[Hat Tip: Tory Bear]

Another great poster from The Young Britons’ Foundation:

[Hat Tip: Donal Blaney]

Douglas Carswell contacted the Speakers Office to clarify whether Michael Martin sanctioned the raid on Damian Green’s office and was told that “there is a process to be followed that was followed”.  Not quite a yes or no.

I’ve just given the Speakers Office a call and asked them to clarify the statement and was told that:

Speakers Office: “We have nothing more to add to the statement already given”
Shane Greer: “But what was the process that was followed?”
SO: “You’ll have to ask your source to clarify the statement”
SG: “So you can’t tell me yourself what the process is?”
SO: “I am not going to tell you what the process is”
SG: “So, to clarify, you followed a process, but aren’t prepared to tell me what it is?”
SO: “Yes”
SG: “Well if you won’t tell me, is there someone else there who will?”
SO: “I can give you a number for someone to speak to”
SG: “Who would that be?”
SO: “Sheree Dodd, a press advisor”
SG: “And she’s the press advisor to the Speaker’s Officer?”
SO: “No, she’s the press advisor to the HoC Commission”
[Gives me her number]
SG: “So you aren’t prepared to say what process was followed?”
SO: “No”

All a bit dodgy if you ask me.  Anyway, I gave Sheree a buzz and asked her to clarify the statement.  Sadly the Speaker’s Office haven’t um… spoken to her yet.

The hunt continues…

UPDATE: Sheree Dodd is a former government spin doctor and Daily Mirror reporter

Great video from The Spectator (adapted from a MoveOn ad):

Damian Green’s arrest and the search of his home, constituency office, and Westminster office yesterday was nothing short of an absolute disgrace, and raises serious questions about the extent to which liberty in the UK has been sacrificed at the altar of so-called security.

But one thing in particular is certain, if Michael Martin sanctioned the searching of Green’s Westminster office, he will have shown himself incapable of performing the role of Speaker effectively.  Douglas Carswell makes the point well:

“Anti-terror police raided the Commons office of an opposition spokesman.  Not in Zimbabwe, or Pakistan.  But in Britain yesterday.

Why?  The opposition spokesman, Mr Green, has had the audacity to hold the executive to account and expose their failure to tackle illegal immigration.

If it turns out that the Speaker of the House of Commons gave the go-ahead for this raid, I will be demanding to his face, on every occasion that I can, that Mr Martin now quit.

The purpose of the Commons Speaker is to preside over an institution that holds government to account - not to give the green light to police raids against legitimate opposition .  His excuse had better be good.

MPs cannot have confidence in Martin if he sanctioned this.“

Where would we be without our Blackberries?  Personally, I try not to think about that too much as on the few occasions I have left the office without my trusty 8800 the result has been something approaching cold sweats.  but enough of that. 

The problem with Blackberries, as with all mobiles, is that they’re all very standard in terms of design.  Now don’t get me wrong, the new Blackberry Bold looks really cool, however in about two months time everyone and their dog will have one; at which point it all becomes very samey.  But that need not be the case thanks to a US company called ColorWare, who specialise in customising laptops, mobiles etc:

So, just as soon as T-Mobile finally get the Bold in stock I’ll be sending it off to get a facelift. 

Easily one of the funniest segments 18 Doughty Street ever did; Mr Mike Rouse on top form:

A lot of politicians pay lip service to new media but fail to fully embrace the opportunities provided by web 2.0 (Margaret Moran MP being a prime example).  Facebook is a case in point for this problem; just think of the number of MPs who are happy to get their research assistant to create a Facebook account, but then fail to either update it or use it to communicate with people. 

With that in mind, full points should go to David Mundell MP:

A perfect example of how a politician can use Facebook to great effect. 

Tory Bear has created a superb video underlining the failure of the Labour government:

A while ago I updated my Google reader to remove some of the blogs I subscribed to but never read and to add some of the blogs I read by manually visiting the site (I know, very 2005!) to my reader.  One of those that I added is Douglas Carswell MP’s blog, TalkCarswell, and if you haven’t checked it out already you really should. 

Let’s just say Carswell isn’t a man to mince words…