The Sun goes down on Cameron

I’ve temporarily misplaced the TV remote  for the flat where I’m staying this Conference, so can’t switch over from Sky News. And goodness me, what a load of self-promoting wank you get when one outpost of Murdoch’s empire reports ‘news’ created by another.
The theme I have seen coming up again and again at this Conference [...]

Banning things that should never have been allowed and allowing things that should never have been banned

This evening the Prime Minister has released a statement of posthumous apology to Alan Turing.
Turing was the father of modern computer science. In 1999 Time Magazine named Turing as one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century for his role in the creation of the modern computer, stating: “The fact remains that everyone [...]

Kerry McCarthy, Labour’s Queen of Twitter

It’s been an evening of confusion in the grey area between old and new media – Mark Hanson has summed up pretty well what happened when the Guardian let slip something LabourList was supposed to tell us first. It’s almost as though Labour needs someone to coordinate our new media presence…oh, wait, what do you know [...]

We won’t pay, we won’t pay ya, no wa-a-a-ay

Seems to be a slow day for Swinton South Lib Dems, who’ve been reduced to trying to think up a campaign song for the Tory PPC for Worsley & Eccles South.
Regular visitors to this blog will know said PPC as my token Tory friend, so don’t expect any sniping from me.
However, while thinking about songs [...]

Tories: We’re the progressive party…well, not him. Or him. Or him.

Lots of noise yesterday about George Osbourne’s claim that the Tories are carrying the ‘torch of progressive politics‘.
I’ve actually never been a big fan of the word ‘progressive’. I think it tends to be used in the Labour Party by people who don’t want to use the word ’socialist’. But what does it mean to [...]

The day Twitter went Bevanite

Inspired by the lies Dan Hannan has been telling the US media about our wonderful health service (and don’t forget that Cameron has still not condemned Hannan’s comments), the American right has started laying into it even more.
The Brits aren’t standing for it. Comedy writer Graham Linehan started a backlash on Twitter with a #welovetheNHS hashtag campaign, [...]

The hive-mind takes on Hannan

If you’re reading this, you probably read last night’s post on Dan Hannan’s contempt for the NHS. But it wasn’t just me: some of the finest minds on the internet were having a crack at Hannan and his Tory cronies too. Here’s a selected round-up:
First off, a few facts and figures about the system the Washington Times described [...]

Euthanasia and cake

If you follow me on Twitter you might have noticed me whinging and whining and complaining more than usual lately. I do apologise. It’s my job. I love it but it does, essentially, consist of people telling me about the things that stop their lives being bearable (more on this later).
Last week, someone called me [...]

Burma: Free Aung San Suu Kyi

As you’ve probably heard, Aung San Suu Kyi was found guilty earlier today in her trial for “violating the conditions of her house arrest”. She was sentenced to another 18 months of house arrest – meaning she’ll still be imprisoned during Burma’s next general election.
Amnesty say: ‘Until she is released unconditionally, there can be no genuine improvement in [...]

Our doctors and nurses: an electoral bloc, says Hannan

Dan Hannan’s still off on his badmouthing-the-NHS-around-the-world tour, this time telling the Army & Navy Club in Washington that free healthcare (like what we’ve got) represents a ‘huge power grab by the state machine’. Someone give the boy a biscuit.
Hannan obviously departed this planet for MiltonFreedmanWorld long ago. Making sick people better, for no cost at the [...]