In a pre-election op-ed for the Guardian, embattled British PM Gordon Brown: the Lib Dems’ Nick Clegg is dreaming if he thinks the Tories are interested in any sort of progressive alliance.
UK
Guy Rundle: Rundle’s UK: Belfast is not England
It was Friday night, and over on the southern part of the island of Great Britain, all talk continued to be of a hung parliament, of David Cameron’s clear win in the third debate, of whether Nick Clegg and the Lib-Dems could hold their result until Thursday…
UK election: The papers make their picks
With just days to go until the UK’s tightly contested election, the nation’s newspapers have officially nailed their colours to their mastheads, endorsing their picks of the leadership litter.
The Economist redraws Europe
The Economist quite literally redraws the map of Europe, shuffling around the countries to locations they’d be happier and amongst politically like-minded friends.
UK election debate III: Cameron steals the show
UK’s party leaders have had their third and final televised debate, and the pollsters are calling it a win to the Torie’s David Cameron. Check out all the least boring bits.
James Murdoch storms the Independent
James Murdoch stormed into the offices of the Independent yesterday — after the newspaper ran a cover emblazoned with “Rupert Murdoch won’t decide this election – you will” — reportedly shouting: “What are you fucking playing at?”
UK election debate II: Return of the Clegg-i
The second UK leaders debate has just wrapped up, and all eyes were on overnight success Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg. Could he pull off an encore of his debut performance? Judge for yourself, then check out what the early polls and pundits have to say.
UK ’10: How Nick Clegg changed the game overnight
In only one night of televised debate, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has turned this year’s UK election on its head. Is Britain about to become a three-party system?
UK ’10: Nick Clegg: the new Winston Chuchill?
In the space of a week, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has gone from relative political obscurity to being the most popular British party leader since Winston Churchill.
Brown and Cameron both lose the UK leaders’ debate
The UK has held its first ever televised election debate, and according to the polls, the winner wasn’t Brown or Cameron: it was Liberal Democrat Nick Clegg. Read the Guardian’s liveblog — including a worm!
PHOTO GALLERY: Premier League stars draw self portraits
Professional footballers have drawn self portraits of themselves for a charity auction. The Independent asked a graphologist to analyse what they tell us about the players. Our guess: that they can’t draw.
Ryanair takes the piss
Irish budget airline Ryanair has announced it will start charging customers for using toilets on its planes. But are the piddling profits and PR really worth pissing off its customers? asks Ben Sandilands.
Dawkins and Hitchens: Arrest the Pope
Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens are leading a campaign to have the Pope arrested for “crimes against humanity” during his visit to the UK this week.
Guy Rundle: Rundle’s UK: Game on
Gordon Brown has led the traditional motorcade down to Buckingham Palace to officially declare the 2010 election season open. Guy Rundle goes beneath the hype and helicopters.
UK 2010: The leaders make their pitch
The UK’s 2010 election battle is officially on, with PM Gordon Brown calling an election for May 6. Read the opening pitches to voters from Brown and his opponent David Cameron.
revealed Gordon Brown’s election manifesto
British PM Gordon Brown is set to march down to Buckingham Palace to trigger an election for 6 May with a new Labour manifesto in hand, and the Guardian has a sneak peak: national service, a 16-year-old voting age, and new rights for football fans.
Guy Rundle: Rundle’s UK: The last budget of the first (and possibly only) Brown government
Alistair Darling has delivered the last budget of the first Gordon Brown government. There was fiddling with stamp duty, fags and booze taxes and other bits and bobs — but a startling lack of change or reform.
The UK locks up its traumatised asylum seekers, too
The UK’s policy of not putting asylum seekers who have been victims of torture into detention centres is being routinely ignored, the Guardian’s Observer has found.
How to fake a businesss district
The town of North Tyneside in England is a retail ghost town, full of empty and abandoned shops, but their solution to attracting new business is a stroke of genius: put up fake shopfronts to show what the town could be.
revealed Dr Who‘s secret left-wing plot to bring down Thatcher
Former Doctor Who Sylvester McCoy has revealed that the show’s writers included anti-Margaret Thatcher propaganda into the scripts in the ’80s, with a former script editor confirming that he was, in fact, trying to overthrow the government.
Why is Australia dragging the chain on tackling health inequality?
Australian policy makers could learn a thing or two from a landmark report aimed at tackling inequalities in health that was released in the UK yesterday, writes Melissa Sweet.
Guardian: Don’t like David Cameron? It could be worse: meet Tony Abbott
From the “how the world sees us” files: Julian Glover says that Tony Abbott makes the Tories look “relatively sane, centrist and capable.” Meanwhile, Barnaby Joyce is an “Australian redneck Boris [Johnson]” and Rudd is “Gordon Brown — only with a future, and added smiles.”
Roy Greenslade tears shreds off London’s new newspaper — via liveblog
Roy Greenslade mercilessly (and hilariously) rips into new London freesheet The London Weekly, mocking the excessive typos, amateurish writing and tabloid content.
Guy Rundle: Rundle’s UK: and so it comes down to two grapefruit bowls
It is sad to see that the great Kaufman has been brought down by the purchase of that most ancient of temptations, to have the public pay for two grapefruit bowls.
