Hysterical outrage roundup
Mmmmmm. Is there a daintier dish than jerked right-wing knee? The Bishop of Stafford writes an article about climate change and rather unwisely uses Joseph Fritzl as an example of human selfishness. Watch the right-wingers hitch up their skirts and squeal like the housekeeper in the Tom and Jerry cartoons.
It could be argued what the Bishop said took the argument to the acceptable limits of taste. So. without further ado, let he who is without sin cast the first stone…
Tory MEP in £500k probe
The leader of the Conservative MEPs, Giles Chichester, has channelled almost £500,000 in parliamentary allowances through a family firm, according to the Times. via LDV.
Weekend’s important blog stuff
The Daily Mash has posted about the government’s plan to lose any remaining Labour voters It’s funny because it could be true – well, up until the kicking people in the groin part, anyway.
Jonathan Calder publicises Mark Oaten’s ill-spelled and emotional refutal of the Political betting.com article about his future.
Brad Hicks has an in depth examination of institutional racism in the Missouri traffic police. Bearing in mind that Missouri is supposedly the LEAST awful state for getting pulled over for Driving While Black, this is very worrying.
Septicisle spies Rupert Murdoch positioning himself to support Obama and wonders how this will affect Fox News.
Millennium Elephant doesn’t believe in the “give him enough rope and he’ll hang himself” trope with regard to Mr Cameron
And finally, because Doctor Who is important, The Livejournal Doctor Who Group has a dissenting voice on how great Saturday’s episode was. At least this means that Lawrence Miles is not alone…
The lesson of Labour’s loss in Crewe & Nantwich
Though Labour’s loss of Crewe and Nantwich is a blow for Labour and an unwelcome boost for the Conservatives, it hardly represents a surprise.
The Brown government’s serial mistakes – most notably, the recent watershed abolition of the 10p tax band – and failure to develop a convincing political narrative were always going to make success difficult, but the death blow to the party’s chances was delivered by an inept, negative and poisonous campaign.
continue reading… »
The natural progress of procreation?
During the HFE Bill debate, several members of the House of Commons stood up to claim that fathers are being sidelined by the lack of legislation on whether lesbians should have to provide evidence of a male role model in order to qualify for IVF.
Several other members stood up to claim that the child has rights, and that these rights are best looked after by the existence of such a ‘father’ clause.
The terrible logical inconsistencies in such statements became very obvious in debate. If we’re insisting on a male role model, because it will result in a better brought up child, why is it immaterial what sort of role model we’re talking about? If the male role model is a drunk, a wife-beater or any number of other things, then that will hardly result in a better brought up child.
continue reading… »
Tories take C&N with 17% swing
Tory candidate Edward Timpson won 7,860 more votes than his Labour rival, overturning a 7,000 Labour majority at the general election – a 17.6% swing… continue reading… »
Intellectual Conservatism is still an oxymoron
“Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative”. What wouldn’t I give to be able to come up with soundbites as sharp as that?
Sadly, these are not my words, but rather a verbatim quote from John Stuart Mill. Such incisive invective would probably have made the Victorian philosopher a great blogger.
The tag of ‘the stupid party’ has accordingly stuck to the Tories for the last 150 years or so. Surprisingly, for the most part supporters have seemed to revel in what was clearly intended as a put-down.
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Where will right-wing bloggers turn to?
Now that the Tories are dead-certs to get their greasy hands on the rudder, it will be interesting to see which way the right-wing blogosphere will turn.
Because although some like Iain Dale will merge indistinguishably into the new establishment, others especially those on the Libertarian Right will face more of a dilemma.
continue reading… »
Nadine Dorries MP and her hoax science
1) On March 19th Nadine Dorries MP published a blog-post titled The Hand of Hope, which featured this image of a small hand apparently coming out of a uterus. She said:
When the operation was over, baby Samuel, at 21 weeks gestation, put his hand through the incision in the uterus and grabbed hold of the surgeon’s finger, a gesture which was apparently met with a huge amount of emotion in the operating theatre. Dr Bruner said that it was the most emotional moment of his life and that for a moment he was just frozen, totally immobile.
Except, it was a hoax and Dr Bruner himself had said so. This was pointed out on several blogs including LC and Dorries wrote another post defending her actions with the view that the photographer, a born-again Christian, should be believed over the surgeon (who she had earlier quoted herself).
The Hand of Hope also makes an appearance on the pictures and video section of her new campaign. In other words, a member of parliament is actually perpetuating a hoax that has been debunked several times.
In many ways, this sums up her entire campaign.
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The case against Nadine Dorries MP (pt 1)
Today on Liberal Conspiracy we have a treat for you. This week we officially launch our campaign: Coalition For Choice, to support the HFE Bill and develop an online advocacy group in favour of extending abortion rights over the longer term.
See the website for more about our aims.
To mark this launch we have a week of Nadine Dorries MP on Liberal Conspiracy! We will illustrate how this Conservative MP:
- has consistently misrepresented the arguments around abortion;
- is fronting campaigns by Christian groups without declaring so;
- is promoting hoaxes on her websites;
- has frequently and wrongly smeared reputable journalists and scientists;
- hides her true long-term intentions on the issue of abortion
continue reading… »
Cameron’s Quarterly
There has been a great deal of suspicion in the blogosphere regarding the political integrity of Total Politics, the new venture run by several former 18 Doughty Street operatives, and Politics Home, the hideous spawn of Stephan Shakespeare (the original financial progenitor of 18DS – yes, it’s all a bit incestuous). Both titles have taken measures to buttress themselves against these predictable criticisms, by creating cross-party advisory boards as a check against bias. It’s easy to understand why a nascent political publication or website would be concerned about appearing to favour one political party and take steps to provide evidence of its fairness. But what about an existing publication, especially one that hasn’t historically been particularly political?
The worries I have are in regard to Condé Nast’s GQ, which is edited by one Dylan Jones. In 2006 GQ featured David Cameron on its front cover, a rather surprising departure from the disrobed Hollywood sirens who usually adorn it. There is nothing necessarily wrong in the leader of the Conservatives starring on a magazine cover, I guess, but as a subscriber to GQ (a valentine’s day present), I have noticed the distinguishable stench of political bias throughout the magazine of late. continue reading… »
The Tory ‘progressive’ sham
So David Cameron the political shape-shifter, just like Odo from Deep Space Nine but with less humanity, is spinning away the true nature of the Tory Party again today.
This seems to be his main tactic – either lie about what your party believes in, ignore anything your party may have believed in the past, or preferably believe nothing at all.
continue reading… »
We’re watching you Boris
This piece of news is too delicious not to write about. Bruce Anderson says Boris is a libertarian. And yet the Sun says London’s new mayor is planning to ban consuming alcohol on the tube.
Leafleting us into submission
So how goes the vote your way? Here in Exeter we’re not exactly at election fever pitch. Most people seem more concerned about unleaded petrol going over the £5 a gallon mark, and whether City will make it back into the Football League – having narrowly missed out in last season’s play-off final at Wembley.
Then again, the candidates and their publicity machines haven’t treated us to a feast of sophisticated argument or a panoply of significant fact.
continue reading… »
By electing Boris, we could end up burying him
There are many very good reasons not to vote for Boris Johnson, but most likely we will wake up on Friday to that result.
The election now comes down to a question of turnout and of appealing to second preferences, particularly of Liberal Democrat voters. The key unknown may be what impact last minute doubts about Johnson have. (Two-thirds of the Politics Home ‘insider panel’ think this will make a difference, but will it be enough?)
As I wrote in a Comment is Free piece on how we have come this close to the prospect of Mayor Boris, the Conservative Party has successfully Boris-proofed Lynton Crosby’s campaign from the candidate, and is now worrying about how to Boris-proof David Cameron’s ambitions to be Prime Minister from the possible fallout of Johnson’s Mayoralty.
continue reading… »
Ten reasons to vote Ken
During the weeks of the election campaign that’s eaten my life, I’ve striven to be fair to Boris Johnson. There was, though, never much chance I’d vote for him. That said, I’ve also been testing my loyalty to Ken Livingstone. I believe his various critics, including those with roots on the left, have over-spun or overstated their cases against him, but that isn’t to say they lack all force. There’s also the question of how much difference a change of mayor would really make.
On the day campaigning officially began, I argued that the job description and moderate content of Johnson’s stated polices meant that many of the differences were less of Big Ideas than emphasis. This wasn’t what Team Ken wanted to hear, as it made clear in a letter the Guardian published the following day: its job from the off has been to sharpen the contrast in substance – of both policy and pedigree – between the two men; Johnson’s, in keeping with David Cameron’s approach, has been to position himself just enough to the blue side of the incumbent to mobilise Tory support without confirming suspicions that he’s daft and extreme.
But though the choice between the two was not as stark as their media images suggested, there was no doubt they were there. The thing was to clarify and quantify them. I’ve done my best and now feel I can vote for Livingstone with conviction.
Here are 10 reasons why.
How Boris rode his buses into a ditch
As the man who first exposed the financial inexactitude behind Boris Johnson’s “new Routemaster” proposals I’ve got to say I’m amazed that six week later he’s still getting his abacus in a twist about the cost of the scheme.
Actually, other people are in a muddle about it too, but Boris’s latest comments are making matters even worse for him. The story so far:
Episode One: Boris tells Vanessa Feltz it would cost £8 million to put conductors on the existing bendy bus routes. The following day, Ken Livingstone claims it would cost £80 million, though his website swiftly reduces that to £70 million. They can’t both be right.
continue reading… »
What’s the frequency, Iain?
From the file marked ‘Is that a really stupid question or what?’, Iain Dale asks: Could This Video Do For Boris What ObamaGirl Did For Barack?
Only if cheesy and faintly homoerotic are vote winners, Iain.
BNP backs Boris, Paddick piles in
Here’s one endorsement he can probably live without.
The British National party has called on its supporters to give their second-preference votes in the London mayoral election to the Conservative candidate, Boris Johnson.In a statement posted on its website today, the far-right party advised people to award its own mayoral candidate, Richard Barnbrook, their first-choice vote, and “the Tory clown Johnson” their second because he was the lesser of two evils.
Libdem candidate Brian Paddick has just released a statement saying:
Clearly the BNP have recognised Boris’s talent for causing offence and creating division. This should be a wake-up call for all decent people who could vote in the Mayoral elections to register their vote. The more votes there are for mainstream parties, the less chance there will be to give racists and extremists a seat.
We need a Mayor who does not make offensive remarks, who does not take sides and who will put all his efforts into uniting all Londoners whatever their background.
Update: A Guardian/ICM poll puts Ken and Boris neck-to-neck.
Hand of stupidity
Nadine Dorries, the Tory MP for Mid Bedfordshire, is a continual source of comedy material as an anti-abortion campaigner. On Wednesday she wrote The Hand of Hope, a blog-post apparently illustrating a small hand emerging from a uterus. Dr Ben Goldacre at Bad Science points at evidence, including the doctor she quotes in her article, saying it was a hoax.
continue reading… »
You can read articles through the front page, via Twitter or rss feeds.
» How bad is the feline obesity crisis?
» Why don’t MPs pay back tuition fees instead of increasing ours?
» Obama is right to slam BP – and why capitalists should too
» Why does Phillip Blond see civic cohesion as a security issue?
» So what if the Labour candidates went to Oxbridge?
» Last night’s Labour hustings: will it get interesting or turn to torture?
» It’s now down to Ken to win London for Labour
» The Labour people need
» Blog Nation: what would you like to see discussed?
» The Labour leadership’s token contender.. and it’s not Diane Abbott
» In defence of these fraternal nominations
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