Will the Guardian endorse Libdems at the election?
This week’s New Statesman features an interesting Leader that takes a half-hearted shot at the Guardian‘s political coverage. In a piece titled ‘Brown-hating hacks refuse to listen to what Labour has to say‘, an extract says:
Certainly, in recent days, the government has made several promising moves which may appeal to the electorate more than to the Cameron-loving and Brown-hating media. (The Guardian can scarcely contain its admiration for Mr Cameron; its interview with the Tory intellectual Michael Gove on 25 April was a model of swooning sycophancy of the kind that the riven and troubled newspaper regularly serves up when reporting on the Conservatives.) The trick in the run-up to the next general election will be to ensure that such initiatives form part of a larger narrative – and crucially one that is social-democratic in nature. [emphasis mine]
I think this could be taken further.
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Open borders, not just amnesty, for migrants
Yesterday there was a rally in central London called by the Strangers Into Citizens campaign, a coalition with an apparently bedazzling array of backers from the unions, parliament and from (largely religious) community groups.
Its aim was to call for a one-off “earned amnesty” for migrants who live and work in the UK without legal status, and who have been here for over 4 years. But there is a sting in its tail.
The campaign argues that there is a strong case for such a legal change.
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Top Stories and Blog Review Tuesday 5th May
Nationwide
Labour prepares for a hammering at ballot box
School closed after pupil infects four classmates
Clubs face penalties for facist fans
British cases of swine flu jump to 27
International
Obama moves to capture lost tax from multinationals
U.S. bill aims to triple aid to Pakistan
Fiat move for GM would create $100B giant
South Koreans convicted in Iraq scheme
DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Jennie Rigg
Charlotte Gore has started a meme, which has been picked up by a couple of other people – can you name ten people who would be a better PM than Brown?
Daddy Alex thinks he has found the stupidest thing John Prescott has ever said. Yup even stupider than “I want you, Tracy”.
The e-hippies have done a pretty indepth study on the policing of dissent in this country. It’s long, but it’s worth digging into.
Jonathan Calder has this month’s Wikio exclusive, and the most worrying thing about it is that even after five days’ solid advertising coverage on the MSM (and even this blog), Guido still hasn’t knocked La Dale off his perch. Can anyone unseat the egregious Tory Tosser?
Stuart Sharpe has caused a big kerfuffle in the Lib Dem blogosphere for daring to suggest that we are insular and our websites are rubbish.
Our own dear Sarah talks about Chris Woodhead’s coming out as disAbled.
And finally Mr Eugenides has this week’s Britblog Roundup, or for yet more linkage, you can browse through previous Netcasts
Tories and economic incompetence
A historical fact occurred to me yesterday: over the past half century, every time a Conservative government has come to power, it has introduced disastrous economic policies which have plunged the economy into far greater crisis and made their government desperately unpopular.
The last time that a newly elected Conservative government managed even minimal competence was when they were led by Winston Churchill in 1951. The last time they managed this feat with a leader who had no previous experience of being Prime Minister was in the 1920s.
Of course, history is not always a good guide to how a party will govern. But since the current Conservative economic policy is ‘ask us after the election’, their candidates for parliament are mostly unembarrassed Thatcherites, and many of their highly regarded thinkers spent the past few years urging that Britain should be more like Ireland or Iceland, the signs are that they aren’t likely to break their 58 year run of messing things up if they do win the election.
Which makes it all the more important that if Labour is defeated, the party could work out quickly how it needs to change and what the lessons of the past twelve years are, in time to fix the problems that the Tories will cause.
Top Stories – Tuesday 5th May
Nationwide
Labour prepares for a hammering at ballot box
School closed after pupil infects four classmates
Clubs face penalties for facist fans
British cases of swine flu jump to 27
International
Obama moves to capture lost tax from multinationals
U.S. bill aims to triple aid to Pakistan
Fiat move for GM would create $100B giant
South Koreans convicted in Iraq scheme
DAILY BLOG REVIEW / coming later
Patriotism, the BNP and being a publican
To “serve and protect” is a phrase famously associated with police officers in certain high-profile cities in America but it’s also a phrase I associate with the job of landlord. It’s a pun first made to me by the landlord at my local down in Southampton mumble years ago. The pub was a tiny Victorian establishment with a 2-barrel brewery that was visible through a glass panel behind the bar, so you could drink your Sweet Sensation [1] and watch the next batch brewing. I was told “Our job is to serve drinks and protect peace of mind. The brewer sells beer: the landlord sells happiness.”
I am tired of being told I’m a leftie, which I’m really not; but I’m equally tired of the assumption that if I were, I must ‘hate Britain’. That’s very Yankee thinking; that any progressive view or compassionate view or inclusive view is anti-patriotic.
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The Evening Standard says sorry
Roy Greenslade writes:
The London Evening Standard today launches one of the most daring of publicity campaigns by apologising to Londoners for its previous behaviour.
Buses and tubes will carry a series of messages throughout the week that begin with the word “sorry.” The first says “Sorry for losing touch”. Subsequent slogans say sorry for being negative, for taking you for granted, for being complacent and for being predictable.
A good start though I wonder if it will be enough to turn around its reputation. Will the Evening Standard also apologise for carrying reports that the G20 protestors were throwing bricks at the police trying to help Ian Tomlinson?
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Smearing British Muslims through opinion polls
Last year I wrote about what I called the “disgusting misrepresentation of British Muslims,” the publication of heavily biased opinion polls by lobby groups that were quickly picked up and promoted by elements of the right-wing press.
This week, I’m pleased to say that a group of British Born Muslims who saw that coverage and my article, got in touch to let me know that they’ve been going out and collecting evidence to help fight for the reputation of their community. Those who saw my first piece for Liberal Conspiracy know that I’m here to advocate science-based policy, so this week I want to explore the science of opinion polls, and look at how the evidence has been abused by a network of right-wing journalists and lobbying interests.
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The Soho Bombings: 10 years on
On April 30, 1999 the Admiral Duncan pub was targeted by a fascist psychopath.
On two consecutive Saturdays ten years ago London was the theatre of unexplained explosions. The first injured fifty people on the corner of Electric Avenue in Brixton, while the second hit Brick Lane, a busy and picturesque district with a large Bangladeshi population.
Barely were Londoners beginning to make sense of those incidents that, in the evening of Friday, April 30, the crowded Admiral Duncan pub – at the heart of London’s gay village- was blown up.
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Top Stories & Blog Review – Monday 4th May
Nationwide
Fight over conditions that ‘stifle’ climate protests
Recession fuels sharp rise in financial crime
Businessmen protest against Heathrow’s third runway
‘Best way to beat the BNP is to vote Green’
International
Mutation fears after human gives virus to pig
Row over anti-abortion number plates
China accused of quake cover-up by Amnesty
Israel faces hard sell in bid to shift policy
DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Sarah Ismail
Angela Saini Reviews Ecologic, the book that tells you how to be really green.
Anthony Barnett Responds to Sunny.
Bleeding Heart Show David Blunkett’s hope for the city.
Casting Back: Rahila Gupta/CIF The EHRC’s new Equality Bill is a ‘class act’.
Clive Davis The Case Against The Gurkhas.
The F Word Has the full line up for Ladyfest Oxford.
MediaWatchWatch Ireland’s Blasphemy law.
And finally… Dr Strangelove likes the song, not the singer. Or you can browse though 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.
» The real agenda behind Telegraph’s abortion investigation
» How Scotland Yard monitors prying bloggers and journalists
» When disabled people want to work – employers can hold the back
» Revealed: the reality behind Workfare and why it doesn’t work
» Job snob? No, I’ve got the T-shirt
» Why country-by-country reporting matters to our wellbeing
» If Unions want to become stronger, they need to modernise
» Why work “reforms” in Spain are a warning for workers across Europe
» Five things you need to know about the NHS bill
» Bigger. Fatter. Gypsier. More Racist.
» Laziness levels in Britain getting lazier, wails government
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