To be fair, David Cameron would annoy me simply by being a Tory. But his pronouncements on family life last week managed to up the ante somewhat.
According to Cameron’s measured analysis, families are in ‘deep trouble’. . Luckily, he wants to help. Not for nothing is Cameron an ex-PR man. [...]
Filed under: davidcameron, ukpolitics on February 26th, 2007 | 16 Comments »
Well, Al Gore got his Oscar (If he won the Nobel too he’d be only the second person - after George Bernard Shaw - to win both). He also teased the audience by pretending to announce his candicacy for 2008 in a skit with Leonardo DiCaprio. The betting markets in his winning the Democratic nomination [...]
Filed under: election2008, uspolitics on February 26th, 2007 | 6 Comments »
A curious silence has descended on Britain’s political news and blogging spheres in the aftermath of last week’s announcement that another 1,000 British troops were being sent to the Helmand Province of Afghanistan. The war zone is captured in the footage found on this link. The fatalities in this largely forgotten battle zone, within the [...]
Filed under: foreignpolicy, iraq on February 25th, 2007 | 17 Comments »
It’s every politician and journalist’s favourite phrase, it seems (googling ‘political blame game’ gave me “about 1,610,000″)…and also favourite occupation to indulge in, officially or not. Aside from the fact it’s a nice-sounding phrase (or was, until it became so clichéd it made me want to smash my TV to bits with a croquet mallet [...]
Filed under: election2008, iraq, uspolitics on February 24th, 2007 | 1 Comment »
Lord Turnbull, who addressed Clare Politics earlier this evening, spoke about the difficulties of co-ordinating policies and administration across departments and organisations. This brought to mind the policy announced by John Reid last month to split the Home Office into a security department and a Ministry of Justice. Unsurprisingly, Lord Turnbull thought this would be [...]
Filed under: crime, labour, ukpolitics on February 22nd, 2007 | 2 Comments »
Alan Simpson, Labour MP for Nottingham South, is quitting parliament to campaign on climate change. However, on the way out, he has taken the opportunity to make some remarks about politics in the UK that should make us wonder whether it is actually doing its job: ‘There is a desperate short-termism (in Parliament). [...]
Filed under: labour, ukpolitics on February 21st, 2007 | 4 Comments »
What with all the excitement over the U.S. presidential elections on this blog and many others - including from me - it might be easy to forget that the presidential election itself is more than twenty months away. The next election that will register much in British politics is the race to be the next [...]
Filed under: europe on February 21st, 2007 | 1 Comment »
The notion that Conservative political values are espoused in a sickly nostalgia for a long lost “golden age,” which probably never existed is, is about as accurate as saying Labour stands for Arthur Scargill and the formation of a soviet proleteriat in which all mankind is equal. Not only is this depiction of our political [...]
Filed under: conservatism on February 18th, 2007 | 4 Comments »
The European Union has a good deal going for it. It has the greatest GDP of any economic bloc on earth (an estimated $14 trillion). It is stable, peaceful, democratic. It encourages trade and travel. It offers an alternative model for foreign relations to that showcased by the United States.
However, significant proportions in most members [...]
Filed under: defence, europe, foreignpolicy on February 18th, 2007 | 46 Comments »
While listening to Slate’s Political Gabfest podcast as I ate my breakfast this morning I heard about an interesting piece featuring in the New Yorker this week (and, much as I love reading the New Yorker because I think it makes me look intellectual, it was interesting for another reason entirely) and immediately went to [...]
Filed under: crime, culture, iraq, society, uspolitics on February 18th, 2007 | 2 Comments »
