If Conservatives win; women’s rights will suffer
The upcoming election will likely have a major effect on what is traditionally a matter of conscience on which the parties don’t take a position: abortion.
While the political parties don’t officially have a line, it is clear that the Conservatives are more in favour of restricting abortion than Labour.
The LibDems are somewhere in between. Based on the 2008 votes on abortion in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, and making the assumption that the votes of the parties in the Parliament that is now ending is a good guide to the same in the next Parliament, we can say that the probability of a Conservative MP voting to restrict abortion from twenty-four to twenty-two weeks is 0.83; for Labour, the figure is 0.2; for the LibDems, 0.42.
I am taking the figures from the Public Whip for the votes for 22, 20, 16 and 12 weeks.
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The Iraq inquiry should be conducted in secret
“The Iraq war was a disaster” is a familiar refrain. Unfortunately, that doesn’t tell us very much. Do we mean the concept, the planning, the implementation, the strategy, the tactics, what? Or do we want an official stick with which to beat the government?
Were the problems with the Iraq war just the basis on which we went to war, or inappropriate equipment necessitating lots of UORs ?
Do we just want to know that the whole enterprise was a bad idea, or do we want to see where and why things were done badly or well?
If we put aside the hysterical, the more reasoned problems come under three heads; timing, secrecy and outputs.
Time to sack him or back him
A (guest) Memo
To: The Parliamentary Labour Party
Subject: Tonight’s PLP meeting
Comrades, colleagues and friends,
OK, the results are bad. The BNP won two seats, we’re down in the share of vote, the Tories took Wales and we’ve lost a lot of good councillors, not to mention some good MEPs.
However, the story isn’t that anyone has done particularly well; it is that Labour has done badly.
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Is American journalism failing?
People who watch US news or The Daily Show with Jon Stewart will know that one of those minor feuds between celebrities – in this case, between Stewart and Jim Cramer, a hedge fund manager turned journalist, of CNBC’s Mad Money – has been brewing over The Daily Show‘s repeated attacks on the low quality of reporting by the financial network, CNBC.
It came to a head on Jon Stewart’s show in one of the most compelling pieces of television I’ve seen in a long time. You need to watch this. Now. (3 parts)
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England Expects in silence
Via Mr Eugenides, I see that a blog, England Expects, written by a press officer, Gawain Towler, for the European Parliament Independence and Democracy Group, which includes UKIP, has been effectively shut down.
While it appears he may have been in a technical breach of the rules, I would submit that the rules appear to be over strict and that their application in this case – to someone representing a political grouping – is inappropriate.
As it happens, I disagree with the sentiment expressed with Gawain Towler in the original post that caused him trouble. However,
I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
~Evelyn Beatrice Hall summarising Voltaire’s attitude towards Helvétius.
We need a new paper for London
The Evening Standard has something close to a monopolistic position on London news. My objections are not because it is right-wing, obsessed with Ken or a bit tabloid.
Rather, it is that they are unchallenged in their position. My objection to the newspaper market in London is that it leaves great swathes of GLA and borough politics untouched.
Despite its attempts to move upmarket, ES’s news coverage is pretty poor. It doesn’t cover borough politics and only lightly covers the Mayor and GLA. There is room and need for competition for the broader (rather than just middle market tabloid) London news market. But the Evening Standard has singularly failed to capitalise on its online activities.
I believe that better news coverage and debate about London – effectively the fifth home nation – would be a good thing. The question is how.
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Help Zimbabwe from your chair
On Monday, Lovemore Matombo and Wellington Chibebe, respectively the President and General Secretary of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trades Unions (ZCTU), will stand trial to face charges of ’spreading falsehoods prejudicial to the state’. Those falsehoods are, in fact, criticisms they made on May Day of Mugabe’s government and telling the truth about the violence today in Zimbabwe.
As part of their bail conditions, they may not address any political or public gatherings until the conclusion of their case, effectively removing them from the election campaign. The ZCTU has been increasingly opposed to Mugabe since the 1990s and were involved in setting up the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. The MDC President, Morgan Tsvangarai, is a former general secretary of the ZCTU.
This is where you come in.
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Nothing about us without us
There are 650 million people with disabilities in the world; four-fifths of them live in the developing world. While much has been done in the developed world to improve the lot of people with disabilities and to bring us closer to equality, we are not there yet; things are that much worse in the developing world.
One year ago yesterday, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was opened for signing. It has been signed by 126 states, including the UK, but only ratified by seventeen: Bangladesh, Croatia, Cuba, El Salvador, Gabon, Guinea, Hungary, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Namibia, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, San Marino, South Africa and Spain.
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Throwing the e-baby out with the i-bathwater
The Financial Times reports on the government’s proposals to do ‘something’ about illegal file sharing. That something is to make ISPs the law enforcer; they will be penalised if people use their networks to share files. There has been talk of a ‘three-strikes’ system whereby ISPs would be obliged to remove service from their customers if they’re found to be illegally file-sharing on three occasions. If ISPs have not acted by April of next year, the government will legislate.
The big objection I have is that it makes the ISPs responsible for policing. This is a really bad idea. Spectacularly bad. I’m hoping that Tom Watson, as a minster responsible for this who was, as a backbencher, supportive of Tim Ireland et al during the Usmanov affair, will take note and make this point to his colleagues.
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In defence of Archbishop Rowan Williams
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, is in trouble over his comments on the incorporation of Sharia law into UK law.
It is my opinion that Dr Williams’ suggestions deserve reasoned consideration; that they do not require a change in the nature of the law; and that much of the opposition to them, implicitly, requires a very grave change in the law from defining what is illegal to defining what is legal.
I think it’s important to work out exactly what the most reverend Primate is saying. It has generally been reported as ’sharia law is unavoidable’ along with cries of Londonistan and dhimmitude.
According to this transcript of an interview between the Archbishop and Jonathan Landau, what Dr Williams believes is that
“the application of Sharia in certain circumstances if we want to achieve this cohesion and take seriously peoples’ religion seems unavoidable”
What I intend to do in this post is briefly to sum up Dr Williams’ argument before giving my reasons for supporting it. I will then seek to show not only that the arguments used to oppose his comments are based on misconceptions, accidental or otherwise, of his opinions and that they, in fact, to a great deal to damage community relations in the UK. Finally, I will reflect on the implications of Dr Williams’ comments and the reaction they have provoked.
Literally, the Nanny-State
For what it’s worth, I think that the new proposal from the Conservatives is actually rather good. It entails each newborn and their mother having the services of a maternity nurse for the first week after leaving hospital.
According to the Observer, it would cost ‘at least £150m a year’. I think a closer figure is £212m per year* (my workings are at the end of this post). Whether or not it survives, I think the Conservatives – and I mean this genuinely – are to be congratulated on putting forward an ambitious, policy proposal. I hope that full, detailed costings and implementations are brought forward.
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» Do abortion services really make a ‘vast amount of money’?
» Labour blames immigration but working class betrayal is the real issue
» Do we always need ‘balance’ in our news?
» Why Coalition plans to force people into unpaid work will flounder
» How China’s 40m unmarried men might impact the world
» Five unanswered questions about IDS’ unpaid work programme
» Housing – it’s about to get much worse
» This isn’t a working class racism problem, it’s a Labour problem
» Why the Democrats lost on Tuesday in the US mid-terms
» Why the BBC strikes deserves public support
» Why are Libdems so calm in the face of electoral meltdown?
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LATEST COMMENTS » John B posted on Labour blames immigration but working class betrayal is the real issue » Frank posted on How China's 40m unmarried men might impact the world » Cory Hazlehurst posted on Labour blames immigration but working class betrayal is the real issue » 1984 « Todealornot's Blog posted on DWP suggests Osborne and others are exaggerating benefit fraud » Chervil posted on How the Coalition has split the electorate » Chervil posted on BNP membership dives to below 10,000 » James Landay posted on How China's 40m unmarried men might impact the world » Celia posted on Disability charity slams cuts to benefits » straighteyes posted on BNP membership dives to below 10,000 » Nick H. posted on Do abortion services really make a ‘vast amount of money’? » barnsleylad posted on BNP membership dives to below 10,000 » Staffordshire UNISON posted on How the Coalition has split the electorate » Sim-O posted on Do abortion services really make a ‘vast amount of money’? » margin4error posted on This isn't a working class racism problem, it's a Labour problem » Mr S. Pill posted on BNP membership dives to below 10,000 |
