Posted by PGaffney on 29 June 2012
Entirely unrelated to Treasury Minister Chloe Smith and Jeremy Paxman’s sparring on Newsnight, this week’s quiz is on (other)political car crash interviews. 1) When questioned by Channel 4 on his expenses and specifically why he bought an £800 massage chair, how did former Labour Minister Shahid Malik respond? a) I have a serious back condition. b) [...]
Posted by agassert on 28 June 2012
I have never been a big fan of Ayn Rand. Though I admire her philosophy of objectivism and her reasoning, I cannot sympathise with the idea of more individualism in our society. I have struggled to find a moral code of conduct in Atlas Shrugged that it is actually applicable in our society, but then [...]
Posted by Chris Lowe on 22 June 2012
An historic view of this week’s news 1.. Income tax avoidance has been in the news this week. The Tax was first introduced in 1799 as a temporary means of paying for the war against which overseas foe? 2. Aung San Suu Kyi addressed both Houses of Parliament in Westminster Hall this week. But which [...]
Posted by Yaron Schwartz on 20 June 2012
I was fortunate yesterday to hear from Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, head of the Burmese opposition, Chairman of the National League for Democracy and Nobel peace prize winner. Daw Suu Kyi spoke about “The Rule of Law” at the London School of Economics, along with a number of academics and Burmese activists. It was [...]
Posted by Yaron Schwartz on 15 June 2012
London School of Economics Professor John Van Reenen spoke today at the Social Market Foundation about “Is Britain’s Problem Lazy Bosses?” The subject and title of this “Chalk and Talk” event was a response to Foreign Secretary William Hague’s recent remarks that Britain’s business leaders need to complain less about government growth initiatives and work [...]
Posted by Chris Lowe on
Now that the Speaker has ruled that it is perfectly OK for Chris Bryant MP to say that Jeremy Hunt MP has “lied to Parliament”, we look at other insults thrown across Parliament over the years. 1. Who did David Cameron accuse of being a “muttering idiot” last month? 2. Health minister Simon Burns apologised after calling who a [...]
Posted by Katharina Derschewsky on 8 June 2012
On behalf of Chris, who will now be speeding on the motorway back from Liverpool, the correct answers to the three day week quiz are: 1. Edward Heath 2. “Who governs Britain” 3. It was a massive 20% 4. Labour’s Harold Wilson became the Prime Minister leading a minority government. He therefore called another Election [...]
Posted by Chris Lowe on 7 June 2012
Thinking about this 3-day working week, we look back to 1974 when the miners’ strike caused the government to introduce the 3-day week. 1. Who was the Prime Minister who lost the General Election of February 1974 brought about by the crisis? 2. The outgoing party of government ran under what slogan: “Who do you [...]
Posted by Chris Lowe on
I’m not Ed Miliband’s greatest fan. Like the majority of Labour Party members and MPs (but not Trade Unionists), I preferred brother David. But today at the Royal Festival Hall for the first time I saw something Prime Ministerial about Ed. His theme was Britishness, Englishness, Scottishness etc and was fully prepared to tackle the difficult [...]
Posted by Chris Lowe on 1 June 2012
Getting into the Jubilee spirit, this week’s quiz is about the Queen and Parliament. 1. Who was the Prime Minister when the Queen came to the throne in 1952? 2. How many British Prime Ministers have there been during the Queen’s reign? 3. And which of these was the first PM to be born during [...]