There are limits

HARKING back to my recent blog or an hour or so ago, I have no hesitation in standing up for Gordon Brown against the harsher name-calling of him to be found on the Internet. The barbed pen of Guido Fawkes, the right wing blogger with the web site http://www.order-order.com ,...

Young Tim's Colchester definition of a successful government

CONSTRUCTIVE criticism and principled opinions are, I hope, the distinguishing hallmark of impartial journalists. They set us apart from posturing politicians for whom everything the Government does is either outstanding or absolutely hopeless, depending...

Bottler and his little list of little lists

GORDON Brown would make an excellent Ko-Ko, the Lord High Executioner of Japan, when the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The Mikado is next revived. You'll recall that Ko-Ko, looking for victims for beheading with the ceremonial sword, assures...

New law on anonimity must not be retrospective

THE Government is right to close the legal loophole which caused a trial to be aborted last week after the Appeal Court ruled that prosecution witnsses could no longer remain anonymous. Anonimity if offered by prosectors in certain sensitive cases...

Anyone but Andy

AT least we are spared the wet knickers brigade screaming "Come on, Tim!" as the great British lawn tennis hope goes down to another defeat at Wimbledon. The British reaction to the two week-tournament baffles me - Wimbledon is but one of four grand...

Olympics "stealing cash from churches"

SOME of the best architectural glories to be found in England are out churches, mostly from the pre-Reformation era and some which date from before the Norman Conquest. But funding for our Established Church, clerics suggest, is being...

Time to clamp down on Felixstowe's anti-social truckers

IF there's one thing that gets me all heated up while driving is container truck overtaking each other on dual carriageways, and taking an age to pass leading to congestion behind them. Lorries should be banned from overtaking lanes. Because...

You are just plain wrong, Mr Davis

DAVID Davis may regard his decision to quit as an MP, and fight a by-election on the growth of our suveillance society, as principled and the best way to put the issue into the public arena, but it was an incredibly stupid and egotistic mistake for...

42 days a small price to pay to defend our liberties

GORDON Brown struggles each week to fend off attacks not only from the Tories, Liberal Democrats, a motley crew of dissident Labour MPs, and the media. But on the thorny issue of 42 detention without charge, he is absolutely right. Locking...

Modern dictator needed to sort out railways

I DON'T really want to become the founder member of the Suffolk and Essex branch of the Mussolini fan club, but it's high time someone took our railways by the scruff of the neck and managed to get our trains running on time, just as Italy did in the...

Call Me Dave sports a new look in Essex

A VERY modern haircut for a very modern leader - Call Me Dave wowed 240 Conservatives at a constituency dinner in Chelmsford last night, sporting a parting straight down the middle. Cost: £10. A bargain indeed in London. If he'd worn a wig or exposed...

Why they started doubting Thomas

IF politicians and journalists are regarded as pond life by the public at large, then spin doctors are the bette noire of scribes who have to suffer the arrogance and bullying of those paid to divert attention away from an often uncomfortable truth....

The `mouth of the south' should think twice

EVEN if the sky should fall in on Labour in England, surely our Scottish hero Gordon Brown should be able to rely on massive support north of the border. Wrong. Labour's crumbling fortunes in England are reflected in Scotland. But because of the cavalier...

Gordon's deepening hole

I have some sympathy with Gordon Brown and Alastair Darling - but not much. They're in a pickle in that their spending plans are based on tax revenue. Firstly, they've had to borrow £2.7bn to bail themselves out of the 10p tax rate fiasco. Public anger,...

Nasal exploits may prove the final straw in downtown Crewe

UNABLE to get to the Commons in time to witness Prime Minister's Questions live, I listened with half an ear to the BBC2 broadcast and indulged myself in the fun of watching the on-line comments instantaeously posted on Guido Fawkes' web site. His...