Labour's hopes of winning the next election dependent, to a large extent, on turning that around. Balls will be hoping that his speech, and the announcements he's making, will play a part in this process.Balls has already been giving interviews and he's about to go on the Today programme. I'll be covering that in full.As for the rest of the conference, here's today's programme.9.30am: Conference starts? Carwyn Jones, first minister of Wales? Glenis Willmott, leader of the Labour MEPs? Session on Britain in the World, with speeches from Harriet Harman,
marc jacobs wallets, the shadow international development secretary, Jim Murphy,
cnnhkids, the shadow defence secretary and Douglas Alexander, the shadow foreign secretary.
2.57pm: dfic1999 posts a link below the line to this blogpost on the Liberal Conspiracy site.The piece is about Nadine Dorries, the Tory MP for Mid Bedfordshire tabled an amendment to a government health bill which would strip medics and charities of their exclusive rights to give abortion advice - which she said would reduce abortions by a third. The site's editor Sunny Hundal writes: "Nadine Dorries herself claims she is pro-choice. But while many of her opponents dismiss the claim, it has been difficult to undermine it without real evidence.But I've been passed on comments she made in an interview just a few years ago that seriously question the claim she is pro-choice."The piece goes on to quote Dorries as saying she aimed to chip away at the time limit on abortions.
We all benefit from openness,
marc by marc jacobs tote, though it's hard work.Society's getting older, treatments (brilliant ones too) cost more, lifestyle choices wreck lives in countless avoidable ways. All advanced healthcare systems the world over (no one actually copied ours) face similar problems. There's no time to lose. Here's a smart, sceptical health website I always enjoy.Of course, some GPs with an eye to the main financial chance, are going to take shares in private health care firms sniffing around the NHS or running out-of-hours services. They are the entrepreneurial types of medic who will always be at the fore of chances to expand their take-home pay. Plenty of doctors aren't like that, the NHS ethos is different, so that many of the cash-motivated types will long since have gone to the private sector or to fleece the old in Arizona.
I think [Ed Miliband's] perfectly sensibly created some space for himself now to put forward policy and my only statement on this, if you like, is that progressive parties win when they're at the cutting edge of the future, when they're modernisers.3.00pm: The link to the page on the attorney general's office's website containing all the documents relating to the death of David Kelly is now working. The key document is the 60-page schedule of responses to issues raised (pdf). It contains Grieve's response to 169 points raised by those demanding a full inquest.3.23pm: David Cameron has delivered his speech to the Northern Ireland assembly. I was expecting something fairly routine, but it was actually rather tough-minded and far-reaching.
We are building a new confident Labour Party ready for the future. Driven by social justice, in tune with modern Scotland, at home in the digital age, fizzing with energy and infused with hope for a better day." The room exploded. This wasn't a day of polite agreement – the hall was overflowing with enthusiasm for change, completely in tune with Iain's wish that "change must come, not grudgingly, born of defeat, but willingly, born of hope".? Bagehot at the Economist says the Eurosceptic idea that Britain should put its faith in the Commonwealth instead of the EU is flawed.Talk of the Commonwealth forming the dynamic, like-minded, free-trading core of a new British global network for prosperity is, to use the technical term, cobblers.
Sorry about that. But they seem to be fine again now.Here's some reaction to the the Cameron/Clegg Q&A.James Kirkup at the Telegraph says Cameron and Clegg had quite a grim offering for the electorate.As the PM put his jacket back on and wound up the event, there weren't many smiles visible on the faces of the audience: many of the questions put to the two men boiled down to saying: when are you going to stop talking and actually do something to sort this mess out? If Britain was ever charmed by the Coalition's leading couple, the loving feeling is now long gone.From the Daily Mail's Tim Shipman on TwitterThat relaunch looked to me about as successful as the North Korean missile launch.
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