As David Cameron reminds us often, social responsibility is not only and always the duty of the state.

So, as a small and symbolic mark of disrespect, this blog will henceforth refer to the non-dom billionaire as Not-Lord Ashcroft.

May we commend the practice to the blogosphere.

I cannot, in good conscience, exercise my legally-guaranteed right to participate in the democratic process when tens of thousands of Britons are illegally deprived of theirs. For that reason, I will be staying at home come election day. Not out of apathy, nor out of a lack of available alternatives, but as a small protest against a big injustice.

Guest post by luis enrique
I wish people spent more time looking at data and less time pontificating, so in theory I ought to love the flourishing of attention paid to household income data
But I don’t, because I think it’s being misused. It’s possible to misuse data like this in lots of ways, [...]

Teen mothers are vilified by Harris, while Loughton demands they suffer criminal penalties. The question of whether teenage fathers bear responsibility, or are worthy of our extreme moral disdain, or even our attention, never makes it onto their radars. That their attitudes are the norm tells us something important about our society.

As a bit of fun for a Friday morning we thought we’d offer our reader an opportunity to choose their political scumbag of the week, largely because this week has conveniently provided us with a strong field of contenders.

Labour is considering making the retention of DNA samples ‘an issue’ for the election.

But if people feel they are being labelled as suspects by the police, even when they are not criminals, then this might make them less willing to cooperate with the police. The police are no longer an extension of ‘us’, the law-abiding majority, but become an alien power whom many of us fear and resent. But if the police get less cooperation with the public, won’t they solve fewer crimes?

The reason there’s so little progress in the popular educational policy debate is that teaching is something we’re very ideological about while also thinking that our own experience and common sense have already given us the right answers. It’s not because the academic evidence that already exists isn’t of the right kind.

The Digital Economy Bill is coming. The Lords have wasted most of their time wrangling over just how much they should support big business with laws, and now there are only a few days left to debate one of the most regressive laws to come to the parliamentary table. This is what the Government wants, to pass it without contest through the “wash-up” before an election.

We must stand up for our rights, and we must do it now. After all…if any of this was being forced on us in our “real” lives we simply wouldn’t stand for it.

Liberal Conspiracy has obtained a set of notes taken at a recent seminar which show that the Conservative Party is pushing ahead with plans to provide state funding to a network of independent schools with close ties to a controversial occult society.

The notes were taken at a recent seminar organised by the Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship (SWSF), an offshoot of the Anthroposophical Society, which exists to promote the occult philosophies of the German mystic Rudolf Steiner, and also suggest that a newly registered educational charity with close ties to the Conservative Party may be actively engaged in the promotion of Conservative education policy in such a way as to breach the Charity Commission’s regulations on charity involvement in political activity.

Israel’s announcement of plans for 1,600 new settler housing units in illegally occupied Palestinian territory has triggered both stern condemnation from Washington and rioting on the streets of East Jerusalem. And just to highlight their heartfelt regret over these adverse reactions, the Israeli authorities have today confirmed their desire to build 300 more.
It is difficult [...]