The Daily Telegraph’s Brussels correspondent Bruno Waterfield rightly criticises the Labour Party’s lack of European vision after hearing a speech by Harriet Harman yesterday. I was on a Eurostar from London while Harriet was speaking, so did not hear her exact words, but you have to have some sympathy with...
I was confronted with a most bizarre site at 1730 today outside Embankment tube station: at least a dozen people trying (very forcibly) to foist free newspapers on commuters. Half of this mad crowd were pushing London Lite (in yellow in the photo) and the other half The London Paper...
As ever Tony Blair is a character who manages to anger and inspire in equal measure. For some reason over the last few days, a good fortnight after his appearance at the UMP Congress, there has been more press coverage of whether or not Blair will be a candidate for...
I stumbled across this story in The Local story that charts a rise of obesity among young men in Sweden – as high as 1 in 20, or 5%. Apparently it’s putting pressure on Swedish healthcare. Well, compare that to the NHS stats – see this link, and then look...
What is it about the Labour Party’s obsession with faith? If you click ‘Get Involved’ in the main menu bar of the Labour Party website (screenshot pictured) you get 4 main headings: Join the Party, Conference 2008, Faith Groups and Labour – winning for women. OK, I’ve heard people say...
It was rightly thought to be outrageous that UK teacher Gillian Gibbons (story, news summary) was imprisoned in Sudan under blasphemy laws when children in her class named a teddy bear Muhammad. Now the National Secular Society is leading calls to do something about the UK’s blasphemy laws and have...
Alistair Darling is concerned about an energy price hike in the UK – npower is hiking its domestic gas prices by 17% and electricity prices by 12%, and other firms are set to follow npower’s lead. His solution? He has publicly stated how he is approaching Ofgem about the matter....
London elects its Mayor in 2008, and the campaigns of the respective candidates are going to be warming up in the coming few months. Yet in one core respect Tory candidate Boris Johnson is already ahead – he has a decent website (Back Boris) which comes up as the 3rd...
In today’s Observer, Andrew Rawnsley offers Gordon Brown these words of advice: “It would be an added bonus if he and his ministers could articulate a sense of purpose and an air of dynamism.” Spot on, as far as I’m concerned. Problem is that Rawnsley’s lines were printed on the...
The Archbishop of Wales, Dr Barry Morgan, claims that Britain is suffering from atheistic fundamentalism – schools referring to a ‘Winterval’ rather than Christmas holidays is cited as an example in this BBC article. This announcement comes on the same day as news that Tony Blair has converted to catholicism...
I haven’t written anything here about the HMRC missing discs scandal as yet, but a post by Never Trust a Hippy (one of the most thoughtful Labour bloggers) and some conversations with social democrats from other European countries here in Brussels has brought me to write something. First of all,...
Can it get any worse? Labour’s General Secretary Peter Watt has had to resign over donations from David Abrahams via 3 associates. It looks like the planning process might have been compromised as a result (Evening Standard link, so take it with a pinch of salt), and Abrahams also made...