Why laws not court rulings should decide great debates

In South Dakota a bill has now been signed into law that seeks to outlaw abortion in the state. It is possible that the wranglings over this will lead to a challenge to Roe v. Wade, the US Supreme Court ruling that is the basis for the legal provision of abortion across the United States.

Long-time readers of my blog will have seen my views on abortion expressed more than once so I won't recycle them here. But what is worrying is the way that the outcome of this entire debate rests entirely on the judgement of a mere nine Supreme Court Justices - and by the time the case reaches the Court a single further appointment may have changed the balance. What self-respecting polity allows decisions to be made in such a way, allows laws to be upheld or vetoed by the political whims at the random moment when vacancies arise on the Court and ultimately ignore popular opinion?

This bill is one of the most extreme pieces of "pro life" ("pro slavery" would be a more apt term) legislation yet tried, making abortion illegal even in cases of incest and rape. These fanatics care nothing for women who will find themselves enduring a perpetual nine month long rape, all due to their prejudices. If the Supreme Court throws out Roe vs. Wade then state after state will pass such extreme laws with the backing of the courts.

It is absurd that this debate will be decided in the Supreme Court. Contrast the position with this country, where the abortion question has been decided by Parliament and taken beyond the petty squabbles of partisan politics. Supreme Courts do nothing to aid democracy and freedom. Legislatures can overturn bad laws and federal legislatures can enact civil rights legislation, but absolute court rulings are far harder to disolve. Let us never follow the US route.

Schools' powers are asserted

The High Court has ruled that schools, not parents or magistrates, have the power to decide when pupils can be taken out of classes for family holidays. It is always good to see the courts ruling in favour of common sense but wider action is needed to tackle this problem. Part of it stems from the travel industry making it financially beneficial to do this, and it's good to see action being taken there, but a key issue is the failure of schools to align the holidays and half-terms.

When I was at school my sister and I frequently had different half terms (at one point three weeks apart!) and this often prevented the family from taking a trip away, as well as making day trips more expensive as they had to be duplicated (and some activities were only available during the "standard" half-term). This experience was far from unique and there are many cases of primary and secondary schools in overlapping catchment areas being out of sync. Aligning half-terms will not solve all the problems of holiday truancy but it would be a step in the right direction.

The sex tax will be cut

Although the Treasury is officially silent, it is being reported that VAT is to be cut on contraceptives. Regular readers of this blog will recall my previous posts on this subject, including the Government's previous evasion on the subject and Superdrug launching a petition on the subject.

This has been a hard fought campaign by many, but one that has found success and we should all be grateful to those who've worked so hard for this.

Are the Lib Dems all Mingers now?

The Liberal Democrats have elected Sir Menzies "Ming the Merciless" Campbell as their new leader. Since he has had neither embarrassing revelations exposing him as a hypocrite nor the backing of Lembit Opik (who appears to have supported Chris Huhne), I suppose Campbell's victory should have been more obvious. If Old Man Brown is elected Labour leader when Tony Blair finally does the one good thing he can do and gives up the seals of office we will see the Fife conflict between Flash Gordon and Ming the Merciless go national.

With the leadership election over, one would expect the Liberal Democrats to sink back into their normal obscurity in politics. However for those who've been following the past two months, ever since the party brutally deposed Charles Kennedy in a manner that made even the downfalls of Iain Duncan Smith and Ieuan Wyn Jones look like friendly chats, there are two little epilogues to this saga. For the excitement of perhaps a few there is the riveting wonder that is the Liberal Democrat deputy leadership election. For the rest of the universe we can wonder whether Campbell's supporters should be called "Merciless Ones", "Mongos" or "Mingers". I wonder if anyone knows what the Emperor himself thinks?

So who's reading this site?

Thanks to tracksy.com I can see a list of visitors to this site in the past month.

First off the sites most people come from:

1. Educationet


2. Google


3. Contemplative Activist


4. Jo Salmon


5. Blogger.com


6. Militant Moderate


7. Conservative Mind


8. Iain Dale


9. Wikipedia


10. Dan Quixote - Tilting At Political Windmills Blog

Then we have the top ten search engine requests that brought people here:

1. laura blomeley


2. what does your birthday say about you


3. ruth kelly sexuality mp


4. michael fishwick blogspot


5. tim roll-pickering


6. decommissioning green goddess in northern ireland


7. is not in kent


8. what do people think of downsend school?


9. martin cakebread and conservative


10. charles kennedy

Some are obvious, but I can't recall writing anything about Green Goddess fire engines or Ruth Kelly's sexuality!

Finally we have a list of all the cities detected that people are in (although many are listed as "other"):

LONDON, BROOKLYN, NEWPORT, BANGKOK, CARDIFF, SHEFFIELD, CAMBRIDGE, LEEDS, GLASGOW, NOTTINGHAM, OXFORD, FLORENCE, BATH, LIVERPOOL, READING, EDINBURGH, LEICESTER, DULLES, SOUTHAMPTON, BELFAST, COVENTRY, LUTON, LANCASTER, WORTHING, NEW YORK, MANCHESTER, TORONTO, DALLAS, PORT ORANGE, ATLANTA, BRISTOL, MYTILINI, HARLEYSVILLE, BRADFORD, BOSTON, DUDLEY, COLCHESTER, CARL JUNCTION, BEL AIR, CHARLOTTE, WARRENSBURG, WASHINGTON, CHATHAM, VICTORIA, CLAREMONT, PHUKET, THOMASVILLE, BIRMINGHAM

(Of course this is not perfect - for some reason readers at both the University of Kent and Canterbury Christ Church University are listed as being in London. Canterbury is not exactly next to London!)

So a big "Hi!" to you all and thanks for reading so far.

Time for recall elections?

Ken Livingston has been suspended from office for a month by the unelected Standards Board for England. Whilst there is a need for regulation in public life, this is not the best way to do it.

Why not give the London Assembly the power of impeachment? Or better still, how about the option for a recall election? It gave Californians the chance to reject incompetent leadership.

A beacon of the wonders of devolution?

This weekend Plaid Cymru decided to relaunch itself and go forward into the next Welsh Assembly elections. And how are they doing this? By bringing Ieuan Wyn Jones back to the half of his job he gave up three years ago and having Dafydd Wigley standing again for the Assembly. At least all the stories about Dafydd Elis-Thomas returning to the leadership seem to have died down. But where are the new names? Wigley was leader twice (1981-1984 & 1991-2000), Elis-Thomas was leader once (1984-1991) and Wyn Jones has been clear leader twice (2000-2003 and since 2006) as well as part of the leadership (2003-2006) whilst Dafydd Iwan remains party president (as he has been since 2003) but not quite leader anymore. Where are the new names?

Is this really such a beacon of the wonders of devolution? At least it's been a while since the Assembly seating row.

Would it really be such a good idea to repeat this experiment in the English regions?

Laura Blomeley 1983-2006

Today I received some of the worst news possible. Laura Blomeley, last year's President of Queen Mary Students' Union, passed away on Saturday.

Over my years as a students' union officer I have had the fortune (and sometimes misfortune) to work with many different people. Many have stood out from the crowd because of their dedication to the simple cause of improving the student experience, against whatever obstacles had to be faced down. And Laura, who had to face some of the toughest odds, was one of the best of these.

When I think of Laura, I will always think of her eyes. They seemed to dominate her face, radiating at once friendliness, compassion, dedication, support and so much more. And that was Laura to a tee. She was one of those people whom it was impossible not to like. Even when one was in disagreement with her there was never any personal animosity whatsoever - it was a professional difference of opinion and in no way affected upon one's friendship with her. What was also astounding was her dedication. She was one of the rare students' union sabbatical officers who served two years, first as Vice President Education and Representation (2003-2004), then as President (2004-2005).

Each year was especially intense for those respective positions. Her year as Vice President Education and Representation saw the battle against the Higher Education Bill, bringing in university top-up fees and moving education away from being for the sake of educating and enhancing people and towards being a business. Laura was at the forefront of Queen Mary's contribution to the fight, never giving in to despair. But her term as President saw Queen Mary students come under threat at the local level, requiring ever more energy and dedication to spearhead the campaign against. This was the year that Queen Mary Students' Union was under threat from a take-over by the College, to lose all independence and become a monkey to the college organ grinder, and it seemed as though there was nothing we could do. It was Laura who rallied us, finding ways for the Students' Union to survive as an independent entity, and lobbying hard to build alliances with those in college who would support us. A referendum with the largest turnout I have ever seen in a students' union was held, generating much media coverage and giving all students the opportunity to reject the proposals. And thanks to Laura we succeeded. Soon, as part of the redevelopment of the campus, the students' union will be relocated to a new site by the Student Village. No greater tribute could be paid than to name it after Laura.

There are many moments I could recall about her, but I will stick to two. The first was when I first arrived at Queen Mary, when the position of Students' Union Postgraduate Officer was vacant. It was Laura who asked and persuaded me to stand for the post in the first place and was a huge source of help as I learnt the ropes. The second was last year, in the aftermath of the defeat of the College's attempted take-over. At a College meeting she and I both attended, an attempt was made to deny that this had ever been on the agenda. Laura stood her ground against this attempt to rewrite recent history and won the room over.

Today has been a very sad day at QMSU, and the reaction of many has shown just how much Laura meant to us all. Most apt are perhaps these words:

The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long, and you have burnt so very, very brightly.

Requiescat in pace.

Cut this tax now

A petition has been launched calling for the cutting of VAT on condoms. Long time readers of my blog (I know there are a few) will recall I've blogged on this before and also written to my MP who was supportive but found the Government to be evasive on the subject.

Please can you all sign the petition.

Who let this idiot back in for consideration?

In one of the briefest candidatures ever, John Jenkins was selected as a candidate for the Welsh Assembly, then resigned within twenty-four hours.

For those with short memories or who never follow the events of the Welsh Talking Shop, Jenkins was due to be a candidate for the Welsh Assembly in 2003, but forced to resign for displaying complete stupidity and ignorance on internet forums (as a reply to a post by myself I recall). Now he's been selected again, and stood down within twenty-four hours. One has to wonder why he was ever considered, even for something as pointless as Cardiff Bay.