Bright's Blog

The Henley by-election result was crushing, but at least the Labour Party had the guts to stand a candidate. Labour's Richard McKenzie came fifth, behind the Greens and the BNP. He gained a little more than 1,000 votes and I don't know why, but somehow being in four figures just about saves him from being a joke candidate.

But I am beginning to get the terrible feeling that people ... read more

The propitious start to Gordon Brown's first year as Prime Minister - the calm and statesmanlike response to the foiled London and Glasgow terror attacks, the summer floods and the outbreak of foot-and-mouth - all now serve only to highlight how dreadful things became in the months that followed.

The crucial "hinge", when the fates turned against Brown, was not the cancelled election of October 2007, but the Northern Rock ... read more

A close friend and respected academic has asked me to post the whole of the controversial Motion 25 from the University and College Union Congress in May. This is the one that proposes a "boycott" of Israel, which I oppose. As he points out, the word "boycott" is never used.

Well here it is. Decide for yourself:

25 - Composite: Palestine and the occupation University of Brighton -
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There is a lot of guff talked about the "blogosphere". In reality, it is neither a utopia of free speech nor is it entirely given over to conspiracy theorists and whackos.

I didn't agree with all of Polly Toynbee's column this morning. She doesn't seem to be sure whether people are wrong to be miserable, or just miserable for the wrong reasons. But she does a good riff ... read more

Andy Burnham was daft to suggest that something inapproriate was going on between David Davis and Shami Chakrabarti. The Labour Party should stop sniping and put up a candidate if it has the courage of its convictions.

I disagree with David T on Harry's Place who says Shami is also being daft in threatening to sue. I think Burnham should have just issued a gracious apology. But ... read more

Here is the full text of this week's New Statesman leader. Any suggestions for a candidate to challenge David Davis most welcome.

Labour voters deserve a choice

The New Statesman has opposed the extension of detention without charge for terror suspects to 42 days from the moment it was proposed by Gordon Brown. The argument for detaining these suspects for six weeks has never been made to our ... read more

Congratulations to Shiv Malik for challenging the production order from Greater Manchester Police demanding material relating to the book he has been writing with ex-jihadi sympathiser Hassan Butt.

Although the hearing at the high court decided that the order was right in principle, it said its terms were drawn too broadly. Shiv now faces a new hearing.

Whatever happens, he has confirmed that journalists can challenge such ... read more

One of the first messages I received after David Davis resigned from the Conservative front bench was from an old friend on the left. We marched together in the 1980s, shook buckets for miners and hoped against hope for a Neil Kinnock premiership. My friend is now a senior lecturer in politics at a university near Davis's Haltemprice and Howden constituency. "Completely bizarre," he wrote. "Think I ought to canvass ... read more

At the end of Afghansti, Peter Kosminky's documentary about Soviet soldiers in Afghanistan shown on More4 last night, a senior officer is asked to make a prediction. What will people would say about the Afghan war in 30 years time? His answer was something like this: "We will think 100 times before attempting to resolve international problems with force." He then quotes a Russian proverb: "measure your cloth seven ... read more

Watching the Prime Minister deliver his speech on security and liberty this afternoon, I did begin to wonder why he bothers. As soon as he locks into declamatory mode, it is very difficult for the audience to maintain their concentration.

He rounded off with a less-than convincing defence of the Labour government's record on freedom of expression, which was further undermined by a refusal to take questions from the media.

As I said in my column this week: why has no senior Labour politician resigned over 42 days as a matter of principle? Now David Davis has done the decent thing and demonstrated what it is to be a conviction politician.

Davis always claimed that opposition to 42 days was not a matter of political positioning but something he passionately believes in. I have always bought this. On the ... read more

Who'd be Alistair Darling? Once viewed as the safest pair of hands in the government, he has presided over a period of crisis in the Treasury not witnessed since the time of Norman Lamont (and a young adviser called David Cameron) more than a decade and a half ago. Most cabinet ministers consider themselves unfortunate in having to deal with a single serious crisis in their time, two at the ... read more