Brian Barder's website

Entries in May, 2006

Two critiques of New Labour in office

Thursday, May 25th, 2006

Articles in the Guardian of 24 May 06, by Simon Jenkins and Ronald Dworkin, comprise a crushing indictment of the failings of New Labour generally and Tony Blair in particular [More >>>]

Counting illegal immigrants (and emigrants)

Wednesday, May 17th, 2006

The Tories and the tabloids are lambasting the government for not knowing how many illegal immigrants there are. I offer a solution [More >>>]

New Labour’s cold feet on human rights

Saturday, May 13th, 2006

The prime minister and Lord Chancellor, shrilly supported by David Cameron, The Times and The Sun, threaten to amend or scrap the Human Rights Act on the mistaken assumption that this would enable them to deport those whom the courts won’t currently allow them to [More >>>]

West Lothian re-visited

Thursday, May 11th, 2006

I have just come across an interesting post and discussion on The Sharpener going back to last November about the West Lothian question — why should a Scottish MP speak and vote in the House of Commons on subjects such as education which have been devolved to the Scottish parliament and which are no longer [...]

Paris Diary

Thursday, May 11th, 2006

A diary of a week in Paris, and some pictures [More >>>]

More on deporting foreigners

Monday, May 8th, 2006

The Blair-Clarke proposals for the automatic deportation of all foreigners convicted of even quite minor offences regardless of individual circumstances, and for appeals against deportation to be permitted only after the deportation has taken place, should be strongly resisted if they surface again following the immolation of Charles Clarke [More >>>]

Reshuffle, part 2: dramatis personae

Sunday, May 7th, 2006

As well as the broad implications of Tony Blair’s reshuffle of 5 May, there are some interesting (and profoundly worrying) implications for the personalities involved [More >>>]

Reshuffling towards defeat

Saturday, May 6th, 2006

Tony Blair’s reshuffle, following disastrous local election results, has the smell of the bunker about it. Does he intend to bring the party and government down with him? [More >>>]

A week in Paris AFK

Monday, May 1st, 2006

Ephems is off to Paris tomorrow for a week ‘Away From Keyboard’, or AFK, as the knowing anoraks say. No more new posts after today; no more comments on comments, however misguided (or provocative or laudatory). Ephems will spend the week basking, not in the sun (the forecast is for almost continuous showers) but in the warm glow of being awarded pride of place in last week’s Britblogs of The Week for a recent post. Thanks for that, Tim.