As referendums are in the news of late, I thought this excerpt from The Times of March 1911, which I stumbled upon yesterday (as you do), might be of interest:

With regard to Lord Balfour‘s Reference to the People Bill, it is expected that at least two days will be occupied by the second reading debate. It is probable that in Committee amendments will be moved limiting the scope of the measure, which as it stands would not only allow either House to demand a Referendum on any legislative proposal, but also gives that privilege to a minority of 200 members in the House of Commons. Some Unionists think that the purpose of the Bill will be served if it is confined to the setting up of the machinery for the Referendum, leaving for definition in further legislation the occasions on which it is to be resorted to.

There’s a long preview of Brian Paddick’s autobiography Line of Fire in today’s Mail on Sunday. The book will, the article says, “offer an insight into police culture and practice – from the era of Life On Mars to the era of the suicide bomber.”

Paddick is, of course, the Liberal Democrats’ candidate for Mayor in May’s London elections. His thirty years in the police force make him the ideal person to lead the fight against crime in London, and those three decades of experience are charted in his book, from the Brixton riots to the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes. Here’s a morsel from the Mail:

Whenever I went out on night patrol with one particular pandacar driver, the first stop was the “tube station” – the off-licence.

We would buy a couple of “tubes” of Foster’s lager which we stowed under the front passenger seat. We would wait for a lull, go to Kentucky Fried Chicken and then sit in the car eating and drinking lager.

In those days the unofficial policy was to try to avoid arresting people for drink-driving – because police were drink-driving themselves.

Line of Fire is released on March 25th.

In a story about two British men trying to get their DNA removed from the national database, the BBC has reiterated one of Home Officer minister Tony McNulty’s arguments against having a mandatory DNA database of the whole population:

“How to maintain the security of a database with 4.5m people on it is one thing. Doing that for 60m people is another,” he added.

Excellent point, Tony. And guess what – it applies exactly as much to ID cards as it does to DNA.

Readers may be interested to know (and I’m going to plug it regardless) that since December I’ve been writing a regular weekend column for Liberal Democrat Voice.

Something for the Weekend is a light-hearted (I wouldn’t go so far as “humorous”) review of the week, and today’s post – written in Llandudno, from where I’m typing into your internets right now – is now up.