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If one claims to have psychic abilities most people look at you as being strange or having ‘bats in the belfry’. Having lived with it all my life, I don't mention it much except to close friends. It's fading due to age but sometimes the odd things still happen. Just sitting minding my own business thinking about the pending elections when I got one of my mind flashes.The General election will be called for May 10th not May the 5th and my favourite person will win with a landslide and become an MP. – we will all live to see………….. ...

I think this is one of the most useful Acts to come into force. Something happened to my family in the 60’s. It is very painful to think about it. My younger siblings say they do not remember or have blocked it out of their minds and now find it all difficult to believe. I decided to see if I could find out the truth and the corroborating records. With all the boundary changes it was difficult to know where to start, where we lived at the time is not in the same local council area.I applied to two different ...

One fatuous argument widely used in politics nowadays is that we should support a piece of legislation because "it will send a message" or "send a clear signal". There were two examples of it in the Commons yesterday. First, at prime minister's questions, Tony Blair said: I do not agree with the sunset clause, for this simple reason: it is important that we send a clear signal now that this legislation is on the statute book and will remain on the statute book.Then, summing up the debate on the Prevention of Terrorism Bill itself, Hazel Blears said: A sunset clause ...

In case you were worrying, the Shropshire Star reports that: Voters were out in force today to elect a new parish council for a town plunged into chaos when four civic leaders resigned. Residents from Cleobury Mortimer and surrounding villages were voting throughout the day.Will it work? One of the "civic leaders", Adrian Pearce is quoted as saying: "The new council will have two years to show the people that it is doing what the public expects. If it fails, residents will have the chance to elect a different council in two years time."G. K. Chesterton writes: But we are ...

In case you were worrying... The Shropshire Star reports that: Voters were out in force today to elect a new parish council for a town plunged into chaos when four civic leaders resigned. Residents from Cleobury Mortimer and surrounding villages were voting throughout the day. Will it work? One of the "civic leaders", Adrian Pearce is quoted as saying: "The new council will have two years to show the people that it is doing what the public expects. If it fails, residents will have the chance to elect a different council in two years time." G. K. ...

Today's Liberal Democrat eNews lands in my inbox. And who does it say it's from? Margaret Thatcher. Sabotage? An attempt at humour? A desperate attempt to win over disillusioned Conservative voters? I think we should be told.

This evening, we are in the middle of one of those bizarre procedures that makes Parliament unintelligible to most outsiders. I am going round the voting lobbies opposing the Government as it seeks to reject amendments to the Terrorism Bill that were made earlier in the day by the House of ...

A bunch of Doctor Who Linx for you, most of which contain minor spoilers. It is now D-16 days and possibly time to revive the 24 countdown clock. From The Times: New Doctor Who confesses: I never used to watch it Our space opera A review of Rose From The Media Grauniad (registration required): Media Monkey's Diary Carry on Doctor A story from BBC Breakfast, including video report from the launch in Cardiff. This includes the editor of Doctor Who Magazine's verdict: "If the kids don't like that, the kids don't deserve to ...

I had a pedometer not so long ago. It is recommended that you should do at least 10,000 steps a day. However, even when I did not use the lift I could not get past 5,000 on an Assembly day. Other AMs have commented that they have had the same experience. It is fair to say therefore that Assembly Members have a fairly sedentary lifestyle when in Cardiff Bay. One member who seems to be feeling it more than most is the Conservative, David Melding. Yesterday, he actually stood up to ask the Minister for Health about sitting down: ...

KILEY’S £365,000 BONUS PAY PERFORMANCE TARGETS REVEALED AS ‘FUNDAMENTALLY FLAWED’ – LIB DEMS The way that one of Britain’s highest paid public servants is assessed for whether he gets his £365,000 bonus was revealed today by the London Assembly Liberal Democrats following a Freedom of Information request. The papers reveal that the Commissioner for Transport, who is currently Bob Kiley, has the opportunity to take home more in bonuses than he does in salary. They also reveal that for 2004 he was awarded a 28% possible bonus pay increase that, if all his targets were met, would stand at £365,000 ...

The Guy Fawkes blog highlights this piece about the Nobel Peace Prize. It seems that nominees for the 2004 prize include President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair. Adolf Hitler and former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic have also made it to the list. Jan Simonsen, a right-wing independent member of Norway's parliament who nominated Bush and Blair shortly after the U.S.-led war toppled Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in April is quoted as saying: "Even though they haven't found those weapons they got rid of a dictator and made the world more safe. They got rid of a ...

There is a very interesting debate happening between Labour folks on Tom Watson's blog about the wisdom or otherwise of not voting Labour this time. Good insight into their internal debates. Interesting that Tom does not support a change to a more proportional voting system so ...

One of the side-effects of the Government's handling of the Terrorism Bill is that other legislation that they wish to put through Parliament has been slowed down. There is a discussion going on at the moment about the timing of the House of Lords Second Reading debate on the ID Cards ...

2005 and 1960 The big photo is one of my mother and I in 2005 when she came for the demolition of Yardley School which was the secondary school that my mother and her two brothers went to. The little inset photo is a photograph of my mother and I in 1960 in the garden in Acocks Green (the old Stockfield Estate which has also been demolished).

I went to have Croissants with the DPM today. This was a "breakfast" meeting with John Prescott in Admiralty House which is part of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. Actually I didn't eat a croissant nor did I see John Prescott eating a croissant, but clearly the government don't seem to know what a breakfast is or they have been taken over by the "Continental Breakfast Promotion

Two firsts last night. One was a trip to 'Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese' on Fleet Street. Despite the dodgy 'fake old' sounding name, it actually is genuinely old, having been rebuilt in 1667 after the great fire of London. It's full of lots of interesting nooks and crannies - the perfect pub layout. The beer [...]

Yesterday was "No smoking day" and the Welsh Assembly Government marked the occasion by declaring that henceforth all of their buildings will be smoke-free. The one exception to this was the building in Cardiff Bay in which the Assembly holds all its meetings and where we have our offices. This is because that building is managed by the House Committee on behalf of the Assembly Parliamentary Service. The one concession made by the House Committee was to close its smoking room for the day. Thus, when I popped out of Plenary for five minutes to take some papers back to ...