Mark Pack

What can you trust on Wikipedia?

By Mark Pack | Tue 31st March 2009 - 10:20 am

Wikipedia’s dominance of search results (and the increasing degree to which people equate research to putting something into Google) means it often takes some effort to avoid ending up relying directly or indirectly on the accuracy of information contained in it.

There are though some basic points to bear in mind when wondering whether to trust what you’ve found. Here’s the checklist that I use:

The more surprising the information, the less likely it is to be accurate: whether it is a typo, a mistake or a piece of misdirection in the name of humour, the really surprising information is often so surprising because it is actually wrong. (No, Robbie Williams doesn’t make his money by eating domestic pets in pubs in and around Stoke and no, David Beckham was not an 18th century Chinese goalkeeper.)

The people who contribute to Wikipedia are not a representative sample of the world’s population: as of January 2006, for example, less than 50,000 people worldwide had made five or more edits and as of February that year about 615 people had made more than half of all the edits on the site.

That 50,000 is far, far more than the number of people who contribute to traditional encyclopaedias, but it is a very lopsided slice of humanity. Want to know who was the supporting female actor in a US TV show of the 1990s that was axed after four episodes and only shown once in Britain? Wikipedia’s your friend. But – and it is a crude but useful cliche – the less your topic is likely to be of interest to a computer-obsessed Western teenager, the less likely it is to be well covered. You may be pleasantly surprised, but the further you wander from this comfort zone, the more variable the information becomes.

The more controversial the topic, the better the Wikipedia entry is usually: the slightly counter-intuitive point has perhaps been the most surprising discovery for me as I have used Wikipedia over the years.

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Posted in Online politics | Tagged | 2 Comments
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Alex Foster

On being a councillor

By Alex Foster | Tue 31st March 2009 - 8:49 am

Last night, I joined Steve Hitchins and Laura Willoughby at Birmingham Council House for a training event all about encouraging local parties and council groups to recruit a new generation of councillors.

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Posted in Events | Tagged and | 2 Comments
Antony Hook

Opinion: Hannan Lifts Channel Fog – but there’s much more to be done

By Antony Hook | Mon 30th March 2009 - 8:20 pm

Daniel Hannan, a Tory MEP in the South-east of England, has done a favour for everyone who cares about British public engagement in European politics.

I do not mean that in a back-handed way, and only a churlish person would deny that his response to Gordon Brown in Strasbourg last week was astoundingly well delivered political oratory. (You can watch it here on YouTube). I hope I have the chance to debate with Daniel Hannan on the hustings in our region.

The benefit of his speech was to draw attention to the European Parliament. The last mainstream news story I recall about the European Parliament was the December vote on the Working Time Directive. Editors concentrated on “rebellion” against Gordon Brown rather than the Directive’s effects, the arguments for and against it, or what prospect it had of coming into force in Britain. I cannot remember the last reported European Parliament news story before that, and I expect most readers will agree that 2-3 times per year is a fair estimate of how often main news outlets report on the Parliament.

Indifference and ignorance of European Parliamentary politics is an absurdity that will bemuse future citizens looking back at our present. You would not think from the paucity of serious news attention that 70% of legislation is decided at a federal European level.

Many party members’ opinions about our MEPs tend to rely on little knowledge, or even curiosity, about legislative records.

I try to my match my predecessor Chris Huhne in helping every local by-election in the South East Euro Region (email [email protected]) but that is not all being an MEP is about. Liberal Democrats should know that, for example, Graham Watson was behind the European Arrest Warrant so criminals cannot avoid justice, that Chris Davies is leading legislation for Carbon Capture technology, and that we have just passed a law to slash mobile phone roaming charges from this summer.

When you next hear about the Duke of Westminster and other agricultural oligarchs receiving £300,000 in CAP subsidies you should know that the Commission proposed a limit in these payments but Labour vetoed it in the Council of Ministers, and that the Conservative record includes opposing protection against homophobia in Europe.

A functioning democracy needs people to know what is being decided in their name. Here are just 5 ways – there are, of course, many more possibilities – we can alleviate this crisis of politics and identity:

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Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Tagged and | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

Clegg – urgent leaders meeting needed NOW to overhaul MPs’ expenses

By Stephen Tall | Mon 30th March 2009 - 6:29 pm

As the furore over MPs’ expenses grows, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has written to Gordon Brown and David Cameron proposing they meet as soon as possible to work through how to reform, and restore trust in, the political system. Here’s the full text of Nick’s letter:

I am writing to you to propose that our parties work together to agree an urgent overhaul of MPs’ expenses. The recent scandals make it clear we cannot continue with the current system any longer.

The upcoming inquiry by the Committee on Standards in Public Life will not report this side of a general election. This is far too long to wait. We owe it to the citizens of this country to ensure a fair deal for taxpayers before then.

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 6 Comments
Stephen Tall

Nick Clegg attacks Policy Exchange for “offensive” and “underhand” briefing – UPDATED

By Stephen Tall | Mon 30th March 2009 - 5:24 pm

LDV readers may recall that last October, we ran a piece highlighting Nick Clegg’s attack on think-tank Policy exchange for circulating a a dossier questioning apparent extremist background of several of the events speakers at a forthcoming Global Peace and Unity event in London. Nick, who spoke at the event, accused the Policy Exchange’s director of “bizarre and underhand behaviour”, and questioned the validity of the evidence – attracting some flak from LDV readers in the comments thread.

I was, therefore, interested to read this article today on Liberal Conspiracy under the headline, Exclusive: Policy Exchange forced …

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 6 Comments
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Stephen Tall

At last, it’s the Eric Pickles cock-up on YouTube

By Stephen Tall | Mon 30th March 2009 - 4:54 pm

There may be one or two of you who haven’t yet seen the toe-curling embarrassment that was last week’s attempt by Tory party chairman Eric Pickles to defend MPs’ second homes on BBC1’s Question Time. Well, if you’re one of those those two people, then sit back and enjoy because it’s now been uploaded to YouTube for our viewing pleasure:

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Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 8 Comments
The Voice

“G20 summit is no time for playing politics” – Nick Clegg

By The Voice | Mon 30th March 2009 - 4:26 pm

The Press Association reports,

Radical measures must be decided at the G20 summit or it could become the “fateful moment” when the global recession lurches into an outright slump, Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, said today.

Clegg said the meeting of world leaders in London this week was one of “immense psychological importance” and warned that failure to agree on immediate action could lead to a “dangerous market stampede”.

Disunity could spark further panic among jittery markets, sending the world economy into “freefall” and raising the spectre of a 1930s-style depression.

More too on the party’s website.

Posted in News | Tagged and | 2 Comments
Jock Coats

Opinion: The FSA’s mortgage credit proposals v. Land Value Tax

By Jock Coats | Mon 30th March 2009 - 1:20 pm

Have you heard about the Financial Services Authority’s ideas for restricting mortgage credit? One is to ban 100% Loan To Value mortgages, and clearly in a time of uncertainty that would be prudent – you don’t want to be in negative equity by the time you collect the keys to your new home. The other is to restrict all mortgages to three times earnings.

You may also have seen a report on the housing market in the Daily Telegraph recently where Edmund Conway canvassed the opinions of four leading economists. The most shockingly bearish response in “Do not pass go – or expect house prices to rise soon” was from Citigroup’s UK Chief Economist, Michael Sanders, who argued that

everything depends on the amount people can borrow. At the moment the average loan to value for first time buyers is 76pc, compared with the more recent norm of 90pc. If LTVs stay where they are, or are regulated by the Government, you’re talking about an even more severe fall. If you want to get the deposit and mortgage burden for a first-time buyer back to the average of the last 35 years with the current level of LTVs, then house prices need to fall another 65pc from their current level.”

So, the act of restricting mortgage credit could provoke a massive write-down in the value of property in order to enable buyers to afford anything. And if there’s no “new blood” coming into the housing market at the bottom end in the form of first time buyers there can be little turnover further up the market.

Now, one of the biggest objections to a significant Land Value Tax has always been the predictable (and intentional) effect it would have of removing the land value from existing property values. Yet the government is now suggesting just such a massive write-down with no compensation to the households that lose out.

With LVT, however, replacing pound for pound as many as possible of the other taxes people currently pay, they would at least be seeing some benefit from their capital loss in the form of abolishing, say, NI, Council Tax, Inheritance Tax, Capital Gains Tax and some at least of their Income Tax.

Further, those of us who campaign for LVT say that switching the tax base away from incomes and trade and onto land values will encourage enterprise, will encourage people to maximize their incomes from work. Just at a time when anyone and everyone actually creating wealth in this country needs every encouragement to continue doing so to help the economy recover.

Longer term it will also prevent the sort of speculative land value bubble we have seen over the last decade from happening again, leading to more economic stability – a much better way of doing so than trying to regulate bubbles out of existence.

There’s one additional, timely, benefit.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 27 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDV readers say: No to a minimum price for alcohol

By Stephen Tall | Mon 30th March 2009 - 11:33 am

On the day that chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson was recommending that the government establish a minimum price for alcohol (which would see the doubling of the price of many beers and spirits) LDV posed the question: Is it time to support a minimum price for alcohol?

Here’s what you said:

>> 31% (102 votes) – Yes, minimum prices will help tackle the UK’s binge drinking problems
>> 6% (19) – Maybe, there’s merit in the proposal but the middle of a recession is the wrong time
196% of all votes
>> 59% (192) – No, government should not penalise the

…

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Posted in Voice polls | Tagged and | 16 Comments
The Voice

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Chris Huhne – Scalpel-sharp intelligence is needed to slash knife crime

By The Voice | Mon 30th March 2009 - 11:21 am

Over at The Times, Lib Dem Shadow Home Secretary Chris Huhne notes that a cosmetic surgeon helped to cut knife violence by 40 per cent in Cardiff, and asks: why isn’t his no-brainer idea being copied across Britain? Here’s an excerpt:

Nearly 50,000 people have been treated in hospital for knifings since the Government came to power. The toll of knife crime has rightly gripped the media, since there can be few more horrifying thoughts for any parent than to think of their child being attacked by knife- wielding thugs. …

Effective action is about stop-and- search, particularly working from intelligence.

…

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged and | 2 Comments

The Politics of Globalisation after ‘The Third Way’

By Alison Holmes | Mon 30th March 2009 - 8:56 am

For those actively involved in party politics, the temptation to frame any analysis of unfolding events as a story consisting only of national and domestic concerns is constant. However, at moments of widespread crisis in the international economic and state system, questions well outside these constraints can no longer be avoided and indeed, may help to explain the underlying currents we are dealing with.

Along with a growing number of international relations commentators, I have argued for some time that there have been two identifiable ‘eras of globalisation’. The first was at the end of the 19th and into the early years of the 20th century and gave rise to a range of political movements including socialism and of course, the New Liberalism. The second era began in the mid-to late 1980s and continues through to the present day. It also created a move to ‘progressivism’ for British political parties, including the Third Way.

I have suggested that, by posing the Third Way as a reaction to wider systemic change and the process of globalisation, one begins to see recurring and persistent cycles that only become apparent when looked at from a different level of analysis. Effectively I have argued that, as we are now coming to the close of this second period, we have much to learn in terms of our domestic politics from these wider trends of state development.

For example, as party activists, we tend to look at the creation of the New Liberalism as a philosophical response to the practical problem of the extension of the franchise and the birth of socialism. In this view, we generally overlook the importance of changes in the role of the state as an entity, the economic system as a whole and the international system of states.

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Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | 3 Comments
Alex Foster

Catchup to 29/03/09

By Alex Foster | Sun 29th March 2009 - 10:52 pm

Welcome to your sneaky guide to the best of LDV from the last fortnight.

In Op-eds, we had a round-up of polls after previous Labour governments from York Membery. Jock Coats told us of the opportunity of a lifetime to build anew, build better. Cllr Jenni Clutten asked whether we can trust our young people and Gareth Aubrey asked whether we can win them.

Our MP for Taunton Jeremy Browne penned a piece to explain why he was one of only two Lib Dem MPs to vote against allowing the Youth Parliament to meet in …

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Posted in A weekly catchup | 2 Comments
Alix Mortimer

Porn on expenses – nothing to hide, Jacqui Smith?

By Alix Mortimer | Sun 29th March 2009 - 6:00 pm

There’s something oddly, uh, gratifying about today’s revelation that the nation has been paying for Jacqui Smith’s husband to watch porn.

In case you’ve been busy with F1, the boat race, large amounts of roast food and sundry other matters, here’s the story from the Beeb:

The Home Secretary’s husband has said sorry for embarrassing his wife after two adult films were viewed at their home, then claimed for on expenses.

Richard Timney, who is also Jacqui Smith’s parliamentary aide, said he understood why people might be angry.

Ms Smith said she “mistakenly”

…

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 32 Comments
Fraser Macpherson

Haggis, Neeps and Liberalism #3

By Fraser Macpherson | Sun 29th March 2009 - 10:34 am

When STV isn’t actually proportional …

The Scottish Liberal Democrats very much punched above their weight during the two terms of the Labour/LibDem coalition in the Scottish Parliament – 1999-2007 – and one of the major successes of the second term was the introduction of Single Transferable Vote for Scottish Local Government elections, starting with the May 2007 election.

Coalition government does require compromise on the part of the partners and in order to gain the support of sceptical Labour backbenchers (who really did not want a change from first-past-the-post) the new STV wards were set at 3 and 4 member only, reducing their proportionality. STV local government elections elsewhere – for example, in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland – have more flexibility in number of members per ward, improving proportionality, particularly in urban areas.

So, where I am a councillor – in Dundee – in 2007, the two bigger parties (SNP and Labour) ended up over represented – Labour got 29% of the vote but 35% of the seats – and the two smaller parties (LibDems and Tories) ended up under-represented – the Liberal Democrats on 11.3% of the vote got 6.9% of the seats.

OK, you may say, not entirely proportional, but a whole lot better than the wide distortions between votes and seats often seen under first-past-the-post – and you would be right. However, a recent council by-election in Dundee has highlighted what I consider a serious failing in the current arrangements, which can result in by-election results seriously distorting the proportionality of results in a multi-member ward.

The by-election I refer to took place in the Maryfield Ward on 12th March; by-elections take place under Alternative Vote (AV). In 2007 at the main STV election, the SNP won two of the three seats with 44% of the vote; Labour won the other seat with 30% of the vote. The LibDems were third on 13% (no seat) and the Tories a weak fourth. The Labour councillor resigned just after Christmas, and given that there was little change to vote share at the by-election, the SNP comfortably gained the Labour seat.

The SNP now holds all three seats, but with less than 50% of the vote. Not exactly proportional, that one, is it? The majority of voters did not vote SNP and are now not represented at all, other than by nationalist councillors.

As a result of the by-election, the knife-edge situation on the City Council has altered, prompting a series of events culminating in the Labour Lord Provost effectively switching sides, and an attempt by the SNP to wrench control from the Labour/LibDem coalition administration will take place this Monday. And, all because there was no significant shift in voter opinion since May 2007!

This is not the first time we have seen the unfortunate effects of by-elections under AV.

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Posted in Op-eds and Scotland | Tagged | 13 Comments
Mark Pack

Minister tackling offshore tax havens … uses an offshore tax haven himself

By Mark Pack | Sun 29th March 2009 - 9:37 am

As the Sunday Times reports:

LORD MYNERS, the minister in charge of the government’s assault on tax havens, has used a blind trust to conceal £250,000 of his own money in an offshore shelter.

Details of the secret holding have been obtained by The Sunday Times as G20 leaders gather in London pledging to stamp out tax abuses.

Myners transferred 500,000 of his own shares in the Ermitage hedge fund, based in Jersey, into a blind trust when he became a minister in October …

He owned the shares while overseeing price-sensitive policy decisions. During this time he met Jersey officials who now

…

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Joe Taylor

Opinion: The row over MPs’ expenses disguises the real problem

By Joe Taylor | Sat 28th March 2009 - 7:40 pm

Call me paranoid, but I can’t help thinking that there is a right-wing conspiracy to drag our system of government back to the Middle Ages. I refer to the long-running campaign in the Tory press calling for cuts to pay and expenses for MPs.

The argument, often aired by columnists like Simon Heffer in the Telegraph, is that MPs should all be very rich, successful people who represent their constituents as a kind of pastime. Their pay should only be necessary for the occasional lunch at Smiths of Smithfield, or a bit of light opera.

Dishearteningly, I have heard this argument parroted by people on Radio Five Live phone-ins, who seem to think that democracy should be cost-free. This is a worrying – not to say dangerous – trend. It is becoming popular to believe that only the rich should be allowed to hold political power.

Clearly this view has gathered momentum thanks to 12 years of a Labour Government which has specialised in graft, corruption and nepotism on a grand scale, while presiding over an emergency stop in social mobility. The stories about Tony McNulty’s expenses last week were merely the icing on the giant Labour cake of greed and self-interest.

But in spite of all that – and here I have to declare an interest, as I am part-paid by an MP – I don’t believe that pay or expenses are the root cause of public resentment. In my view, the real problem is that too many MPs have second jobs and directorships.

Let’s start with their pay. An MP is paid £65,000 a year, roughly the same as a middle-ranking civil servant or a head teacher. They also get about the same again in office and staffing allowances and their controversial a second home allowance – a total of around £130,000 a year. This is still considerably less than the chief executives of most local authorities.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 14 Comments
Mark Pack

More Euro troubles for Conservatives as donor backs UKIP

By Mark Pack | Sat 28th March 2009 - 7:04 pm

Fresh on the heels of the news that Conservative MEP Caroline Jackson is thinking of quitting the Conservative Party comes this news via The News of the World:

The Tories’ top donor today told the News of the World how he has defected to the eurosceptic UK Independence Party.

Spread-betting millionaire Stuart Wheeler has written a cheque for £100,000 to UKIP and said he will be voting for them in the June Euro elections …

In 2000, Mr Wheeler gave the Tories £5m – their biggest single donation.

He has continued to back them since, but has become increasingly angry at leader

…

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The Voice

CommentIsLinked@LDV: David Steel – The night Labour self-destructed

By The Voice | Sat 28th March 2009 - 6:25 pm

Over at the Daily Mail, former Liberal party leader Lord (David) Steel recalls the dramatic evening of 28 March 1979, when the Labour Government lost a confidence motion by one vote, and the then Prime Minister James Callaghan was forced to call an early General Election. It was this election that swept Margaret Thatcher to victory. Here’s an excerpt:

The tension was palpable, politicians from all parties talking and arguing with one another, all speculating about what was going to happen next.

I had never seen the chamber so packed before. Not one of us had the slightest idea what the

…

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Posted in LibLink and Parliament | Tagged and | 1 Comment
The Voice

Tories the late starters in Islington two-horse race

By The Voice | Sat 28th March 2009 - 6:17 pm

A correspondent not unadjacent to Islington contacts The Voice to note:

Islington South and Finsbury Conservatives have selected their PPC, more than two years after the Liberal Democrats re-selected Bridget Fox to fight the seat.

The Tory hopeful, Antonia Cox, is an investment banker turned journalist who lives in Kensington. She has promised to move into Islington if elected – a pledge she is unlikely to be called on to fulfil. Ladbrokes have given the Conservatives (surprisingly generous) odds of 25/1 to win the seat. The borough has 0 (zero) Conservative councillors. Even the ConservativeHome post announcing her selection

…

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Posted in News and Selection news | Tagged and | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

NEW POLL: Should the Lib Dems back the seat winners or the vote winners?

By Stephen Tall | Sat 28th March 2009 - 12:10 pm

Yes, I know, it’s a Hung Parliament question, and all Lib Dems hate those – after all, we’re a political party in our own right, not just an addendum to one of the other two consevative, reactionary, estabishment parties that trade under the names Labour and Tories.

But still, there’s a chance, a slim chance, that the next general election will see no one party emerge with an overall majority. In which case, the Lib Dems will be under scrutiny like never before, our every move examined under a microscope. So it’s as well to be prepared. And this question …

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Posted in Voice polls | 31 Comments
Merlene Emerson

Opinion: The Air We Breathe

By Merlene Emerson | Sat 28th March 2009 - 11:23 am

Some things are plain to see such as graffiti, neglected estates or general grot spots. However, in the case of the quality of the air we breathe, it is less apparent where there has been a breach of safety standards set by the World Health Organisation. Perhaps this is also why it is easier for the Government and local authorities to ignore the warning signs.

But should we be complacent and take the view that air quality problems are too big for us to tackle at the local or even national level? Sometimes it takes an external force …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

NEW: April ’09 LDV members’ survey now live

By Stephen Tall | Fri 27th March 2009 - 6:35 pm

After a bit of a hiatus, the LDV members’ surveys are set to be revived. So if you are a registered member of the Liberal Democrat Voice forum – and any paid-up party member is welcome to join – then you now have the opportunity to make your views known on a range of issues in our April members’ survey. Topics we are asking your opinion on include:

– Lib Dem tax policy post-credit crunch;
– when you think the economy will recover;
– whether British troops withdrawn from Iraq should be redeployed to Afghanistan;
– your views on assisted suicide;
– your take …

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Posted in LDV Members poll | 3 Comments
The Voice

Vince reviewed on tonight’s BBC2 Newsnight

By The Voice | Fri 27th March 2009 - 6:08 pm

A quick plug for a quick plug – in this week’s Newsnight Review (BBC2, 11pm Friday 27th March, and online), Kirsty Wark and the panel will be discussing Vince Cable’s book, The Storm: the world economic crisis and what it means:

Vince Cable’s book The Storm is one of many pieces of non-fiction about to be published which attempt to explain the roots of this economic crisis.

The Lib Dem Treasury spokesman has been called the “sage” of the credit crunch.

He warned years ago about the over-heating housing market, and advocated the nationalisation of Northern Rock months before the

…

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Posted in Books and News | Tagged , and | 1 Comment
The Voice

Evan: Labour has dealt serious blow to reform of the monarchy

By The Voice | Fri 27th March 2009 - 3:57 pm

Even as the Prime Minister was, according to the headlines, proving his commmitment to ‘ending anomaly of royal ban on Catholics’, his Government was conspiring to ‘talk out’ Dr Evan Harris’s private member’s bill reforming the right of succession and the laws preventing the monarch marrying a Catholic. Evan was not amused:

Despite the spin from the Prime Minister about amending religious and sexual discrimination in our constitution being a higher priority, the Government has dealt a serious blow to the prospects of reform by talking out my Bill. Jack Straw was asked three times to provide either a timetable,

…

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Posted in News and Parliament | Tagged , and | 3 Comments
Stephen Tall

Eric Pickles’ QT cock-up – the eerie silence of the right-wing blogs

By Stephen Tall | Fri 27th March 2009 - 1:40 pm

I blogged earlier today on LDV about Eric Pickles’ pitifully embarrassing performance on last night’s Question Time, the Tory chairman riling the audience with his tone-deaf defence of MPs’ second homes. It’s not just in Lib Dem circles that this attracted attention – it’s provided much water-cooler comment in the office, and PoliticsHome.com has uploaded the transcript and video here.

You might have though it would have merited some coverage in the right-wing blogosphere, whether springing to the Tory party chairman’s aid, or brushing it aside as a momentary gaffe. I’ve checked a couple of times today on …

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Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 13 Comments
Stephen Tall

Clegg: no overall cut in taxes now, except for low- and middle-income earners

By Stephen Tall | Fri 27th March 2009 - 1:18 pm

Last summer, when Nick Clegg launched the party’s Make It Happen policy statement, he made a bold declaration for a Lib Dem leader: that we would “get wasteful government spending under control, and look for ways to cut the overall tax burden.”

Today, Nick conceded in an interview with today’s Financial Times what has become increasingly obvious since the collapse of Lehman’s in the autumn, and the plunge of Britain’s economy into full-blown recession – that it’s simply not possible now to cut the overall burden of taxation:

Nick Clegg yesterday abandoned the Liberal Democrats’ short-lived pledge to go

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 15 Comments
The Voice

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Nick Clegg – We need to know why we went to war

By The Voice | Fri 27th March 2009 - 12:59 pm

Over at The Independent today, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg explains why an Iraq inquiry should examine every detail the Government would like ignored. Here’s an excerpt:

We had the whitewash Hutton inquiry, then the Butler inquiry, but the real truth about the political decision-making that led us into this war has never yet been exposed.

Labour and the Conservatives came together to drag our country into an illegal war: we need to know how that happened so that we make sure it never happens again. The government has finally accepted that it can no longer duck an inquiry. The question now

…

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Mark Pack

Nine out of ten people spied on by local authorities are innocent

By Mark Pack | Fri 27th March 2009 - 10:29 am

From today’s Daily Mail, following up the story about the widespread using of snooping powers by councils (as covered yesterday by Home Office Watch):

Nine in ten of 10,000 spied on by councils using anti-terrorism powers are innocent
The revelation intensified the controversy over local councils using anti-terror powers to spy on those suspected of ‘crimes’ such as putting their bins out on the wrong day.

The legislation, which allows secret filming and even the trailing of suspects by undercover officials, has been used by councils at least 10,333 times over the past five years…

Others targeted under the Regulation of Investigatory

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

Missed BBC QT? Then catch up now with the Eric Pickles’ slow-mo car crash

By Stephen Tall | Fri 27th March 2009 - 9:12 am

I didn’t imagine that last night’s BBC1 Question Time would be an especially memorable one – but my expectations were confounded by the efforts of Tory chairman Eric Pickles to dig himself into a deep, deep hole on MPs’ expenses. And then to keep on digging and digging.

Even if QT normally drives you round the bend, I do urge you to watch the three minute segment on the BBC website HERE. (Public appeal: can someone please, please, please put up this clip on YouTube for the benefit of posterity?)

Not since Welsh First Minister Rhoddri Morgan made …

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 16 Comments
Richard Huzzey

Brown and Queen discuss succession question raised by Dr. Evan Harris

By Richard Huzzey | Thu 26th March 2009 - 11:49 pm

The BBC report that the Prime Minister and advisors to Her Majesty The Queen have met to consider whether they would endorse reform of Britain’s laws of succession to the throne, which were decided by the 1701 Act of Settlement. Lib Dem MP Dr. Evan Harris has tabled a Private Member’s Bill on the subject, aimed at ending discrimination against women and Roman Catholics in the hereditary succession. Could this mean that Evan’s bill will meet a better fate that David Heath’s bill?

UPDATE: It seems not. The government are not backing Evan’s bill.

Posted in News | Tagged and | Leave a comment
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