I was having a discussion with friends recently and mentioned that the UK was sixth in the world league table for manufacturing. Some expressed surprise at this. Like many people they think that Britain had ceased to be a manufacturing country. I sometimes think this is a southern middle class myth and yet there is…
Over 100 Chinese writers, lawyers and activist have published a letter appealing to the Chinese government to release Liu Xiaobo who was recently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. They also called for the release of other political prisoners. I found the following article in the Guardian to be an insightful account of the growing pressure…
I intervened on this question because I am very concerned about plurality and quality in the media if Rupert Murdoch and his News International do fully take over BSkyB. http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201011/ldhansrd/text/101012-0001.htm#10101246000350 I don’t know what the minister was implying by her comment about the Today programme as I didn’t here the programme yesterday. However I think…
This is an emotive topic and rightly so. I put my supplementary question to Baroness Neville-Jones because both the Liberal democrats and the Conservatives were promising to stop this practice before the election. In fact it is very difficult unless you are prepared to take children into care when they are abandoned here by the…
Andrew Marr has apparently attacked bloggers claiming they are ‘inadequate ranters’. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/oct/11/andrew-marr-bloggers Blogging does attract some people who can best described as sad, mad or bad and this is a problem but is traditional journalism really free of such sinners? Blogging adds to our information about the world we live in and gives people additional…
