It is ten days after the A level results were published and some universities are now getting desperate. According to this morning’s Sunday Times a reporter posing as a sixth former with two E’s was offered a place on law and engineering courses at Bedfordshire University. Leeds Metropolitan University offered a place on an architecture course… Continue reading Worth the paper they’re printed on? Time to stop conning students with worthless degrees.
Category: UK Politics
The Terrorism Act? What on earth were the Police thinking?!!
Regardless of your view on the rights and wrongs of Edward Snowden’s leaking of US intelligence data, the use by British Police yesterday of the Terrorism Act to hold the partner of a Guardian journalist connected to Mr Snowden seems inappropriate, disproportionate, and quite frankly wrong! David Miranda, the partner of columnist and journalist Glenn… Continue reading The Terrorism Act? What on earth were the Police thinking?!!
On being bisexual – my appearance on Radio 4
On Monday this week, I accepted an invitation to be interviewed by Eddie Mair on Radio 4’s PM programme (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0367mxn – minutes 46-52) to give a response to the decision of Tory MP Daniel Kawczynski to come out as bisexual. (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/tory-mp-daniel-kawczynski-comes-out-as-bisexual-8680343.html) I guess I was asked to appear because I, like Mr Kawczynski, am also an elected… Continue reading On being bisexual – my appearance on Radio 4
Equal marriage: why we need equal civil partnerships too
Tim Loughton MP, the sponsor of yesterday evening’s amendment to the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill which would have introduced Civil Partnerships for opposite sex couples, does not have a record of supporting LGBT equality. Indeed, his motives in putting forward the amendment may not have been entirely straightforward, but that doesn’t take away from… Continue reading Equal marriage: why we need equal civil partnerships too
a judicial system for all, not just the privileged few
The Ministry of Justice is in trouble. Its finances are a mess and it is struggling to find savings across its responsibilities for the Courts & Tribunals Service, Prisons, and Probation. But unlike other departments of state, the ‘overspend’ is not due to profligacy by ministers of whatever colour nor to lack of budgetary control… Continue reading a judicial system for all, not just the privileged few
Margaret Thatcher – a working class revolutionary?
I should begin with a warning. My friends and followers of both a left and a right wing persuasion are not going to like this post. On Saturday night I watched Channel 4’s insightful documentary “Margaret: Death of a Revolutionary” where Martin Durkin presented his radical thesis: that Margaret Thatcher was a working class revolutionary,… Continue reading Margaret Thatcher – a working class revolutionary?
Margaret Thatcher – as remarkable and divisive in death as she was in life
I was shocked to learn at lunchtime of the death of Baroness Thatcher, British Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990. Ironically, I had just completed a tour of the Palace of Westminster with two friends from Los Angeles, where we had seen both the striking statue of Lady Thatcher in the Members’ Lobby of the… Continue reading Margaret Thatcher – as remarkable and divisive in death as she was in life
Really Mr Cameron? When would you launch Trident?
So, today the Prime Minister visits Scotland to welcome home one of our submarines carrying the current Trident nuclear deterrent, emphasising the benefits of UK defence spending north of the border and the need, as he sees it, for Britain to retain its nuclear capability. He makes that point as well in an article in… Continue reading Really Mr Cameron? When would you launch Trident?
Polly Toynbee and the polarisation of the benefits debate
This morning I found myself almost without thinking ‘liking’ a friend’s post on Facebook which shared Polly Toynbee’s piece from Thursday’s Guardian “Benefit cuts: Monday will be the day that defines this government” (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/28/benefit-cuts-monday-defines-government). That in and of itself is an interesting departure as I have never been Ms Toynbee’s greatest fan, having felt for… Continue reading Polly Toynbee and the polarisation of the benefits debate
What kind of Liberal votes for secret courts?
I often find myself in a minority being a supporter of the coalition. I strongly believed that the Liberal Democrats could be a moderating influence on the more knee jerk authoritarian instincts of the Conservatives whilst setting the economy straight in a fair but firm manner. I’m not going to talk about economic policy here,… Continue reading What kind of Liberal votes for secret courts?
C. E. Lord OBE 