Common Endeavour » Morning roundup

Morning roundup, Friday 8th May 2009. Or not.

Sadie Smith — Fri, 08 May 2009 12:04:21 +0000

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 ...

Morning roundup, Thursday 7th May 2009

Sadie Smith — Thu, 07 May 2009 10:26:42 +0000

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];

As a time limit is put on data held on the DNA database following a court ruling, Jonathan Myerson comes out in favour of the principle (via Kerry McCarthy);
All change at Labour List! Delboy has definitely shuffled off this blogospheric coil as Iain Dale revealed yesterday. Alex Smith has taken over and his statement of intent is here;
It's Hazel-tastic on the blogosphere today: Matthew Parris reveals that he's a fan, and Luke Akehurst gets a surprise visitor;
A new direction for think-tank Demos? The Liberal Conspiracy has more but I wouldn't break out the champagne just yet ... their recent pamphlet on "community networks" and the like had the definite whiff of negative liberty about it, which is of course the driving philosophy behind Cameron's Conservatives (and maybe the Liberal Conspiracy, come to that). With the Tories in the ascendency, is it possible that Demos are looking to secure future funding streams by toeing the party political line? That said, I've only read the introduction, so it may well be mere conjecture on my part. So I'll shut up;
... and Cameron's performance at PMQs draws criticism from an unexpected quarter.

Morning(ish. Sorry folks) roundup, Wednesday 6th May 2009

Sadie Smith — Wed, 06 May 2009 10:23:13 +0000

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;

The Home Office's "least wanted" list sparks debate. The Red Box's Sam Coates listens in to a programme hosted by one of the chaps from the list who is all, "bring me the head of Jacqui Smith!" Frank Owen's Paintbrush is not in mourning at what Blighty is potentially missing out on, although the said gentleman's book on "Psychological Nudity" and thoughts on homosexuals look like they are a cracking read. If you're that way inclined;
John Rentoul raises a glass to the crack squad of spinners behind the Gord's latest photo-op;
It was Committee-tastic in the Commons yesterday (well, it always is but yesterday it was interesting) with the Culture, Media, and Sport Committee taking evidence from Ian Hislop and others on the state of modern churnalism. Follow the TiP link (above) to listen to the News of the Screws dude strangled attempts to defend trouser-rubbing reportage of sex scandals as in the public interest;
The Sun is TOTALLY against domestic violence, as long as it's against a man reports Anton Vowl;
... and Nadine Dorries MP is on Question Time this week. Horse tranquilisers on standby ...

Morning roundup, Tuesday 5th May 2009

Sadie Smith — Tue, 05 May 2009 05:27:32 +0000

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. There is also a link to the BBC's "politically incorrect" coverage - a description bestowed entirely, it would appear, because Robin Day is [drumroll] smoking a cheroot. Cool. Does that, like, make me a James Dean-alike too?

The Labour wing is also in retrospective mood. Paul Burgin and Tom Harris get their teeth into a 1979 meme, Don Paskini wonders how the Tories got their reputation for economic competence in the face of all of the available evidence, and the chaps at Frank Owen's Paintbrush have been watching the BBC Thatch-a-thon and reveal that Dimbers was trying to pull the ol' "good golly, I'm a bumbling national institution!" schtick even then;
Is Hazel Blears' intervention the beginning of the end for the Gord? A Very Public Sociologist thinks not;
Hopi Sen has a Blairite defence of Gordon Brown;
John Rentoul fisks Jackie Ashley (there's an image) on the BNP;
Am I the only one muttering "bah, humbug!" in response to the Evening Standard's pisspoor "sorry campaign"? The Liberal Conspiracy seems to love it - probably because it feeds into the "everyone is evil and must apologise to ME" narrative so beloved of media commentators and bloggers of recent years;
... and Anton Vowl looks at the Daily Mail's coverage of sexual violence trials passim to find out just who, and in what circumstances, it's okay to rape.

Morning roundup, Thursday 30th April 2009 (Gurkha edition)

Sadie Smith — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 08:57:21 +0000

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 have been lobbying for years for justice - who so successfully put on the pressure yesterday 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;

Paul Sagar at the Liberal Conspiracy on the "brain drain";
The expenses vote is on today, people. Mike Smithson has concerns for the Gord, whilst Conservative Laurence Robertson outlines his priorities;
I was alerted - via an audible grinding of teeth coming from the direction of my colleague - to Rod Liddle's latest word salad on TEH EVIL FEMINAZIS;
... and well done to Hopi Sen for coining the term "self absorbed little poncebag" to describe Giles Coren, and RecessMonkey for some truly appalling swine fever gags.

Morning roundup, Wednesday 29th April 2009

Sadie Smith — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 08:55:31 +0000

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.

Morning roundup, Tuesday 28th April 2009

Sadie Smith — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 09:54:13 +0000

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?
Giles Coren writes the commentariat equivalent of that phrase oft-heard by canvassers: "I've always been a Labour voter until [insert issue de jour here]." Obviously this is usually met with the same response from our foot soldiers that we, at Common Endeavour, are directing towards Red Giles Coren's "commitment" to the comrades passim: chinny reckon!

Harriet Harman's Equalities Bill is going to ban men from the workplace and make homosexuality compulsory for the under-fives. Feminazism gone mad! Well, according to the Daily Mail anyway;
There was a climate change protest in the Commons yesterday. Tom Harris is emphatically not impressed;
The Liberal Conspiracy reckons that Labour's failed its own supporters because of Trident and ID cards which are the only issues the core vote care about (as opposed to the 50 percent tax on those earning over £150,000 etc);
Stephen Byers criticises Gordon Brown! OMFG! The world's turned on it's head!
... and Photoshop Disasters highlights a unique vacation opportunity: summer in Tattooine.

Morning roundup, Wednesday 22nd April 2009

Sadie Smith — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 09:39:07 +0000

It's Budget day, and everyone has a view. Read our faves here (in no particular order): Nick Robinson, Don Paskini, the Telegraph has some odd facts about Budgets passim, and the Guardian;
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?

Olly's Onion's is predictably funny on Ahmadinejad's thoughts on the nature of Israel and contemporary Zionism and Craig Murray is just predictable;
Anton Vowl on finding an even bigger nobber than Littlejohn. Le roi est mort, vive le roi!
Paulie, resident of this parish, examines the danger posed to society and justice by having too many cameras in public places;
Tory Troll finds that Rape Crisis Centres are no longer a priority for our beloved Mayor of London;
... and because he was my former boss and this deserves wider circulation: Victoria Derbyshire interviews John Mann MP from the small bedroom in Waterloo that comprises his second home. Well worth watching if only for the suspicion evidence of a student-esque quick-the-parents-are-visiting cleanup when Ms Derbyshire bravely opens the wardrobe.