I am intrigued by the "campaigning" pictures of Simon Fawthrop - Conservative London Mayoral candidate on his website. Six of the photos of him "discussing" issues with leading Conservative look like they are taken on the same day at the same conference - and the "discussion" looks very much like grinning at the camera in 5 of the 6. Then there are two pictures of him stood by himself in
Watching the rather poor ITV drama "Driving Lessons", two things occurred to me. Firstly, what a waste of a great cast on such a poor story. Regarding the film, a ludicrous "love interest", completely out of nowhere and with no justification for it in the script in the part set in Edinburgh. All the story is set in a rather "twee" world like no part of England I have ever lived in, whilst Julie Walters plays a cross between her character from "dinnerladies" and Mrs Overall from "Acorn Antiques". A lot of money wasted on this I feel. ...
I've been invited to a number of carol services, but today's was rather special, because it was in my own church, St Paul's Hook. The church looked quite lovely, decorated everywhere with holly and lit entirely by candlelight. This is always a real community celebration with music provided by the church group, the choir from St Paul's Primary, and the Cobham Band, accompanied by organ...
TV trivia of the day, which I have just noticed while perusing Gary “Bingo Bob” Cole’s IMDb entry: the last episode of The West Wing in which he appears is Requiem which is also the name of the last episode of American Gothic, in which he played sinister Sheriff Lucas Buck. Don’t you feel better for [...]
Saturday was a bit of a complicated day for me, not helped by the fact that I was suffering from a heavy cold, and was making full use of Beechams' All-in-One. After seeing round the Hook Centre in my local councillor's rôle, I took off for a Christmas lunch party at Hobkirk House, which is a nursing home managed by the Council. I spoke to most of the people who live there, and in some...
And it's not an MP I'm talking about. No, I see that my ward colleague, Stephen Tall, has entered into the festive spirit by sticking up his own poll on his blog. I'm not sure quite when he latched on to the idea of pulchritudinous LibDems -- while reading the Executive papers for Oxford City Council, perhaps? -- but it's an intriguing send-off to a year with more than its fair share of salacious headlines proving we are the party for partying. And I'm not yet clear what psephological insight he is attempting to gain from it, unless it is ...
Everyone who goes into it says 'Wow!'. It is one of those buildings that looks much larger inside than outside, an effect created mainly by the clever use of natural light in the wide atrium that sweeps the visitor inside. This is the new Hook Centre, which will open to the public next month, although I joined the local residents for a preview yesterday. The...
Twice in one week is getting ridiculous ! Last week I said I was thinking more kindly towards Tesco because of their financial support towards building a new ground for Everton football club and now they'ev announced that they intend to run 75% of their fleet of vehicles on bio-diesel by the end of 2007. Read about it HERE. Now Tesco have done this, I would hope other supermarkets and large hauliers will follow.
Tuesday: News reaches us from the inner rim of OUTER SPACE where the Huygens-Cassini spacecraft is PROBING the MOONS of SATURN! Titan is Saturn’s largest moon, and is in fact the largest moon in the Solar System (it says here in the Doctor Who Book of Space!) Already we have made EXTRAORDINARY discoveries of SCIENCE, never before seen by MORTAL MAN! Beneath the swirly storming ICY CLOUDS of gaseous ETHANE are the shadowed shorelines of the GREAT LAKES, not of good godfearing Earthly aquatic water but the mysterious motions of METHANE the alien element of, er, farting cows. And ...
.... that's the question that Lynne Featherstone has posed on Liberal Review. I've responded as follows: It's an interesting idea from Lynne , but .... I have to say that I thought as party members we elect the leader or our party, not the leader or the parliamentary group (though obviously the two posts are normally combined) My feelings are that once councillors are elected, they should make 
Don't worry, I don't mean literally......... Poor old Lembit. You couldn't make it up. Old girlfriend talks to Mail on Sunday, new girlfriend talks to the News of the World. One of the problems of being in public life - you can't do the normal things that happen in life without the world knowing about it. It's sad, but relationships do end. I'm sure the intervention of tabloid newspapers can't make it any easier for anyone, though. I hope that everyone's favourite asteroid spotter finds happiness in the future.
I am increasingly convinced that an epic struggle is underway between the forces of reason and those of ignorance, between progress and fear. That’s a pretty bold claim, and includes language usually reserved for Channel 4 adverts for the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but the fact remains that science and progress are under threat from a vocal and sometimes criminal minority. Yesterday a Derbyshire farmer withdrew from a trial of genetically modified potatoes due to take place next year on the grounds that he fears for his personal safety. He claims to have received threatening phone calls. This ...
Reports of Lembit's newfound relationship with one of the Cheeky Girls come as light entertainment on a grey Sunday afternoon. Having read Sian Lloyd's account of the death of their relationship, whilst I feel sorry for her (you'll never know just how sorry, Sian...), it does seem that the engagement was heading full steam ahead for the rocks. I've always been of the view that there is only room
And so dear Lembit has decided that his weathergirl is to be replaced by a Balkan chanteuse... and such clever lyrics too! It must be said that young Mr Opik does have a consistent record of harmless eccentricity, going back to his days at university. I recall a winter meeting of the National Union of Students in Blackpool (clearly a government strategy to reduce the number of students by
At the Tea Party on Friday we were all entranced by this dancer who presented a traditional Korean fan dance. It prepared me very well for the next function that evening, which was the finals of the Korean Open Singing Competition in the presence of the Korean Ambassador, Yoon Je Cho. This contest, organised by the Korean Residents Association, has been running since August...
I gather, from reading other people's blogs, that Lembit Opik has split with Sian Lloyd, the ITV weather girl (I always thought she looked a bit odd, but that's my personal preference), and is now dating one of the "Cheeky Girls". I'm not quite sure what Lembit has done so wrong. At least Lembit split up from Sian before they got married, unlike certain Tory MP's who have been exposed recently to be either having affairs whilst their wives undergo cancer treatment or running off and leaving their wives for their male interior designer. It is a shame that ...
One of the most enjoyable events of the whole Christmas season has been the Tea Party that I hosted for 150 senior citizens in the Guildhall. These photos (by John Haynes in the Press Office) give an impression of the afternoon. With two of the members of Kingston Round Table who sponsored the event Kingston...
One of the things about getting older is that you don't always appreciate that what you remember was probably going on when others you deal with were, literally, in their nappies. I was looking at the BBC "On this day" website earlier and watched this video of the Harrods bomb 23 years ago. Ancient history to your political activist in their mid 20s! On that afternoon I was sat in the passenger
The last couple of days have been completely jam-packed, so I'm just catching up on my blogging today. I've been getting around Day Centres and residential homes for the Mayor's traditional Christmas visits. On Friday it was the turn of the Day Centre run by Age Concern at Raleigh House in New Malden, where I met this festive pair. I joined in the armchair...
There has been much controversy about whether we should replace Trident. My instinctive reaction is that we should not. While we can't equip our troops with the basics, I'm not convinced that we should be rushing out to Bombs 'R' Us to spend billions on some smart missile which, we hope, will never be used. The policy to be debated at Party Conference in March has obviously been carefully thought out. It is based around the recommendation of an influential Parliamentary Select Committee that the decision does not have to be made yet. The ... 
It has been a rather sad few weeks in our house. First there was the untimely demise of the daughter's much loved hamster. It was horrible to see her go through real grief for the first time. I was so impressed by the way she dealt with it - particularly as it was she who lifted his body out of the cage and laid it in a shoebox for burial. I could never have done that at her age and probably not even now. She drew some pictures of him and we had a ...
What did Martin Jol give the lads for breakfast this morning? 2-0 up at City within half an hour. And unlikely sources... Calum Davenport, only on for the suspended Mikey Dawson, and the midfield monster that is Tom Huddlestone. Okay, actually Tommy H has scored a few, including two against Port Vale. If Berby gets the goals I was hoping for as well, then it's going to be a bad one to have missed! Let's just hope for no slip ups similar to that old cup match against City at the Lane...
I'm delighted to see that the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland have selected Anna Lo, originally from Hong Kong (Xiang Gang), to be their candidate for the Northern Ireland Assembly in South Belfast. She's the first serious ethnic Chinese candidate for any legislature in the UK it seems. Anna is a travel agent and also Chief Executive of the Chinese Welfare Association in Northern Ireland. The BBC report on her selection can be found here. I think she will be a fantastic candidate and I wish her all the best. Let's hope that we ...
Reading the Independent on Sunday as I get the train back to London, it's not a happy news day for the Labour government. Front page is the cash for honours inquiry, with doubts being raised about how well Blair's police interview matches up with the evidence given by the donors. By the way, for overseas readers - yes, the sitting British Prime Minister has actually been questioned by police. The release of the National Childhood Obesity Database (what is New Labour's obsession with databases?) on Wednesday looks to be a waste of time - not all PCTs ...
The Alliance Party has selected Anna Lo to be its candidate in the South Belfast Constituency for the forthcoming Assembly Election. She is currently the Chief Executive of the Chinese Welfare Association, and is the first candidate from an ethnic minority background to contest a winnable seat in the Assembly. Her candidature has been described as a major watershed in Northern Ireland politics
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Nice try, Lembit. But I'm still not going to include you in my poll.
Fan though I am of Girls Aloud - Sound of the Underground was a throbbingly good Christmas No. 1 four years ago, while Racy Lacey (the bonus track on Chemistry) is 3 minutes of perfectly pure pop pap - I detected some signs of double-standards in their interview in this week’s New Statesman. … the Girls have a complaint: none of their high-powered admirers has actually bothered to ask them what
Todays link is here. This takes you to a site with a picture showing you how to use Furoshiki. According to Wikipedia Furoshiki are a type of traditional Japanese wrapping cloth that were frequently used to transport clothes, gifts, or other goods. Although possibly dating back as far as the Nara period, the name, meaning "bath spread", derives from the Edo period practice of using them to bundle clothes while at the public baths.
According to a BBC report, snow levels in Europe are so low this year, that the start of the skiing season will have to be delayed. Read the report HERE. I don't need to go to Europe to know this, after all, I keep finding that my lawn keeps growing, something that usually only happens at about 12 or 13 degrees celcius, so I know this is true. However, there are some, mainly American, but also some British, with interests in the fossil fuel industry, who maintain that global warming is not happening. I would urge them to ...
How far should people be expected to travel to get to their nearest park? What do you think green areas should be used for? These are just some of the questions being put to local people by Bath & North East Somerset Council. The Council has been reviewing green space provision across the district to ensure that supply and quality matches the needs of the community. Individuals and groups are being consulted to find out about their use and expectations of different types of green areas, including parks and gardens, spaces for less formal activities, recreation grounds, natural ...
Reading went down 2-1 at home to Blackburn and leeds lost 1-0 away at Ipswich The Sporting Life report on the Reading Game can be found here and they pretty much have the game spot on. Both teams were not brilliant in the first half but Reading definitely had the better of it and deserved to go in at half time 1-0 up. In the second half Blackburn were a different team. Whatever they had in their half time certainly worked whereas Reading must have had sleeping tablets in theirs. They were absolutely awful. This is probably the worst I ...
The News of the World reports Lembit's relationship with one of the Cheeky Girls, who says: "That night at his flat was amazing. Lembit's a very experienced lover. It was pure love, not ‘bang, bang' sex and that's it. He went on for hours. The age difference is not a problem for us... "There was such a build-up of desire—and a huge explosion between us. Lembit was very gentle and passionate,
In his Wales on Sunday column Matt Withers reminds us of one particular stunt initiated by the Welsh Tories at the last General Election. They had somebody dress up in a panda suit so as to draw attention to council tax re-banding in Wales. No, I never saw the connection either. It turns out that the poor sap who spent the General Election campaign wandering around Wales as Rebekah Panda was Craig Williams, who is now standing as the Tory candidate against Rhodri Morgan in Cardiff West. These sort of stunts are, of course, not new. In more ...
I'm co-presenting with Iain Dale on 18 Doughty Street TV again on Monday for a review of the year - so that should be fun! I've been bumped off the Sunday Edition today. They phoned on Friday to book me saying they would phone back on Saturday. With no call back, I called them to discover that I had been bumped. This happens from time to time – and I am reasonably amenable and philosophic about
Over at Liberal Review I've got an article on how we (Liberal Democrats) elect the leaders of our council groups. In brief: Even where there is real choice and disagreement - and where the result determines who heads up a council, one of the most important political jobs there is - party members do not get a say.From what I know of the rules in other parties too, the idea that a council group
In Liberal Democrat circles, Barbara Roche is probably best know as the woman who had a 25,998 lead over the Liberal Democrat candidate in her constituency in 1997 (and no Liberal Democrat councillors) but lost her seat to Lynne Featherstone in 2005. There has been gossip going around for a while that she is seeking to [...]
The Observer has a story that has building for a while on the other side of the Atlantic - the rise of Barack Obama and the damage it could do to Hillary Clinton's bid for the White House. I have always been a Clinton admirer, though her support for the Iraq War badly tainted that. I actually think a Clinton/Obama joint ticket is the dream scenario. The Democrats need to stay focused, and not
Moz is runner up to David Attenborough in the Culture Show's Living Icon's - well done Moz. 7 out of the 10 were votable for in my book... Elsewhere I see two of the Sunday papers have got stories about Lembit and a Cheeky Girl. Quite frankly, I don't care about Z list celibrities. But just remember which Lib Dem got photographed with them first ;-)
What can one say, except Thumbs Down for Lembit?
Our Lib Dem MPs don't seem to learn any lessons from our past. So it is no surprise we are going to end the year just how we started it. | < | December 2006 | > | ||||
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