Rejoice! There’s a new Bribery consultation paper: “The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Fiona Mactaggart): I am pleased to announce the publication today of the Government’s consultation paper on reform of the laws of bribery. Although the … Continue reading →

Austin Mitchell’s letter to Ruth Kelly is back again. Can’t tell if there have been any changes, or quite why it was taken down after a day or so, but it’s full of good stuff attacking the Education White Paper … Continue reading →

Note to The Guardian: There is a difference between things one writes in a News of the World column and what one does when shadow foreign secretary. One involves populist attempts to appeal to that kind of lowest common denominator … Continue reading →

What’s the likelihood of Blair following Schr�der’s example once he finally buggers off out of our lives and just heads down the pub? (Oh, and in other German news, apparently they’ve still got an opposition over there after all – … Continue reading →

Still horrendously busy, so read European Democracy’s top-notch critique of the CAP, which explains all the many problems, few benefits, and possible solutions rather better than I could. A really rather good introduction/overview of the single biggest problem facing the … Continue reading →

Good grief, it really is all change now that Cameron’s been named Tory leader. According to the Guardian, there’s now “speculation that William Hague will make a return to frontline politics and a job as foreign secretary”. I wonder what … Continue reading →

Now, everybody – I’d like you to be nice to the new boy…(via): “The BBC is about to start a trial series of blogs, each of which will be built using the kind of software employed by millions of weblogs … Continue reading →

Following Mr McKeating’s puerile observation, I’m afraid I just had to go and take it too far… Update: Oh, and they’ve sorted the voting on that Weblog Awards thing if you want to be nice. Ta etc.

A quickie, because I’ve found a spare five minutes and keep forgetting how much of a fucking idiot Polly Toynbee is. Wait – CS Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia are, like, a Christian allegory? REALLY? Well there’s something that no one’s … Continue reading →

Light blogging rather likely this week. Insanely busy. Sorry, etc. Will ramble on as usual as and when I find a moment.

Looks like I’ve made the shortlist for “Best UK Blog” in the 2005 Weblog Awards. Hurrah. Damn tough field though – I’m up against the likes of Samuel Pepys, Londonist, and a wide range of the usual, far more popular … Continue reading →

Following his amusing piss-take a few days back, blogging Grimsby MP Austin Mitchell has returned with an evidently long-considered, demolition of Labour’s Education White Paper. The palpable exasperation of this old Labourite is almost painful. Can’t say I agree with … Continue reading →

Busy again today, so light/nonexistent blogging, I’m afraid. But I really ought to provide some info on the latest rebate spat. As the rebate’s based on regional spending, it fluctuates from year to year. It’s currently worth about �5bn a … Continue reading →

Busy as hell, so go read Mark Mardell’s Europe diary, which features the intriguing information that he’s been filming a programme for BBC4 called “My Euro Blog” – although from his description it would appear blogging plays no part in … Continue reading →