Saturday 28 August 2010

Andy Burnham's Land value tax

a good idea, I quite like it. I don’t agree with removing inheritance tax though

Thursday 26 August 2010

David Miliband

Damn it Miliband, D!
what am i to do now eh?
first cruddas comes out in support of him, then i listen to DM on the guardian podcast.
i've never liked David Miliband, and he's been in 4th place. but the faults and inexperience of the other 3 have always left the door a bit ajar for him.
whilst i didn't like much of what he said, the bit at the end when they got onto the really serious stuff impressed me. he was talking about balancing torture again human rights and i think he was very good. i personally am more on the side of security than human rights provided certain conditions are met, e.g. ticking bomb or certainty. if, for example, you are certain someone is a terrorist i have no problem with them being tortured as i believe someone who sets out to indiscriminately kill innocent people is a far greater risk to freedom than upholding freedom through torture, personally.
Miliband wasn't nearly so up front as that, but he certainly didn't rule it out and made the case for that sort of progmatism in light of the necessities.
the alternative is the risk that innocent people die and terrorists have their rights to do this upheld

brilliant picture

In the name of purity, public funds are wasted on the rich | Simon Jenkins

a very Le Grand-ian, new Labour position (judging by the headline)

Wednesday 25 August 2010

hyper-exaggeration and right wing papers in silly season

my favourite front page of today. The Mail claim that NICE are under-stating the benefits of this drug, however I feel that them calling it a ‘miracle’ might be slightly OVER-stating its effectiveness.



Not surprisingly, the story about how the coalition’s emergency budget is on the left leaning papers, but not mentioned in the Tory ones

Tuesday 24 August 2010

poor looser

"Bwayla is a stupid man and a hopeless player. He has a huge nose and is cross-eyed. Girls hate him. He beat me because my jockstrap was too tight and because when he serves he farts, and that made me lose my concentration, for which I am famous throughout Zambia.""

brilliant, quote of the day

Monday 23 August 2010

Taxpayers' Alliance chief to head off electoral reform

as someone who

1) Will be unemployed this time next week

2) Has an interest in social policy

3) Has a heart

I’m dismayed that DWP policy-making will be advised by someone from TPA, who are a bunch of bastards

Saturday 21 August 2010

David Miliband's party

Judging by this, i never want to go to one of David Miliband's parties.
The thing is, the bloke seems to have the personality of a calculator. He's a brilliant policy geek, just like a (pun intended) rich-man's, clean-shaven, not-socialist Bearded Socialist.
I am a policy geek, oh yes i am. But i bet my parties are more fun than David Miliband's. Which is probably why he'll lead the Labour party and I won't.

I'm getting really narcoleptic about the leadership election actually. For a start they're too young.

David Miliband is too slimy, arrogant and dull for me as a leader. i think he's a poor man's Tony Blair.

Ed Miliband is not any where the finished article for me. i know a lot of people who's opinion i respect are going for him, but i thought he was very patchy and inconsistent on the Guardian politics podcast i listen to and that's a fair reflection i think. Sure, he's young and has time on his side, but we are election the person we think should be able to be prime minister tomorrow.

Ed Balls is brilliant but a rough bruiser. he's probably my personal favourite but i think he'd be a poor leader, he's more a behind the scenes man due to his personality and sytle. abrasive to say the least. a friend of mine described him as 'gordon brown' without the good bits and i think the puplic at large would take to Balls about as well as Gordy.

Andy Burnham is too young. he's got potential but hasn't been able to stamp his authority on the race. definately a talent, and should be in and around this batch, maybe in ten years time he will have grown into his potential.

Diane Abbott "is arguably the most left-leaning of all the candidates, but her lacklustre pitch so far has mainly consisted of repeatedly pointing out that her opponents are all Caucasian men." Sums her up perfectly