The speaker has refused to answer Freedom of information relating to Keith Vaz’s travels. BBC video records an interview with Jenny McCulloch…
Category: politics
Some news today
Some drawings from the past
The other big story today:
Nicky Morgan
Nicky Morgan drew the connection between words and violence in “ANY QUESTIONS”. The old nursery rhyme “sticks and stones make break my bones but words will never hurt me” is actually complete nonsense. Words can be as damaging as punches. They are the favourite tool of the bullies, used often against people they regard as “different”, who do not conform to their own narrow measurements and restricted sense of “right”. More than that, words may often be the first wave of a campaign of violence and so, to ignore verbal abuse is to invite, permit or tolerate something stronger. We cannot avoid or shelve the problem. It should be confronted and documented. Well done on this!
I am inclined to think that once the genie is let out of the bottle, though, there is no getting it back, and while Trump, for instance, may not be directly responsible for all the various expressions of violence in his country, his own brand of rhetoric gives the crazy a feeling that they now have a special licence to give vent to their anger. It is time for the moderates and the kind in the Republican party to step up, because the party will not go away- it needs to be transformed ideally from the inside. We need to take responsibility for the words we utter and we need be very careful about how they might be interpreted. As the man who is running for Mayor in London, Shaun Bailey, has found, words from the past can come back and haunt us. A world where everything is digitally recorded and stored is a very dangerous place. We need to be particularly vigilant.
The Day After
By all accounts and reactions, the budget seems to be very good, but with this caveat, that if the EU negotiations go wrong, or if the deal is voted down in the House, as has been threatened, all this positive energy will be wasted and all the promises ditched. The budget is, in other words a tantalizing glimpse of what might happen if there is a properly negotiated Brexit in March. In other words, as much of a threat as an offer.
Istanbul Airport
The budget
Awaiting John McDonnell’s response
Just listening to the budget on Radio 4
King Cyrus
On October 29th (7th Alban) King Cyrus apparently conquered Babylon.
Cyrus is a celebrated character and adversary in Greek and Hebrew literature but his unofficial feast, today, is also a thing of fear for the Iranian authorities who have done all they can to discourage thousands from visiting his desert tomb in Pasargadae. The tough clerical authoritarians like Nuri Hameedani have branded the festival as “counterrevolutionary” which may well be partly true… Last year there was a slogan which read “Clerical rule is the same as tyranny” which is rather direct.
In the days of the internet, it is difficult to control =how people want to express themselves without isolating the country from the modern age entirely. Certainly, there was little evidence of the “feast” before the present century. Last year, the regime resorted to threatening text messages to anyone they thought might be considering a trip in advance of the celebration. The site is apparently closed off this year. I do not have up to date information but would welcome comments from those who know!! Please add below!!
Brain Belt Plans
Plans to build a new road between Oxford and Cambridge as well as a raft of new housing are added to the plans already under way to reopen the Oxford Cambridge link which was the reason Bletchley was chosen for the codebreaking centre during the war and which Dr Beeching axed between 1963 and 1965.
Dominic Grieve comments on Hain and Green
I am not sure Lord Hain was “arrogant”, but he certainly demonstrates that the law of Parliamentary privilege as it now stands allows parliamentarians to subvert the independence of the Judiciary which must be against the spirit of our democracy even if it is legal. When we judge other countries across Europe and into Eastern Europe particularly, we set great store on the independence of the legal process. This sends a message that, with all the best intentions, we do not really share the same standards that we expect of others.
It would be a different matter, I think, (and this must be the purpose of the original law of Parliamentary privilege) if Lord Hain felt compelled to name Sir Philip Green in a debate, let’s say, on the effectiveness and justice of Non Disclosure Agreements, but that debate was taken up outside the House by Vince Cable.
If someone like the loathsome Tommy Robinson/ aka Stephen Yaxon Lennon can be held in contempt of court for rather less sensational revelations, it seems madness that Lord Hains’ pronouncement is acceptable. The problem is not only Parliamentary privilege but the self-righteousness implicit in claiming that there is a public interest in “knowing”. Lord Hain’s actions, therefore, would seem to pretty well exonerate Robinson who is contesting the original sentence, and whose own case was adjourned only a few days’ ago because it was considered too complex. Gaoling Robinson back in May, the Judge had said, “People have to understand that if they breach court orders, there will be very real consequences”. Clearly not, if they are standing in the House of Lords.
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