Admit it, Labour dropped the ball
One of the cardinal rules of politics is always, ‘know thy enemy’. But who was our enemy? Across the country Labour activists said they were going to vote No2AV because they wanted to punish Nick Clegg. It was even a centre-piece of their campaign?
Why? Because its easy to distract lefties from the real enemy. Since last year most of the fire has been on the Libdems for their betrayal. Fair enough, they paid a heavy price for it last night. But the Tories are relatively unscathed and they are the real enemy. They have always been the real enemy.
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Scottish Labour’s rout is part of a broader centre-left problem
In one sense, last night’s results in Scotland were as extraordinary as the SNP victory in 2007. Then, the vote was in Tony Blair’s last months as Prime Minister. Now it took place amidst a Labour resurgence not seen for years. And yet Labour in Scotland faced a rout.
So, what’s gone wrong? Well, first, credit where it’s due, the SNP have run an impressive campaign. They have focussed their air war on Labour’s key weakness – Iain Gray is a boring, uninspiring man; Alex Salmond a bombastic leader most couldn’t help but admire. But much more important surely was the complete lack of any Labour vision for Scotland.
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Libel Reform, 190 years overdue
Happy Birthday to The Guardian, 190 years old today.
In its regular archive feature, the paper presents its first ever editorial, which features a demand for libel reform:
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Local elections and referendum open thread
I hear turnout isn’t exactly high today, which might help the Yes2AV campaign since their supporters are more motivated to turn out.
So how did you or will vote today? And will the election be close?
Abstinence makes Nadine Dorries’ brain go softer
I was originally going to fisk the speech Nadine Dorries gave in introducing her ten minute rule bill on the mandatory teaching of abstinence to 13-16 year old girls.
But much of what needs to be said can be readily covered using her pseudo-blog post on the same subject, which makes two key claims without any evidence whatsoever.
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Could a high student turnout deliver new Green seats?
Today is polling day in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. All three devolved nations see crucial elections for Greens. In Scotland, we are hoping to make significant gains, and possibly hold the balance of power.
In Northern Ireland, Steve Agnew is looking to hold on to the one Green Assembly seat despite the man who won on on a largely personal vote having stood down. In Wales, Jake Griffthis is hoping to achieve the 7 or 8% needed to become the first Welsh Green AM. There’s also voting for Brighton and Norwich city councils, which both hope to be the first ever Green councils.
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Head of BMA says NHS plans are rubbish
The head of British doctors has described Andrew Lansley’s NHS proposals as “rushed-through” and “ill-thought-out” in an interview for the Guardian’s NHS blog.
He not only criticises the role of the Coalition government but also raises questions about Lansley’s ability to stay on.
In the interview Hamish Meldrum, chair of the British Medical Association, says this about the Coalition:
I believe the coalition is taking a high-risk strategy with the reforms. The changes to PCTs and other elements of the reforms were in the Conservative manifesto, but the scale of the reforms “that can be seen from space” as they’ve been described, have the appearance of being rushed through as a last-minute job.
Instead of being the best of both worlds, the fusion of two party manifestos brought the worst of two worlds.
The Tories wanted an independent board for the NHS and the Lib Dems wanted more local care. Now we have got both together with very little accountability and very little idea of how they relate to each other.
We are looking at rushed-through and ill-thought-out reform.
He also says it would be difficult for Lansley to stay on if the Tories make significant changes to the proposals. [H]is credibility would be badly damaged if the bill was significantly watered down,” he added.
Full story at the Guardian NHS blog.
What is Nadine Dorries MP proposing exactly?
The Tory MP Nadine Dorries today tabled a motion in Parliament calling for the introduction of abstinence-based sex education for girls.
The amendment reads:
Sex Education (Required Content): That leave be given to bring in a Bill to require schools to provide certain additional sex education to girls aged between 13 and 16; to provide that such education must include information and advice on the benefits of abstinence from sexual activity; and for connected purposes.
Keep in mind this is sex education for girls only. That way if young boys make mistakes, Tories can blame girls again.
There are two further problems with this approach.
First, sex-ed already features discussion of reasons not to have sex. But this is placed in the context of young people’s choices and no judgement is passed.
Second, “abstinence-only programs are not only ineffective but may cause harm by providing inadequate and inaccurate information and resulting in participants’ failure to use safer sex practices once intercourse is initiated.”
But the vote was 67 ayes and 61 noes.
So what does this mean? It doesn’t mean that this will become law, but it does mean that abortion rights activists have to become organised and mobilised to stop that from happening.
And there is more to come.
Nadine Dorries and Frank Field MP are also proposing amendments to Andrew Lansley’s Health and Social Care Bill.
Here are the amendments. A key bit proposes to insert this paragraph into the bill:
independent information, advice and couselling services for women requesting termination of pregnancy to the extent that the consortium considers they will choose to use them.
What does ‘independent’ mean? In this case, Dorries says the advice should be provided by bodies who themselves do not carry out abortions, implying they have a business case for doing so.
The aim of the amendment is to exclude some of the most knowledgeable providers of information to women on abortions.
Indeed, around 20% of women seeking abortions at BPAS clinics decide not to proceed with a termination following the counselling they receive. Funny, Dorries ignores this too.
Tom Chivers at the Telegraph has also pointed out why some of the other stats used in campaigning by Dorries and Field are wrong.
Either way, pro-choice activists need to get organised and mobilised. As we have pointed out on Liberal Conspiracy already, this part of a long game by Nadine Dorries.
[hat-tip to Abortion Rights for some info]
Ed Miliband could kill chances of a future Tory-Libdem coalition tomorrow
Ed Miliband says today that the vote on AV should not be a referendum on Nick Clegg. Of course I agree, but this is too little too late.
Unfortunately the Labour leadership has blundered through the AV debate from the start and allowed the ‘dinosaurs’ to set the terms of the debate. But he still has an opportunity after tomorrow’s local election to bury the chances of a future Tory-Libdem coalition.
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Toby Young & Littlejohn wrong on OBL’s capture
contribution by Tim Fenton
There are clear and simple ways to establish and maintain credibility: base your story on facts, don’t exaggerate, don’t deliberately insert items which you know are not true – and if you inadvertently misinterpreted information, or that information turns out to be incorrect, then face up and correct your mistakes.
Following the death of Osama bin Laden, these rules have been blatantly disregarded by established and wannabe commentators in the right leaning part of both MSM and blogosphere.
Shining lights, the loathsome Toby Young and the bigoted windbag Richard Littlejohn in the Daily Mail, stand as superb examples of those prepared, unashamedly and unapologetically, to spray their credibility up the wall
Both repeat the line that bin Laden had used his wife as a “human shield”. But that angle has now been retracted by the US.
Littlejohn asserts that the bin Laden compound was “100 yards away from a Pakistani army garrison”. It wasn’t: the distance is 800 yards, and the army training unit is not a garrison.
Then we come to the intelligence that led the US to Bin Laden. Both are sure this came from one or more inmates at Guantánamo. Moreover, Young asserts that the information was obtained by the use of water-boarding, thus justifying the technique.
There’s only one problem with this analysis: it’s crap. How can I be so sure? Because Donald Rumsfeld, former Bush Secretary of Defense, says so: the information, Rummy tells, came through “normal interrogation approaches”. Note also that he says “some information … was beneficial”, which is somewhat short of saying that Gitmo was the sole source.
Young is not, as far as is known, rushing to retract.
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» Revealed: govt to restrict abortion counselling despite Nadine Dorries vote
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