Bright's Blog

Bright: "What a lovely bit of sun and blue sky we had earlier this summer."

redharry: "Typical neo-fascist bollix from the Islamophobe Bright, promoting Tory blue over other minority colours in a frankly sickening racist display that is comparable only to the ravings of the lunatic anti-immigrant Anthony Browne. What a disgrace that the once proud NS published this right wing, scare-mongering, so called "weather-related" Nazi ... read more

I have to take my hat off to the designers of the Conservative Party's sunny uplands website. Lots of smiling young faces and the verve of a party that thinks it's heading back into power. The slogans of the pop-up adverts are great, showing the Cameroons' capacity for empathy. Who in middle Britain could possibly argue with the following?:

A Neighbourhood I Feel Safe InA Home of My ... read more

My piece on Paul Ginsborg's book Democracy sparked some great comments on the blog but also some suggestions for further reading.

Thanks to Michael MacPherson for recommending the Citizens' Initiative and Referendum and pointing out Michael Wills's parliamentary statement last month. He also refers to a dissenting voice in Red Pepper magazine.

Daniel Taghioff links to a good Wikipedia entry ... read more

I return from holiday to the sight of John Ross, Ken Livingstone's bonkers economics adviser staring out at me from the front page of the Evening Standard. Apparently this champion of the working man has been given a six-figure pay-off, which should buy him a nice dacha somewhere in his beloved Russia. Or maybe he will donate it to charity.

It seems the small coterie of Trotskyists that ... read more

Just when we thought it couldn’t get any worse, it just did. The sheer scale of the Labour defeat in Glasgow East (a 22 per cent swing and the loss of a 13,000 majority) makes this no ordinary by-election. The turnout (42 per cent) is only just down on the general election of 2005. This is no freak result.

Ministers have been appearing on the TV and radio all ... read more

May I suggest some summer reading? Consider it as a little extra homework, or an intellectual workout for the holiday season. The book is Democracy: Crisis and Renewal by Paul Ginsborg, professor of contemporary European history at the University of Florence. Ginsborg is a public intellectual of international renown, but you probably won't have heard of him because he writes mainly for the Italian press. The book is only 124 ... read more

It's good to see something approaching a real discussion about the arrest of Karadzic on this blog rather than the usual knee-jerk position taking and name calling.

Elsewhere I've been really impressed by the quality of the journalism. Ed Vulliamy was his usual passionate self in the Guardian yesterday. His recollections of meeting Karadzic (there's something horribly creepy about his weak handshake) are a must read. Good ... read more

There is a pretty comprehensive summary of the recent Policy Exchange conference on Libel Tourism over at Harry's Place.

I'd forgotten about this imaginative suggestion from Anthony Julius of Mischon de Reya: "Julius added mischievously that occasionally he is consulted by predatory fabulously wealthy clients, and he advises them: If you want the truth, but don’t want to use your wealth in a coercive system, then why not invite ... read more

The arrest of Radovan Karadzic could not have been more timely. Just as international institutions needed a boost, international public enemy number one is delivered to the Hague tribunal. Received wisdom had it that the Serbs would never hand over their most prized war criminal and Karadzic would end his days in a monastery somewhere in the mountains of eastern Bosnia. But sometimes good things really do happen. What's more, ... read more

For some time now there has been a triumvirate of must-read Sunday political commentators: Andrew Rawnsley in the Observer, Matthew D'Ancona in the Sunday Telegraph and John Rentoul in the Independent on Sunday. (I'm talking here about the straight Westminster-focused columnists, rather than other more free-form Sunday voices such as Nick Cohen, Catherine Bennett, Simon Jenkins or Suzanne Moore.

Until recently, the Sunday Times was somewhat lacking in the hard ... read more

I almost choked om my muesli this mornning when I read the Paul Routledge column in the Mirror. As one of Gordon Brown's most steadfast supporters, I never thought I'd see him come out for anyone else. But here it is, in black and white.

"A near brush with death over the on-off election last autumn sharpened Brown's appetite for life, even if David Cameron has his foot on ... read more

It was great to hear Hazel Blears talk to a cross-party audience about her ideological opposition to the Islamic radical right at Policy Exchange yesterday.

My real question is why has the left abandoned its old comrades in the fight against racism to rush into the poisoned embrace of the Islamists? The Labour Party, through consituency parties and local councillors should have been a natural bulwark against the rise ... read more