I’ve spent much of my working life dealing with, and sometimes working in, bureaucratic institutions in the Public, Private and Voluntary Sectors and, if truth be told, there is often little to choose between them. Anyone who believes that the private sector is somehow the ultimate antidote to […]

This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector. Plato If Blair’s name-checking of Thomas Hobbes in launching the ‘Respect Agenda’ wasn’t unnerving enough, today’s round of deliveries to the in-box brings me an article by Sidney […]

The ‘story’ here, a term I use very loosely, is that the Express are claiming that Registry Offices have ‘banned’ the word ‘marriage’ out of political correctness and fear of offending gay and lesbian couples undergoing civil partnership ceremonies. What has actually happened is that some Registry Offices […]

In response to Tony Blair’s speech in launching the ‘Respect Agenda’. — The important thing about debating ASB, and the measures we are proposing, is not to debate it at the crude level of ‘tough’ or ‘not tough’; populist or not. But, instead, to regard it as a […]

…on the coral reefs and in the seaweed. You took an oath to defend our flag and our freedom, and you kept that oath underseas and under fire. George W Bush Shit! Did I miss the declaration of The War Against Plankton.

Tony Blair explains precisely why he has to go… This has, bluntly reversed the burden of proof. The person who spits at the old lady is given an £80 fine. If they want to challenge it, they have to appeal. The suspected drug dealer loses the cash. He […]

The Brothers Serapion, Castro and Guevara (no, I’m not kidding) – AKA Assed Baig and Darrel Williams – have posted an update to their situation with Matthew Boulton College, noting that they have now been expelled for publishing an underground newsletter that criticised the college’s policy of banning […]

Yep, the press briefings in advance of tomorrow’s launch of Blair’s ‘Respect Agenda’ have started and already turned up this gem from the Grauniad. Regular “face the people” sessions, which will be open to the media, will see police officers, council staff and other officials forced to detail […]

No shortage of eulogies in the blogosphere following his untimely death and not much really to add aside from the obvious – admiration for his own brand of ascerbic wit – and to note that as sports minister he was something of a rarity; one who you could […]

NUS urges Matthew Boulton College to reinstate students Two students from Matthew Boulton College in Birmingham were this week suspended for criticising their college in a newsletter. Assed Baig and Darrell Williams were asked to leave the college after distributing a student-run newsletter ‘The Guerilla’ which criticised the […]