Another debate about covering faces? Have we not already been through this before? Conservative MP Philip Hollobone in 2010, and before him in 2006, Labour stalwart Jack Straw both made a point of preferring not to have to endure the apparent horror of speaking to a Muslim woman whose face they can not see. The […]
Archive | Politics
What’s the problem with public sector IT projects?
In times of austerity, as government budgets effect public services, it’s only right to expect that the public money that is being spent is being spent efficiently. But is this happening? Our police force, health service and benefits system have all recently been shown to be failing to manage IT projects properly. Following a review […]
Bernie, the Bahrain Boycott, and Big Business
They say its hard to get a man to understand a thing when his salary depends upon him not understanding it, and there is no better example of this than Bernie Ecclestone’s apparently innocent insistence that life is so good in Bahrain, that there is no problem in hosting Grands Prix there for the foreseeable […]
Tell us what you really think, Rob
Yes. This is a blog about same-sex marriage and Rob Wilson, but before we get to the meat and two veg, some disclosure from me is probably apt. Being Muslim, I’m acutely aware of the common-or-garden opinion of people of a religious bent, and probably Muslims in particular. The prevailing view – and it might […]
The disappointing things about Gaza
It’s not the fact that the tiny sliver of land that is Gaza – a place utterly incapable of sustaining or controlling it’s own economy and supporting civilian infrastructure – is under attack that’s disappointing. It is the depressing inevitability of it all as Israel approaches a set of elections in January 2013 at the […]
On The Political Class
I read an Suzanne Moore article which trickled down my Twitter feed, it was the title that intrigued: I have not been poor for a long time. When you have been, you never forget The author seemed to be getting carried away with herself, making sweeping generalisations such as: “…a pointless debate ensues about “poverty” among a […]
World War e
News of a cut of 20,000 in UK troops seems to have settled in with begrudging acceptance though there has been plenty of comment about it. Personally I think it’s a good move, I’d rather the money saved was spent on keeping the remaining army equipped with the right tools for the job, and more often […]
Liberal Democrats – Contrarian Thought Leaders?
Well. It seems that there are more twists in the tale of the financial crisis than in a Quentin Tarantino movie. Euro-woes and the RBS IT meltdown have been knocked off the front pages by the latest gut-wrenching plot twist. Barclays Bank involvement in fixing the LIBOR rate, with the likelihood that other banks were also involved. […]
Veolia Water Sponsors ‘Naturally Dry’ Garden at Chelsea
Today is the member’s first day at the 2012 Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Chelsea Flower Show. And what a beautiful day it is to attend a flower show too. The weather is sunny, however the RHS Chelsea Flower Show is host to a dark irony. Veolia Water sponsors the ‘Naturally Dry’ Garden at Chelsea, a garden inspired by […]
The Greek Tragedy
Casting an eye over events in Greece I’m grateful that the UK has avoided a similar fate. I don’t want to imply that UK and Greek circumstances are equivalent to each other, that the UK is or was ever close to defaulting on our sovereign debt, however, there are some parallels – and some differences […]