Archive for July, 2009
The confusion that is transport policy
If you live in Coventry, it's cheaper to drive to London than go by train, but if you live in Honeybourne, the train is cheaper. Stratford on Avon District Council this year threatened to impose parking charges on places like Alcester that don't have a parking problem. In the evenings, on-street parking is free, but off-street parking, where you [...]
Deserving the name ‘evil’?
According to the BBC, Nick Griffin MEP, leader of the BNP, says that the EU should sink boats carrying illegal immigrants to prevent them entering Europe. Have we therefore come to the point at which an elected politician is actually advocating murder? Griffin -- again, according to the BBC -- says no. Instead, he is reported as saying: "I didn't [...]
You’ve got to hand it to Stuart Holmes
Stuart Holmes, unlikely anti-smoking hero, made the big time today when he hijacked the plinth before the start of the living statues in Trafalgar Square. I've known Stuart for years -- he's always there, outside the Liberal Democrat party conference (and, I guess, those of the other parties), with his home-made anti-smoking banners and his soap [...]
Both wrong on marriage
The Tories are promising tax-breaks for married couples, which Harriet Harman has described as 'hypocritical moralising'. But both are in fact wrong -- Harman for her notion that 'Families won't want to be lectured by anybody about how to lead their lives', with the implicit underlying assumption that all forms of family are equally functional, [...]
