The good news is that the latest selection of the best in British blogging can be found at poons. The bad news is that the link to my posting on the Church of England and child abuse does not work. Later. Now it does work. Thanks, Dave.
The Envelope has now been opened. And it contains The Piece Of Paper! It wasn't empty! Rejoice! Rejoice! Check back soon for the unfolding of The Piece Of Paper! Will it be blank? Will it be letter? What will it say? The answers to all these and many other questions will be revealed exclusively on this blog. Not available on Freeview or terrestrial TV.
I won my seat from the Conservatives in Gateshead back in 1987. Before 1984 the then ward of Whickham South (now called Whickham South and Sunniside) was a Conservative bastion. Then we turned up, made the ward marginal, and then won it quite convincingly. So, for a Conservative recovery in the North East to begin, they must first take back seats lost in the not so dim and distant past (actually,
Off to the launch this morning of a new bus safety initiative which will see eighteen Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) on duty in and around transport hubs - kicked off this morning at Turnpike Lane Bus Station. It is an extension of the partnership between Transport for London (TfL) and the Met Police brokered by the Greater London Authority (GLA). The reason for it? Well, if you map
Not much time for blogging at the moment, but I thought I should flag this up now: The National Institute for Economic and Social Research says in its latest journal that the surge in house prices is one “of the major adverse developments affecting the UK economy over the past 20 years”. The thinktank’s director, Martin [...] 
I was in London today and took the chance to visit one of its most remarkable churches. All Saints Margaret Street can be found a couple of blocks behind John Lewis's Oxford Street store. It occupies a cramped site, yet the architect William Butterfield was able to make it feel spacious while also fitting in a vicarage and choir school. Apart from the spire (which led me to discover the church last summer) the exterior is unremarkable without close study, but the interior is spectacular. When you open the door - which is never locked -you are assailed ...
A new hazard threatens holiday motorists this summer. You may get stuck behind a Cheeky Girl. The Pandora column in this morning's Independent reported: Margaret Beckett will soon have a rival MP vying for her title as Westminster's patron saint of caravanning. He is Lembit Opik, the Cheeky Girl enthusiast and increasingly bizarre frontbencher for the Liberal Democrats. Opik has told friends he's due to take delivery of a swish new customised motor home which he plans to use for summer holidays with his girlfriend Gabriela Irimia. The pair apparently spotted it when Opik recently opened a ...
Tidying my house Filing Cooking Eating vegetables Seeing my friends Getting double glazing quotes Booking holidays I’m sure there’s plenty more. How about you?
An excellent post by Joe Otten, explaining (one reason) why the Greens are a menace. Hat tip to Nich for spotting it before me.A site for political analysis and opinion of an avowedly liberal view. It's all about freedom.
Tony Blair has expressed regrets, apparently. I can imagine that would take a while! InnerWest sums up Tony Blair's successes and failures thus:Tony's Tenure's Top Three....1. An Independent Central Bank. People really have never had it so good. 2. Northern Ireland. The IRA - remember them? 3. Devolution. Not everybody agrees about how much power should be given away from the centre, but the important thing is that some was and it's gaining it's own momentum.... and the Bottom Two: 1. Foreign Policy. An ethical intent gave way to the allure of the ends justifying the means - ...
One of the problems with producing lots of election literature is that the pressure we are under to meet deadlines and the limited time available to check it means that the number of typos and mistakes increase. I know, I have already been the victim of one howler as described by Matt Withers here. And it was my fault for not checking properly. My favourite mistake however came in an Independent candidate's leaflet which popped through my door this morning. Amongst a lot of high-minded stuff about listening to local people and working in partnership there comes the ...
this was brought to my attention by Ross Pepper who told me about another student from the university of Lincoln who is running for the city council. Daniel Hutchinson, Conservative, is running in Carholme a ward at the last elections where the Tories came in third place. His candidate profile can be seen Here (follow the link and click on Carholme to see the full list of profiles). The first paragraph states; "I have lived in Carholme for three years, and it is an honour to have the opportunity of standing for this ward." Now this is very, ...
Bob Piper seems to have found out a little tactic the Tories like to use in his neck of the woods. Certainly worth a look.
The question - how much should councillors be paid? - is prompted by the figures released by the Taxpayers’ Alliance showing the average councillor allowance is now £9,300. As always, this mean hides extremes. Putting to one side the Greater London Assembly, the most lucrative place to serve your community on the council is Croydon, where you would earn £22,142 a year. By contrast, a place on
Full Council today - 45 questions on notice have been tabled for Oxford's seven executive board members, an average of over six for each of us to answer. Except none of them are for me. Not one. Nor is this an exception. I have been asked three questions in total in my year's servitude as the executive member for Better Finances. It's made my life easier, I guess, but it's not a healthy state
This is the sort of information anyone fighting the Greens should be aware of. Green policies are often far from environmentally friendly whilst their campaigning tactics are often far worse than Labour. I remember well a single mother telling me she was voting Green because they promised that if they took control of the council they would increase her child benefit ??? So has anyone else got stories of Greens being less than green ?
Well, well, Tony Blair has regrets. In a few weeks newspapers will be full to bursting with this kind of stuff, so just to jump the gun, here goes: Tony's Tenure's Top Three.... 1. An Independent Central Bank. People really have never had it so good. 2. Northern Ireland. The IRA - remember them? 3. Devolution. Not everybody agrees about how much power should be given away from the centre, but the important thing is that some was and it's gaining it's own momentum. ...and the Bottom Two: 1. Foreign Policy. An ethical intent gave way ...
The BBC and other news sources have reported the all party concern about the EU's attempt to use the Bologna process to gain some control of all EU Universities. Despite the utterly vacuous Minister Bill Rammel admitting that there has been some "mission creep" in the way the EU is using the Bologna process, he seems to see no problem. To my mind, and I know this is what most people tell me, this is the sort of thing that gives the EU a bad name. yes, having a process by which university degrees are universally recognised across ...
After the May 1978 elections (i.e. the last round of elections before they won the general election) the Conservatives had 49.6% of councillors. After May 1996 (i.e. the last round of elections before they won the general election) Labour had 48.1% of councillors. The Conservatives had 38.6% after last May’s elections, so to get up to 48.1% would [...]
I spent this afternoon in glorious sunshine over in Yew Tree, helping out our candidate Keith Allcock. If Keith wins we will have a full compliment of 3 councillors in the ward. I vowed I would make time to help out because the main opposition (judging on the election result last time) is the BNP. [...]
Lessons in Leadership: Courtesy of Ipsos Mori and Ben Page, with some additions of my own: 1. Making people feel as if they have accomplished something worthwhile 2. Provide people with the opportunity to show initiative 3. Give people honest feedback on their performance 4. Be a publicly vocal advocate for your people 5. Be a master at delegation – skilful people management is a key to successful leadership 6. Promote from within, challenge, and inspire others to step-up 7. Relationships matter. It’s not just a ‘clock-in, clock-out’ job 8. Honesty, integrity, clarity of vision and resolution of ...
Liberal Democrats on Southwark Council are to propose a £39,000 cut to the councillors’ allowances scheme from May as part of a programme that will save the Council more than £130,000 over the course of the next four years. The new scheme will replace the scheme agreed as an interim measure by Council Assembly in January and will ensure that the Council meets the recommendations of the independent London Council review by the end of the four year term. When Labour last ran Southwark they imposed an allowances scheme which was substantially higher than the independent recommendations. “I am delighted ...
Nueva Alianza hosted a sit-down dinner on the beach at Cancun last night, under an almost full moon, the sound of the waves shrouded by Mayan drums and pipes, as the margaritas circulated. I can´t quite see this happening in England, were Bournemouth or Eastbourne ever to host a Liberal Democrat Executive. The spirit of [...]
The BBC - like all UK broadcasters - have to be scrupulously even-handed in their coverage of political stories. This becomes critical at election time when all the parties monitor the broadcasters' output by the second to ensure they each get their fair allocation. Unfortunately, the side effect of this is that the BBC's coverage is mind-numbingly dull. The purpose of this blog is to highlight interesting stories of the day. But just for once we'll take the opportunity to highlight some of the very dull stories with which the BBC is littering the web. For instance ...
Ministers, civil servants and the public have all been shocked and appalled by the recent fashion for kiss-and-tell accounts of the inner workings of government. While I well-written memoir is wonderfully enlightening, and the details of the Hutton Enquiry and Butler Review exposed Blair’s sofa government for what it is, the salacious bean-spilling by some civil servants and ministers has been to the detriment of the service. One can understand why the Government has sought to limit further breaches of the secrecy that must exist within ministerial offices. Personally, I find any effort to limit free speech to ... 
Edward Davey MP (Chair of Campaigns and Communications) has written to the Chair of the Labour Party Hazel Blears, asking her to suspend those responsible for alleged postal vote electoral fraud in Leeds. You can read more on the party’s website.
Rumours have been flying around for some time that Gordon Brown might call an early general election to take advantage of the Brown Bounce, a surge in the polls as the voters take a big breath of the fresh air that Gordon will represent after replacing Tony Blair. I’ve been rubbishing this suggestion for some time. Apart from its echoes of another Labour bounce that we were promised, the voters are becoming increasingly aware that the most bouncy thing about the Chancellor of the Exchequer is the rubber cheques he has been writing. So I hope the boys ...
Is it that hard to understand? Again I’ve purchased another coffee from Starbucks only to find out that the vanilla was missing. Normally it’s the new Newark branch who forget something, but today I was at the Lincoln High Street one. However I only paid £2.25 today, so it looks like I got free cream.
I was rudely dragged into awakefulness this morning whilst checking my email to find an email from Mike Tuffrey suggesting that the London Assembly should institute a reward card to reward people for spending their money ’sutainably’. Its hard to know where to begin in criticising this. Its illiberal, a big government solution, it seeks to [...]
On Friday night water began leaking into my flat from the one above - not a good start to the weekend. At least the smell of wet ceiling plaster encouraged me to escape to Abbey Road for more leaflet-delivering. St John's Wood was a wood a long time ago. Now it is housing, much of it large family houses but (typical of London) council estates are never far away. Many affluent households have concreted over their front gardens to park their cars on. Some council flat households green over the stained concrete approaches ...
Having given First Great Western an earful a couple of weeks ago when the management were in attendance at a meeting in Westminster and having listened to their excuses and promises that things...
Monday 30th April 2007 - Momentum is growing for an end to the death penalty worldwide; Amnesty International's latest analysis has revealed a 25% decrease in executions and death sentences in 2006. The Liberal Democrats in the European Parliament have been leading the call for a universal moratorium on execution. A death penalty free world is within our grasp, if only key governments -- not
Have just finished recording a "1 minute manifesto" for the Lib Dems in Cornwall for broadcast on "Atlantic FM", (based in St Agnes) for Wednesday before polling day. All parties who are fielding candidates have been asked for their 1 minute - and I did my bit on why we should win.
Responding to a leaflet put out by a Liberal Democrat candidate in Rugby and subsequent comments by her agent, Adam Teladia from West Midlands Liberal Democrat Youth & Students said "Liberal Democrats across the country will strongly disagree with the views expressed by Cllr Ravenhall both in what he has said to the press and the leaflet he wrote for our candidate.
My colleague Jo Swinson got some good coverage on the issue of excess packaging last week. I am fed up personally with the amount there is - wrap and double wrap. Even if you recycle it, there's still a huge amount of waste involved - we need to reduce as well as recycle.
Labour are attempting to spin a message in Whickham, a town that is represented by 9 Lib Dem Councillors on Gateshead Council, that the old buildings of the local comprehensive school are to be replaced this year. The story is simply one of their ridiculous claims that barely resembles the actual facts. So Labour, having launched a first strike against us with their fantasy claims, were then
… This new paper from the Lib Dems is exactly how I feel about them! Some improvements, but many disappointments. Many people were excited in 1997 when they too over. I’m afraid I was pessimistic even then.
Ben Bradshaw has been working hard on our behalf: The government is to call for a Europe-wide system for tracking fish ...The tracking system would help regulate fishing by allowing fish to be traced "from the moment they are caught to when they are served on a customer's plate" - says the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
I was down to do the 9 am lecture today at work.. to second year journalism students about local government. 9am on a monday morning is not the favourite time for students.. nor for me as if the lecture is at 9 I am at my desk at least an hour beforehand checking last minute stuff. But we managed to have a reasonable discussion about local elections and turnout. Only three of those there, including one of the tutors, was planning to vote on thursday. Two others would have voted by post back home had they ...
A full inquiry into the 7th July bomb attacks should be held as soon as possible, Liberal Democrat Leader Ming Campbell said today. Sir Menzies also questioned why the government briefed in the aftermath of the attacks that the bombers were unknown to the security service. He was speaking after the conclusion of the fertiliser bomb [...]
And speaking of Paint Drying… or Change and Repeat ad nauseam… As many of you will now know, I am not one for sitting idly on the fence waiting for others to make the decisions and simply nod, nod, nod like that annoying dog from the Churchill adverts. So when asked for an opinion I usually take the time to seek advice, read up on the subject, check my data and then provide my opinion. When asked to make a decision I do much the same, I check my arguments, research the opposing view, communicate ...
The Globalisation Institute blog has been running a series of posts ‘Quote unquote’ which have had some excellent liberal quotations as well as many on development issues. Today’s is very perceptive: This is my long-run forecast in brief: The material conditions of life will continue to get better for most people, in most countries, most of the [...]
I just wanted to post this as I think it an important way of getting through what has happened. On Friday night I found out that Jamie - the son of one of my regular customers - passed away on the Thursday night. Jamie was only about 20 months old, and I got to know him through his parents shopping at Morrisons on a Friday night. Jamie always used to sit on my till while his parents and elder sisters sorted out the shopping. He smiled and giggled as I used to make a fuss. Unknown to me, ...
The Johann Hari column in the independent this morning, got me going again…I have hardly been blogging of late but every now and then a topic comes up that inspires in me the hopeless desire, in an almost Liberal Polemic type way, to write a series of essays on a subject – an urge almost completely missing from my university career more’s the pity! There are lots of things in politics that get
Labour will never learn. It appears that, once again, they are trying to rig elections. An undercover investigation of the Sunday Times found that: Keith Wakefield, the leader of the Labour group on Leeds city council, told party canvassers to help voters, many of whom were elderly, to complete their postal ballots. Student activists, including an undercover reporter, were then told by another councillor to take away the postal voting forms, hide them as they left people’s homes and only post them later if they were for Labour. The journalist recorded the conversation between Graham Hyde, a Labour ...
I see that in the last few days of the campaign for Holyrood Alex Salmond has claimed that "Independence is not a One Way street". Apparently what he means is that having become independent, Scotland could then somehow become un-independent and rejoin some form of a reconstituted UK. What a load of crap! Independence is a one shot- and there really is no going back on separatism. The fact that Salmond has to invent this spurious line shows how few people are truly convinced about Scottish separatism- only 32% of Scots currently support a wholly independent ...
Now I'm not claiming any of this is true, but it is currently doing the rounds: Proof of what can happen when an unwilling partner is dragged along shopping. This letter was recently sent by the Head Office of a major supermarket to a customer in Oxford : Dear Mrs. Murray, While we thank you for your valued custom and use of the our Loyalty Card, the Manager of our store in Banbury is considering banning you and your family from shopping with us, unless your husband stops his antics. Below is a list of offences ...
The Liberal Democrats have today launched a report on the state of Britain after ten years of Blair and Brown being in charge. Launching the document Ming Campbell said: “The Blair-Brown government started with so much hope but now we are left with so much disappointment. This Government has wasted its opportunities and wasted your money. “They have [...]
The Liberal Democrats today released a dossier, The State They’ve Put Us In, which sets out what has gone wrong under Labour in specific areas, such as health, education, crime and the environment. It points out how much Blair and Brown have failed to achieve - and in many areas how things have gone backwards. [...]
Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrats' environment spokesman, writes: Perseverance is one of the most important qualities in politics, and David Cameron has once again written urging me to support the Conservative party. His mail-merge letter says attractive things about the need to tackle climate change, decentralise the state, defend civil liberties and have a solid, not slavish, relationship with the United States - all key Liberal Democrat themes. The problem in taking his advice is that the original is better than the copy. Far from voting blue and going green, environmentally minded voters are more likely to turn ...
Over at Iain Dale’s (he is worth reading occasionally ;) )
Quaequam blog has drawn my attention to "Robocop" Ray Mallon's latest thoughts on directly elected mayors in a Grauniad interview. Regular readers of this blog will know that Mayor Mallon did a U-Turn on mayors back in February at the Evening Mail's "big debate". The Evening Mail has still yet to report on Ray Mallon's speech back in February. Interestingly, the speaker was up against Mallon in the "Big Debate", labour MP Khalid Mahmood from Perry Barr, has now said he would stand if the position became available. But he is still inprinciple against the concept of a directly elected ...
This is a bit of a memory dump - for some reason I am having trouble logging into Blogger. Saturday was my councillors' surgery at the community centre in Parklands. Got there a few minutes ahead of time - to find people queuing. Again the main issues revolved around housing - including adaptations. I said I would make some contacts on the constituents' behalf, which I have just done.
Saturday was the open day at Rotters - the community composting project on Dutch Farm in Garston. A lovely sunny day - and by the sounds of it they had quite a few interested people drop in. I popped along to say hello.. but also to see the new arch and plaque that I mentioned in an earlier blog. The arch design is based on the winning design from a pupil and St Benedicts.. and the plaque incorporates creations by pupils at Garston C of E. I hadn't been able to envisage how the plaque would ...
My rushed post on Wednesday really didn't do this event justice. I went along to the celebration event for the new Church Fields building project Under the Bridge. The invitation had said site office , so I didn't quite know what to expect but what we had was a marquee, a choir, speeches and a real celebratory "happy" feel. ( I had to prevent myself from singing along - according to my partner that wouldn't have enhanced the sound!) Dean Sullivan was the compere and John Aldridge spoke at the end (he hadn't - he said - ...
The Sunday Times yesterday reported postal vote problems in Leeds. All three main parties, meanwhile, have signed up to the Electoral Commission's code of conduct. This means candidates and canvassers will not handle or help voters complete their postal ballot papers, that they encourage voters to post ballot papers themselves and if asked to take a completed ballot paper, to make sure the voter has sealed it first. They must also ensure voters complete ballot papers in secret, and not solicit completed postal ballot papers from electors.
Sean Gabb, director of the Libertarian Alliance has written a very good article attacking censorship in general and specifically the recent attempt at outlawing holocaust denial. He asserts the purpose of free speech in society very well, both how it allows us to see the debate which leads to discovery of the truth even without us [...]
1) The Retreat - The Retreat art feature was built when Labour controlled both the Council and Prestwich Area Board. It fell into disrepair on their watch, and the people of Prestwich said they wanted rid of it. Now, Lib Dems control Prestwich Area Board, and after a campaign of pressure led by us through our Focus newsletters, action will be taken in the coming months to knock it down and
This is the church where my parents were married and where I was christened. It is built in the perpendicular gothic style, which for my money is the best type of gothic. Back in the eighteenth century, the vicar was Parson Woodforde. He was a famous diarist, whose journals, from his time at university to his clerical life in Somerset and Norfolk, are chocked with recollections of getting hammered on port and gorging himself on a mysterious dish called ‘charter’. It has been noted that James Woodforde's account of his life is actually rather dominated by references to his considerable ...
At least barring some miracle whereby Leeds win by about 5 clear goals at Derby and Hull lose by a similar margin. Failing that Leeds will begin next season in League 1 (or Division 3 to the rest of us). Leeds have never been outside the top two tiers of English football and to think a few years ago we were playing in the Champions League semi final. Yes Mr Ridsdale we lived the dream and look where we are now. To be fair there are plenty of others along the way who need to take some responsibility for the ...
Chief Constable, Richard Brunstrom, has many detractors but for all his faults, he knows how to put the BNP in their place. His letter was written after a member of the BNP openly challenged his decision to investigate a serving Police Officer for endorsing a BNP Council candidate in Mold. His conclusion is quite forceful: You suggest that I may be concerned about being held to account by a BNP led local Council or Welsh Assembly. You are right – I am, but I assure you that I have not yet had cause to lose a moment’s sleep ...
I recently mentioned in my FOCUS newsletter about the planned footpath upgrade in part of Blackness Road. This is now underway as the photos below show. Many thanks indeed to Donald Suttie (www.rockwellmedia.co.uk) for these.
For the sake of balance, after knocking the Tories, I need to talk about Labour too. I have to say that in both Nottingham and Chesterfield they are campaigning hard. They are getting quite a lot of leaflets out compared to what they usually do, and seem to be knocking on good few [...]
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the Tories boasting about getting ready to quadruple their numbers and take over Nottingham City Council. At the time, I thought this was a tall order. Now I think it’s even less likely A few days ago, I was at a planning meeting which had a strange [...]
On Tuesday I headed down to Leamington Town Hall for the launch of our Manifesto for the Warwick District Council elections to be held on Thursday May 3rd. This sets out our vision for the district for the next four years, building on our legacy of jointly running one of Britain's top performing councils. Priorities include, helping to provide more affordable homes in the area, making our towns cleaner, greener, safer and promoting stronger communities. We would ensure that half of all new developments would be affordable homes, promote energy conservation and continued development of our world class leisure ...
And into double figures… Here is the tenth of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (22nd-28th April), together with a hand-picked quintet you might otherwise have missed. Let the fun commence: 1. ‘Newsnight predict Labour meltdown’ on Paul Walter’s Liberal Burblings blog. Let’s [...]
The BBC has the details. So far the Conservatives are investigating rather than having suspended him as a member, which is a little curious given how eager Francis Maude has been to call for the immediate expulsion of people from other parties when the far right have been involved. Let’s hope that was just him falling [...]
Following Saturday's earthquake in Kent, I have been reading Wikipedia. The most powerful earthquake measured in Britain was the 1931 Dogger Bank quake. This reached 6.1 on the Richter scale. The most destructive quake took place around Colchester in 1884. A lot of buildings were damaged and it appears that between three and five people died.
An up-market golfing resort in the tourist strip at Cancun is not the sort of place I would normally head for, but it’s the locale chosen by the newest member party of the Liberal International (admitted today!), Mexico’s Nueva Alianza, for the 178th Executive Committee Meeeting of LI and a conference on Migration — a particularly [...] | < | April 2007 | > | ||||
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