From the Borehamwood & Elstree Times: Bette Davis made two Hammer films at Elstree in the mid-1960s, entitled The Nanny and The Anniversary and, at the time, she stayed at The Chantry, in Barnet Lane.Popstar maker Simon Cowell told me that as a child he was a neighbour and remembers being bounced on the actresses (sic) knee.
I’m a big fan of stereotypes, love them, they make me laugh and I think stereotypes are REALLY good for international relations. That’s why I love the brilliant musical satire being produced by the slightly mythical, very mysterious and extremely funny Hedley le Maistre. He is currently portraying himself as a sort of lyrical superhero [...]
From today's Liberal Democrat News. It owes a lot to an earlier posting on this blog - and thanks to Iain Dale too. Identity crisis While House Points was taking a break, the prime minister was twice interviewed by police, Lembit Öpik took up with a Cheeky Girl and the Conservatives came out against identity cards. We shall return to Tony Blair’s adventures – though perhaps not Lembit’s – another day, so let’s look at the Tories. On Monday David Davis wrote to the cabinet secretary saying a Conservative government would scrap the ID card project. He asked ...
Just got home and got the wonderful news that Catherine's sister Margaret has given birth to a wee baby boy, named Cameron. My love & best wishes go to Mum, Dad and big brother Conrad ( who celebrates his second birthday on Sunday.) on the birth of your son and Brother. I'm not often moved to tears but the message from Catherine caused tears of joy. Cameron, hello, welcome and I can't wait to meet you.
He's back. Good. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/low/ football/europe/6346573.stm Now McClaren needs to do the same - he should be in every squad, with the skill and experience he has to share.
First, let me make it clear I am only reading the Evening (Sub)Standard because I am on a train and it was free. The Page 2 story is a good example of what's wrong with the paper's journalism. Now, I didn't see David Miliband on Question Time last night, but having read the detail of the article their slant seems, ahem, somewhat misleading. In saying that when Brown becomes PM "I predict that ... people will be saying, 'wouldn't it be great to have that Blair back, because we can't stand that Gordon Brown'", it seems pretty obvious ...
Just received this email - I have removed the name and email and publish it in the spirit sent to me - our precious parks and public spaces are slowly being eaten away - "I am in West Didsbury Residents Association. We are opposing development plans in a small park on Palatine Rd, Manchester, called Marie Louise Gardens. The park lodge was sold under a rather dubious 'right to buy' to a
I am really pleased to see that the Liberal Democrat members in Hampstead and Kilburn have picked Ed Fordham as their candidate for the next General Election. Ed is one of those people who is brilliant at identifying people who are keen to get involved and then encouraging them. Ed was one of the first [...]
What a dreadful day. I now read that David Rebak, another long standing Liberal/Lib Dem activist has also passed away.
Why are we missing out? We've not had snow for ages. I've done my bit this week - used public transport and car-shared and spoke at our Council meeting to support the Climate Change Motion about sustainable planning/communities - snow would have been so very, very lovely. I haven't made a snowman or been sledging for far too long. My friends in Germany are sick of the rain as they have never had 
I should be over the moon today. Due to school mergers we all had to re-apply for our jobs, and I was given the news over the phone that I have kept my job. I was given the news over the phone because I have now been off work for three days with flu, and as I write, I am still feeling no better and am off to bed again having does myself up again. So I can't raise a glass to myself, but also, I am disappointed that some of my colleagues are losing jobs, which is ...
I was recently at a church service where a member of the congregation, leading the prayers, asked us to pray for victory in the fight against "the tyranny of political correctness". As I left, I almost asked the priest for the address of the headquarters of this "tyranny of political correctness" so I could send them a stiff letter. There isn't one, of course. There is a Campaign against
After taking an almight amount of stick this winter, it is so refreshing to see England playing well at cricket and winning. Three wins onthe trot now, two against Australia, and suddenly we're not the no hopers everyone (including me) thought we were. Well done.
One of my political heroes is the late Tony Banks. Not so much because of his political views, but because of his hilarious wit. I was reminded of him by my good friend, the Granny from New Smyrna Beach. She mentioned "the grandson of Sir Winston Churchill", who she had seen on C-Span. That, of course, was Nicholas Soames. I was reminded of his descriptions of Soames, of whom he was a good
I was invited to a French Breakfast today - croissant, coffee and entertainment from the boys of Surbiton Prep School. The Year 6 boys, respendant in bow ties, acted as waiters and spoke to the gathered parents very politely in French. Then we enjoyed songs and short scenes from all the classes, all in French. It was a fun way for the pupils to practise their language skills. Here are...
Pictured here are my council colleagues Ron Aitken and Justin Portess, our crime and community safety spokespeople, with Lynne Featherstone MP. They were launching our 'We can cut crime' campaign last Saturday outside Wood Green library. There is a five point Lib Dem plan to beat crime: More police on patrol – don't waste billions on ID cards Take back our town centres – let communities close pubs and clubs that cause trouble Make sentences mean what they say – Life should mean life Compulsory work and training in prison – to cut re-offending Better compensation for victims ...
There was a sad opinion poll this week that showed that now a majority of people think that it is better for people to show pure self-interest rather than enlightened self-interest (whereby people work in part for the common good because that creates a better society) A good example of how this selfish approach goes wrong was in Birmingham's gridlock tonight. My vegetable oil powered vehicle is
My niece Tamsin had the right idea on Thursday. Building snowmen is definitely a more fun thing to do in the snow than deliver leaflets!
This is the first, and probably last, time there will be a photo of Tony Blair on my blog. Just next to him are a couple of really important people, Paul Robinson and Ledley King. This was emailed to all Haringey councillors, to tell us about the launch of the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation - set up as an independent charity to oversee the club's community work. The club has turned over £4.5 million to the Foundation and the launch was at Downing Street as you can see. From the Spurs statement:Last year the Club provided 400,000 sporting opportunities for ...
As my surgery venues closed due to the snow, I was forced to postpone them. The chances are that nobody would have been able to get there anyway, the city was gridlocked. It took me nearly and hour and a half to travel from my Regional Office to my home, a distance of about two and a half miles. I took the opportunity afforded by my enforced time at home to catch up on my e-mails and to watch last night's Dragon's Eye. The feature on Plaid Cymru's ambivalence about Independence was fascinating. Their reporter Phil Parry, took ...
Opposition Day motions are one of the few occasions in Parliament where parties that are not in government get to propose legislation. The Liberal Democrats, led by Home Affairs spokesperson Nick Clegg MP, decided to use our time this week by proposing new anti-crime measures as a part of our "We can cut crime" campaign. The Labour party, including local MPs Jowell, Hill and Hoey, voted against the motion, the Tories abstained. So much for tough on crime. Here are some of the anti-crime policies our Labour MPs oppose: - Tripling the number of prisoners doing paid ...
The latest ABC newspaper circulation figures show the Daily Star has started out-selling the Daily Express. Or, as Oscar Wilde might have put it: the unspeakable is in full pursuit of the unreadable. On a more cheerful note, both papers are selling fewer copies than last year: the Express is down by 9.15%, the Star by 5.66%. Now that's what I call progress.
Well done to Matt Davies and his team at the East Barnet by-election. His blogs of the event were well received. And who cares what the result was, they worked really hard and got up at 4.30am in some of the worst snow we've had for years. Well done team!
The BBC has redeemed itself for the cataclysm which is "When will I be famous?". I refer to "Teens hooked on Porn", shown last night on BBC3. This was a tempting one for any broadcaster. They could have produced a tabloid-style programme with plenty of salacious details. But, in fact, the programme was remarkably balanced, mature and sensitive. They covered the subject relatively
For what will soon become obvious reasons, I’m going to blog-up e-Politix.com’s round-up, ‘Week on the web’: Inspired by Political Betting, which thinks there is a chance of a Tory/Lib Dem coalition, Stephen Tall and Tabman at Liberal Review have both written their fantasy post-election speeches for Sir Ming Campbell. Tall in particular has captured the Liberal Democrat leader to a tee - perhaps 
I received the agenda and policy documents for the Lib Dem Spring Conference todya - and remembered that I hadn't got round to booking a hotel. As appealing as two nights in my car is, I feel that now I am old enough to work for a living, I am also old enough to afford an hotel room. And so I am now £144 lighter than I was an hour ago. Which is a concern, given the weekend that awaits me. I am
They do things differently in North Wales: Mr Dickinson said his next project would involve a volunteer having their own face tattooed on the back of their head. Did he say all this out of the tattoo of his own face that can be found on his arse? Bookmark to:
So the Conservative Party is less in debt, at last, thanks to the sale of its former HQ, 32 Smith Square. The £30m transaction is reputed to have netted the party a cool £15m profit, and should bring down the Tories’ total loans to a more manageable £5m or so. I’m sure the party is breathing a sigh of relief at this result. But it’s interesting to compare the flogging of assets to pay down debt
Answer: when it's launched from the parcel shelf in your car due to coming to a crash stop. That was just one of the scary things I heard at a road / car safety talk at my son's school today. The Road Safety Officer told us that a woman driver was killed when she was hit on the back of the head by a flying tissue box. Another driver bled to death after the artery in her neck was cut by a flying
Would you like a photograph for your local Focus of yourself with Lib Dem Shadow Home Secretary Nick Clegg, discussing your local crime survey results? Nick has generously set aside an hour at Harrogate conference for this. If you're interested this will take place between 5pm and 6pm Saturday, in the central foyer of the conference centre, at the bottom of the spiral ramp, next to the doors
I’m not too sure what David Miliband’s done to deserve his reputation as next-Labour-leader-but-one. (It won’t ever happen.) But I will stick up for him today in the face of the rather pathetic reporting which has followed his supposed ‘gaffe’ that Gordon Brown will make an unpopular Prime Minister. Here is what he said on last night’s Question Time: "I predict that when I come back on this
The Lady who lives in Kinross-Shire has an elder Sister who is heavily pregnant (can you be lightly pregnant?), indeed was due to give birth a week past Thursday. News reaches me from TLWLIK that she is not coming to Irvine tonight (sulk!) but for the best of reasons - elder Sister's waters have broken and a little Sister or Brother is soon to be expected for our incredibly cute nephew Conrad. I'm now all on tenterhooks waiting for news but, most importantly, I hope both mum and baby are safe and well.
There is a new web site for reporting issues like litter, damage, repairs in your neighbourhood, to the Council. All you do is key in the post code or street name. You can then pinpoint where the problem is by clicking on a map of the area. You even get an email acknowledement for your records. It really does work - try it! http://www.neighbourhoodfixit.com/
The European Commission has produced another daft and damaging proposal in their efforts to combat climate change. This is regrettable both for the commission’s image and for the climate cause. My efforts to comment on this have produced an essay, so I am going to post it in three parts, which readers may read from as they will. In Part 1, I explained why I believe that Europe is the right forum in which to address climate change. In Part 2 I looked at Wednesday’s announcement and explained why I feel it is misjudged. I also touched upon the ...
The European Commission has produced another daft and damaging proposal in their efforts to combat climate change. This is regrettable both for the commission’s image and for the climate cause. My efforts to comment on this have produced an essay, so I am going to post it in three parts, which readers may read from as they will. In Part 1, I explained why I believe that Europe is the right forum in which to address climate change. In this part I will look at Wednesday’s announcement and explain why I feel it is misjudged. In Part 3 I ...
The European Commission has produced another daft and damaging proposal in their efforts to combat climate change. This is regrettable both for the commission’s image and for the climate cause. My efforts to comment on this have produced an essay, so I am going to post it in three parts, which readers may read from as they will. In this part, I will explain why I believe that Europe is the right forum in which to address climate change. In Part 2 I will condemn the announcement that was made yesterday. In Part 3 I will offer a liberal ...
The revelation today that the Assembly Government has a £67.5 million underspend this year must leave Plaid Cymru feeling very foolish. They rushed to do a deal with Labour to get the budget through in return for an extra £300,000 for schools. That is the equivalent of 10 extra teachers across the whole of Wales. Prior to Plaid breaking ranks the combined opposition parties were seeking £17.9 million extra for schools or 200 more teachers and were confident of getting it. We also wanted more money for Tir Mynydd and to close the funding gap between England and Wales ...
I may not be Simon Hughes’s greatest fan, but I thought him more sensible than this: “The Labour Party has betrayed, sadly, what I thought were its libertarian principles” - Simon Hughes, Question Time, BBC1, Thursday 8th February 2007 Umm… in what parallel universe does Labour have libertarian principles? Some individuals may have them (although I suspect [...]
Mark Young today welcomed efforts by farmer’s unions to find ways of replacing cuts in a vital support scheme for Welsh hill farmers, caused by Labour and Plaid Cymru. Mark, Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Candidate for the Vale Of Clwyd, said: “I applaud the unions for their attempts to make up the shortfall created by the budget cuts, but it can’t replace the £12million in this year’s budget. “Worse still, these attempts to find money elsewhere in the budget are not binding on any government after May. This is no way to sustain a successful scheme – the budget ...
Welsh Liberal Democrat Education spokesperson Peter Black said: “When we were in Government in 2002, we cut class sizes to thirty. Now it’s time to give more children a chance and reduce class sizes to twenty five. “In Government with the Welsh Liberal Democrats during the first Assembly, Labour agreed to cut all primary class sizes to a maximum of 25 during the second Assembly. In government alone, Labour then reneged on this agreement. “That's why the average class size in nine of Wales' 22 local authorities is still above 25. The fact is, Labour have failed ...
Welsh Liberal Democrat environment spokesperson Mick Bates, AM for Montgomeryshire, said: “A fair deal for both the public and farmers is a necessity if we are to continue to see Welsh produce on supermarket shelves, at the local market and exported around the world. “That is why the Welsh Liberal Democrats will establish an independent food trade commission. The best qualified experts, working with the industry and public, will investigate the food trade and provide the tools for government and industry to ensure a fair deal for all. “It’s time that we got all the facts ...
Ian Richardson, star of the House of Cards trilogy, has died. He was a great actor with just the most stunning voice, and I’m sure the political world will be greatly saddened by his passing - I watched the full trilogy only last Christmas. My condolences to his family.
By all accounts (well, at least those not written by the Labour Party), our Opposition Day debate on crime on Wednesday was quite a success. Labour members as you would expect were briefed in advance with a long list of misrepresentations, misquotes and misleading points about the Lib Dems. I hear that Nick Clegg flattened them rather well. So who should pop up yesterday during questions on
Yet more ways to dispose of old recyclables. Looks like I have found of a way to dispose of that 16 year old monitor that has been gathering dust. And Dell, apparently, will take them away for you. Disposing of an old monitor... from Ask Jack
Have heard that the result of the East Barnet by-election has been declared now. Don't have the exact figures yet, but the Tories have held the seat and Labour also held on to second place. Sean finished 3rd, with an increased share of the vote, with the Green candidate in 4th place. After a string of stunning by-election successes across London recently, it's a shame that the result wasn't better. We had an excellent candidate and a hard-working team, so it wasn't for want of trying! You can't win 'em all. The Labour vote, while numerically down like ...
I'm must be getting cynical. My reaction to the fact that most Scottish Labour-run councils have set below inflation council tax increases, was: "Oh, it's an election year isn't it." If they retain overall control of any Council (current predictions are 1 - North Lanarkshire) they will be squeezing the Council Tax payers until the pips squeak -again! South Ayrshire Council is the only one in Scotland which has overall Tory control. As an excellent warning to the electorate on what happens when you vote Tory, they are putting up Council Tax by 3.5% (one of the highest in ...
Progress is being made on the new health centre with a planning application in for The site of the old Richmond Pub. I had been worried about the lack of progress on this. The Local Labour Party have tried to get the site moved away from Yardley. We do think it is important to continue to serve the same patient list, however. Moving the surgery substantially northwards would be wrong. In any
It is good to see that the Hermitage Hill speed limit has reappeared on Shropshire County Council’s radar. SCC have put an automated traffic count on the Hermitage to assess current speeds, with a view to moving forward in the next financial year. However, they are stressing that there is no financial provision for this scheme. Alas, [...]
I am sorry to read of the sad death of Peter Billenness. I think I first met Peter when he was PPC in Croydon South and I was Agent in Orpington in the early 1990s. I have just read an archived blog post by his son Simon: Friday, May 02, 2003 Councilor Peter Billenness Last night, my father achieved one of his long-time ambitions when he was elected to the Edenbridge Town Council. It is a very
Truthly I’ve never heard of this before, however £100,000 has just be won in a cryptic treasure hunt. What caught my eye was the winner is Andy Darley, a name which rang a bell. Now whilst I can’t confirm that it is the same one, his site does have Perplex City ads and used to run [...]
Standing at the back door having my usual ciggie this morning I casually glanced at my calendar and realised, with a sense of bladder weakening terror, that i'll know my fate regarding election to North Ayrshire Council in a mere 12 weeks today as the Council elections are being counted electronically on the day after polling day. Between then and now I have to deliver 3 Focus leaflets, a commuter survey, a tabloid newspaper, an election address, two sets of target letters and some 3500 blue letters. Then of course there is canvassing, press releases, putting up posters, designing ...
As regulars will recall I blogged back in November the public Tory public questioning of Mayor Livingstone in Bromley. Both Grace and I applied for tickets, but only mine arrived. Luckily between a few of us we had enough spares to go round, but Grace never got her four. Finally today her tickets arrived. Well actually, no they didn't. One ticket has arrived to go and question Ken in Tottenham
Despite the snow yesterday the good residents of Bede (in Bedworth) turned out to vote in the by-election - 1,750 braved the weather to take up their democratic right. Labour held on despite a massive BNP campaign, Alice Field and the Liberal Democrats came fourth with 119 votes in an area that we have not contested in recent memory. I know Alice and her team will build on this result and are in for the long haul.
I learnt on Wednesday during the recording of the Channel 4 political awards show that it had the lowest viewing figures of any C4 programme last year. I presume when compared to other programme...
Why is there a picture of a lasagne on my blog you may ask?Well I have just had some home shopping delivered from Waitrose. In the shopping (as ordered) were two Waitrose Lasagnes (see above) I was absolutely stunned by the amount of packaging involved - each Lasagne is contained in a foil tray with a film of plastic over the top. That is then sheathed in a cardboard cover with the cooking instructions on it. But the piece de resistance was the individual cardboard box that each of the two Lasagnes was contained in. ...
Labour were busy with their political betrayals last night. Later at the Cabinet a whole new act of spite was carried out by the Labour hierarchy. The Deputy Leader of the Labour Group, Cllr Peter Ha...
Last night I attended the Council's Cabinet meeting. It was probably one of the most extraordinary meetings I have ever attended...:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" ...
That’s right, I’ve finally found 500 consecutive number plates taking me past the half-way mark. Only another 499 to go.
The Guardian reports: The Conservative party has sold its old headquarters in Smith Square, central London, to a European property developer for a profit of more than £15m, it emerged last night. This follows on from reports that they have already amassed a £21m campaigning war chest - £3.2 million more than they spent at the last election, [...]
Last night I attended the Planning Forum Meeting at Leamington Town Hall. We were given a presentation on the Regional Spatial Strategy. This is looking at where are we going to build all the new houses we will need over the next 20 years. Government estimates show that we may need over 1/2 million new houses in the region in the next 20 years. No one can argue that we have a shortage of houses, especially affordable. Figures do show that we have built the lions share of new houses in Warwick District over the past few years, a lot ...
Rumours are circulating about the future ownership of Leeds United – again! The current one circulating is that Peter Wilkinson currently owner of Hull City and said to be worth approximately £400m (although according to the 2005 Rich list he was worth £269m) is to buy the club off Ken Bates. There was supposed to be a big announcement in January according to Uncle Ken but it never came so maybe this is what it was and negotiations are still ongoing. Wilkinson is said to be Leeds through and through and he lives in Ilkley. He was quoted ...
Erudite liberal imperialist Christopher Hitchens and (a younger) soulful Irish rocker, Van Morrison. Is it just me? Also, how about podgy marketing device David Cameron, and the Pilsbury Doughboy?
Thursday: House of Lords Club to be renamed: Nelson Mandela House! In The Avengers, "The House that Jack Built"is a house designed by a DIABOLICAL MASTERMIND to trap Mrs Peel and drive her INSANE! The Labour have come up with a VERY SIMILAR idea! The 10th of August this year will, of course, see the NINETY-SIXTH anniversary of the first PARLIAMENT ACT and, give or take an interruption for two WORLD WARS a COLD WAR and the STAR WARS trilogy, people have been spending a awful lot of time since not bothering to ...
My blog is deliberately quite flippant and light hearted, and touches on quite a few of the non political and not heavy issues. But while we fret over which Labour names will get banged up over Cash for Peerages, let us not lose sight of big issues, the biggest is global warming, but the biggest immediate human issue is Darfur, which seems to get lip service but no action. I have been reading
Thanks to Lib Dem Voice, where I found out that the East Barnet by-election count was delayed until Friday morning. Means that we have to wait a bit longer than expected to see how juicy the fruits of our labour are. But I am going to resist the temptation to talk about how a little bit of snow has caused mass disruption again. (By the way, irrespective of how excited/worried/hopeful any of the candidates are, I'm not suggesting that delaying the count causes mass disruption - but two hours to get back to Muswell Hill from Barnet was ...
I'm off to Folkestone this Saturday with Grace to give PPC and fellow Lib Dem blogger Toby Philpott a hand with his campaigning. Anyone up for joining me and having a Lib Dem bloggers lunchtime beer?
Bromley Tories are up to their usual fun and games. 1. Buying 2 Jags for the mayor and deputy mayor (note that Jaguar is an american owned company, before they wrap themselves in the St Georges Cross). 2. Reserves are being raided AGAIN in the Council Tax budget setting - this time by £3.5 million to cook the books (how much is that since they returned to control?) 3. Looks like no more for road | < | February 2007 | > | ||||
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