The ill judged approach relating to Lebanon seems to be heating up the temperature in the Middle East. Rockets have landed in Syria (probably in error), there has been a march of potential suicide bombers in Baghdad. The Lebanese media are calling for unity against the Israelis. In Iraq it is the Sadr supporters that are particularly vocal, but even the Iraqi government has made its views
Charles Kennedy was presenting a Channel 4 "Thirty Minutes" tonight on "Politics and Power". I can't find it online, so if you missed it (as I missed the first five minutes being suckered in by those other great Liberals trying to rearrange the county in the Madness of King George) all I can find to give you a flavour is the Radio Times write-up: Charles Kennedy, former leader of the Liberal Democrats, examines the problem he sees as being at the heart of British politics: the way politicians too often sacrifice their principles in the pursuit of ...
Saturday Not put off by the fact that the SERIES IS OVER, my Daddies are STILL making Saturday night their Doctor Who night. Even when I tell them to watch JAMES BOND instead! Recently, the BBC published some BOOKS about Dr Who and Rose's adventures when they are not on the telly, and have got a man called DAVID TENNANT to read them onto shiny CDs for us to listen to. Mr David look SUSPICIOUSLY familiar… but he sounds SCOTTISH so that's all right. Each of the books takes up two CDs to read onto, ...
As reported on The Lochore Lib Dem: Tommy Wins! , Mr Sheridan has won his libel case. I was finding it oddly difficult to remain unmoved by the sheer chutzpah of his victory over The News of the World, until he opened his mouth. It's just embarrassing listening to him gibber aggressively about 'working class people' on the national news. As to what happens next, the most likely scenario would
I don't mind Madonna, she's alright, and her music isn't too bad. Well, except that American Pie cover, that was crap, but anyway. Her fetish for pissing off the Church (probably for the fun of it) is rather more annoying than the American Pie cover. In her latest show, she does the crucifixion thing again, except this time she's on it, and she's wearing a crown of thorns. Whilst the rest of us are possibly shaking our heads, one does wonder why she continually does it. Surely she wouldn't bother if she didn't get some kind of ...
When the Chief Executive of a major bank says "I do not borrow on credit cards; its too expensive" as Matthew Barrett, CE of Barclays, did in 2003 you have to stop and reflect on your own habits as a consumer. For most people, credit cards are a normal part of shopping - and used within an individual's budget there should never be a problem. But credit is available everywhere, with mailshots frequently arriving from banks, and now increasingly store cards being promoted aggressively by the high street chains.
This story was in all the papers a couple of days ago. Here is the Guardian's telling of it: Nursery nurses with few qualifications and poor social skills risk creating a generation of Vicky Pollards, teachers' leaders warned yesterday. Too many illiterate students were starting childcare courses as an easy way to get government grants paid to encourage students to stay in education, the Professional Association of Teachers warned. Many young nursery staff dressed inappropriately and often discussed their drinking exploits in front of toddlers. A couple of points... The first (with my work hat on) is that if ...
The Independent parliamentary sketchwriter's website can now be found here.
A leaked memo indicates that the Labour Government are proposing to allow hereditary peers to remain in the House of Lords until as late as 2050 even if a large element of the second chamber should be elected. All-in-all it looks like the Government are still struggling to find a coherent way forward on this issue. Like many of their constitutional reforms they are playing it by ear without any clear idea of their final destination. Keeping any of the hereditary peers is indefensible in my view. As the 'Elect the Lords' website says 'There is now a widespread consensus ...
It is going to be interesting to see what happens next with this. On one hand SSP Convenor Colin Fox MSP says that this is a great victory for Tommy Sheridan MSP over the News of the World. On the other hand SSP MSP Carolyn Leckie has vowed to defend herself against any perjury. The SSP Conference will be an interesting event in October.
..and the Criminal Justice Unit are reviewing his case. Boris Johnson regularly road-tests flashy cars. When he went for selection as the Conservative PPC at Henley, he just happened to be road-testing a brand new Roller at the time. And, of course, he was forced to park it ostentatiously next to the front of the building where all the Conservative party faithful were entering. Now he seems to
I've been with Betfair.com for some years now, and I think this is the first time I've bet against something. Looking at the odds for the Premiership it seemed that the best bet was against Chelsea. I think they'll come second or third this year, but just have no idea who'll win. So by betting against them if any of the other 19 teams win I'm £20 up.
A public meeting will be held in Colonsay Field at Calderglen Country Park, East Kilbride on Sunday 6th August at 2pm to protest about South Lanarkshire Council's attempt to sell-off bits of the park to a private housing developer. The last such meeting attracted 750 people, and had speakers from all parties bar Labour. Please come along and show your support if you happen to be in the area.
…and the brakes are apparently stuck. We were already 11 minutes late leaving Haymarket (precise time courtesy of FirstScotrail’s text alerts, which helpfully tell you when trains are delayed, albeit by a text that usually arrives once you’re already on board). Ah, we’re now on the move. 20 minutes late for a journey that only takes [...]
Report on Radio 4 today from a House of Commons select committee which has been looking into ID cards. It seems this group of MPs - including reps from the Labour party - have a long list of criticisms of the scheme. Many of these are about the practicalities and processes (although many of us have objections based on the principle of the thing) Interesting interview with Phil Willis, the committee chair, who pointed out that the government's justification of the scheme has changed as each of their arguments have become less and less believeable ( ...
Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council has received a planning application for the multi million pound Coatham Links development. The application will now be considered within the statutory planning framework. As part of this process, the Council is currently embarking on a consultation exercise with a number of interested parties including, environmental, regeneration and sporting bodies as well as residents who live next to the site. All residents and businesses have 21 days from the date of the consultation letter and site notice to comment on the scheme. The planning application is available for inspection from Monday August 7, for four ...
There's an article in the SLP today about a overcrowding in Southwark. It describes the plight of Hagar Quarshie a 27-year-old mother-of-two in Camberwell who is sharing her bed with her two children (3 & 8) while waiting nine-years for a larger property. She recently had a miscarriage of twins, five months into her pregnancy and her kids frequently get sick, leading to absence from school. She ends the piece with the comment "The only thing I can think of is to get a job and buy my own place. Otherwise we're stuck." At the risk of ...
Another personal crime-intervention today for Councillor Jardine-Brown. She interrupted a pair of red-headed bag snatchers going through their latest opportunity-lift near the Tyers Estate. Full descriptions have been passed on to the local police and bag returned to the owner. The bag in question belonged to a security guard who had left it in view near a window on St. Thomas Street. They stepped away from their desk momentarily and that was enough for what looked like a mother and son team to pounce. If you have any information on a pair of pale scruffy redheads, female in ...
they're all here. RealClimate bills itself as 'climate science from climate scientists' and on first read seems a good source of articles, links and informed discussion. Click off-piste and you find a rather panicky-sounding article from The Independent about the Amazon rain forest succumbing to drought. It goes like this: another hot year and the Amazon will dry out, catch fire then we're
So say the Conservatives, apparently, who have delayed their London mayoral selection by six months. Their excuse, courtesy of Francis Maude, is that We have also received expressions of interest from a number of very serious potential candidates for whom the timescale we originally set is too restrictive. Everyone else well assume, not unreasonably, that the [...]
I’m at the Loch Ness Youth Hostel (in Alltsigh, just north of Invermoriston) having just about completed two days on the Great Glen Way - I’m going to take the path into Invermoriston this evening after checking in here, so I can get a slightly quicker start in the morning on the road, as I’ve [...]
I was bemused to read in today's South London Press diary that Labour opposition leader Peter John has been moaning to SLP rivals, Southwark News about their "perceived support for the ruling Lib Dem administration". This is not a level of perceived support we have noticed. This week's Southwark News for example contains Peter's best 2nd hand car-dealer mugshot on page 3 in an attack on the Council about a race issue, 3 Labour councillors looking oddly smug about Labour-controlled police failings in Burgess Park, A CCTV attack on the Council, commentary by another Labour councillor in the letter's ...
I have just received the training booklet for the Liberal Democrat's Autumn Conference in Brighton. As always there is lots of training covering virtually every possible aspect of the Liberal Democrats trained by top quality trainers. I have placed the booklet in the download area of the website (on the navigation menu), remember you need to be logged in to access it.
First Syd (scroll down a few posts) now Arthur Lee dies. Very sad news. Forever Changes is one of those albums I love to play on a sunny Sunday. His connection with Syd Barrett is quite bizarre. His band Love recorded a version of Burt Bacharach's "Little Red Book". This was apparently hummed to Syd Barrett by one of the Pink Floyd's managers (Peter Jenner, I believe) and eventually turned into Interstellar Overdrive. Thought you'd be interested...
The Guardian reports that the Conservative search for a charismatic mayoral candidate is not going as well as they hoped. Part of the problem is that the move would effectively make them leader of the opposition in London with no salary or guarantee of success. Why does it not surprise me that someone who already owns two houses, and is married to the scion of a landed family, doesn't grasp that little details like being able to earn a living whilst becoming a political candidate are pretty important to most people? 
I see that well known terrorist Walter Wolfgang has made it onto the Labour NEC, that august body of the good, not so good and downright tedious in the Labour party. Now that he has reached the pinnacle of his political career, it will be interesting to see how the New Labour tribe respond to the appearance of this octogenarian leader of the military wing of the Labour awkward squad. Perhaps a
I'm still not wholly convinced that this was the "right" outcome of the case involving the driver who plowed into a group of cyclists on a freezing sunday morning in North Wales.The court heard that the bald tyres were more likely not to blame (tyre tread helps by dispersing water, rather than helping on ice), but surely the driver should have been driving within limits of the road and weather conditions, and obviously exceeded them in spinning off the road.
The BBC says that Blair delays holiday over Mid-East crisis. Now I am something of an expert when it comes to procrastination eating into my annual leave, so I can reasonably confidently suggest to our glorious leader that if he had started three weeks ago when most of us wanted him to, he'd probably be enjoying his R&R by now...:)
Watching Charlie Brooker’s Screen Wipe on BBC Four last night, I was reassured that my DVD collection isn’t as unfashionable as I thought: Brooker praised Columbo, possibly the least hip box sets I own. He also rightly recommended Monk, a marvellously amusing (if not too intellectually taxing on the Whodunnit scale) US series about an [...]
Brian Simpson, councillor for Eastfied applied to join the Liberal Democrats last month. The former Labour councillor who represents the area on both Scarborough Borough Council and North Yorkshire County Council left in dismay at the lack of socialism in the Labour Party: story and pic of Brian Simpson with his Lib Dem Eastfied colleague Cllr Brian O'Flynn here. He confirms what has long been
Do you have the post-9/11 blues*? * Turn the sound on.
In years gone by I would watch cricket all the way through the Cheltenham festival. This year I only managed a morning session, an afternoon session and a 40 over game (poor value for money given that I pay my membership every year). This meant I missed Stuart Broad's impressive bowling performance against Gloucestershire. Well done to Stuart, anyway. His father began and ended his career with Gloucestershire, but as a batsman. I thought I had seen him open the bowling for Gloucestershire in one game - against Somerset at Bath (in the second innings). But Cricket Archive suggests that ...
Yes, I’m taking a short break from looking at television from forty years in the past by bringing you television from twenty-five years in the future (or “thirty,” if you read all the publicity from media who can’t do the sum ‘2031-2006’). The most exciting thing I saw on TV last night was still a trailer for I, Claudius (1976) being repeated on BBC4 at 9 every night from Saturday, though, so you needn’t worry I’m getting too modern. Anyway, is Armando Iannucci's new TV series any good? Well, like many sketch shows, it depends which three minutes you watch. ...
Coming through Gatwick yesterday... not a pleasent experience. Gigantic queues to leave the country? Well, yes. The latest moronic ukase from the Home Office- we should check everyone leaving the country so that we might just catch the odd illegal who should not have been there in the first place. So let me get this right: tens, or even hundreds of thousands of people are going to be inconvenienced substantially and at considerable cost to the tax payer. I ask the "border guard" how many"illegals" they have actually caught. I will give you a clue... it is a round ...
I'm off in search of sun, sea and other such sibilant stuff. To fill the void of my absence I've uploaded a new poll onto m'other site, www.stephentall.org.uk, inspired by last night's rather splendid episode of Armando Iannucci's Time Trumpet on BBC2. (If you missed it, make sure you watch the 'Copycat Cameron' clip here. Fantastic stuff.) Quite simply - what do you consider the best modern 
Not so much a review as a recommendation. Currently, I'm listening to Lily Allen's Alright, Still . How to describe Lily Allen? A baggy-beat reggae Miss Dynamite with a cruel sense of humour and moderately famous Dad? "Intelligent Chav music"? Anyway, "Smile" and "Littlest Things" are magic. And anyone who can open an album with the lyric When you first left me I was wanting more / But you were fucking that that girl next door, what ya do that for, has some serious sass. Read a review here; buy the album here.
Walter Wolfgang - the 83 year old Labour activist made famous for being thrown out of the Labour conference for heckling - has been elected to Labour's National Executive Committee by party members. Might make for amusing meetings if he decides to chunter away regardless. Interesting that Labour members have decided to elect someone so obviously anti-New Labour, anti-Blair, and very left-wing.
I got the impression my handheld Garmin GPS was wrong when it gave my position as in a Co-op carpark. Odd: I was on a boat floating in a harbour in 4.6 metres of water. Sailing some hours later I put a GPS-derived position on a chart, and had I been where the Garmin Etrex had said, we'd have been aground, not sailing neatly through the buoyed shipping channel in Donaghadee Sound. Tried to | < | August 2006 | > | ||||
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