The smoking ban, approved by Parliament in July , will come into force on 1st July 2007. From 6am on that day, it will be illegal to smoke in virtually all enclosed public spaces, including pubs, clubs and restaurants.
It really is ridiculous that we are not to be allowed to choose whether or not we [...]

• 2 Comments

Russia’s government has been urged (by the head of Russia’s union of wine and spirits producers) to legislate to introduce “people’s vodka”. This “people’s vodka” should be a “cheap, but safe and regulated drink” to help Russians who are too poor to buy genuine vodka.
It appears that this call is being made because many Russians [...]

• 1 Comment

Alastair Campbell calls for a blogging code. The only reply I can give is to use my new keyboard button:
Other posts on the issue: Iain Dale, Dizzy Thinks, Devil’s Kitchen

• 2 Comments

Lauren Booth, Tony Blair’s sister-in-law has been voted off I Want To Be I’m A Celebrity - Get me Out Of Here.
Of course this isn’t much in the way of news in itself (I haven’t watched, and do not intend to watch, the programme) but it is part of a deeper problem with society [...]

• 1 Comment

Tony Blair professes his “sorrow” over Britain’s role in the slave trade, and is criticised by an African anti-slavery group, Rendezvous of Victory, because he refused to say the word ’sorry’:
“It’s adding insult to the lingering injuries of the enslavement of African people by the European ruling classes. The message is that if you commit [...]

• 0 Comments

The new drinking laws that allowed 24-hour alcohol sales have “not seen the huge rise in alcohol-related incidents that some feared, but there doesn’t appear to have been a move towards the hoped for café culture either.” (London Ambulance Service spokesman, The Guardian)
Well, duh. I could have told you exactly the same thing long before [...]

• 2 Comments

The Muslim teaching assistant who sparked a row over wearing her veil in the classroom has been dismissed by the school in which she worked.
I’m not surprised that she has been sacked from he job. She cannot do it properly if she has to wear a veil every time there is a man nearby. If [...]

• 0 Comments

Lord Ashcroft has said that political parties should not be allowed to “poke their little fingers” further into the public purse,” and argued that parties should be able to take money from “any quarter” and that “barmy” restrictions on donations (such as, presumably, David Cameron’s policy of a £50,000 cap) should be resisted, in further [...]

• 0 Comments

Not completely wrong, mind you, but he has made some obvious mistakes.
1. It is only possible to win an election from the area around the median voter, which normally falls within the ‘centre ground’.
2. Politics is about far more than Left and Right nowadays. The left-right spectrum is only a very, very basic way of [...]

• 1 Comment

No, I don’t want Viagra. I don’t need a penis enlargement either. I don’t even want stock market tips. Just stop sending me emails!
“Nine out of ten” emails are now spam. More than “7 billion spam e-mails” have been sent in less than one month. It is ridiculous.
The number of spam emails continues to increase, [...]

• 1 Comment