Brian Barder's website

An update to my earlier piece about the absurd affair of the suspended mayor, noting the flimsiness and lack of proportion of the full text of the tribunal’s finding [More >>>]

An unelected panel of unknown nobodies has overturned the will of the London voters and left the capital leaderless for a month, all over an incident of unprecedented triviality [More >>>]

Prince Charles confided to his diary that on his return from the handover of Hong Kong he had to endure the rigours of a club class seat while the politicians travelled in First. There could though be another explanation [More >>>]

Ironical that after so many New Labour assaults on our civil liberties, it’s the ban on smoking in pubs and working men’s clubs that may have turned the Labour tide against Blair [more >>>]

An open e-mail to Daniel Finkelstein for being the first to air nationally the scandal of a Bill empowering ministers to make new laws without troubling parliament [more >>>]

Proposals: transfer the Queen’s remaining personal prerogative powers to an independent commission; finish the half-completed task of making the UK a proper federation — evidently too radical to be given an airing (except here)… [more >>>]

I can again receive messages sent to me from the ‘contact’ facility of the website, after an interruption of service [more >>>]

‘Bush puts stress on defence’ and cuts health — Financial Times [More >>>]

Anyone with broadband who missed the BBC TV Newsnight debate about the Muslim protests over the Danish cartoons and their global implications on 6 Feb should watch it on the BBC Newsnight website while it’s still available [more >>>]

It was silly to exercise the undoubted right to publish those cartoons, but the hysterical reaction across the world has been an outrage, and we should give far more support to our Danish friends and partners [More >>>]

A splendid version and performance of Ibsen’s ‘The Wild Duck’ at the Donmar Warehouse ends its run on 18 February and is sold out every night until then [More >>>]