Best of the web 07/02/10 – 21/02/10

(c) altemark

Hello and welcome to my round up of what’s been good on the intertubes during the last week. If you have seen any gems yourself feel free to add them in the comments or email me at editor@the-vibe.co.uk

The Projectile Vomiting Labour MP

Two Labour MPs took part in a champagne drinking contest on an official Commons junket to Paris, which led to one of them being violently ill.

Left-winger Bill Etherington drank so much that a doctor was called.

It was feared the MP might die after he defeated fellow Labour MP Geraldine Smith in the expenses-fuelled boozing competition.

LC Mission Series: part 1 – Building a new Left Movement

The biggest mistake The Left made in 1997, when New Labour came to power, was to assume their job was done. Actually it had just begun. The job was to keep putting pressure on the government to follow a leftwing agenda. Instead the Left was absorbed by the newly elected party and there was no opposition to their right-ward shift.

What we lack is infrastructure. An infrastructure that can be cranked up continually to force governments to pay attention.

It was never really built because it was assumed the Labour Party was the left. It was assumed that getting into power and holding on was beneficial for the left. Why? Because it was assumed there was no difference between the two.

16, pregnant and middle class – What the papers don’t say

I will, however, leave you with this thought to chew over, which comes from the abstract of a 2006 review paper that examines the prevailing view of teenage parenthood in academic literature originating from the US, UK and New Zealand:

“A critical examination of the literature suggests that teenage mothers are vilified, not because the evidence of poor outcomes for teen mothers and their children is particularly compelling, but because these young women resist the typical life trajectory of their middle-class peers which conforms to the current governmental objectives of economic growth through higher education and increased female workforce participation.”

Channel 4 fails to reveal origins of NF racist

Last week, on Friday evening (Feb 12) at prime time, Channel 4 broadcast a programme that was little more than a half-hour party political broadcast for the National Front.

“Young, Angry and White” purported to give insight into the political ideas of a disaffected young man, let down by the established political parties, who was considering joining the BNP.

Yet the programme failed to reveal that “Kieren” – the subject of the documentary – is the national organiser for the youth wing of the extreme right National Front.

Bloggers to be given access to Westminster Parliament (PR Week)

My initial reactions is to ask: you think that bloggers can cause significant damage? The blunt answer to worries about the reputation of Parliament is to refer the Commons Authorities to the case of Arkell vs Pressdram, and to the history of the last 5 years. The reputation of Parliament has been damaged by MPs and Peers, and the shenanigans they have been up to conceal these activities from the public, specifically not by media or bloggers. Bloggers are better thought of as part of the salt which has helped cause some of the poison to be vomited out of the system; there’s plenty of poison that hasn’t even been touched yet.

Astonishing transcript of Boris evading questions

To summarise: Boris Johnson argued for extending a scheme that would encourage cycling and bus usage, but failed to offer the necessary funding for it.

Meanwhile he has dropped the idea of raising charges on cars, which he claims he wants to discourage use of, but increased fares on poorer people using London Transport.

Boris is also reducing police officers in London – in direct contradiction to promises – and has increased press officers – once again contradicting earlier promises.

Happy to stand up for rich bankers while penalising London’s poor.

Goldman Sachs, Goldman Sachs, clicking in the votes?

Campaigners for a “Robin Hood tax” watched with alarm as thousands of votes poured into their website, rejecting their proposal for a levy on City wheeler-dealing, to raise money to fight poverty and climate change.

After a bit more investigation, though, the unlikely backlash against the rob-the-rich plan – almost 5,000 no votes against the Robin Hood tax within 20 minutes – turned out to emanate from just two computer servers, one of which was registered to the investment bank Goldman Sachs.

My Favourite UK Political Blogosphere Statistics in 2010 so far

During January and early February we have been subjected to a festival of political Satirical Statistics, as blogs reviewed 2009, Tweetminster reviewed political twitter, and commentators reviewed all of these numbers.

Most of it has been fluff and fury, but amongst the noise these are the statistics which I think are worth noting with care.