According to the Sunday Telegraph, the Information Commissioner has issued a new ruling in relation to the publication of information relating to MPs’ expenses claims: The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa), which oversees expenses payments, has been told it must disclose the receipts handed in by MPs to […]

The Music Industry’s propaganda war against BitTorrent continues apace with the news that that the BPI is heading back to the courts to seek orders for ISP-level blocks against three more torrent search websites: The UK’s major internet service providers have been asked to block three more file-sharing […]

You’ll have to forgive me for veering into Political Scrapbook territory but no soon as I heard that a number of MPs have been bypassing the new rules, which prevent them claiming mortgage payments on expenses, by renting their second homes to each other, I had the uncanny […]

So the Andrew Mitchell road-show keeps rumbling along with any signs of coming to a resolution and yet the more I read of the political exchanges and media coverage the more it seems to me that those involved in keeping this issue going have lost sight of the […]

Is is bravery or masochism that’s prompted Medhi Hasan to jump straight back into the fire by regaling the world with his list of “10 Things I Learned From Debating Abortion On Twitter“? Who knows for sure, but as the article is up at HuffPo I suppose the […]

Okay, so while I was tackling Deborah Orr’s misconceived view of the abortion debate, Mehdi Hassan was stirring up a shit storm of his own at the New Statesman with an article entitled ‘Being pro-life doesn’t make me any less of a lefty‘. Maybe it does, maybe it […]

I could, I suspect, be forgiven for being more than just a little bit irritated with Deborah Orr’s comments on the seemingly never-ending abortion debate, which she kicks off with the following observations… Oh, Lord, the right to choose. There’s no more powerful and predictable way to invite […]

The current upper limit for legal elective abortions (24 weeks gestation) is back in the news, yet again, courtesy of an article by Channel 4’s Cathy Newman at the Papal Telegraph’s new ‘Wonder Woman’ blog section – and, no, having looked over the section there’s not of hint […]

Last week’s release of the results of the DfE’s new phonics test for six and seven year olds was, when it hit the media, predictably a matter of choosing whether your glass was half full or half empty. The BBC, perhaps unsurprisingly, fell quickly into line with the […]

On Monday, as has been widely reported, a 35 year old woman from North Yorkshire, Sarah Louise Catt, was sentenced to eight years imprisonment after pleading guilty to a, thankfully, extremely rare offence under s58 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861. 58. Administering drugs or using […]