As I explained in my earlier posting on this – http://lordsoftheblog.net/2016/01/23/poland-is-the-problem/ – the rule of law is regarded by the EU as under threat in Poland. A further new law announced by Poland this week compounds the problem. The government of Poland plans to introduce a law making it a crime to imply the country bears…
In a few minutes time the Opening Ceremony will get underway for the 2016 Lillehammer Winter Youth Olympic Games . It will be a spectacular curtain raiser for what will be an amazing nine days of sport. The pristine slopes, rinks and runs will seem a world away from the conflict zones of our world but…
The impact of conflict on children in particular is now a constant feature of news from around the world. The children featured may be from many different ethnic, religious or national identities, and the combatants in the conflict differ from place to place, but one thing is always true: whoever is responsible for the violence…
The House of Lords Reform Act 2014 – a Private Member’s measure introduced by Dan Byles MP – enabled peers for the first time to retire from the House. (It also made provision for the expulsion of peers who commit serious criminal offences and removes those who fail to attend for a session.) To date,…
Regular travellers must get really irritated by the Isles of Scilly Steamship Company booking website, which seems incredibly old fashioned and long winded compared with other company travel booking websites. Compare the IOSSC one with GWR trains or Flybe; they are all fairly similar in requiring the date, time, origin and destination of travel. On…
The UK Rail Delivery Group minutes of a November meeting (Guardian 1 February) to discuss the future structure of the railways suggests that one option was to remove routes from Network Rail control, and privatise them in a manner similar to the privatised utilities. Some at the RDG favoured a full breakup, arguing that Network…
Once again the Prime Minister has made an unfounded and inappropriate attack on Oxford. Why are there so few black students, he asked? I have rehearsed the arguments before, in my 2011 post, Oxford Blues Whites and Blacks (http://lordsoftheblog.net/2011/04/12/oxford-blues-whites-and-blacks/) and, sadly, nothing has changed. Black potential students still achieve fewer 3A*/A A-level grades than white; and only…
Earlier this week I had the honour to Chair the APPG on Conflict Issues as we hosted Lieutenant-General Romeo Dallaire who has been a member of the Canadian Senate but, more famously, was Force Commander of UNAMIR, the UN peacekeeping mission deployed to Rwanda before the genocide in 1994. Lieutenant-General Dallaire warned…
Rail monopoly news – 25th January 2016 4th Railway Package: co-operation agreements will neuter it + CER goes for North Korean-type control! Fourth Railway Package Trilogue. Amid some improvement, the UK Government still tries to retain ‘alliances’ or ‘co-operation agreements’ between Infrastructure Managers and one or more Railway Undertakings – in order to be nice…
