tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-201953912011-11-14T18:36:50.633ZHughes's views on life, British politics, Europe and the relentless march of time......Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.comBlogger3031100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1164303872053643152006-11-23T17:41:00.000Z2006-11-23T17:44:32.080Z

Some that were once in my list of political blogs worth reading have now sadly departed, become sporadic or, like my own, grown repetitive and predictable. I started reading the things about a year ago but soon grew weary of the gossipy / muckraking sites which serve little purpose other than to denigrate politicians, amuse a few foolish fans and polish their authors' egos. Like talk radio and

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1164291813570674112006-11-23T14:20:00.000Z2006-11-23T14:23:33.613Z

... writes Anatole Kaletsky in the Times today. Attacking Chelsea Tractor drivers and frequent flyers may bring a nice warm glow to the hearts of some in the environmental movement but it doesn’t really help to address the issue. In practice it probably has the reverse effect because such campaigners, seen more as envious and anti-business than pro-climate, make themselves more likely to be

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1164285408110185922006-11-23T12:33:00.000Z2006-11-23T12:36:48.130Z

Oh dear. "Some of the lights are still being manufactured in Slovakia" and others have only got as far as Lancashire. But "an illuminated snowman and polar bear [will be supplied] as a gesture of goodwill". So that should cheer things up a tad.If only there was a way to pin the blame on the penny-pinching Tories now in charge of the City...

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1164235167686344072006-11-22T22:34:00.000Z2006-11-22T22:39:27.720Z

The Independent newspaper’s web site seems quietly to have dropped its ‘Portfolio’ service which restricted access to most of its comment and editorial pieces. The access fee was a fairly modest fifty pounds a year but I guess it wasn’t generating enough revenue to justify the additional complexity.I get the Indy’s daily e-mail and this week the little p symbol that showed the restricted content

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1164042164854357202006-11-20T16:59:00.000Z2006-11-20T17:02:44.876Z

It’s incredibly easy to get from France to Switzerland; you hardly even have to slow down driving past the border posts. It’s even easier to get from France to Spain, Italy or any of the fourteen other countries that are part of the Schengen agreement.Yet entering Britain from France can consume lodsa time. Is there any evidence that the ‘jobsworth’ style checks at our ports and airports do any

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1164026214168323292006-11-20T12:33:00.000Z2006-11-20T12:49:12.000Z

We live in easy times at least in comparison with earlier generations and if we’re lucky enough to live in the prosperous third of the world. Yet, if you believe some reports, people have never before been so worried.There’s a good evolutionary case to explain why, as a species, we’re slightly pessimistic and cautious. Our ancestors would have had a better chance of survival with these

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1163935732072598812006-11-19T11:25:00.000Z2006-11-19T11:36:57.646Z

No question, the Internet is the best thing that's happened to the World in my lifetime. That IP is now dominant is a particular satisfaction as I was told by the strategists at 'head office' (who suffered horribly from the 'not invented here' syndrome) that it had no future when we started running it on our huge Local Area Network in the mid 1980s. Helped to reinforce my prejudice that

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1163785272262830982006-11-17T17:39:00.000Z2006-11-17T17:41:12.290Z

BBC News reports that Matthew Taylor is unimpressed with political blogging and suggests that it is adding to the "shrill discourse of demands" that dominates politics today. "We have a citizenry which can be caricatured as being increasingly unwilling to be governed but not yet capable of self-government," he said.Depressingly he's correct to say that 'political' blogs "are hostile and,

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1163756387605116012006-11-17T09:36:00.000Z2006-11-17T09:39:47.636Z

By any objective measure the European Union must rate as a success. Despite its vocal, usually elderly, opponents (especially in England) there is little doubt that it has helped to boost Europe's economy and to keep the peace amongst countries with a history of being at war with each other on a regular basis.It evolved from the EEC which started with just six countries in 1957 and had to wait

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1163670986671896062006-11-16T09:54:00.000Z2006-11-16T09:56:26.693Z

Naive green campaigners calling for Britain to restrict flights or to close power stations such as Drax are seeking simplistic solutions to a spectacularly complex problem. Returning Britain to medieval levels of energy consumption, which is what the Green Party is, perhaps unwittingly, suggesting, would have a minimal effect on global levels of greenhouse gas but would lead to misery and

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1163668719084544492006-11-16T09:17:00.000Z2006-11-16T09:18:39.170Z

Do any of my faithful readers have any experience of changing broadband ISPs that they're willing to share with me? Is it a painful process? I use an ADSL connection via a BT telephone line but I'm growing weary of my current provider mainly because of expense.Any recommendations and/or warnings about ISP performance and/or price (including support costs)?

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1163594344628058482006-11-15T12:32:00.000Z2006-11-15T12:47:50.103Z

There’s a nice little spat running between George Monbiot and Christopher Monckton which again demonstrates how the climate-change argument has acquired the characteristics of a bust up between religious fundamentalists.Yesterday the ever pompous Monbiot rubbished Monckton’s articles in the Sunday Telegraph (to which the admirable (apart from his views!) cassilis first drew my attention). Today

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1163513338673190022006-11-14T14:05:00.000Z2006-11-14T14:17:50.443Z

David Aaronovitch is on good form today. He’s taking a pop at self-important satirists such as Armando Iannucci. And they certainly deserve it!He quotes Iannucci pontificating thus: “I find myself stepping into that gap” – that gap being the one left by stupid or mendacious politicians and our allegedly craven press. Similarly Alan Bennett rails against student fees but has no clue about how else

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1163429893357844002006-11-13T14:55:00.000Z2006-11-13T15:00:29.250Z

Hooray – BBC Parliament is now full screen on freeview. No more quarter screen misery.Now, if we could persuade them to get rid of all the ‘branding’ including the DOG* and the huge red band that carries the titles and crest across the bottom of the screen, how lovely it all would be.* DOG = digital on-screen graphic. Those annoying little things that remind you which channel you’re viewing on

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1163344084606575682006-11-12T15:04:00.000Z2006-11-12T15:08:04.636Z

I’ve been shouting at the wireless again. My wife tells me I should imagine it was an overheard conversation in a restaurant and blot it out. But, if Humprys were siting at a nearby table, I wouldn’t be able to resist thumping him. Not fisticuffs you’ll realise but verbal, or more likely, visual lashing. The hard stare - lethal at five hundred paces.For more than a quarter of a century our alarm

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1163156578526557932006-11-10T11:00:00.000Z2006-11-10T11:02:58.550Z

There is much jubilation in left wing circles over the gains made by the Democrats in the US. But the Democratic Party can’t really be considered ‘leftwing’ in a sense that would be understood in Europe. Many of the newly elected Democrats would have found comfortable homes in John Major’s administration had they been English.As Gerard Baker points out today in the Times “the elections endorsed

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1163072648218828232006-11-09T11:41:00.000Z2006-11-09T11:52:52.796Z

The significance of the ‘tone’ of an administration is often overlooked. One of the nicest changes in Britain on 1st May 1997 was the move from the brash, heartless Thatcher/Major eras to the more gentle, compassionate Blair-led one. For example, it made a real difference to the way people spoke and acted; racist jokes, boasting about speeding or tax evasion, dissing the poor as worthless

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1163064319026007322006-11-09T09:22:00.000Z2006-11-09T09:25:19.056Z

The responses to a local consultation exercise demonstrate the confusion in people’s minds about recycling and climate change. I’ve long worried that, because both attract the green label, some people think that if they recycle they’ve done their bit for the climate.It’s taking place in Gloucestershire’s little greenish enclave of Stroud which is home to high numbers of ‘middle-aged-hippie’ types

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1163023672596448972006-11-08T22:05:00.000Z2006-11-08T22:15:11.916Z

The Farepak collapse, in which more than 150,000 people have lost their Christmas savings, is a surprisingly-little-reported scandal. If the allegations that were made in Parliament are true, it appears to be a case worthy of Edward Heath’s famous phrase*. The Commons debate was reported on the Times Online site but in few other places that I could find.It seems extraordinary that a savings

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1162908868955872742006-11-07T14:12:00.000Z2006-11-07T14:14:28.990Z

Censored is putting it a bit strongly; they didn’t use my letter in which I gently chided those who had a day out in London on Saturday to demonstrate about Climate Change. It wasn’t one of my best letters to an editor but it could have been a lot ruder.I haven’t a clue what the demonstrators hoped to achieve other than a worthy glow of self-satisfaction. It reminded me slightly of an

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1162835376396929172006-11-06T17:47:00.000Z2006-11-06T17:49:36.476Z

Tony Blair used the first twelve minutes of his monthly news conference today to set out the case for a secure identity system in our modern, open world. You can watch him via the BBC news web site.Like blogger ‘on the knocker’ I really don’t understand the objections to the proposed system. I also don’t understand the objections to a DNA database, speed cameras, CCTV surveillance or systems for

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1162810129610619832006-11-06T10:42:00.000Z2006-11-06T10:55:36.643Z

Tariq Ali is a few years older than I am and was already established as a revolutionary leftwing thinker by the time I went to University. He was an influential figure in those heady days of the early 1970s which I maintain were really part of the sixties; that iconic decade not having really got up steam until around 1963.Then it was more than fashionable to be young and radical. As I’ve

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1162730082243382502006-11-05T12:32:00.000Z2006-11-05T12:38:28.283Z

Even though the way he said it was crass, Peter Mandelson was right when he said that Labour should be relaxed about people becoming rich. It’s an inevitable part of an entrepreneurial liberal economy in which ability is judged more highly than breeding.Without incentives many with the flair necessary to drive businesses forward just wouldn’t bother and our economy would suffer. There can be

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1162557561599366442006-11-03T12:37:00.000Z2006-11-03T12:39:21.730Z

At first glance I thought that I agreed with Simon Jenkins’s piece in the Guardian today. This was A Bit Of A Shock because, as Hughes Views’s many fans will know, I usually find his writing to be borderline sentimental nonsense.However even today’s piece harks back to a bygone age. He writes about English spelling, its difficulties, illogicality and the pedantry it can induce. Being a

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1162548892769980242006-11-03T10:11:00.000Z2006-11-03T10:14:53.206Z

Regular readers of About Whose News will be aware that I’m pretty content with our government. Its pragmatic centrist approach seems to me to be about the best we can hope for in a liberal democracy. And liberal democracy seems to be miles better than any other system of government that has ever been implemented in our world.I’ve grown weary of the idealised theories put forward both by those on

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1162487301188441242006-11-02T17:05:00.000Z2006-11-02T17:08:21.240Z

How very exciting. Someone’s used Google to translate my blog’s January archive into French. When I’ve nothing better to do I sometimes have a look at the statistics which Statcounter kindly provides me for free. But this is the first time I’ve discovered that someone has found my blog as a result of a Google search (in English) and then used the translation facility.Above is what it made of the

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1162466105187917972006-11-02T11:12:00.000Z2006-11-02T11:15:05.216Z

Some people in the green movement really don’t seem to understand how to influence the Great British Public. When they’re not turning us off their message by haranguing us like puritanical preachers they’re producing reports which may have unintended consequences.Hard on the heels (cliché alert) of predictions that African countries will be the ones that will really suffer as the climate changes

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1162405188639007392006-11-01T18:15:00.000Z2006-11-01T18:21:52.133Z

On the basis that the centre ground of politics is the most sensible place to be, today’s newspaper leader columns suggest that MPs made the correct decision when they rejected the call for another enquiry into the Iraq War whilst our soldiers are still engaged in its aftermath.The Guardian and Telegraph leader writers are worryingly united in writing that the wrong decision was made. Working on

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1162289332960468912006-10-31T10:07:00.000Z2006-10-31T10:08:53.000Z

It’s nothing to do with ‘saving the planet’, but reducing greenhouse gas emissions is a pressing problem facing the international community. A rudimentary knowledge of geology is all that’s needed to understand that it’s our species that’s at risk, not the globe we live on.It’s a mark of human vanity that ‘saving the planet’ has become a battle cry for many in the green movement. But, were our

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1162214678999203932006-10-30T13:21:00.000Z2006-10-30T13:27:33.986Z

The Guardian fretted on Saturday’s front page about Europe’s failure to meet its "targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions" and the Indy’s leader, as usual, blamed our government. But there were more upbeat environmental thoughts in the Times first leader. Under the headline "Green is good" it pointed out that "The green rush is no longer the preserve of idealistic inventors, but of smart

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1161938665859325632006-10-27T09:41:00.000+01:002006-10-27T09:44:25.880+01:00

I’m not surprised that people are scared by the word ‘nuclear’. We’ve all seen the pictures of Hiroshima after it was bombed (although curiously poor old Nagasaki seems to get forgotten). And radiation sounds scary especially to those who didn’t pay much attention during school science lessons.But nuclear generation of electricity has an enviably good safety record. Many more people have been

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1161854859670581022006-10-26T10:20:00.000+01:002006-10-26T10:27:39.690+01:00

French local government at its lowest tier successfully gives local communities some real powers. This is not the case in Britain. There is speculation today about further changes to local government in England ahead of Ruth Kelly’s announcement of a White Paper.In contrast to France’s structured system, the British one is a shambolic muddle. A typical fudge some would say. We have some

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1161807902720827012006-10-25T21:22:00.000+01:002006-10-25T21:25:02.723+01:00

I’m disappointed. Apart from the former MP for Reading East I can’t find any mention of a Woolwich Station in the Labour leaning blogosphere (if such a thing there be). And even she’s going on about the wrong one and for reasons that are unlikely to be at all clear to anyone who hasn’t dabbled in the politics of that Berkshire town or read its local paper.Still nothing to help me find an excuse

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1161702419538171792006-10-24T16:04:00.000+01:002006-10-24T16:16:17.580+01:00

It’s easy to get signatures to ‘save’ rural Post Offices or local Hospitals but no quite so simple if you include ‘and I would be happy to pay loads more tax to achieve this worthy goal’ after the ‘we the undersigned urge HMG to ...’ bit.So too with opinion polls; ‘do you want a road to be torn through local fields disrupting wildlife and bringing more polution’ would almost certainly get a

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1161680130914474532006-10-24T09:52:00.000+01:002006-10-24T09:55:30.940+01:00

It is widely reported this morning that the former Tory leader has been questioned by police investigating the so-called ‘Cash for Honours’ investigation (I bet they’ve given it fancier name than that up the Yard).Thing is, would he be a reliable witness? I guess that being able to make himself invisible after dark might help...

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1161619670148638542006-10-23T17:02:00.000+01:002006-10-23T17:07:50.180+01:00

Remember how the Tories used to run our public services on the basis of anecdotes? Oliver James seems to come from the same school. You must know the technique; take a couple of extreme examples and use them to prove your pet theory.It’s every barroom bore's stock-in-trade. The ‘I’ve met three West Indians who would love to return to Jamaica therefore all West Indians would love to return to

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1161598935079901612006-10-23T11:19:00.000+01:002006-10-23T11:22:15.083+01:00

Now that this post has metamorphosed into one of these Guardian letters, it’s the sort of question my wife may ask. Quite reasonably of course but after being married to a know-it-all for more than a quarter of a century she might have grown used to it by now...They left out my first paragraph in which I reminded people that, in his rant about New Labour’s alleged malevolent treatment of the

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1161520651177685832006-10-22T13:34:00.000+01:002006-10-22T13:37:31.200+01:00

I feel huge sympathy for the thousands of NHS employees whose jobs are ‘under threat’. I spent the final eleven years of my employment under threat of redundancy. One reorganisation followed another and we endured two painful mergers which felt more like take-overs.I’m sure you wouldn’t want to return to the ‘good old days’ when, to get your car or home insured, you had to fill in

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1161508297850974952006-10-22T10:10:00.000+01:002006-10-22T10:21:28.476+01:00

In 1974 I collected my petrol rationing coupons from its Post Office. I’d sent a telegram to Brighton from there a few months before. And now the station is to close and I’d quite like to take a nostalgic ride to it before December.It provided an occasional evening escape route after work, through the decaying docklands and East End, to the brighter lights ‘up west’. My petrol coupons were never

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1161446303185448822006-10-21T16:58:00.000+01:002006-10-21T16:58:23.226+01:00

Martin Baxter has fed the latest opinion poll results into his Electoral Calculus machine, turned the handle and now predicts a Labour majority slightly bigger than the ones Harold Wilson got in 1964 and 1974.Even allowing for margins of error in the polls and the calculations, this is an astonishingly good result for a government not yet halfway through its third term of office. The wheels

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1161434368032830332006-10-21T13:37:00.000+01:002006-10-21T13:39:28.053+01:00

Following on from my post this morning about the resignation from the PLP of Clare Short MP (I was not the only one to blog on this topic), here’s a philosophical question. How do you test a fuse? Once it’s blown it’s useless.

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1161424745345508142006-10-21T10:55:00.000+01:002006-10-21T11:22:39.406+01:00

Clare Short has quit the PLP but not the Labour Party. Old news I know. I expect that experts in the history of the party will be able to tell us if there’s a precedent. Those who know the rule books backwards will be able to give an opinion as to whether those mighty tomes allow for such an anomaly (I’m rather of the ‘Rules are for blind obedience by fools and the guidance of wise men’ school of

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1161333856860892502006-10-20T09:40:00.000+01:002006-10-20T09:44:16.896+01:00

I was taken aback to learn that Simon Jenkins is Skipper’s favourite columnist. I concede that Jenkins writes well although his florid style is not to my taste.But he clearly views Merrie Olde England through heavy-duty rose coloured glasses. He hankers after a Britain where everyone (especially the riffraff) knew their place and few made any attempt to rock the proverbial boat.In his diatribe

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1161294035700170802006-10-19T22:35:00.000+01:002006-10-19T22:49:37.500+01:00

It really is very funny. Droll characters combined with an edgy slapstick and farce in which you know what’s going to happen but still you can’t quite help laughing. Anyway it’s apparently moving onto the almost mainstream BBC2 to replace something in that channel’s really rather good Thursday night comedy line-up. Obviously I’m not including the unbelievably feeble and self-indulgent Mock the

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1161276212758848472006-10-19T17:41:00.000+01:002006-10-19T17:43:32.786+01:00

And later in the same comment piece it says "it could be that Mr Cameron is wise to avoid committing to tax cuts". What’s gone wrong with the world?I had to check that I was really reading their web site when I read the first two paragraphs: "Even Gordon Brown's sternest critics must admit that, by and large, he has done a first-rate job as Chancellor. Under his watch, there have been no sudden

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1161262691126677402006-10-19T13:54:00.000+01:002006-10-19T13:58:11.166+01:00

There’s a healthy little debate in the comments section of my earlier post about tax. It’s a very emotive issue. Many people are unable to see the benefits they get from paying tax because so many of the services it provides are now taken completely for granted.Things like food not being poisonous, the bins being emptied, water being drinkable, the streets being largely free of outlaws,

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1161242706616399702006-10-19T08:23:00.000+01:002006-10-19T08:27:18.106+01:00

Another shock report from the US suggests that 175 million of its citizens are not spending large amounts of time using the Internet. Kinda makes you wonder what those folk can be doing doesn’t it? They can’t all be watching repeats of Friends can they?Perhaps one of my tiny band of readers from the US could shed some light?I wish this blog had some regular visitors from Canada, Central or South

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1161241240164461612006-10-19T07:57:00.000+01:002006-10-19T08:00:40.183+01:00

What a sad lot the Tories are! After the fiasco of their early release of their dramatic new tax plan which looks extraordinarily similar to their old one, they’re now rushing about assuring interviewers that they’ll only cut tax when the nation can afford it.So that’s ok isn’t it?Except that one of the headline grabbing taxes they’d cut is one paid by only about the richest tenth of the

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1161169251471673142006-10-18T11:57:00.000+01:002006-10-18T12:00:51.490+01:00

It had to happen one day. After nine and a bit years of letters to national, regional and local newspapers reminding their readers what a wonderful job the Labour government is doing and how much better it is than the only possible alternative, there’s one in the Guardian today which contains the stingingly critical sentence "It's depressing that a Labour government has encouraged this

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1161102927921335312006-10-17T17:33:00.000+01:002006-10-17T17:35:27.953+01:00

The Firework Act has been around for a couple of years. This year it seems to have had the desired effect at least around here. A few years back pretty well every evening in October was accompanied by the sound of fireworks going off late into the night.This is the sort of legislation that causes libertarians to throw up their hands. Curbs on individual freedom, nanny state gone mad etc. And it’s

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1161077314787314992006-10-17T10:24:00.000+01:002006-10-17T10:28:34.816+01:00

That’s, more or less, what David Blunkett said in the extract from his memoirs that he read on Radio Four this morning. How true; how many towering political figures from the past would survive today’s media onslaught? How long would it have taken, for example, for the Daily Sludge to have uncovered some of Winston Churchill’s character flaws and served them up for our salacious delight?I’m not

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1161068615525157852006-10-17T08:00:00.000+01:002006-10-17T08:03:35.546+01:00

Tories love to huff and puff about how professionals should be left to manage their affairs without meddlesome bureaucrats poking their noses in. This school of thought, shared by those sad folk who really believe that the old days were the best, suggests that doctors, teachers, lawyers etc. will all act perfectly and always in the nation’s best interest if allowed the freedom just to get on with

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1161025408906597382006-10-16T20:01:00.000+01:002006-10-17T10:31:51.463+01:00

Today he said some harsh but true things about the National Union of Teachers. His memoirs are this week’s Book of the Week on BBC Radio Four and, for one week only, you can listen to the episodes from their web site. If you click on ‘Monday’ you’ll get today's (but if you click on ‘Tuesday’ today you’ll get episode two of Michael Palin's surprisingly dull Diaries)...(Don't know how this post

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1161013128245397902006-10-16T16:35:00.000+01:002006-10-16T16:38:48.270+01:00

Here are a couple of ‘letters to the editor’ about one of my current hobbyhorses. The first was in Saturday’s Guardian Review (did you spot it?):In his review of Simon Jenkins's new book ("The sofa ascendancy", October 7), Douglas Hurd endorses the case it makes for "the transfer of power to a revived local government". Perhaps he's forgotten that Thatcher, the book's subject, took power away

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1160989013346321192006-10-16T09:55:00.000+01:002006-10-16T09:56:53.386+01:00

All my attempts to read Tom Watson’s blog posts, the first two lines of which sit tantalisingly on Bloggers for Labour, end up with the dreaded ‘The page cannot be displayed’ page. I’ve tried several times from two PCs running different versions of Windows but with no luck from either. Is it Explorer, the orange network or is his site just far too popular?Answers on a postcard, or even in the

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1160983083809953022006-10-16T08:16:00.000+01:002006-10-16T08:18:03.830+01:00

It must be a nightmare for them; no big story to lead their TV or radio news bulletins, nothing to splash across their front pages. A good sign of a quiet news day is when I can’t remember by eight o’clock what was in BBC Radio Four’s seven o’clock news. A quick perusal of Britain’s four quality newspapers shows them all to be leading with different stories today and the BBC News web site has yet

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1160935376631215062006-10-15T19:01:00.000+01:002006-10-15T20:35:00.406+01:00

With our Indian Summer drifting into mid October it would be hard to argue that the climate in Britain hasn’t changed in the last fifty years. How much of this is due to mankind’s activities is a subject of some discussion, some science and lots of emotion. As a part time very amateur geologist I’m aware that the climate has changed many times before and that the planet will survive even if our

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1160918793754346732006-10-15T14:21:00.000+01:002006-10-15T14:40:53.550+01:00

Schadenfreude is an awful indulgence but so terribly hard to resist. Imagine the many woes of everyone’s blogging chum Iain Dale: His favourite football team hasn’t scored for ages and is languishing third from bottom in the Premiership. Dubbing him “the mastermind behind the David Davis leadership campaign” (eek), Recess Monkey alleges that CCHQ is pulling his strings (yuk). His favourite

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1160909837316010012006-10-15T11:54:00.000+01:002006-10-15T11:57:17.350+01:00

More than a million UK pensioners enjoy incomes higher than the national average earnings of people who still have to work for a living. At the other end of the scale more than two million UK pensioners are now substantially better off thanks to the Pension Credit scheme which was introduced in this Labour government’s first term.Well off pensioners receive the State pension plus pensions from

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1160846836173021382006-10-14T18:23:00.000+01:002006-10-14T18:39:29.893+01:00

Four years ago the Tory benches were baying at Tony Blair to stop pussyfooting about and to get behind George Bush’s Iraq invasion plans. A higher percentage of Tory MPs than Labour ones voted for our troops to join the war.How times change. According to the Telegraph “Liam Fox, the shadow defence spokesman, applauded Sir Richard's intervention and said troops "could not remain for an infinite

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1160819624061201042006-10-14T10:50:00.000+01:002006-10-14T10:53:44.083+01:00

It’s a curious anomaly; John Lewis is a chain of shops that caters mainly for the British middle classes and yet it’s run as a workers’ co-operative. Actually they’re not called workers but partners. The first clue I got about the firm’s unexpected status was the door marked "partners’ entrance" on their store in London's Oxford Street. I thought it odd to have a door just for the board members

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1160778402608553352006-10-13T23:23:00.000+01:002006-10-13T23:26:42.626+01:00

Should you ever find yourself holding a ticket for Any Questions, if there’s a poor boy on the street then let him have your seat ‘cos the only good thing about it is that it’s in the warm and dry.I was in the audience tonight; dull doesn’t begin to describe it. Being squeezed into a (public, natch) school’s hall with a bunch of people who consider that even thinking of supporting Labour

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1160730765877017382006-10-13T10:11:00.000+01:002006-10-13T10:12:45.896+01:00

‘Save 49 ponds a year’ says the big poster currently occupying the advertising hoarding at the bottom of our hill. It’s a British Gas advertisement urging us to turn our thermostats down by a degree.We’re lucky; we live in an affluent suburb of an affluent town. An extra fifty quid a year wouldn’t make the slightest difference to any of our neighbour’s lifestyle. The message they’re possibly more

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1160670427341249872006-10-12T17:25:00.000+01:002006-10-12T17:27:07.366+01:00

Pop your postcode into this site to see how it’s doing near you. The good news for us is that our hospital trust is rated as good both for quality of services and for use of resources; the bad news is that our ambulance trust is rated as weak for both.The Great Western Ambulance Trust only came into being in April so I’m not sure there’s really been time to assess its performance. It was formed

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1160643920913631302006-10-12T10:02:00.000+01:002006-10-12T10:05:20.936+01:00

Further to my earlier post about the Liberal Democrats forcing through support for the rescue and expansion plan for our airport, an amusing thought occurred to me. Perhaps, in the pompous statement from their web site which I quoted viz. "All our policies have a green thread running through them" they were using ‘green’ to mean “naive and lacking in experience, especially because of being new

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1160602815834945162006-10-11T22:36:00.000+01:002006-10-11T22:40:15.943+01:00

I know it’s not what middle aged men are supposed to do but Chris and I, in our bantering breaks from work, often agree how much better life is now than when we were Very Young (in the 1950s and early 60s if you must know). Perhaps it’s the Cheltenham air because, following his trip down here to be part of our Literature Festival, former Tory advisor Daniel Finkelstein has penned this cheery

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1160586089457328092006-10-11T17:57:00.000+01:002006-10-11T18:01:29.526+01:00

In a surprising reversal of their Party’s policy in such matters, the LibDems have forced through a vote in favour of a rescue plan for Gloucestershire’s pathetic little airport. Although they no longer control Cheltenham Borough Council, the LibDems won enough of the independents’ votes to push the measure through against Tory wishes. I don’t know how our one Labour councillor voted.I can’t

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1160551545474549192006-10-11T08:24:00.000+01:002006-10-11T08:25:45.496+01:00

Strange isn’t it? Along with many other senior politicians, the French Prime Minister has never stood for election at any level of government. Instead the President appointed him.He hasn’t as much power as a Prime Minister in Britain does but he’s still Pretty Important. The French go in for elites. Apparently if you enter the Civil Service after attending one of the few Grandes Ecoles you go

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1160472940554034642006-10-10T10:33:00.000+01:002006-10-10T10:35:40.576+01:00

Astonishingly, given I’ve blogged about it before, there are still some people who don’t appreciate how difficult it can be for a government to do what it wants in an advanced liberal capitalist mixed economy democracy such as ours.‘The government should do something’ is a frequent cry from, for examples, single-issue groups, naïve political dabblers or the sad powerless folk who lurk behind

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1160465266410383922006-10-10T08:23:00.000+01:002006-10-10T08:27:46.426+01:00

One of the minor joys of living out in the wilds of Gloucestershire is the relative lack of traffic. Relative, for example, to London where I lived for most of the first thirty years of my life and where a bit of my heart remains. Most mornings I listen to the seven-thirty news headlines on our local BBC radio station. Just before the bulletin, after a bit of banter with the presenter, a cheery

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1160391949549660402006-10-09T12:02:00.000+01:002006-10-09T12:05:49.580+01:00

Tomorrow night BBC Four television is showing again ‘My Dad Was a Communist’. Essential viewing for anyone tempted by, or interested in, hard left politics. Listen carefully to what Alexei Sayle (if my memory’s working) says towards, or possibly right at, the end of the programme.This programme is due to be followed by ‘Mark Lawson Talks to Alexei Sayle’ which might also be worth watching, so I

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1160384000492005792006-10-09T09:50:00.000+01:002006-10-09T09:53:20.510+01:00

It’s not that he’s especially pro-American but he is strongly anti-anti-Americanism. He thinks it is a huge danger in western European liberal thinking. Invented by France and Germany, anti-Americanism has now spread throughout Europe.He’s not suggesting that we all have to start loving Bush; it's more that we shouldn’t through out the proverbial baby with the proverbial bathwater. He reminds

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1160323271470386712006-10-08T16:57:00.000+01:002006-10-08T17:01:11.490+01:00

Having boycotted the Sun with the best and nodded happily whilst media “experts” said that his Sky Television was doomed (How could it possibly succeed? Britain had the best TV in the world. It must have been true; we’d heard it on the BBC.), it’s curious that I’ve come to have a sort of half-hearted admiration for the Australian-American media tycoon. He certainly seems to have an eye for

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1160298542453848852006-10-08T10:05:00.000+01:002006-10-08T10:20:58.956+01:00

The action following the move of Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers from Fleet Street to Wapping was second only to the Miners’ strike in bitterness and confrontation during the Thatcher decade. Naturally, being a good liberal leftie, in both disputes I was on the side of the workers. But with hindsight it’s easy to see that neither side was really wholly on the side of the angels.By chance I listened

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1160212812724074552006-10-07T10:15:00.000+01:002006-10-07T10:20:12.743+01:00

A few people appear to be wishing for a hung parliament after the next general election. Clare Short has even declared that she will campaign for one. Not quite sure how such a campaign might be run because it seems to require a good deal of sophisticated co-operation between voters. But one or two people seem to think a hung parliament would lead to a reform of our voting system and thus usher

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1160162224898062912006-10-06T20:15:00.000+01:002006-10-06T20:17:04.926+01:00

Some of us are sceptical about DC’s centrist credentials but not, it seems, Michael Meacher MP. He writes: “What's the difference between Cameron and New Labour? Where's the choice?”.But fret not; it seems he has a cunning plan to give us more choice. In summary it is, I think, to run for the Labour leadership so that he can transform it into a party that few outside its heartlands would

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1160159446874334232006-10-06T19:27:00.000+01:002006-10-06T19:32:45.510+01:00

On Sunday Natural England took over all the functions of English Nature together with some of those of the Countryside Agency and the Rural Development Service. As a result, the brass plates on either side of the doorway of the rather fine John Dower House in Cheltenham, past which I'm wont to walk on the way to mon petit travail, were covered up on Friday and have now been removed and replaced.

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1160133594769875772006-10-06T12:17:00.000+01:002006-10-06T12:19:54.790+01:00

We haven’t had many visits from cabinet ministers since May 1997. Before that the odd Tory one (some very odd) would turn up in the hope of drumming up enough votes to get the seat back from the Lib Dems.But we do get quite a lot of politicians and ex-politician at the Times Literature Festival which starts again today. All of them have one major objective viz. sell some books. I’ve got a bit

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1160129054696485602006-10-06T11:02:00.000+01:002006-10-06T11:04:14.716+01:00

If you want a smile it’s worth reading his jolly blog post about pantomimes and party conferences ...

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1160126053226564272006-10-06T10:11:00.000+01:002006-10-06T10:14:13.250+01:00

Ignoring a Labour parliamentary majority which previous leaders could only dream of, John McDonnell declares that "the most significant feature of the recent period has been the electorate's increasingly angry disillusionment with New Labour".Hmm, never let inconvenient facts get in the way of a nice rant eh? I wonder if he can remember the majority that Attlee managed for his (very short)

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1159986413187784852006-10-04T19:24:00.000+01:002006-10-04T19:26:53.206+01:00

After thirty years of telling the sick, poor or despairing to pull themselves together, the Tory leadership seems to have rediscovered social responsibility. It’s a pity that most of the parliamentary party and practically all of the membership are stuck in the ‘I’m alright Jack, sod everyone else’ mode but Rome wasn’t built in a day.Writing in the Times, Alice Mills at first seems quite upbeat:

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1159874030628758852006-10-03T12:11:00.000+01:002006-10-03T12:13:50.653+01:00

Today’s Times second leader says that two leading Tories “indicated that they favoured decentralisation”. Under the headline “The state they're in” it reports that “During the public services debate yesterday David Willetts, the Shadow Education Secretary, and Andrew Lansley, the Shadow Health Secretary, both criticised the target culture that is associated with the Treasury under the current

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1159809195872579242006-10-02T18:09:00.000+01:002006-10-02T18:13:54.130+01:00

There are no scientists or technologists in the US government. If it wasn’t for the Lords they’re be none in the UK’s. That’s why the level of debate about climate change and other environmental and technological issues is so badly informed.For ‘none’ perhaps we need to read ‘hardly any’ but I think I caught the gist of one of James Martin’s points that he made on Start the Week which made a

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1159780875747781052006-10-02T10:20:00.000+01:002006-10-02T10:21:15.766+01:00

Apart from one proto-William Hague-like Tory boy, only elderly party members seem to have been interviewed by the BBC after David Cameron’s speech to the Bournemouth conference.The only TV coverage I’ve seen so far was on the BBC One news yesterday. Nearly all the members who had their ten seconds of fame by giving their opinion of their leader’s speech were even older than I am.Is the average

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1159779056581212702006-10-02T09:49:00.000+01:002006-10-02T09:50:56.606+01:00

Britain is a low tax economy but lots of people don’t believe it. Tax has always been a Great British Obsession. Since losing the 1992 election, after the Tories successfully played the ‘beware of increased tax’ card, Labour has been keen not to frighten off voters with Dennis Healey like promises to ‘tax the rich until the pips squeak’ (1974 Labour Party Conference).But perhaps the tables have

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1159774344748611552006-10-02T08:28:00.000+01:002006-10-02T08:32:24.763+01:00

The Great British Cheese Festival had to be called off yesterday because the weather was so bad. Hail, thunder, lightening and 25mm of rain in an hour proved too much for the tents in Montpellier Gardens, Cheltenham (and for my internet connection). How sad especially as the festival was advertised as "1 sensational day out - whatever the weather".Let’s hope that we have better weather next

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1159729522083366622006-10-01T19:59:00.000+01:002006-10-01T20:05:22.110+01:00

Mark Twain muses about "the unsubstantial, un-lasting character of fame". He wondered what might be "left of General Grant’s great name...". A good question, I had to Google to discover that the said General was US President when the humorist was writing and therefore well known to his readership.Twain was writing in ‘The Innocents Abroad’about a trip he’d made to Pompeii, an excellent place in

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1159620345857700142006-09-30T13:41:00.000+01:002006-09-30T13:45:45.883+01:00

"Blow for Cameron as poll lead is slashed" screams the main headline on the Torygraph’s front page today. It’s above this story about "a YouGov poll for The Daily Telegraph showing support for the Conservatives slipping because voters are unsure what he stands for".Tee hee. That should put the delegates packing their bags for Bournemouth into a grumpy mood. I’m sure it won’t be improved by the

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1159608400394020882006-09-30T10:22:00.000+01:002006-09-30T10:26:40.416+01:00

Having just received my VISA bill I’ve compared its Euro exchange rate with the one we got when converting some cash before we left for France (I have nothing better to do whilst waiting for a free bathroom).The ‘commission free’ cash deal in England got us 1.4111 Euros per pound. The worst rate on the VISA card was 1.4376 and the best 1.4457. Even a 70c road toll didn’t incur a penalty rate or

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1159534759240276042006-09-29T13:56:00.000+01:002006-09-29T13:59:19.273+01:00

Political commentators have been filling their columns with the relationship between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown since before the dawn of time it seems. It must have been a comfort to have it to fall back on with deadlines looming and not much happening in the Westminster Village.Now that that particularly rich seam seems pretty much mined out (they hit pretty impure ore donkeys’ ages ago imho),

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1159514322605716952006-09-29T08:17:00.000+01:002006-09-29T08:18:42.626+01:00

... might have been good advice to delegates at the end of this week’s conference. Especially for young MPs. It’s not that we’re bound to lose, it just seems more likely after Mr Blair’s speech reminded us all what an inspirational leader he is capable of being. The others are all in a different class.It’s a risky business being an MP. One day you can be earning £60,000+ and about to climb the

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1159463109956813992006-09-28T18:02:00.000+01:002006-09-28T18:05:10.256+01:00

I was a contemporary of Jon Snow’s at Liverpool University at the turn of the 60s & 70s decades. I didn’t know him except by reputation. But I supported his opposition to apartheid in South Africa and shared some of his concerns about the university’s links with that country.The Stop the Tour movement didn’t succeed in ending the rugby matches or the Davis Cup tennis but it did get the cricket

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1159281608592364542006-09-26T15:39:00.000+01:002006-09-26T15:42:44.060+01:00

He’s right you know. Change is the only constant. Expectations rise. Britain and the Labour Party need to be outward looking. The world keeps changing fast. There is no comfort zone. Tolerance and respect are better than fanaticism and extremism. It’s tough being a leader.If you missed the speech you can watch it or read it on the BBC news site and elsewhere. No doubt the smart set will be

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1159270140532718012006-09-26T12:27:00.000+01:002006-09-26T12:29:00.586+01:00

I’m sorry that I missed Alastair Campbell giving “John Snow a right old ear bashing on Channel 4 news” last night (as reported by Elephunt on his splendid Impossible Promises site). Alastair is a fine man and a tribally loyal member of the Labour party. He also knows a thing or eight about the British media.It is still trading on a reputation built up by some fine and brave investigative

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1159255083650950312006-09-26T08:15:00.000+01:002006-09-26T08:20:13.493+01:00

History will judge the past decade a golden age but Labour may lose the next election. My confidence drained away yesterday lunchtime whilst watching Gordon Brown’s conference speech. The Times leader writer is more upbeat: "If Mr Brown was trying to place a vast plaster over Labour’s (self-inflicted) wounds, he largely succeeded ... the extraordinary Blair-Brown family ... has proved brilliant,

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1159170152483742102006-09-25T08:39:00.000+01:002006-09-25T08:42:32.500+01:00

Seeking relief from the British press, I’m a little dismayed to find that the French ones also seem obsessed with the personalities rather than the policies. According to Le Parisien "le Premier ministre a refusé de réaffirmer clairement son soutien à son successeur présumé Gordon Brown". Similarly Libération declares that "Tony Blair qui, dans le passé, a estimé que son ex-ami de vingt ans

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1159116928574909312006-09-24T17:49:00.000+01:002006-09-24T17:55:28.593+01:00

Based on recent opinion polls, the fun-packed Electoral Calculus site suggests that Cheltenham and Stroud would both be Tory gains. Losing Cheltenham would be a huge blow to local LibDems especially since they lost control of the Borough council in May in spite of gaining one of the two Labour seats. They have held the Parliamentary seat since 1992 when Nigel Jones defeated John Taylor and a

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1159108897075384062006-09-24T15:39:00.000+01:002006-09-24T15:43:24.736+01:00

Electoral calculus has analysed the latest opinion polls and moved Gloucester back to a ‘Labour Hold’ from the ‘Conservative gain’ that it had it as last month. Overall it predicts that "Labour will be 21 seats short of a majority with 305 seats" which is 25 seats more seats for Labour than the previous analysis predicted on 3 September.Not bad for a government only sixteen months into its third

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1159088536597286822006-09-24T09:58:00.000+01:002006-09-24T10:02:16.620+01:00

.... reads the headline in today’s New York Times. The story is based on a classified National Intelligence Estimate report that "represents a consensus view of the 16 disparate spy services inside [the US] government".Its assessment "has found that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20195391.post-1158925153508007752006-09-22T12:36:00.000+01:002006-09-22T12:44:11.020+01:00

Praguetory has left a comment on my Monday post about Clare Short. Hooray, I love comments (even from Tories)! They’re one of the things that make blogging worthwhile.It reads: “that leaving speech was a powerful indictment of spin and incompetence”. I agree with him that Clare is very adept at spinning the facts to suit her point of view. And Hilary Benn, by being so much better, has certainly

Hughes Viewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01192390547169979749noreply@blogger.com2