Monday, December 01, 2008
Jackie Rips Jaqui to Pieces
Iain Dale 11:26 AM
We have a pyramid of authority in this country and parliament, not the police, stands at its apex. For as long as I can remember, Labour MPs have expressed scepticism and even outrage at some police actions, going back to the handling of the miners' strike, the use of sus laws, the pursuit of Whitehall moles in the Thatcher years, and scandals such as the Stephen Lawrence and Jean Charles de Menezes cases. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the particular cases, it was clearly the duty of politicians to express themselves forcibly.
You can't separate politics from policing, and you never have been able to: political judgments are so often behind what the police do. In this case, it is simply risible to push off the responsibility for the invasion of Green's home and offices by anti-terrorist officers on to the police and nameless "officials". If the home secretary did not know, she should have done. She knew there was a leak inquiry, that it was becoming a criminal investigation, and that one of her own officials had been arrested. Are we really to believe that she did not know he had been a Tory activist and had not wondered whether Tory MPs might be drawn in? Are we to accept that she looked the other way, and now feels proud of this strange incuriosity?
Her highest title is not, actually, home secretary. She is first a member of parliament. Her first duty is to the parliamentary democracy that sustains us all, and that means protecting the rights of elected members to carry out their democratic job.
Smith should have found out what was being contemplated by the police and then intervened to stop it. Far from being "Stalinist", that would have been the proportionate, liberal and sensible thing. Having failed to do that, she should then have apologised to Green.
Great stuff. The full column can be read HERE.The Euro & the People That "Matter"
Iain Dale 10:51 AM
Apparently the global credit crunch means we should be looking to give up our currency - although the way Labour are going it's becoming increasingly worthless anyway. This conveniently ignores the view expressed by many leading economists that whatever you think of the government's measures, a British government would have been completely hamstrung (like Ireland has been) if it had been part of the euro.
As William Hague has said this morning:Keeping the pound is vital for Britain’s economic future. We need interest rates that are right for Britain, not the rest of Europe. There are no circumstances in which the next Conservative Government will propose joining the Euro. If Labour ministers still want to get Britain into the euro they should come out and say so. We will be putting questions to the Government to find out what conversations have been going on.
November Statporn
Iain Dale 10:50 AM
Traffic in November was marginally down from October - with absolute uniques at 64,552. Year on year, traffic has increased by nearly 50%. More than half a million individual people have read this blog over the last twelve months.
Year on Year Absolute Unique Visitors +46%
1 Dec 2007-30 Nov 2008 577,971 1 Dec 2006-30 Nov 2007 396,883
Absolute Unique Visitors +39% year on year
November 2008 64,552 - November 2007 46,334 - Oct 2008 67,764
Visits +24% year on year
November 2008 303,353 - November 2007 245,361 - Oct 2008 - 320,456
Page Loads +20% year on year
November 2008 432,211 - November 2007 361,305 - Oct 2008 446,383
Here are my top 20 linking sites (ie incoming hits) for November, according to Google Analytics.
1. - Guido Fawkes 19,958 (24,710)
2. - ConservativeHome 13,700 (14,764)
3. - Spectator Coffee House 10,630 (12,248)
4. - PoliticalBetting 5,565 (6,541)
5. +2 Biased BBC 3,084 (1,760)
6. -1 Dizzy Thinks 3,055 (2,810)
7. NEW Bastard Old Holborn 2,275 (-)
8. -2 Daniel Finkelstein & Red Box 1,775 (2,175)
9. -1 Ben Brogan 1,221 (1,288)
10. +1 Obnoxio the Clown 1,205 (1,156)
11. +1 Telegraph blogs 1,120 (1,134)
12. -3 Bloggerheads 999 (1,151)
13. +2 Little Man in a Toque 899 (816)
14. -1 Devil's Kitchen 891 (861)
15. +3 Bob Piper 764 (733)
16. -6 Tom Harris 822 (1,121)
17. -1 Daily Referendum 781 (810)
18. NEW Recess Monkey 778 (-)
19. - Archbishop Cranmer 709 (702)
20. -6 SNP Tactical Voting 565 (840)
Some popular search phrases
"muslin sex free"
"premiership footballers naked"
"k-y jelly"
"how to give spanking"
Source: All figures are from Google Analytics.
Monday, 1 December 2008
It's not often that readers of this blog will agree with Guardian columnist Jackie Ashley, but she has a cracker of a column today. She rips Jacqui Smith to shreds. Here's an excerpt...
So who are these "people who matter"? The President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso has let the cat out of the bag and told French radio that the subject of the euro is back on the agenda for leading UK politicians. "I know that the majority in Britain are still opposed, but there is a period of consideration under way and the people who matter in Britain are currently thinking about it,"he said. Barroso only really talks to senior government ministers so one assumes that he means the likes of Brown, Darling, Mandelson, Miliband and Balls. There are very few other Ministers who "matter".
577,971 Individual Readers in the Last 12 Months
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