Category: politics

Nadnomics

Nadine Dorries (the MP for mid-Narnia) has been explaining why she is not in favour of all-women short-lists. I have to confess that positive discrimination makes me slightly uncomfortable, so it would have been easy for her to write something that I would have had to grudgingly admit to agreeing with. Luckily for me, she… Continue reading Nadnomics

Extending Number 10 Petitions

Like many people I’ve signed a few petitions on the Number 10 Downing St web site. Although I like the idea of this site, signing a petition is almost always a disappointing experience. To be more accurate it’s not the signing that’s the disappointment, it’s the response from the Government that turns up by email… Continue reading Extending Number 10 Petitions

Competition is Good

For over two years, I’ve been running Planet Westminster. It’s a simple site which aggregates blog postings from all UK MPs. I built it in an afternoon (based on my software Perlanet) and have tweaked it here and there since then. I always thought that it would good to have it working well before next… Continue reading Competition is Good

Who Is To Blame?

Last night I dreamt that the BNP had won seats in the European Parliament. This morning I woke up and it was true. Across the country, 6% of the electorate (well, ok, 6% of the 35% who could be bothered to vote) had decided that they were best represented by racists. In two regions the… Continue reading Who Is To Blame?

Voting Dilemmas

There’s a European Parliament election on Thursday. I’ve been trying to work out who to vote for. That’s not normally a problem for me. I’m a natural Labour voter and have been for most of my life. Voting for any other party feels strange. But I’m so disillusioned with the government right now that it… Continue reading Voting Dilemmas

Unsaying Things on the Internet

I think that one of the reasons that a certain type of politician is wary of the internet is that once you’ve said something on the internet, it becomes very hard to unsay it. If you’re used to dealing with the world of newpapers and broadcast media where everything is ephemeral then it must be… Continue reading Unsaying Things on the Internet

Supporting Mad Nad

I find myself in the extremely odd position of having to support Nadine Dorries. I mean, obviously I despise the woman. And I don’t think she ever wrote a word on her blog that I agreed with. But I do think that she should be allowed to spout whatever nonsense she wants without having lawyers… Continue reading Supporting Mad Nad

A Missing Blog

Looks like Nadine Dorries might have gone too far this time. She’s been on extremely dodgy ground for the last week, since the Daily Telegraph’s investigation into MPs’ expenses started looking at her. Over the last week she’s been posting an increasing bizarre stream of consciousness on her blog. She tried to explain what was… Continue reading A Missing Blog

Petition Approved

The petition I mentioned yesterday has been approved and is now on the Number 10 petitions site. Please consider signing it. And please forward the address to as many people as you can. http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/DoYourRealJob/