Archive for the ‘British current affairs’ Category
Here comes the judge
October 5th, 2006 by Roger Darlington
In my capaciry as a member of the Postwatch Council, I spent this morning at Royal Mail Headquarters acting as a judge on a panel to choose the best post office in each of three categories for each of two regions. It was really encouraging to see how much effort Post Office staff and sub-postmasters […]
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
Confessions of a news junkie
October 1st, 2006 by Roger Darlington
I confess that I have an enormous interest in and appetite for news & current affairs and its alter ego history. So, when I go on holiday (I’ve just spent a week in Uzbekistan), I’m reluctant to cancel the newspapers unless I’m away for longer than a week because I don’t what to feel that […]
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
Two new political bloggers
October 1st, 2006 by Roger Darlington
As is evident from NightHawk, I’m a great enthusiast for blogging and for politics and for the combination of the two. The party conference season has seen the arrival of two new heavyweight political bloggers from opposite ends of the political spectrum. Just before last week’s Labour Party Conference, former Labour Government Cabinet Minister Michael […]
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
Why Watson went
September 7th, 2006 by Roger Darlington
Tom Watson was the most senior of the eight people whose resignations this week forced Tony Blair to be clearer about when he would step down as Prime Minister. Watson has previously been best known as the first MP to have a weblog and through this blog we have his explanation of why he acted […]
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
The new face of British trade unionism
September 6th, 2006 by Roger Darlington
For the third consecutive year, I’m helping my friend Eric Lee, the founder of LabourStart, with the online course he runs for Indiana University in the United States looking at comparative labour movements. The course examines trade unionism in a vareity of very different countries and this week I am the guest tutor for the […]
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
Remembering Robin Cook
August 5th, 2006 by Roger Darlington
The senior and respected Labour Party politician Robin Cook – whom I met several times – died a year ago this weekend. The orgnaisation Compass remembers him.
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
How many post offices do we need?
July 25th, 2006 by Roger Darlington
The House of Commons rises for the summer recess today to start a 76-day break. Among the many issues with which the Government will have to grapple while MPs are away is the future role, size and funding of the Post Office network. The subject was examined last week by a special hearing of the […]
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
The massive threat of carousel fraud
July 24th, 2006 by Roger Darlington
You’ve probably never heard of it. But HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) reckon that it accounted for a record £7.4 billion of imports and exports in the first quarter of the current financial year . That represents a six-fold increase in a year. That means that this financial year the total losses to the Exchequer […]
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
Should Royal Mail be privatised?
July 11th, 2006 by Roger Darlington
This lunchtime, I attended a seminar organised by the Social Market Foundation at which three different models were proposed for the creation of shares in Royal Mail which is currently 100% owned by the Government. Model 1: This was put forward by Conservative MP Tom Yeo, former Shadow spokeperson for Trade & Industry. He wants […]
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (1)
One year later ..
July 7th, 2006 by Roger Darlington
For all of us in Britain and most especially those of us who live in London, today has been the first anniversary of the four suicide bombs that killed a total of 52 people and injured many more. Last year, I was fortunate that I was not in London – I was out in High […]
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)