Why are there discrepancies in the DoH abortion data?

Apropos of yesterday’s lengthy article on the anti-abortion lobby’s sham ‘inquiry’ on abortion and disability, we know have a transcript of a second oral evidence session to play with and of the witnesses called one name leapt immediately off the page, that of a Daily Mail journalist, Beezy […]

The Anti-Abortion Lobby’s Sham Parliamentary Inquiry

Britain’s small, thoroughly unrepresentative and unremittingly dishonest anti-abortion lobby has found a brand new toy to play with – the sham ‘Parliamentary inquiry’. We’ve seen one of these already, Claire Perry’s so-called ‘independent Parliamentary inquiry into online child protection’, which at least had the courtesy use the word […]

The Great Abortion Divide

It’s not at all clear who actually coined the aphorism that there are ‘lies, damned lies and statistics’ but whoever it was was wrong. Statistics are nothing more than meaningless figures until someone sits down to analyse and interpret them and it’s there that the problems arise. In, […]

Drug Innovation and a Wiki-diddling Quack

Having done my fair share of politics in the last day or two I want to come back to a story which appeared on the BBC news website last week only for it to slip quietly under the radar without gaining much in the way of attention: Fears […]

Maria Hutchings: Fake CV? [Updated]

I’ll keep this short and sweet, or perhaps not so sweet if you’re a Tory canvasser working the Eastleigh by-election. Political Scrapbook has revealed this morning that, despite presenting herself as an experienced business woman, Eastleigh Tory candidate Maria Hutchings has never been a director of a limited […]

Universal Jobmatch: Jobseeker Directions being issued.

In its most recent update on the DWP’s heavily criticised Universal Jobmatch service, the Public and Commercial Services Union revealed that, under current regulations, Jobcentre Plus cannot force job seekers to sign up to this service by issuing a Jobseeker Direction: Jobseeker Directions and Mandatory Use of UJ […]

Pistorius ‘Psychic’ is a Tea Party nutjob

On Twitter, Blue Wode has picked up on a rather bizarre story that’s currently unfolding in South Africa… Johannesburg – A woman, whose requested to address the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on the “mental state” of murder accused athlete Oscar Pistorius, has approached the Constitutional Court, the Saturday Star […]

WWE lays the Smackdown on Glenn Beck

I know that American professional wrestling, or sports entertainment as World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) prefer to call these days, is not everyone’s cup of tea but bear with me on this post,  the video that you’ll see at the end is well worth watching. There is a bit […]

Should Christians be barred from Jury Service?

The jury that sat in trial on Chris Huhne’s ex-wife, Vicky Pryce, has been widely derided in the press (and on Twitter, naturally) for putting this question to the trial judge: QUESTION 5 Can a juror come to a verdict based on a reason that was not presented […]

Satire. b. 2nd Millennium BC, d. 20 February 2013

An anonymous Twitter account called @toryeducation is regularly used to attack critical stories about both Gove and his department. It is often abreast of imminent Tory policies, suggesting it is coming from close to the centre of government. However, it is also used to rubbish journalists and Labour […]