Archive for the ‘British current affairs’ Category
Politics as a Darlington family tradition
December 11th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
In 1974, I was a Labour candidate for the (then) constituency of Wanstead & Woodford in the two General Elections of that year. In the first election, I came third. In the second election, I came second. I never ran for Parliament again. This weekend, my daughter-in-law Emily Darlington was selected to be the Labour […]
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Multinationals must pay their fair share of tax
December 7th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
Who says so? The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, no less. In a media statement, the Chair of the Committee Margaret Hodge states: “Global companies with huge operations in the UK generating significant amounts of income are getting away with paying little or no corporation tax here. This is outrageous and an insult to […]
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What does Leveson say about the Internet?
November 30th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
As I explained in this posting, a particular interest of mine around the Leveson Report is the relationship between print media and online media. According to an item in the “Guardian” newspaper today, in the course of 2,000 pages, Leveson only devotes one page to the Internet. But this is not accurate. In a report of 1,987 pages, […]
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Waiting for Leveson – my note to the Hacked Off campaign
November 26th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
This short note suggests that the Leveson Report might need to be seen in the wider context of the Government’s Communications Review which is being led by the Department for Culture, Media & Sport. In May 2011, the then Secretary of State Jeremy Hunt issued an open letter which launched the DCMS Communications Review which is […]
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The rise and rise of Stella Creasy
November 25th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
On an earlier version of this blog, I tipped Barack Obama as a possible future US President while he was still fighting for a Senate seat in Illinois. so I hope that readers of this blog were watching when, almost two years ago, I did a posting suggesting that Stella Creasy, then a newly-elected MP […]
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Looking out for Leveson – and the struggle to achieve an effective system of press regulation
November 24th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
This week, I visited the offices of Hacked Off, the campaign for a free and accountable press, and, on Thursday, the Leveson inquiry will report when the judge will make recommendations on the future of press regulation in the UK. Meanwhile I’ve been looking at the book “Everybody’s Hacked Off” by Brian Cathcart and I support fully […]
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A half term report on Britain’s Coalition Government
November 13th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
We are half way through the five year term of the British Parliament elected in June 2010. We have had a Coalition Govrenment dominated by the Conservative Party. So, how has the Government done? The Labour Party opposition has helpfully produced this assessment.
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A simple graph that shows how the UK is becoming like the USA
October 16th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
The graph shows government spending as a proportion of Gross Domestic Product and you can view it – and the accompanying article by Aditya Chakrabortty – here. Chakrabortty explains the messages of the graph as follows: “Drawing on IMF figures published last week, the graph compares what will happen to government spending in Britain up to […]
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The role of the Special Adviser in the British political system
October 14th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
In the political world, they are know as Spads – short for Special Advisers. They are political appointments by Secretaries of State in Britain’s government. In the Wilson/Callaghan Governments, I was a Special Adviser in two Departments: the Northern Ireland Office and the Home Office. In the Blair/Brown Governments, my son Richard Darlington was a […]
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Is there a common thread to the recent scandals in British public life?
October 13th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
The South Yorkshire police massively falsified evidence to cover up appalling failures in their handling of the Hillsborough disaster of 1989. The banks obscured their casino-like investment and lending practices until they had to be baled out by the Government in 2008. The “Daily Telegraph” revealed astonishing abuse of the expenses system by hundreds of […]
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