The “phone-hacking scandal” needs a good name. “Hackgate” or “Phonegate” just won’t cut it — that nomenclature is for little controversies that one wryly compares to Watergate in a tongue-in-cheek fashion. This one actually is like Watergate, and its consequences could be no less far-reaching.
The one thing the scandal isn’t really about — not [...]
Filed under: conservatives, culture, davidcameron, jonathanbirch, journalism, media, ukpolitics on July 18th, 2011 | No Comments »
In 21st Century Britain, monarchy is faring rather better than democracy. As public trust in politicians sinks to new, unprecedented lows, the Royal Family is enjoying a weird and immensely tedious resurgence in popularity. I don’t know if these things are correlated. But, either way, they are pretty alarming signs of the times.
The upshot [...]
Filed under: democracy, electoralreform, jonathanbirch, ukpolitics on April 21st, 2011 | No Comments »
Why bother being in government? What’s the point, exactly? While inadvertently pondering this question aloud in front of Telegraph journalists, the best answer Vince Cable could come up with was that it allowed him to bash Rupert Murdoch. Unfortunately, by making this claim, Vince has talked himself out of the opportunity to bash Rupert Murdoch. [...]
Filed under: jonathanbirch, journalism, libdems on December 22nd, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Track the course of the polls since the General Election, and you see a beautifully symmetric picture. At the top, Labour, seven points adrift in May, are neck and neck with the Tories. Below, the Liberal Democrats, level with Labour on the eve of the election, are in a dance of death with the thin [...]
Filed under: jonathanbirch, libdems, nickclegg, ukpolitics on November 30th, 2010 | No Comments »
Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, today outlines plans to cut the science budget while forging stronger links between science and business. A bit ominous, but not particularly surprising. The really ominous thing about this news is how the BBC has reported it. At the time of writing, the BBC News story quotes “Martin Reese, president [...]
Filed under: culture, jonathanbirch, journalism, ukpolitics on September 8th, 2010 | No Comments »
At 8.05 this morning, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg unveiled his latest pet project: the Your Freedom website, an internet forum in which members of the public are invited to discuss the laws they would like to see repealed and the civil liberties they would like to see restored. At 8.30, I signed up, fearing [...]
Filed under: civilliberties, conservatives, davidcameron, jonathanbirch, ukpolitics on July 1st, 2010 | No Comments »
Before the election, a ministerial post must have seemed a distant pipe dream to Clare Fellow Julian Huppert. Now, a few dramatic weeks later, it still is, but the pipe is considerably shorter.
19 Liberal Democrats have jobs in David Cameron’s government. As the new Liberal Democrat MP for Cambridge (and one of four Clareites [...]
Filed under: jonathanbirch, libdems, ukpolitics on June 10th, 2010 | No Comments »
Interesting times. With an extraordinary Con-Lib coalition about to be finalised, David Cameron and Nick Clegg must be all but salivating at the prospect of imminent power as a forlorn Gordon Brown skulks off into obscurity and Labour braces itself for a spell in opposition.
It looks like a catastrophe for the outgoing government. But [...]
Filed under: conservatives, davidcameron, jonathanbirch, labour, ukpolitics on May 11th, 2010 | No Comments »
It’s a scandal: in the 2008 US Presidential Election, 47% of the votes counted for nothing! Rather than granting each candidate a slice of power proportional to his or her vote share, America inexplicably uses an antiquated “winner takes all” approach. Consequently, over 50 million voters received no representation whatsoever in the White House.
That [...]
Filed under: electoralreform, jonathanbirch on May 4th, 2010 | 2 Comments »
With today’s resolution to Debbie Purdy’s court battle to have the law on assisted suicide clarified, there is now an inescapable feeling that matters are coming to a head regarding the issue in this country. A tide of opinion polls, news stories and incessant letters in newspapers show that this debate just won’t go away [...]
Filed under: humanrights, ideas, jonathanbirch, society on July 30th, 2009 | No Comments »
