Tabloid Edition

Family Planning Advice

Tee Hee.

GM Rice

So, an unapproved version of GM rice has got loose into the food chain. As the US Government says:

How much contaminated rice has got into the food chain?

The US government says it has no idea, has no way of finding out and cannot predict where it may turn up.

As Greenpeace says:

Yesterday European environment groups urged supermarkets to test their products. "Supermarkets are failing to investigate the level of contamination in their own products due to a totally irresponsible attitude by the Food Standards Agency," a Greenpeace spokesman said.

"This stuff is fundamentally untested and has not been declared safe anywhere in the world. It may be safe but we just do not know."

Quite, we don't know yet. But we're about to find out, aren't we? Up to 20% of US rice shipments appear to be contaminated. So, if we hear stories about people keeling over after eating US rice we'll know it's not safe. Perhaps we would indeed like to have it tested in some other manne, but with the situation we have now we are in fact running the large scale test everyone has been crying out for.

If, as I suspect, there are no health implications, we don't have people growing second heads after a portion of risotto, then we'll know it's safe, won't we?

Technicalities, Schmecnicalities

You recall that our Lords and Masters wish to change the law so that even if someone should be found not guilty for some technical reason, if the Appeals Courts decide that he is indeed guilty anyway, they can still convict (or sustain the conviction if you prefer)?

A story from America on what such technicalities are:

Mr Dicks, the former chairman of Sportingbet who was arrested at JFK airport in New York earlier this month, was planning to fly home to the UK last night after being told he was a free man.

The New York Governor George Pataki ruled that Mr Dicks had not committed a crime while physically in either New York or Louisiana. And, as online gambling was not outlawed in the State of New York, he had no choice but to release him.

The governor's counsels said in a statement: "While the Governor supports efforts to restrict illegal off-shore gaming, he does not have the legal authority to order the extradition of Mr Dicks."

That's the way it works, or ought to. No discretion, rather, the law is the law and if you can't be convicted when the system follows all of said law, then you should not be convicted.

Ouch

Sam Leith:

I had to correct myself. Given Mr Blair's exemplary history of public truthfulness, who could for more than a moment doubt that this enchanting episode took place exactly as described?

Wild Boar

Despite the way that we think of ourselves as a very crowded little island it's actually quite amazing how much space there is for other species:

Some experts fear they could soon follow foxes into urban areas to pillage bins.

"Wild boar populations grow very slowly at first but there comes a point when they go through the roof," said Martin Goulding, a former scientist at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

"Because it has no natural predators in Britain, no lynx or wolf for example, the populations could soar at any time. They are already scavenging through bins in Berlin and could be doing the same here soon."

I wouldn't say I'd be all that keen on reintroducing the wolf but what about the lynx? Could be a reasonable solution don't you think?

18 Doughty Street

You know this 18 Doughty Street new TV station thingie? Ian Dale and Tim Montgomerie?

You know, serious stuff for serious people? Politics for adults as they say?

Rachel has just put up the most fabulous idea for a show:

We had an idea tonight at my pole-dancing class: that I would shoot a 2 minute weekly segment featuring my pole dancing students giving their thoughts on a hot political issue du jour. ''Stretching our bodies, stretching our minds'', volunteered one dancer. ''Spin, then a spin!'' said another. The idea is that the girls will answer a political question, then demonstrate a pole move. I will email the question round on Monday, and the dance students will respond with their thoughts on film in class the next evening. The students include a barrister, an advertising manager, an administrator, and a student so there should be quite a wide range of opinions.

We will also teach viewers how to perform a pole trick as a bonus.

Pole tricks all have names: Egyptian, American Fireman, Spiral, Black Widow, Sunwheel, and so on. We will endeavour to demonstrate a move that ties in with the topical issue of the week

So. Political reaction from the people. Or even, 'Opinion poles' ( hat tip Graham in the comments) . And why not? Democracy, quite literally, in action.

Please, please, oooooh puuuurleeeease make this show! Even better than Cheggers in Naked Jungle!

Politics for Adults? Depends on the costumes they wear I guess.

Update: One further thought. Could we get 'Sir' Peter Stringfellow to come and judge both the dancing and the political views?

Incentives Matter

A beautiful and stunning proof of Glenn Whitman's Two Things About Economics. Incentives matter.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese education officials have scrapped a job cut plan that allowed single-parent teachers with children to stay in work after it prompted a rash of divorces, a Chinese newspaper said on Wednesday.

The plan to cut teachers in primary and middle schools in Dandong, in northeastern Liaoning province, had resulted in 41 teachers at a single school filing for divorce in a week, the Shanghai Daily reported.

"In comparison, their town divorced a total of 34 couples in the whole of 2005," the paper said.

Of course, this has no relevance at all to subsidising single parenthood creating more of it, to welfare payments discouraging work or incapacity benefit increasing the number incapacitated. No, none at all, clearly.

PollyAnna

Err,

Reformed old communists have this in common: when they swing the other way, they always go that bit too far. They never take off their combat kit: the progressive social democratic gene is alien to their psyche.

Genes? Psyche?

But it is a sign of something almost as depressing. I lost count of the number of times Reid used the word "leadership" in his tough, tough, tough speech, as he put his marker down to be first among possible challengers. So far it's just a threatening gesture from the bruiser lurking in the alleyway. It smacks of both bullying and cowardice: without the bottle for a fight, he will hang about flashing that stiletto under his coat, hoping Gordon trips up all by himself during the next excruciating months of uncertainty.

Without the bottle? Used to describe a reformed drunk? Tsk, Polly, the gutter beckons.

The Torture Bill

Good God! I never actually thought this would pass. I was sure that there were more American politicians with at least an ounce of spine. I may castigate all politicians, describe them as lower than pond scum, but that is with a certain measure of hyperbole.

The US Senate has voted for legislation endorsing President George Bush's plan for tough measures to interrogate and prosecute terrorism suspects.

The new laws will grant the president permission to authorise interrogation techniques viewed as illegal under international conventions and allow the setting up of "military commissions" to prosecute terror suspects.

Torture is now OK. Not often I agree with Atrios but today's one of those times. This stinks.

The Mills of Justice

Old saying seems appropriate here:

A SENIOR adviser to Tony Blair has been questioned under caution by police about correspondence that discusses the possibility of nominating Labour donors for peerages, The Times has learnt.

Ruth Turner, Downing Street’s director of government relations, was interviewed last week by Scotland Yard detectives investigating cash-for-honours allegations, Labour sources confirmed.

The mills of justice may grind slowly but they grind small.