Around 30-40 people attended this evening’s silent vigil outside Belfast City Hall organised by Amnesty to mark the treatment of Saudi blogger Raif Badawi who was recently “sentenced to 10 years in prison, 1,000 lashes [50 a week], a fine of 1 million Saudi Riyal (over a quarter of a million US dollars), and prevented from using any kind of media or travelling until 2034”. Amnesty explain: Raif’s sentence stems from his creation of the website ‘Saudi Arabian Liberials’, which …
George Osborne for the first time appeared nervous. No Chancellor in recent memory, apart from perhaps Gordon Brown, in the early years of New Labour appeared so cocksure. For three years Osborne has had to dress up bad news as good news. He cherry picked the statistics that suited him best, of course all Chancellors do this but this was something that Osborne attacked his predecessors for. Yes, the Coalition came into tough times economically but they are now three …
And the award for political blogger of the year may have to go to … MP Nadine Dorries. Today, the BBC report that she explained away the discrepancy between her online comments that suggested “she spent the majority of her weekends in the constituency” and her statement to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards that “nearly all weekends were spent in her main home” with the memorable phrase: My blog is 70% fiction and 30% fact. Following complaints by a BNP …
