That might seem an odd thing for a Labour activist to say but it is true.
Our society discriminates all the time, with
Continue reading There is nothing wrong with discrimination.
 Yesterday i’ll have to admit I was utterly, utterly disconsolate. In truth I can’t remember being that down since England went out on penalties in Euro 2004. I was utterly deflated, and I just couldnt see any prospects of things ever getting better in politics. It was a difficult evening But luckily for me I have managed to bounce back, and this morning I feel much more like more normal effervescent self! And I think what would make me feel better is a quick blog on yesterday. So here are a
Continue reading A few reflections on the results yesterday.
I have today had a piece published on LabourList.org.
You can read it here:-
http://www.labourlist.org/time-for-labour-to-wake-up
Whatever we all think about politics I am sure one thing that we can all agree on is that things have not been all that peachy in respect of our relationship as ordinary people with our MPs in Westminster. Far too often our politicians seem distant from ordinary voters, preferring to listen bankers, and lobbyists in Westminster than the likes of us.
My Union is the CWU, and many CWU members who have tried to contact our MPs over the last few years about the various government wheezes to privatise
Continue reading Unions should say YES to AV.
” Listen, strange women lyin’ in ponds distributin’ swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.”
Dennis from “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”
Can’t think why Royalty is on my mind at the moment, they seem to be keeping an unusually low profile of late hardly bothering the newspapers or Television in the slightest…. Oh wait a minute
Continue reading Royalty, Republicanism and Constitutions.
 I have heard a few Labour folks tell me that they are considering voting “No” principally because they hope to destabilise the coalition and hopefully bring forward a General Election. The view was espoused here on Labour List by Sonny Leong, and a colleague of mine David Chivers from the CWU also voiced this.
I thought it was an interesting view that was worth a full blog post riposte, I mean who wouldn’t want the Lib Dems to get a kicking and the General Election early? I know the thought of
Continue reading AV Vote and destabilising the coalition.
It is about factionalism and the difficulty of positioning our economic policies with anti cuts activism. You can read it here if you are interested.
http://www.labourlist.org/our-path-to-victory-is-not-one-of-factionalism
 Eek! Apparently we cant talk about immigration. There is apparently a plot (presumably by the PC brigade) are at fault that is causing a massive Omertà in which there CAN BE NO DISCUSSION OF IMMIGRATION.
Well apparently anyway. I’m guessing the Daily Express, the Daily Mail, The Times, The Telegraph didn’t get the memo. Neither did our TV networks. Or I suppose any of our political parties. Or people you meet in pubs…
No huddled masses here we are British.
Hang on, actually loads of people talk about
Continue reading This silent immigration debate is awfully noisy!
Compass
I’m a member of the Labour party and proud to be so. I’m also a member of Compass and proud to be so. So what do I think about the decision today by compass to vote to open up voting membership to those who belong to other political parties. Well when I cast my vote I put the little “X” next to the no box so you might think I would be really disappointed.
However I think my response is a little more nuanced than that. Firstly and importantly I
Continue reading Compass and opening up membership
|
Couldn't get data from google+
|
Social Media