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Forgive me Father for I Have Sinned

That’s the line that each and every Lord who rejected government amendments to the Equality Bill yesterday should be repeating time and time again.

For once, there was a real chance to bring religions slap-bang into the twenty-first century by creating a legal requirement for them to treat most applicants for jobs equally (OK, so that’s not full equality but it’s a step in the right direction…). According to the BBC, religious organisations can, “reject candidates for particular roles on grounds such as gender, marital status and sexual orientation”.

January 26, 2010 | 4 comments | View Post

Rise of the Independents

Wokingham’s a sedate place in almost every sense, but especially politically. Of the fifty-four members who comprise the Borough Council, 43 are Conservatives. The remaining councillors are are all Lib Dems. There’s not a single Labour councillor in Wokingham. Year after year, the numbers stay roughly the same, so there’s no real excitement when it comes to elections. The Conservatives always win. The Liberals always come second. Even the Westminster elections aren’t much more exciting, that is… until now.

January 24, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post

Deliberate Disenfranchisement?

Normally I wouldn’t complain about all-women shortlists, or positive discrimination policies designed to bring us ever closer to that utopian goal of equality. Something that’s struck me though is the Labour Party’s policy regarding delegates for conferences.

January 21, 2010 | 2 comments | View Post

Not in my Health Service

David Cameron

This morning something extraordinary happened. The Conservatives launched part of their draft manifesto for 2010. Policy. At last!

January 4, 2010 | 1 comment | View Post

Mar(r)vellous Performance?

This morning at the crack of dawn a golem ascended the steps of the BBC studios in West London to face what would be his biggest challenge of the new year so far: an interview with Andrew Marr.

January 3, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post

Hiatus? What hiatus?

time

Hiatus is a word that I’ve never known quite how to pronounce (if someone could comment and leave me something gloriously phonetic then I would be eternally grateful) but I have had a mighty hiatus from this blog for the past two months. Not for any particular reason, I just didn’t feel the urge to blog. Sometimes I did and it got usurped by other more urgent things like eating an apple or walking down a corridor or something equally dull.

January 3, 2010 | 3 comments | View Post

Personal Prejudice

It’s not often that I watch the reality TV programs that infest BBC Three, I tend to leave those to my sister. Last night though, I made an exception to watch “The World’s Strictest Parents”, a program in which two troublesome teens that make David Cameron’s propaganda of a ‘broken Britain’ seem almost plausible go to Utah to stay with a Mormon family.

November 6, 2009 | 0 comments | View Post

Hansard baffled by modern lingo. How does one spell ‘yoof’?

On Friday, history was made in Westminster.

That alone can’t be said to be that remarkable. History is made all the time in Westminster. Forever we hear about increases, decreases, record highs, record lows and fabulous achievements. What made Friday different is that history was made in none of these ways as for the first time an outside organisation was allowed to grace the hallowed green benches of the House of Commons in the name of democracy. History’s creation on Friday was further entrenched by the fact that the 300 or so people who took their seats weren’t all white, middle-class, old men. Instead, they were so diverse they put the rainbow to shame. Only one thing united them: they were all young people who were members of the UK Youth Parliament and its sister organisations across the country. For possibly the first time ever, plurality reigned in the House of Commons chamber.

November 1, 2009 | 6 comments | View Post

The Implications of Head Transplantation

LSE’s a funny place, I thought that people would spend their whole time studying. Especially during the daytime when they happen to be in the library.

Not so for one law student who decided that the most productive way that they could spend their time was by decapitating photos of me and affixing my head to that of a polo player.

October 30, 2009 | 2 comments | View Post

Griffin Exposed: A Victory for No Platform?

David Dimbleby and cardboard Nick Griffin

So it’s happened. The BNP made it onto Question Time in the form of Nick Griffin. Congratulations! I wasn’t sure that Griffin could survive the armada of protestors who gathered outside Television Centre yesterday with the intention of stopping Griffin from being allowed to broadcast his abhorrent views to 8m of the British public.

Did he do that? Yes. What’s the reaction? Tough to say.

October 23, 2009 | 6 comments | View Post

Coalition Against No Platform

Dear Hadleigh Roberts has set the Coalition Against No Platform up. Affectionately called CANP the coalition seeks to unite bloggers who feel that No Platform is the wrong policy.

Go look, go read and go write.

October 16, 2009 | 0 comments | View Post

Labour Past, Labour Future?

Charles Clarke as seen by thedancingflea

Good ol’ Charlie Clark. Gotta love him right? Not just for his charisma, wit and toast-like face (all hail thedancingflea for that one) but rather for his endless attempts at destabilising the Labour Party and its leadership. You have to give the man credit, he’s a man on a mission and his mission’s incomplete. In fact, I could go so far as to say that Charles Clarke is the Ethan Hunt of the Labour Party. Ah to hell with it, he is the Ethan Hunt of the Labour Party, albeit a wee bit taller.

October 15, 2009 | 0 comments | View Post

To tax or not to tax?

That seems like the question at the moment. The BBC News website has this article about Tracey Emin complaining that the UK is taxing high earners far too highly and she’s considering emigrating to France.

October 6, 2009 | 1 comment | View Post

The Sun: We Loved It

So it’s official. The Sun’s decided to support the Conservatives. Well this Guardian reading bugger’s not going to lose any sleep over it. But I’m sure there are plenty of figures within the Labour Party who will. Don’t be surprised if you see Peter Mandelson looking like a bit of a panda as he tries to emulate Alastair Campbell’s legendary skill with the media.

October 1, 2009 | 0 comments | View Post

Chemical Castration

Facebook, that great demon of procrastination, drew my attention to this story a moment ago. For those (like me…) who might be too lazy to click on the link here’s an excerpt:

“Polish MPs have passed legislation making it obligatory to chemically castrate certain sex offenders.

Under the law anyone found guilty of raping children under 15, or close relatives, will be given drugs to lower their sex drive.”

September 25, 2009 | 0 comments | View Post
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