Author Archives: Mark Pack

Yesterday on Comment is Free and today in The Guardian’s G2 supplement.

You can sign the party’s petition against ID cards here.

First she told us that no real people are ever to be found walking in Hackney after midnight. (On reflection, I’m quite pleased that this means I’m not a real person. After all, surely only real people would be covered by the Government’s ID cards scheme? I think we may have found a loophole here folks…).

Then she told us that she never walks anywhere she hasn’t been before. (Don’t try to work out how she goes anywhere for the first time. Your head will just hurt.)

And now, …

Says the FT:

Two further laptops potentially carrying highly sensitive personal information about thousands of armed forces recruits have been stolen, Des Browne, defence secretary, admitted yesterday.

As Lynne Featherstone points out, these latest admissions shouldn’t surprise us: the MoD has been regularly losing laptops year after year, so by now they should really have started looking after personal data rather more carefully.

… when she comes out with this:

You don’t walk in areas you don’t know in any circumstances and I never have in my life.

Presumably she only walks around places that she has driven through or done a low-level flight over first to get to know them? Hmm … her deciding that I’m not a real person seems quite tame by comparison.

P.S. Jolly nice of the Daily Telegraph to manage to squeeze in quotes from three different Liberal Democrat MPs into their one piece here.

Slightly disquieting to start a Sunday discovering the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has decided I’m no longer (or perhaps never was?) a person, but there you go. The reason? I’ve been know to be out after midnight in Hackney and – shock, horror – to be walking along the street. Apparently, no real people actually do this, as she explains to today’s Sunday Times:

In the interview, Smith, the first woman home secretary, was asked whether she would feel safe walking on her own around Hackney at midnight. She replied: “Well, no, but I don’t think I’d ever have done.

…

The news from the Faroe Islands is in. Turnout 89%. The results a four-horse race:

Republican Party 23.3%  / 8 seats
Unionist Party 21.0% / 7 seats
People’s Party 20.1% / 7 seats
Social Democratic Party 19.4% / 6 seats (-1)
Center Party 8.4% / 3 seats (+1)
Independence Party 7.2% / 2 seats (+2)
Students’ Party 0.7% / 0 seats

Note: the Self-Government Party won one seat in in 2004 and Parliament was one seat smaller overall. Neither the Self-Government Party nor The Funny Party stood this time.

It looks as if the Unionist / People’s Party / Social Democratic coalition government of Prime Minister …

Today’s Sunday Telegraph contains an op-ed piece from Nick Clegg on the future for the NHS:

As it approaches its 60th birthday, the NHS is at a crossroads. As with all our public services under Labour, good intentions have gone awry under the iron fist of central control. Money has been poured in, but it hasn’t delivered the first-class health service Britain deserves.

So what next? There are no more bucketloads of cash to pour in. Instead of only asking “how much” we spend, it’s time to focus on “how” we spend it. The NHS needs to be reinvented for

…

… has been written up by the local newspaper here.

Amongst other issues, Nick talked about Prime Minister’s Questions – a topic recently raised on Lib Dem Voice by both MP Lynne Featherstone and peer Paul Tyler – and had this to say:

“Prime Minister’s Question Time is absurd,” he said. “The whole thing is designed to flatter the Prime Minister and the leader of the Conservatives.

“I much prefer meetings like these. The House of Commons has a certain rude logic to it but it’s a pathetic way to run a democracy, with grown men and women shouting at

…

The basic Conservative defence in the latest donations saga is, ‘hey David Cameron’s mistake over flights isn’t anything like as serious as Peter Hain’s problems’. In itself, this point has some merit (though it does rather gloss over the fact that Cameron’s now run into problems three times now; not a good track-record to have).

It’s a little curious though that a burst of pro-Cameron comments on the Newsnight blog all use the same phraseology: “Not even in the same league as Hain” “Hain’s situation is in another league” and “Not in the same league”, all posted under different names.

So, what’s going …

As Newsnight has reported, the Conservatives have admitted failing to declare to the Electoral Commission a free flight David Cameron received in 2005. Edward Llewellyn, his Chief of Staff, wrote to the Commission stating that:

Mr Cameron would therefore be grateful if you could please add this to his declaration with the Electoral Commission.

Which is one way of saying, “oh bugger, we’ve been caught out, we failed to declare the donation within the legal time limit, and weren’t going to declare it at all until those pesky BBC journalists came along, so could you just now add it to the …

Following today’s Northern Rock EGM, Lib Dem Shadow Chancellor Vince Cable sent out the following update:

With the decision by small shareholders at today’s Emergency General Meeting to reject all but one of the Hedge Fund proposals to restrict the action of Northern Rock’s board, it is clear the duplicitous attempts of these vulture funds to shore up their own position at any cost to the bank and the security of taxpayers money has failed.

Although this is, of course, good news it doesn’t change the fact that it is crunch time for Northern Rock. It now looks highly unlikely that a private sale will be achieved in current market conditions. Although it is just possible that Goldman Sachs will have unexpected success in raising money to support a buy out and repay the taxpayers’ rescue loan (currently estimated at £26 billion, excluding the further £30 billion in asset guarantees) it seems now that even the Government thinks the chances of this are remote.

Unfortunately both meaningful alternatives for the future of Northern Rock – public ownership or administration – appear unpalatable to the Government, and there is a real danger it may try to stagger on. This would be disastrous.

At first sight, George Osborne’s defence of his undeclared donations looked pretty good: the money was declared to the Electoral Commission, the Parliamentary authorities were asked if it needed declaring to them, they said no, but if they’ve now changed their minds, it’ll be done went the story.

However, this neat line is starting to look a little more ragged as more details come out:

a. The Parliamentary authorities were indeed asked – but not until eleven months after the money was received.

b. As The Sun reports today, “Last night he said the advice may have been “unclear”.”

c. As …