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Lynne's Parliament and Haringey Diary, established 2003
DUP saves the day for Gordon Brown
Very unhappy about the vote today on 42 days detention without trial! Gordon Brown got it through - just - with the DUP bailing him out at the very last.
Talk of all sorts of deals - rumoured and actual - flying around - but this sort of issue shouldn't be up for bargaining. It should be about principles, not horse-trading.
Sat through pretty much all the seven hour debate in Parliament - and the case for locking people up for a month and a half without any trial just wasn't made. Protecting our liberties should be at the core of what we do but - oh how ironic - once again it looks as if it's the House of Lords that will be better safeguard of our democratic freedoms than the Commons.
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And what about's Ali's defection to Labour? (-: Who's next? Aitken? Errol? Fiyaz? Windskill?
Meg Hillier on Newsnight just now, openly insulting un-named Lab MPs who she said have a "habit of rebelling"... Indeed Labour is now the nasty party.
On another topic: was today talking to a Post Office Ltd technical man about their failure to innovate in the branches. One suggestion made to him was that they should have taken mail sorting technology and downsized it to provide automated mail sending in Post Offices: self-service kiosks into which you place your mail item and it reads the address, weighs and sizes the item, and tells you how much to pay. Then you pay using a card and it sends the mail on its way. He said that mail sorting technology belongs to Royal Mail and they cannot touch that - just part of the incompetence of PO management. Also told him of a contract let 3 years ago that they didn't bid for - it was for a considerably upgraded method to handle applications for a service, applications that had been handled by them (with too high an error rate) over the counter. The service provider wanted to update the methodology but PO simply failed to bid, either on their own or with a partner who could add different expertise. Three consortia submitted good quality bids, and the PO lost the business.
Justin - I am sure I remember you wanting to leave the Tories and applying to join us Lib Dems!
Lynne,
Yes I did – possibly before you joined the Lib Dems (circa 1997)? Under David Cameron’s leadership, we have once again become a liberal and modern party for all Britons. David Davis’ decision to resign and fight a by-election on a civil liberties platform is evidence of this. And it’s great to see the Lib Dems putting country before party by backing him, so well done!
Justin