Comments for THE HONEYBALL BUZZ

Comment on It is a mistake to try and derail the referendum on AV by jedibeeftrix

jedibeeftrix — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 09:52:04 +0000

“I have never understood why the Liberal-Democrats in the coalition talks with the Tories agreed that the Conservatives could campaign against the AV referendum.”

The answer is that there would never have been a coalition agreement if this had been insisted upon, because it would have led to a tory backbench inspired collapse of the government within months of being formed.

Under that circumstance Cameron would have been better going on as a minority government with supply-and-confidence.

http://jedibeeftrix.wordpress.com/2010/09/02/the-av-referendum-%E2%80%93-what-does-clegg-really-want/

Comment on Total Politics top 20 Labour Blogs by maryhoneyballmep

maryhoneyballmep — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 07:52:03 +0000

Daniel, Thank you for your kind words. Even though we often disagree I appreciate your comments and those from everyone else who takes the time to read my blog and comment. You all help make the blog what it is.

Comment on Total Politics top 20 Labour Blogs by Daniel Oxley

Daniel Oxley — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 22:34:25 +0000

Congratulations Mary, a well deserved upgrade.

Comment on The State of the Union Address was all about Mr Barroso by Daniel Oxley

Daniel Oxley — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 22:26:45 +0000

Excellent, many good points well made. Yes, EU Commision President Barroso is light-weight, the European Council is dominated by a Franco-German alliance and Barroso’s failure to criticise Sarkosy’s persecution of Roma people was regrettable.
The most interesting part, for me, was the issue of the the threat to MEPs of payment being withdrawn for not attending the speech. Although the threat was later withdrawn, it was as stated extremely undignified. EU Parliamentarians must be wage-slaves if they can only get their salary by listening to an uninspiring and unelected Maoist tacking together a series of platitudes.

Comment on David Miliband talks Sense on the Alternative Vote by ex-Londoner

ex-Londoner — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 17:53:45 +0000

I am less than impressed, however, about the company that MiliD chooses to keep. The newspapers are all telling me that Phil Woolas MP is his “fixer” and running his campaign. I’ve heard him stick the boot into MiliB on behalf of David.

And yet this is the man who is facing an election court next week for viscious and racist leaflets in May. I suggest you read them on electionleaflets.org/constituencies/oldham_east_and_saddleworth

Is this the sort of behaviour that will be encouraged under a David Miliband leadership?

Comment on Do Women Make Better Bosses? by David Pardey

David Pardey — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 10:56:33 +0000

Thanks for picking up our research. One thought to add to the comments is that there is no obvious difference between men and women in line management positions – it’s at CEO level that the higher trust levels exist. One possible explanation is that for women to break through into senior management they not only have to have confidence in their abilities (as Penny described), they also have to be more able. There are now more women entering managerial positions than men, but they move from a majority at first line level to a minority at senior levels. This is the big challenge which still needs to be overcome. What our research has done is add further weight to the argument that those women who do make the transition are probably better, on average, than men (and I’m not saying that because we have a female CEO!)

Comment on Do Women Make Better Bosses? by Martin

Martin — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 09:45:22 +0000

“We certainly can’t put it down to some innate female capacity for empathy…”

Surely the answer is that we do not know… what we must always beware of is scientifically unproven conjecture.

For example trying to suggest innate accounts that pink is more feminine, when according to Stephen Fry of QI pointed out that once pink was a male colour.

Note Deborah Cameron’s work: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Myth_Of_Mars_And_Venus:_Do_Men_and_Women_Really_Speak_Different_Languages%3F
dispelling myths about gender and innate capacity for language.

But I am basically warning against ‘certainly’.

Comment on Honeyball’s Weekly Round Up by Brian Barder

Brian Barder — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 15:18:56 +0000

I agree that the whole hacking scandal needs to be properly investigated, but it seems to me that much of the media comment on the affair misses the most important point: what does it say about David Cameron's judgement that he appoints as his media adviser a former editor of one of the most disgusting and most unprincipled newspapers published anywhere in Britain -- a newspaper, moreover, owned by an American/Australian whose lust for ever more power and influence poses a serious threat to the entire mainstream media her and in many other countries? Brian http://www.barder.com/ephems/

Comment on Why I’m supporting Ken Livingstone by Daniel Oxley

Daniel Oxley — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 22:06:56 +0000

We read often on this web site about the importance of women in politics and business but for the Labour leadership we were encouraged to favour David Milliband over Diane Abbott, then to favour as the second choice Ed Balls with a view to him becoming the Shadow Chancellor. Now Ken Livingsone is promoted as a better choice than Oona King.
Will we be told to overlook Nikki Sinclair in the UKIP leadership elections and consider instead one of the four male candidates?

Comment on Coalition Goverment says no to EU Anti-Trafficking Measures by bloggingportal.eu Blog & Support » Blog Archive » The Week in Bloggingportal: Barroso Buzzword Bingo

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 23:29:43 +0000

[...] about the content of the talks while the Europeans have nothing to say about it. And Mary Honeyball complains about the UK government not implementing the EU directive on trafficking of human [...]