Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Six of the Best 80

A Timely Reform looks at the questions BBC2's Newsnight failed to ask - in case the answers spoiled the piece knocking the Lib Dems that they presented last night.

Sir Alan Beith is interviewed by Total Politics: "There are a lot of Labour's laws that I would like to repeal. They became rather like a nanny state. Very authoritarian party and created supposed anti-terrorism legislation which was only used in situations which had nothing to do with terrorism."

Millennium Elephant offers nine good things about saying yes to AV.

"Last night I had the 'pleasure' of being detained against my will not by the police but by Rail Enforcement Officers who operate on the South Eastern rail services. What did I do wrong? I took a picture of these Rail Enforcement Officers and when they asked me to see and then remove the pictures from my phone I refused." The experience of You've Been Cromwelled shows that photographers are still being harrassed and that our public spaces are now peopled by all sorts of people in uniform whose claim on the authority they exert is questionable.

As someone has kindly nominated my post about Gaddesby church, I had better direct you to this week's Britblog Roundup and Mr Eugenides.

Fred Inglis, writing for Times Higher Education, celebrates "the massive continuity of organisations such as the Brownies, the Women's Institute, the parent-teacher associations (it is the women who save us), the trainspotters, the vintage car enthusiasts, the utterly admirable legions of the RSPB, recently and lovingly apotheosised as 'Swallows and Anoraks'."

1 comment:

dreamingspire said...

Well done Sir Alan. Not since I knew him rather too many years ago has he been so outspoken.