The Government has announced it will be pushing for a 56 day limit on criminal detention in an attempt to find a "consensus" on this matter. This might strike some as odd, as two years ago, a consensus was reached, but of course, it wasn't the consensus that the Government wanted and so it must be revisited. Cleverly, rather than going for 90 days all over again, the Government is pushing for
Whilst I wasn't quite sad enough to get the book at the stroke of Midnight (it was raining), I bought Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on Saturday. I finished it yesterday, below is some of my views on the book, I don't give it away but if you are still reading it you may decide not to read on...
The floods have hit, some of the worst for decades. thousands are homeless and many un-insured will have nothing left by the end of this tragedy that has swept the nation. I feel personally great pity for those who have lost loved ones and homes and especially those who will have little or no compensation for their woes. This however does not seem to be the view of central government. I spoke to a certain person I know who happens to be a central government senior civil servant. She was telling me of the government's response to the floods and ...
Well, they did it. The Conservatives have withdrawn subsidy from a number of important evening bus services right across Winchester, including the No 5 which serves Badger Farm and Oliver's Battery. Two weekday evening services and everything after 6 pm on a Sunday will be lost. My Lib Dem colleague Jackie Porter, county councillor for Itchen Valley attended and spoke at the meeting. This is her
Please note, that in Harry Potter, to my knowledge, J K Rowling has not written about or included any lesbians, crack cocaine users, swingers, lager louts, one legged Peruvians, alcoholic Russians, people in to dogging, benefit cheats, or even glamour models. Gay friends of mine have never thought it funny that there is no gay character in the Harry Potter stories either, so quite why we should have to worry about it, heaven knows ! 
{ming-campbell-3.jpg} There’s a one-in-six chance there’ll be a general election this autumn, according to LibDem leader Sir Menzies Campbell, who gave a short speech at the summer party of the Liberal Democrats in PR on the terrace of the National Liberal Club in London this evening. The date campaigns guru (Lord) Chris Rennard is urging MPs and activists to pencil into their diaries is Thursday 25 October, if Gordon Brown feels that opinion polls justify the risk of going to the country in order to get a post-Blair mandate. Of course, this might not happen — indeed, the odds still are that ...
Autolycus puts his doubts about Boris Johnson's candidacy as Mayor of London nicely: Johnson's a bit of a Wodehousian throwback (albeit with a chin): he comes across like Tuppy Glossop, but I think he's a bit of a Roderick Spode on the sly.Meanwhile in the Guardian, Patrick Barkham has taken up my recommendation that everyone interested in the London elections should read Andrew Gimson's biography of Boris. And he may have saved you the trouble of reading it yourself by reproducing some of the choicer extracts: "Boris's favoured pace is the amble," states his Eton school report, when not lambasting ...
I saw Saint Joan a couple of weeks ago now but haven't got round to blogging about it yet, partly because it was so large a play (for starters its 3hrs 10mins even after a serious amount of cutting) that I didn't know where to start. Suffice to say others haven't been so reticent. Anyway in lieu of my own review can I just say I loved it (including the "Stompesque" battle sequence others have
The thought occurred as I was reading the final pages of the Deathly Hallows on Sunday morning, there aren't any gay characters. As far as I can remember there isn't even a hint of same sex attraction throughout the many thousands of pages of prose J K Rowling has produced (although some have argued that the whole wizzard/muggle thing is really an allegory for the queer/straight divide). Its not
This is a reminder that Liberal England will be hosting the next BritBlog Roundup. If you would like to nominate a post to appear in it, please send an e-mail to britblog [at] gmail [dot] com giving the link by next Sunday lunchtime. Any posting from a British-based blog or British-born blogger made this week can be be nominated. And, yes, you can nominate something from your own blog. Last week's BritBlog Roundup can be found at Clairwil.
The Shropshire Star has an update on the story of the alleged brawl at Ludlow Town Council: The Ludlow Town Council clerk suspended on full pay after being involved in a fracas with a councillor will not be prosecuted in a criminal court, it was revealed today
At last we have a meeting with Hutchison 3G who are the mobile phone company erecting a mast on Mount View Road - where residents have been fighting tooth and nail against it. Even Haringey turned it down - but Hutchison won on appeal. This is really a last ditch attempt to try and get Hutchison to change their mind. These meetings are never easy - and I am grateful to Mike Davies from Hutchison for coming to face us. The mast will be situated barely 20 metres from residents' houses, and very close to children’s bedrooms. For me the ...
Today apparently marks the sad demise of Bedford County, presumably announcing the birth of Bedford and Kempston Borough gaining far greater power, matched with the rural boroughs of Mid Beds and North Beds or South Beds combining to create a rural administration. The move for Liberals and especially Lib Dems has it goods and bads. On the one hand the new administrations will rule over less people making power more local and closer to those it governs over. It also takes power from a legislative body that was ruled by Cameron’s Conservatives (although knowing the area I doubt their reading ...
The future of the Leeds Girls High School site off Headingley Lane continues to absorb lots of time. I'm chairing an Area Committee working group on the issue and this is generating a lot of meetings and email. The good news is that the Leeds Girls High School Action Group ( LGHSAG ) is doing excellent work. This is a residents led, democratically mandated group that makes all the difference in these kinds of planning battles. I'm pleased we have been able to get them about £950 of council funding to pay for there administrative structures and costs. Communities are ...
its been announced today that a new show will becoming to broadway, except this is not a new show. this is a hit show from australia whih recently had its 200th performance, which intern was a remake of a hit low budget australian film. I am ofcourse talking about The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert The musical follows pretty much the same plot as the film; Anthony "Tick" Belrose, a.k.a. Mitzi Del Bra, a drag queen, accepts an offer to perform at a casino in Alice Springs, a remote town in central Australia. After persuading his friends and ...
The Intelligence and Security Committee has concluded in its report to Gordon Brown that the US government appears not to have cared one jot about the opinions of the UK government when they raised concerns about the illegal rendition of CIA prisoners to torture camps in other countries via UK airports. The report stated ; "This case shows a lack of regard on the part of the US for UK concerns - despite strong protests - and that has serious implications for the intelligence relationship," There is a feeling amongst the general public that the US takes the UK for ...
I don't think I can remember such a miserable late July! On Sunday evening, however, there was a brief window, both in the weather and in my domestic timetable, to enjoy a fantastic walk on Greenham Common. We are very blessed to have this place within easy walking distance of our home. Whatever you say about Greenham Common, it isn't particularly photogenic. It is very...er....flat. So
Jeremy Hargreaves has made some good points about the discussion on LibDem Voice about party policy-making. I agree that Aaron and Dan have made some excellent points on LDV. One element that hasn't been mentioned is that I have found over the years that the collected brains of a LibDem conference normally contain people who know all the essential and many of the non-essential (!) points to be
Over at Lib Dem Voice Paul Walter has kicked off some debate about some of the party’s processes. While I don’t agree with some of what has been said, I do think there are some good points which should be considered. Aaron pointed out that people who currently actually make party policy are only those who go to party conference, which many party members are unable to do. While I don’t think his characterisation of the people in the hall at conference as “mostly made up of career politicians and campaigners” is right, he is correct that only those present ...
Last I outlined the peacekeeping wisdom of Paddy Ashdown, as set out in his new book, Swords and Ploughshares. However, he has been dispensing other wise words recently, as well. On 11 July he was interviewed on 18 Doughty Street. As well as discussing his book, he sets out a frankly ominous prognosis for the future situation in Iraq and (worse still) Afghanistan. If we lose, he suggests, we face the beginnings of a regional civil war across the Middle East (in the sense that Mao Tse-tung saw the First and Second World Wars as European civil wars), the collapse ...
Members of CAMRA will have received their regular members’ newspaper What’s Brewing this morning, complete with a number of stories featuring Lib Dem MPs. * Martin Horwood has tabled an EDM commending local supermarket Waitrose for working with local brewers to stock local beers. The motion urges other national retailers to follow suit, and has [...]
Having subscribed to They Work For You's email service to let me know what my MP is up to in Parliament, I now regularly get emails featuring tantalising glimpses of the words of Mr. Daniel Kawczynski, and links for me to follow them up if I am so moved. Alas, I am seldom so moved, such is the ploddingly predictable and depressing nature of most of it. Mostly, it serves as the perfect daily
Well, the announcement has been made and Cornwall will be going through it's biggest Local Government Re-organisation since 1974. The announcement marks the end of tireless campaigning by all our 7 councils (1 for, 6 against) and opens up a new chapter for Cornwall. I have been principly in favour of Unitary but concerned by the emphasis on central organisation rather than the detail at the local level which will have the most direct effect on people's lives. I believe that there is an opportunity here for Cornwall which will remove duplication and also deliver equity in Local Government across ...
Automatic Number Plate recognition gets 1 in 25 read-outs wrong, the Department for Transport reveals. We discovered last week - thanks to an inadvertent leak from the Home Office - that the whole national network of ANPR cameras will soon be linked in to the police. So the accuracy of the cameras is pretty vital. And while 96% is pretty good as a mark in a maths test, it’s less good when it comes to tracking car drivers’ every movement. When you consider that the cameras monitor millions of cars, 4% failure turns into thousands upon thousands of false positives. ...
You Passed 8th Grade Math {Mingle2 Free Online Dating - Science Quiz} Luckily I only teach year 4's.
At last – the news I have been longing to hear for so long…….my erstwhile employer has been abolished and not a minute too soon! For so long Bedfordshire was the worst performing county council in the country……………this is good news for all the long suffering people of Bedfordshire, and great news for Bedford.
At last – the news I have been longing to hear for so long…….my erstwhile employer has been abolished and not a minute too soon! For so long Bedfordshire was the worst performing county council in the country……………this is good news for all the long suffering people of Bedfordshire, and great news for Bedford.
Unexpectedly I am called away to a meeting in Slovenia. Won't do much for my carbon footprint, but always pleasent to visit the small Slovenian capital, Ljubljana. Even more charming to remind myself that the word Ljubljana sounds virtually the same as the word for beloved, in Slovene. Na Zdravje!
After Putin berates the UK for its "colonial attitude" towards Russia, I suppose we should not be surprised to see the hypocritical double speak from Russian officials on a visit to the Baltic Countries. They freely admit that Estonia is under an (illegal) trade embargo, and fully intend to avoid the use of the Baltic ports for the future (although the costs of using Murmansk and Primorsk are substantially higher than Tallinn or Ventspils, especially in the Winter). The UK position seems pretty firm: Vlad- talk to the hand.
Three months ago, there was a real sense of excitement in the Welsh Lib Dems. We were poised to make big gains in the third elections to the National Assembly, held on 3rd May. The evident frustration of four years previously, in 2003, when we had stagnated on six seats out of 60 was sure [...] 
It has been announced that Norwich has not been granted unitary status, but in a disgraceful twist, minister Hazel Blears confirmed that the government might allow Norwich to take over a number or rural fringe parishes, some of which are some considerable distance from Norwich, in order to make the Norwich bid viable. The parishes concerned do not want to become part of Norwich and the proposal has received no support from people outside of the boundaries of Norwich, indeed, it has received little enough support from people in Norwich itself (37% by the city's own statistics). If a takeover ...
A Lib Dem councillor has defected to Labour in Oxford, the fourth defection from the group in 15 months - two to Labour, two to the Independents (who later became Tories). Oxford city council is currently run as a Lib Dem minority administration. Declaration of interest: I’m a member of the Lib Dem group in Oxford [...]
{Mingle2 Free Online Dating - Science Quiz} Free Online Dating
On the Tour de France website, one of the regular ads you see is for the Pro Cycling Manager game, and after the recent revelations, the cynical part of me can’t help wondering if there are special options in there to open up a pharmacy section of the controls, and if not, will someone write a patch for the game that adds them in? And I can’t help but wonder if Alexander Vinokourov is getting Steven Moffat to write his excuses for him, given that this BBC report says his excuse for failing a blood doping test that indicated he’d ...
One of great hurrah words amongst the Guardian-reading classes is "vibrant". For instance, urban comprehensive schools are always described as vibrant. Even if this is not just another way of saying "ill-disciplined", you can't help thinking that if you are trying to study then calmness may sometimes be a more useful quality than vibrancy. There is also a spot of racism in there somewhere - the variety that sees the native British as irredeemably dull and anyone from an ethnic minority as inevitably possessed of an exciting, colourful culture. It's the sort of dumb but well-meaning view that talked about ...
Today's award is made posthumously to Lazarus Levy, who also has the doubtful accolade of being Sharon Osborne's grandfather. All this is revealed in the Daily Telegraph obituary of her father Don Arden, which is also worth reading for his pithy opinions on the pop musicians he worked with in the 1960s.
YouTube’s not just for young, hip politicians you know. Amongst the Lloyd George appearances on YouTube are: Lloyd George visits Chequers- a silent movie, like the others (and therefore perfect for those who, shock horror, browse the internet whilst at work). Lloyd George quits as PM. Lloyd George visits Hitler. If you don’t know much about Lloyd George, the Liberal [...]
Last night I attended a seminar hosted by Barnet about the changes to the members code of conduct and a briefing on the new 'Community calls for action'. CCA's are supposed to help public services be more responsive to local concerns. The ward Councillor acts as a filter for these calls and will have a duty to respond. They will also have the power to refer a CCA to the relevant Overview and Scruity committee and the public will also have the right to appeal to the the Council's Executive. It all sounds fairly reasonable so far, but there are ...
In case people are wondering where I am, I’m currently holidaying in Tuscany. Share This
You Passed 8th Grade Math Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct!Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?
Friday 20th July 2007 - A busy final week before the sumer recess saw me start with a visit to Brennand's Endowed Primary School in Slaidburn near Clitheroe to meet Jessica Forgie the winner of our EU 50th logo competition. It was a great pleasure to meet Jessica, her Mum and Grandmother, other pupils and the school staff who had made good use of the educational pack we had sent
Sitting at court, waiting (still) to see if I get put on a jury. As this is the second week for me, I'm wondering if I might get sent home for good today if I'm not selected. Anyway, just been looking at a couple of news stories on BBC Online. The Energy Saving Trust has released some figures about sales of patio heaters, predicting a doubling of them in people's homes over the next year (so, not even counting the impact of the smoking ban on the numbers in pub beer gardens). Their Chief Executive said: "Why don't people just ...
Brighton and Harrogate are, by some way, your two favourite federal conference venues, at least according to the results of the most recent Lib Dem Voice poll. Over 400 of you voted, and here’s how your votes tallied: Brighton: 30% (124) Harrogate: 21% (87) Manchester: 13% (55) Bournemouth: 11% (46) Blackpool: 10% (42) Southport: 7% (29) Torquay: 7% (30) Total Votes : 413
When site founder Rob Fenwick started Lib Dem Voice he made it perfectly clear readers would have to go elsewhere if they wanted to obsess about the ups-and-downs of political opinion polls. He had, and has, a valid point. Newspaper coverage of opinion polls is inevitably sensationalist; after all, they want to get their money’s worth [...]
Excellent cartoon from Steve Bell in today's Guardian.
Any truth in this? What do you think? If you think it's true I'll convert my blog to black. I just received this email: "When your screen is white - an empty word page, or the Google page, your computer consumes 74 watts, and when its black it consumes only 59 watts. Mark Ontkush wrote an article about the energy saving that would be achieved if Google had a black screen, taking in account the huge number of page views, according to his calculations, 750 mega watts/hour per year would be saved. In response to this a black version of ...
I know I am expected to oppose any attempt to give the police greater powers to question terrorist suspects. Apparently, as a liberal, I am supposed to "play fair", and give terrorists something of an advantage over the security services whose job it is to defend the UK. The question I have to ask is has the time has come to move the number of days that people can be detained without charge up from 28 days to 56 days ? Across Europe, in societies that we are supposed to marvel at for their liberal sensitivities, the police have powers ...
The LibDems are up 2 points in the ICM Guardian poll today. Cameron is losing grassroots support, the poll finds. Update - I can't enter a comment at the moment. Anonymous commented: "Hmm, 'You Gov', the most consistantly accurate pollsters, have us flat-lining at 15%." "us"? Don't bother to put "us" like that if you don't give your name. I will assume you are Grant Shapps unless otherwise
A week old news now but nonetheless Terry Farr, a BNP councillor in Loughton, has resigned his seat. Therefore, I am sure there will be a by-election soon (talk is holding it on 30 August). Anyone who would like to help the Lib Dem campaign to beat the BNP please email me at neil.woollcott@eflibdems.org.uk.
Will the left ever stop supporting Chavez? Probably not, too many still support Castro… In its seemingly unstoppable slide to totalitarianism Chavez has now decreed that critical foreigners are to be expelled from Venezuela. His logic is that if you criticize Venezuela for not being free then you must be silenced because its not true. Somewhat self-fulfilling. And [...]
Last night's BBC Six O'Clock news was a must-see for any potential terrorist. From just watching that one programme any aggrieved person learnt: 1. All the trains to the West Country from London have to go past Platform 4 at Reading Station. 2. The switching room Walham Electricity switching station in Gloucester is critical in supplying power to the GCHQ, 500,000 people in Gloucestershire and
Another Postal Workers Union strike begins today. More disruption. More unnecessary fallout for business and domestic customers. And almost certainly, more damage to the Royal Mail and the jobs the union itself is claiming it wants to protect. The decision of the union to strike is suicide. The union leadership behaves as if their members work for a monolithic state monopoly where competition is
As one honeymoon ends, another begins. Today's Guardian reports on an ICM poll that suggests that David Cameron is losing his appeal to voters. It shows that he is no longer attracting new support to the party. At the same time the poll 'suggests that the Brown bounce is gaining momentum: 21% of voters say their opinion of Gordon Brown has improved in the last month, against only 8% who say it has fallen. By contrast, Mr Cameron is in growing trouble: 21% of voters say their opinion of him has dropped since Mr Brown took over.' Mr. Cameron is ...
My thanks to my friend Mike McTimoney from the Darlington Cycling Campaign for pointing me towards the blog of Matt Davies, a Lib Dem Councillor in the London Borough of Haringey. Mike and Matt were at uni together. Here is a link to Matt's post referring to Haringey's webcast of all their Council Meetings, which anyone can watch online. What a great idea. I've suggested to Mike that he emails
Just in case anybody should be in doubt as to the focus of South Wales West Conservative AM, Alun Hugh Cairns over the next two years, he has just invited me to join a Facebook group entitled, 'Elect Alun Cairns as MP for the Vale of Glamorgan'. I have declined. No doubt Alun will avoid commiting any of his Assembly resources to this campaign, and will be as active within the South Wales West Region as he has always been. Update: Martin Eaglestone records some understandable reactions to the news of Alun Cairns' selection. Val Lloyd is particularly scathing: Alun ...
I volunteered to deliver a round of Lib Dem leaflets in Berechurch Ward, Colchester, calling for a by-election. So on Sunday morning the leaflets, the dog and I set out from the town centre to the ward. It is a good thing that the dog and I like walking, because cycling being ruled out (the dog would not fit in), I had planned to go by bus, but none came, and later I found out there was only one per hour. So we walked there. It was quite a long way. We delivered the leaflets. We walked back. It took ...
{chris-huhne-2.jpg} When Ming Campbell rang Chris Huhne at the time of his recent Shadow Cabinet reshuffle, to offer him the Environment portfolio, Chris accepted with alacrity. When Ming then went on to say that it really is quite a significant role, whatever some people might think, Chris stopped him in full flow: ‘Ming, I said YES!’ The floods of the past few weeks have underlined the importance of the brief, and as Chris told a gathering of the Connect group in Parliament last night, ‘climate change is THE policy area of our time.’ Moreover, the environment is the one policy area in which the Liberal Democrats ...
Earlier this month the Prime Minister Gordon Brown outlined his parliamentary programme for the next year to the House of Commons. This makes me wonder is there any point in us having a queen's speech any longer.
Monday: As Mr Will has already reported, the Evening Standard decided its headline should be the HILARIOUS and NOT-AT-ALL-ALARMIST: "Thames Floods; Prepare to FLEE!" (Never let it be said that "The Web of Fear" was UNREALISTIC!) As the waters rise, how have our leaders responded? Mr Frown toured the devastation from his helicopter; Sir Mr the Merciless returned to Hull to see what could be done to clear up after their floods; And Mr Balloon… er… flew off to Africa leaving parts of his constituency under water. Poor Mr Balloon, it is not like the crisis in Rwanda does not ... | < | July 2007 | > | ||||
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