I consider myself to be something of a militant anti-sentimentalist but every now and then something comes along that just makes you smile. A (long) while back my mum gave me a cylinder of ancient camera film and asked me to see if I could find somewhere that might have a go at developing it. She thought [...]
Just come across the website What has Europe ever done for us? with a short film attempting to answer the question. And also this short BBC film A guide to the EU Parliament While on the subject, it's worth noting that the EU is not responsible for all the new house building or for regional assemblies, or sharing personal data across Europe. In fact, these are all down to the Labour
When I had to sell my car earlier this year I said it would be an interesting experiment to see how I manage without a car. The first two months were difficult, but time and moving house has made things a lot easier. But I have now found a way of having all the benefits [...]
These seem to be important times for David Cameron and his effort to persuade the British public that the Tory party really has changed and is now something that Middle England voters can safely vote for. First he “lost” the argument with his party about grammar schools, and today there is news that much of his [...]
Well they do say that living in the city centre is never dull, but I didn’t expect to see Gatecrasher burn down. It’s just a bit further down the street from where I live and I am in the last block of buildings not to be evacuated. It’s all very dramatic and when [...] 
I have always been amused at the ability of fellow politicians to lose all sense of perspective at various times, but the comments of a Pakistani politician about Salman Rushdie being knighted really go beyond the pail. Their religious affairs minister suggested today that the decision of the British to give Rushdie a knighthood justified suicide bombers! This is a disgrace, and coming from a country which is meant to be an allie in the so called war on terror is frankly astounding. I trust that the Pakistani government will dispense with his services forthwith to show that such comments ...
Former British Ambassador to the US, Christopher Meyer has said that Tony Blair feared that the USA would "nuke the s**t" out of Afghanistan in revenge for 9-11. In Channel Four's two part documentary, "The Rise and Fall of Tony Blair", Meyer says: Blair's real concern was that there would be quote unquote 'a kneejerk reaction' by the Americans... they would go thundering off and nuke the s**t
A YouGov survey for Channel Four News shows that voters think that Cameron is very lightweight and that the Tory party is very right-wing. ...
On Sunday morning I attended a service at Christchurch High Barnet to mark the centenary of William Pennefather the first Vicar at Christ church. He did a lot of amazing things in Barnet but is probably best known for founding the Milmay Mission Hospital in Hackney. Mildmay is still in operation today and provides care for the victims of HIV/Aids.
Here's a video of Lewis Hamilton on BBC's Blue Peter, aged seven. He was interviewed by John Leslie while operating a remote-control model race car. The video also shows a later appearance when he was aged twelve, go-karting. Click on "Archive: Lewis Hamilton aged 12 on Blue Peter".
Yesterday I went to an open day at the Environmental Centre in Byng Road. There were all sorts of people there and it was really great to have a chat with so many people and catch up with some that I hadn't seen for a while. The centre is a facility that could be really good, however the current administration would dearly like to build on it and have deliberately run it down. With a little thought it could become a really valuable local facility. The Friends of the Centre have made great efforts to make use of the ...
Here are twenty-one suggested ways of arranging the books on your bookshelves. 1. By author’s last name, 2. By title, 3. By subject, 4. By size, 5. Horizontally, 6. By colour, 7. By hardbacks and paperbacks, 8. By publisher, 9. By read/unread books, 10. By strict order of acquisition, 11. By order of publication, 12. By [...]
David Cameron in his major speech today did not say. "Community cannot simply be another word for 'state' or 'government' ". Nor did he say "We must create a state based on a notion of equal rights and responsibilities". He also didn't say "the only way to rebuild social order and stability is through strong values, socially shared, inculcated through individuals and families". Another comment not made by David Cameron is "You cannot legislate for family life. You cannot direct moral purpose." These words did not pass his lips. What David Cameron did say was that ...
I recently explained to a colleague that the reason why I'm a Lib Dem not a Tory can perhaps be best summed up in two words, Ann Widdecombe. Any party that could not just tolerate but actually venerate her, and her Victorian views on society, couldn't also find a place for me. But, she protested, the Widdecombe's of this world are a small if vocal minority in Dave Cameron's new model Tory's. Its
The success of Lewis Hamilton is just breathtaking. The way he staved off Alonso's determined harrying in the first lap yesterday was mind-bloggling in its brilliance. Old Formula One hands aren't surprised. I wish him continued success. It is interesting to observe how Hamilton follows Button, in the same way that Murray is, hopefully, following Henman. All the disappointments of watching
I ask this question because it seems many people I have met over the last few days have. What though do these people all have in common? They are all good Liberal Democrat members. It would seem that ...
After five weeks the Tanorth Road blackout has ended! It seems slightly unbelievable but for nearly 5 weeks a portion of Tanorth Road, in Whitchurch, was left blacked out after the street lighting fai...
Saturday was a not very well advertised but superb Climate Change information event in Ramsbotton - I had offered to do a two-hour stint on the Bury Friends of the Earth Stall. Afterwards, I had a super jaunt around the shops ... real shops selling local produce .... including butchers and fresh veg and fish on the market. I'd travelled up the valley using the any-bus day saver ticket. All
Should we let people in other countries dictate what we do in the UK ? Of course not. So in that case, why not give Salman Rushdie a knighthood ? . There is though an alternative point of view. Rightly or wrongly, many Muslims are very upset at the perceived sleight on Islam that Salman Rushdie has perpetrated via his book "The Satanic Verses". I am assured by people who have read it that it is neither blasphemous or unduly nasty about Islam, but that is neither here nor there. The point is that Salman Rushdie is seen by Muslims ...
Dobson was an excessively tidy man. He firmly believed the old saw which insists there is a place for everything, and everything in its place. Thus, he kept sweets in jars, and jars on shelves in cupboards. This despite his loathing of confectionery. When asked why he stored so many sweets, including humbugs, toffees and [...]
At the moment I seem to have a lot of issues with the NHS. Not with the staff, I should make clear straight away, but with the way it is run and organised. I have blogged before about my wife's pregnancy and wrote about the time we spent in hospital last week. My wife was kept in over night and was let home on Saturday after we waited several hours for a consultant. We waited several hours because there was only one consultant and she kept being called away because people kept coming in to give birth, and ...
Oh dear! {How Blair are you?}
James Graham, Stephen Tall on LibDem Voice and Freethink blog have highlighted the Populus poll that shows Conservative MPs surprisingly divided and decidedly unprogressive. In many ways, Hugo Swire has done us a remarkable public service. He has again reminded us that Cameron is not actually leading the Tory party in the normal sense of "leading". One normally regards "leading" a group of
Conservative Home observes that, while the Telegraph today has fallen hook, line and sinker for the Cameron "big speech" spin, the Mail remains doggedly anti-Cameron. The Editor has employed his "big gun" (!), the "clinically sane" Melanie Phillips to lay the boot into 'Dave'. I am tempted to say....indeed, I will say "Well done Melanie Phillips", even though I will probably regret it later. I
Top marks to Nick Assinder on BBC Online for this pithy observation about David Cameron's apparent U turn on his "branding": After a year being described as the "heir to Blair" - with or without his encouragement - Tory leader David Cameron has launched a concerted attempt to throw off the label in the face of an apparent backlash from party members and not a few MPs. However, as Assinder
At last week's West End Community Council meeting, it was pointed out that on the Riverside Drive cycle route, there's a lack of markings on the pathway to differentiate pedestrians from cyclists. I took up the matter with the Director of Planning & Transportation and here's his response : Riverside Drive cycle route is part of Dundee's 26 mile long Green Circular and is also part of the National Cycle Network which has hundreds of routes running throughout the UK. Many parts of these routes are shared with pedestrians. The main reasons to why there is no such ... 
Peter Riddell's piece today in the Times 'Tories still not won over by liberal social attitudes', examines a recent Populus survey of 128 MPs (70 Lab, 30 Tory, 13 Lib Dem). The survey shows that Labour is surprisingly cohesive, whilst the Tories are split on social issues such gay rights, education and British ethnicity. One key point is that, despite talk of a possible Lib Dem- Conservative coalition in a hung parliament, the Lib Dem responses were uniformly more in line with Labour than the (often diametrically opposed) Tories.On the issue of gay rights, for example, 46% of Tories ...
The Mayor was supposed to have consider the report on relocating the travellers from Thurston Road this Wednesday. This has now been delayed until 5.30pm on Thursday 28 June, because the report would not have been ready in good time. I have been told that the report will be available on the Council website this Wednesday 20 June.
I see Black Dog in the Mail on Sunday yesterday claimig "Ming Campbell has summoned his MPs to a 'bonding weekend' today at Wyboston golf resort in Bedfordshire." Never a paper to let the truth get in the way of a good bit of trash! The weekend was actually at the Robinson Executive Conference Centre. It was a long planned event arranged by the Campaigns Department for planning and training. It
I had to wait for the BBC3 repeat to see Utopia.. Brilliant. The Master regenerated from the troubled Professor Yana (You Are Not Alone) who keeps hearing voices and noises from the past of the Master. Captain Jack back and unkillable (I won't say immortal). Hints to UNIT - which gets mentioned in the teaser for the next episode In that episode the Master - as Saxon - becomes Prime Minister,
When I blogged the other week about the Palestine/Israeli problem getting worse I didn’t even imagine then that it could get as bad as it is. But this morning just as I was going into Brixton station I caught, on my iPOd, the beginning of a piece on the Today Programme on a relatively new radio station, Ram FM and for the first time in days I can see something that might, possibly create
Yesterday was a very successful Prestwich Carnival. Thousands turned up, and one notable absentee was the rain, thankfully! It was a very well run event, attracting people from miles around to Prestwich. My congratulations to all those involved in the organisation. Well done and thanks too to all the performers, stall-holders and helpers who ensured that there was a massive variety of things to
One of my constituents is Sally Williams, who runs a textile business from Bury Crafts in the centre of Bury. She, along with others in the creative industries, are threatened with eviction by the Council, who are renovating the building. One man in real danger of losing his livelihood is Nick Potts, who runs a jewellery making and silversmith business. He has recently invested over £20,000 in
The Weston and Worle News reports that Avon & Somerset Police have done the double and reported more crime and fewer detections in their 2006-07 annual report. From the public’s point of view it is hard to imagine a worse set of statistics. Crime up, detections down. No one wants to criticise the police, they do [...]
Went to the Africa Oye event in Sefton Park on Saturday. I hadn't been before so wasn't quite sure what to expect. But it was great to hear some music that I would normally be listening to (not quite true now as I bought a CD). People who had been before were saying it was bigger this year and that there were more stalls. There was some lovely "fairly traded" jewellery and ornaments as well as clothes, toys and lots of great food. Will definitely try to go again next year.
The parliamentary results are much less exciting for the new President's supporters than anticipated, and in fact one rather significant change in the ballance of power. If I got the count right, the Presidential block has lost ground and no longer has the 3/5th majority in National Assembly necessary to amend the Constitution of the French Republic. This could upset some Sarko plans and by limiting his domestic manoeuverability even impact on the wider European Constitution dance. Bayrou's party seems to have ended up with just three seats according to the offical results, but four according to Le Monde. ...
I always seem to be the one to say what everyone else is thinking but very few want to say, I think it started with my first attempts at collective bargaining in the army……….it didn’t go down well then and I guess it still doesn’t go down well now! Well, as ever, I will grit my teeth, prepare to suffer the slings and arrows of my fellow Lib Demmers – and say my piece. Now, it may have something to do with the company I keep but I rarely come across a party member who thinks we are on ...
I was rather brought up short today when, in the middle of the usual Monday morning rushing about and being late for things, I left the Town Hall to stand by the War Memorial with other Lutonians in silent tribute to murdered PC Jon Henry. Understandably it has coloured my mood, making today's work on local political issues and preparations for this weeks full council meeting seem very small and
The Scottish Parliament passed a motion to reject the government's plans to replace the Trident nuclear weapon system last night. The Parliament passed a Liberal Democrat amendment to the motion which said Trident should not be renewed 'at this time', allowing for the issue to be considered in future disarmament talks. The Tories were the only party to support the renewal of Trident; four Labour MSPs voted to reject the government plans while the rest of the Labour MSPs abstained. The parliament later passed a further Lib Dem motion noting that defence issues were the responsibility of the UK Parliament ...
John Dixon has a piece here on Lib Dem Voice asking: "Will we have to be socialist to be green?" John writes: If we are to deal with global warming it is not going to be easy: we can’t simply magic away 80% of our greenhouse gas emissions, and we can’t simply speak about global warming as if it’s the most important issue facing the world and yet treat it as if it’s a secondary issue that wont
James at Quaequamblog tagged me with this. Two things Gordo should be proud of: 1) Independence of the Bank of England - taking decisions out of the political sphere, a rare case of a Labour politician giving up power. 2) Following Tory spending plans and building upon the decent economy they left us with (although this is tinged [...]
If the Times is to be believed, Menzies Campbell is to adopt a more ‘spiky’ approach, take more risks and hold regular press briefings. There really is a great deal to be aggressive about, and I look forward to seeing this in practice. When things weren’t going for well for Ashdown, he tried something fresh – embarking on a tour of Britain, spending time experiencing different people’s lives all over the country. That included a day down a coal mine, though I can’t imagine that’d be very relavent today. When it comes to the Liberal Democrats, the Times ...
Splashed across the front page of yesterday’s Sunday Times was the news that BAE Systems forked out nearly a quarter of a million pounds for a luxury honeymoon for the daughter of Prince Bandar. Prince Bandar is the Saudi prince at the heart of allegations of backdoor payments from BAE in connection with the Al [...]
Iain Dale declared yesterday that “we are all progressive Conservatives now.” Er, no you ain’t: On every statement apart from one, 83 per cent or more of Labour MPs agree (the exception being whether Britain is a united country, where there is a 59 to 41 per cent split). By contrast, on several key questions Tory [...]
My little (27-year-old) brother Paul this weekend passed the halfway mark of his tour of duty in Iraq with the RAF. I celebrated with a couple of pints in Elland whilst Paul celebrated with for once not being on the receiving end of insurgent rocket attacks. Stay safe
For those who might be puzzled at the reluctance of some Welsh Liberal Democrats and Plaid Cymru members to get into the coalition bed with Cameron's new cuddly Conservative Party, todays Times newspaper may provide some clues. They tell us that a new survey by Populus about the attitudes of MPs reveals not only deep underlying disagreements between Labour and Conservative MPs on key social values, but also big divisions within the Tory party. David Cameron has failed to persuade a large number of his own backbenchers to accept his liberal views on morality and race: On several ...
As Margaret Thatcher famously said, “U-turn if you want to” - and how David Cameron’s Tory party has taken this advice to heart. No ‘Team Cameron’ proposal is now complete without the obligatory clarification reversal once the policy’s unpopularity - either with the party (grammar schools) or the public (free museum entrance) - is revealed. As [...]
Saturday’s meeting of the UK European Movement’s new national Council was a very heartening experience: after a very difficult couple of years, the EM has clearly picked up itself, dusted itself down, and is really starting to focus on the future. The last meeting I attended elected Peter Luff as the EM’s new Chairman, with [...]
The official Iranian News Agency, INRA is reporting unhappiness at Salman Rushdie’s inclusion on this year’s honours list. They say that his gong is a sign of Islamophobia. If anyone’s going to be actually scared of Islam, I’d imagine it would be someone who’d been sentenced to death by Ayahtollah Khomeini for being impolite about it…
Tim Hames’ rather silly column in today’s Times - exculpating Tony Blair from the cataclysmic disaster that has been the Labour/Tory Iraq policy - deserves to be fisked. Here’s hoping someone has the time. I’ll restrict my wonderment to this staggering statement: Not to have supported the United States in [Iraq] would have been seismic. It would have entailed a complete reversal of British
On Saturday we were at Church Street market, collecting signatures on a petition to save local shops from a proposed new supermarket, which would be Tesco's tenth within a square mile. Times have changed since I used to shop in Church Street: now it looks rather like Cairo as far as attire goes, many of the women being entirely covered from head to toe. I would estimate that at least half the people could understand English poorly or not at all. Some dealt with the situation by ignoring us completely, as if we were invisible and they ...
I was on the New Statesman website and took the How Blair are you? quiz [http://www.newstatesman.com/whoblairswins.php] on this New Statesman quiz I scored 5/9 and am Lionel Blair. | < | June 2007 | > | ||||
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
| 1 | 2 | |||||
| 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
| 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
| 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
