Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne called for the Office of National Statistics – rather than the Home Office – to be given direct responsibility for crime figures. As reported by BBC News. I think he’s probably right. We need to have absolute confidence in our statistics and, even though, as Huhne says, in [...]

At the start of every new Parliament, a pro forma bill is introduced before the debate on the Queen’s Speech. This tradition allows for the Commons to demonstrate its independence by choosing what to debate and when to debate it; the mere remarks of a reigning monarch will be dealt with when the Commons is [...]

Nadine Dorries MP has resubmitted her amendment to restrict abortion for the third reading of the Human Fertilisation & Embryology Bill which will take place tomorrow. All the amendments proposing restrictions were previously defeated. Via Cath Elliott, here is some information from the Abortion Rights Campaign on liberalising amendments, with particular reference to Northern Ireland, [...]

“You don’t tell countries you’re going to unilaterally renegotiate agreements with them.” Senator John McCain “We need to put healthcare records online. The VA does that. That’ll reduce costs.” Senator John McCain The first quote is important because it does show that McCain, hopefully, recognises that, particularly given current US military engagements and the financial [...]

“This is not intended to take over the free market, but to preserve it.” -George W Bush on the US$250bn banking bailout The free-market1 leader of the free-market party2 in the free-market country3 has acknowledged, in those fourteen words, two fairly simple ideas that could, or at least should, have considerable impact. Firstly, the market [...]

While everyone was focusing on the dropping of the legislation to detain people for forty-two days without trial following last night’s vote, another part of the Counter Terrorism Bill has been dropped. Lord West has, apparently, written to his opposite numbers to indicate that the Government will now vote for the removal of clauses 64 [...]

McCain will take the White House but that the Dems will take both House and Senate handsomely. People are misunderestimating (sic) one of the main effects of Palin – getting campaigners out between now and polling day. It will energise ‘the base’ but it has more particularly given the activists the belief that they could [...]

I’m running a symposium on devolution in the UK over at the Wardman Wire. Do go over and take a look; the first post, by yours truly, is ‘It’s a long way to Westminster‘ and the second, from Garbo, is ‘The Great English Parliament Debate‘. If you’d like to contribute, drop me an email! And, [...]

I’m entering NaNoWriMo – the National Novel Writing Month. The idea is simple – from 0001 on November 1 to 2359 on November 30, write a fifty thousand word novel. The emphasis is on quantity over quality. Although it started out as national in the USA, it is now very much international. From the What [...]

The UK’s commander in Helmand, Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, has said that we shouldn’t expect a decisive military victory in Afghanistan; I wholeheartedly agree. He should have added that there was never going to be a military victory in Afghanistan. Setting up the Afghan government was never going to be enough, either. The international community needs [...]