Stephen Byers..

Stephen Byers is to stand down as MP for North Tyneside.
Given the discussion on our previous thread, I wanted to point out that Stephen is an MP for a traditional Labour area who is very keen on encouraging income growth via making work a more attractive proposition through tax credits and the minimum wage, as [...]

Ben Brogan is a twit.

Alright, he isn’t but I have to get readers somehow.
Today, Ben (amongst others) rolls out the “Isn’t it terrible people in deprived areas vote Labour” line.
Well Ben, I don’t think there are many people who’ll benefit from inheritance tax cuts in Glasgow North East, but there are plenty who’d suffer if there was less nursery [...]

Now for the PLP elections

Now the Glasgow by election is finished, it’s time to move onto the next set of elections – and this time, they’re internal!
The Parliamentary Labour Party has now proposed the timetable for the election for chair of the parliamentary party, which will be finalised by the whole PLP next week.
Nominations will open [...]

Huzzah!

Congratulations to Willie Bain, and congratulations to all those who worked and campaigned in Glasgow. A fantastic result, and a salute to the work of everyone who delivered a leaflet, knocked on a door, made a phonecall or put up a poster.
What’s interesting about this result, for me is that although the Micheal Martin resigned [...]

Holy Tory Decoder Ring, Batman!

There is a certain sort of political article that requires, to understand fully, the ability to decode what is being said.
Typically these are articles written by a reporter with apparent sympathies and good links with a faction or grouping within that party  (Think Paul Routledge for old school Labour, or Alistair Campbell for the then-nascent New Labour [...]

Contra Cameron on Society

I was quite excited to hear about David Cameron’s speech on “the Big Society” yesterday.
Having read the Phil Collins article that challenged Cameron on his agenda, I was looking forward to hearing Cameron’s response, which I hoped would be meaty, and significant and tell us how the Conservatives would resolve the tension between their progressive [...]

Jaw jaw

I’ve become transfixed at the possibility that one day, Douglas Carswell and Lembit Opik will appear on TV together. This is because their jaws appear to be wonky at equal, yet opposite angles.
You be relieved to know that it is possible to tell them apart. Carswell is grumpier looking, possibly because he spends his spare [...]

New “insults our troops” storm…

Sun mispells grieving widows name, mistakes dead soldier for TV personality.
Shocking lack of respect, eh?
Good work, Harry’s Place.
It’s interesting that the tone of the media coverage on this has shifted so quickly from attacking the PM to discomfort at the attack on him. I wonder how much is the lobby’s own feeling of awkwardness at [...]

Losing my few million

If you ever want to feel strangely unanchored and rootless in the digital world, try reading this thread (The section wer’re concerned with starts there and continues for another 200 pages or so).
The thread consists of  reportage on a match between two internet poker players, playing heads up. We don’t know who one of the players is, except [...]

Grief, letters and the media.

I didn’t really want to write about this. It strikes me that if someone has lost a loved one in the service of our country, they have every right to be angry.
Almost by definition, when a British soldier dies, they’ve been put in harms way by the choice of the government of the day. So [...]