Wednesday 12th January 2005
From the BBC Wales website: "Plaid Cymru has reacted to newspaper reports suggesting there could be a "grand coalition" of opposition parties in the Welsh assembly by dismissing the idea. The party said Plaid assembly leader Ieuan Wyn had ruled out a coalition "absolutely" in November, and there had been no change. Plaid said this view was also shared by both its AMs and national executive committee." Well that is alright then!
October 1995, Tony Blair made a compelling critique of Michael Howard's plan to introduce ID cards: "And instead of wasting hundreds of millions of pounds on compulsory ID cards as the Tory Right demand, let that money provide thousands of extra police officers on the beat in our local communities."
When the inspectors left in 1998, they left unaccounted for: ten thousand litres of anthrax; a far reaching VX nerve agent programme; up to 6,500 chemical munitions; at least 80 tonnes of mustard gas, possibly more than ten times that amount unquantifiable amounts of sarin, botulinum toxin and a host of other biological poisons; an entire Scud missile programme. We are now seriously asked to accept that in the last few years, contrary to all history, contrary to all intelligence, he decided unilaterally to destroy the weapons. Such a claim is palpably absurd. Tony Blair, 18 March
Warms the cockles doesn't it.
The Yorkshire Post has more on the feuding amongsy Conservatives in Calder Valley (a constituency in which I take a natural interest). Bear in mind that this is not a hopless seat for the Tories but one they must gain to make any sort of dent in Blair's majority at the next election. The result last time can be found here.
Had managed to secure a debate on this in parliament today. I will freely admit that this is not a mainstream subject of concern in the constituency but occasionally as an MP you come across a problem or an issue that is not receiving enough attention and decide to do something about it.
Rumour has it that Government MPs have been told to expect a six week campaign and most have been encouraged to stay in their constituencies after the Easter break but the election will not be called until the return to Parliament in April. Time will tell but knowing this place the rumours will have a different flavour this time next week.
I hope that today was not a taste of how things are going to be between now and the election. It was truly dire. Michael Howard wasted six questions - based around the theme of the Brown/Blair spat and Gordon apparently not trusting Tony. It left me cold but some of the lobby journalists appeared to be lapping it all up. That is the trouble with the parliamentary lobby. It leads to a sort of
A few months ago I wrote about children and mobile phones: The reason that we worry about children having mobile phones is not safety at all. It is because we feel that it is somehow not fitting that they should have them. They are too young. But to say so sounds so hopelessly old-fashioned that we treat it as a question of safety instead.It is interesting, then, that there is a transcript of a phone-in contribution on the BBC website in which a father gives his reasons for being in favour of his son to have a mobile phone:
I had the pleasure of going to the opera last night, to Covent Garden to see Swan Lake. Carlos Acosta was astonishing. A treat, but anything more regular would put a massive hole in my pocket!
As I am a parliamentary champion for Cancer UK I popped in at the launch of their awareness campaign last night. Key messages are to exercise more, stop smoking, stay out of the sun, eat proper food and drink less alcohol. So I was curious to see what the catering would be like. Am pleased to report that there were lots of sticks of raw vegetables but it is not clear whether the dips were high or
From a government Green Paper on Early Years Education: "Children's experiences in the earliest years of their life are critical to their subsequent development. They have a significant impact on their future performance at school and the extent to which they are able to take advantage of opportunities later in life." Government spending is about choices, and the question that begs to be asked
Visited this club in Wellow when they were receiving a presentation from the Energy Saving Centre. Lots of advice about how to save money on your heating bills and the club members received a free gift of an electric light bulb. Chatting to members it seems that most of them go for a bit of company but the lady in charge was worried about the falling numbers which is a shame as the club has
Front half of the week I was busy preparing for today's adjurnment debate so have not had "spare" time to blog. When I was doing multiple circuits of the lobbys on Monday night it felt as though all of the benefits of the break at recess had been negated. I looked around at my trusty colleagues (from all parties) and remarked how grey and tired everyone looked but come to think of it - it is the
LIBDEM MPS ‘BEST VALUE FOR MONEY’ Three Liberal Democrat MPs top the table of London's most hard working MPs, a survey by the Evening Standard has revealed. Within the table, which takes account of 73 London politicians' expenses bills and work rates, all Liberal Democrat MPs are among the top fifteen. Commenting, Paul Burstow, Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary and MP for Sutton
The Blair vs. Brown punch-up appears to be spinning (in both senses of the word) out of control. Gordon Brown has neither denied nor withdrawn his alleged statement to Blair, "There is nothing you could ever say to me now that I could ever believe." This quote should have been applied prominently to every Liberal Democrat election leaflet, although the Tories appear to have got there
The Western Mail reports this morning that Brian Gibbons was, in fact, Rhodri Morgan's third choice to replace Jane Hutt as Health Minister. They speculate that the job was offered to Environment Minister, Carwyn Jones, and Culture Minister, Alun Pugh, first but that they both turned it down on the grounds that the post was a 'poison chalice'. If this is true then Rhodri Morgan's position as First Minister is significantly weaker that hitherto considered and it has been weakened further by this episode. It is already considered that he exercised poor judgement in standing by Jane Hutt for
I was very disappointed to see Germaine go. Like Peter Black, I was rooting for her to win. I sympathise with her reasons for quitting though: given the past antipathy between her and Brigitte Nielsen, introducing Jackie Stallone (who appears courtesy of the Jim Henson Workshop), was just unpleasant. (Original image nicked from The Zbornak Files.)
You may have seen on the grown-up news that there were storms in Scotland last night. One upshot of this was the cessation of all services by First Scotrail. Usually I start work at 8.45am. Today I got to work at 11.10am. And I wasn't even the last to arrive. On the plus side, I now have a contingency plan should this happen again...
Joe Gordon has been sacked from his job at Waterstone's in Edinburgh for moaning about work on his blog, I learn from an article in today's Guardian. I shan't repeat my thoughts here as I've already commented on doctorvee's blog. Instead, since the Guardian article, "Blogger sacked for sounding off", includes this excerpt from Joe's blog:Not far from my flat is a new bakery/pastry store, The
The introduction of baby bonds by the New Labour Government is a bizarre initiative that will do very little to tackle child poverty. Essentially, the fund is a long-term savings account for all children born on or after September 1, 2002. The Government will send parents a £250 voucher to open an account in one of 75 building societies or banks taking part - there will be an additional £250 for babies of parents earning less than £13,480. An extra Government payment will be made when the child turns seven; the amount is not yet determined. The cost of this
