The Right Dishonourable – Page 80 – As truthful as resources permit

Why would a straight couple want a civil partnership over a marriage?

Posted on 20 January, 2016 by Jimmy Nicholls

When the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act passed in 2013 the issue of whether straight people should be allowed to enter into a civil partnership was quietly left to one side.

Given that civil partnerships were brought in by Tony Blair’s government in part to avoid having to call gay marriage “marriage”, it is understandable that many felt straight couples would have no need for the newfangled contract.

Yet this week Rebecca Steinfeld and Charles Keidan will dispute the government’s ban on straight civil partnerships in the Royal Courts of Justice, arguing that the discrimination breaches their rights to family life.

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Podcast

Podcast Ep. 30: Taiwan elections, #OscarsSoWhite and New Year’s in Cologne

Posted on 18 January, 2016 by The Podcast

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Tsai Ing-wen’s victory in the Taiwanese elections, the all-white shortlist for this year’s Oscars and the events of New Year’s Eve in Cologne in Germany dominate the discussion this week for the Right Dishonourable.

Firstly Jazza uses his extensive knowledge of Taiwanese politics to break down what Tsai and the Democratic Progressive Party will do with the country, particularly in relation to China.

Next we turn to why the #OscarsSoWhite, and why Jimmy isn’t too fussed about it.

Last we cover the attacks in Cologne perpetrated by migrant men against young women, which has thrown up a few problems for liberals and progressives making the case that Europe should keep its doors open in the wake of the migration crisis.

Image Credit – Tsai Ing-wen, March 2009 by David Reid; Somewhere Inside the Machine, January 2014 by Robert Couse-Baker; Cologne, Germany, July 2011 by Michael Rastetter

Podcast

Podcast Ep. 29: Corbyn’s Revenge Reshuffle, North Korea’s Nuclear Bomb & Fat Cat Tuesday

Posted on 10 January, 2016 by The Podcast

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Rusty from the New Year’s break, Jazza and Jimmy discuss Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s reshuffle, North Korean nuclear bombs and Fat Cat Tuesday.

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Blog

What’s so unfair about ‘Fat Cat Tuesday’?

Posted on 5 January, 2016 by Jimmy Nicholls

The New Year can always be relied upon to provide newspapers with a steady flow of stories they write every damn year, pausing only to change some of the figures.

And so it is on the first Tuesday of 2016 we are presented with “Fat Cat Tuesday”, the amusingly named creation of the think tank-cum-lobby group High Pay Centre that points out that top chief executives still make a lot more money than you.

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Blog

Oliver Letwin’s memo was a Thatcherite document, not a racist one

Posted on 30 December, 2015 by Jimmy Nicholls

The annual cache of old Whitehall documents provides much-need rations for the starving press over the quiet weeks around Christmas and New Year, and this year a memo from 1985 concerning race riots is proving particularly nourishing.

On the menu is Oliver Letwin, current chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (a trust fund for Lizzie Windsor) and former policy wonk in the Tory government of Margaret Thatcher, for penning a memo in November 1985 on the social malaise in inner cities that led to riots in Tottenham and Brixton.

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