Shane Greer

Enough said really…

Upon catching up with the day’s news I was drawn to the headlines on BBC relating to the state of education under Labour:

• “Distrust of School ‘Cohesion’ Law“
• “Truancy Rate ‘Highest Since 1997′“
• “Concern Over School Performance“

Still, it’s not like Labour ever committed to improving education. Oh wait:

Due to a day rammed with meetings I’ve only just had a chance to catch up on things so blogging has been a touch light. Expect some posts later this evening.

Speaking of this evening I’m taking part in a Question Time style event in Tooting at the County Arms pub from 7 if you’re about and fancing watching me lock horns (or generally agreeing) with Jesse Norman and Jonathan Isaby. Looks set to be a fun event!

Just got back from a Boris fundraiser at my local Chinese restaurant which also happened to double as the venue where Boris first (to my knowledge) faced a dragon.  Ok, so maybe he didn’t actually fight with a dragon, but there was certainly a dragon dancing in front of Boris.

Boris’ speech focused on the issues of housing, transport, and crime.  Most interesting in my opinion were his statements on the issue of crime.  Once again he focused on the broken windows strategy (the strategy Giuliani adopted in New York to great effect), using the example of anti-social behaviour on buses as something that would be tackled if such a strategy were employed in London.

As ever Boris hits the nail on the head.

Things aren’t looking good for Ken…

The weekend press has not been good for Michael Martin (for very good reason).  Any remaining support for the speaker is falling away fast; but it has not yet completely fallen.  Like a knight in shining armour Gordon Brown has ridden to the side of his limping colleague declaring, with characteristic judgment, that Martin is “a very, very good speaker“.

Then again, if I was Gordon Brown I’d probably like the guy who was letting me turn PMQs into Opposition Leader’s Questions…

The LibDems, as everyone knows, are calling for a referendum on the EU rather than a referendum on the EU Treaty.  Needless to say their call for such a referendum has met fierce opposition.  But here’s the thing: what’s so wrong with giving people the opportunity to express their opinion?

As I’ve said before anyone who argues against such a referendum is doing so because they believe the side that agrees with them would lose the vote.  Of course they never frame their argument in those terms, but ultimately that’s the position from which their argument stems.

But isn’t it equally true that those who argue for a referendum are doing so because they believe their side will win?  Well, yes… absolutely.

But there’s a key difference:  those who argue against a referendum are also implicitly arguing against democracy, those who argue for a referendum are overtly arguing for democracy.  It doesn’t take much to see which side is more virtuous.

As I do every morning on my way to work I walk past the LibDem HQ and, unsurprisingly, see nothing of note going on (although the press office is devoid of people more often than you might expect for a ’serious’ political party).  This morning though was a little different.

As I rounded the corner I saw a person dressed as a chicken standing at the LibDem’s entrance.  The chicken was accompanied by two people handing out leaflets.  Leaflets for what you may ask?  I Want a Referendum of course.

It’s not easy being a LibDem; hounded by the press, mocked by bloggers and, perhaps worst of all, stalked by giant chickens unhappy with your failure to back a referendum on the EU Treaty.

The BBC, rightly in my opinion, comes under a lot of attack for the left-wing bias displayed in its current affairs programming (just take a look at any reporting about Israel).  As I’ve mentioned before though I’m not against media bias, I’m just against bias when it’s publicly funded.  That said, those who tar all BBC programming with the same brush would do well to watch the BBC’s new drama The Last Enemy.

I came across it last night when trying out the new BBC iPlayer and was genuinely surprised by the overtly political nature of the drama.  Essentially the program centres on a surveilance society theme, and is set in the not-to-distant future where ID cards have become a reality and the database state (as No2ID describe it) has reached a point where a person’s entire life (second by second) can be monitored through a advanced database known as TIA (which the government is on the verge of approving).

The drama quite overtly offers itself up as a looking glass through which the future possible can be viewed and considered.  But where one might expect the drama to place a positive slant on that future it in fact does the opposite; taking what can only be described as an incredibly negative view of such a future.

If The Last Enemy could speak it would say that ID cards are a threat to our way of life and the growth of the database state is to be stopped in its tracks before it’s too late.

If you haven’t seen it yet, I strongly suggest having a look.

I’ll be on Sky News tonight just after 7.30 if you happen to be around.  Expect to hear my view on the news that J Lo has just had twins (no really).

Surprise surprise, the bugging of Sadiq Khan MP was found not to be a breach of the Wilson Convention.  As I have mentioned previously the Convention only applied to the security services (MI5, MI6, and GCHQ), not to Special Branch.