I’m not sure which topic suggestions for the unconference I’ll be supporting or attending – I’m considering removing the idea I have near the top of the list and promoting my lower rated one. That’s the joy of the format, what happens will only become clear on the day and will be defined by those that decide to attend. As part of getting in the mood and seeing if a discussion could form around it I thought I’d return to …
IMHO, a well deserved life time award for Eamonn McCann for his long term advocacy of the families of those killed on Bloody Sunday… (not to mention a great deal else besides). Eamonn is one of the few examples we have of individuals who have been robustly determined to breach the many social silences that bedevil Irish society, north and south of the border… A grateful H/T to erstwhile reader Rory!! Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has …
The run up to the 11th November seems as good a time as any to produce the first in an occasional series of essays on photographers. I’m starting with Roger Fenton who produced the first ever published photographs from a war zone. It seems all the more relevant after hearing earlier last week that South African war photographer, João Silva lost portions of both his legs after stepping on a land mine in Afghanistan. The differences in the genre since Fenton embarked on his historic expedition …
… of breaching s106 of the Representation of the People Act 1983. Not being in the court, I’m following this via Saddleworth News’ CoverItLive session. It seems (and I stand to be corrected) that the election is now void and a by-election is in the offing. He’s been found guilty of putting out leaflets about his Lib-Dem opponent, Elwyn Watkins, saying that he pandered to Muslim extremists and had illicitly received campaign funding from a rich Arab sheikh. Woolas’ current constituency, …
Observant visitors will have noticed our new regional and topic-based navigation. We hope you like it. It’s all part of a great job that Simon Dickson and Simon Wheatley have been doing for us over recent months. It was actually ready to go a few months ago but we were waiting for our bloggers to get into the habit of using the ‘Region’ categories. Most have started doing this but some haven’t (I’m looking at you Mr Walker!). Also, in …
MI5 officers are now appearing in court almost as matter of course, if sometimes behind screens. The courts are becoming less and less impressed by the claims of secrecy. What criteria are judges applying in striking a balance between the competing needs of security and disclosure? Where will it all end? Isn’t some of statement of principles needed? Lady Justice Hallett, the judge sitting as a corner at the victims’ inquest, rejected an attempt by lawyers for MI5 to hold …
Two similarly themed items here. The first one – this post over on Comment is Free wondering whether it makes sense to lament the decline of the right-wing libertarian (or bloggertarian) blog. The second item – Left Foot Forward’s observation that Liberal Conspiracy and their own site are now beating the main right-of-centre bloggers in their Wikio rankings. Wikio measures inbound links rather than unique visitors and both Iain Dale and Guido Fawkes are still significantly ahead in that regard. …
It may not be as spectacular as the Iron Age gold torcs, or the Anglo-Saxon hoard, but the collection of Bronze Age axe heads, spear tips, and other 3000-year-old metal objects unearthed in an Essex field is equally impressive in its own way. And they haven’t, yet, revealed what’s in the pot[tery]. “This is a really exciting find,” said local archaeologist Laura McLean. “To find a hoard still located in its Bronze Age context, below the level of ploughed soil, is very …
There has been much, often ill-informed, comment on the airwaves over the last couple of days on the proposed immigration (temporary) detention centre planned by the UK Borders Agency in Larne. Much has come from local residents that foreign nationals being held in secure detention might escape, might take people’s jobs, might lower property values … who knows, they might even start barbecuing swans given half the chance. Of course, the quality of the discourse was hardly helped by the BNP …
It’s the quiet ones you have to watch, they say. When I last saw Eamonn Namcarrow, back in the mid 1980s he was a congenial, good-natured and highly sociable young lad. The next time was 26 years later, in Lavery’s Gin Palace in Bradbury Place. He’d just brought out his first book, Holywood Star about his misadventures on the way to rock and roll oblivion. In fact half of Holywood have been reading it, it seems: or at least that …
This is a cross-post by Ian Fordham – originally posted on the Political Innovation site here. I’ve been following the Political Innovation project quite closely over the last month or so and the innovation that I would like to propose represents a synthesis of many of the other ideas in this series. I work in the field of Education and in particular School Design. With a decade of significant financial investment by government (and emotional investment from teachers and parents) …
Pete noted Nick Robinson won the Comment Awards (from Editorial Intelligence no less) blogger of the year gong. I can’t help but think he’d be more of a must read/watch if he put just a little of his off the clock personality into his paid work. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6Ye06r2_n8&feature=player_embedded Blank
And the award for political blogger of the year may have to go to … MP Nadine Dorries. Today, the BBC report that she explained away the discrepancy between her online comments that suggested “she spent the majority of her weekends in the constituency” and her statement to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards that “nearly all weekends were spent in her main home” with the memorable phrase: My blog is 70% fiction and 30% fact. Following complaints by a BNP …
Mick is unable to give the coverage this deserves; discuss, add links, comments etc on the ‘Coalition’ review of finances below. Blank
Just a quick reminder: Slugger has a comments policy. Personal insults, smears and rudeness are not supposed to be tolerated here and we try to stay on top of this with the ‘delete’ key as much as we can. Normally, Mick picks up a lot of this kind of thing, applying his patience and charm (virtues that not all of us are blessed with). But Mick’s away at the moment and not able to get involved. We know that a …
This is a cross-post by William Heath – originally posted on the Political Innovation site here. If the big political innovation of the moment is to give power back to people, then a good place to do it is with personal data. Whose data is it anyway? Whose health, whose education, whose identity, whose shopping history, bank details, travel plans, creditworthiness? Yet all these personal details, which affect us, are stored on hundreds of state and private-sector databases. If I …
I was struck by George Osborne’s announcement on benefits cuts, but having moved out into the sticks whilst Slugger Central has a new back wall put to it, I missed the opportunity to blog it. Lee beat me to it, and made on of the points I would have made: The idea of capping the welfare levels is an interesting one that has a basis in the principle of fairness. However, you do wonder if it is a means of …
At the top of this post, there’s a lovely new ‘Facebook Like’ button and a ‘Tweetmeme’ link on the left. These are designed to help you flag up anything you read and like to your followers as well as giving our contributors a bit of feedback. These things only work, of course, if you’re on Facebook / Twitter. Looking at the poor quality of spelling and punctuation in the comments thread, we know that you are all crying out for …
One thing Slugger loves is a blog on football allegiances, so here you go… Today English teenager Adam Barton withdrew from the northern ireland football squad facing Italy and the Faroe Islands in the European qualifiers. Yesterday the north’s manager had declared: If players don’t want to represent Northern Ireland, it doesn’t matter how good or how bad they are, that’s up to them and good luck to them. It’s not a problem for Northern Ireland. “I focus on the …
This is a cross-post by Lauren Currie – originally posted on the Political Innovation site here. For too long, policymaking has been monopolised by civil servants, self-serving pressure groups and sensationalist journalists. We get a vote once every four or five years and we’re expected to be satisfied with that. Public services are too important to get lost in headline issues, and too big to leave to those who have the time and energy to write letters or sit on …
