The Daily Mail never misses an opportunity to push its agenda, does it. Writing about the Labour Leadership election today, Nicola Boden says: Once regarded as the dark horse in the competition, the energy spokesman, 40, took the crown thanks to the party’s complicated voting system. “Complicated”? How can you possibly describe the single transferable… Continue reading Complicated Voting System
Author: Dave Cross
The War Against Christmas
Does the pope read the Daily Mail? It seems possible given some of the contents of his speech at Westminster Hall today: There are those who argue that the public celebration of festivals such as Christmas should be discouraged, in the questionable belief that it might somehow offend those of other religions or none. There’s… Continue reading The War Against Christmas
Sobering Lessons
In his first speech after arriving in the UK, the pope said: As we reflect on the sobering lessons of the atheist extremism of the twentieth century, let us never forget how the exclusion of God, religion and virtue from public life leads ultimately to a truncated vision of man and of society and thus… Continue reading Sobering Lessons
Third World Country
The BBC are reporting that Walter Kasper, one of the pope’s senior advisers has pulled out of the papal visit to the UK after saying in a magazine interview that the UK is a “third world country” marked by a “new and aggressive atheism”. Of course, atheists are used to being called aggressive because we… Continue reading Third World Country
Email From The PM
We’re all, no doubt, used to getting 419 scams in email. I get several a day, but they’re not often as brazen as this. PRIME MINISTER’S OFFICE TREASURY AND MINISTER FOR THE CIVIL SERVICE, LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM. Our ref: ATM/13470/IDR Your ref:…Date: 14/09/2010 IMMEDIATE PAYMENT NOTIFICATION I am The Rt Hon David Cameron MP,Prime Minister,… Continue reading Email From The PM
Opentech 2010
On Saturday I was at the Opentech conference. Some brief notes about the sessions I saw. The day was sponsored by data.gov.uk, so it seemed polite to see one of their sessions first. I watched Richard Stirling and friends talk about some of the work they’re doing on releasing lots and lots of linked data.… Continue reading Opentech 2010
Been Away
It’s over a month since I’ve posted anything here. Sorry about that. For the first half of August I was in Italy. The first week, I was speaking at a conference in Pisa and after that we spent a few days in Rome and Venice. I took more than a few photos and they’re slowly… Continue reading Been Away
Greens and Science
At the time of the European election last year, there was some debate in the blogosphere about the Green Party’s attitude to science. Holfordwatch picked up on a report which said that the Greens supported the continued use of “alternative medicine” in the NHS. Rational people, of course, gave up all idea of voting for… Continue reading Greens and Science
Government Ignores Science
Section 47 of the Government Response to the Science and Technology Committee’s Evidence Check on homeopathy: We note the Committee’s view that allowing for the provision of homeopathy may risk seeming to endorse it, and we will keep the position under review. However, we do not believe that this risk amounts to a risk to… Continue reading Government Ignores Science
Petition Closed Prematurely
Earlier this year, I created a petition on the (then) government’s petition web site. The petition called for the government to fully implement the recommendations of the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee’s Evidence Check on Homeopathy – basically calling on the government to stop wasting money on homeopathy. The petition was due to be… Continue reading Petition Closed Prematurely