Of all the days in history I’ve had to write about so far, March 18th seems about the dullest. Nothing particularly interesting has ever happened today, so that’s a bit of a challenge for the day just leaving the starters blocks.
About the best the wikipedia page for today can offer up is that John Updike was born today and the Tolpuddle Martyrs were sentenced to transportation. Terry Schiavo’s feeding tube was disconnected and BSL was first recognised as an official British language.
2 Big Stories
Ashcroft’s lawyers silence ‘Panorama’
The Independent reports:
The BBC has shelved a Panorama documentary about the business affairs of the Tory billionaire Lord Ashcroft, because of a threat of legal action.
The Corporation has received what one insider described as “several very heavy letters” from Lord Ashcroft’s lawyers. There is now little or no prospect of the investigation being broadcast before the general election, if it goes out at all.
Plan to ban items from bins to boost recycling
The Guardian has a report on how Labour want to take even more responsibilities away from Councils, by legislating exactly what waste should be recycled:
Black bins for household waste could become a thing of the past under proposals to be published tomorrow to ban almost everything thrown away by households from being sent to landfill.
Paper and card, food, garden waste and plastics are all on a list of items that would have to be recycled, composted, or burned for energy. The move would represent a transformation in England and Wales, where about half of what people put in the bin at home or at work ends up in holes in the ground.
Presumably another stupid unenforceable Labour idea that will be floated and then dropped in fairly short order.
2 Must-Read Blog Posts
What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here are two posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:
- Joe Otten kinda likes the slogan
- Alex Folkes notes the post Conference Lib Dem poll boost
Sure the Tory slogan has the word change. They want us to think that they are Barack Obama. But of course Obama is a Liberal and a Democrat. And where is their change? And who is it for? Sure the Labour slogan has the word fairness. But they’ve been in government for what seems like 30 years, and where is this fairness? So maybe it sucks to have a slogan that must be explained. At least – unlike the other parties – we have one that can be explained.
Turns out that when people hear more from the Lib Dems, they support us more. Who knew?
Spotted any other great posts in the last day from blogs that aren’t on the aggregator? Do post up a comment sharing them with us all.
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We do have a two-tier policing system but it is not what our homegrown racists think it is.
Lib Dems are reviewing policy and strategy says PoliticsHome
From Norman settlement to a civic square
Church Green video
Ruth Bright
Tom Bailey
Alex Macfie
William Wallace
One Comment
Who does Ashcroft think he is? This is yet another example of the misuse of English libel laws – everyone who hasn’t already signed should sign the petition to reform them here: http://www.libelreform.org/sign
Two articles that not even Lord Ashcroft’s libel lawyers have been able to squash are here, and are very interesting reading. (Sadly they are behind a paywall, but if you’re not an Economist subscriber you can see them if you register for a free 14-day trial period).
Ashcroft-owned Belize Bank held on to $10 million sent as aid from Venezuela to the Belizean government: http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=E1_TTPSSDDR
A couple of mysterious trusts that took over Belize’s dominant telecoms company from Ashcroft’s holding company fight the nationalisation of the company by the Belizean government. The company had negotiated remarkable “sweetheart agreements” with the previous (and corrupt) Belizean government exempting it from regulatory supervision and requiring a public subsidy if its return on equity ever fell below 15%. These agreements may have been made when Lord Ashcroft was the majority owner of the telecoms company: http://www.economist.com/world/americas/displaystory.cfm?story_id=E1_TQSDDSDD
Very fishy if you ask me.