Welcome to another Tuesday here at LDV Towers. Today we say ‘Happy Birthday’ to Lembit Öpik, who is 45 today. Estonia’s, Northern Ireland’s, Montgomeryshire’s finest shares his special day with comedian Dave Gorman, who is 39 today and cricketer Andrew Strauss, who is 33.
On this day 40 years ago, Ian Smith declared Rhodesia a republic, cutting the country’s last link with the British Crown five years after he unilaterally declared independence. Ten years ago today, 2000 former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet headed home to Chile, after being told the UK would not extradite him on torture charges.
2 thought-provoking blog posts
Tories dissolving a hung parliament quickly would be hypocrisy
Mark Thompson doesn’t think that Cameron should pick and choose which ‘clear message’ from the electorate he will listen to.
Tories and Labour squabbling like children in the playground – “But he’s doing it too !”
Nich Starling believes that Labour and the Tories are no better than kids in his school’s playground.
2 interesting stories
The Times: Dominic Carman to fight Nick Griffin in Barking, East London, at election
Dominic Carman, son of George Carman, QC and the unauthorised biographer of Nick Griffin is to stand for the Liberal Democrats against the BNP leader in the East London constituency of Barking.
The Guardian: Mephedrone: classifying ‘legal highs
‘Until we know the real harm of legal recreational drugs such as mephedrone, they should be put into a holding ‘class D’, says Professor Davis Nutt.
Oh, and there’re a few stories about some bloke who doesn’t really live here …