Political Stuff

The report of the ‘climategate’ The Independent Climate Change Email Review has come out. Guess what?
On the specific allegations made against the behaviour of CRU scientists, we find that their rigour and honesty as scientists are not in doubt.
In addition, we do not find that their behaviour has prejudiced the balance of advice given to [...]

{ 5 comments }

Very right or Barry Wong?
The problem that I have with illegal aliens isn’t the alien part, it is the outlaw position they are forced into. Not “outlaw” in the sense of a rampaging gunslinger, but the old-English source of the term, where the person declared outlaw is literally outside the law. They are without any [...]

{ 1 comment }

President Truman made President Obama’s job of firing General Stanley McChrystal in 2010 (Christian Science Monitor) easier by firing General Douglas MacArthur in 1951. The pressure faced by Truman was worse than by Obama because MacArthur was a hugely popular military figure at the same time that Truman’s approval rating was far worse than [...]

{ 6 comments }

Climate change was hardly spoken of during the election campaign, but it remains a vital issue. So I’m grateful to Michael Tobis for sharing this letter recently published in Science. Hope he’ll forgive me for reproducing it
We are deeply disturbed by the recent escalation of political assaults on scientists in general and on climate scientists [...]

{ 9 comments }

It is now clear that some sort of minority party or coalition government is inevitable. Where do we go from here? The Tories don’t have a majority on their own, and I can’t see them in coalition with the Liberal Democrats. Labour couldn’t make a majority even with Lib-Dem support.
Although it sticks in my throat [...]

{ 17 comments }

So, what’s the political complexion of the country I’ve got out of bed to?
Tories have the most seats, but not enough to have a majority in the Commons. All the results aren’t in yet, but it appears that Labour and the Lib-Dems together wouldn’t have a parliamentary majority either. Some sort of electoral reform looks [...]

{ 0 comments }

Today’s Sun frontpage has produced a slew of parodies, which is a bit surprising. I’d have thought the Sun was beyond parody. But I did like this Yoda one.

{ 2 comments }

{ 18 comments }

As the General Election approaches, Dave Perry reflects upon the morality of our political choices
In order to placate the hyper-wealthy doom-mongers of the faceless ‘money markets’ we are told that massive cuts in public services are inevitable because our national debt has to be reduced. But in reality cuts in public services are always disfiguring. [...]

{ 4 comments }

Have you signed the Westminster 2010 Declaration yet?
Protecting human life, protecting marriage, and protecting freedom of conscience are foundational for creating and maintaining strong families, caring communities and a just society. Our Christian faith compels us to speak and act in defence of all these.
A quick skim through the signatories suggests that many of my [...]

{ 5 comments }

With an election approaching, Vote for Policies is a fascinating and very useful website. It sets out the policies of 6 political parties on 9 main areas - economy, democracy, health, immigration, environment, welfare, crime, education and Europe - and invites you to choose ‘blind’ from the list. At the en, it tells you which [...]

{ 15 comments }

It looks like Gordon Brown is set to call the election for May 6th. The campaign has been underway for months already, of course. It will be good to have it fought openly. Just so long as David Cameron gets nowhere near No. 10.

{ 14 comments }

I’m posting a little late by the standard that it is old news that in a special election held on January 19, 2010, Massachusetts voters elected Republican Scott Brown over Democrat Martha Coakley by a margin of 52% to 47% to fill the vacancy resulting from the passing of Edward M. Kennedy in August of [...]

{ 35 comments }

In 1960, Texas with a population of around 9.6 million, was the 6th largest state in the USA. Today, at around 25 million residents, it is second largest. Combining such a large population with the economics of publishing school textbooks, the Texas school board, significantly consisting of religious fundamentalists, virtually dictates what is [...]

{ 1 comment }

Workplace bullying has been much in the news recently. First came accusations that Prime Minister Gordon Brown bullies his staff. Then a spokesperson for a charity set up to help those being bullied at work confirmed that they had been contacted by someone from Number 10. In response to this breach of confidentiality, one of [...]

{ 3 comments }

For maybe the first time on this blog, I’m writing about voting that while perhaps political in a certain fashion, nevertheless doesn’t involve what many might call partisan politics or one political party against another. There’s no red state, blue state division here. The vote I’m referring to resulted from this deep recession that [...]

{ 0 comments }

As it has been reported at politicsdaily.com and elsewhere, the United States put the squeeze on the British High Court to block the release of summary information implicating the CIA, with MI5’s help, in the torture of United Kingdom resident Binyam Mohamed. Find out more on the eventual outcome here at politicsdaily.com and [...]

{ 5 comments }

This is a bit rich. The Tories are attempting to win Labour voters by proposing to give public sector workers the right to take over their workplaces as worker co-operatives.
David Cameron has renewed a pledge to give public sector workers the chance to form co-operatives to run services as part of a push to woo [...]

{ 4 comments }

Churches say There is Enough For Everyone - Poverty and Homelessness Action Week
There is enough for everyone – that is the message of Poverty and Homelessness Action Week beginning on January 30.
From Methodist Church News
The Methodist Church in Britain, the Baptist Union of Great Britain and the United Reformed Church are supporting the awareness-raising week [...]

{ 0 comments }