Secret GM crop trials planned

Nationwide
Ministers look to widen role of post offices
Tories to make it harder to divorce
John Reid: the internet is a threat
The pornographer who wants to challenge govt.
Ubuntu is coming to Mobile Phones.

International
Obama: Whose president is he anyway?
First interview with Obama post election
Japan officially in recession
Refund for UK savers as Iceland seeks rescue

DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Jennie Rigg

Miss Edith publicises a nasty little bit of ID legislation that the government have snuck through.

Scholars and Rogues on the dark side of recycling.

MushKush is angry about the results of the Barnardo’s survey.

Amused Cynicism discusses the difference between intellectuals and pseudo-intellectuals.

Jonathan Calder and Love and Garbage bid a fond farewell to Reg Varney.

Stephen Glenn is patriotic about Scottish production of renewable energy. Smash Boredom is talking about British renewables too. Must be something in the water.

Spirit of 1976 discusses last night’s I’m a Nonentity. Everybody hates Kilroy, Brian seems to be going down quite well, and everybody loves George, apparently.

And if you crave more links, there’s the Britblog Roundup and the Scottish roundup. Both focus heavily on Baby P. PC Bloggs has the best entry I have seen on the matter. And if you need cheering up after that, take 15 seconds out of your life to watch Malcolm Bruce have a little dig at Mandelson….

Osborne’s future in doubt

Nationwide
Osborne faces pressure over pound
He must go, say angry Tory activists
Will Letwin rescue him?
Civitas attacks new Ofsted system.

International
Rednecks in rampage over Obama
Same-sex marriage supporters rally in U.S.
Russia’s PM calls for talks with Obama
Israeli troops face abuse trial

DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Jennie Rigg

Lynne Featherstone has the inside track on the Baby P story. It’s worth reading her entries for the last few days if you want informed comment on this issue.

Neil Williams, a Lib Dem councillor in Haringey, also has some comments on the Baby P case.

Femme de Resistance is disgusted by the way David Cameron behaved at PMQs with regard to Baby P; LibertyCat counters that he only did what was to be expected on the same blog.

Liz Williams has two entries worth reading: one a report on Mark Pack’s lecture about the lessons to be learned from the Obama campaign, and one on a legal panel discussion about the incorporation of Islamic law into English situations.

Scholars and Rogues has a doughnutty cartoon about how things have changed since Stonewall.

To Miss, With Love discusses what it means to be African.

Peter Black, AM is being all republican about the Prince of Wales.

Obama will move to veto Bush laws

The Laws Bush is Trying to Push Through in his Last Few Months

Elsewhere
Council homes for life ‘to be scrapped’
Tax cuts worth billions in Pre-Budget Report
MPs seek to censor the media
China Unveils $586 Billion Economic Stimulus Plan
Britain Backs Away From Disabled Rights
Bee Keepers Swarm on Downing Street

DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Jennie Rigg

Jon Ball wonders why Gordon doesn’t just sack Darling and appoint Vince, thereby cutting out the middleman.

Nicholas Whyte reports on the death of an Irish political party.

Our own dear Lynne Featherstone has been on the radio, and helpfully lets us all know how we can listen in case we missed it.

Speaking of LC-contributing MPs, Henry G Manson reckons that David Lammy is a fair bet for the next mayor of London. I’d best visit now while I can, if that’s the case…

Liz Williams was abroad for the American elections, and found the coverage on the World Service somewhat lacking.

A Lanson Boy thinks Iain Dale is right. But also that he’s an arse.

Andrew Ducker posts a very depressingly insightful Dilbert.

Amused Cynicism has a depressingly true-ringing pictorial post, too.

Chicken Yoghurt is also a cheery little butterfly today (WARNING! Link may induce wrist-slashing, particularly in combination with the previous two. Proceed with caution)

And James Graham discusses how US presidents affect sci-fi, which is OBVIOUSLY their most important effect on things.

Services remember British fallen

Elsewhere
Scandal of care at top children’s hospital
Baroness Ros Scott elected president of the LibDems by a massive margin (YAY!)
Traffic levels fall for first time in decades
Banks defy Gordon Brown over new interest rate cut
US: That huge voter turnout? Didn’t happen
Liberty launches 42 writers website

DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Jennie Rigg

President-Elect Ros Scott reacts to her landslide victory; Lembit’s McCainishly gracious reaction is here; Chandila’s rather less gracious reaction is here. The Lib Dem blogosphere has exploded over this. Here’s just a sample: Lib Dem Voice, The Honourable Lady Mark, the Real Iain Dale, Jonathan Calder, Caron, Mr Quist, Duncan Borrowman, Bridget Fox, Moments of Clarity, and James Graham.

Speaking of the gravelly-voiced sex pot, James Graham picks apart Trevor Philips’s arguments about race in British politics.

Alas, a Blog! has two posts on the weird reaction of the gay lobby in California to the prop 8 vote. Why are they apportioning blame due to race, and not crazy fundamentalism? Silly people.

Mark Pack at Lib Dem Voice has picked out yet another bit of Hazel Blears’ speech that should get us all righteously annoyed (pun intended).

If you want another reason to get pissed off at Blears, Bridget Fox has one here.

Cookery: Junkfood Science despairs of our political masters deciding it’s more important to hector people about being fat than to pay for cancer specialists.

Speaking of getting fat, I’d like people to recommend me a good food pub in London so that I can continue to do so, since my old favourite has apparently been altered beyond recognition.

Showbiz: TV.com tell us that the BBC have nixed another rumour about who is to be the 11th Doctor, and say they definitely won’t decide till next year anyway (How do they know it’s not going to be Colin Salmon if they haven’t decided? Still, there’s time for my campaign for Kulvinder Ghir to really get going, I guess)

Randomness: Pickwick is eschewing politics and being entranced by clouds - hullo clouds! Hullo sky!

And, as usual, if that wasn’t enough links for you Septicisle has many more.

Politics is defined quite well on Wikipedia, for my money. They say that:

[p]olitics is the process observed in all human (and many non-human) group interactions by which groups make decisions, including activism on behalf of specific issues or causes.

I therefore consider my Lib Demmery-focussed blog to be pretty political, but not exclusively so, and I wasn’t massively offended to be put in the category “other”, since I do talk about Doctor Who and Top Gear sometimes. However, when Steph Ashley told me that Dib Lemming is also classed as “other” I had a closer look at some of the categorisations. And, what do you know, pretty much all the blogs I would call political blogs that are written by girls are also in “other”. To be fair to Wikio, there are also lots of blogs which are written by boys which are in “other” which read like politics blogs to me - Amused Cynicism, for one. And they do cover a lot of blogs, and can’t be expected to examine the minutiae of each one… And then I noticed The F-Word’s categorisation.

Now, some of you might be aware of my annoyance when people assert things that aren’t true, like They’re trying to ban Christmas!! and The Daily Mail is a newspaper and girls don’t blog, especially not about politics… Ah yes. Girls don’t blog, do they? Especially not about politics! Politics is boys‘ stuff! Well, of course, depending on how you define politics, this is exactly so. For instance, if you define “politics” as only including electoral politics, then that is going to be a mostly male space. Which seems an unnecessarily narrow definition to me, but what do I know? I’m a girl.

And, of course, if you explicitly exclude feminist blogs from your definition of political blogs, as the gentleman (and he has been very gentlemanly, BTW, even though I have ranted at him rather a lot) who emailed me from Wikio tonight does, even though he believes (but isn’t sure) that the writer of The F-Word has asked him to include it under politics, then that is going to take vast swathes of women outside the remit of politics…

Now, obviously: your site, your rules. This is the way of the internet. But the whole purpose of feminism is to effect political change so that women are treated as equal to men. If that is not political, then (with the greatest of respect to the very gentlemanly gentleman from Wikio, and apologies for my unladylike language) what the blue buggery fuck is?

Candidates seek votes in enemy territory

And more…
British troops may protect aid in Congo
MPs revolt over third Heathrow runway
Republicans Scrambling to Save Seats in Congress
Poll gives John McCain glimmer of hope
Possibility of heavy job losses at HBOSLloydsTSB

DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Jennie Rigg

Rhythmaning reports on a new twist on JS Mill’s maxim that while not all conservatives are stupid, most stupid people are conservative.

Peter Black and Chicky Yog both report on the fact that Gordon Brown himself has admitted that government databases can never be secure. I think it’s a bit optimistic to hope that this is the final nail in the coffin of ID cards, though…

Brad Hicks has a nice long entry about electoral fraud in the US.

The Award-Winning Alix Mortimer is being a voice of reason in an inter-LibDem spat, bless her.

Mark Pack on LDV reports that the Tories are having spats too.

I have a rant about the recurring Winterval Myth (some good links in the comments too) in response to this entry.

And this week’s BritBlog Round-up has been done by the very lovely Jonathan Calder, so if you need (lots) more links, head on over there.

Obama’s final weekend marred by ‘illegal’ aunt

And more…
Candidates Make Their Final Push on Reshaped Map
Republicans Ramp Up Negative Attacks
BBC is told to starve its fat cats
David Mitchell dissects the Brand/Ross/Sachs furore
China’s toy makers face bleak Christmas
UK calls for urgent aid for Congo

DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Jennie Rigg

Adrian Sanders MP (with a little pointer from the sainted Vince) knows how to get us out of recession.

Rhythmaning’s grandad was a pre-war Labour party candidate. Here he presents some scans of his grandad’s election materials. It’s one of the most illuminating posts I have seen in months.

Nich Starling has a spirited and pin-sharp defence of the BBC.

Steph Ashley, meanwhile, reminds us that not all prank calls are bad and wrong and evil.

The Mustard Seed reminds us that female and black have both been qualities of American candidates since the early seventies. The embedded documentary is fascinating.

CNNBC has a news bulletin from the future.

The Filthy Smoker has an interesting guest post on Devil’s Kitchen.

My fiancé Mat Bowles has a good rant about bad signposting. He got lost on the way to Yorkshire regional conference, and nearly missed the bloggers’ interview with Nick Clegg, poor lamb.

The Honourable Lady Mark Valladares made it to conference, though, and is very proud of his missus.

And if that’s not enough links for you to be going on with, head over to Septicisle’s place…

Footsie plunges on Asian rout

More on the economy:
Japan’s Nikkei stock index falls to 26-year low
Darling under pressure to avert sterling meltdown
The Graun profiles Vince Cable

Other news:
Mandelson denies charge favouring Russian oligarch
Who will Republicans choose to go forward?
Race increasingly difficult for McCain
American army thinks that Twitter users are terrorists

DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Jennie Rigg

Wintrmute reports on the aussie government’s plans for total censorship of the internet. See also here, here, and here.

The Mustard Seed discusses the problems trans people face in Malaysia (WARNING: this is pretty harrowing. Hat tip: Alas, a blog!)

Chicken Yoghurt has spotted Jack Straw picking on those who can’t fight back. Again. (hat tip: Lynne Featherstone)

To Miss With Love, thought-provoking as ever, discusses the teaching of history.

I am cross about people who judge others for their sexual behaviour with consenting adults.

Charlotte Gore likens our economy to a battery chicken farm. Cluck cluck.

Cllr Tim Ball ruminates on the decline of public toilet provision and its effect on the elderly and disabled.

The Barnet Eye would like to bring himself to your attention. Clearly nobody has ever told him what Pterry says about multiple exclamation marks… ;) The entry on sex education is good, though, and he looks like one to watch for those in the Barnet area.

A final favour?
How Mandelson helped Oligarch

And more…
Tories face call to repay Rothschild £1m loan
Spending Stalls and Businesses Slash U.S. Jobs
Palin: Obama = Nightmare Communist State
Campbell: Labour ‘has to rediscover fight’

DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Jennie Rigg (words by Aaron)

Moments of Clarity - Darrell muses the new multi-polar world, a new commitment to international institutions, and a post-Bush US foreign policy.

Innerbrat - Complex and honest. A blogger discusses her ADD and the difficulties of living with the condition.

NaBloPoMo - November is National Blog Posting month (and Nat. Novel Writing Month). Will you post everyday for a month? *glances accusingly at LibCon bloggers*

Himmelgarten Café - Excellent post on the effects of The Daily Mail on our collective psyche. Also, one-in-four Britons think that gay sex should be illegal. So a quarter of us think that the gays should should be forced into a monk-like celibacy. Did you ever see V for Vendetta? Maybe we should carry out experimental treatments on them too?

singing my song - The arguments against the disestablishment of the Church of England are pitiful, as this Christian blogger explains. What’s wrong with democracy in the Church, huh?

Daily Kos - Kids implore their parents not to follow peer-group pressure and dabble in voting McCain [video].

tygerland - More Tory sleaze? C’mon people! They’re all just as bad as each other. People don’t care about the major parties, so where else are they going to get their funding?

BBC [video] - It’s Sunday, so in our celebrity corner we have Keanu Reeves, who lends his support to an inspirational film about legendary Canadian rockers Anvil. Sarah’s Brown’s brother, Sean, was involved in making the film, which I suppose makes this a political story now. My head hurts…

60% want abortion law changed in N.I.

And more…
Campaigners at abortion rallies
Obama sets fundraising record of $150m
US gives troops immunity over Iraq crimes
Game delayed over Koran phrases

If all this is too depressing, contemplate the cheery fact that it’s National Baking Week.

DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Jennie Rigg (with a bit of help from Aaron)

MushKush doesn’t like the comparison of the current regime to Big Brother in 1984, because Big Brother is efficient.

Jonathan Calder, with casual disregard for the wank that such speculation may engender, wonders about Lembit Opik’s sanity.

A Lanson Boy has a theory, which is his and belongs to him, about Mandelson.

Costigan Quist proves that no news is ever new, with regard to Scouts getting Sex Education. Liberal Harpie also has a post on this issue.

[US section]
Jane Mayer/NewYorker - Palin promised to shake up DC and wasn’t seeking “their good opinion”, but it turns out she ran a calculated campaign to capture the imaginations of leading conservative opinion makers. McCain claims he and Palin are “soulmates“, but the Senator was seething he couldn’t pick his pal Joe Lieberman. [warning: long]

The Confluence wants American women to get angry.

Lib Dem Voice comment on the Powell endorsement of Obama, picking out the bit that really made me cheer.
[/US section]

And finally, Amused Cynicism has this week’s Britblog Roundup.

MPs Give up Battle to Restrict Abortion Rights

Elsewhere

Passports Will Be Needed To Buy Mobile Phones
South Korea Joins Global Rescue Plan
Tories Urge Small Business Help
Brown Recovery Cuts Tory Lead to Single Figures
Negative Equity hits 60,000 Families Per Month

DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Jennie Rigg

UK Polling Report dissects the latest polls.

Charlotte Gore is annoyed at the anti-progress attitude of the supposedly progressive Labour Party.

Rhetoric Innes has interviewed the contenders for the Welsh Lib Dem Leadership - Kirsty Williams here and Jenny Randerson here - but you’ll have to scroll past his enormous header to see what he wrote ;)

Minnesatva, a USian translated to our shores, is lost because of the lack of Thanksgiving.

Peter Black, AM, discusses the mobile phone story in the Sunday Times.

Lizbee has got hold of some vintage issues of Doctor Who magazine and, armed with a scanner, unearths some gems for us all, including the origins of Harry Potter and the Fourth Doctor encouraging K9 to do something very illegal to Romana…

And finally, if you didn’t listen to Soul Music - What a Wonderful World on Radio 4 this week, I urge you to do so while you still have chance:

Some of you young folks been saying to me “Hey Pops, what d’you mean, What a Wonderful World? How ’bout all them wars all over the place? You call them wonderful? And how about hunger, and pollution? They ain’t so wonderful either.” Well how about listening to old Pops for a minute? Seems to me, it ain’t the world that’s so bad, but what we’re doing to it. And all I’m saying is, see what a wonderful world it would be if we’d only give it a chance! Love, baby, love. That’s the secret.

Indeed, Louis, indeed.

UK banks ‘forced to seek £50bn’

Elsewhere
More on the £50 billion bank bailout
Banking giants to be nationalised
Mandelson dogged by links to Russian oligarch
Lords set to inflict crushing defeat on 42-day detention
Concern in G.O.P. After Rough Week for McCain
A £516 trillion derivatives ‘time-bomb’
‘Free drinks for women’ could be banned
European leaders agree on financial deal

DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Jennie Rigg

EXCLUSIVE! James Graham has a sense of humour. Shh. Don’t tell everyone ;)

Free Hich reports on the beginnings of Hicham Yezza’s case at Nottingham Crown Court. It seems there’s hope that he might not actually be jailed for downloading a publicly available resource while being brown.

Junkfood Science has a timely reminder about how polls and surveys work.

Rupert Read, Green councillor, feels vindicated. Even the Torygraph admits that Thatcherism is dead! YAY!

Chicken Yoghurt, meanwhile, has worked out what the one thing the working classes can depend on is, and he’s much less sure than Rupert that Thatcherism is dead.

The Acid Test is worried about the prospect of an Obama presidency for very Liberal reasons.

Stephen Glenn translates an SNP leaflet.

Non-Fluffy Pagans have a 70 comment and counting discussion going, which is a useful insight into modern paganism for those who have only ever encountered mainstream religions.

Blowing my own trumpet again: if you use Firefox you might find my post here useful.

And the Award-Winning Alix Mortimer has two excellent posts today. I couldn’t decide which one to link to, so you can have them both. Never let it be said that Liberal Conspiracy doesn’t give you more in these turbulent times ;)

Council salaries hit by bank collapses

Elsewhere
ACORN probe gives GOP new line of attack
North Korea Is Off Terror List After a Deal With the U.S.
Now we are facing our moment of truth - Brown
IMF in global ‘meltdown’ warning
Peter Mandelson joins richest Russian on his superyacht

DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Jennie Rigg

Hello, and welcome to your bumper Sunday netcast…

Jonathan Calder says even the Fail on Sunday are asking why Vince isn’t running the country yet. After the rumours all over the blogosphere earlier in the week that Vince may be called to number 11, this seems significant to me. But that’s possibly because I’ve been a naked Vince worshipper for ages…

And speaking of Vince, he has come out for Ros in the Lib Dem party presidential race (as Duncan Borrowman and Jonathan Calder and myself also report)

The Open Rights Group report on the No2ID pictorial protest in Parliament Square.

Peter Black is heartened by grassroots resistance to ID cards.

Liz Williams makes a great point about Death in Austria.

Chicken Yoghurt and Nich Starling have both been reading Blairwatch.

On Liberty Now wants to discuss Chandila Fernando’s idea of rebranding the Lib Dems.

Lib Dem Voice is joining the support for the Atheist Bus Campaign.

Also on LDV, the Award-winning Alix Mortimer wonders if it’s time for the Tories to ditch Boy George.

In lieu of Showbiz and Cookery (because we girlies are flighty and can’t keep to one or two subjects for long ;)), this week I bring you knitting. With a slightly science geek bent.

And if that’s not enough for you… You know the drill by now.

Treasury fiddles as markets crash

Elsewhere
Markets slump as Darling fails to calm investor fears
UK ‘already in recession’ as confidence plunges
Brown critic ‘ends hostilities’
McCain forced to defend N.C.
Obama Leading In Ohio, Poll Finds

DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Jennie Rigg

Millennium Elephant has his beady little eye on Tory European policy.

Feminist SF are publicising 6 Sci-fi classics to help you choose the next president.

Meral Ece discusses the idea that ethnic minorities should boycott the police force.

Bagrec wants you to vote for which high street store is the most depressing in these turbulent times. I can’t believe more people are not voting for the hellhole that is Wilkinson’s…

Jonathan Calder has terrible news about a priceless Liberal artefact falling into Tory hands.

On Liberty Now likes Peter Mandleson. Well, SOMEBODY has to!

Stephen Glenn is talking about sex, baybee. Why SHOULD someone go on the sex offenders register for perfectly legal and consensual sex?

SepticIsle eviscerates Quentin Letts. It’s BEAUTIFUL.

German savings pledge raises stakes for Gordon Brown

Elsewhere
42-day detention maybe not dropped as unworkable
McCain team gets personal
The £2trillion question: Will Brown guarantee deposits?
Va. GOP fears McCain could lose the state
Stocks fall. Everyone dies.

DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Jennie Rigg

Senator Stuart Svyret has some exclusive and shocking updates on the Jersey child abuse scandal (hat-tip: Jonathan Calder)

Charlie Stross wonders how we’re all going to cope with the first recession of the internet age.

Lib Dem Voice is giving a platform to all three presidential candidates. Two of the three have so far posted articles. At the risk of sounding like James Graham: where’s Lemby?

Political Betting wishes a very happy first birthday to Gordon Brown’s biggest cock-up.

Anton Vowl has discovered that not content with nicking stuff from Beau Bo, the Fail are now stealing from Fox News.

Laariii posts on the reason why even though women are breaking into male-dominated workplaces, men are not rushing to female-dominated jobs in the Bad Feminists group blog.

I’m still picking on the party’s public stance on equality (or lack thereof)

Amused Cynicism is chronicling the continuing assault on our civil liberties.

Ryan Cullen has created a special new version of Digg especially for Lib Dem members, although apparently anyone can look, so if you want to go see what excites geeky Lib Dems, knock yourself out. I don’t see the point of it myself, but James Graham likes it, so it MUST be useful… ;)

And amid all these tales of woe there’s one little beardy ray of sunshine, and it’s the Honourable Lady Mark Valladares, who has found recycling provision in Devon to be mightily impressive.

Obama to preempt McCain assault

Elsewhere
War on Taliban cannot be won, says army chief
Mandelson damned PM to top Tory
Power cuts feared in UK nuclear plants crisis
Palin makes Obama terrorist claim

DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Jennie Rigg

Smash Boredom has news of the Climate Rush protest in parliament square on the group blog Powerswitch.

Alas, a Blog! discusses Sarah Palin’s assertion that Obama hangs with terrorists.

Dave Hingsburger describes how a threatening phone message affects an activist.

I have some questions for the writers of the current Lib Dem party website.

Showbiz: Andrew K Lawston has a weekend of running into celebs.

Cookery: Junkfood Science takes a look at breakfast cereal.

Blame Maggie link of the week: Nich Starling blames the current economic crisis on Maggie

And, as always, if that’s not enough linkage for you, SepticIsle has more.

Cameron makes his conference speech

Elsewhere
France seeks €300bn rescue fund for Europe
Fresh criticism and concerns over “42 days”
Cabinet reshuffle expected
House prices fall further

We’re all doomed.
No, really, we’re all doomed.
… Except Rick Astley.

DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Jennie Rigg

Chicken Yoghurt shows naked enthusiasm for Cameron’s conference speech.

Jonathan Calder has an urgent appeal from the Labour Prime Minister.

Alas, a Blog! examines what might be to blame for the financial crisis.

Sexual Intelligence has the answer - clearly it’s all the fault of PORN!

Septic Isle went to the Sun’s fringe events at Conference. He’s a braver man than I…

Mat Bowles has an interesting book meme.

Oh, and speaking of memes, The Supreme Court meme is doing the rounds on LiveJournal - see Nick Whyte’s post for an example - do feel free to join in.

DAILY BLOG REVIEW *EXTRA* / by Lee Griffin

CiF/Joanna Lumley I don’t think we can highlight enough how the Governments illegal actions are finally being overturned on the Gurkhas.

Obsolete wraps up the analysis of the Tory conference. In short, the Tories are certainly appearing to be the next party in power, even if they sound as shaky as ever.

Amnesty International UK Is Northern Ireland a sexists paradise? With figures like these we have to ask, is there a cultural problem here in urgent need of change?

TPM highlights the hypocrisy of the McCain campaign team, on the one hand trying to appear noble and above petty politics, but then also trying to blame Obama for everything that’s wrong in the world.

A week is a long time muses on the benefits of mistakes if you clear up the mess well

CiF/Colin Matthews Thinks that all this talk of “no third runway” at Heathrow is unrealistic.

Extended list will be on my blog later

Bradford & Bingley nationalised

Tories
City must share blame - Osborne
Brown’s had his boom, now he’s bust says Cameron
It’s not policies that the Tories need, but a bit of gravitas
Tories: £20bn 180mph rail link instead of 3rd H’row runway

Elsewhere
UK: Tests for drugs in tap water
Bailout bill day of reckoning
Banks rattled by rescue
Olmert: Israel must quit East Jerusalem and Golan

DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Jennie Rigg

Plenty of comment on the Bradford and Bingley situation: Stephen Glenn reports a conversation between Senor Bradford and Senor Bingley; Chicken Yoghurt has productive suggestions for buy-to-let landlords; Jonny Nexus has no sympathy for small shareholders; Nich Starling has some regulatory suggestions for Gordon; Anton Vowl comments in his usual, inimitable, style; even So Very Doomed have picked up on it…

RM, a native New Yorker, has an open letter to Sarah Palin, telling her to stop using 9/11 as a political football.

Jonathan Calder has some suggestions for the Tories on how to conduct their conference.

Charles Darwin, meanwhile, has been casting a rheumy Victorian eye over the Labour party conference.

Live Science points out scientific proof that immigration reduces crime rates. Commenters pick holes with anecdotal “evidence” and no sense of irony.

Amused Cynicism has a retort for those who think that whatever Labour do, the Tories will be worse.

Liberal Harpie muses on the lack of male primary school teachers.

Charlotte Gore, champion of the underdog, sticks up for smokers.

Treasury to nationalise B&B bank

Elsewhere
Vaz under pressure over 28-day query
Tories plan to create 5,000 new schools
Breakthrough Reached in Negotiations on Bailout
McCain and Team Have Many Ties to Gambling Industry

DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Jennie Rigg

James Graham has been to Labour Conference and found it wanting.

Liberal England discusses the picture of Ed Balls in Nazi uniform.

Junkfood Science reports on the “success” of BMI assessment of children. My own daughter took part in the UK pilot of this recently…

Peter Black is stunned to discover that some dodgy folk have been contributing to Tory coffers.

Showbiz: Chicken Yoghurt’s tribute to Paul Newman; and Spirit of 1976 has the trailer for the new biopic of Dubya.

Cookery: This Little Piggy Went To Market has been making cookies; and organic box company Farmaround has a fine selection of vegetarian recipes for you to choose from.

(if you’re wondering why we have a showbiz and cookery section now, click here)

And if that’s not enough links for you, Scepticisle has more.

Earlier this year, I married my British fiancée and switched my visa status from “Highly Skilled Migrant” to “Spouse.” This wasn’t optional: Jacqui Smith, the British Home Secretary, had unilaterally (and on 24 hours’ notice) changed the rules for Highly Skilled Migrants to require a university degree, sending hundreds of long-term, productive residents of the UK away (my immigration lawyers had a client who employed over 100 Britons, had fathered two British children, and was nonetheless forced to leave the country, leaving the 100 jobless). Smith took this decision over howls of protests from the House of Lords and Parliament, who repeatedly sued her to change the rule back, winning victory after victory, but Smith kept on appealing (at tax-payer expense) until the High Court finally ordered her to relent (too late for me, alas).

Now, it seems, I will become one of the first people in Britain to be forced to carry a mandatory biometric RFID card in a pilot programme being deployed first to foreign students and we spousal visa holders (government is looking to curtail spousal visas altogether, capping all visas at 20,000 per year, including spousal visas, denying Britons the right to bring their spouses into the country once the quota has been filled). The card will be eventually linked to all of the national databases — credit, health, driving, spending. These are the same databases that the government has been repeatedly losing and haemmorhaging by the tens of million (literally).

My family fled the Soviet Union after the war. They were displaced people (my father was born in a refugee camp in Azerbaijan) who destroyed their papers to protect themselves from the draconian authorities who sought to limit their travel and migration. I used to think it was ironic that my family had gone from Europe to Canada and back to Europe again in a generation, but now I don’t know how long the Doctorows will be staying in Europe — or at least in the UK. The green and pleasant land has suspended habeas corpus, instituted street searches without particularlized suspicion, encourages its citizens to spy and snitch on each other, and now has issued mandatory universal papers that will track we dirty immigrants as we move around our adopted “home,” as part of a xenophobic campaign to arouse fear and resentment against migrants.

Many of my British friends act as if I’m crazy when I say that we must defeat Labour in the next election. We’re all good lefties, and a vote for the LibDems is considered tantamount to handing the country over to the Tories. But what could the Tories do that would trump what Labour has made of the country? The Labour Party has made a police state with a melting economy, a place where rampant xenophobia makes foreigners less and less welcome — where we are made to hand over our biometrics and carry papers as we conduct our lawful business. The only mainstream party to speak out against this measure is the LibDems, and they will have my vote.

To my friends, I say this: your Labour Party has taken my biometrics and will force me to carry the papers my grandparents destroyed when they fled the Soviet Union. In living memory, my family has been chased from its home by governments whose policies and justification the Labour Party has aped. Your Labour Party has made me afraid in Britain, and has made me seriously reconsider my settlement here. I am the father of a British citizen and the husband of a British citizen. I pay my tax. I am a natural-born citizen of the Commonwealth. The Labour Party ought not to treat me — nor any other migrant — in a way that violates our fundamental liberties. The Labour Party is unmaking Britain, turning it into the surveillance society that Britain’s foremost prophet of doom, George Orwell, warned against. Labour admits that we migrants are only the first step, and that every indignity that they visit upon us will be visited upon you, too. If you want to live and thrive in a free country, you must defend us too: we must all hang together, or we will surely hang separately.

How in the hell can any of you who post on this site even consider voting for the sort of party that DOES that? I can understand you being a party member, because, you know, change them from the inside and all, but voting for them? How can any of you justify it to yourselves? I would like an explanation, because I just. Don’t. Get it.

Hat tip: Purple Cthulhu. If you don’t know who Cory Doctorow is 1, Why aren’t you reading BoingBoing? it’s awesome! and 2, click here and here. Lib Dem position on this is neatly illustrated here.