Thank the Law Lords

The Law Lords have, in no uncertain terms, rejected the use in courts of evidence that might have been obtained by torture. I particularly liked Lord Carswell’s statement on such evidence:

[T]o allow its admission would shock the conscience, abuse or degrade the proceedings and involve the state in moral defilement.

I like the strong language. Unfair trials cannot advance justice.

Mr Khabra Speaks

My MP, Piara Khabra, actually said something! Apart from his rebellion on doctor-assisted dying (euthanasia, to you and I), my MP has done nothing in Parliamant to distinguish himself from your typical back-bench stuffed shirt.

New Tory Leader

So it’s Cameron as everybody thought it would be.

I’m not, and probably never will be, a Tory voter, but I would dearly love to see some effective Opposition.

From the BBC site describing his acceptance speech:

He set out core challenges for his leadership: creating a full-bodied economic policy which went beyond just tax; giving freedom to those on the frontline in public services; national and international security; and ensuring social justice by strengthening the voluntary sector.

My immediate hopes are that “international security” means trying to distance ourselves from US policy, and “strengthening the voluntary sector” does not imply weakening public services.

Missing from his list of core challenges is a mention of a new drug policy. I’d be impressed if he could get a consensus for a saner approach to classification.

Salsa last week

Manhattan Mambo’s Christmas social at the Litten Tree was great – they had a good turnout of people who are fun to dance with, plus decent music and food.

MamboCity’s Friday at Ealing Town Hall was cancelled. Since I live 50m from the venue, this is less of an inconvenience to me than to anybody else, but I was surprised that there was no email about this, just a note on the door.

SOS was at the National again. Despite the complete lack of atmosphere and the over-long tracks, it was fun. Fixed up a friend with a dance she was too shy to ask for, and the result was great.

Onwards

Now that’s out of the way, I should explain that it was this post that made me start blogging. I skimmed Lloyd’s website after seeing him at the first Open Rights Group meeting (discussion).

So I don’t know what I’ll write yet, and the chances of the experiment folding within a month must be pretty high. Still, there may be something to learn here however it turns out.

The WordPress interface looks lovely, but I have no history of using other bloggging tools to compare it to, and I have no idea how its functionality stacks up.

FP!

Hello world, well here I am with my little blog – who’d have thought it!? lol