10:58 pm
Sunday for some may well be a quiet day but for many Councillors it's another varied and interesting part of our 24/7 lifestyle. In the morning attended the Bath Charter Trustees civic service at St Johns Hospital. This is a lovely little chapel that is part of the St John's organisation. Took my mum along who is visiting this weekend and hasn't seen much of me. Picture shows the start of the...
10:39 pm
Came back from one of Camden's garden parties. Had a great time - the garden at the back via a spiral staircase was beautiful - the food as usual was scrupcious. David Simmons the host, displaying real culinary skills tossed this and tossed that making it look so easy. I'm chuffed to bits that so many Camden members regularly read my blog so I was anxious to post my photos. Sods law found Bloggers gremlins at work tonight. Wouldn't allow me to view my blog. Then I found duplicate of my last post all messed up. How that happened ...
9:53 pm
Blair has been at it again. It seems not a week goes by that Tony Blair or one of his loyal Labour Ministers aren't talking about summary justice and rebalancing the system in favour of the victims. And who can argue with that? Who would stand up and say victims don't have rights? Who would say that they should be forgotten and that the criminal should be the one who gets all the
5:51 pm
The Mail on Saunday reports that senior Conservatives have called for Jonathan Ross to be sacked after his interview with David Cameron. Particular offence was taken by Ross' references to certain....ahem...boyish practices in connection with Lady Thatcher. Norman Tebbitt said: 'If I had been on the show I would have told Ross that he was a slob. It is a pity that Mr Cameron didn't tell him so and leave the show.' (One wonders what strange set of circumstances would need to be in place for Norman Tebbitt to be offered and to accept an invitation to appear on ...
4:57 pm
It’s probably because I went to a single-sex school (for boys, I hasten to add) that I am utterly opposed to single-sex education. Nothing seems so guaranteed to perpetuate the sex war than to separate boys and girls during their most formative years, only to re-unite them once their ideas about social interaction are firmly fixed. All kids deserve an all-round education that prepares them for
4:39 pm
The Childs Hall Summer Ball was last Friday and the theme was "C" - there were cheerleaders, crayons and commandos. I went as Dave Lewis - if you are unsure why this begins with the letter "C" see this post and this post (check out the comments too).
3:49 pm
today is the feast day of St Adelbert of Northumbria. A well with healing properties sprang up at the site of his burial. Maybe we should dunk Michael Owen's hurty knee in. It's also the feast day of St. Melee, a Scottish bishop and confessor. Jack McConnell may wish to kneel before him to intercess in the Ecuadorean cause. I tried to make this an equal opps post but there were no sites about
3:38 pm
The Divine Comedy - the popular musical beat combo, not Dante Alighieri's epic poem, m'lud - divide music fans and critics alike. Those who cannot stand them find their lyrics poncy, archly knowing, just too damn clever-by-half; and their music a retro-pastiche melding Scott Walker, the Beach Boys and Debussy. All of which means that those of us who love them can happily agree with those who
3:32 pm
It was an interesting experience to sit in the sunshine on the footpath on Whiteshute Ridge last Sunday, armed with clipboard, bottled water and floppy hat. Badger Farm Parish Council was one of many in Hampshire involved in footpath surveys on 18th June. Hats (floppy or otherwise) off to those Parish Councillors who carried the bulk of the burden for the day. I was glad that I was able to help
2:43 pm
Annabel Goldie might have glared at her TV on Friday night if she had seen her Westminster leader on Jonathan Ross. Not only did he continue to show his indecision of Iraq but he admitted that Margaret Thatcher made it hard for the Scots but that she got it right: "It meant very difficult decisions. Especially for north, Wales and Scotland, there were difficult times - but we in the Conservative
1:55 pm
How horribly, and I suspect deliberately, wrong is the message being delivered on human rights by David Cameron today. He says a) it is ‘foreign’, b) it is causing widespread problems in the criminal justice system, c) that we would be better off if it were scrapped, and d) we should have a British [...]
1:11 pm
After two hard days of getting it to work, the new style for LibDem Blogs is live. Hopefully the layout is easier to read, and with the discrete advertising that has slipped in, some of my bandwidth costs can be covered. Please leave feedback in the comments, as the site is there for you the readers and not me.
12:54 pm
northumbrian.org.uk is the new home for my blog and related stuff. I was fortunate to grab this domain, and some fun new stuff will be following shortly - particularly for Lib Dems. But for now here’s a thought to keep your mind busy - why does no-one on Eastenders own a washing machine?
12:18 pm
"To ask how many servicemen wounded in Iraq have contracted Acinetobacter baumannii and have there been any cases in Britain in patiants who have not served in Iraq?" This soil-living bactrium gets into wounds through injury or during emergency field treatment and the resulting infection is resistent to most antibiotics. The Americans are having a tough time dealing with it in their returning injured vets: one of the three effective drugs causes seizures as a side-effect, another doesn't work if (as often happens) the infection set up home in the bones, the third causes kidney toxicity. Let's ...
11:11 am
A bit of a personal post, because I'm still on the road towards the end of a week away from home. Hence, not particularly minded to write a coherent essay, but rather just throw out some thoughts on what I've done this week: - Guilt-ridden by harrassing texts by Chris Maines, I hauled myself away from the National Archives on Thursday for a far-too-brief-and-pathetic appearance at our by-election HQ in Bromley. What I saw majorly impressed me. Things are looking very promising, and I'd urge any Lib Dems with a bit of spare time to get down there; it's only ...
10:55 am
Yesterday Ben Jephcott and I went to help in the Blaenau Gwent by-elections, one for the Westminster Parliament and one for the Welsh Assembly. The by-elections were caused by the sad death of Peter Law the Independent and previous Labour Assembly Member.
10:34 am
I am obliged to Harry's Place for this wonderful extract from Hansard, which illustrates perfectly how trying to be cool and trendy can backfire on a politician when they are not really in touch. Personally, I think that Iain Wright over-egged his point a little but you get the drift: Theresa May:...Finally, will the Leader of the House arrange a debate on the influence of popular culture on political life? I am sure that many hon. Members will be saddened to hear about the demise of “Top of the Pops”, which has played such a role in the cultural ...
10:13 am
For a lawyer, Bob Neill seems to have more than the usual number of problems with the law. He has *misused the House of Commons crest (even before election -surely a record); *infringed FIFA's image rights; and *made a false declaration (see Whoops! below. Not bad for a couple of weeks of campaigning.
8:59 am
End to End for Earthquake - E2E4E - is a bike ride from Lands End to John o'Groats in aid of Pakistan Earthquake relief. It is the brainchild of Roy Taylor, Director of Community Services at Kingston Council, (second from left) and he is supported by 23 other council officers, local police and friends. Some are travelling the full distance over two weeks, others, such as...
8:49 am
It's not been a good weekend for Tory leaders' vocal utterenaces. Adding to their woes is Brain Coleman chairman of the GLA and self-confessed football-phobe. He actually in a statement compared the St George waving and flying English supporters to Nazi Germany and the military junta in Argentina in 1978. He said: "A Jewish friend of mine remarked how the sight of endless Cross of St George flags
8:41 am
A couple of years ago I stumbled on a really weird webpage. It was part of some kind of discussion forum , and they seemed to be talking about massive changes in the world. It truly had me mystified for a while, as if I had encountered the kind of shadowy powerful organisation so popular in fiction. The organisation isn't exactly shadowy , but it isn't particularly well-known. It is the
8:29 am
In the simplistic world of PR the "Human Rights Act" works to undermine all the actions of the government in taking "action" to deal with security. The first point is that you cannot have security without justice and to simply revert to a form of society without the "rule of law" where people are guilty because Tony says so is not a more secure society. The second point is that before the 1998
1:10 am
Another widget! This one puts the party’s campaign buttons on a Wordpress site and gives you the option to change the number of buttons that are displayed. If you already have widgets installed as part of your Wordpress installation, you can try this widget out yourself. All you need to do to use it: Download the ldbuttons.php.txt file [...]
12:11 am
The Bromley and Chislehurst by-election campaign is hotting up. A photo of our candidate Ben Abbotts in the Lib Dems News this week (the party's weekly rag) - Wow! what a gorgeous man - such a cool picture. As the kids would say "It's wicked". As Ben's a professional bod, nobody can call him a pretty boy with no brains - he's got it all. So refreshing to see a campaign that is capitalising on the charisma and imagery of our candidate instead of all the usual spiel. Seems the party at long last is becoming image conscious ...
Saturday 24th June 2006,
Friday 23rd June 2006,
Thursday 22nd June 2006,
Wednesday 21st June 2006,
Tuesday 20th June 2006,
Monday 19th June 2006
