It’s been a good year for political quotes, particularly my favourite kind, the ones that reveal a deeper meaning to the usual diet of spin and drivel. But with the conference season out of the way, it appears unlikely that my quote of the year award will be going anywhere other than the prohibitive favourite since February, everyone’s favourite Brownite lackey, Ed Balls MP, for this classic from
What with 18 Doughty Street on some kind of rise, Tim Montgomerie and Iain Dale bestriding political blogging like colossusis, one can't help but wonder whether we're a beat behind in our exploitation of internet campaigning. Rob Fenwick wrote a thoughtful post about this around a year ago, and his Lib Dem Voice along with Liberal Review are excellent sites, a couple of well-read Lib Dem blogs
I am watching Alan Yentob's Imagine... programme on J. M. Barrie and Peter Pan. He has interviewed Andrew Birkin, who wrote the 1978 television plays The Lost Boys . And if you are interested in the background to this tale, there is no better place to go than Birkin's website.
Isn't it amazing what a change at the top can do for your confidence (just ask the Tory Party !) A new manager, a first away win of the season tonight against Birmingham, a new spring in the step and the league leaders visiting on Saturday. Things are certainly getting much brighter at Carrow Road. Well done Peter Grant and well done Norwich City. Now if Everton could return to winning ways, then I'd be completely over the moon !
It seem the government is keen to prevent us making too many of those pesky Freedom of Information requests. They've decided that it'll be a lot easier from now on for public authorities to claim that getting the information together is too expensive (there has been a limit but the government is now saying that lots more activities, such as studying the information request in the first place, can count towards the limit when authorities are working out the cost of providing information). What's more several requests from the same person are going to be able to be ...
The Deputy Mayor and I entertained some delightful guests to tea in the Mayor's Parlour yesterday. They had bid for the experience at a Chinese Evening back in June in aid of Kingston Can. Unfortunately it clashed with a Full Council meeting, so we had both been unable to attend the event. Our tea party was filmed for a Chinese satellite TV channel that is beamed over Europe. We...
One of my favourite lectures and discussions today with the students; The Law of Armed Conflict. People have been especially interested in this lately because of certain events in Iraq. We started with the medieval concepts of a just war and justice in war, which in fact tie in very neatly with the discussion about whether it's the conduct of the war in Iraq that's been unjust or whether the whole thing was wrong from the outset. From there to the Geneva Conventions and the twelve principles of the Law of Armed Conflict which range from the blindingly obvious (respect ...
So come all you Glasgow Celtic,Stand up and play the game,For between your posts a spirit stands,Johnny Thomson is his name. The injuries suffered by Carlo Cudicini and, in particular, Petr Cech at Reading on Saturday recall the sad story of the Celtic keeper John Thomson. As the club's official site tells the story: On Saturday, September 5th, 1931, the Celtic goalkeeper John Thomson received a serious head injury while playing against Rangers at Ibrox. He died later in hospital, having never regained consciousness after the incident. The death of a footballer in his prime is thankfully rare, and ...
I have written my entry for the History Matters website only to find that it needs to be less than 4,000 characters. I have reproduced the unabridged version below: As a member of the Welsh Assembly, a history graduate and a regular blogger I have taken a keen interest in the 'History Matters: Pass it on' mass blog being promoted by the National Trust and English Heritage. I have been blogging for over three years now and have the second longest running blog of any political representative. The first thing I did this morning therefore was to post about ...
The great man in today's Guardian: "I heard Jonathan Ross complaining recently that my portrayal of childhood in the 1980s was nothing like his and I thought: thank God for that."It's not the most daring or original recommendation, but Bennett's Untold Stories - just out in paperback - is a wonderful read.
Apologies for the lack of blog yesterday. It was due to Orange Broadband not working. Although Orange would contend that it wasn’t their fault. Either way, there was no internet connection, and hence no blog. But it’s fixed now. I have begun running again. I took three weeks off to go to the USA. This extended slightly to include two weeks after I got back too. So it’s been nearer six weeks
I saw from Peter Black this morning that several charities have chosen today to raise awareness of history. They’re encouraging people to create ‘the biggest blog in history’ by writing about their day; everyone who says what they were doing on October 17th, 2006 will have their entry logged with the British Library as a sort of time capsule, and – by talking about the impact of history on our daily lives – help build interest and support in looking after our heritage. I’ll sign up later to ‘One Day in History’, and I’d encourage you to do the same. ...
A leading Coalition Councillor today insisted that there are no plans to close any of East Cleveland's three swimming pools at Loftus, Saltburn and Guisborough. Fears that the pools could be under threat have surfaced amid negotiations by the Council to choose one of three companies who tendered for the contract to manage the Borough's leisure centres. Concerned users and user groups have wrongly linked the suggestion in one of the tendering documents that an Olympic 'super pool' could be built in East Cleveland to imminent closure of existing swimming facilities. The Council's Cabinet Member for Culture, Leisure and Tourism ...
George Bush today signed into law the Military Commissions Bill. He said he did it 'in memory of the victims of the September 11 attacks'. How can he know that the victims of those attacks would want this Act in their memory? Have their families unanimously approved it? American Civil Liberties Union Executive Director, Anthony D. Romero said: The president can now, with the approval of
I'm wondering if I am living in a different world from everyone else. You see, in my world, we are fighting two wars, we have a discredited Prime Minister, we have question marks over the future direction of the government, we have nuclear threats growing all the time, and, well, to be honest, I see no shortage of "real" news. So why is the press SO obsessed with Madonna ? Even fivelive this morning were talking about it, experts were giving their opinion,and in the end, I turned on to talk sport to listen to some ... 
I previously wrote about my burgeoning list of "simple life" things to do before you die. So far I have got up to two items: -Catching crabs (the sealife versions) with your child/children -Flying a kite I now add to that list something we did on Sunday. We went for a light lunch and a couple of pints of excellent beer at the Pot Kiln, Frilsham. As you can see from the photo above, it's a
I have just logged my blog for history. This is now apparently going to stored "in electronic form in the British Library's Web Archiving Section which is a part of the Modern British Collection." Wow. Today I read again some of the pages of my Great Great Great Uncle's daily log book. He was called Samuel Banbury and had a farm near Stratton in Cornwall. He meticulously recorded all the
The National Trust are conducting a "One Day in History" exercise today. You go to www.historymatters.org.uk and record your diary for the day. Then it gets shared with future generations. I pity the future historians who will have to wade through the stuff. It reminds me of the late Ray Moore on Radio 2 who used to regularly recite his memoirs: "Got up, went to work. Rained. Came home. Had tea.
The idea here is that someone wrote "God is coming" and someone else added "and he's bringing donuts". This slogan currently features on a Christian Union evangelism poster at my place of work and it amused me for a variety of reasons. Similar pieces of graffiti can be viewed at this website called Pictures of Walls, which I found rather diverting.
People have accused my last post of triskaidekaphobia, but, no, I’m not even paraskavedekatriaphobic; I was just a bit weary of having a bad day, and found the timing ironic. I do, however, have a bit of a thing about some days – I like a bit of history, and enjoy bringing up anniversaries. Russell T Davies’ first Doctor Who story (the stunning New Adventures novel Damaged Goods) was published ten years ago today, and I bet he wouldn’t have thought that ten years later his Doctor Who spin-off series would be on the cover of the new Radio Times. ...
New Surgery Dates Saturday 21st October 10:30-11:30-Preston Baptist Church Hall, Old Torquay Road, Paignton Saturday 28th October 15:30-17:00-Watcombe Community Centre, Medway Road, Torq...
The EU has chosen a logo (right) to celebrate its 50th birthday next year. It was designed by Polish student Szymon Skrzypczak who entered it into the EU’s competition. The licensing rules preclude me from editing the image, so I’ll have to explain the change I would make: swap the “E” with the “é”. It [...]
Leighton Andrews has an interesting viewpoint on Welsh Assembly bloggers, albeit one that is slanted towards his particular prejudices. I think that it is widely accepted that despite concerted efforts by Labour bloggers to get their act together that, with one or two exceptions, they are still trailing the other two parties in the use of this medium. One of Leighton's misconceptions is that there is a clear difference between those bloggers who represent constituencies and those who are regional members: for constituency members, the constituency side is more important than the general political commentary, and that shows in our ...
Up early this morning to do a down the line interview with BBC Radio Devon at 7.30am about the Diabetes Information Conference I attended on Friday. Then at 8am, breakfast at the Tate Gallery, c...
I think some of my concerns are due to a disconnect with the EU and its institutions. All we hear of the EU is the bad news and the stupidity. The LibDems have to share some of the blame, the view at Cowley Street seems to be ignore the EU and people will forget about it. Instead we should be criticising what's wrong (and there is plenty) and praise what it does well and what is being done to 
Nearly 72 hours after the Reading vs Chelsea game and a lot of hot air has been spouted about the clash between Stephen Hunt and Petr Cech which saw the latter end up in hospital with a fractured skull. Mourinho was undoubtedly upset at the loss of not one but two goalkeepers and lashed out at Stephen Hunt after the game. Not a nice reaction but possibly understandable. What was not so understandable was maintaining that position after having had an opportunity to review footage of the incident and after many independent reporters had also reviewed the footage ...
A bored morning on the Urban Dictionary led me to reflect on some of the strange vernacular I have encountered in the past. I remember that the ubiquitous random, blatant and more interestingly, the seemingly North Somerset-specific jitter were expressions which littered the sixth form common room. Not that I was in there very often. One classmate of mine also frequently used the expressions sketchy and fest (as in “he was blatantly trying to fest me in the club”). Where do these terms come from? How do they evolve? From which linguistic compost heap do they crawl? I ...
Colin Ross has been digging around the issue of the Midlands Industrial Council, a group of wealthy individuals who donate to the Conservative Party. He has new revelations.
There is a set of stairs in the mother of all Parliaments. At the top is the committee corridor, and the office of the leader of the Liberal Democrats. In the middle, is the MP’s tea room, and at the bottom, is the most popular restaurant in the palace. It is a busy set of stairs. There [...]
Some months ago the Home Office insisted on evicting two young women from our shores because they were too foreign, not married enough or rich enough to remain and open a business. The business in question, a science magazine primarily aimed at women. On the evidence of what they've written so far it's a good all-round read, which the testiculated can read without blush. Well, the day after another British university drops the axe on a science department, the Inkettes have announced the launch of their magazine: with guidelines for writers, rates for submissions. It's being produced from ...
The Times reports today, “The Defence Select Committee, which has a majority of Labour MPs, is to begin a second inquiry on the case for replacing Trident, having accused the Ministry of Defence of failing to participate in its first such exercise this year.” MPs from both sides of the debate are concerned that the Government is determined to allow discussion only once a decision has been made. “Opponents of replacing Trident, say Mr Blair’s plan for a Cabinet decision first, followed by a White Paper setting out the Government’s recommendation to Parliament, would pre-empt the promised debate.” Messrs Blair ...
The names of the Midlands Industrial Council are now known, having glanced down them one jumped out at me - Graham Hampson-Silk. Mr Hampson-Silk had been behind the plans to expand Wolverhampton Business Airport and is part of an organisation that has funded Wolverhampton South West Conservatives.
If a government minister came in to your house in the morning and told you that you should not wear whatever clothes you had set out for the day, it is quite likely that at the least, you would tell the minister to get out of your house. What people choose to wear- whether it is a mohican and safety pins, a worsted suit, jeans or anything else is not a matter for the government. Why should a government minister tell Muslim women what to wear? Once you start down that road where do you stop? Now, apparently the Jewish ...
Convictions Q:To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what measures are in place to protect those whose convictions are based on an uncorroborated allegation that turns out to be false but has not been formally retracted. (John Hemming) A:Uncorroborated allegations do not have a special status and are treated as other evidence. The safeguards in place to prevent
I have decided to take part in the one day in history blogging event where one chronicles an ordinary day in the life of someone in the UK. If anyone else wants to get involved then click here for more details. I suspect that if everyone chronicles their day as it is then a lot of these blogs (including mine) will be extremely dull. I will post this up and continue to add to it throughout the day. My alarm went at 6.45 as usual and I set off for work in Reading. The M4 was a lot quieter than ...
My gut instinct is pro-EU. I'm generally in favour of a European Union to exercise regional powers and of course the free trade area is to be welcomed (although I believe Europe should open itself to unilateral free trade with the rest of the world). But then you have such monstrosities as the Common Agricultural Policy, failed policies like the Common Fisheries Policy and a host of protectionist measures designed to appease vested interests in some countries. Add onto that the undemocratic Commission and Council of Ministers and the reams and reams of regulation. Tim Worstall (high priest of the ...
After two terror suspects who were subject to control orders absconded, the Government has threatened a kneejerk increase in their powers. Tony McNulty said the measures had always been a “second best option” and were under review. Hurrah! I agree with a minister for once. Control orders really are a second best option. Where we differ, I [...]
Having given my thoughts on the furore surrounding the comments by Chief of the General Staff in a piece entitled The thin red line I came across this great piece from the Millenium Dome Elephant. Absolutely brilliant, spot on and a great read. In fact I can heartily recommend The Very Fluffy Diary of Millennium Dome, Elephant to anyone. A unique style of blogging and usually extremely witty.
I was delighted to hear last night that Simon Wright has been selected as Parliamentary candidate for the Liberal Democrats in Norwich South. Norwich South, as many people will know, is a top target for the Lib Dems and is also the seat of former Home Secretary and Labour MP Charles Clarke. At the last general election, the Lib Dems leapfrogged the Tories to go in to a strong second place whilst the Tories fell back to third place, meaning this seat is a real two way contest, a two horse race as Lib Dems like to say.I am ...
But according to articles in The Nation here and The Bangkok Post here he will not be allowed to return until martial law has been lifted and even then there is some uncertainty as to whether or not he will be allowed to return home. Thaksin wants to come home but must know that rightly or wrongly there will be some music to face. On the other hand his supporters may welcome him with open arms which in turn may make it more difficult for the coup leaders to prosecute him. The coup leaders I suspect are torn between bringing ...
The first person to be evicted from 'I'm a councillor, get me out of here' was ........ [very long pause]........ Councillor Patricia Bamford. Paul Johnston, Frances Moseley and Sheila Griffin stay on and want your vote - but only if you have registered through your school, otherwise all you can do is watch the action. To follow the dramatic events this week go to the Big...
I am on Radio Wales in two hours time talking about the greatest mass “blog” ever. The event is being headed up by a group of charities lead by the National Trust and English Heritage: The charities, under the umbrella of the History Matters campaign, want to bring together schoolchildren, celebrities and indeed everyone living in the country on Oct 17 to contribute to a unique record of the present which will be an invaluable resource to histrians in the future as they seek a deeper insight into early 21st century life. The campaign hopes that hundreds of thousands ...
Well, I survived my first 18 Doughty Street experience. Quite enjoyed it, too. Whether viewers did, I’ve no idea. I’m typing this on the train back from Paddington to Oxford, and haven’t yet looked at the Vox Politix blog to see what the reaction’s been. Iain Dale had been a gentleman and given us - me, Alex Hilton (aka Recess Monkey) and Phil Hendren (aka Dizzy Thinks, who was a bit disturbed
All interested groups and residents, especially those living in and around Longbridge, are being asked to give their views on how the former MG Rover site should be redeveloped. Residents and stakeholders are being asked what they think about all ideas for the site but particularly four key options. The ideas and options emerged from an initial consultation phase involving a residents’ forum,
Saturday: Woosh-kerthunk noise… Caption: Our Front Room… We settle down again on my sofa to watch ROBBING HOODIE. I am not sure if it is quite "appointment to view" yet; I had to wake my daddies up by turning up the sound REALLY LOUD and dancing along to "Strictly Ballroom Fever". I do not THINK that daddy minded me dancing on his tummy… It seems very odd that this new Robin Hood can almost revel in some of the more messily gory aspects of 12th Century justice – a removed hand last week; off screen, ...
Friday: The CHIEF OF THE ARMED FORCES has had a few words to say about Iraq. I do wish he hadn't. Now, I do not doubt that what he said was in fact PROBABLY TRUE. And OBVIOUSLY it is very AMUSING to have Lord Blairimort dropped in it. But think how you would feel if it had been the OTHER WAY ROUND: suppose a Liberal government had decided NOT to join the Americans in invading and the Chief of the Army said: "Oh no, that was very, very wrong!" General Dannatt is probably RIGHT. It IS very ...
Thursday: News arrives of THIS planet seen orbiting the nearby star Epsilon Eridani… …but in fact it is NOT the FAMOUS planet VULCAN from TV's Star Trek because, thanks to the hard work of sad continuity obsessed writers, an episode of "Enterprise" apparently identifies Vulcan's star as 40 Eridani A. This is a SHAME because otherwise I would have had a COOL diary to write today. Put this down as ANOTHER thing wrong with "Star Trek: Enterprise", I say! | < | October 2006 | > | ||||
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