Politics

I'll try and keep my views on Boscombe and on the Council neatly pigeon holed into their respective buckets.

Here's you'll find stuff relating to national and international politics.

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Latest rants

Mon 24th Aug 2009:

UK contribution to EU to increase 60% to £6.4bn

According to http://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk, total local and central government spending in 2009 is £638bn, putting this higher EU figure at broadly 1%.

Mon 29th Sep 2008:

Oooh! High speed rail plans. By the Conservatives!

The Conservatives are pledging to scrap the third Heathrow runway and spend £20Bn (£4.4Bn private money) on a high speed rail link from London to Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds.

Thu 18th Sep 2008:

Supreme Court will splinter out of Lords in 2009 .. finish the job!

October 2009 will see the House of Lords cease being the final court of appeal, and a new Supreme Court will start, separating this function from Parliament. The Law Lords will become justices of the Supreme Court, and in the future, new justices won't have seats in the Lords.

Fri 20th Jun 2008:

Know your enemy / pick your fights

Prior to libeling the director of Liberty, Andy Burnham might have checked Ms Chakrabarti's biography on the Liberty website or her wikipedia entry.

Sun 15th Jun 2008:

Practical green legislation

Reading about universal power supplies for gadgets, I found out that China requires all mobile phone chargers (including imports) to charge via a standard USB interface. Consumers then don't need a new charger with every phone.

Tue 20th May 2008:

Anti-discrimination laws being watered down

The European Commission is watering down a directive on anti-discrimination, following opposition to an all-encompassing directive from a number of the countries.

Sat 17th May 2008:

Why are people so partisan? (On politics and football.)

Saw news coverage last night, CCTV footage etc., of the violence pinned on Ranger's fans in Manchester, following/during the UEFA cup final match against Zenit St Petersberg. Mobs of 'fans' lynching police officers, triggered by a video display of the match breaking. It got me thinking about participation and the way human beings like to be part of cliques.

Mon 12th May 2008:

Paddick's diary extracts are insightful

Cruising around the blogosphere reading comment about Brian Paddick's diary extracts in the Mail, its evident that there's no shortage of comment about all the sausage making that is party politics. But a candid and humorous perspective on a being a candidate is a welcome taste of French onion gravy. (Thanks to Nick Cranston's Facebook status for tipping me off.)

Fri 4th Apr 2008:

Obama continues to command popular support

In February, Obama's campaign raised $40M from 440,000 donors, half of them new, with an average donation of $96.

Sun 16th Mar 2008:

Really inspirational politics

The interview with Dr Ian Paisley by Andrew Marr (March 9th) is truly inspirational.

Sun 30th Dec 2007:

Foaming at the mouth

Remarkable how people will pay £1.90 and spend their Sunday reading political literature, but the stuff they get for free goes in the bin. One always knows where one is with the Telegraph!

Wed 21st Nov 2007:

ID Cards .. you can not be serious.

Revenue and Customers has mislaid personal data relating to 25 million people. The data contained names, birth dates, bank account numbers, addresses, national insurance numbers. If we can't trust the Government with the keys to our bank accounts, why would we trust the government with even more information?

Wed 17th Oct 2007:

Media deceit over Ming's age

Like the MET was found to be institutionally racist, the UK Media has shown itself to be institutionally ageist.

Sat 22nd Sep 2007:

War Against Terror - the Board Game

A couple of guys came up with the idea of a board game which satirises the whole WMD/Iraq/Axis of Evil thing. Read about it in the Federation of Small Businesses magazine, which I picked up at a fringe event at Conference.

Mon 27th Aug 2007:

9/11 Conspiracies

Robert Fisk writes the in the Guardian on the inconsistencies, but on the main charge says: "the Bush administration has screwed up everything - militarily, politically diplomatically - it has tried to do in the Middle East; so how on earth could it successfully bring off the international crimes against humanity in the United States on 11 September 2001?"

Earlier Stories

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