John Ryley, the head of Sky News, writes in the Times that there will be a televised debate between the party leaders during the general election – because he has already decided to organise one.
The decision for the politicians is simple: fill them or leave them empty. I give this guarantee: the cameras will be rolling and anyone who doesn't show up better be ready to explain themselves to the public.
Johann Hari in the Independent discusses the phrases he would like to expunge from the English language.
Labelling food as "Fair Trade". This phrase suggests that paying desperately poor people a decent wage is a nice ethical add-on, and a gratifying departure from the norm. In fact, it should be taken for granted – the default position of civilised human beings. If we believed that, the labelling would be reversed: it's all the other food that should be labelled as "Unfair Trade", "Rapacious Trade", or "Let's-Pay-a-Pittance Trade".
Mike Smithson at PoliticalBetting wonders whether Labour needs a new leader.
I have little doubt that a part of Labour's plight is down to the man they chose as leader and under somebody else they would do better in the coming general election. The charge of "ditherer", first heard after the bottled October 2007 election U-turn, is being increasingly used again and I wonder whether the Labour conference could be a critical period.
A European commissioner has admitted that the lack of debate on the Lisbon treaty was a "deliberate decision", according to ConservativeHome.
So there we have it, from the horse's mouth: the EU elite are deliberately trying to bamboozle the people of Europe into accepting the Lisbon treaty."
The Daily Mail website reports that families could face fines of more than £500 for breaking councils' wheelie bin rules.
The penalties are imposed for "offences" such as putting a bin out too early or taking it in too late, leaving out extra sacks of rubbish and overfilling the bin.
Chaos follows the introduction of Scotland's new laws on alcohol licensing laws, according to the Herald.
Major supermarket chains are among the thousands of premises caught up in the troubled birth of Scotland's new liquor law ... In towns across North Lanarkshire, pubs that were trading normally on Monday are now closed indefinitely. Signs are going up on about 25 bars in the area warning customers of the situation.
