Archive for the 'Campaigns' Category

 

We are ZCTU

Monday, July 28th, 2008

A little while ago, I wrote a post here and on the Wardman Wire called ‘Help Zimbabwe from your chair’.
Lovemore Matombo and Wellington Chibebe, respectively the President and General Secretary of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trades Unions (ZCTU), were being charged with ’spreading falsehoods prejudicial to the state’. Those falsehoods are, in fact, criticisms they [...]

 

I’m Dave Walker

Thursday, July 24th, 2008

Click here to find out why; in short, it’s another case of the costs of fighting a libel claim being used as a form of censorship.
These people are also Dave Walker:

St Aidan to Abbey Manor - David Keen - Vicar (Yeovil)
The Wardman Wire - Matt Wardman (audio of BBC interview from 12/2007)
Gentle Wisdom - [...]

 

Help Zimbabwe from your chair

Thursday, June 19th, 2008

On Monday, Lovemore Matombo and Wellington Chibebe, respectively the President and General Secretary of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trades Unions (ZCTU), will stand trial to face charges of ’spreading falsehoods prejudicial to the state’. Those falsehoods are, in fact, criticisms they made on May Day of Mugabe’s government and telling the truth about the violence [...]

 

An artificial womb

Wednesday, May 28th, 2008

One of the issues raised in the recent debate on abortion was that of viability. The argument proposed by the promoter of the 20-week amendment, Nadine Dorries MP, was that science had moved on in great bounds since the Abortion Act of 1961 to such an extent that births before twenty-four weeks could be ‘viable’; [...]

 

This evening’s votes

Tuesday, May 20th, 2008

Despite the efforts of Nadine Dorries and some other MPs, the results of this evening’s votes in the Commons are positive. There has been no restriction on abortion rights and the discrimination against same-sex couples implicit in insisting on ‘the need for a father’ has been removed.
I think that Dawn Primarolo has won some friends [...]

 

From a puppy of hell

Wednesday, May 14th, 2008

If Ms Dorries (’Hounds of Hell‘) has had unpleasant things sent through the post, threatening calls and messages smeared on her window, I urge her to call the police, for her own protection and for that of her family and staff, but also to protect the debate. I would firmly disassociate myself from anyone who [...]

 

The Coalition for Choice

Monday, May 12th, 2008

I wish to express my support for the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill and my opposition to the amendment proposed by Nadine Dorries MP (Con, Mid Beds) that would restrict abortion to the first twenty weeks of gestation as opposed to the current twenty-four weeks1.
The key proposals of the bill are

ensuring that all human [...]

 

Liberating old papers

Friday, April 18th, 2008

Professor Erik Ringmar will be on iPM on BBC Radio Four talking about liberating old papers. Do listen as it’s an important one. Partly, it’s about free information being freely available, but some of the things that should be freely available already aren’t. The case in point (as Erik writes in the Times Higher) is [...]

 

Give Chris Bryant a tenner

Tuesday, April 8th, 2008

Chris Bryant, Labour MP for the Rhondda, is running the London Marathon to raise funds for the Prostate Cancer Research Foundation, the people doing the ‘Give a Few Bob‘ campaign. You can sponsor him here.
The PCRF is a fairly small charity that does specialist work on one of the cancers that kills a lot of [...]

 

When is a sex establishment not a sex establishment?

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008

When is a sex establishment not a sex establishment? When it’s a lap dance bar.
Celia Barlow, the Labour MP for Hove & Portslade, has a good article on this on the New Statesman website about the issue of strip joints. Unfortunately, they have been classed along with cafes and ballet schools as a result of [...]