11:57 pm
I was standing in the queue for the Ladies at Buckingham Palace when someone looked at the three salmon on my Mayoral badge and asked me that question. One of the perks that mayors enjoy is being invited to the Queen's Garden Party. So Ian and I took off in RBK1, with my obligatory hat, to park in The Mall and walk through those famous gates into the forecourt of the palace. Then...
11:55 pm
11:54 pm
On the hottest day of the year on Wednesday we had a lunch of roast beef and yorkshire pudding. This was the seventh anniversary of the Lunch Club run by Age Concern at Charles Lesser House in Hook, and I remember being there for the very first lunch in 1999. The food was just as good today as it was then, so I was only too happy to thank all the volunteers who keep it going throughout the...
11:47 pm
Building on my post from yesterday, I want to blog on what is happening in China to the majority of people who do not live in the cities or are, at best, marginalised in them. Perhaps to the disappointment of several of my Liberal friends, the path to a Liberal Democracy might not be a smooth one by any stretch of the imagination and some of the alternatives are more frightening than the present one, bad though it is. That will be a discussion for another day. Firstly though, I have to say that despite some claims to the ...
9:04 pm
Belfast, July 12th. The Unionists celebrate the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne by building Alp-sized bonfires. 30 foot high piles of wood, tyres and (by the smell) industrial waste. My boat seaworthy, I took the volunteers who'd help whip it into shape for an evening sail to see the bonfires of Belfast from the waters of Belfast Lough. It couldn't have been more lovely, or
8:37 pm
I feel a bit bad about calling Jack Straw a cretin in my pledge yesterday. What he said about theyworkforyou was certainly stupid, but now I’m anxious that people are going to write him abusive messages, which wasn’t my intent at all. So if you do sign the pledge and write him a letter please be [...]
7:30 pm
{Superman Returns} Saw this on Wednesday with David. It was a great film. Lived up to the first two superman movies and Brandon Routh played a great Christopher Reeve. Rather luckily the little boy wasn't anoying at all and Kevin Spacey pulled off playing Lex Luthor, both things I worried about whilst watching the trailers. My only issue is why was Lois Lane dating Scott (Cyclops) from the X-Men? 8/10
6:33 pm
8 years ago, when I was elected sabbatical Communications Officer of LDYS, one of my first acts was to scrap the “agony aunt” column. Now I see it is back again. The good news is that, being written by Lord Bonkers, it is less likely to descend into a series of in-jokes that only certain [...]
5:41 pm
Last night I went to the Fair Trade steering group which is working on achieving Fairtrade status for Southwark Borough. The group consists of concerned residents and campaigners from groups like Friends fo the Earth, the World Development Movement and the Fairtrade foundation - as well as councillors from all parties. Although I am now the lead [...]
4:25 pm
In the 1960s and 1970s the Young Liberals wanted to overthrow the capitalist system and replace it with a loose affiliation of workers' co-operatives. Today their modern equivalents ask me to write a problem page in the guise of Lord Bonkers. I am not sure this is progress. The new issue of Free Radical is out, says Ginger and Dynamite, so I am now reproducing the old monster's advice here. (Lord Bonkers regrets he cannot enter into individual correspondence unless a Postal Order is enclosed.) Those problems in full... I went on a blind date the other ...
4:23 pm
At work I managed to get onto a mini-rant about Che Guevara being a murdering bastard (I swear they sometimes bait me...) Then a colleague came up with the reason the man is such an icon: He had good hair. Tags:che+guevara hair
4:18 pm
The editor of Newsnight must be away. Today I received the Newsnight weekly editor’s e-mail, sent this week by Daniel Pearl, the deputy editor. He says: If you write anything about Newsnight, or about me, on a blog, I’ll probably find it via Technorati. So for example, I know that there’s a whole debate going on [...]
4:01 pm
Any readers from South Lanarkshire will be aware that the local Labour council are determined to sell off bits of Calderglen Country Park to a private housing developer. When the local plan was first announced, the local Community Council organised two demonstrations against it in the park itself, which were each attended by c.750 people and attracted media coverage from the BBC and Glasgow
3:54 pm
Jon Ronson writes in the Gruniad’s online bloggy thing about Gary McKinnon, the hapless “uberhacker” who allegedly perpretrated the biggest cyber-attack into US Military computer systems… ever. We have been told that computers literally packed in, melting into pools of bubbling molten fluid, or perhaps exploding into a puff of incandessent vapour. Not a shred of [...]
3:52 pm
Issue 73 of Free Radical magazine will be smashing its way through letterboxes in the coming week, and it's the last one that I will be involved with. Though it is not available online at present, you can read one of the articles here. There is also an article about renewing Trident, an agony column with Lord Bonkers and a piece by Sir Menzies Campbell.
2:55 pm
I’ve just seen the news that both director David Maloney and voice artist Peter Hawkins have recently died. David Maloney directed much of the best and scariest of Doctor Who; Peter Hawkins was the original voice of the Daleks, the Cybermen, Captain Pugwash and even Bill and Ben. Both made my childhood much richer, and without them, I doubt we’d have the superb new Doctor Who. To cheer myself up, I’ve read reviews of the latest series by two lovely men (and you might also watch Charlie Brooker’s Screen Wipe tonight on BBC4, like a blog but noisier. And funny). ...
1:58 pm
Well James Graham has launcehed an pledge to help educate him and find an answer. Last time I looked our MPs were elected as representatives of the people, i.e. they are elected to serve all the people of their area no matter how they voted for him. Therefore is it not wise for the people to have a good idea of just what that elected representative is doing or saying at the place he was appointed
1:22 pm
Take a look at the BBC News Website. The second most important story is the shocking revelation that 3 men will get a fair trial. Wowee. Then take a look at the ‘England’ page - all serious stories, though I’m not sure a few bumps and scrapes at Alton Towers is much to shout about… Then [...]
1:02 pm
Much vitriol has been unleashed on the web today (from all sides) following Jack Straw's comments that websites such as TheyWorKForYou.com are causing a problem by making people's analysis of MP's performance quantitative rather than qualitative. The extrapolation being drawn...
12:46 pm
For insiders the most interesting piece in this morning's Western Mail is their analysis of the breakdown in the relationship between Presiding Officer, Dafydd Elis Thomas and his Deputy, John Marek: One AM said, "Dafydd and John aren't really on personal speaking terms. This has been going on for the last four or five months. They have a big disagreement over how the members' side of the Assembly will be run in the future, after the new powers come in next May. "John Marek thinks the Government is trying to take over what is now the Assembly Parliamentary ...
12:38 pm
Jack Straw has attacked the excellent website TheyWorkForYou.com, which enables citizens to check up on their MPs, including trawling through their voting records, their speeches and their freebies. Jack Straw takes time out of his busy schedule to pose for a book cover If you're against this attack on such a valuable public service tool*, sign up to this pledge: "I will write to Jack Straw to
12:38 pm
The Welsh Assembly Government have to be congratulated on moving forward with their proposed ban on smoking in public places. It now seems possible that this will be in place before England (and also before the next Assembly elections). A consultation has been launched along with a website seeking people's views on the details. However, it looks that what is eventually is put in place will very much mirror the ban in Ireland. Smokers breaking the ban would face a £50 on-the-spot fine - while the owner of the premises would have to pay £2,500. A lot of ...
12:28 pm
This blog reaches its third birthday today. Since I started it on 21 July 2003 I have posted 1,903 times and have had over 100,000 hits. To be precise, as I only have statistics going back to December 2003, I have had 110, 871 hits in 32 months. This is the second longest running blog by an elected representative, surpassed only by Tom Watson. I will now sit back and watch everybody prove me wrong on that assertion.
12:04 pm
Today's House Points from Liberal Democrat News. My current Alvin Stardust fixation and Tuesday's extreme heat produced something distinctly odd. But it was meant to be. Delayed for ages at Leicester station on Tuesday evening, I sat in the buffet and made some notes for this piece. They were playing hits from the sixties and seventies and, sure enough, "My Coo Ca Choo" came on. Identity crisis Identity can be a complicated business. Take the case of young Bernard Jewry, who developed a love of rock music and hung out with a band called Johnny Theakston and the ...
11:49 am
This years Tour de France has been one of the most exciting for many years. The TV highlights have been compelling viewing, and it is clear that despite professional cycling having its reputation dragged through the mud, spectators and viewers are tuning in and watching this most physically demanding sporting events. For those who want to follow the tour without Eurosport, I use the CSC tracker.While Armstrong dominated the race in the last few years, we spent our time wondering when he was going to take the yellow jersey, and then keep hold of it until the finish in Paris. ...
11:19 am
James Graham over at Quaequam Blog! has set up this pledge at PledgeBank: Jack Straw yesterday launched an outspoken attack on http://TheyWorkForYou.com, claiming that it is distorting they way MPs conduct their business. See: http://www.epolitix.com/EN/News/200607/d... This is patent nonsense. MPs are responsible for their own actions. TheyWorkForYou is a valuable contribution to our civil
11:13 am
I googled ‘paxman coulter’ today, to see what others thought of their Newsnight encounter a couple of weeks ago, which I’ve only got around to watching today. I think the lesson of the piece is: when you argue with an idiot, you will always lose. The first search result absolutely baffled me for a moment, because the URL appeared to be that of this blog, and I was pretty confident I hadn’t posted anything on the issue. Of course, this was not the case, as this site is at ‘gingeranddynamite’ and not (despite the title) ‘hotgingeranddynamite’. The blog of that ...
10:56 am
Whilst I do not normally talk of political betting (although I indulge, when I go with my head I win a fair bit, when I go with my heart I lose a fair bit!) news reaches me from www.politicalbetting.com that the market on Blair to be arrested this year has opened.
10:41 am
Fife Council have decided to spend over £20million on a new telephone system. This is double the estimate of £10million announced in just six months ago. Given Labour's record in managing IT costs this means that by the time that the project is finnished, it could well be over £30m. The rational for spending £55.55 per man, women and child in Fife on a new telephone system is that Fife Council wants to have a more efficient contact system with the population of Fife. It has introduced new 0845 contact numbers instead of local phone numbers for the Local Offices ...
10:26 am
They put a man on the moon. If you believe there's nothing up my sleeve, then nothing is cool REM Man on the Moon Well 37 years ago today Neil Armstrong took his one small step and 12 years ago the man who is running out of tricks up his sleeve once known as Teflon Tony was elected leader of the Labour Party. The last line of the REM song before the repeat of the refrain is 'Hey baby, are we
10:19 am
Yesterday two by-elections took place in Wellesbourne, one for Stratford District Council and one for Warwickshire County Council. The Conservatives won what were hard-fought elections, the Liberal Democrats were just 93 votes behind in the District Council election. In the current climate with the Conservatives still doing well under Cameron it is a good result to come so close.
8:41 am
Long-term readers may recall that last August I joined a number of others to blog about House of Lords reform, marking the anniversary of the passing of the 1911 Parliament Act. Despite some slight moves, we still don’t have a democratic second chamber, so this year I’ll be writing once more about House of Lords reform [...]
8:17 am
John Hemming (Birmingham, Yardley) (LD): I thank the Secretary of State for her comments in respect of what the Government wish to see. Why would they not wish to see a ceasefire without the return of the soldiers? Margaret Beckett: Everyone wants to see a cessation of violence as soon as possible. Many of the other routes that one could urge—the international community is urging them, and
7:28 am
There was nasty clash in parliament on Wednesday between John Prescott and James Duddridge, Tory MP for Rochford and Southend East. Duddridge is a new MP (the successor to Teddy Taylor) and not known for being particularly aggressive towards Labour. However this exchange over Southend Council's attempts to get a casino, as reported in Hansard, ends with a lot of shouting... 5. James Duddridge
12:52 am
It turns out that rather than becoming the Minister for Europe, Geoff Hoon quietly died a couple of months ago. I know this because in an extraordinary statement to the Commons today, his successor as Leader of the House Jack Straw channelled his spirit: “I also just say, and I’m glad this has been recognised on [...]
12:14 am
It’s a sad day when you don’t even need to look up the actual figures to realise the media and political classes are talking utter balls on crime. An 8% increase in robberies? No an 8% increase in recorded robberies. To give this some perspective, one other statistic hidden in the Guardian coverage today [...]
Thursday 20th July 2006,
Wednesday 19th July 2006,
Tuesday 18th July 2006,
Monday 17th July 2006,
Sunday 16th July 2006,
Saturday 15th July 2006
