Picture this. You’re walking down the street and a policeman approaches you. He wants to know your name, what you’ve been up to that morning, where you’re going that afternoon. You politely ask why. He replies he doesn’t have a specific reason, he just wants to know. You say that you’d really rather not divulge [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized on May 27th, 2007 | 1 Comment »
We are entering a very interesting time in British politics – aren’t we? That’s the statement that seems to be on lips of many politicos at the moment. Blair’s marathon premiership is coming to a close and a shake-up in British politics approaches. Brown versus Cameron, ‘clunking fist’ versus ‘New Conservatism’, question marks over the [...]
Filed under: democracy, electoralreform, history, ukpolitics on May 21st, 2007 | 3 Comments »
Application forms seem to throw forth ever new quantities of paper work. The myriad of questions can be quite baffling, yet there is one form above all which strikes one as being unnecessary, intrusive, dare I say offensive; the Equal Opportunities form on ethnicity. As I wade through mountains of scholarship application forms for [...]
Filed under: culture, socialcohesion, society, ukpolitics on May 17th, 2007 | 1 Comment »
Apparently it is all over. The leadership contest that never was, never will be. Leaving aside Gordon Brown’s qualities as leader (which will be the source of endless speculation until the handover and beyond) I thought I’d better write something about the accusations that all of this is somehow undemocratic, stemming from Sir Ming [...]
Filed under: constitution, democracy, gordonbrown, labour, ukpolitics on May 17th, 2007 | No Comments »
This is absolutely brilliant. Not because I feel the country is necessarily crying out for a constitution, nor because I feel it would be particularly beneficial, but because the hand-over programme appears to finally be unfolding with consummate political skill. A discrete day for the retrospectives of Blair’s term in office (which are generally far [...]
Filed under: constitution, davidcameron, democracy, gordonbrown, labour, ukpolitics on May 12th, 2007 | 1 Comment »
Firstly, may I apologise for a prelims, themes and sources and (primarily) laziness induced absence. Luckily for the constitutional future of this country, I come back bearing a Big Idea. No, it’s not Scottish independence - that’s this week’s constitutional knot - or even the West Lothian question, but back to reform of the [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized on May 11th, 2007 | 1 Comment »
My heart almost skipped a beat when I read in today’s Times that 24% of doctors would refuse to sign an abortion referral form. Over the past few months or so, the all-divisive issue of abortion has raised its head again in this country. There have been items in the news recently about [...]
Filed under: abortion on May 8th, 2007 | 3 Comments »
Downing street now has a YouTube channel. Here is the highlight so far:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6Cu9187tCY]
Could this have been conceived of even three years ago? The Downing Street channel was the 7th most viewed on YouTube yesterday. The often plaintive claim that we are all victims of a big-media determined agenda looks increasingly hollow.
Filed under: democracy, internet, tonyblair, ukpolitics on May 8th, 2007 | 1 Comment »
Having spent a great deal of time (probably not enough) subsidised by the British taxpayer looking back over the history of 20th century Britain and trying to get some of it to stick in my mind, I feel that it might be worth speculating about the views of historians on the Blair governments. I’m sure [...]
Filed under: constitution, foreignpolicy, gambling, gordonbrown, history, tonyblair, ukpolitics on May 5th, 2007 | 2 Comments »
I’m too young to remember much about the referendum on a Scottish Parliament – I do remember that it didn’t really dominate discussion in my household. We were living in California at the time, although my parents were voting by proxy, and while I’m sure it came up at the dinner table every so often, [...]
Filed under: culture, history, identity, scotland, ukpolitics on May 5th, 2007 | 10 Comments »
