Today (it's just past midnight) is local-election day. Of the five candidates, two have not published a 2013 manifesto and one more has a "local" manifesto that's just the national press release with no local references at all (a fact that I initially missed, as I was distracted sanity-checking their figures ( Read more... )

Yay, sanity in politics: A judge has freed a woman jailed for receiving a pair of stolen shorts in last week's riots [BBC News]

My feeling is that the politicians are talking tough but expecting the judiciary to do this. She did wrong, but only by failure to say "no" to a stolen gift; 6 months in jail seems grossly disproportionate.

Gordon Brown is offering 5-year, 0% mortgages on up to 30% of your new house's value ( Read more... )

Reading Borough Council are trying to spend part of the rail improvement budget on building roads. They're going to add a lot more rail capacity, but the cost has risen to £515m. They don't say how much it was before, but a quick search puts it at £68m.

For multiplying the cost by 7, the rail junctions are going to be improved like this. Nice, ( Read more... )

I dislike not being able to see the stars at night due to excessive brightness from the ground. I also hate floodlights on the ground that are pointed upwards to light up buildings, even pretty buildings with spires. You can guess my opinion of the concrete multi-storey car park in Reading town center with ground-based floodlights to illuminate ( Read more... )

The Government has a new online-petition website; hopefully this won't turn in to a repeat of the previous fiasco.

Things I support:
Stop using the threat of terror to pass laws that are illiberal and ineffective
Repeal the ban on protesting outside Parliament
Stop the torture at Guantanamo Bay and in general
Legalise Marriage for Same-Sex Couples ( Read more... )