Category: politics

In today’s Guardian, Mark Lawson previews an interesting-sounding documentary that will go out on Channel 4 next Saturday. With God on our Side looks at the role of christianity in the lives of US presidents with particular emphasis on George W Bush. This quote raised a smile: The religiosity of American politics tends to be… Continue reading With God on our Side

I’ve just realised why Tony Blair is so determined to serve a complete third term. That would mean that he’d been in power longer than Thatcher. Wasn’t that also Francis Urquhart’s target in The Final Cut? “You may well think that…”

In today’s Guardian there’s an interesting piece about this week’s Hartlepool byelection. I particularly liked this paragraph which nicely sums up the state of British politics. On September 8, the byelection was called for the 30th. A tour of the offices up and down York Road that day felt like retracing a cycle of history.… Continue reading The State of British Politics

I don’t know quite why we’ve had this run of storms. You just have to accept that. Florida Governer Jeb Bush on the recent spate of hurricanes. They’re none too bright in that family are they. Most people seem pretty sure it’s due to global warming.

Very happy to see that Mark Thatcher has been arrested for his part in an attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea. He’s always been a nasty piece of work with his fingers in all sorts of dubious pies. Let’s hope the shock kills his mother.

My local MP is Martin Linton. He was one of the people who got into parliament on the back of Labour’s massive landslide victory in 1997, so he’s understandably a bit “New Labour” for my tastes. Like many MPs, he has his own web site and unlike many MPs he (or his staff) even keep… Continue reading Martin Linton

It’s nice to see that the Statue of Liberty has reopened after it was badly damaged in the X-Men film… er… no wait… since it was completely unharmed in the Al-Queda attacks in September 2001. It’s understandable that the Americans would want to celebrate its reopening. But as a letter in today’s Guardian points out,… Continue reading Statue of Liberty

Our ever-helpful government have produced a leaflet called Preparing for Emergencies full of “useful” advice about how to prepare for terrorist attacks. A copy will be sent to every household in the UK, but there’s a web site for those of us who can’t wait. The government web site shouldn’t be confused with this site… Continue reading Preparing for Emergencies

This is going to be of even less interest to most people than most of the stuff that I write about. Julian Ridsdale was the conservative MP for the area that I grew up in for the whole time that I lived there. As such he was responsible for giving me a lifelong distrust of… Continue reading Julian Ridsdale

Latest news from the Land of the Free is that Linda Ronstadt has been thrown out of a Las Vegas casino for praising Michael Moore and Fahrenheit 9/11 during her show.