Milburn looks to radical third term (Epolitix)

Every time I see Alan Milburn speak, it makes me want to vote anything but Labour. I’m sure that’s not the intention, but I’m equally sure I’m not the only one who cannot stand this man. So why do they insist on using him in an election campaign? He can only be damaging. He is the most obivously slimy, smarmy politician I’ve ever seen wheeled out to try and win people’s votes.

BBC goes back to the bard (Guardian)

I wish people would get over their obsession with Shakespeare. Not everyone will like it, just as not everyone likes Clive Cussler or Italo Calvino and it’s not ‘highbrow’ to concentrate on one author. Why not make TV adaptations of stories told by many of Shakespeare’s contemporaries instead, and open up the ‘unknowns’ to the masses?

My first exam – It wasn’t so bad – it was quite long though, at forty-odd pages, and there were a few questions that I didn’t even begin to understand. All-in-all, though, not too bad at all.

The coming week is Exam Week once again. As is now traditional, I will comment on each exam I sit so that you have some idea how I’m getting on, and to give me an opportunity to vent my spleen. I’m quite nervous about these exams, as I’m very unsure of the kind of questions that’ll be asked, and hence unsure of whether or not I will know the answers. But I suppose we’ll see how I get on. I have one exam on each of Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. So I’ll let you know what happens as I go along.

Church ends taboo on mercy killings (Guardan)

The church may be changing its collective mind (and how!), but I’m afraid I can’t. Whilst I still agree with euthanasia in principle, I’ve yet to hear of a workable way for it to be put into practice and not be open to abuse. So I still cannot support the legalisation of euthanasia.

‘Political idol’ accused of racism (Guardian)

Who could possibly support these policies:

…the mandatory castration of paedophiles, the legalisation of all drugs, the repeal of the human rights act, a massive prison-building scheme and an immigrant deportation programme that would reduce Britain’s population by 20 million…

Now I admit that I didn’t see the programme, and it’s possible that he didn’t really take himself seriously, and was something of a comedy entrant. If that was the case, then I’m still not terribly taken with the idea of making comedy out horrific racist policies, but perhaps I don’t need to feel so scared, and I’m not going to condemn people for making a joke I don’t find funny.

But if he was genuinely standing there and making a case for any of the above policies, then I really do despair. I can respect the vast majority of political views, and I can even begin to see the points he’s making with legalising all drugs and the repeal of the Human Rights Act (though I strongly disagree with them), and I can understand why he might think a massive prison-building scheme is necessary (although, again, I vehemently disagree), but who could ever try to make a logical argument for castration of paedophiles or immigration deportation that would reduce the population by a third? I really cannot believe anybody would vote for this guy.

‘After I won, I went out to celebrate at a restaurant with one of my greatest mates who is from Kenya and a Muslim,’ he said.

I suppose that makes it all okay then. You can suggest the deportation of a quarter of the population based entirely on country of birth, but so long as you have a friend from another country who is a Muslim, then that is just fine. You can’t possibly be racist.

Epidemic of self-harm grips pupils (Guardian)

Not the headline I would personally have chosen: ‘Grip’ as a verb doesn’t sit well with the idea of self harm to my mind.

The content of the article, though, certainly gives cause for concern.

Some studies estimate that as many as one in 10 children will harm themselves at some point and anecdotal evidence suggests the problem is increasing.

I think we urgently need to investigate where we, as a society, are going so badly wrong that our children are harming themselves on a massive scale. I personally find this more concerning than the idea of children hurting each other, especially when the size of the problem is brough into focus. I know that many of my medical colleagues would disagree, I don’t think antidepressents are the answer, and they clearly cannot be a long term solution. We need to address the root cause of the problem, not the symptoms.

Perhaps this particularly harrowing quote gives us some indication of where the problem may lie:

In one case, a child of mixed race kept scratching his skin to ‘make himself white’.

Conservative MP defects to Labour (BBC News)

I do think that it’s rather unfortunate that MPs are allowed to do this. They get elected with the backing of one party, using their policies to convince the electorate to vote for them, and once they’ve got their seat they defect to another party with (theorectically) opposing views. It really isn’t on.

Surely Mr Jackson knew back in 2001 that the Conservatives were dirfting further rightwards – so why did he stand as their candidate? Perhaps because the local electorate are likely to vote Conservative? Since he’s standing down at the next election, this seems a likely reason.

Perhaps there’s a tactic for some of the minor parties here – get their supporters to join one of the big parties for which people are likely to vote, and once elected, switch to the minority party, thereby getting them seats in the Commons that they probably would not otherwise have gained.

Therefore, I feel that the most honest thing for Mr Jackson to do in these circumstances would be to resign as a Conservative MP, triggering a by-election in which he should restand as a Labour MP, giving the electorate a representative with whose party line they agree. But he wouldn’t want to do that, because he might be defeated.

He believes students should pay tuition fees, that Tony Blair should not be criticised over his handling of the Iraq war and that more powers should be given to Europe

And how long has he been believing all this? If he’s believed it since before 2001, then I hope he didn’t campaign against his beliefs, as this would make him a very dishonorable and dishonest Member. Perfect for the Labour party, then.

‘I wish I hadn’t said that’ (Guardian)

Here’s something I wish Bush hadn’t said:

I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will try to the best of my ability, to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

But he’s set to say that again come Thursday. But I’ll be in an exam, so I won’t have to see him say it. At least not live, anyway.

As much as I mock him, I do think it’s good of him to come out and say that he regrets saying these things. Certianly not the kind of thing you’d catch Mr Blair doing. Although I think Blair would be in a better position now if he had just come out and said that he regretted certain statements a while ago, even if he couldn’t bring himself to say ‘sorry’; though it would be a bad idea to do so now, as that would get his Iraq failures right back on the front pages for weeks. Of course, Mr Blair thinks it’s a great strength to appear to be sticking to your guns, and never admitting you were wrong. He hasn’t got a reverse gear. And back in ’97 that was a good thing. But it’s not serving him as well as an alternative strategy could at this moment in time.

So does this make George Bush a better leader than Tony Blair? No. But it doesn’t exactly make Blair look great, either.

EA considers TV show based on ‘Sims’ (Digital Spy)

This sounds absolutely terrible. Not that I’m being prejudiced and therefore hypocritical, you understand.