Irish Political News

A friend who is a Lay Reader in the Church of England pointed out that Tony Blair had a column about Faith for Reader Magazine (the in house magazine for Readers, who used to be called "Lay Readers"), and asked me "where would you put Tony Blair"?

Via Damian Thompson's Holy Smoke blog, a report of a plan by Scientologists to swoop on Mumbai with their "educational booklets", as previously happened after the New York World Trade Centre attacks after 9/11, in London after the Bus and Underground Bombs on 7/7 in 2005, at Virginia Tech after the shootings and on other occasions.

He has confirmed the existence of a plan to despatch of Scientology Booklets with the headquarters of ABLE UK. ABLE UK is a Scientology front organisation, Association for Better Living and Education:

I can confirm that. I've just rung ABLE UK at Saint Hill Manor, the Scientology HQ, to be told that Hubbard booklets are being rushed out "in order to pour oil on troubled water". I think I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions.

I don't usually post Public Relations Flyers, but this is rather a good idea.

I should note that the invention of the Bloody Mary Cocktail in 1933 is only one version of the history. The PR flyer says:

The drink which is an American institution originated in Manhattan by a famous French bartender named Ferdinand Petiot when he came here in 1933.

While Wikipedia says:

Petiot invented the drink in 1920 while working at Harry's New York Bar in Paris, France, a frequent hangout for Ernest Hemingway and other American expatriates.

To put it another way, the Bloody Mary may be another U-571 (i.e., Yanks rewriting history :-), but - in any case - free Bloody Marys are worth having.

I've been sacked as Santa. It's a relief, to be honest. After 2 hours last year at the school Christmas party in a false beard and badly-fitting suit, it'll be more fun dishing out hot dogs.

But the worst thing was the contents of Santa's sack. A Nestlé selection pack for every child. It's not the chocolates I'm against, it's who makes them.

You can read my detailed assessment here.

I'd suggest that the crucial aspects here are process issues:

1 - The violation of Commons privilege.

2 - The facts taken behind the "the police have operational control and have not overstepped the mark" position taken by the Cabinet Ministers. Politically the next question is obvious:

Just who moved the mark to a place where this became possible, Mr Brown?

Practically, the question is different:

How do we move the mark that the police did not go beyond to somewhere more suitable for an advanced democracy?

Realistically, that is only going to happen in 2 scenarios, either a Tory majority, or a hung Parliament as a condition of Lib Dem cooperation with a minority administration.

Yes, I know the story is old now. But it's funny.

By the way, we're planning a series of articles about the BNP in Local Politics from a range of political viewpoints. They will include analysis, and also experience of those in local politics in areas where the BNP are active.

It was inspired by this thread, which was unusually analytical for a cross-party conversation on Labour Home.

Last week I posted about the plight of Durham Cathedral Bookshop.

Today there is an article about it in the Northern Echo Newspaper. The article features the petition we started a few weeks ago, which now has more than 300 signatures.