Overall, we know about as much about what's going on as when as we did when I woke up eight hours ago. Things we do know: the Lib Dems got screwed, probably by the sustained 2-week barrage of media lies about them. Troll-like ex-home secretary Charles Clarke lost his seat, which is delightful. Pro-science campaigner … Continue reading Update for Brits who’re just waking up
Category: Bit of politics
It's lovely to see Peter Robinson, the head of Northern Ireland's DUP (the Paisley-ite, hardline Unionist party), losing his Belfast East seat to non-sectarian Alliance candidate Naomi Long. Anything which makes NI less sectarian-driven has to be a good thing... The thing which makes it even funnier, by which I mean "if I was properly … Continue reading Semi-informed Northern Ireland poli-blogging
I've been challenged to state what policy goals I'd actually favour: * Unlimited migration of people with A-level equivalent qualifications, or any non-academic skills in demand (defined as "more than no job adverts specify this, and it can be quantified") in the country of relevance. * Equal tax on all "getting more assets", whether house, … Continue reading Apart from more pies and shorter hours
Paul McCartney was always my favourite Beatle. Not only because of his superior songs, although Jet is better than any of John Lennon's solo output. But also because he never followed the absurd craze amongst arty types of "pretending not to be middle-class" (this is a middle-class home, whatever Mr Lennon's pretensions). Today, I've been … Continue reading A working class hero is nothing to pretend to be
Good news, everybody. I'm online, with a real Internet connection and not a telephone, which has been my sole means of Twitter and email for the last week aside from taking my laptop to cafés and pubs [*]. Thanks, Telstra and iiNet, for only taking a month to sort it out. I've also begun writing … Continue reading Back with a vengeance
Something which surprised me when I first researched moving to Sydney was that the city (in the sense of "wide urban area") has no governing authority: the CBD and some of the inner suburbs are called the City of Sydney, but the vast majority of the city (including places that are only 10 minutes' walk … Continue reading Why pointless parliaments don’t and shouldn’t exist
In the comments at CiF, a commenter called Heyone summarises their supposed 'non-racist' objections to immigration: It's ridiculous that whenever immigration is talked about there's always people shouting "racists!" and everybody starts debating what's racism. This is just counterproductive. These people have all missed the point. The majority of people are not concerned what race … Continue reading A point of view, albeit not a good one
In explaining how he avoided falling into the common liberal trap of supporting the Iraq war, Dan Davies listed the maxim "Good ideas do not need lots of lies told about them in order to gain public acceptance". The fact that all the main proponents of the Iraq war were lying like rugs about WMDs … Continue reading Feared by the banks, loved by the gullible
Lord Adonis's retort to Boris on the Tube Lines PPP arbitration is quite superb: Under devolution, it is for the Mayor and TfL to deliver the Tube upgrades within their generous budget - not for me to bail them out if they fail to do so. If Boris wants me to take charge of TfL … Continue reading We love Admiral Scrumptious
In the wake of the Guardian newspaper's treacherous attempts to photograph the secret, hitherto unseen building at 1 St Mary Axe, everyone considering taking photographs in public places in England and Wales should really ensure they're aware of the complex legal situation surrounding photography. A conventional reading of the law can be seen in this … Continue reading Legal guidelines for photographers in England and Wales