Britain

David Cameron launches his social justice programme this morning. This piece on the Today programme (sound file), has some interesting inputs. Not least from Louis Feldstein: “the informal connections we have between us actually have a dollar value to them. You get along better in life depending on the people who know and how much you trust them and they trust you. Smart social enterprise finds ways to capitalise on those kinds of connections”. A lesson that seems borne out …

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Well, I guess he’d treat the speculation with his own pinch of salt. But here’s 20 things you may not have known about Mark Oaten’s Ulster born campaign manager Lembit Opik. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty

Emma Tucker has been attending the local November the Fifth celebrations in Lewes since she was three. Awkward, politically incorrect, difficult to explain, she still sees the whole celebration of local anti establishment sentiment: On the night itself the societies march through the steep streets of Lewes carrying paraffin-soaked torches and crosses and parading effigies of Guy Fawkes, the Pope of 1605, and other “enemies of the bonfire”. The marchers wear fabulous costumes – Vikings, Zulus (faces blacked up), Elizabethans …

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There’s an extract from The Times columnist AA Gill’s new book The Angry Island that’s worth a read. Entitled ‘I hate England’, it’s rather more nuanced and knowing than the title would suggest. “The English aren’t people who strive for greatness, they’re driven to it by a flaming irritation. It was anger that built the Industrial Age, which forged expeditions of discovery. It was the need for self-control that found an outlet in cataloguing, litigating and ordering the natural world”. …

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If Martin Kettle (one of the more sober Guardian columnists) is to be believed, it looks like the Tories may finally have worked out exactly what Tony Blair did to them in 1997. Though he makes an important distinction between the forces of conservatism massing on the banks of the Rubicon and actually crossing them, it does look like the UK might be on the verge of having its first serious opposition in eight, if they make the right choice.Kettle …

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Not the usual gripe about Northern Ireland’s employment being sixty per cent reliant on public sector funding. Samizdata picks up a BBC report that says the dymnamic is at work in Britain. A clear opportunity for forward thinking Tories to take on future PM Brown? Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK …

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There’s no doubt that this week’s conference in Blackpool is the most important of the big three in Britain. As Phillip Stevens points out in the FT (subs needed): “British democracy has suffered grievously these past few years from the lack of an effective opposition. Try as it may, the BBC’s Today programme is insufficient substitute. So we must hope the Tories are serious”.However he concludes that the big question facing them is fundamentally whether the Tory party can actually …

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Written for the eve of the Conservative Party conference in Blackpool, Simon Kuper has written an outstanding analysis of the challenges facing them. Worth reading by anyone involved in politics. Especially if you’re a member of any of Northern Ireland’s former ‘big fish’ parties!Worrying signs of disconnection: Before the last election on May 5, candidate Nicholas Boles had thought he would at least win Hove for the Tories. He didn’t. Boles later realised that his sums had been wrong. One …

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Interesting figures from the IPPR think tank on the birth places of immigrants to Britain (ie, UK minus NI). The detail is here, complete with maps. The Top Five countries are as follows: Rep Ireland: 494,850 India: 466,416 Pakistan: 320,767 Germany: 262,276 Caribbean: 254,740 Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and …

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In today’s Independent there is what some of us might regard as a fitting, if belated, tribute to Malthus’ theory of population control. In the 1830’s the population of the larger island to the East, taken as a whole, was 10 millions. That of its smaller neighbour was 8. It’s interesting to speculate what the combined population of both parts of the island of Ireland would have been if there hadn’t been immigration due to the famine ?Population of England …

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Given recent events in London and the general mood re the ‘war on terror’, it’s probably unlikely that the origianl plans to do something in the Palce of Westminster. However York seems to be more than happy to celebrate one of its most famous sons….York celebrates its famous son (the one who tried to blow up Parliament) Ian Herbert North of England Correspondent Published: 15 August 2005 The delicate issue of how to commemorate the 400th anniversary of a terror plot …

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London-based Irish World reports on an historic murder case where for the first time ever someone will stand trial in Britain for a murder that took place in Ireland.Murder trial makes history by Angela Sammon, 12 August 2005 edition              Legal history is being made in London this week as a British man stands trial for the murder of his Irish secretary in Dublin in 2003. It is the first time that a person will be tried in a British …

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According to Brian Feeney, it was the grim year of 1972 that changed the trajectory of Ted Heath’s Northern Ireland policy from backing Unionists to seeking a long term accomodation with the Catholic minority. In the end he seems to have suffered the worst of both worlds. In Feeney’s view, he ended up being resented by both sides. When Heath did become involved, however, there was no doubt where he laid the blame for the events of the previous two …

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As they say ‘it’s all go over here’. I presume we will be hearing more from Ms. Hoey.Man shot dead by police on Tube A man has been shot dead by armed officers at Stockwell Tube station, as police hunt four would-be bombers. Passenger Mark Whitby told BBC News he had seen a man of Asian appearance shot five times by “plain-clothes police officers” with a handgun. “I saw the gun being fired five times into the guy – he …

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With a second round of bomb attacks on London: none asgoing off, there is considerable heat being generated over the vexed question over the primary cause. Dodgblogium links to Matthew d’Ancona’s attack on Ken Livingston’s remarks on Radio Four yesterday. …he deployed the whiskery argument that western imperialism is at the root of all evil. If we had only left the Arab nations alone after the First World War, the mayor said, “and just bought their oil, rather than feeling …

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Not sure how many of you were up bright and early this morning and heard Ken Livingstone’s interview on R4’s Today programme where he spoke very candidly about his views re the bomb attacks on 7th July.The mayor stresses he does not condone suicide bombings Decades of British and American intervention in the oil-rich Middle East motivated the London bombers, Ken Livingstone has suggested. The London mayor told BBC News he had no sympathy with the bombers and he opposed …

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A bit late, but it would be wrong to let the passing of Ted Heath on Sunday go without marking it. Reputedly a lonely man at the end of his life, he retained little interest in politics after leaving the Commons after 51 years as an MP. His refusal to move up to the Lords alone marked him out as a unusual figure on the Tory benches. In NI he pleased few having, in the space of less than a …

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In today’s Guardian ex nun and Islamic specialist, Karen Armstrong, argues that using blanket terms such as ‘Muslim terrorists’ is not only inacccurate but counterproductive and urges a more informed opinion/analysis of islamic religion which is not a monolithic entity as we would like to believe.The label of Catholic terror was never used about the IRA Fundamentalism is often a form of nationalism in religious disguise Karen Armstrong Monday July 11, 2005 The Guardian Last year I attended a conference …

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Nosemonkey, along with a few other Brit Bloggers did a great job keeping readers up to date on Thurday and after. Now, after an approach by a US reader who wanted to do something directly for the people involved in the clear up and rescue operations, he’s offered to buy several pints for some of the police who were on duty that day on behalf of his remote readers. He also has details of the official appeal funds. Mick FealtyMick …

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We are hearing that one of the main lines of inquiries on the London bombers is that the bombers may have been a team from Algeria, who entered Britain through France. It is further rumoured that the French police have a presence in Britain to help track the surviving bombers down – they’re thought to be part of a cell that the French busted a couple of weeks ago. NB This remains a rumour at present, but we recommend you …

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