04.02.2013
Desperation has clearly set in at the offices of the Amalgamated Union of Bigots, Godbotherers and Allied Dinosaurs, AKA the Coalition for Marriage, which has commissioned no less than seven separate opinion polls for publication this week in the hope of wrapping the issue of same-sex marriage in negative publicity. All seven polls have conducted by ComRes, which has become the polling organisation of choice for the small, unrepresentative, Christian right largely, one suspects, because it appears to have a rather slapdash approach to push-polling and the blatant use of leading questions in externally commissioned polls. The Sun has already bitten on one of the polls by publishing the claim that 40,000 teachers – or ‘sirs’ as they put in their… Read more »
29.01.2013
A few days ago, the Court of Appeal finally handed down a ruling which confirms what many of us knew even before the current system of Criminal Records Bureau checks was introduced, that the system as created by New Labour was excessive, disproportionate and flagrantly in breach of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Blanket criminal records checks are not “compatible” with a key part of the Human Rights Act, the Court of Appeal has concluded.
The checks, known as CRBs, may prevent a persons right to a private or family life, a draft judgement has found. The ruling was made based on the case of a 21-year-old man, who had been forced to reveal details of two… Read more »
18.12.2012
It’s been about six weeks since I last slapped Dr Peter Saunders around – metaphorically speaking, of course – but as he’s decided to give me an early Christmas present with a typically misconceived article on teenage pregnancy, STIs and emergency contraception who am I to decline an opportunity to break out the intellectual claws. The headline claim that Saunders makes is that free emergency contraception increases rates of sexually transmitted infections and by way of support, for once, he actually has a couple of published studies from reputable medical journals, specifically: Durrance, C. P. (2012), The effects of increased access to emergency contraception on sexually transmitted disease and abortion rates. Economic Inquiry. doi: 10.1111/j.1465-7295.2012.00498. Girma S, Paton D. (2011) The… Read more »
13.12.2012
I am unashamedly a fan of the work of fact checking organisations and websites, not least amongst which is the excellent Full Fact. However, as a stats hound myself, I am also very much aware of the limitations and occasional pitfalls of the standard fact check model used by most such organisations., particular when claims are based on statistical information. One is that the statistical information on which a factual claim is based may not, of itself, shed much light on the accuracy of what is actually being claimed. Correlation does not, of course, automatically imply causation and although a particular statistic or trend my appear, when taken at face value, to support a particular conclusion there may well be… Read more »
13.12.2012
I think it fair to say that one definite effect that government’s proposals for equal marriage have had, thus far, is that of flushing out a sizeable collection of unreconstructed Tory bigots, each of whom is ripe for ridicule. Yes, folk, we’re genuinely spoiled for choice at the moment, but even with so much low-hanging fruit to choose from, I cannot possibly resist Baroness Warsi’s idiotic intervention, a letter of Maria Miller that, conveniently, found its way into the eager hands of the Daily Mail. For brevity’s sake I’ll skip the preamble, which is the usual Parliamentary #justaskin nonsense and get right down to the substantive points.
How will we ensure that the legislation will protect religious freedom?
Well, that… Read more »
12.12.2012
Opponents of equal marriage are, it seems, not alone in their inability to make sense of the government’s equal marriage proposals or the rationale behind the proposed ‘quadruple lock’, which is intend to ensure that religious denominations that remain opposed to same-sex marriage on theological grounds cannot be compelled to conduct such marriages against their express wishes. As a result, we have Sunny Hundal asking a particularly dumb question…
So the question is: will the Labour party commit to changing this exemption once in power?
Although, to be fair, he does appear to have been led up the garden path by a rather desperate and ill-informed piece of political grandstanding by Yvette Cooper who, as Shadow Home Secretary and Shadow… Read more »
09.12.2012
As I’ve mentioned on previous occasions, I don’t expect MPs to demonstrate a command of the full ins and outs of every single piece of legislation on the statute books but, when it comes to those precious few piece of legislation that make up the written portion of our largely unwritten constitution, there I do expect MPs to possess at least a decent working knowledge of the legislation that shapes and underpins their role as Members of Parliament. Sadly, some MPs would appear to be rather ignorant of the rules and procedures that govern the very institution in which they work , the most recent example of which is to be found in comments posted on Twitter by Stewart Jackson MP,… Read more »
04.12.2012
After last week’s Leveson splurge it’s time to get back to normal business and remind everyone what public interest journalism looks like via an old ‘friend’ of the Ministry that’s popped its head up above the parapet.
Benefit cheats to face lie detector tests Council leaders have introduced lie detector tests in a bid to catch benefit fraudsters who trick them out of thousands of pounds every year. The move has already helped anti-fraud officials catch nearly 4,000 fraudsters claiming council tax discounts and saved more than £1,400,000 in four months. The new hi-tech system – which analyses telephone calls from claimants for signs of stress in their voices – is being run by Southwark Council in south London. Council bosses have defended its… Read more »
26.11.2012
Oh dear, it was all going well for UKIP, what with the furore over the Rotherham fostering issue, but then their election candidate in Croydon North just has to go an open his big mouth and put both feet in to the kneecaps:
UKIP’S candidate for the Croydon North by-election says gay people should not be allowed to adopt. Winston McKenzie said placing children with gay or lesbian couples was “unhealthy” after retweeting an article written by a National Front supporter who claimed there was “no such thing as homophobia”.
No such thing as homophobia, eh? Let’s see for ourselves…
Mr McKenzie, who believes the publicity surrounding the case will benefit him when Croydon North goes to polls on Thursday,… Read more »
26.11.2012
Is it now time to end the charade of self-regulation and impose independent regulation on the UK press? Yes, of course it is. Such a move is long overdue. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all in favour of press freedom. There can be no question of imposing a regulatory system which censors the output of the press before publication, which is why calls for any new regulator to ‘confront’ sexism in the press are, although well-intentioned, nevertheless for the most part both wrong-headed and unacceptable – although an exception can certainly be made for the distasteful practice of pimping out under-age girls with salacious commentaries on their physical appearance. Why independent regulation as opposed to the ostensibly beefed-up system of… Read more »
