Obviously I need to step carefully with this post given that the parents of Madeline McCann find plenty of time in their search of their missing daughter to sue the pants off of anyone that can help fund their mortgage repayments, but I'm surprised at myself for not having yet made a posting about this couple. The reason for the posting is news that a set of papers are giving the McCann's over £500,000 in a libel settlement and apologising to them for what they've reported.

Now I would usually be the first to say that firstly the tabloids deserve all that they get on this sort of issue and that secondly it serves them right for being speculative rumour mills rather than reporters of the news. However, I have to wonder what exactly it is they are apologising for?

Unfortunately the bill I have previously asked people to support didn't get a simple hearing on Friday as the timings involved meant that the debate has been delayed. This isn't a bad thing of course, it just means a bit of a wait for the verdict from the MPs interested, the debate continues on the 14th (this coming Friday). So, of course, I urge people to continue to support this trial especially given that we can see from Hansard just how a minority of people seem to be opposed to any positive move for utterly petty reasoning.

Yes, it's true! The Tories are ignoring the statistical evidence in front of them and state they will tax dwindling sales of alcopops as well as strong beer and cider, you know the stuff that generally only find in your traditional local pub, and are going to use that barely existent amount of money to try and drop the price on alcohol that kids really drink. Lager.

So ID Cards are back on the agenda again now and actually threaten to be more confusing a policy than the ratification of the EU treaty. The time scales are slipping further and further, ambiguity is rife over the compulsion that may exist, and the politicians are still woefully clueless about the lack of integrity the system will inherently have.

It is often in the name of cultural integrity as well as social stability and national security that democratic reforms based on human rights are resisted by authoritarian governments. - Aung San Suu Kyi

Or, indeed, that reforms ignoring civil liberties and running contrary to the path we've been taking as a nation are so readily pondered by authoritarian governments. I do wonder how many more times I'll have to keep writing about the illiberal nature of the Home Office led by Jacqui Smith, it almost seems fantastical just how much one person can contemplate and implement in such a short time span. Today we are adding to the ever increasing list of authoritarian practice with the logical extension of where she is going with the current clampdown on under age drinking, as well as subtly not-quite-announcing plans for a what I can only satirically describe as a thought crime unit. (Heads up to Dizzy for that)

Jacqui Smith is the most dangerous type of moron in the government, in so much that she's not really a moron really, she just makes sure she makes moronic statements that a 4 year old could see through as being more false than the results of a positive pregnancy test derived from male urine. Today she adds to her previous idiotic statements that attempt to veil her poorly thought out implementations such as parliament supposedly having any power to stop someone from being incarcerated for a full 42 days, and trying to falsely insinuate that more under 13's drinking any alcohol than ever before actually means an increase in a problem. This time it's the unfortunate and ill thought out "Sarah's Law" that yet another grieving relative with far too much media impact is providing too much weight to.

When is a Labour MP not a labour MP? When they're government ministers it seems, when they have to roll out Tory-esque policies every day to seemingly stay in the news. The drivel that pours out of our central leadership today being that Caroline Flint, housing minister, suggests that those not seeking employment should be evicted from council homes. Following in the vein of Hazel Blears she wants to introduce yet more contracts, the theme of this government seemingly being to legally enshrine the British public in to some kind of duty to the state (do they enjoy being called Stalinist I wonder?).

This unbelievable story broke over a week ago now, but I decided to hold off on it because perhaps staggering this kind of thing will alert more people that care about cycle paths about what is going on. In short the local council, the illustriously moronic Bristol City Council, have decided that not only do they need to create a "rapid transport" scheme to replace the trams that they voted against considering in 2004. This has obviously annoyed no small number of people since the plan is to turn a stretch of the Bath to Bristol rail path in to a bus route.