UK Politics

15.10.2006 UK Politics

Mysteries of canals and Swedish superstores in South Wales

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

09.10.2006 UK Politics

Peter Mandelson, forever the dashing Price of Darkness

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

06.10.2006 UK Politics

Jack Straw in a veil

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

05.10.2006 UK Politics

PC Omar Basha and the Israeli Embassy – what’s all the fuss?

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

02.10.2006 UK Politics

Mixed messages from the Tories

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,

24.09.2006 UK Politics

Southwark’s shoddy recycling

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

19.09.2006 UK Politics

Getting all memorial – but should we?

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

18.09.2006 EU Politics / UK Politics

We lost in Sweden. So let’s not lose in the UK in 2009.

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

08.09.2006 UK Politics

Very different service from the ‘legacy providers’

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

01.09.2006 UK Politics

Blair – please just set a timetable

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,

22.08.2006 UK Politics

Coffee in a bag, or else you get sued

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

22.08.2006 UK Politics

Moving to Southwark, and London’s housing market

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