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"Homosexual desire is morally just like heterosexual desire, except that the object is of the same sex as the subject"
What exactly is wrong with this statement? Between consenting adults homosexual desire is as moral as heterosexual desire. It is not the job of the state to dictate with whom one can have sex if it is between consenting adults.
Free speech
The freedom to entertain and express opinions, however offensive to others, has been regarded since Locke as the sine qua non of a free society. This freedom was enshrined in the American Constitution, defended in the face of the Victorian moralists by John Stuart Mill, and upheld in our time by...
Gov. LePage tried this in Maine (USA) last week & the legislature fortunately shot it down in fine form. You have to wonder when these politicians want limit access to what they do in our name.
David Cameron considers limiting Freedom of Information system
Newsnight reports on Downing Street's belief that there needs to be some private places in government where politicians and officials can discuss policy ideas without being subject to Freedom of Information requests.
Actually I am no longer in the Republican Primary. So I should be included with any independents (note the deadline for independent signatures is 1 June not 15 March).
Independents: Angus King, Eliot Cutler, Andrew Ian Dodge
Georgia, Maine, Ohio, Tennessee Question Suggestions
Here's PPP's plan over the next few days: -We'll release numbers on the Washington caucus tonight, likely between 1 and 1:30 AM eastern. -We'll release a first look at all the primary races in North Carolina tomorrow morning. For this weekend we're going to poll the GOP race in 3 states: Georgia...
More marxist lunacy from a so-called Conservative government. Does Osborne realise this is going to drive more UK citizens with money away from the UK? Business are already leaving because of the taxes, this sort of thing will just drive more away. Tax havens and low cost countries must be smiling with glee at this announcement.
George Osborne's crackdown on Swiss bank accounts may yield £5 billion for Briish taxpayers
By Tim Montgomerie Follow Tim on Twitter. For years the "Swiss bank account" has been the refuge for many tax dodgers and criminals. George Osborne claims those times are over: "Tax evasion is wrong at the best of times, but in economic circumstances like this it means that hard-pressed la...
"The final paragraph sums up the incredibly wrongheaded & dangerous thinking behind this post."
Well said, because of violent thugs, authoritarians want to use it to take away the rights of law-abiding citizens in collective punishment. This is knee-jerk authoritarianism and the only people to suffer will be honest citizens trying to find out what is going on. Twitter/blogs/Facebook were far better informed than the MSM about hot spots and where to avoid.
Never mind the fact the fact rioters were not using social media but password protected peer-to-peer networks on Blackberries. You would expect an MP to write a more informed piece on such a sensitive subject. This piece smacks of ignorance and panic, two things that are dangerous in an elected official.
Nadine Dorries: We should shut down social media networking sites during a public disturbance
Nadine Dorries is MP for Mid Bedfordshire and a committee chairman on the Speaker's Panel. I got caught this morning by the Today programme. The discussion was with Andrew Lilico, who posted on here yesterday regarding the proposed shutting down of social media networking sites during a publ...
Depends on how you define "decent" obviously. I have friends who worked for the BBC who left senior positions because they were being edited to fit with the BBC's left bias. The BBC was a great institution, it no longer is, its a bully in the media space that distorts everything it is involved with.
Sam Bowman: Media plurality depends on reform of the BBC
Sam Bowman is Head of Research at the Adam Smith Institute News International isn’t a monopoly, and it never has been. As Tim’s post this week showed, the BBC dominates broadcast and online news, and News International’s newspaper holdings can at best be seen as a strong stake in a competitive...
"rampant libertarianism" if you believe sir anything about modern British society is libertarian you have no understanding of what "libertarianism" means. Modern British society has been pushed between statist meddling socialists & socialist-light in the form of Heath, Major & Cameron. Instead of extending freedom for the individual repeated governments have increased the pressure of the government foot on individual rights. Alas exactly the same in the US.
RC: Well said.
David Cowan: The current division inside the Conservative Party is between the “Old Whigs” and the “High Tories”
David Cowan is an intern at the Institute for Economic Affairs and will be going to Christ’s College, Cambridge, in the autumn to read History. There has been a public debate over the divide between “liberal conservatism” and “mainstream conservatism”. The focus has been on policy differences...
Then you haven't seen any speeches by Hermain Cain. Cain speaks in a manner not dissimilar to Reagan and has none of the baggage that Huckabee has from his Gov. past.
Rupert Myers: Mike Huckabee, a man to watch?
Rupert Myers is a barrister and writer. When the next US presidential race rolls into town in 2012, the Republicans may pick as their candidate someone who received an unusually low level of attention in the British press in 2008, and yet came second in the delegate count to John McCain, an...
Huckabee would be little improvement over Obama. He is a Christian Democrat in the European sense. He is just as big government as a socialist, just comes at it from a different perspective. Here is a good collection of his rants and beliefs. It includes why he is clearly not a tea party supported candidate.
Rupert Myers: Mike Huckabee, a man to watch?
Rupert Myers is a barrister and writer. When the next US presidential race rolls into town in 2012, the Republicans may pick as their candidate someone who received an unusually low level of attention in the British press in 2008, and yet came second in the delegate count to John McCain, an...
Sad to see Beck rather above Krauthammer. Too many entertainers in that mix for me rather than actual pundits.
The top ten pundits among Republican activists
1,152 Republican activists, as identified by YouGov America and polled by ConservativeHome.com, have chosen their favorite pundits. These pundits, more than any other, will be the talking heads who will influence the choice of the GOP's nominee for 2012. Republican activists were each asked t...
"the obnoxious Tea Party movement."
Because there is nothing more obnoxious than demanding lower taxes, less regulation and far less government meddling. If you had managed to leave this ignorant phrase out of your screed you might be taken more seriously. Obviously you base your opinions on the biases of the BBC.
Surely it might be a better idea to deal with anti-semitic attacks first since there are far more instances (by a significant percentage) than of "Islamophobic" incidents.
Three tests for a new All-Party Group on Islamophobia
By Paul Goodman As far as I know, I was the first MP to call for a Parliamentary inquiry into anti-Muslim hatred and violence - last March, writing on this site, and concluding as follows - "There are calls at present for an all-party inquiry into Islamophobia– mirroring the previous all-party e...
I agree with the sentiment. Picking on the BNP unduly just makes their point about being "victims". Leave them alone, laugh at them and let them wallow in the mire in which they inhabit.
James Bethell: Sending Nick Griffin to jail would hand the BNP a lifeline
By James Bethell, Director of NothingBritish.com Not many defendants at the High Court actually want a night in prison but when Nick Griffin stands in the High Court today he will be praying for a bit of bird. Because martyrdom (or at least a few nights in the clink) is the only way he can r...
My take on the event after watching the whole thing live on TV.
Reflections on Glenn Beck’s rally
Donal Blaney is the Chief Executive of the Young Britons’ Foundation. Barack Obama took time off the golf course this weekend to reveal that he missed Glenn Beck’s historic Restoring Honor Rally in Washington DC this past weekend. If he wishes to watch this remarkable gathering of conservati...
I think the biggest problem is the penchant for the BBC & ITV to have comics on that are incredibly unfunny just because they are left (or because they are ethnic & left). I used to listen to "The Now Show" because I rather like Mitch Benn (well he is a friend), but found increasingly hard because of the rest of the show is so unfunny.
IQ is by far the funniest of the panels shows because it relies on some intelligence and wit.
PS: Does anyone else think its odd Harry Enfield's last show is not on iTunes? The BBC puts every other bit of crap they produce comedy wise but not that.
I think I can just about get away with this
CentreRight is a smashing forum that gives those of us privileged enough to be contributors the chance to write about pretty much anything. There is a basic requirement, however, that pieces should be vaguely political. Well, this post is that (exactly that). But it's also terrifically self-se...
Eammon Butler @ the ASI for continuing to push the free-market ideals even when no one wants to listen. His books are both fascinating and illuminating. They continue to make great strides in educating young adults in the ways of both Adam Smith and the free market.
Who are the most influential centre Right thinkers?
In ConservativeHome's search for the most hundred influential people on the Right today, readers have already supplied nominations for influential journalists and yesterday for backbenchers. Today we'd like your nominations for influential think tank chiefs and other thought leaders including...
What is exactly wrong with the party of No considering what Obama and Pelosi are doing? Socialist take-over of every industry they want, playing the racism card against of their critics and completely incompetent foreign policy.
Republican Governors accused of evoking Guy Fawkes in anti-Obama 'Remember November' campaign
Three months ago US Republican Governors launched a web-based 'Remember November' campaign that aims to rally voters for this year's mid-term elections on 2nd November. The first video is Reaganite in its inspirational tone: The second video is highly negative about President Obama's record a...
"Naked Bias" as in not sycophantic to terrorists (and their supporters like Iran( who want to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. If you want that you best read the BBC, Guardian et al.
There would be no blockade if the people of Gaza had set about building a peaceful and prosperous land (rather than electing brutal lawless Islamist terrorists)
Lord Mandelson’s recent reflection on Blair’s refusal to condemn Israel during its war against Hizbollah makes poignant reading this week: “[Tony] really needed friends and it would have been easier for him to play to the gallery - but he chose not to. It speaks volumes for Tony Blair. He was ...
Cameron displays once again that he is a disgrace as a Prime Minister. Trashing Israel, spreading lies about Gaza and supporting Turkey getting into the EU. Nice to see Cameron supporting terrorists (Hamas) and their supporters (Turkey). Is this really what Conservatives voted for when they elected him leader?
I was wrong he isn't Heath II, he is Chamberlain II.
Gaza is a "prison camp", says Cameron
By Tim Montgomerie In a significant increase in the rhetorical temperature, David Cameron has renewed his condemnation of Israel for blockading Gaza and compared the situation in the Hamas-controlled territory to a "prison camp": “Turkey's relationships in the [Middle East] region, both with Isr...
Andrew Dodge is now following Conservative Home
Jul 24, 2010
Hague has sold out his former supporters and beliefs for power. Bercow Mark II?
William Hague is not Right-wing
I've said it. Paul Goodman has said it. Now, in a masterful, definitive piece, The Economist's Bagehot column has said it. "Mr Hague is pragmatism incarnate." Meet the McKinsey Foreign Secretary. The continuing idea that he is on the Right of today's Conservative Party confirms that first imp...
"Does not matter what the population as a whole want "
Then how about giving the population what they want? A referendum on the EU, if you care so much about how they really thing. Poll after poll showing the over-whelming distrust of Europe is obviously not enough.
The voice of the anti-EU Tory Right will be heard on the influential new Backbench Business Committee
One of the innovations in this new Parliament is the creation of a BackBench Business Committee which is gaining the power from the Establishment to determine the backbencher-initiated business in the Commons chamber and Westminster Hall. Last week Labour MP Natascha Engel beat Tory MP and forme...
Lets hope there is not another cull of those on the right as happened in the last time there was a big shake-up. However considering Cameron's contretemps with the 1922 Com. I suspect they will be tempted to put his ideological stamp on the candidates list.
Mystery surrounds CCHQ's plans for the candidates' list and candidate selection
What plans does CCHQ now have for the candidates' list and candidate selection? The short answer is that we do not yet know, and more to the point, nor do any of the 1,000 or so people who were on the candidates' list prior to the general election. Those who unsuccessfully contested seats at the...
He is merely being honest. Being in coalition with the L-Ds means that right of the party has been completely cut out. Its now a centrist party that can conveniently ignore the right-of-centre in the Conservative Party & the country.
Who are the allies and who the opponents?
ToryDiary quotes the following from Anne McElvoy's article in today's Sunday Times: "Steve Hilton, whose symbolic “New Tory” bicycle now has its own parking space at Downing Street, insists that the gamble was worth it. He believes the “New Politics” the debates produced are superior to the pro...
Dan humourless? According to whom? He has always been rather jovial when I have chatted to him.
David Davis, Dan Hannan and Michael Forsyth seen as most effective representatives of Conservative Right
Two weeks ago I published the first ConservativeHome league table for the Cabinet. The league table ranked Cabinet ministers according to whether Tory members were satisfied or dissatisfied with them. At the top of the table were William Hague, Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Gove. As part of m...
Hannan "ruined" his career eh? Wonder how much of a vote he will get next Euro elections (I am guessing a stellar win like last time) and last I checked he still writes for the Daily Telegraph.
No offence but I would love to have a "ruined" career like that.
David Davis, Dan Hannan and Michael Forsyth seen as most effective representatives of Conservative Right
Two weeks ago I published the first ConservativeHome league table for the Cabinet. The league table ranked Cabinet ministers according to whether Tory members were satisfied or dissatisfied with them. At the top of the table were William Hague, Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Gove. As part of m...
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