Emma Burnell says that politics has to be about morality. I’m not sure, for at least four reasons. 1. Morality is weak against power. If there is any moral truth at all, it is that the mass murder of innocent civilians is wrong. But when it happens, the “international community” does nothing to stop it.

In thirteen years of authoritarian government, the Labour Party inflicted 4,400 new laws on the UK – more than any other government in British history. Though Labour is all over the place on almost every policy in Opposition – alternating between Tory and Trot – there’s one thing in which they’re consistent. Labour is still determined to be to the far right of the Lib...

Here's a nice roundup of the current state of play in the Wang Lijun affair. Money graf: The official Xinhua News Agency published a story today from a Chongqing paper extolling the city’s progress in reducing crime and corruption since...

My word! Mick Aston quits Time Team after producers hire former model co-presenter Mick Aston, the archeologist, has quit Time Team after producers hired a former model as the programme’s co-presenter. So, toothsome bimbo to get her nipples out for the lads. Kown as the Dimmock Strategy. Woo Hoo! And I can see why a

From April, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) will be able to demand a security from companies when the taxman considers there is a “serious risk” that the business will try to dodge PAYE or National Insurance Contributions (NICs). As they say: Tax officials added that the “amount of tax at risk, the employer’s previous behaviour

In a debate today in Parliament Angela Smith, Member of Parliament for Penistone and Stocksbridge, will identify the major issues the borough faces in the extremely difficult economic circumstances it is facing. For generations the town had depended on the coal industry to provide large scale manual labour employment and a social infrastructure. This was abruptly withdrawn leaving a vacuum that is...

There has been plenty of commentary about concerning Charles Dickens, as it is the 200th year of his birth. Here is an entry, written back in 2006 at The Freeman, about him, which looks pretty interesting, and some of the comments (not all of which are very praiseworthy) are worth reading. I never really quite got into reading Dickens. At school, I had to study such books as Oliver Twist and David...

I have an article on the Guardian site today on why it's important to continue banker bashing. Bankers are the biggest recipients of government handouts of our time. They also have extraordinary powers over our lives. Why isn't either of this being adequately challenged? But there are more reasons too.

This year alone, high youth unemployment will cost government £4.8bn in lost tax revenues and unemployment benefits, more than the budget for further education for 16 to 19 year-olds, and cost the economy £10.7bn in lost output, the report said. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), which contributed to the report, said

This India thing: how incompetent do you have to be not to be able to give money away? And that's not the best of it. Sources in Delhi suggested British officials begged India to accept the aid. One commented: 'They said British ministers had spent political capital justifying the aid to their electorate.Yes, indeed: we're all in this together and got to tighten our belts, but we need to fight har...