somewhere north east of gandhi

I've located myself on the political compass at coordinates -3.13, -2.92, or mildly to the left economically and faintly libertarian. I'm not sure whether I should be pleased or not. Answer the questions for yourself and see whereabouts you end up (although be prepared to go into some detail) - then let me know, so that I can decide whether to be alarmed or reassured.

After you've done that, drop by here and read an article on Tony Blair's skill at boiling frogs. Don't let the source of the article put you off, even if you'd prefer your coordinates to be firmly in the authoritarian right, because it's talking about issues which should bother anyone who cares about democracy. (It even quotes Ken Clarke and David Davis ...)

Finally, I somehow came across this campaign, dramatically named saveparliament.org.uk. Except it's not so laughable when you find out what it's all about: the legislation which the government wants to bring in under the guise of cutting red tape, but which actually gives any minister the power to change almost any piece of legislation by him/herself, without consulting parliament. I can't remember if I've written about it here before - I've a feeling that an awareness-raising article about it by the Lawyers Christian Fellowship was featured in the English Churchman several issues back (I know I couldn't find the issue in question when I looked for it some time ago, which suggests that I might not have taken the risk of quoting from memory.) But again, the fact that the English Churchman and the Independent are singing from the same, erm, hymnsheet on this one goes to show that these issues cut across traditional divides, and indicates there are some pretty serious problems developing on our collective hands.