The first 100 days of the Coalition Government

As seems to be the political norm these days, whenever a new government or president is elected, we have to have the first 100 days progress report. Today it's the turn of our new Lib Dem/Conservative Coalition.

Do you remember during the election campaign all the warnings of how terrible a hung parliament would be? How it would lead to a weak, ineffective, and impotent government?

How things have changed. It seems we like this new form of collaborative government after all.


Have a look at this BBC slide show I found which details the first 100 days of the Coalition.

So what have we learnt from the first 100 days? Well I think this is as good as it could get for the Coalition. There's still that honeymoon glow about things, a sense of novelty about this new politics, but at other times it all feels quite natural.
You still hear stories and rumours of potential disharmony. Business Secretary, Vince Cable was meant to be struggling with having to work with Tories, although he has come out and denied all this.

I see deputy leader of the Lib Dems Simon Hughes as a potential 'troublemaker'.

Today he was calling for backbench Lib Dems to be allowed to veto policies put forward by the Cabinet.

In the Conservative ranks, you've got the likes of maverick backbencher David Davis, figurehead of the Tory right, referring to the government as 'Brokeback coalition' a slight dig at the political love affair between Cameron and Clegg.

So there's still loads of potential for increasing coalition tension and we haven't even got to the proposed spending cuts taking place yet.

We're in that phoney war period, a bit like in 1940 when the country was waiting for the Second World War to begin properly.

We don't have any German Luftwaffe planes about to attack, but we're all waiting for those spending cut bombs to drop. We know they're coming it's just a matter of when.

Later this year Labour will elect its new leader. I can confidently and boringly predict it will be someone with the name Milliband. We'll then resort back to more normal party politics when we have a proper Opposition, this will put the Coalition under more scrutiny.

I feel quite comfortable with the new Government at the moment, but I have this gut feeling that the Lib Dems have more to lose from this arrangement than the Tories.

The Lib Dems made the right choice by joining forces to prop up the Tories, but as the spending and benefit cuts start to bite it's going to put more pressure on the party.

It's telling that their opinion poll ratings are already significantly down on what they were earlier in the year. They may not have an easier 100 days in office as this.

The White Women on the Green Bicycle

This is the title of the book I’ve just finished reading.

I’ve not had much chance to read many books recently, except for McNae’s Essential Media Law for Journalists. Having passed my Media Law exam back in April, I won’t be picking it up for a while. I'm glad I've got time to read some fiction again and do my first book review.

The book’s written by Monique Roffey and has been short-listed for this year’s Orange Prize for Fiction.

The story is set on the Caribbean island of Trinidad and revolves around two characters, George and Sabine Harwood who move from England in the late 1950s to begin a new life on the island.

George immediately falls in love with Trinidad, while his wife Sabine struggles to adapt. Feeling isolated and alone she begins to find some outlet for her unhappiness by writing letters to the country’s political leader Eric Williams.

Williams is the leader of the new national party who goes on to become the first Prime Minister of Trinidad following independence from Britain in 1962.

The strange thing is, Sabine writes hundreds of letters to Williams but never sends any of them to him; instead she keeps them all in boxes.

It’s only years later in 2006, when the story begins that her husband discovers these letters. He finally realises some of the unhappiness and secrets his wife has kept from him and becomes desperate to prove his love for her.

Not quite sure where Trinidad is? Take a look.


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I have to admit, when reading my description back it doesn’t sound like the most appealing of stories.

An unhappy white woman doesn’t like life on a Caribbean island in the 1950s. She becomes a talking point for locals by riding a green bicycle everywhere, before writing letters to an unheard of former Caribbean Prime Minister.

In saying that, I absolutely loved this book. It’s a real celebration of Trinidad; it’s people, culture and landscape.

It’s also a love story between George and Sabine and their overall relationship with each other. But what I really liked is that it’s just a story about people and people’s lives. That's what I enjoy reading about.

Finally, you’ve got the historical aspect of the story which tells you what life was like in the Caribbean during the 1950’s and early 60’s as British colonialism was coming to an end.

I suppose the fact that I’m Afro Caribbean myself made this story naturally appeal to me. I know all about West Indians leaving the Caribbean to come to England in search for jobs. My own grandparents were part of that generation; but I know very little about the struggle for independence that took place in places like Trinidad and the rest of the Caribbean.

Sabine is acutely aware that she is a member or a white ruling elite, who are increasingly resented by the black population. They’re no longer wanted, and this knowledge only increases Sabine’s feelings of not belonging.

The author also manages to convey the sense of change that was happening on the island through the charismatic leadership of Eric Williams. Through a number of rallying speeches delivered in the capital, Port of Spain, he begins to galvanise the black population to take control over their own destiny, reminding them that colonialism had been for the benefit of the British and not the native islanders.

British colonial rule was finally coming to an end all over the Empire, and it was time for Trinidad to claim its own independence.

I’ve read a few online reviews about the book and it seems I’m unusual in being a male who’s read it. That doesn’t bother me. Most fiction I read tends to be written by male authors, so it’s good to try and diversify your reading habits.

Most of the reviews have been quite positive, but I did come across one blog where a number of people commented that the book’s theme of one person’s alienation and problems adapting to a foreign country, are quite common and popular with publishers. They felt this type of story had been told a number of times already.

There were also criticisms that the black political struggle the book highlights, are told through the eyes of a white character and how this political change affects the white community on the island.

Personally I didn’t feel that the struggle for black political power was overshadowed or diminished by this. In some ways the fact that Sabine is a white British/French expat made the story more intriguing to me.

I think as a reader you can take the book in a number of ways. You've got the love story between Sabine and George; then the story of Trinidad itself, the island and its people. Finally there's an historical novel of a country finding its freedom.

I’d certainly recommend it, as it’s one of those books that when you finish, you feel a little bit sad because you’ve enjoyed it so much.

I thought Charles Taylor was on trial? Not Naomi Campbell

I didn't think I'd be writing about the 'Blood Diamond' trial again, but it's in the news everyday now.

Yesterday and today we had the actress Mia Farrow and Naomi Campbell's former agent give evidence. Both of them contradicting Campbell's earlier evidence.

Because of this you've got elements of the press making Campbell out to be the villain here. Have they forgotten that there is someone standing accused of war crimes?

If you look at today's Sun headline, they've clearly made up their minds on the matter, declaring Campbell to be a liar.

So you've got two stories contradicting each other, it's up to the jury to decide which evidence they believe to be more credible.

But who's to say Farrow and Carole White aren't lying or mistaken in their recollection of events?

There's no point in pretending that Naomi Campbell doesn't have an image problem.

She's one women I wouldn't want to get into a row with, and besides you wouldn't know what objects might be aimed at your head! But some of the coverage is a little unfair.

She didn't do herself any favours by telling the court that she didn't want to be there, and that her appearance was one big inconvenience but she's not the one standing trial. It's Charles Taylor!

Let's get some perspective here, she's an international supermodel who's a bit cut off from the real world. She's not perfect but at the same time she's not an alleged war criminal.

This trial has been going on for 3 years and I can't believe that the outcome is really going to come down to the evidence of a couple of celebrities.

I'm beginning to think the prosecution have got it wrong by calling Naomi Campbell and Mia Farrow as witnesses. It's turned the trial into a soap opera and overshadowed the real story of a former political leader accused of some truly horrific war crimes.

Who's watching you on the internet?

A couple of weeks ago I bought a new pair of Converse trainers, before doing so I had a look on the official Converse website to check the name and style of the trainers I wanted.

A few days later having bought the trainers, I logged onto Facebook. I wasn't on there for long, but I couldn't help noticing the number of adverts that appeared on the side of the screen advertising Converse trainers.

Somewhere in the internet world it was noted that I'd been looking for a pair of Converse.

I didn't descend into a panic, but it made me think that someone or something was monitoring my internet movements. I have to say I wasn't totally comfortable with this.

It looks like I'm not alone. In today's Sunday Times they had a report entitled 'Every click you make, They'll be Watching You'

The report looked at the growing unease many people now have about secret internet devices that monitor and store details on their internet activity.

The Times report said this type of monitoring is known as 'behavioural advertising'. Your internet use can be tracked and information on your internet activity can then be sold to advertisers. They can then bombard you with advertising based on the type of websites you've been clicking on.

When I hear about such things I instantly think the worst. It's the thin end of the wedge, that if taken to its logical extreme will only lead to an encroachment of people's privacy.

I was relieved to hear there are other critics and campaigners out there, arguing against the use of this kind of data monitoring.

They've warned it could lead to us all living in a more surveillance style society. One where increasing amounts of information on people are collected and made accessible to other companies, organisations, and people.

You can't deny that the internet has probably been one of the greatest inventions in our lifetime, but when I read stories like this it reminds me of some of the dangers that exist with the internet.

Today it might be a group of over zealous advertisers, tomorrow, it could be governments monitoring our movements. Call me paranoid, but this is how these things begin.

Hopefully we won't get to that stage, but if you're like me and you're worried about this internet stalking, there are a few things you can do.

The main one is to monitor and delete your 'cookies'. What are cookies I hear you ask? This is the software that keeps a record of the websites you visit.

They're mainly harmless and keep information on your usernames and passwords for various websites, but cookies are a footprint of your internet activities.

Go to 'Tools' and then 'internet options' on your computer. This then gives you the chance to delete your internet browsing history along with your recent cookies.

I do normally delete these cookies every few months. But reading this report has made me think I need to do it more often. I'm not having people following me as I wander around the internet.

'Blood Diamonds' are not Naomi's best friend

What a bizarre situation we had this week, when one of the world's most famous supermodels turns up to give evidence at an international war crimes court.

Naomi Campbell gave evidence on Thursday as a prosecution witness in a case against former president of Liberia, Charles Taylor.

Taylor is accused of 11 charges of war crimes, which include murder, rape, and conscripting child soldiers. Much of this relates to a civil war which took place in the neighbouring West African country of Sierra Leone.

I watched Campbell giving evidence on Sky News thinking 'Does she really need to be there?' But considering her giving evidence was the biggest news story of the day, this has raised the profile of a case that's been going on since 2007. I'm sure I'm not alone in saying I knew nothing about it.

Did the prosecutors really need to hear evidence from Campbell to make their case stronger? She certainly made it clear she didn't want to be there.

They'd argue yes, in that by proving Campbell received diamonds from the former president, he was directly linked to the blood diamond trade.

The allegation is that he received these 'blood diamonds' from rebel forces fighting in Sierra Leone who helped finance their conflict by mining the diamonds. Taylor then paid for the diamonds with weapons given to the rebels.

Before this week I only knew two things about Liberia. Firstly the African football legend George Weah came from Liberia, and secondly it was a country set up and run by freed African American slaves in the early 19th Century. Not much I know, but probably more than most people.

As for so called 'blood diamonds' until Kanye West came along with his track 'Diamonds Are Forever' which highlighted the mining of diamonds in Sierra Leone I'd never heard the term.

So it looks like without one of Hip Hop's biggest stars, and a supermodel giving evidence at a war crimes court, I wouldn't know anything about this story or issue.

I'm not suggesting prosecutors used Campbell specifically to raise the profile of this case, but having one of the biggest names in fashion and other celebs like actress Mia Farrow giving evidence has certainly helped bring this story to many people's attention.

I know we're used to celebrities being involved in charity work and endorsing international causes and campaigns, but this is a new twist in the power of celebrity culture.

Maybe it's also a lesson for some of the world's dictators and corrupt leaders. If they court the world of celebrity it may come back to haunt them in ways they never imagined.