For some strange reason, Helena was keen to visit Newport, the town in South Wales where my parents still live and the place where I was brought up. So we set off yesterday and returned yesterday for a whistle-stop tour of all the sights – Tredegar House, the Transporter Bridge,...
I’ve just returned from an evening at the LSE debate entitled ‘The Global Age: Europe, India, China‘ – more here. The debate was all good stuff – Anthony Giddens and Will Hutton talking of the value of European integration, and how Europe’s problems were not thanks to globalisation. Yet apart...
Leader of the House Jack Straw has waded into Britain’s debate about multi-culturalism over the last couple of days, stating that he asks Muslim women wearing a veil to remove it when he meets them at surgeries in his Blackburn constituency. Straw’s words – both in written form yesterday, and...
I am utterly perplexed as to why the issue of the redeployment of PC Alexander Omar Basha away from security duties at the Israeli Embassy in London has caused such a fuss – see this article from The Guardian that explains the matter. The official reason is that the Met...
What is going on at Tory party conference? I can understand the electoral appeal of trying to move a party to the middle ground, but the Tories seem to be trying to be greener than Labour, all nice and cuddly, and tough and hard nosed too – see David Davis’s...
One of the things I have to get to grips with in my new flat is the change of borough – I’m now in Southwark having previously been in Lambeth. It’s hard to tell in London where one borough ends and the next starts if you travel around, but it...
I was walking along Horse Guards Parade beside St James’s Park in London today and happened to notice some men chipping away at a new stone wall (pictured). It turns out that this is the construction of a memorial for the 202 victims of the 2002 Bali bombs, 28 of...
Spending the last 4 days of the Swedish election campaign in Stockholm with the Social Democrats has been an eye-opening experience. The stark realisation – starting on Saturday (the day before Sunday’s poll – result here, and here (Swedish official results)) that actually they were going to lose, was the...
I’m currently in the middle of moving to a new flat – all my furniture moves tomorrow, and I’ll only move sometime next week – due to British Gas! It has been impossible to get all the certificates and checks complete on time, and the landlord will not let me...
For someone renowned for having decent political antennae, Tony Blair really seems to have lost it with regard to his future. His response today to ongoing speculation about how long he will stay as Prime Minister has been to say, well, it’s not me speculating – The Guardian here. I’m...
Somehow my reservation in the train from Newport back to London on Sunday was in the Family Carriage. 4 small kids were sat close to me, completely ignored by the parents, and hence make an almighty racket. This was further compounded by the woman sat next to me who spent...
I’m now 99% confident that I have everything sorted out for my new place to live – I’ll be moving sometime in September to Villa Street, Walworth [map], and Helena will join me there from late September. This is in the Camberwell and Peckham constituency, so Harriet Harman will be...