Xinomorph

David Davis, one of the Conservatives' best-known MPs, has resigned as Shadow Home Secretary.

The move has been a shock to the political world, and has been planned in order to trigger a by-election. Davis will fight to be re-elected, on a stance of being opposed to the prospect of being able to arrest and detain suspects for up to 42 days without charge, which was approved in the Commons yesterday.

The bill, supposedly aimed at combatting terrorism, changes the present limit of 28 days - which itself had been extended from 48 hours between 2000 and 2006.

The BBC is reporting that Davis has made a deal with Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg - whose party, along with the Conservatives, also opposed the changes - that a Lib Dem candidate would not be put forward for the race.

The BBC have produced a short Q&A over the changes, which can be found here.

In a written answer to a question from the Conservatives, it has been revealed that, in the past five years, the pitifully miniscule sum of £230 has been spent on promoting St. George's Day.

Meanwhile, that very same Government has been urging the public to "reclaim the day from bigots".

England's national day, celebrated on the 23rd of April, had just £116 of investment this year, £114 last year, and nothing in the previous three.

Yet another abhorrently shameful case of dictatorial do-as-we-say-not-as-we-do socialist politics.

New London mayor Boris Johnson today formally announced the banning of consumption of alcohol on London's buses, Tube, trams, mainline trains, and the DLR. The plan was one of Johnson's election pledges - he beat Ken Livingstone's bid for a third mayoralty term last Thursday - and will come into effect on 1st June 2008.

Finally, some real on-the-ground progress which people will see for themselves.

Boris wins!

For better or worse, I am thrilled to learn that Boris Johnson has been elected as the second ever directly-elected Mayor of London, with a majority of almost 140,000. It'll take a while for anything to bed down of course, but it'll be an exciting next 6 months or so for London.

The ride starts here, folks!

A big happy St. George's Day to one and all! I would suggest that we all go and slay us some dragons, but they don't exist. ('Cos the big man killed 'em all.)

"God for Harry, England and Saint George!"

Whilst official government figures show that attacks on firefighters dropped from 1,300 in 2006 to just 400 in 2007, the FBU's Easy Targets? report has shown an INCREASE to 1,500.

Aside from the unique case of the government getting something wrong, this is an utterly abhorrent situation. These brave men and women are supposed to be offering us protection and performing life-saving tasks in tricky circumstances, and yet receive no more respect than a tramp.

According to the report, most attacks take place in the North-West of England, particularly in areas of poor housing and/or social depravation. Whilst that's not exactly what one would call a surprise, I just do not understand the mentality of the kinds of scum who do such a thing.

A number of specific cases were highlighted in the report:

John Cartwright, a firefighter in Greater Manchester, said he and his colleagues were attacked as they tried to put out a large bonfire.


He said: "We began to extinguish the fire, then we were making up the equipment when we were attacked by about 30 youths. One of the firefighters had six on top of him, punching him. They chucked bottles at us, bricks, garden ornaments."

And not forgetting:

In one incident a hoaxer lured firefighters to a supposed car fire in Cheshire before attacking them with bricks. In another, a petrol bomb was thrown at a fire engine in Merseyside as firemen tackled a rubbish blaze.

All I can say is that, with any luck, the perpetrators of such abhorrent attacks will need help one day, but be within what the fire brigades have defined as a no-go area. Similar incidents have been highlighted recently concerning attacks on ambulance and medical staff on emergency call-outs, so perhaps that is the only answer.

In a shocking announcement (!), the National Audit Office has this week said that the aid given by the UK to other countries - apparently a £461 million budget - is often misused, and most of that awarded in 2007 went to countries with major corruption scandals.

Wow. This is perhaps the most shocking piece of news that I've heard. Ever. I mean, hard-earned British tax-payers' money being wasted elsewhere?! Who would have believed it?

In case you didn't know, I'm being sarcastic.

What a sorry situation we've got ourselves in. Can we not just cut off all overseas aid? It seems that most of the problems we have here could be solved with a bit of investment, and I fail to see how we can go around wasting our money when there are such grave problems at home. Seriously, how can we go around lecturing other people how to run their country - and giving them our money - when we can't get our own house in order? Preposterous situation.

Cancel all aid and spend it here.