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The daily catch-up: association football, Posh's beauty secrets and why Harriet wasn't DPM
Half a dozen items you may have missed, or not have had time to find in the first place, selected by our man on Twitter
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Your support makes all the difference.1. Every statue in Brazil, via Gideon Resnick last night.
2. "Is electromagnetically-neutral GOLD the secret behind Victoria Beckham's youthful skin?" Let me see ... Alan Beattie has reported this article to me on suspicion of being a QTWTAIN (Question To Which The Answer Is No).
Meanwhile Naomi Attar says she is eagerly awaiting Mail Online's inevitable story on this hard-to-believe biological research paper, which also looks like a QTWTAIN: "Midichlorians – the biomeme hypothesis: is there a microbial component to religious rituals?"
3. This is a long post, but you've got to admire the confidence with which Carl Gardner, one of my favourite legal bloggers, chastises one Supreme Court judge after another for confused and mistaken thinking about assisted suicide. Here is how it starts:
"In their recent ruling on assisted suicide, in R (Nicklinson) v Ministry of Justice and R (AM) v DPP, our highest judges have for the second time settled on a fudge. The first time they did so, in 2009, was bad enough – they got the DPP to sort-of tinker with the law by stealth. Worse, this time, they’ve blurred the legal boundary between the courts and Parliament under the Human Rights Act; and in trying desperately to defer to Parliament, they’ve ended up vaguely threatening it. How on earth can they have they got this so wrong?"
4. Damian McBride, Gordon Brown's former press officer, had an energetic pre-emptive strike against Harriet Harman, whose speech last night attacking Brown for being sexist was released to the press in advance. "Utter bilge," he called it. Worth reading his post in full.
5. Graham Allen, chair of the Political and Constitutional Reform Select Committee, is a supporter of a written constitution for the UK. Although not all members of his committee agree, they are publishing a consultation on the idea tomorrow. Traditionally supported by the left, Allen thinks there are good reasons why the right should support a written – that is, a single-document – constitution, and cites this article by Philip Johnston in the Daily Telegraph, against the European Arrest Warrant, as evidence.
6. Finally, thanks to Jason for this, last week:
"'Onomatopoeia' is the stage direction for a pantomime genie to make his entrance."
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