Recent Articles

Embryology Bill: in defence of liberation biology

Christians are surely the last people who should be getting uptight about healing the sick; after all, Jesus was reportedly a bit of a dab hand at it himself.

OK, I’ve never actually read the Douay-Rheims Bible on which I presume Cardinal Keith O’Brien bases his teachings on. But according to the King James Version that I am familar with, Christ cured dozens of people with ailments ranging from unspecified fever, leprosy, menorrhagia and/or haemophilia, withered limbs, dropsy, deafness, blindness and paralysis. What’s more – unlike the average NHS general practitioner – he didn’t even have a problem with Saturday call-outs.

All of this makes Christ a tough act to follow. But humanity could be on the verge of doing just that.
continue reading… »

Casting the net – Bimbos and ASBOs

Welcome to Casting the net, Liberal Conspiracy’s daily web review. As always, please feel free to share your own recommendations in the comments.

Highlights
Chicken Yoghurt – Asylum seekers: shocking news
We have become a country that hates those in need.

Martin Land/LDV – …on Nick’s first 100 days
Eight out of ten ain’t bad for young Nick (no mention of the Euro vote debacle, though).

Ministry of Truth – What’s sauce for the Goose…
If only Nadine Dorries could just keep her trap shut, surely all these attacks would just go away?

Earthpal – Miss Bimbo indeed!
I’m not sure if “Miss Bimbo” is offensive, or clever social commentary. Earthpal gives her opinion.

The Daily (Maybe) – No go to the ASBO
Opens with the classy line: “They have to do it. Brown’s Ministers, each one more hapless than the last, have to show they are cracking the whip.”

Elsewhere
Obsolete – Just how long exactly is this piece of string?
Crooked Timber – Forced to fight renegades
Question That – Ken vs Boris on the Issues (3): Housing
Kerron Cross – The value of marriage
Liberal England – PMQs show David Cameron’s weakness
Michael Tomasky/CiF – The end is nearer

Viral Corner

Delegated Vote from Alex Parsons on Vimeo.

If you would like your blog or site to be considered as source material for future reviews, drop me an email at aaronh [at] liberalconspiracy [dot] org with the relevant url. I can then enter it into my RSS reader and monitor it for suitable content to be included. Likewise, if you have a specific article/post you feel deserves a little more traffic, get in touch.

ALERT – The Return of the Abolition of Parliament Act

The ever vigilant Spyblog has spotted an ‘old friend’ lurking in the bowels of the government’s draft constitutional reform bill (pdf):

It looks as if we will have to again go through all the fuss and lobbying that we saw over the wretched Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act 2006, the previous attempt by this Labour Government to neuter Parliament by Order of a Minister.

continue reading… »

Is Nick Cohen getting carried away?

Last week the Observer and Evening Standard columnist used his space in the latter to explain how Brian Paddick can win. The trick is to bring about “a mass defection of voters from Ken to the Lib-Dems in the first round.” Were this to occur, he writes, Paddick would reach the second round of voting, eliminating Livingstone, and then secure the mayoralty on second preferences.

Could it happen?
continue reading… »

Brian Paddicks hires the ‘blogfather’

I was alerted to this blog-post in the morning, saying that Brian Paddick had hired Jerome Armstrong to head up his intenet strategy. Now this is very interesting to a political/technology geek such as yours truly because:
- Armstrong runs MyDD, one of the most influential Democrat blogs;
- He co-wrote the book Crashing the Gate along with Markos of Daily Kos – the book on forging a new progressive alliance in the US;
- He advised Howard Dean for his 2004 presidential race, using the web to great effect.
Now, Mark Pack has confirmed it.

Casting the net – The audacity of hopelessness

Welcome to Casting the net, Liberal Conspiracy’s daily web review. As always, please feel free to share your own recommendations in the comments.

Highlights
freemania – Measuring inequality: a story with two ends
Statistic tart Tom Freeman is at it again. Personally I think that if you eat those hamburgers that come in a tin with gravy, you must be poor.

FlyingRodent – What I Thought When That Iraq War Invasion Thing Was Being Planned And How I Decided Not To Support It, Because It Was a Stupid Idea, And That
FR interviewing himself. It’s brutal, funny, and brilliant.

David Brooks/NYT – The Long Defeat
C’mon Hill. Enough is enough. How much more damage can you do to the party? Quote: “She possesses the audacity of hopelessness.”

A Very Public Sociologist – Socialist Strategy After the Third Way
Informed naval-gazing about the state of the Labour Party and centre-left parties on the continent. Interesting.

Elsewhere
Gavin Whenman – Politalks 8
Left of Centre – Mistaken or Lie? [hilarious photoshoping of HRC]
Cassilis – This weeks Think Tank Roundup…
Dave Cole – Edmund Burke on Nadine Dorries
Through The Scary Door – Big up the teachers
Remembering the Ability in Disability – Thank you very much, Channel 4!
Indigo Jo Blogs – Omar Bakri expresses dim view of Amir Khan
Question That – Ken vs Boris on the Issues (2): Crime
Love and Liberty – President Sarkozy Makes Sense

If you would like your blog or site to be considered as source material for future reviews, drop me an email at aaronh [at] liberalconspiracy [dot] org with the relevant url. I can then enter it into my RSS reader and monitor it for suitable content to be included. Likewise, if you have a specific article/post you feel deserves a little more traffic, get in touch.

Barely legal

A victory this week for the Safety First Coalition, as legislation attempting to further criminalise prostitutes was thrown out, once more, by the House of Lords. The legislation, which would have involved forced rehabilitation or prison for repeat offenders and greater powers given to the police to arrest and incarcerate hookers, has been officially axed from the extremely dubious Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill. (Keep your eye on this one).

Call me sally-state-the-obvious, but when a person is in the sort of situation where prostitution starts looking like a viable career option, the fact that it might be illegal is probably going to be the least of their worries. Right, I’m going to take a job which is widely seen as degrading, unstable, hugely dangerous, exposes me daily to disease and isolates me from my friends and family – no, but wait! I might get a criminal record!
continue reading… »

The god squad bites back

So, the Prime Minister has decided that MPs should be allowed a free vote on “ethical” aspects of the upcoming Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. I can only think of expletives in response to how quickly this govt has capitulated to pressure from the Catholic Church. And its not the bloody Tories who are the main problem here but the Labour god squad in the form of Des Browne, Ruth Kelly and Paul Murphy. Coerced helpfully by mad rantings by the Catholic Church, naturally.

They. Must. Be. Stopped. I can’t put it better than Polly Toynbee or David Aaronovitch did yesterday.
More from:
Dave Osler: Embrylogy bill: in defence of liberation biology
Shiraz Socialist: The Fertilisation Bill: the rational counter-attack
Stroppyblog: Politicians And Their Consciences

On this bill, I also agree with Dominic Lawson on why deaf parents should be given the choice to have deaf children. Oh, and the nutjobs have come up with another campaign website.

Casting the net – What’s wrong with a White Season?

Welcome to Casting the net, Liberal Conspiracy’s daily web review. As always, please feel free to share your own recommendations in the comments.

Highlights
OurKingdom – White season for racism
Vron Ware’s controversial critique of the Beeb’s “White Season” shouldn’t be missed. Even if you disagree.

Cassilis – A tale of two pastors…
America’s volatile religiosity makes for a messy kind of politics. And not just for Obama.

Dave Cole – Media mendacity
Newspapers such as the Express and Star like to drape themselves in the Union flag, but what sort of nation is their gossipy journalism actually creating?

Jock’s Place – Protection or Free Trade – Tories debate
For all their rhetoric, the Tories have a lot to learn about free-trade.

Anne Applebaum – Boycott Beijing
The Olympics is political by its very nature. So the games are the perfect place to protest. And don’t forget the corporate sponsors whose cash the event relies on. My comment: Then again, our economy is so intertwined with China’s, wouldn’t a protest be merely superficial?

Elsewhere
donpaskini – Wisdom of the Crowds: Iraqi special
Question That – Smokers Are Voters Too
Obsolete – Take me out to the crucifixion.
feeding the fish – The amazing hypocrisy of Theo Hobson
Shiraz Socialist – The Fertilisation Bill: the rational counter-attack
e8voice – Compulsory voting? Electoral reform?

UPDATE: (this – just under the wire – should be included) New Humanist blog – Aaronovitch and Toynbee on religion and the Embryology Bill

If you would like your blog or site to be considered as source material for future reviews, drop me an email at aaronh [at] liberalconspiracy [dot] org with the relevant url. I can then enter it into my RSS reader and monitor it for suitable content to be included. Likewise, if you have a specific article/post you feel deserves a little more traffic, get in touch.

Manipulating politics through religion

There’s often a row about religion over the Easter holiday, usually involving a pronouncement made a bishop that the media has half-grasped and wants to turn into a good old scrap between believers and others.

This year, however, the bundle has been much more political. It was kicked off by Cardinal Keith O’Brien’s gaudy intervention in the debate about the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill continue reading… »