Original Home Page Current Latest Page All Contents of Site – Index All Links to ‘The Trial of Tony Blair’ posts Sign the Ban Blair-Baiting petition here. “He’s not a war criminal. He’s not evil. He didn’t lie. He didn’t sell out Britain or commit treason. He wasn’t Bush’s poodle. He hasn’t got blood on his hands. The anti-war nutters must not be allowed to damage Blair’s reputation further. He was a great PM, a great statesman and a great leader.” See this recent signature comment Comment at end Ban Blair-Baiting 20th February, 2010 A Future Fair For ALL - (Labour’s general election slogan) Unfortunate alliteration. I’m tempted to alter this to “an effing eff effing all” but I wouldn’t be so rude. Oh, all right then. But...

Welcome to the 153rd of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (17th – 23rd January 2010), together with a hand-picked quintet, usually courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed. Don’t forget, by the way, you can now sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox – just click here – ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging. As ever, let’s start with the most popular post, and work our way down: 1. Lib Dem PPC resigns over e-mail allegations by Sara Bedford on Lib Dem Voice. David Jack and the email which should never have been sent. 2. Lib Dem PPC resigns over racist email on Jonathan Calder’s Liberal England....

Original Home Page All Contents of Site – Index All Links to ‘The Trial of Tony Blair’ posts Sign the Ban Blair-baiting petition here. Most recent sig comment: “The Best PM this Country had. Shame on the media.” Comment at end 3rd January, 2010 Coincidental? Or trouble at ‘ mill? PRINCE Charles was so convinced Tony Blair was WRONG to take Britain to war in Iraq he broke Royal tradition and actively campaigned against the invasion, the News of the World can reveal. Behind closed doors, the heir to the throne voiced his fears to senior politicians and mounted a staunch anti-war crusade. Prince Charles and Tony Blair. If looks could kill ... News of the World: Prince Charles, it seems, and this is hardly surprising, did NOT agree with Tony Blair on the Iraq invasion. In...

A few years ago, David Cameron was saying things like “Let sunshine win the day” (Winner of the RoundSpericalsRUs prize for the most fatuous statement by a politician in the history of mankind), that he is a “liberal Conservative” and going on about the quality of life. Well, have a read of his speech on health and safety this week, if you haven’t already done so. It marks a complete full circle which has been navigated by Cameron over the last four years. Welcome back the David Cameron – in my view as near to the real David Cameron as we’ll ever get – that wrote the 2005 Tory manifesto, called the most right-wing document ever presented to the British public. The speech is astonishing. Absolutely astonishing. Everyone should read it. Simon Hoggart described it well as the...

An intriguing premise turns in to 115 minutes of codswallop. Peter Bradshaw squirms awayThere are some films that confront the viewer with profound ethical dilemmas, agonising moral choices. In this one, an ageing man with a horrible face approaches a happily married woman with a proposition that could earn her $1m. Oh, heavens to Betsy, you are probably thinking, it's that Robert Redford back again, the incorrigible old goat, making another of his indecent proposals: a sackful of cash in exchange for the chance to let his expensive trousers and pants pool round his ankles while he puts you on the receiving end of a one-off rogering. How absolutely loathsome. And yet it is a lot of money, so gosh, would I? Would I?But it is not Robert Redford. This time it is Frank Langella, playing a man...

Dear Frankie, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday my Frankie, Happy Birthday to you. 2 brilliant years; 24 delightful months; 104 hilarious weeks; 730 lovely days; 17520 beautiful hours; 1,051,200 perfect minutes; 63,072,000 seconds of joy. So what’s new? Comparing where you’re at now to where you were at 1, there’s a massive difference. Maybe the biggest single year difference you’ll make? You’ve gone from a squidgy bouncing baby who needs attending to, into a rather splendid little lady who attends to everything. From the moment you’re awake now, to the moment you go to bed you’re a nonstop chatterbox, into everything, getting everywhere. I love it. Your opening gambit is normally “I woke up”, then a...

Terribly middle class I know but we had the decking done on the terrace the other week, didn’t we. One of the six muppets from Jim Henson’s workshop that came round to attempt to give us a level deck, instead decided to give me a lecture on the subject of physics. I’ve heard a lot of codswallop over the years but this guy was something special. Dave: Do you know physics? Me: I did a little bit at school. Dave: Well physics is in this building, in that building, in those buildings over there, physics is inside all of them. Me: Cuppa?...

Original Home Page All Contents of Site – Index “Ban Blair-Baiting” petition - please sign Petition to FREE Polanski – please don’t sign Comment at end 30th September, 2009 WHAT GHOSTLY INTEREST DO POLANSKI, FREARS, HARRIS  & CO SHARE? Stephen Frears – he of the “chop off (Blair’s) head and stick it on a spear” infamy (see here), has spoken out in support of Roman Polanski, following the latter’s arrest in Switzerland for his conviction for the admitted rape of a child over 30 years ago. Yes, you read it right. A film director (Frears) is supporting another film director (Polanski) who admitted abusing a child and is a convicted, fugitive rapist. This Frears – a one-man horror show – is the film director who...

What a load of pathetic codswallop from Mandy. If he, a thrice disgraced minister, can return, the even more discredited and morally bankrupt Labour party can. He argued that the Tories are on the wrong side of the argument on the economy. That’s strange, since we are on the same side as the public. But arrogant Labour thinks it is right, no matter though no more than about twenty per cent , if even that much , will back it… This is why the Brownian-Mandelsonian shambles must be wiped out asap....

Coverage-a-plenty in today’s press – but not all of it will bring a smile to the face … Conference row between Nick/Vince and MPs/activists Vince Cable faces tax policy mutiny at Lib Dem Conference (Times) Huhne backs Cable after attack (BBC) MPs’ anger at Cable ‘mansion tax’ (BBC) Lib Dems round on Nick Clegg and Vince Cable over ‘codswallop’ policy (Times) Delegates lash out at leader over policy shifts (Independent) Clegg faces frontbench dissent on cuts (Independent) Clegg under fire from Lib Dems over move to downgrade spending commitments (Guardian) Clegg faces mutinous party (Financial Times) Ming Campbell rebukes Evan Harris (PoliticsHome.com / BBC) Nick Clegg to shrug off Liberal Democrat grumbles with plea to voters (Guardian) Lib...

• Tuition fees and 'mansion tax' provoke dissent• Leadership's unilateral style upsets activistsNick Clegg will tomorrow appeal directly to wavering voters to go with their instincts and support the Liberal Democrats, in the wake of a terrible day of challenges to his authority.He suffered a key policy being denounced as "codswallop" today, and in the first demonstration of a reaction against the figure generally regarded as the party's strongest asset, shadow frontbenchers warned privately that the party's Treasury spokesman, Vince Cable, would have to be more collegiate or "be sacked".In his conference speech in Bournemouth, Clegg will urge voters who "agree with a lot of what we say" but don't think the party to be "contenders" that they should think again. But the leader wraps up...

75% of Greens think that 34% of people are thinking of voting Green in the Euro Elections – what a load of codswallop. The Greens will be as ineffectual in the Euro Elections as they are in life. Even their own soporific website says that people are only thinking of voting for them to stop another party getting any votes - well...

You only have to read Andrew George's response on his website:RESPONSE TO TELEGRAPH ARTICLEThe Telegraph clearly didn’t want a number of critical facts to get in the way of their story:Fact 1: We purchased nearly 1/3 of the flat ourselves and bought half of the furniture and fittings without making a claim from taxpayers' money.Fact 2: My daughter was living in a student hall of...

Well, I’m not normally one to be digging stuff out from the back of the sofa, but going through some old posts I found a little half-completed gem that I thought deserved to be revisited and dished out (ahem) here. I present to you a post I semi-completed during national chip week (yep, such a thing exists, you know). ~ ~ ~ ~ Notice something different about the atmosphere of your local high street recently? A decidedly nasty aroma filling the air, floating for miles to the extent it is detectable by passing cruise liners? Well, apparently it’s national chip week, and to mark the occasion the FCABG (Fish and Chip Association of Great Britain) have announced the most popular names for chip shops in Great Britain and Ireland. As you might expect, it’s puns ahoy as we...

With international fervour swiftly passing me by, it is just as well that the Togo team coach is happy to pick Emmanuel Adebayor, for it seems no-one else is. Having approved of his departure to be Cheerleader In Chief, the Arsenal manager is apparently unhappy that Adebayor will play against Cameroon. As it happens, the return to fitness of Walcott and Eduardo almost negate those fears. If Adebayor aggravates his injury and is out for say, a week, we have different options. On the other hand, he could come back a little sharper than he was before. I suspect Arsene would prefer he did not play and that the boy is fit for Manchester City as a substitute, perhaps starting in the Champions League quarter final first leg as a different option to Bendtner. Much will depend on his fitness,...

"He spent his days with one eye closed looking down a tube"It beggars believe.There is a desperate shortage of community nursing care or “social” care as the government likes to call it. The choice of words is both deliberate and malevolent. The NHS does not pay for “social” care. You do. This is another of Gordon Brown's stealthy health care cuts. Now another such stealth cut is approaching. The little community nursing care that is available is to be further reduced.Community nurses will free up more time to care and obtain new ways to measure their services as part of the NHS Next Stage Review.Junior health minister Lord Darzi's vision for primary and community care, published separately last week from the main report of the NHS Next Stage Review, will see nurses measure what...

Before you read these comments they are my impressions and recollections of last nights 106 Manston meeting, they are of course not meant to be a verbatim report just a slanted view and my memory may not be that reliable. The overwhelming impression that I got from tonight's meeting over Manston, were of a council united in the interests of Thanet’s majority, which of course has been predominately silent in contrast to the minority plane crazy environmental lobby. Maybe it's a symptom of this country's dire economic woes, but both Labour and Tory councillors were in the main unified in the soul purpose of assisting Infratil as much as is reasonably possible, to help them gain new business for Manston, and us the workforce of Thanet to get a chance of future prosperity. It's...

Reason prevails over Manston Before you read these comments they  are my impressions and recollections of last nights 106 Manston meeting, they are of course not meant to be a verbatim report just a slanted view and my memory may not be that reliable. The overwhelming impression that I got from tonight's meeting over Manston, were of a council united in the interests of Thanet’s majority, which of course has been predominately silent in contrast to the minority plane crazy environmental lobby. Maybe it's a symptom of this country's dire economic woes, but both Labour and Tory councillors were in the main unified in the soul purpose of assisting Infratil as much as is reasonably possible, to help them gain new business for Manston, and us the workforce of Thanet to get a...

“And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Phillistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead, and he fell upon his face to the earth.” (I Samuel 17:49)++++++++++Shortly after Ben Goldacre drew attention (see below) to the appalling LBC broadcast by Jeni Barnett on MMR and measles, the LBC lawyers appeared waving writs at Ben, telling him that posting a reference to the broadcast on Bad Science was a breach of copyright.Ben Goldacre is a junior hospital doctor. OK, he makes a few bob (emphasis on few) from his writing and from speaking, but he is  not in a position to take on the £400 an hour lawyers from a big corporation. So he has taken the reference down.Jeni Barnett, meanwhile, has had the grace to admit that she...

I have said before that false prophets tend to lack imagination. And that one of the manifestations of this is that they think by equating the person they are prophesying over with a character from the Bible, that they appear to more true and their prophecy is somehow deemed more correct and/or anointed. But this of course, is codswallop, and is really more based on superstition than on anything else. Do you remember how Sarah Palin was variously called by the false prophets an ‘Esther’ or ‘Deborah’ with just such an anointing for this time? {She was obviously not anointed for this role as she didn’t get into office, but this didn’t stop them saying it - and not repenting when they were proven to be wrong. They just make excuses for their failure...

Being a blogger, you are probably aware that PDF is one of the most important formats used for on-line publishing. Actually, it’s the second most important format on the internet — only HTML is used more… Knowing how to use PDF tools and how to handle PDF files can be very helpful for you as a blogger, because of the following reasons: A PDF file is an ideal solution for creating content that markets your blog. You can create PDF articles, eBooks, cheat-sheets and data-sheets that’ll circulate around the internet, which will advertise your blog — as long as you don’t forget to put a link back to your blog in them! PDF files contain vast amounts of useful and interesting knowledge in the form of facts, figures and texts. You can use these facts, figures and...

Paris Hilton has signed up for a leading role in one of the upcoming Doctor Who specials in 2009 entitled The Bride Of Davros.An insider on the hit show stated Paris is a major casting coup for the show and really raises the bar. We've been waiting to find the right role for her for some time, and she was our first choice to portray the shady temptress who will lure Dalek creator Davros down the aisle......we interrupt this news bulletin to report that the above story is absolute fabricated codswallop...OK, Its all made up, but it is pretty funny, you can read it all...

‘Codswallop’ by The Brothers McLeod has been nominated for a BAFTA in the category of Short Animation, pitching them against Aadrman’s Christmas TV big-hitter ‘Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of of Loaf and Death’. The short had it’s first screening at a 7 Inch Cinema event back in September. Ian gave some context to the film: Codswallop is based on a series of postcards Greg McLeod sent to his son, and it’s similar in atmosphere to their Spamland shorts. Some nice mucking about with splitscreen and stereo sound too, so we’ll have to make sure we don’t get our left and right mixed up. Also, Ian Ravenscroft interviewed Greg McLeod for 4Talent and they discussed Codswallop. Here’s the film’s trailer: It’s a heck of an achievement, so...

Writing the previous post, and noting the oft-reported myth that the government 'battles inflation' on our behalf, reminded me of another couple of fallacies that have somehow taken root in the general psyche.The first that I want to bring up is that of the UK being a share-owning society. Total and utter codswallop, as the following (untasteful) graphic from a recent story in the Times illustrates.As the data show, individuals now own less than 10% of all stock in this country (and just above that by actual stock value). In other words, virtually all companies are now actually owned by other companies.Whilst the press like to run stories about the small shareholder taking on the might of the boardroom over executive pay or some other aspect of corporate responsibility, this simple...

Firstly let me say, I apologise for my absence (if anyone is still out there reading this), I've been a lovely little ball of stress recently and nothing much has inspired me to write, though I have still been looking in on other peoples' blogs (even if I haven't been commenting).Today I found this article and I must say I think this is pretty much the most outdated codswallop I've read in a long time.Why is Lola so offended by this? Well by sheer coincidence, about 6 weeks ago, I had my hair lopped off and I love it. Does it mean I'm not sexy? I think not, I keep looking in mirrors and loving my reflection staring back at me. Does it mean I'm uninterested in sex? Quite the opposite actually, several months back I finally got over the ex, spent some time on my own and now feel that I'd be...

Click to enlargeDr Crippen receives numerous personal emails from doctors and nurses working within the NHS. Sometimes, the writers agree to having their accounts of conditions within the modern NHS published. I have today received one such email from a senior nurse-specialist.Mary is a nurse-specialist working on a Professorial medical unit of one of the famous London Teaching Hospitals. She is working in front line research.Dear Dr Crippen,I thought I was on my own. Getting angry about the state of nursing, the lack of care, the prevalence of specialist and consultant nurses (God help me I am one). How did this happen to the NHS? Your blog has made me feel that there must be thousands of doctors and nurses who feel like us. Sorry, this is going to come out as a rant but I've not been...

The skills' escalatorThe nursing and midwifery council (NMC) is at it again. Last week, we looked at how it made a fool of itself by making facile pronouncements on the British National Party:Political affiliations

Following the recent publication of the membership of the British National Party BNP, the NMC would like to remind nurses and midwives that while you are free to join the BNP which is a lawful political party, as part of your Code of Conduct you must demonstrate a personal and professional commitment to equality and diversity.The NMC does not forbid anyone on the register from being a member of any lawful political party or organisation. However, your fitness to practise could be called into question if you allow your political views or personal beliefs to contribute to...

Seems that Topshop boss Philip Green is not so upbeat about retail anymore, despite harping on a few weeks back about how young people were too stupid to cut back on spending and were still buying his clothes by the bagfull. The greasy retail magnate was in fine form this morning on the Today show (BBC Radio 4) as he struck out at John Humphrys, getting all irate about how “the media in general have not helped” because they’ve selfishly decided to report the recession objectively rather than spinning a story that would sell more of his cheap polyester glad rags. He even at one point started modeling himself as capitalist civic figure: “The retail industry is the second largest employer in the UK. I think we all have a duty to try and run our businesses and protect...

Atheism takes an interesting political stand in the UK: The atheist bus campaign launches today thanks to Comment is free readers. Because of your enthusiastic response to the idea of a reassuring God-free advert being used to counter religious advertising, the slogan “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life” could now become an ad campaign on London buses – and leading secularists have jumped on board to help us raise the money. The British Humanist Association will be administering all donations to the campaign, and Professor Richard Dawkins, bestselling author of The God Delusion, has generously agreed to match all contributions up to a maximum of £5,500, giving us a total of £11,000 if we raise the full amount. This will be enough to fund...

According to Windows Live there are 7 Deadly Sins of the blogging world - a far cry from Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy and Pride! Of course, these deadly sins don't apply in the world of political blogging!The humble blog has swept the internet world by storm. Think of it as your own online journal - a place to both store your thoughts and air your views.1. Not bloggingThere is no rule when to begin. Put simply, the more often you blog, the better you will become. One thing to remember - Blogging is a commitment, set aside some time each day. It is easier to get into blogging regularly than trying to pick it up after a dry spell.2. Blog only when you have something to sayToo many posts are an instant turn-off for most people – this is the blogging equivalent of sending...