Some assorted politics for a Monday.

Congratulations to Martin Tod on being selected as the new Liberal Democrat prospective parliamentary candidate for Winchester. He’ll be a hard-working campaigner and would make an excellent MP.

Liberal Democrat Voice highlights David Cameron’s record as he marks his first year as Tory leader, and directs me to these articles in the Daily Mirror which highlight some amusing volte-face:

CAPITALISM
Dec 2005: Supports it. “In short, we need to campaign for capitalism. To promote profit. To fight for free trade. To remind, indeed educate our citizens about the facts of economic life.”
Jan 1 2006: Er, opposes it. “I don’t believe in ‘isms’. Words like communism, socialism, capitalism and republicanism all conjure up one image in my mind: ‘extremism.'”

CHILD TRUST FUNDS
May 4 2001: Against. “The more I thought about it, the more I realised it was an election gimmick, with drawbacks.”
Dec 15 2003: He’s for them. “The Government have been accused of promoting child trust funds as a gimmick. I think that that is a bit unfair.”

PATIENTS’ PASSPORTS
June 29 2004: He likes these. “We will say to people languishing on waiting lists that if they do go private they can take with them one half of what the operation would cost on the NHS.”
Oct 21 2005: You’ve guessed it. “I think the patients’ passport is not right, because it takes money out of the Health Service.”

Not quite politics, but I recommend this BBC News article about agnosticism (my neck of the woods).

Finally, I have signed some more petitions on the Downing Street petition engine all of which are worthy of support.