How Poland is pushing for gender equality in Parliament
contribution by David Mentiply
Last week the Polish Sejm (parliament) passed the Parytet law which will see radical changes to Poland’s electoral landscape. At every General Election, all political parties in Poland must ensure that 35% of their local candidates are female.
In a deeply religious and socially conservative country, this could represent a breakthrough in attitudes towards women and their role in civic society.
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Will the violence lose students a lot of support? Not exactly
The media is falling over themselves to ‘condemn the terrible violence‘ that Prince Charles and Camilla, and Winston Churchill’s statue, were subjected to last week at the student demos. You can see an example here, where a BBC presenter doesn’t even bother mentioning or discussing police brutality or injured students, asking only whether Michael Chessum of NCAFC would condemn the protesters.
Even now, the BBC’s UK section gives front-page billing to released photos of protesters police want to speak, while the hospitilisation of Alfie Meadows is nowhere to be seen.
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Even worse polling news for Libdems today
The Observer, News of the World and Sunday Telegraph will bring bad news for the Libdems today.
The last one is the most interesting. It features a big poll of people who voted Libdem in May in Lib Dem seats. But, the S. Telegraph reports:
Extensive polling of 2,000 people who voted for Nick Clegg’s party in May suggests just 54 per cent will back the Lib Dems in five years’ time. Some 22 per cent of Lib Dem voters say they will chose Labour.
The polling, conducted by Lord Ashcroft, the former Tory deputy chairman, and revealed exclusively by The Sunday Telegraph, also shows that 44 per cent of Lib Dem voters in May say their view of the party has “got worse.”
Of a second poll of 1,000 people who considered voting Lib Dem in May but didn’t do so, only 28% say their preferred outcome in 2015 would be another Lib-Con coalition. This is just one point more than the number who want a Labour majority government.
Some 24% of the second group say they would like a Lib-Lab coalition while only 10% would prefer a Tory majority.
More worryingly for the Libdems – around 57% of their supporters say they were protest votes. Only 34% said they supported Lib Dem policies or values! Another 32% supported the party because of a strong local Libdem candidate. Ouch.
Research by Ispos MORI for the News of the World showed 29% of those who previously voted for the party said they were much less likely to do so in future, while 17% said they were somewhat less likely.
In the Observer today, Richard Grayson, a former director of policy, says Liberal Democrats should move closer to Ed Miliband and Labour. His editorial is here.
He is a known ‘trouble maker’ however, so it’s doubtful how much impact his intervention will have.
Genius! The WikiLeaks vs Fox News rap
From the people who bought you the Al Gore vs Monckton rap, this is also genius.
The WikiLeaks versus Donald Rumsfeld & Fox News rap.
via @JossGarman
Some thoughts on left unity and disagreement
contribution by Emily Davis
In the wake of accusations against Ed Miliband for not vocally supporting occupations, and the recent left-backlash against Obama in the United States, I think a new conversation about left unity in the UK has begun.
Much of this is counter-productive. I would emphatically urge a respectful discussion and cooperation between all of those on the centre and moderate left. A campaigning coalition of social-democrats and democratic-socialists need to be able to work together on the issues we agree on –and remember our common enemies.
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Were police ‘dragged off horses & beaten’? No
On Thursday David Cameron said he had heard about “police officers being dragged off police horses and beaten,” and BBC News ran the claim without fact-checking it.
I’ve not found any evidence for this claim. There was however one incident of a police horse and an officer, caught by Sky News…
Update: If you look in the background, you can also see a police officer striking two women without provocation. (HT @seancourt)
Video sent to us by @ThinkTyler.
Are ‘Anonymous’ hitting the wrong target in defending WikiLeaks?
contribution by Sim-O
The ‘hacktivist’ group Anonymous have had a change of tactic, so we’re led to believe if the image (below) that’s been popping up about the internet is anything to go by.
This change of tact away from trying to bring The Enemies of Wikileaks to their knees to distributing the information Wikileaks is releasing is A Good Thing.
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Why I’m proposing a motion of no-confidence in Nick Clegg at conference
contribution by George W Potter
Following the vote in the House of Commons yesterday, I, as a Lib Dem feel betrayed. I accept that the proposals are marginally better than the current system and that compromise is necessary in a coalition.
Indeed, I continue, in general, to actively support the coalition. But our MPs signed pledges that they would vote against any increase in fees – this wasn’t a negotiable manifesto promise but a cast iron guarantee to the electorate.
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Thrashing royal Rollers: some public relations tips
IT IS entirely possible that the people who smashed up the royal Rolls Royce last night do not have McCann Erickson, Burson-Marsteller or Weber Shandwick on a retainer, and are largely making up their public relations strategy as they go along. And Daily Telegraph commentator Damian Thompson is clearly a man who can spot rank amateurism when he sees it.
What happened to the heir to the throne and his wife constitutes ‘a richly-deserved PR disaster’ for the anti-tuition fees cause, he opines today. The thing is, all the PRs I know – and like most journos, I know scores of the air-kissy darlings – seem to measure their performance in column inches.
Is the phone-hacking scandal over? Not even close
contribution by Stephen Newton
This blog was sceptical of Baroness Peta Buscombe when she took the helm at the Press Complaints Commission in 2009. But few could imagine the lengths she would go to protect the press from meaningful regulation.
In a particularly amazing turn of events, the Tory peer and sometime frontbencher then admitted to libelling a lawyer and the PCC has picked up the bill for costs and damages. Few would expect to keep their job after such a gaff, but John Prescott’s call for Buscombe to do the decent thing has been barely reported.
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» The real agenda behind Telegraph’s abortion investigation
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» 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
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» Why work “reforms” in Spain are a warning for workers across Europe
» Five things you need to know about the NHS bill
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» Laziness levels in Britain getting lazier, wails government
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