Picking up the pieces from Thursday’s disaster
As anyone who reads the news will know, last Thursday there was a general election here and on Friday morning we learned that the Tories had gained an absolute majority of the seats, which...
Category: Politics
So who’s a mensch, then? And who cares?
Today the Sun put that picture of Ed Miliband trying to eat a bacon butty and getting it all down his shirt, suggesting that if he can't even eat without making a mess, he'll...
Word from the local Lib Dem office
Earlier today I left a message on the local Lib Dem constituency office’s answerphone, as our MP, who is defending his seat, is the Lib Dem Energy secretary Edward Davey. I asked him what...
Lib Dems must understand why they are hated
As I think I've said here in the past, I live in a Lib Dem constituency — specifically, Ed Davey's constituency, Kingston and Surbiton, a constituency where the only main challenger is a Tory...
Don’t go back
Last week the former Prime Minister, John Major (right), popped up to have a go at the Scottish National Party, which opinion polls suggest is likely to get a majority of the seats in...
Leaders’ debate: my impressions
Last night there was a big debate featuring the leaders of the seven major political parties in next month's elections (Labour, Tories, Lib Dems, Greens, UKIP, Plaid Cymru and the SNP). I was driving,...
Another reason to remain in the EU
A Twitter friend just flagged up this story from a Canadian newspaper. It's about a Muslim family who are Canadian citizens being barred from boarding a flight to Florida so they could go to...
Gender, ‘censorship’ and campus free speech
Last Sunday there was a letter in the Observer, the Sunday sister paper to the Guardian, from a long list of people (the principal signatories being Beatrix Campbell and Deborah Cameron; the others appeared...
Where were you?
Today the Guardian published a long article on the late Lucy Glennon, who wrote for the paper, most memorably about her condition (epidermolysis bullosa or EB), but also about food and about the effects...
LB on Newsnight while BBC plugs Southern Health unit
So, last night Newsnight did a feature (34min in) on the ongoing ‘effort’ to get people with learning disabilities and challenging behaviour out of assessment and treatment units (ATUs), more than two years after...
“Due process”: the baneful legacy of Magna Carta
This year marks the 800th anniversary of the sealing of Magna Carta, the treaty which protected the rights of the Norman barons during the reign of King John, and has since become a byword...
Message to the animal rights lobby: women aren’t vermin
These days a regular annoyance is getting an email from a petition-hosting organisation (having absent-mindedly signed up for their emails when you signed a petition once) asking you to free someone who’s been “caged”...
How France can really ‘protect all religions’
France 'to protect all religions' (BBC News) The French president, François Hollande, has announced that France "will protect all religions" and that Muslims are the "main victims of fanaticism" in a speech at the...
Charlie Hebdo and the limits of free speech
Last week three gunmen raided the offices of the French ‘satirical’ magazine Charlie Hebdo (Weekly) and killed its editor, three other contributors, two policemen and various other staff (including bodyguards but some not named)...
Nick Cohen shows his irrational hatred for the Muslim Brotherhood
Why must we tolerate police spies in our midst? | Nick Cohen | Comment is free | The Observer Nick Cohen, as long-time readers will know, has a long-standing hostility to the Muslim Brotherhood,...
Tories’ “£15bn roads revolution” is a pre-election con
Today the government announced their intention to spend £15billion on an ambitious set of new road projects, including improvements to several junctions on the M25, a tunnel near Stonehenge on the A303 and the...
Feminists throw Billy-no-mates under the bus
A letter to … the girl who accused me of rape when I was 15 | Life and style | The Guardian I knew when I saw this piece in today's Guardian Family supplement...
Not being spied on used to be called freedom
Yesterday a report from the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) came out that concluded that the murder of Lee Rigby, a British soldier, in London in 2013 could not have been prevented despite the...
I’m a professional driver, and I’m not a knucklehead
Last week Mark Reckless, who had stood down as a Tory MP in the Rochester and Strood constituency in Kent and re-stood for UKIP, won the by-election with 42.1% of the vote on a...
Lipman, the socialist, deserts the poor for Israel
Last week Maureen Lipman, the British comic actress best known for roles in advertisements in the 1980s (as in “if you’ve got an ‘ology, you’re a scientist”), announced in an article for Standpoint magazine...