Women Drivers*

Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman has pleaded guilty to an incident last year where she crashed her car whilst on her mobile and left the scene without giving her details.

She was charged with two offences of driving without due care and attention and driving while using a hand-held mobile phone. The punishment? £350 and 3 points on her license.

What a joke!

Failing to stop as Harriet did is a 5-10 points endorsement, driving whilst using a mobile is a 3 points endorsement and driving without due care and attention is 3-9 points endorsement. One rule for them...

But let's not despair Harman now has nine points on her license, only 3 more for a minimum 6 month ban, there must be an unhappy policeman on a mission to catch her again.

*My rather provocative headline was chosen not out of sexism but purely to wind up Harriet Harman just on the very unlikely off chance she happens to be reading this blog.

A Different Kind Of Pipe Organ

Among the deluge of weather related injuries at Southampton General Hospital this week, the Southern Daily Echo reports that they had to deal with a rather unusual incident. A man had become...erm....stuck in a metal pipe, but doctors in Casualty were unable to free him because the restricted blood flow had caused him to become erect. They had to call in Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service:

A MAN who got his genitalia stuck in a steel pipe had to be cut free by eight firefighters using an industrial grinder.

The heavy duty cutting gear had to be used to remove the three-inch long hollow pipe after medics were unable to release it.

The painstaking operation, which involved eight firefighters, took around an hour.

Eight fireman? That seems a lot, I wonder if not all them had their minds engaged in a fully professional manner.

The man, in his 30s, offered no explanation for his predicament but was said to be “quite concerned and anxious”. He had been given an anaesthetic to prepare for the procedure.

No explanation eh? It's ok I think we can guess. St Mary’s crew manager Adrian Johnson said:

“It was a very delicate operation. We did not want anything heating up.

The person who did it deserves a commendation for his nerve and steady hand.”

Meanwhile, watch manager Greg Garrett from Redbridge station added: “I’ve only come across this type of thing three or four times in my 17 years as a firefighter. It’s not a daily occurrence.”

Being 'quite concerned and anxious' has to be contended for understatement of the year. I wonder what he was most anxious about; the humiliation of his predicament, or the thought of one small slip with an industrial angle grinder, or that the pipe was only 3 inches long?

Video Recordings Act

Previously I've written about the farce that is the 1984 Video Recordings Act which is no longer enforceable in UK courts because of a technical loophole.

Currently going through Parliament is the Video Recordings Bill which is designed to correct this anomaly, and 'thankfully' this time our real government in Brussels was notified on 10th September 2009, so when it does become an Act it will be enforceable.

Yesterday my MP Ed Vaizey took part in this debate with Sion Simon and made a couple of interesting points (my emphasis):

it may be worth noting that the legislation was not notified in draft because it was a private Member's Bill, not a Government Bill. Will the Minister elaborate on how the error was discovered in 2009 and, to return to the point, on when the Cabinet Office intends to conclude its audit of all Acts passed since 1984 in terms of their compliance with the technical standards directive [Directive 83/189 (now Directive 98/34)]?

It'll be interesting to see when this audit concludes what other acts are unenforceable because of the EU. The exchange continues:

Ed Vaizey: As I understand it, an Act passed by a sovereign Parliament is not an Act unless it has been approved by Brussels.

Siôn Simon: I want to reassure the hon. Gentleman that the Act remains an Act: an Act of this Parliament is an Act of Parliament when it is an Act of Parliament. All that is in question is the enforceability of the Act, which remains on the statute book.

That's almost a; 'move along nothing to see here' response, not much point having Acts of Parliament if they're unenforceable, as Vaizey argues:

Ed Vaizey: We are in danger of descending into sophistry. It is an Act of Parliament, but it is a toothless one unless it is referred to Brussels. That is the situation that we are in.

Indeed it is...

Sion Simon Quits

One of the reasons I was looking forward to this year's general election was that it was likely to contain more than its fair share of 'Portillo Moments' - moments where particularly odious MPs unexpectedly lose their seats.

High on my list was Sion Simon for this, this and this. Sadly, he's decided to desert the sinking ship that is the Labour Government, and quit before the election. The perfect epitaph to his political career I think.

BBC Trust Is To Review The Impartiality Of Its Science Coverage

The BBC’s governing body will carry out a review in the spring to assess the "accuracy and impartiality" of the corporation's coverage of science.

The review comes after repeated criticism of the broadcaster’s handling of green issues. It has been accused of acting like a cheerleader for the theory that climate change is a man-made phenomenon.

About time too, though I won't get too excited about the outcome. It does suggest that the BBC has received a substantial number of complaints especially regarding Climategate. Which reminds me I've yet to receive a response to my last complaint.

hattip: James Delingpole

A Party, A Brewery and Organising

It looks increasingly likely that today's plot is fizzling out. Yet again Labour shows it has as much capability of organising a leadership coup as hosting a party in a brewery.

The coup was so disorganised, that Labour MPs were at first sent a blank email by mistake.

Most notable about today's events is that many senior members of the cabinet stayed quiet to see how it panned out and then only issued lukewarm statements after many hours.

Brown looks set to suvive but even more damaged; his party and cabinet have made it obvious they don't rate him as leader but on he continues.

Dignity is clearly not a word in his vocabulary. It will be Labour's loss come May.

Brown Leadership Challenge

Breaking news in the last half hour that a challenge has been launched against Gordon Brown's leadership.

James Macintyre in the New Statesman reports:

A letter is being circulated among Labour MPs this afternoon calling for a secret ballot on Gordon Brown's leadership.

According to one MP who would like Brown to leave office, the letter is being coordinated by a number of rebels including the former cabinet ministers Charles Clarke, Patricia Hewitt and Geoff Hoon.

I still remain unconvinced that Brown will be toppled, but who knows...

Update: It's been nearly an hour and half since the news broke, this needs momentum if it is to be successful, so a cabinet resignation is surely a must. Not one yet, if there is to be one, it will probably be in the next hour.

Update 14:50. No resignations yet, but the silence from the Cabinet is revealing, no big hitters have yet come out and given their support to Brown. The longer this goes on, the more worrying it is for Brown. ITV News is speculating whether Harman is behind the plot. Could Brown call their bluff and go to the country?

Update 19:48. After a brief interlude down the pub I return to not much news so far. It appears Jack Straw has supported Brown as has Alan Johnson - both linked for quite some time to replacing Brown on a temporary basis for the election as leader, however other cabinet members have issued only lukewarm support including Darling and Mandelson.

Iain Dale is reporting that Mandelson is rumoured to be pulling out of a Newsnight interview this evening.

Curiouser and curiouser. Labour can't even conduct a coup properly and we're supposed to trust them to run the country?

It's still my view Brown will lead Labour into the next election - the Labour party lack the guts and ruthlessness to dispatch him.

Explosive Stuff

Since the failed Christmas bomb attempt on a plane bound for Detroit, the subject of airport security has been having one of its regular outings in the news.

While the the UK waits patiently for Brussels' permission to install full body scanners at its airports, the issue of security has been highlighted once again, this time in slightly more odd circumstances.

In what appears to have been a test run, Slovak authorities planted explosives in an unwitting man's luggage as part of an airport security exercise, to see if they would be spotted - which they weren't. That's reassuring!

The man then flew onto Dublin, with the explosives remaining undetected and went home. No-one discovered them until the Irish were informed three days later by Slovakian authorities!

Astonishing. Not only were they planted on an unsuspecting traveller - rather than using a goverment agent - but it took them 3 days to contact the Irish government.

Needless to say the Irish are not best pleased.

Last Ditch Coup?

Paul Waugh on his Evening Standard blog is reporting rumours of a possible cabinet resignation in protest at Brown's leadership:

“….In the last few hours, the rumours have been swirling around again that a Cabinet minister could quit in protest at Gordon’s leadership. The plotters have certainly asked a sympathetic minister to do so - but whether he will do so is another matter

When I just confronted one Cabinet minister - who had been described in a pre-Christmas plotters meeting as being deeply unhappy - he simply said he didn’t want his name linked in any way to such reports. Perhaps significantly (and he ain’t a usual suspect, believe me), he refused to comment publicly or privately on whether Gordon was leading the party in the right direction.

There is certainly something going on, but with many MPs only just making their way back to Parliament through the snow and wind, it’s difficult to assess how coordinated this all is.

Surely it's too late now, any changes of leadership this close to an election could be more damaging than keeping Brown on. There certainly isn't time for a Labour leader election, it would have to be an assassination and a quick coronation.

I have doubts whether these rumours will amount to very much, Labour has a history of all talk and not much else regarding Brown's leadership, but with Tory Bear's post yesterday as well, it's certainly intriguing.

Update: Channel Four news is running with it as well.

Update II: The New Statesman is reporting that it was Tessa Jowell. I'm not so sure, are Number Ten trying to flush out the real culprit?

More Patronising Nonsense

As part of Labour's election campaign, the Government aims to micromanage the nation's eating habits by; introducing more red tape requiring restaurants to label foods described by the Government as unhealthy, regulating the size of snacks such as crisps and chocolates, and telling private companies how to sell their goods abolishing BOGOF deals on food.

As is usual with this government, though, they're all measures that have been announced before - the goverment leading by example it seems in recycling.

A couple of passages though are laughable:

The use of "best before" dates and "sell by" dates will also be sidelined to stop people throwing away edible food in favour of a "use by" label that refers to when food is no longer safe to eat.

I wonder how they will get away with that one, considering these labels are required under EU law; Directive 2000/13/EC?

And then (my emphasis):

Hilary Benn, the Environment Secretary, who is due to announce the new strategy at the Oxford Farming Conference, said the UK could be a "food superpower" in the next ten years by revolutionising farming and food manufacturing.

Presumably Benn has not heard of the CAP which is detrimental to UK farmers. The rest of the article is then sprinkled with phrases - no doubt designed to motivate us - linked to WWII:

The first major food strategy to be published since World War Two establishes a new "Healthy Food Code of Practice"

And

Vegetable patches will be springing up around schools and hospitals as a result of a scheme inspired by the Dig for Victory campaign during the Second World war that saw thousands of acres of land brought into production for food.

WWII of course being the conflict where the UK had to defend herself against European invasion. Seriously it is impossible to make this stuff up.