I'd be very tempted to agree with that sentiment. I hadn't actually realised how dominated by independent schools and academies had become, not least because my main source on the matter is Private Eye. It is certainly lacking the coherence that the SQA, GTC and Scottish Government have managed to maintain in Scotland (although I have doubts concerning CfE). The suggestion from the Tories that we should be looking to adopt English education policy here is truly obscene.

I wouldn't trust my predictions. I also said that Nick Clegg would be out of a job by now a few months back ;)

I'm undecided on Michael Moore. I don't know very much about him or his career, so I'm deferring comment for now. It will be interesting to see how things go within the Lib Dems however.

Don't count you're blessings. There is no mention of what this repeal act is going to include. I would put money on it not being nearly as much as it should and several things it shouldn't.

I suspect I may be one of a minority of politically active young people who disagree your opinion. Yes young people play an important part in society and should be represented, but that doesn't mean they need to actually be in parliament. I'd much rather see a politician in their 30s, with a good deal of experience outside politics and a desire to represent young people then MPs in their early 20s.

It's too easy to forget that democracy is about representation, not necessarily representatives.

I believe that current SNP policy is to support the establishment of an English Parliament, although I do concede it's probably not the first priority of many SNP members or voters.

Personally, I'm open to either resurrecting the idea of regional assemblies or seeking a more federal solution, with all four countries holding parliaments strongly empowered on domestic issues. This could be complimented by an Upper Chamber dealing with foreign policy, the armed forces and so on.

What is shocking is that none of the main parties have made the lack of English representation an election issue. I'm pretty sure that given recent discussions about the Welsh Assembly's powers and Scotland's funding, more then a few votes would be won by promises of reviewing England's constitutional settlement.

Watching Labour's party political broadcast today, it's very much aimed at middle England. The so-called core voters.

Kirsty Wark described it as a "Sunshine Soat advert" on Newsnight, so it's definitely ringing bells with other people.

When I wrote my previous post, I initially only included one women, Mary Slessor, who I chose over Livingston. The inclusion of just one woman did seem rather unjust, hence the addition of Margaret MacDonald who is also under-acknowledged.

I corrected my post to reflect Slessor's true place of birth. Thank you for the correction. Serves me right for doing my research late at night.

I chose Margaret MacDonald because she really is undervalued when it comes to Scotland's art and design history. As far as I know, there are no actually memorials to her in the same way there are to Alexander Thompson and Mackintosh.

Muir and Palmer are both interesting choices who I suspect may well have made the Parliament's long list.

It\'s no problem at all. I have to admit, I wasn\'t happy with that the post was putting what I wanted across, but I am a strong believer in \"publish and be damned\" ;)

That is certainly part of what I am saying. I was more aiming for the idea that many people enter politics with backgrounds which could be considered morally dubious, yet we don't attack them for it. After all, while there are some morally bankrupt lawyers and PR man in this world, I don't think the majority of either profession is actually morally bankrupt.

It would be nice if we could "promote candidates who are not " immoral and exploitive" in any way", but I believe the problem with that is that everyone has a few skeletons, habits or opinions which could be judged to be immoral. There is of course, the problem with divining what is and what is not morally good.

Ridiculous was maybe the wrong word to use in quite that context. Aspects of it certainly are not sensible. If Ms Arrowsmith enters Westminster, it doesn't mean we are going to suddenly be seeing hardcore pornography on day time TV and lapdancers in the chamber as some of the more hysterical commentators seem to believe.
You are right however to say that there is a wider debate about pornography, which I am ignoring. I'm happy to admit that I haven't approached it because I don't know where I stand on it and I certainly don't feel informed enough to pass an opinion on it at this point in time. It's also complicated by various stands of feminist thought, only a few of which I'm familiar with.

I certainly wouldn't consider your comment conservative. I've found that the issues surrounding pornography can be extremely divisive and don't really reflect on either side of political spectrum or even small-c conservatism.