So. Trying to catch up on my political watching/reading and the first stop was yesterday's Question Time. Now I know, I know, it isn't really any good for actual politics, but it is a good source for references, a bit like a poor man's political New Scientist in televisual form. It was actually quite good this time round. There was very little ( Read more... )

What James and Rupert Murdoch don't know...

Murdoch: This scandal has exposed the scale of elite corruption

The Cameron Collapse

I'm one of those who's pretty much late to everything, expecially tv shows, so it was on Tuesday that I watched last Thursday's Question Time (hopefully I'll get round to watching last night's later on today).

( Of Idiot Features and Metaphysics )

I've missed so many of these. There's been so much I wanted to rant about: Melanie Philips and her standard 'we need the best sort of people, regardless of whether they be male or female' as if that's an answer to the problem of the tiny female representation in the House of Commons (oh how that line irritates me whenever the issue arises. It doesn ( Read more... )

 Some interesting articles:

'Why Democracy is always unfair' - New Scientist is on a roll it seems.

'First past the post is a rubbish electoral system'  -  I generally like Tom Harris; it's always weird to read the political opinions of a politician who actually believes them, but it's a good weird. This sermon certainly provides plenty of food for ( Read more... )

 A  letter to Obama

 Nigeria and the politics of massacre

EDIT: Now I have my issues with JKR, but I really loved this article.

Had a swell time at the '1910' New Year's Eve party. I got to drink free champagne, get a caricature drawn and dance like a loon, thus ensuring bruises for many of my fellow revellers. There'll be pictures soon enough.
( Pretentious randimity... in bullet point form! )

You know Mandelson, maybe if you guys had been better at self-promotion, communicating with your electorate and perhaps not going to fucking war like a bunch of idiotic Kipling-fed public school boys, Labour wouldn't be 'fighting for it's life' right now?

What is it with these people?

( Fresher's week, first lectures and other stuff )

Thursday evening saw me at a 'Representing You Better' event hosted by Sadiq Khan at the House of Commons. He's our local Labour MP who also happens to be the first Muslim to be elected onto the Cabinet. It was quite short but in an hour and half, they packed in four amazing speakers starting off with Dawn Butler the Labour representative for Brent ( Read more... )