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It was only a matter of time before the burka debate spread
across La Manche. And so at the weekend UKIP, the United Kingdom Independence
Party, seized its chance. Read More...
Boris Johnson beware: your nemesis in London's mayoral
election in 2012 could turn out to be Asbo queen Louise Casey. Read More...
It is 22 years since that dismal piece of legislation, Section 28 , was passed by a Conservative government to ban the "promotion" -
whatever that was - of homosexuality in schools. Read More...
A little more is emerging about David Cameron's commitment
to reducing social inequality, should his Conservative Party be elected to
power this year. Yet his proposals, spelled out to the independent think tank Demos yesterday, seem incompatible...
The unofficial pre-general election campaign got under way
this week with both Labour and the Conservatives targeting specific groups,
suggesting that social care could have a more visible presence over the months
ahead. Read More...
This is the best excuse yet for a night out. MPs, led Labour's Keith Vaz, are looking for the "best club" in London for cocaine use. Read More...
We hadn't heard much about marriage from the Tories until
David Cameron was interviewed by our old friends at the Daily Mail this week
and accused Labour of being "pathologically" opposed to supporting the institution.
Anyone would think...
A perturbing hint on how next year's general election
campaign might pan out emerged this week when David Cameron attempted to
outsmart Gordon Brown on the funding of two Islamic schools. Read More...
David Cameron has been turning his thoughts this week to
poverty - and also to the voluntary sector which he sees as key to reducing it. Read More...
My, doesn't Nick Griffin sweat a lot? Many of us had feared
that last night's edition of Question Time would become an unofficial party
political broadcast for the British National Party. Read More...
The former military generals' denouncement of the
far-right's attempts to "tap up" British servicemen and women could turn out to
be the most powerful weapon yet against the British National Party. Read More...
The tragic case of Fiona Pilkington and her daughter highlighted the problem some people in the mainstream have with disability.
Recent press and TV reports suggest that the prime minister is not immune. Read More...
The prospect of a 0% pay rise for local authority social
workers and care staff earning more than £18,000 a year is now a given if - or
when - the Conservatives are elected to power next year. Read More...
It is Broken Britain week at Conservative Party HQ, with
shadow home secretary Chris Grayling attempting to remind us how bad things
have become. And he mentioned political correctness only once. Read More...
Do you know any Tory social workers? Conservative Party chair Eric
Pickles says he does and they are lining up to become MPs after the next general
election. Read More...
It was another Tory epiphany moment. Nearly 30 years after
Margaret Thatcher's flagship social engineering policy - the sale of council
properties - the party has tacitly admitted that local authority-run housing
was probably not a bad idea after...
The braindead who voted for the British National Party in
last month's European and local elections will appreciate their leader's latest
wisdom on dealing with those African boat people whose vessels are caught
crossing the Mediterranean. Read...
"Joanna Lumley for Prime Minister" read the only half-joking
headline on a Daily Telegraph blog this morning. Read More...
As Budget day nears, politicians and groups such as Age
Concern and Help the Aged are pressing chancellor Alistair Darling to address
the issues that they hold dear. Read More...
The knee has jerked. This time, after two boys aged 10
and 11 were charged with attempted murder in Doncaster, it is Chris Grayling's
knee. Read More...
How should we react to shoplifters? Is it a crime or is it symptomatic of something else: a mental illness or a substance addiction perhaps, as this personal account on the Frank website describes? Read More...
The Department of Health's Dignity in Care campaign was
delivered a jolt this week as pensioners joined Age Concern, MP Paul
Burstow and actress Sylvia Sims in a protest about the paltry sums on which
care home residents survive. Read More...
My thanks to the blogsite Liberal Conspiracy for drawing my
attention to the predictable rant about teenage mothers made by, less
predictably, a Labour MP. Read More...
There was a certain paradox in David Cameron's choice of
word that sits at the heart of his poverty battleplan. Read More...
Any Labour voter who says they pay little attention to
opinion polls should perhaps revise that view on account of some disturbing
findings in The Independent this morning. Read More...
Every now and then Labour comes up with scheme so
hare-brained that it insults the people the party purports to support and plays
into the hands of the Conservatives. Read More...
The Daily Mail called it "the day New Labour died" ; The
Guardian saw it as a "gamble" . Whichever you prefer, chancellor Alistair
Darling yesterday made clear his intention to protect those most in need during
this economic downturn...
What was immigration minister Phil Woolas thinking when
he derided the charities and lawyers who try to help the dwindling number of
asylum claimants? "Playing the system" was how he indelicately put it. Read More...
David Cameron rightly looked angry in the House of Commons
yesterday that a child of 17 months had been savagely killed. But did he have
to sound so angry? Read More...
So she bottled it. Hours after details of her speech to the
TUC yesterday appeared in the national press, Labour's deputy leader, Harriet
Harman, avoided using the c-word that was long ago excised from her party's lexicon. Read More...
You know you've arrived as care services minister when your
name appears on the front page of a Sunday tabloid. Read More...