Recent Articles



‘The biggest gamble in American political history’

by Neil Robertson     August 30, 2008 at 1:34 am

Vice President Palin?That’s how Republican pundit Pat Buchanan describes John McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate. Palin’s executive experience amounts to a year and a half as Governor of Alaska, which should render McCain’s ‘Obama is inexperienced’ jibe as rather useless. Her foreign policy experience is also non-existent, which will make for an interesting debate when she goes up against Joe Biden.

From the same Politico article linked to above, here are some of the supposed advantages of having Palin on the ticket:

In her short political career, Palin has become known – at least in Alaska — as a reformer. Long before the ethical problems of the Alaska GOP were front-page news in Washington, she was working to clean up the state’s government and her own party.

As a member of Alaska’s Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, Palin pushed an investigation that ultimately led to the state’s GOP party chairman to resign from the commission. Earlier this month, she endorsed Sean Parnell, who is still waiting to hear whether he has defeated ethically challenged Rep. Don Young in Tuesday’s GOP primary.

So in picking Palin, McCain accepts the framing of this election as being about change, and picks a genuine outsider who – superficially, at least – appears to offer a tough approach on ethics reform.

Anyway, enough from me. Here are some media/blogosphere reactions:

continue reading… »

Income inequality – Tories v Labour

by Sunny Hundal     August 29, 2008 at 12:49 pm

Looking at the above graph (via), would you say income inequality has increased more under this Labour government, or under earlier Conservative governments?

I think it may be obvious but someone may want to explain this to Chris Mounsey of Devil’s Kitchen, the idiot with tourette’s syndrome and a penchant for writing sexual fantasies about newspaper columnists, who thinks this is rubbish. It doesn’t help does it, if you’re angry at someone saying nasty things about right-whingers, and then get it wrong yourself with irrelevant statistics.

Update: Unity at Ministry of Truth sets the fool right, decisively.

Top Stories and Daily Blog review – 29th August

by Newswire     August 29, 2008 at 12:30 pm

Under open skies, history is made

American politics
Obama takes aim at McCain
How television played it
McCain struggling to fill 12,000 seater
Full text of Obama’s speech

DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Aaron Heath

The Quail – Demonstrating their commitment to breaking the biggest stories, Daily Mail hacks risk having their innards comically turned inside-out as they dabble in time travel. Admirable.

The People’s Republic of Mortimer – Alix wants the Lib Dem tax policy to get the credit and profile it deserves. She also warns the party against “family-speak” vote-grubbing.

Pickled Politics – Shariq focuses on *that* speech from the final day of the Democratic Convention.

Demos – Has McCain finally come to his senses?

Tim Worstall – We should all eat organic, right? What we need though, to bring prices down, is a return to peasantry.

The Daily (Maybe) – Green Party deputy leader hopeful, Adrian Ramsay, is under the spot-light.

Enemies of Reason – Anton argues for greater press controls, as self-regulation is a joke. Oh, and don’t get him started on online newspaper comment threads.

tips[at]liberalconspiracy[dot]org

What is the Tory health plan exactly?

by David Semple     August 29, 2008 at 9:54 am

How wonderful it is to see the Conservatives acknowledging that obesity might be a problem in our modern society.

Having recently checked my Body Mass Index, suitably adjusted for a non-smoker, I find that I am something like 0.4 of a point overweight, so I was particularly interested to see what Andrew Lansley might propose to help get our nation of lard-arses on the move again.

Once more it turns out that the Conservative Party is all about big talk but limp wristed action; so with pornography, now also with the health of the nation. The grand plan is to ask the food industry if they would be good chaps and reduce the size of the portions they dish out, presumably meaning in ready-meals, frozen meals and desserts. I imagine that the food industry will have no problem with that as they’ll keep the sticker price the same, padding their profit margins.
continue reading… »

David Lammy: Tories have touched a nerve

by Newswire     August 29, 2008 at 2:56 am

David Cameron has “touched a nerve” with the British people as the Tories exploit a “big gap” in Labour’s performance after 11 years in power, a government minister has warned.

In a candid assessment of Labour’s prospects, as Gordon Brown prepares to return to the political fray next week, skills minister David Lammy calls on the Labour party to do more to “refresh our core story” and expose Tory weaknesses.

Lammy writes in the September edition of Progress, the Blairite magazine: “The truth is that the Tories’ change in language has touched a nerve, reflecting a big gap in our own political narrative. Yet beneath Cameron’s rhetoric lies the basic philosophy that failed Britain in the past. The Tories demand responsibility without offering support; they appeal for fraternity without any real belief in equality; they have finally noticed ‘society,’ but remain implacably hostile to the state.”

…more at the Guardian

McCain: ‘Off-balance and dangerous’

by Sunny Hundal     August 28, 2008 at 7:09 pm

Michael Tomasky is right, John McSame shouldn’t be near the US presidency. This, from an interview just published:

Q: There’s a theme that recurs in your books and your speeches, both about putting country first but also about honor. I wonder if you could define honor for us?
A: Read it in my books.

Q: I’ve read your books.
A: No, I’m not going to define it.

Q: But honor in politics?
A: I defined it in five books. Read my books.

Q: [Your] campaign today is more disciplined, more traditional, more aggressive. From your point of view, why the change?
A: I will do as much as we possibly can do to provide as much access to the press as possible.

Q: But beyond the press, sir, just in terms of …
A: I think we’re running a fine campaign, and this is where we are.

Q: Do you miss the old way of doing it?
A: I don’t know what you’re talking about.

continue reading… »

Brown isn’t ‘bonkers’ enough

by Chris Dillow     August 28, 2008 at 6:07 pm

I gather that some fat bloke who always refers to himself in the third person has suggested that Gordon Brown might be ‘bonkers’. Right-thinking people have condemned this.

My complaint is different. It’s that,  to paraphrase Niels Bohr, Brown is not “bonkers” enough.
continue reading… »

Top Stories and Blog review – 28th August

by Newswire     August 28, 2008 at 10:49 am

Getting what he wants

American politics
It’s turnout versus the news cycle
New media at the convention
Self made man
Bill Clinton bonds with Obama

DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Aaron Heath

Chicken Yoghurt – Justin claims that Grant Wilkinson, the one-man Heckler & Koch who sold converted SMG’s to gangland scallywags, merely lacked ambition.

Freemania – Tom runs over the rule over the Tories’ latest anything but regulation! policy to stem obesity. He isn’t surprised businesses are delighted to welcome “responsibility deals”. Say what you like about the Tories, but never say they haven’t learned anything from New Labour.

Obsolete – septicisle, also considering the Tory theme of obesity, is more concerned with Andrew Lansley and David Cameron’s tone towards the working class. Maybe Cameron ought to aim his barbs at some of his more rotund backbenchers?

Left of Centrist – Bill Clinton delivers the perfect speech (to Barack Obama’s campaign).

Dreaming of Simplicity – Joe Biden delivers the perfect punch (to John McCain’s kidneys).

Same Difference – The Paralympic Games start next week. Can someone remind the MSM?

Harry’s Place – Is back.

tips[at]liberalconspiracy[dot]org

Israel/Palestine – let’s have a sane debate

by Dave Osler     August 28, 2008 at 8:14 am

In all the long years I have taken an interest in politics, I have never come across any debate remotely as characterised by wilful distortion, obfuscation, over-emotionalism, deliberate bad faith, polarisation, ill-tempered malicious mudslinging and widespread playing of the man rather than the ball than the Israel/Palestine issue.

Sometimes it seems that enough straw men have been erected in this connection to populate a medium-sized city of the damn things, complete with commuter suburbs.

Trade union activists find themselves circulating hyperlinks to articles on the website of a well-known Ku Klux Klan boss, while the leader of one far left group feels constrained to defend every action of Israel’s rapacious and corrupt ruling class, even to the point of offering carte blanche in advance of planned aggression.
continue reading… »

New Statesman backs energy windfall tax

by Newswire     August 28, 2008 at 6:44 am

The New Statesman magazine this week gave its support to the campaign by Compass for a Windfall Tax of energy companies.

In a leader titled, “Why Labour should follow its own example on a windfall tax,” it says:

Labour, newly in power, had no difficulty in getting the measure through. No Labour MP voted against; no Tory voted for it. Looked at 11 years on, it seems an astonishingly audacious first step towards making reparations to the people of Britain for the preceding 18 years of Conservative looting of state assets.

But if it was right then to relieve the utilities of their ill-gotten gains (ill-gotten because, Labour argued, the utilities had been sold off too cheaply) why is it not similarly appropriate now? Costs to consumers of light and heating have been rising rapidly. Rising even more rapidly, however, have been the energy companies’ profits, up sixfold in just three years.

These unearned riches are the result not of entrepreneurial endeavour or clever management, but of commodity speculation. Meanwhile, the resulting high energy prices are knocking the poorest in society sideways. A Labour government with the confidence it had in 1997 would reclaim this unearned wealth from the top and use it to relieve the burden on the poor.

The new edition hits the shelves today.


« Older Entries ¦ ¦ Newer Entries »