Entries from February 2008 ↓

The Steve Wright verdict this week demonstrates that with the right safeguards, a DNA database will make this country a safer place to live.

Sarah Teather has secured an adjournment debate to raise the issue of the ethnicity of people who are recorded on the database.

She is not quite accusing the government and the police of racism but the tone of her press release to promote the debate is not far off. “There is a real danger that the DNA database just reinforces the myth that black people are more likely to commit crime, and that is a very dangerous untruth” says Ms Teather.

Her press release does not answer the central question: is she in favour of a national DNA database or not? I look forward to hearing what she has to say.

Birmingham really will be the epicentre of politics this weekend with both party leaders in the City at the same time. I suspect this will have little impact on the night time activities of second-city revellers, though it will be a little entertaining for politics watchers.

Well done to the Birmingham Post team who have successfully launched their newly designed online paper. I like it. I like it a lot.

As an official owner of the Birmingham Post learn to swim campaign “most improved swimmer” award 1975, it is re-assuring to see traditional values in a modern setting.

Ian Austin on the Jam generation.

In the month when usage of Facebook fell by 5%, the Tories are going to spend half a million quid to get you to join their party. George Osborne says that they want to “broaden the base” of the Tory party (that means get rid of the old activists in the real world).

Mr Osborne is no fool when it comes to the Internet. No fool at all. But he isn’t half as clever as he thinks he is. The reaction of the blogosphere is that he is wasting Lord Ashcroft’s cash on this one. I talked to a number of lobby journalists about the much-hyped initiative yesterday. They appear to have filed the campaign in the gimmick folder too.

This little character was hanging around our compost heap today. I’m assuming toad. Any idea what type it might be though?

The Stirrer roars at the pronouncement by David Cameron that sending young British kids to Auschwitz is a “gimmick”. What started as a story designed to question government spending has left the Tories demanding more money be spent on the visits. So maybe some good has come from bad. But who signed off the attack document in the first place? And have they apologised?

Some poor communications guy at Porsche is about to join the six lane highway of life after the company decided to make congestion charge increases the centrepiece of the Mayoral campaign in London. Ken has revved up the bulldozer engine and declared that Londoners will decide the congestion charge not a marketing man in Stuttgart (nice website though).

The sometime Porsche driving man from Henley doesn’t know what to do. The green lobby do. They’ve launched a defence campaign. I’ve just spent 49p at Amazon in readiness for the weeks ahead.

This spat has it all. Fast cars, politics, money, famous brands and aristocrats. The only thing missing is Jeremy Clarkson.

I’ve just added a new Feedburner email feature to the site. If you’re a regular reader I think it will help.

There are days in this job where proper work is going to prohibit blogging. The new feed will email you once each day if the site has been updated. If the site hasn’t been updated, you won’t get the email. That way you don’t have to keep dropping by to check what I’ve added.

There’s one guarantee that comes with this. You won’t get spam. Just one email a day and only if the site is updated.

Support Conrad Black (Am I the only MP who gets emails from this “campaign”?)

Feral beasts bite former feral beast. Darius Guppy story – surely that can’t be true, can it?

He may not be happy with drug addicts in Portsmouth but he welcomes them to Henley. Rock out.

Monaco based peer gives 45 grand to campaign.

Ken’s new website. Be Involved.

Did I tell you that I have responsibility for some of the Government policy towards web sites? I’m having a lot of discussions about them at the moment but in the spirit of not throwing stones at other people’s greenhouses, can you help me with something else?

Will you take a look at the Cabinet Office web site and tell me what you think? How easy is it to navigate? Is it interesting? How can it be improved?