Iain Dale stirs the pot against Lammy
Occasionally, Tory blogger Iain Dale goes from straight Conservative party cheerleading to partisan stupidity. Today we find another such example. Cabinet Minister David Lammy has written a good blog for OurKingdom, sympathising with attempts by British Tamils to raise awareness of the civil war in Sri Lanka and the massacre of Tamils by the SL government. He also writes of the relatively miniscule coverage offered to the people protesting in Westminister – organised entirely by text messages and local radio stations I’ve heard.
But rather than expressing sympathy with the cause, or applauding a minister of trying to engage with blogs through what is a genuinely thoughtful post, Dale can’t help try and stir the pot by saying: “It is yet another sign of a government in decay when Ministers feel free to freelance in this way.” Honestly. The self-declared top Tory blogger keeps up his slide into parody.
Nadine Dorries MP ignores her parliamentary obligations
Oh dear. It seems Tory MP Nadine Dorries skipped the sermon in which the congregation were told that telling lies to people doesn’t go down well with Jesus. (As ever, the permalinks don’t work properly at Dorries’ ‘blog’, so you’ll need to scroll down a bit to find the post.)
Sam Coates of The Times called this morning, regarding my non attendance of the Innovation and Skills Select Committee. I am actually a member of the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee; however, the old Science and Technology Committee did become Innovation and Skills, following the publication of the abortion report. I have never sat on the Innovation and Skills Select Committee.
Unfortunately, Hansard says otherwise…
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Top Stories & Blog Review Thursday April 9th
Nationwide
How police tried to manage a death
G20 death: Met police officer breaks cover
Women in City paid 60% less than men
Care for elderly exposed as shameful
International
U.S. joins Iran in talks over nuclear program
U.S. plays down hopes at climate talks
Sri Lankans sounds last warning to Tigers
Bogota’s displaced youth turn to street arts
DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Andrew Hickey
Think you’ve spotted a blog we should be linking to? Email
and let us know!
People have remained up in arms about Ian Tomlinson, understandably. Pickwick among others thinks that the recent ‘terrorist’ arrests are an attempt to distract people from Tomlinson’s death. I’m unconvinced myself, but it’s a possibility.
Jim Jay has video which appears to show the police obstructing the ambulance that was arriving for Mr Tomlinson.
Moments Of Clarity is unimpressed with the Conservatives’ ‘right to move’ policy.
Mark at Lib Dem Voice looks at a LabourList post which claims quotes from TheyWorkForYou are ‘blatant lies’.
Debi posted several great posts yesterday, but this one on the differences between LiveJournal and other blogging platforms may be of use to people following links to LJ from this site.
Qwghlm has the best spoof anti-terror poster yet.
If you want even more links, Jonathan From Liberal England is hosting the 88th Carnival Of The Liberals, or browse through previous Netcasts
The BBC and Lonely Planet: it will never happen again
So, the waiting‘s over. The Select Committee Report on BBC Commercial Operations was published on Tuesday. And the verdict is clear: the kind of acquisition that the BBC purchase of Lonely Planet represents should never happen again (pdf, p. 10, para. 22):
There is clearly a balancing act between allowing Worldwide to expand and potentially generate greater returns for the BBC, and limiting its operations in order to ensure it upholds the BBC’s reputation and does not unfairly distort the market… We recommend that the commercial criteria and fair trading guidelines should be returned to the pre-2007 position, whereby all commercial activity must have a clear link with core BBC programming. continue reading… »
Top Stories – 9th April
Nationwide
How police tried to manage a death
G20 death: Met police officer breaks cover
Women in City paid 60% less than men
Care for elderly exposed as shameful
International
U.S. joins Iran in talks over nuclear program
U.S. plays down hopes at climate talks
Sri Lankans sounds last warning to Tigers
Bogota’s displaced youth turn to street arts
DAILY BLOG REVIEW / coming later
Reducing poverty by helping Fred
Oxfam have just released a six point rescue plan for people who have been affected by the recession:
*Tax cuts for people on low incomes
*Create sustainable jobs and make child care and social care free
*Raise benefits and tax credits now
*Reform the welfare system to make it easier for people to get jobs
*Protect working people by enforcing their rights
*Fund low cost credit by capping the maximum rate of loans and making crisis loans more available
This is to help people who have been:
Forgotten by those in power
Ripped-off by taxes and the benefits system
Excluded from opportunities
Debt-ridden because they can’t afford to get by
or ‘FRED’ for short. You can meet ‘FRED’ and find out more about their research and ideas here continue reading… »
Compass Tax Justice Rally
Did you know that over 15 times as much money is lost through tax avoidance at the top than is lost to benefit fraud at the bottom? That’s £15BN of public money lost to a powerful elite who can afford to pay tax advisers: so this is an urgent call to sign up to our Tax Justice Rally!
continue reading… »
Protests and ‘trustafarians’
You know, I was watching that G20 protest on TV this week, and I found myself filled with inexplicable, blinding white rage.
At first, I struggled to explain the feeling. It certainly wasn’t caused by the epic outburst of fiscal fuckery the big banks used to accidentally tank the world’s economy. Nor is it the fact that the deranged self-confidence of this tiny oligarchy has inadvertently transformed British and American democracy – your birth-right and mine – into a fierce contest to see which political party can keep them the happiest.
It’s not as if this situation is new, after all. The idea that democracy is about representing the interests of 1) the super wealthy for the supposed benefit of… 2) everybody else has been at the heart of UK politics for at least thirty years… So no, that wasn’t the reason for my rage.
continue reading… »
Deaths: spot the difference
Shoukat Ali, a north London businessman, died from a heart attack after chasing and confronting a thief he saw stealing a radio from his son’s car, police said yesterday.
Initial reports suggested Mr Ali died after being severely beaten by the thief but a post- mortem examination yesterday showed bruises on his body were inconsistent with that.
But the police said they were still treating his death as murder and appealing for witnesses. ‘In the pathologist’s opinion, the heart attack was brought on by the emotional and physical stress of chasing and confronting the thief. Mr Ali did have a recent history of heart disease,’ a spokeswoman said.
The Independent – 20 April 1994
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Top News and Blog Review – Wednesday 8th April
Nationwide
How police view of Ian Tomlinson death changed
Witnesses tell of dogs, batons and police attack
Now it’s time for justice, says family
Tamils bring their fight to Westminster
International
Obama presses Iraqi leader to unite factions
Protests in Moldova, with help of Twitter
15 years later, Rwanda remembers massacre
Afghanistan ‘rape’ law raises women’s rights issue
DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Lee Griffin
Think you’ve spotted a blog we should be linking to? Email and let us know!
Himmelgarten Cafe asks what the reaction would be if a police officer had been killed rather than Ian Tomlinson. Plenty of other bloggers also outraged.
Sim-O points out that Phorm are keeping up the PR offensive for their ISP endorsed spy/adware.
Quaequam blog furthers the questioning of whether the right are hypocrites or not.
Neil Stockley knows renewable energy is the way forward, but sees such little commitment to the cost necessary to make it sustainable.
Mark Easton casts an eye over the figures for legalising drug use.
CiF/Duncan Campbell believes the Met have a lot to learn, a whole lot more.
And The people’s republic of Mortimer has a chocolatey rant, about a glass and a half’s worth; or you can browse through previous Netcasts
You can read articles through the front page, via Twitter or RSS feed. You can also get them by email and through our Facebook group.
» Revealed: govt to restrict abortion counselling despite Nadine Dorries vote
» Would raising the tax threshold actually help the poorest?
» To win London, Ken Livingstone has to step outside his comfort zone
» This trade agreement with India will destroy thousands of lives
» UK debt hasn’t hit £1 trillion – mostly because of QE
» The benefits of being a “burden” on society
» Today’s economic figures will simply confirm UK’s “lost decade”
» Have Labour realised the election is more than three years away?
» Violence in the office
» Want a more responsible capitalism? Reform how pensions work
» The world is entering the third phase of the crisis, warns ILO
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