The Future of the House of Lords

The BBC's James Landale has written an illuminating analysis of what the recent constitutional filibustering means for the House of Lords. He also comments on how the nature of the coalition government itself led to the recent impasse with the second chamber.

Posh and Posher

I enjoyed Andrew Neils 'Posh and Posher' finally catching up with it on iplayer. It's always entertaining to watch posh Etonians try to pretend they're not posh, and to see Old Etonian Tory MP, and son of a former Times editor, Jacob Rees-Mogg announce that he was a man of the people, and then follow it up with a Latin phrase most of the people wouldn't have the slightest clue about, was a rare joy. Neil concluded that the privileged ruling elite from both right and left were dead set against the one reform of education that might open politics and the upper echelons of the state to ordinary people again - the reintroduction of the grammar schools. Of course they're opposed, but thank-you Andrew Neil for your putting the idea briefly in front of us once again.

The Gay Mafia Myth

I mentioned in a previous post the outrage caused by a Melanie Phillips article in the Daily Mail claiming that - yes - the country is being run by gay mafia! Well, the Independent's Johann Hari has come up with a brilliant, and emotional, response here. Worth a couple of minutes of anyone's time to read.

Russia's Dirty Secret

Nothing justifies the appalling bomb attack at Moscow Airport, killing 35 innocent people awaiting friends coming in from their flights, and injuring many more. It feeds a cycle of violence from which it is increasingly difficult to escape. But the attack - by a suicide bomber identified this morning as from the North Caucasus region - is a tragic consequence of the war Russia would rather we didn't talk about. The war against the Chechen people. To date, untold deaths have resulted (in 1999-2000 the estimated toll was 50,000 in that year alone) and the Chechens have had foisted on them a mafia regime under the Islamo-fascist leadership of Ramzan Kadyrov.

The Russian people have suffered at the hands of 'Putin's War', as this record of terrorist attacks shows, but it is nothing compared to the suffering of the Chechens. Russia's people hardly live in a free and open democracy, but they may want to reflect this morning on the pass to which their mercilessly ambitious prime minister's North Caucasian policy has brought them. Many Chechens don't have even that luxury.

The King's Speech and History

A great film but some slightly dodgy history. See here for a quick analysis.

Pop Culture

First off, a furore surrounding the enlightened conversation of Sky Sports couple Richard Keys and Andy Gray about female assistant ref Sian Massey. I'm no great follower of football, so I'm grateful to SGS's in-house tabloid editor for introducing me to Yahoo football blogger Early Doors, who had an interesting take on the issue of a female linesman:

As it happened there was a big offside decision, for Liverpool's opening goal, which Massey got right - a call described as "wonderful" by Jamie Redknapp (the tone quickly switched from insulting to patronising once Sky went on air). That moment led Early Doors to conclude that every match official at every Premier League game should be female. Not because of the decision, which was good but unremarkable, but because of the aftermath. The Wolves reaction was typical. Even though Ronald Zubar had played Raul Meireles the best part of a yard onside, the defenders angrily turned as one to berate the linesman. Then something odd happened - they saw the lino in question was a young woman, and instantly their protests fizzled out.

Fantastic. Just to show that sexism works both ways I guess. Early Doors' not unreasonable conclusion:

ED realises that employing female officials simply to ensure players do not shout that them hardly represents the pinnacle of enlightenment, but can you honestly say it wouldn't work?

Second off, the Twittersphere's vigorous assertion of its liberalness, as it rounds on one Daily Mail columnist after another. To be honest, rounding on Daily Mail columnists is probably a fundamentally healthy thing to do, just as the recent activities of a former SGS student and tabloid editor in rounding personally on a News of the World reporter was also uplifting.

In the Twitter instance, Melanie Phillips and Liz Jones have both become trending topics on the web's most concise social network for different topics, but a common style of uniquely offensive writing. Phillips for her 'gay people are now setting the agenda in Britain, soon we'll all be expected to become one' type comments in a recent column; Jones for re-treading the last few hours of murdered architect Jo Yeats' life as if it were some sort of quaint travelogue. Quite why anyone thinks the Mail is going to waste perfectly good newspaper space on rational views when it can get so much more publicity for bonkers ones beats me anyway.

Oh, and that NoTW exchange was something along the lines of:

Desperate Reporter: Do you know anything about people who met Jo Yeats and thus might be her murderer? Preferably men living alone?
Ex-SGS Student, MM: That's right, go around destroying everyone before they're even brought to trial; and yours isn't even a proper newspaper.
Reporter: What's your name and do you live alone?
Student [suddenly seeing his name in headline type]: Er........gotta go.

UPDATE: This tweet, re. the Sian Massey story, is a treat!

UPDATE II: For a forensic examination of how a very tentative Education Dept. statement about 'non-compulsory' lessons becomes an outrageous certainty, go to this piece on the Tabloid Watch blog. Then do the Media Blog's Melanie Phillips Quiz!

Fallout from the Johnson Affair

The first stark and rather tragic message from the Alan Johnson resignation is why on earth would anyone subject themselves to such a relentless goldfish bowl existence. Whatever the ins and outs of Alan Johnson's personal problems, the chances are they have been exacerbated by his political existence and now he and his family have to bear with the merciless, hysterical tabloid press coverage of it. Little wonder that so many decent people, who share the human characteristic of all of us of being flawed, would think twice - or often not at all - before entering the world of political public service.

Away of the personal side of the story, the Tories are claiming to be pleased [although see Paul Goodman's take on Conservative Home] that Ed Balls is now shadow Chancellor. Their line is that this is the man who is the co-architect of Gordon Brown's economic recession, but frankly that won't wash for long, and the real problem for them is that Balls represents a much more distinctive voice on economic affairs, and is a far more competent spokesman than the lamented Mr. Johnson. My prediction is that Balls will be making life significantly more difficult for George Osborne, as well as depriving David Cameron of some of punchlines in PMQs - after all, he won't be able to claim any more that the shadow chancellor can't do his sums.