Just what tickled my fancy in the last few days… » Bloggerheads (UK) – Private Eye magazine (and why I don’t read it anymore) – it's also why I don't read it anymore. » ID cards scheme will still apply to non EU nationals » In the loop: How Twitter transformed political reporting – One [...]
In 1958, after being beaten in the race to be Governor of Alabama by his racist opponent, moderate Democrat George Wallace reportedly said, ‘I was out-niggered by John Patterson. And I’ll tell you here and now, I will never be out-niggered again’. Wallace then used his newly declared and cynical opposition to integration to court [...]
Yes, yes, a ‘progressive’ alliance. The bad behind, the good ahead. What a difference an election makes. 2004: Tony Blair repeatedly intervened in a bid to deport asylum seekers to Egypt despite being told that they might be tortured and sentenced to death [...] When Mr Blair was warned by the home secretary in a [...]
I followed GENERAL ELECTION 2005 pretty closely on this blog. If I was filled with an impotent yet amused rage then, GENERAL ELECTION 2010 been a source of utter bemusement. It’s been the weirdest election campaign I can remember, from television news coverage that began with tedious overkill and descended from there to GENERAL ELECTION [...]
Hard as it is to imagine, while the we’ve been furiously and feverishly trying to find any difference or disparity in our isosceles of ideologically identically idiots, things are happening elsewhere. Many of us have been remiss in looking over at what’s been happening in Iraq and Afghanistan in recent days. I’d include the likes [...]
Agreeing with Tony Blair gives me actual physical pain – I’m crying as I type these words – but he had this to say about the Tories in his valedictory party conference speech… If we can’t take this lot apart in the next few years we shouldn’t be in the business of politics at all… [...]
So, away from the sub-CBeebies condescension of New Labour’s manifesto cartoons, what do we have? It won’t bother enough (or indeed many at all) to make any difference whatsoever but one of the chapters in the New Labour manifesto for the 2010 General Election is entitled ‘Crime and immigration’. They put crime and immigration under [...]
Just what tickled my fancy in the last few days… • Johann Hari: If you’re looking for class war, you can find it – in David Cameron’s policies – 'It is a provable fact that he will redistribute wealth – substantially – but in a strange direction: from everyone in the big wide middle and [...]
Just what tickled my fancy in the last few days… • New Humanist: Parliamentary wash-up leads to removal of compulsory sex ed from education bill – It's only children's health we're talking about. • Pickled Politics » David T and Socialist Unity libel action: unacceptable behaviour – Getting sued for someone else leaving comments on [...]
Yes, it’s finally happening. The starting pistol has been fired. After what seems like an age of dithering, delay and uncertainty I finally had to get out of bed. And Gordon Brown is announcing a general election today. I don’t know about you but I simply cannot wait to endure a month of British politics [...]
It seems to me that the Vatican is missing a trick in the fall-out from its sex-abuse scandal. Having successfuly walked away from a planet-wide paedophile ring while suffering barely a scratch, it should think about branching out. It turns out that Italy’s most wretched hive of scum and villainy wasn’t the Mafia. In its [...]
Just what tickled my fancy in the last few days… Johann Hari: The Pope, the Prophet, and the religious support for evil – Five minutes ago I didn't give a shit about the Pope coming to UK. Now I think they should arrest him at Heathrow… BBC News – Minister on detaining failed asylum seekers’ [...]
Some of the testimonies of the survivors of the Child Migrant Programme, which sent ‘poor children for a “better life” to countries like Canada and Australia from the 1920s to 1960s’, and for which the Prime Minister today apologised, are harrowing… There was this woman, just shouting, shouting at my sister to get up. She [...]
If this blog has one theme running through it, it’s a morbid fascination with the grotesque, mewling shapes into which morality – as most of us thankfully recognise it – is often twisted when political pressure is applied to it. Take Alistair Darling and his peach-like ego for instance. He goes on the telly last [...]
In an election year all parties have to make compromises. Before being thrown into the stewpot of a manifesto, issues and ideas must be chopped, seasoned, stirred, simmered and reduced. Some would argue that there are ideas that shouldn’t be played with for the sake of politics. The health and well-being of our children for [...]
It’s Game On, people. And may God help us. There was a knock at the door on Saturday morning which we answered eagerly. It had been my birthday the day before and I was hoping for a belated goodie or two from Mr Postman. So imagine my disappointment when it turned out to be a [...]
God, it’s going to be a long few months before the general election and we get the privilege of rubber stamping the next elected dictatorship. Does the mind not reel at the prospect of having to listen to week upon week upon bloody week of this kind of horse’s doings from the likes of Harriet [...]
John Prescott, bluff working-class figleaf, together in sisterhood… I suppose, if I was being honest about it, I think too much of the emphasis has been on female rights, which I have supported all my life, and we’re not getting other messages across. Most of it is about the equality issue. It is very important, [...]
Just what tickled my fancy in the last few days… The Guardian: Bruising experience – Ladies and gentlemen, meet the Mind Champion of the Year. The Mind fucking boggles, frankly… Harry Hutton on Twitter – The mighty Hutton is twittering… David Turner’s Procrastination Station: #theBNParetwats – The Gift That Keeps on Giving – Dave Turner's [...]
In an interview on BBC1′s Andrew Marr programme today, Cameron said he did not want parliament to be full of “robots”. Aw, go on Dave. It’d be brilliant. Tall, strong, and outwardly decisive and impressive but when you find out what’s underneath you realise we’re all doomed? It’s the Terminator for Prime Minister. In keeping [...]
A 66-year-old is set to become the oldest woman to give birth in Britain, it was reported last night. Elizabeth Adeney is reported to be eight months pregnant after having had IVF treatment abroad. She is four years older than the previous record holder, Patricia Rashbrook, who gave birth in 2006, aged 62. Hooray for [...]
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: ‘In Iran we don’t have homosexuals like in your country’. US Military: ‘In the army we don’t have homosexuals like in your country’* * Via The Daily Show
Just what tickled my fancy today… Jarvis Cocker – Further Complications – The Guardian are streaming Jarvis' new album for a week before it's released. And it's really bloody good. House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 11 May 2009: Social Security Benefits: Fraud – No Members of Parliament were harmed during the collation of [...]
I first came to the conclusion that Guido Fawkes was no better than dogshit on my shoes after he and New Labour darling Alex Hilton tried to claim some credit in the outing of Lib Dem MP Mark Oaten. It was a disgusting affair and set the tone for the sniggering schoolboy prurience and fixation [...]
Political opponents say nasty things about each other non-shock! Other than to note that this was always going to happen if you give revolting specimens like Damian McBride and Derek Draper even a sniff of power, there’s not much else to say. It has to be said though, watching a peddler of smears about people’s [...]
