Tories can never be progressives.

In a most extaordinary outburst George Osborne;

“Addressing the think-tank Demos, George Osborne argued that the Conservative Party is now the most powerful vehicle for change in this country – and the best hope for radicals and progressives…”

I am unaccustomed to even think of Tories being anything but churlish, reactionary and base. The only change Conservatives want is to roll forward cutting taxes for the wealthy and protecting and extending private enterprise spivs and eliminate as much of the public sector that they can. Antyone who believes this cheap rhetoric from George Osborne needs to examine their own sanity!

The Tragic Case of Baby Peter Connelly.

Baby Peter Connelly has now been given his proper name and thus a wrong has been put right, it was wrong to have hidden the identities of those who caused his death and wrong that baby Peter’s name was withheld. Society let him down, whilst his personal safety should have been the concern of the child protection service in Haringey it was obvious he had been betrayed. It would be quite wrong for the state to assist those responsible for his death with anonymity. People who engage in these horrific crimes must know they face appropriate punishment. What concerns me is how many more of these cases there are; how many more social service departments are failing children. I agree that often social workers may be overworked and social services starved of funding and if that is the case then it is the responsibility of councillors et al to put this right.

BBC NEWS: “The couple responsible for the death of 17-month-old Baby Peter have been named after a court anonymity order expired.

He died in Haringey, north London, in the care of his mother Tracey Connelly, 28, and her partner Steven Barker, 33.

A third defendant in the case named as Jason Owen, 37, is now identified as Barker’s brother. Baby Peter’s surname, Connelly, has also been released.

In May, Connelly and Barker were given minimum terms of five and 12 years for causing or allowing the death of Peter.

In a separate court case, Barker was also given a life sentence for raping a two-year-old girl.

Peter had more than 50 injuries, including fractured ribs and a broken back, when he was found dead in a property in Penshurst Road, Tottenham, in August 2007…”

Primaries & The Labour Party

just received an e-mail from Progress including this quote from Will Straw. The labour Party is becoming extinct as far as membership goes! This is of course part of the Progress campaign for Primaries an idea which seems worth supporting.

‘Since the 1950s, Labour party membership has fallen from one million to 170,000. The average CLP now has under 300 members with some selections for PPCs being taken by just a handful of people, little more than an old members’ club. If we want to re-engage liked minded people across our communities, the Labour party has a choice: to open up or die. This means an end to command-and-control policy making and an end to command-and-control candidate selection. Let’s start with primaries for all mayoral elections and also for the CLPs where membership has slipped below 200.’ – Will Straw, co-editor of ‘The change we need: What Britain can learn from Obama’s victory’

The Ashes: Cricket

So in the end England were beaten despite the efforts of the tail end batters. Now we look forward to the 5th Test at The Oval beginning on the 20 August. Let’s just hope that the England team get themselves sorted out and come out fighting with a view to beating Australia for The Ashes.

Thursday, 20 August 2009
npower Test Match Series
Fifth Test Match
England v Australia, The Brit Oval, 11:00

Cricket: The Ashes 4th Test Headingley

The match scoreboard says it all. What a shambles, surely there has to be better potential 1st class cricketers somewhere in England and Wales to replace the shower of a team we have now!!! Even schoolkids can do better than this.

England 1st Innings
102 all out (33.5 overs)

England 2nd Innings
82 for 5 (32.0 overs)

npower Test Match Series: England v Australia
07-08-2009 at Headingley Carnegie, Day 2 of 5

Cricket: The Ashes 4th Test Headingley

So now England begins its 2nd innings I only hope they learn lessons from the 1st iinnings.

npower Test Match Series: England v Australia
07-08-2009 at Headingley Carnegie, Day 2 of 5
In Play
England won the toss and decided to bat

England 1st Innings
102 all out (33.5 overs)

England 2nd Innings
18 for 0 (8.1 overs)

Australia 1st Innings
445 all out (104.1 overs)

Cricket: The Ashes 4th Test Headingley.

The England team is supposed to be the best of the best!!! I have seen better, serious and more enthusiastic cricket in school competitions!!!

npower Test Match Series: England v Australia
07-08-2009 at Headingley Carnegie, Day 2 of 5

In Play

England won the toss and decided to bat

England 1st Innings
102 all out (33.5 overs)
Australia 1st Innings
353 for 6 (89.4 overs)

Cricket: The Ashes 4th Test Headingley

The abysmal performance of the England team this morning was unbelievable. Wickets were surrendered easily. Frankly, if they continue to play like this Australia will win the Ashes easily.

npower Test Match Series: England v Australia
07-08-2009 at Headingley Carnegie, Day 1 of 5

In Play
England won the toss and decided to bat
England 1st Innings

102 all out (33.5 overs)
Australia 1st Innings

77 for 1 (18.0 overs)

Cricket: The Ashes 4th Test Headingley

Today we look forward to seeing the first day of the 4th Test – just hope the rain keeps away. Not sure if Flintoff is in the team this time.

Crickinfo

Match scheduled to begin at 11:00 local time (10:00 GMT)

England squad
AJ Strauss*, JM Anderson, IR Bell, RS Bopara, SCJ Broad, PD Collingwood, AN Cook, A Flintoff, SJ Harmison, G Onions, MJ Prior†, RJ Sidebottom, GP Swann, IJL Trott

Australia squad
RT Ponting*, MJ Clarke, SR Clark, BJ Haddin†, NM Hauritz, BW Hilfenhaus, PJ Hughes, MEK Hussey, MG Johnson, SM Katich, B Lee, AB McDonald, GA Manou, MJ North, PM Siddle, SR Watson

Rupert Murdoch plans charge for all news websites by next summer | Media | The Guardian

So Murdoch wants us to pay for online access to his daily rags – no thanks. I have no wish to add to Murdoch’s billions. I’ll be quite happy to delete any bookmarks to his papers.

Andrew Clark in THE GUARDIAN: “The billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch suffered the indignity of seeing his global empire make a huge financial loss yesterday and promptly pledged to shake up the newspaper industry by introducing charges for access to all his news websites, including the Times, the Sun and the News of the World, by next summer…”

via Rupert Murdoch plans charge for all news websites by next summer | Media | The Guardian.