Why Mitt Romney could make a comeback as GOP candidate
contribution by Frank Spring
American political parties tend not to pick their presidential candidates purely on the basis of electability. Rather, they choose the candidate who appeals to them and their values first, and worry about that candidate’s electability second.
Electability, however, has scored highly in polls among Republican voters leading up to the 2012 election, and the shape of the field raises a question: is this the Republican version of 2004?
In that year, President George W. Bush was running for a probable but unsure re-election.
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Boris’ latest wheeze: glue pollution to roads
London Mayor Boris Johnson has come up with a sure-fire way to reduce pollution across the city: to glue the pollution to roads.
No, seriously, that’s an actual policy.
In this short exchange between Boris and other Assembly Members, Boris is questioned how it works and whether it is effective.
It turns out the Mayor is using this glue primarily around areas where machines measuring air-quality are located. What a surprise huh?
Watch the exchange
Update: Many people seem to be endorsing the idea without actually watching the video. WATCH THE VIDEO. It’s a bad idea because to make this work ALL roads have to be sprayed twice a day. But Boris has only focused on a few roads, conveniently near air-pollution checks.
What are Ed Miliband’s chances as PM? Better than the polls
The Sunday Telegraph today has a report by Lord Ashcroft, in which focus groups tell him David Cameron has a 20% lead over Ed Miliband on who would make a better Prime Minister.
As I pointed out earlier, asking slightly different questions of voters with different emphasis gives youvery different results.
And there are several ways such a poll is a bad barometer of how future elections might turn out.
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Banning sexist Topman t-shirts doesn’t oppress men
contribution by Frances Ryan
New for Topman Winter ’11 fashion comes ‘misogyny chic’, plum shades slotting between the heady glamour of wife beating and comparing your girlfriend to a dog.
To many, the concern is how clothing with unapologetically misogynistic branding had ever been put on sale. To Brendan O’Neill, it is that removing them from the hangers is an act that sees the “controlling and censoring of men”.
Faced with the selling of t-shirts with the slogans “You provoked me” or “What breed is she?”, what really matters is over-sensitive women robbing a man of his freedom to dress like a fool.
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Deportation of gay Ugandan halted
Despite being “obviously gay”, and suffering post-traumatic stress disorder from his treatment in Uganda, until two weeks ago Robert Segwanyi was to be deported.
This has now been halted ‘due to complexity and merits of the case’ and the dangers Robert would face were he to be deported to Uganda, home to the infamous “Kill the Gays” Bill (read the full e-mail from LGBT Asylum News here).
The depth of homophobia in Uganda has been well documented. At the time the deportation was ordered the UK Government were still denying the danger faced by gay deportees to Uganda.
This advice was changed in April to reflect the real situation in Uganda but Robert’s deportation was shockingly not halted.
Even though the poor country has also been threatened with having aid payments slashed if moves to impose the death penalty for homosexuality were not stopped, absent the terrific campaign led by LGBT News, Robert would have been deported to Uganda. (I would like to offer a personal thanks to my MP Rushanara Ali, who contacted the Home Office expressing her concern less than 18 hours after I brought this to her attention).
He was released from detention on the 5th of September, with no reason given.
He has since been informed that ‘due to complexity and merits of the case’ he will be allowed to lodge a fresh claim with a right of appeal.
He is by no means now safe, but he does have a court date due on the 2nd October and it is hoped sanity will prevail.
The Liberal says Libdems are being too Tory
As the Libdem annual conference kicks off, The Liberal magazine has published an editorial expressing concerns the coalition government is taking on an increasingly Conservative character.
It says this has been highlighted in recent months by two developments outside the coalition agreement: the NHS reforms and the riots.
The magazine editorial notes:
Party members are extremely nervous about the progress of the healthcare bill. It is remarkable that only four MPs rebelled against reforms that go against party policy and are not in the coalition agreement, at a time when the government – underperforming in many areas – ought to be channelling its energies elsewhere. (Especially when attention was diverted by the Dorries amendment, a tactic that shifted focus from the bill itself).
Many Lib Dem activists know that these reforms would have been vocally challenged in opposition, and they find it difficult to countenance that the party that conceived of the NHS could administer this lethal injection. In addition, party members have been denied the opportunity to vote on the bill, despite a long-standing dictate that major policy changes require the consent of conference. For the party’s identity and future prospects, it is imperative that Lib Dem members in the Lords employ the progressive majority in the upper house to ensure that the bill is defeated.
It also says that in the aftermath of the riots, Liberal were “hardly discernable”.
Senior Lib Dems – from Simon Hughes to Brian Paddick – lined up to back the reactionary rhetoric on law & order, despite having previously critiqued these ‘sticking-plaster’ measures.
The Liberal’s editor Benjamin Ramm said: “The Tory tide has washed away each line in the sand, and will soon engulf the whole party. Members must make a stand, before their identity is diluted beyond recognition.”
The Liberal is an independent publication dedicated to the revival of liberalism. It has no affiliation with the Liberal Democrats, although previous contributors include Nick Clegg, Vince Cable, Chris Huhne, Simon Hughes, Menzies Campbell, Shirley Williams and Paddy Ashdown.
From a press release
Why it’s time to re-think privatisation of our bus and rail services
The basic argument for privatisation is that it opens up competition and drives down prices whilst all the while improving service delivery. Forget for a moment the merits of that argument – my point is that railway competition does not really exist.
If I am to travel from Nottingham to Skegness then I must take a train provided by East Midlands Trains. There exists no choice or competition nor is there any incentive for companies to improve their rolling stock or fares.
Franchises mean that different parts of the rail network are carved up and that there is insufficient price competition.
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Want to tackle inflation? We could clamp down on speculation
contribution by Murray Worthy
Inflation is almost universally accepted as a bad thing. It reduces the value of savings, assets and wages. Yet this week it was announced that UK inflation remains above 4%, more than double the Bank of England’s 2% target.
The response to this has been simply to hold tight and wait until the economy picks up (not looking likely any time soon). Until then, everyone’s wages and savings will continue to devalue. But this problem could be tackled in other ways – by better regulating commodity markets.
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BBC anchor on ‘bespoke delegation’ with BICOM
A key BBC anchor went on a ‘bespoke delegation’ with the pro-Israel lobby group BICOM, a leaked email shows.
An email by Lorna Fitzsimons, sent mistakenly to the press instead of donors, had this snippet:
BICOM has one of BBC News’ key anchors on a bespoke delegation. When planning her very first trip to the region, Sophie Long got in touch with BICOM to see if we could help her out with meeting in the region.
Sophie is now spending three days of her trip with BICOM Israel, taking a tour around the Old City, meeting Mark Regev and Dr. Alex Yacobsen, as well as visiting Ramallah and Sderot.
Should BBC journalists really be working so closely with highly partisan groups when organising editorial trips?
What kind of editorial balance is that?
Police forces face the biggest shake-up in decades and no one’s noticed
Yesterday, an Act of Parliament came into being that will completely overhaul the principles and practice of policing in England and Wales in just over a year’s time.
November 2012 will see the election of 41 new Policing and Crime Commissioners (PCCs), directly elected by the residents of each police area outside London, who will hire and fire chief constables, decide the policing priorities for each area and take over the Home Secretary’s job of setting the budget for each force.
The plans have been rejected outright by the Labour Opposition, whose response has mainly focused on the costs and the poor timing of the plans alongside police cuts.
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» 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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