I feel the need to rant (in a gracious way) about the liberal Abortion Act amendments that have been tabled for the fast-approaching report stage of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill.

My male chum Unity has already reported on the time-limit amendment tabled (again) by the one and only Mad Nads Dorries: I wanted to start a little something on the sensible contributions.

Tabled by Evan Harris, Chris McCafferty and Frank Dobson, the two liberal amendments would improve the Abortion Act by – rightly – making access to legal abortion easier than it is. The proposals are to get rid of the present requirement for two doctors to approve a request for an abortion, and to make it legal for nurses to perform the procedure.
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Sorry the netcast is a bit late today, folks. I got caught up in emailing Woman’s Hour and lost track of time. As always, tips to the usual address (although we give no guarantees you’ll be included) and hope you find something of interest in this.

Paul Walter has a handy précis of ConHome’s “How to become a Tory MP” guide. Essentially it involves throwing lots of money at it. *I* thought that was supposed to be the *Labour* way…

Lynne Featherstone calls people who don’t support Harriet Harman’s proposal to allow positive discrimination “Tory Boys”. Thank, Lynne! I assume the penis and blue rosette must have been lost in the post…

Lee Griffin is a Tory Boy like me, then. I particularly like this rabid right-wing point: “If schools want more male teachers then incentives are necessary to increase numbers, not putting a worse teacher in charge of educating our children for the sake of some equality figures.”

Anthony Hook thinks that the age discrimination proposals might be ill-thought-out too. continue reading… »

When we think about blogging and the development of human interactions through the web, it is easy to assume some kind of historical determinism. The Internet is one huge sandbox, with new blogs and campaigning sites being launched all the time. Most peter out (I’ve been involved in a couple of those myself) but others persist, and grow. This trial-and-error approach suggests that we are at least inching towards a more sophisticated and empowering blogosphere, which exercises more influence over politics and therefore the direction this country is headed.

The Blog Nation event earlier this week raised some of the key issues that the Left needs to answer in order to become more effective online. As I crouched in the front row of the event, rubbing my temples and trying to think of answers, the following thought occurred to me: What if this is all there is? By which I mean, perhaps it is impossible to become much more organized. I refrained from articulating this thought at the time, but it did seem a deft, if nihilistic way of avoiding giving an answer to some of the questions posed, above. Perhaps there is no historical determinism to any of this, and we are not destined to develop anything significantly more efficient than what we have now.

Now I don’t know whether I really believe things to be so hopeless, but if its true it may not be such a bad thing. Rather than grandiose ideas of the blogosphere become some kind of Fifth Estate, perhaps we should aspire to nothing more than another tool for the people to use in checking the power of the elite (both elected representatives and others who hold positions of influence).

Of course we should ask how existing bloggers and activists can work better together, but that is just oiling the machine, rather than inventing a new one. A more important focus is to try to increase access to the new information and opinion that is appearing online. Just as increasing literacy strengthens democracy and promote equality, so computer literacy can strengthen it too. So, my suggestion for the next open source campaign – introduce one relative, friend or colleague to blogging each month. This need not mean forcing them to set up their own blog. Instead, just a gentle explanation of the power of RSS, and the suggestion that they bookmark one – just one – of the fine sites listed here.

Ever so slightly longer version cross posted at my own corner.

The image on the right is a good example of modern xenophobia. Its not racist in the traditional sense, with a picture of some black guy running off with a white woman for example.

It’s part of a narrative that says: the Muslims are not only here, but they’ll take over by multiplying and destroying us. The bomb is the womb… etc. I don’t even have to deconstruct it too much – its obvious what the message is.

Stuff like this has a long tradition. Decades ago the narrative was that the world was controlled by a “Jewish copnspiracy”, and you can still this prevalent on far-right websites where they talk of the ZOG (Zionist Occupation Government).
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I have spent about five hours so far collating reactions to last night’s Who and am still not done yet, so if this is a bit disjointed, blame Russell T Davies. When I’ve finally done I’ll be making Liberal use of this and picturing Rusty in the role of Boss.

Tips to the usual address: all submissions will be considered, although there’s no guarantee of inclusion.

Andrew Hickey has a great post about why the Lib Dems’ current strategy is completely arse-about-face, which neatly encapsulates my own feelings on the matter and chimes with Mike Smithson’s recent post too.

Stuff White People Like dissects Godwin’s Law: “all human beings can be neatly filed into one of two categories: People I Agree With, and People Who are Just Like Adolf Hitler.”

Shakesville reports on a fiscal fly in John McCain’s soup.

On my blog there are tips for those who wish to pile the pressure on Heinz like Lynne F. continue reading… »

So – 200 complaints about two men kissing and Heinz – wimps that they are – withdraw the advertisement.

Just when you think that we have moved beyond the bigotry and homophobic hatreds of the past – something like this (or Iris Robinson) pops into the limelight and reminds us that we still have a long way to go to eradicate homophobia. We may have been able to make homophobic behaviour subject to the law – but it is clearly still there in the people – and in corporate cowards.

Would Heinz have pulled an advert if 200 people had objected to it containing a woman? Or a black person? I certainly hope not! But if such blatant sexism or racism isn’t acceptable, why treat homophobia as ok to give in to?

Andrew (a former employee of mine!) has blogged on the subject at his blog – and gives details of how to lobby Heinz. It’s very easy – just an email or a call to their free phone number.

I have signed an Early Day Motion condemning Heinz for their action – and I hope this whole episode does them the damage they deserve.

(If you aren’t a constituent of mine, do pop over to http://www.writetothem.com/ and email your own MP asking them to sign EDM 1889. Don’t worry if you don’t know who your MP is – the site will look it up for you and sort out sending the message.)

Sunny adds:
There is also an online petition, now signed by over 10,000 people, and a Facebook group.

Anyone know what products other than those under the Heinz name should be boycotted?

Welcome to the netcast.

The Curvature – A son removes his aged father from a home where he had found a lover. Both father and his partner suffered from dementia. The thought of the two of them having sex was too much for the son. A beautiful, complicated article.
Left of Centrist – Robert imagines a world without gays and lesbians. Sounds bloody boring.
Norfolk Blogger – Nich gets himself banned from direct.gov.uk – simply for trying it out. Beware government IT initiatives. BEWARE!
Bad Science – Ben Goldacre’s latest example of “bad science” is from the front page of The Daily Outrage Express.
PDF (NSFW) – This will make you giggle (and possibly clap). But please, don’t visit this site if you’re at work.
Obsolete – Continuing our Daily Express theme, septicisle has news of a front page Muslim-outrage story that isn’t quite what it seems.
e8voice – Hug-a-hoodie wasn’t just a sound bite, it’s a serious rehabilitation project. Hugs work, apparently.

As promised last week I’ve ditched the classification into left & right and decided to break things down slightly differently into three sections – I’ll highlight any formal reports and publications issued, articles / briefings or blogposts from their own sites or in the MSM and finally public events or debates that might be of interest.

If there are any significant personnel changes among the major players I’ll highlight those as well.

Reports & Publications…

• The Centre for Policy Studies published a paper by Tony Lodge, ‘Wind Chill’, on the limits of wind power in terms of plugging the UK’ energy gap.
• The Institute of Economic Affairs published ‘Sixty Years On – Who Cares for the NHS’, a fascinating paper on the risks politicians face proposing anything remotely radical about the NHS – “Elite opinion does not, as yet, warm to a free market in healthcare. Although aspects of a market-based system are accepted, ideas of ‘market failure’ loom large – especially amongst the political class. Nevertheless, the author shows how some groups of opinion formers are prepared to be more radical. These groups, she believes, may in time be effective in promoting a vision of a market in healthcare that is free from government interference and from the stifling power of government-granted professional monopolies”
• The IPPR published a paper by Jane Midgley on ‘How the UK should respond to food policy challenges’
• Two publications from the New Local Government Network worth highlighting. The first – “Healthy Places: Bonds that bind local government and primary care trusts” looks at the options for further devolution within the health service and how it could improve service delivery. The second – “Directly Elected, Direct Results” – calls for an expansion in the directly elected mayoral model with powers over local police, transport and health services. (joint venture with the IPPR)

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Sorry to butt in here, team, but thought I would take a moment to appraise you of an exchange we’ve had with our nobody Labour MP Joan Ruddock on the 42 days’ detention vote. Thought I might as well share this correspondence, so that you also could kill a few moments on a Friday savouring the kind of limp response former Labour voters get when they approach their local Brownite buttkissing MP on issues of real significance… continue reading… »

The Green party has put forward a candidate in the by-election against David Davis. Left of David Davis? Check. A left / progressive candidate? Check. Wants to push for even more civil liberties? Check. So the Labour and lefty bloggers must be rising up in support? Erm… well, there’s Neil Harding… and a lot of tumbleweed rolling by.

[update: non-Greens support also from: peezedtee, Dave Cole, Stuart Jefferey, Socialist Unity, Unbeliever, Pamphlet Labour]

Yes, it really does look like many lefties really will cut off their noses to spite their face on this issue. Well, I’m not sitting here praying David Davis fails miserably because the outcome would a vindicated Gordon Brown willing to push it through with the Parliament Act if the Lords reject the 42 days bill as expected.
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Labour are beginning to look like a punch-drunk former champ. They seem addicted to the buzz, but whenever they enter the ring they invariably get an almighty mauling. Last night was always going to be a shoo-in for the Tories, after all it’s Henley. But for Labour to be battered and bruised into fifth, behind such towering political heavyweights as The Greens, is quite the humiliation. It’s still uncertain that the up-and-coming challenger, Slippery Dave Cameron, has the stamina and power to win the Title belt, but surely he’s where the smart money is at…

Freemania – They don’t call him “Slippery” for nothing. Tom takes a look at some less-than-honest campaigning by the Tories.
Shiraz Socialist – It’s over for Labour, and the sooner the Left realises that it’s “no longer a viable vehicle for progressive politics in this country”, the better. Touché.
Sunder Katwala – The worst thing Brown can do is allow his tenure to splutter away hopelessly. He needs to be radical and to “get on and govern”.
Ali Gledhill – Yeah, Labour had it coming, but the real losers are the Lib Dems who, yet again, couldn’t capitalise. They’re bereft of ideas and are still conducting themselves appallingly. continue reading… »

Today, two very different but inextricably linked news stories caught my eye.

In the first, I find (via The f-word) that Nadine Dorries has tabled another amendment to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill that would, if accepted, reduce the upper time limit for abortions to twenty weeks. Dorries is seemingly taking a leaf out of the European Union’s book. She didn’t get the answer she wanted last time, so she’ll keep right on asking the same question over and over again until she gets the answer she wants.

Meanwhile, about 1300 miles away in Bucharest, a Romanian government committee will decide today whether to allow an 11 year girl, who was raped by her 19 year old uncle, to travel to the UK for an abortion.

The uncle has, not unsurprisingly, ‘disappeared’.
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A total of 26 candidates – half of them independents – will contest the Haltemprice and Howden by-election. The full list is here. h/t modernity.

Yesterday at the Blog Nation Event, Dan Hardie gave an account of his experiences running his Iraqi Interpreters campaign. He mentioned my post on Open Source Campaigning, but said he thought that ‘open source’ wasn’t an appropriate label, because you need a heirarchy and a leader to run an effective campaign.

To clarify, I’m not sure that the ideas of ‘leadership’ and ‘open source’ are mutually exclusive. Open Source coding projects tend to have a core team of dedicated developers, but individual tasks to code are farmed out to volunteers. Likewise with Jay Rosen’s ‘open source journalism’ – an editor or lead journalist still writes up the piece, but dozens or hundreds of other journalists are able to perform the many discrete pieces of research required.

So it is with Open Source Campaigning. You still need someone like Dan to lead the campaign and make strategic decisions, but the leg-work can be decimated if the lobbying or writing to individual MPs is shared throughout the network.

Cross-posted at my own place, obviously.

It’s a dark day for me as a Liberal, but I find myself in agreement with the Daily Fail. I despise the Mail, and pretty much everything they stand for, but Harperson’s Equality Act definitely has a sting in the tail.

In my view, Positive Discrimination is still discrimination and it is wrong. Even in this limited way, endorsing discrimination perpetuates it, rather than eradicating it. It adds vast amounts of resentment for little perceivable benefit.
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Nuff Said.

Conspiracy theorist David Icke is also running in the Haltermprice by-election, Hopi Sen reports, to protest against Big Brother. Erm…

After much serious thought on the subject I have come up with the answer to all the squabbles on the left.

I considered serious political theoretical and strategic discussion but decided to cut to the chase, yep all the old bitter battles as to who did what in 1981 or more recent spats with the SWP could be settled by a cage fight.

Apparently :
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Welcome to the Thursday casting the net. It’s Henley by-election today so exciting times for 24 hours and I’m sure a wealth of links fo Aaron tomorrow. Yesterday was the blog nation event, and this week has provided great material to blog on, so here are the links. Feel free to post up your favourite links in the comments, especially thoughts on last night’s Lib Con event. As always please send lovely tips to tips[at]liberalconspiracy[dot]org!

Brian Barder – What Jacqui Smith said yesterday regarding Homosexuality and Iran is completely unacceptable and it certain seems to have irked a fair number of us out there.
Max Dunbar – A thoroughly interesting and, from my perspective, spot on analysis of a recent occurrence on Big Brother. With so much tension around, the actions of the few muslims and immigrants in the house are bound to be under scrutiny.
Beeblebear/ukpolitics – If you’re brown and muslim then the moment the police break in to your house to arrest you you’re targeted by the media immediately. Kiddy fiddling, fascist, white terrorist? Well you’ll make the paper only when charged.
Neil Harding – He doesn’t like Labour MPs unless they’ve got a spine.
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Yesterday around 80-90 people met up at our first Blog Nation, held at the Guardian newsroom in London. Here are some pictures…
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