Has Anatole finally jumped into bed with the Tories?

For the past year Anatole Kaletsky, journalist for The Times, has been bashing Gordon Brown and the government without relent. After Michael White from The Guardian described him as having ‘turned’ on Brown, I wondered if he’d ever supported Gordon Brown (his writing was quite vehement if he had). I presumed he was more right-wing even though he never explicitly endorsed the Tories, but I’ve always wondered.

Burnham’s comments are a storm in a reactionary teacup

Burnham’s main mistake to me, when making a joke about David Davis having ‘hand-wringing, heart melting’ late night phone calls to Liberty leader Shami Chakrabati, is to poke fun at two such reactionary hyperbole loving people like David Davis and Shami Chakrabati.

My letter to David Davis via DD For Freedom website

Hello David (or Team David),

Good luck in your campaign but I do have a few questions:

Why does 42 day detention go against the Magna Carta but 28 day detention (typo! should read ‘doesn’t’ here), which you voted for?

Isn’t the death penalty an infringement on civil liberties?

If you are against ID cards, why did you vote for them in 2004?

What happened between following the Tory whip on ID cards in 2004 and resigning now in 2008 to change your mind so extremely?

Why were you against the repeal of Section 28 if you’re such a defender of Liberty?

Why did you vote against the equalisation of the age of consent for gay people?

Why did you vote to lower the abortion limit, which would infringe on the womans right to control her own body?

Why are you on record not asking for a reduction of CCTV, but saying it should be brought up to ‘evidential standard’?

I look forward to hearing from you as I believe these are the serious issues you have to face if you want to lay claim to being a true libertarian.

Many thanks,

Why not let Kelvin McKenzie do Labour’s job for them?

So it looks like it’s going to be a three-way race in the Davis By-Election between David Davis (Conservative? Independent? Independent Conservative? Who knows!), The Monster Raving Loony Party and ex-Sun editor Kelvin McKenzie.

Now the line that Davis and probably the Tories are going to try to spin out of this is that Labour are too cowardly to stand, but in reality it just emphasises the farcical nature of the situation that Davis has plunged himself and the Tories into.

David Davis resigns as MP!

Well nobody saw that coming!

Supposedly he told David Cameron on Wednesday evening, so we can presume he decided he’d do it before the vote, if the vote went the governments way. Unless he did have an argument with David Cameron, which is a rumour Nick Robinson has mentioned.

Another day, another ‘dither’?

Hardly a day seems to go by without someone in the Conservative party saying Gordon Brown is ‘dithering’ about something.

Recently it’s been David Davis leading the charge, saying Brown has ‘dithered’ over whether or not to upgrade cannabis to a Class B drug, from its current position of a Class C drug.

David Cameron - Violent crime has doubled (and why this is completely untrue)

Oh Dear oh dear, David Cameron is at it again. Scare mongering, accusing the government of telling porkies, before coming out with a whopper of his own.

Today he has claimed that, under Labour, violent crime has doubled and gun crime has ‘nearly doubled’ and drug crime is also up.

Given that he is using the British Crime Survey for sources, it is quite easy to look this one up, and see that he is telling porkies of whopping great big proportions.