Posts in category: "Morning roundup":
Nothing to see here folks, sorry. I've been battling with an online petition site since 9am (and emerged victorious, BWHAHAHAHAHAHA). This week's Elevator Pitch is from the blogosphere's Paul Burgin (of Mars Hill fame) and will go up at 2pm.
Stay tuned ...
Because the dirty mind is a perpetual feast (and because I know you've all got dirty minds), we're going to start with this frankly ROCKIN' headline from LabourHome: "Gordon has his best PMQs for months and satisfies Joanna afterwards". Saucy devil! [Cue Leslie Phillips style sniggering];
By Sadie Smith
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Tagged Alex Smith, David Cameron, Demos, Derek Draper, DNA database, Gordon Brown, hazel blears, Iain Dale, Joanna Lumley, Jonathan Myerson, Kerry McCarthy, LabourHome, LabourList, Liberal Conspiracy, Luke Akehurst, Matthew Parris, PMQs
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The Gurkha related ho-down of last week continues apace, with the latest installment of this drama taking place in a special sitting of the Home Affairs Select Committee. Readers will know that I'm on the side of the Gurkhas in this particular kerfuffle, but I challenge the most ardent campaigner to listen to St Joanna of Lumley's evidence (available via Today in Parliament) without coming to the conclusion that, in the end, it's not just MPs who are destined to start believing their own press releases.
By Sadie Smith
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Tagged Culture Media and Sport Committee, domestic violence, Frank Owen's Paintbrush, Gordon Brown, Gurkhas, Home Affairs Select Committee, Home Office, Ian Hislop, Jacqui Smith, Joanna Lumley, John Rentoul, Nadine Dorries, News of the World, Question Time, Red Box, Sam Coates, The Sun, Today in Parliament
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It's thirty years since Thatcher became Prime Minister, and the entire blogosphere has gone Maggie ker-AZY! ConservativeHome appears to have a "Margaret and me. But mostly meme" on, with this from John Bercow on how she inspired him to join the Young Conservatives, and Liberal Lord Alton tells all about his part in her triumphs. [...]
By Sadie Smith
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Tagged A Very Public Sociologist, Anton Vowl, BBC, BNP, ConservativeHome, Dailyy Mail, David Dimbleby, Don Paskini, Evening Standard, Frank Owen's Paintbrush, Gordon Brown, hazel blears, Hopi Sen, Jackie Ashley, John Bercow, John Rentoul, Liberal Conspiracy, Lord Alton, Margaret Thatcher, Paul Burgin, Robin Day, Tom Harris
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Well done the comrades on the Gurkha debate yesterday! The comrades, I hear you roar? THE COMRADES?! For was it not David Cameron who posed with Joanna Lumley outside St Stephen's Entrance for the cameras with wee Nicky Clegg? (Yea!) Was it not the Government that was defeated at the vote and promised to bring forward the review of the guidance to before the summer recess and put a moratorium on deportations? (Yea!) Why yes, to all of the above. But it was actually the LABOUR backbenchers by and large - who actually care about the Gurkhas and have been lobbying for years for justice - who put on the pressure to bring about the changes (although hon menshes go to Ann Widdecombe and other Liberal and Tory members of the APPG on Gurkha Rights). The rest is just vacuous grandstanding by two leaders with pretty hair for the benefit of headlines involving the words "BROWN" and "CRISIS." Guess it depends whether you think politics should be about process or progress, I guess.
By Sadie Smith
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Tagged David Cameron, Giles Coren, Gordon Brown, Gurkha, Hopi Sen, Joanna Lumley, Laurence Robertson, Liberal Conspiracy, Mike Smithson, Nick Clegg, Paul Sagar, RecessMonkey, Rod Liddle, swine fever
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Today is the Liberal Democrat Opposition Day debate on the recent announcement on Gurkha settlement rights. As all of us here work, I hope you'll understand and let me off our common endeavour this morning as teh boss has quite a hectic schedule.
Justice Minister Jack Straw engages with the consultative process on Titan prisons. And gets roundly berated for it. It's like all those howls of "CONTROL FREAK" from the Tories and meedja under the Tonemeister never happened, isn't it?
By Sadie Smith
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Tagged Daily Mail, Equalities Bill, Giles Coren, Harriet Harman, ID cards, Jack Straw, Liberal Conspiracy, Photoshop Disasters, Stephen Byers, Taxation, Tom Harris, Trident
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Following the announcement that the Gord plans to reform MPs' allowances in precisely the way everyone in the opposition parties and right-wing media was demanding, there has been much harrumphing from these quarters that Brown has done just that. Iain Martin of the Telegraph has a hilarious take on how this is an affront to the independence of Parliament which has already been much eroded by Evil NuLab (a myth wearily, and periodically debunked by the wonderful Phil Cowley of Revolts), and Iain Dale has received a deputation from his Total Politics staff asking if they can all have an overnight allowance too. Why? Is Shane Greer commuting from Aberystwyth or something?
By Sadie Smith
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Tagged Ahmadinejad, Anton Vowl, Boris Johnson, Budget 2009, Craig Murray, Don Paskini, Guardian, Iain Dale, Iain Martin, Israel, John Mann, MPs allowances, Never Trust A Hippy, Nick Robinson, Olly's Onions, Phil Cowley, Radio 5 Live, Rape Crisis Centres, Revolts, Richard Littlejohn, Shane Greer, Telegraph, Total Politics, Victoria Derbyshire
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