The International Centre of Excellence for Local e-Democracy (ICELE) was officially launched this week. In a speech in Shanghai, Angela Smith MP, a Minister at the Department of Communities and Local Government, said: So I am delighted that today we are launching the International Centre of Excellence. This came out of the events in Budapest and Baltimore earlier this year, and has the...
Adoption is a noble act. Giving a family to a child with none is just about the best thing that can be given. It is a great commitment and sacrifice. Rewarding, yes, but a noble act beyond what most of us will ever achieve. It is not something I have done and I will not criticise anybody who does. It would be mean spirited to say to any adopter - you could have done it differently; you should
The two councillors who are head to head in the final of 'I'm a councillor, get me out of here' are the only two other councillors in Kingston with active blogs. Perhaps there's a lesson there for all the other members ... They are Sheila Griffin and Paul Johnston.The winner should be announced by the weekend.
Yesterday was our first big fundraiser for my Mayor's Charity. And given that I have never played golf in my life, it gave me plenty of opportunities to display my incompetence and ignorance. Malden Golf Club had very generously offered us a full day, allowing 20 teams to compete under Stableford rules - there, I did learn something! The first two teams tee'd off at 9am,...
Polls are showing Democrat leads they could hardly have imagined possible.
Spiked seems to be getting its commemoration in early: the uprising began on 23 October 1956. But the site has two good articles on the subject. First, Dave Hallsworth remembers a meeting of the Liverpool District Committee of the Communist Party of Great Britain. There he called for the Soviet troops to get out of Hungary, and demanded that those present pledge their full support for the Hungarian workers and students in their attempt to replace Stalinism: As I walked back from the podium to my seat in the audience, screams of ‘Trotskyist!’ hit me from all sides. Communist Party ...
Heard on a Radio Four Quiz programme: Cats have lived with humans for 4,000 years. For 2,000 of those years they have been next door pretending that they have not been fed. And who knew that Sir Isaac Newton invented the cat flap?
I currently have a head-full of cold, so maybe I’m missing something from this BBC report: "Posting footage of assaults and violent acts on websites such as YouTube is a serious issue which MPs should discuss, Commons leader Jack Straw has said."Mr Straw was responding to the concerns of Hartlepool MP, Labour’s Iain Wright, who has highlighted an odd and unpleasant video posted on YouTube by ‘
Was in Belfast Tuesday/Wednesday with the "day job" - we ran a professional meeting on local government reform at Belfast City Hall - keynote speaker Sir Michael Lyons of the Lyons Inquiry - excellent day. As the photo shows, Belfast City Hall is a superb civic centre. If you click on the headline above, you can read the article about my latest City Centre & Harbour Community Council update (and indeed download it) - attended half the meeting tonight (slightly exhausted after last couple of days!) but useful discussion on festive and other matters. Good ...
The American's have admitted that the latest security initiative in Iraq are not a success, indeed, the US policy of flooding areas with troops, door to door searches for militants and a higher presence on the streets has seen a 22% rise in attacks ! Even George Bush is admitting that Iraq is becoming like Vietnam whilst Sir Ian Blair (boy does this man like an opportunity to speak to the press) came out with something that I thought was obvious, that being that the UK is the number one target for Al-Qaeda. He then outlined that the reasons for ...
Just had to get that in!!!! Sitting in my temporary office at the Central Bank, overlooking the harbour, sun shining brightly on the sea following a thunderstorm, just having found out we can't get a flight to Tobago on Saturday since everyone is taking a long weekend, the public holidays for Eid and Diwali falling over the next few days. In Trinidad they love an excuse for a party and being a very ethnically diverse country that means everyone celebrating each other's festivals. Last week was a public holiday for Chinese arrival day. At lunch today they had started on ...
From yesterday's Hansard : I suspect that taking a sledgehammer to crack a few nuts would drive a coach and horses through effective shareholder protection and company regulation in this country...
There are times when a little thing highlights everything that's wrong with this government. We had a meeting tonight for a Primary School in Cathedrals where I'm a member of the governing body. A topic arose during the head-teacher's report that made this point. We have an after-school club. After-school clubs helps children by giving them additional opportunities for fun and learning experiences. They help parents by giving them some flexibility on when they have to pick up the children. They're a good thing. The clubs are run by teachers, support staff and other qualified help such as ...
It’s almost time for tonight’s episode of The Avengers – an absolutely outstanding one, on BBC4 at 7.10 (or tomorrow, 11.30) – and they’re showing the groovy little documentary The Avengers Revisited tonight at 10, so it’s about time I got round to reviewing last week’s. Unusually for the series, it was grounded in the time’s ‘spy reality’, though nobody was so gauche as to name the foreign embassy around which the plot revolves. Steed’s out to catch a notorious Ru… (cough) spymaster, but the ‘double’ plot that ensues is much funnier if considerably less credible than John le Carré… ... 
Text to the Drive show: "Why don't you give air time to all the people who write to Blair and tell him he's a tosser?" 6.47 pm and she reads it out. Priceless. She and Peter Allen are one of the best double-acts in broadcasting.
I am suffering the withdrawal symptoms already. Crisis is perhaps too big a word to use, but it’s pretty bad. As I was leaving work today, I omitted to pick my mobile phone up off my desk. Result: one-and-a-half hours until I got home with no email, no ability to read or write blog posts, check [...]
I am not opposed to Islamic women wearing the veil in public. I am also not opposed to Jack Straw (or whoever) asking women to remove the veil for the purposes of easier communication. I do not think Islamic women should be offended if they are asked to remove their veil, and I also think that no offence should be taken if they refuse - this is their right, in a free society, to dress as they choose. However, there are certain contexts in which it is inappropriate to dress in certain ways. Some "dress codes" are about common ...
It does appear that Ofcom want No Operator Available calls to remain silent as fewer people will complain because they don't know who to complain about. I have asked Ofcom whether this is true earlier today and they have not as yet responded.
An eventful few days, with much to provoke thought from Paddy Ashdown, the school I am a governor of and now Charles Kennedy... All day Monday was spent at Chelsfield Primary School, where I am an LEA Governor, interviewing for a new head teacher. Well it would have been all day - but the first one didn't turn up, so some passing of time. Eventually we appointed the new person, but now have to
As Exec Member with responsibility for the Youth Service I sit on our Children's Services Advisory Panel and, not having sat on it or its predecessor the Education Advisory Panel before, it is interesting to learn just how far reaching this government likes to interfere in local affairs. Labour's tinkering in NHS services is stuff of legend and is resulting in cuts across the UK, but I suspect...
I hope the political correspondent of the Telegraph didn't think I personally blamed him for the failure of the paper to credit the story my office helped them with yesterday. It must be frustr...
New Balls Please is now on pledgebank. Because YOU demanded it!
Tax reform proposals seem to be gathering momentum even though the mainstream political leadership has yet to acknowledge it. Labour tax cuts a year before the next election to head this one off at the pass? When is someone going to point out to George Osborne that tax cuts are not necessarily incompatible with economic stability? Elsewhere, an excellent piece by Anatole Kaletsky rubbishing some of the standard 'Brown Bashing' lines frequently seen in The Mail and The Telegraph.
I couldn't believe it yesterday when I heard via Fivelive that the Conservative Party had one of its policy groups report back, and they had made proposals ! Wow, at last, some real policies from David Cameron ! Well, no. Then they were withdrawn from the Conservative Party website almost as soon as they appeared. But today, they were again published but immediately rubbished by Cameron's team. So it begs the question again, what do the New Tories stand for ? Their policy proposals on tax sounded somthing like what the Lib Dems were proposing a few ...
Earlier in the year, I bemoaned the fact that Graham Tope and Simon Hughes were jumping up and down defending the Standards Board’s ruling to suspend Ken Livingstone. Now that the whole thing has been overturned on appeal, is there any chance we’ll get to hear similar echoes of “justice has been served” from the London [...]
We all knew it was coming, and the signs have been around for a while- but now the University term has started we've got the proof. Top-up fees are deterring some from getting a university education. According to reports around 15,000 fewer people started university this autumn than last year. Given Labour's 2001 manifesto promise not to introduce top-up fees, and, after...
I saw the Telegraph headline yesterday about the Conservatives proposing the scrapping of stamp duty on share purchases. Today I have had the chance to read a bit more about what the Tory Tax Commission has come up with - 21 billion pounds of tax cuts but from what I gather no explanation as to how to pay for them. So the expectation is that public spending will have to be cut. A defeat for
There is a school of thought that says that Culture Minister, Alun Pugh is not going to be allowed to forget his little faux pas of paying £3,000 to put a picture of himself playing scrabble on his Christmas cards. This is from yesterday's Plenary: Jonathan Morgan: Will you join me in welcoming the industrial heritage exhibition at National Museum Wales, and are you aware that the museum stocks some excellent Christmas cards in its Alun Pugh: I have not yet seen the exhibition, but I will certainly pop into the shop. [Laughter.]
As reported in the local papers, we have just received the devastating news that the Government has announced that the proposed new school for Boys will not now be opened for at least another two years. The Government had promised local parents a temporary school from September 2007 with a permanent school ready for September 2009. This was [...] 
A report published today by the Unlock Democracy campaign has found that average membership of Liberal Democrat parties fell slightly in the last five years, but that levels of activism increased. This compares with a dramatic fall in membership and activism for Labour constituency parties and an increase in the sizes, but not in activism, [...]
For anyone who hasn't noticed, I am doing some of my blogging at Liberal Review these days. So far I have Green Taxes not self-defeating Nuclear power: time for a rethink? Religion and politics: overlapping magisteria? I will keep this blog going for posts where I might want to stick my neck out a little further than I would on Liberal Review, for GreenPartyWatch type posts, and for any
Last night was the AGM of Wolverhampton South West Liberal Democrats. 2006 had been a good year for us, the highlight (and lowlight) was Robin Lawrence almost snatching victory in Park Ward at the local elections, Robin almost doubled the Liberal Democrat vote and moved from 3rd to just 128 votes behind the Labour victory (it was agonisingly close and hence my lowlight too!).
The Local Government Channel that is. A good use of our free broadband, I'm sure you'll agree.
Adrian Saunders Myspace site provides a simple comparison between the Tories "shall we, shan't we, well OK best throw in a bit of Green Tax" approach to taxation policy and the coherent Lib-Dem green tax switch proposals we openly debated and democratically voted for in Brighton last month. The full extent of the chaos this has thrown the Conservatives into as they take their first few steps towards anything resembling policy is highlighted on the Conservative Home website.
For some months now, I have been worrying about the fate that is expected to befall that bright, upcoming MP Ed Balls. Ed, you see, is due to see his constituency wiped out in the next boundary changes. His repeated appeals that he is a Very Important Person and that This Sort Of Thing Doesn’t [...]
Charles Darwin's complete writings online, launched today following four years of hard work by Dr John van der Wyhe and team at Cambridge. Darwin (a Whig) famously rowed about slavery with his host on the Beagle Robert FitzRoy, and was expelled from his place as a guest at the Captain's table for begging to differ. As Beagle leaves Brazil enroute for England in 1836, Darwin gives slave owning countries both barrels ending in: "And these deeds are done and palliated by men who profess to love their neighbours as themselves, who believe in God, and pray that his ...
Nick Clegg’s excellent 2006 conference speech calling for a Great Repeal Act, www.greatrepealact.com
Holidays are meant to be for relaxation. So they say. The reality is that you get up modestly early local time (7.30am) even though your body is saying it's 5.30am. All to be able to do a tour of Istanbul.The itinerary was the Blue Mosque, Chora Museum, lunch, the Byzantine cistern and then St Sophia, now a museum and prior to that a mosque and prior to that an orthodox cathedral.Typical that
I have posted a small video clip by Ming talking about Iraq (found this on Rob Fenwick's blog). You can see this in my profile (click on photo). It seems that no hope of change or improvement in Iraq ...
If as we all suspect Tony Blair has been hanging on in order to establish / preserve his legacy then things have changed a lot over the last week or so. His legacy was always going to be dubious at best - more a case of opportunities lost than a case of opportunities taken. Frankly if one is looking for positives then once you get past Independence for the Bank of England (for which no doubt Gordon Brown will claim the credit), the Good Friday Agreement, equalization of the age of consent and the Civil Partnership Act one begins to ...
Having criticised Rhymefest for his lack of goggle knowhow, I feel I should extend this to Margaret Thatcher. Sheer lunacy! I bet she knows f*ck all about gansta rap’n'all. (Oh, the article that photo is in is worth reading as well. Ahem).
I read this piece in the Guardian about the prosecution of a man who put the wrong kind of rubbish into a recycling bag and was left with one nagging question. Why did the paper feel it was necessary to point out to their readers that Swansea is in South Wales? Could it have been put in their to help the sub-editors? After all the Guardian has never previously shown much knowledge or understanding of what goes on this side of the Severn Bridge.
I'm writing this entry from Budapest where I'm spending a few days on business. Politically, Hungary has been going through some crazy times this year. The admission by the prime minister that he lied in order to win the general election seems to have had a mixed reaction. There is now a permanent demonstration by the opposition outside the Parliament building. My Hungarian colleagues on the
The relentless pace of the Conservatives’ slide to mediocrity continues. They have added a third tranche on the increasingly laughably named “A list”. Surely “C list” is a more accurate term? Very soon, I confidently expect the entire Conservative Party to be on this list.
David Cameron’s latest effort to get wit da yoot involves having tea and crumpets with a man who goes by the name of Rhymefest. Rhymefest, who may or may not be allowed to sleep with Cameron’s wife afterwards, accuses Dave of knowing nothing about rap. Far be it for me to stick up to Cameron here, but [...]
Tax is still head-lining the opposition parties' policy agendas. Predictably, the FT goes into greatest depth (unless you go to the Conservative's website itself to read the whole thing). Even the FT likes to jazz up the story with a process piece about the material being released onto the Conservative's website too early, allowing Ed Balls to get his rebuttal in before the report had even been launched; The Independent focus's on David Cameron's presentation of the piece ("Cameron rejects party's call for £21bn package of tax cuts")However, The Times manages to get everything into the one story:"The detailed ...
A £21billion tax cut proposal sounds very similar to the Lib Dems £20billion green tax switch policy, but there the similarity ends. The Tories proposals cut taxes for the wealthy paid for by re...
What are these people on? It is easy to be negative. I can pick holes in any topic if I wanted to. However, for once it would be nice if newspapers like the Western Mail could recognise a success story when they see it. Let's face it the University of Buckingham is not the most inclusive institution in Higher Education. To base a story about the Welsh Baccalaureate on the views of a senior director of Britain's only private University is like asking Genghis Khan to comment on the Geneva Convention. It is the implication that those who do ...
This report from the Blacksmith Institute identifies the top 10 most polluted sites in the world. I was not surprised to see Chernobyl on the list but I have to confess that most of the rest I had never heard of. Leaving Chernobyl the other nine sites identified were : DZERZINSK, RUSSIA - Chemicals and toxic byproducts from Cold War-era chemical weapons manufacturing, including Sarin, VX gas, lewisite - the poisonous effect of which is owed to its arsenic trioxide content, yperite (mustard gas), prussic acid, phosgene, dioxins and other persistent organic chemicals. Lead, from an additives manufacturer, now closed. ...
Thursday 19th October 2006 - I will be heading to Gorton South again today to help with the polling day operation as we fight to hold the seat vacated by the sad loss of Cllr James Ashley. We all owe it to James' memory to make sure we do all we can to defend this seat and I know Chas Glover our candidate will make a very worthy successor in this ward. I hope to see many familiar fces on the
Well my motion to Liverpool City Council - about having a special State of the City Debate on Crime and anti social behaviour - was passed last night.. as was my amendment to another motion calling for a lot more "bobbies on the beat". I spoke about the inability in some cases of the police to deal with problems because they simply didn't have enough resources. And its no good closing our eyes to that - everyone is aware its a problem and we all know they need more funding. On that note we are hoping the ...
Wednesday 18th October 2006 - After an early start to clear up some loose ends in Brussels I jump on the Eurostar back to the UK and head for Westminster in time for PMQ's. Ming had a terrific performance today pressing Blair on his exit strategy for Iraq while Greg Mulholland was able to raise once again the case of Mirza Tahir Hussain with the PM. Afterwards I had a series of meetings with
Tuesday 17th October 2006 - Having received assurances last week from EU Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner that the Commission will step in to save the life of Mirza Tahir Hussain, a British national who has been sentenced to death in Pakistan, I had a meeting this morning with a member of the Commissioner's Cabinet to explore further what could be done as the end of Ramadan gets ever closer. I
Whatever one feels about the military coup in Thailand the new approach to dealing with the insurgency in the southernmost provinces is to be welcomed. The new Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont has been on a visit to neighbouring Malaysia and has been discussing the problems of violence in the four southernmost provinces of Thailand which are nearest to Malayasia. According to this report in The Nation Surayud signaled he will take a different approach on the crisis to the hardline stance of the ousted government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. "Let me explain my personal strategy of trying ...
Monday: The government has slightly misplaced a couple of people that they supposedly had under CONTROL ORDERS. Sadly for that nice Mr Dr John Reid this does not even save him any places in prison because it turned out it was illegal to lock them up without trial anyway. Lord Blairimort has hit back, saying: "Ooooo, scary, I warned you! Control orders are only second best. You should have let me lock them up forever without trial!" Actually, what you should have done was made sure that MFI, the Security Service, were keeping a proper watch on them. ... | < | October 2006 | > | ||||
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