Not much to add to the headline really: on the day Ken Livingstone launched his re-election campaign, police arrested a third man in their ongoing inquiry into allegations of fraud at bodies funded by the London Mayor. 
I had stuff I was going to blog about tonight. I wanted to squee about Penn Jilette on the American version of Strictly; I wanted to link approvingly to The Atheist Apocalypse and the most recent {[info]} jesus_and_mo; I was maybe going to talk about what colour I should dye my hair next, or the fact that although I still haven't got around to designing my ivy tattoo, I have found this, which I now really want to put somewhere on my body. None of that seems important any more, though, because Arthur C Clarke is dead. It's like the ...
Sad news comes that Arthur C. Clarke has died. I can remember watching his Mysterious World series as a child, and then his books being one of the reasons that got me into SF - particularly Rendezvous with Rama and Childhood’s End. When the first European ATV was launched to the International Space Station last week, I noticed that it had been named after Jules Verne and wondered if the ones that follow it would be named after authors too. While there are a number of objects and other things named after him in the stars already - both in ...
From BBC Newsnight:We [herself and Paul Stinchcombe] are both very minor casualties of the Iraq War Anne Campbell, former Labour MP for CambridgeNo Shit.
Undoubtedly my favourite author as a teen, and still someone I like to remember now (and who I'll doubtless bring up the reread list now), AP reports that Arthur C. Clarke passed away earlier today. He already had his own tag on here and deservedly so, not only did he predict satellite communications, mobile phones and similar, but he also proved that magic does exist and wrote some of the most iconic moments in SF film history ever. If you haven't watched 2001, do so, I suspect you'll get a chance very very soon. If I get to live to ...
Nick Clegg was the star turn at the London Liberal Democrat spring conference in Camden this evening, confirming what everyone in the party knows already: that this time, the federal party really is taking the London Mayoral and GLA elections seriously. Following the recent spate of council by-elections, the party is on a high in [...]
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The Jack Russell doggie of VW advert fame caused a flurry of e-mails about what is really the best TV advert! Many thanks to all who responded. The other clear favourite is the current PG Tips 'The Return' advert - here's the extended version - brilliant!
As I write it is around 9.30pm and the four days of Budget debate are drawing to a close. I took part yesterday when the theme was the Environment. Although the Budget was labelled as 'green', it turns out that the total increase in 'green taxes' by 2010 was less than £2 billion - or 'rounding error' in the Treasury's scale of things. My colleague Vince Cable contrasted the 'apocalyptic' language of the Budget speech regarding climate change with the 'timidity and deferral' that characterised most of the measures. One of the less thrilling features of the way we deal ...
I suspect more than a few people reading this may find this either exasperating or illuminating. Push To Classify Internet Addiction As a Mental Disorder: Block says that those suffering internet addiction experience cravings, urges, withdrawal and tolerance, requiring more and better equipment and software, or more and more hours online. Further, internet addicts can lose all track of time or neglect basic drives,I can't do that now, I'm backreading. Although I suspect I'm as bad at times. 
Very sad to hear the news that film director Anthony Minghella has died. I met Anthony once - he came from the Isle of Wight where I was the agent in '97 and his parents were active party members then. He previewed the Oscar winning film the English Patient on the Island in '96 and Mr Ripley is one of my favourite films.
This afternoon I was taking photos for the Princes Trust at their glitzy annual awards. The venue was the Odeon, Leicester Square and the place was rammed. There were 1500 guests including 'ambassadors' Gwyneth Paltrow (pic), Kevin Spacey (pic), and various other actors and celebs. The event was a storm. The audience loved it. The whole thing was well produced and decked out and the place was thronging with press. I did feel sorry for Toby Anstis who had to do red carpet duty while the rest of us stayed inside. Prince Charles was, of course, the main guest. He ...
This lunchtime I was taking photos at a seminar at the Social Market Foundation - usually referred to as a Blairite think tank. The meeting was to launch a new policy paper which looks at the possibility of introducing a system of compulsory unemployment insurance. The thinking is that many people are not financially covered if they lose their jobs and would face significant money problems. Whilst the poorest are catered for by the welfare state, the SMF reckon that the middle classes - defined by them as people earning over £27,000 - would be in trouble. So they propose ...
Ken Livingstone got himself elected eight years ago as the candidate with the ideas, the candidate who transcended politics, as the man, dare we say it, who was born to do the job of London Mayor. The problem is for Ken now that familiarity has bred contempt, both in terms of the way the public perceive him and the way he does his job. Recent months have seen him lose advisers, seen him rattled by his opponents, and seen him lose his sure footed ness with the press and the public, He has lost a bit of his swagger, he ...
Since the Vatican last week tried to redefine the "Seven Deadly Sins" and the events of the last few days in the financial markets I thought I would share a nice quote by a chap called Josiah Stamp, a liberal economist, tax policy expert, director of he Bank of England for a while, chairman of the LMS Railway company, and at the time reputed to be the second wealthiest man in Britain: "Banking was conceived in iniquity and was born in sin. The bankers own the earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create money, ... 
Postal vote stuffing occurred in Slough. Richard Mawrey has presided over an Election Court that has done a good job. The executive summary is linked. In this case it was a Conservative Candidate. I accept that a Lib Dem in Birmingham is being tried later this year. The point about the system is that it is unsafe. He finishes with: 126) I concluded the Birmingham Judgment with the words
Work has started on preparations for the new Yate Health Centre. The West Walk practice has moved to temporary accommodation in the Sports Centre car park. Meanwhile the outline of the new building has been marked out. Along the pavement... Past the old building... It could drive you up the wall...
I was a little surprised at the weekend to hear to people, both of whom would automatically be supportive of British competitors in any event, express regret at hearing that Lewis Hamilton had won the Australian Grand Prix. When I asked them why they were anti Hamilton when they were both very supportive of him 12 months ago, they responded that he was "up his own arse" and "arrogant". Others I have spoken to since then too have expressed their total apathy towards him citing his "running away from Britain", his "lying about his reason for moving" and the fact ...
This has slipped out, pretty much unnoticed. Nick Gargan, Assistant Chief Constable at Thames Valley Police, has been giving evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee and has indicated that MPs should not expect to be exempt from having their conversations recorded when they visit constituents in prison (as happened to Labour MP Sadiq Khan [...]
for Heather Anne Mills McCartney. In the blink of an eye Ms Mills appears to have gone from notable model and human-rights crusader to money-grabbing schemer . And, as if that wasn't bad enough, she recently lost out to Suzanne Shaw in the 2008 Celebrity Mum of the Year Awards! Never rains but it pours hey
At a well attended public meeting in Yate Parish Hall last Friday, Steve Webb MP heard local residents' concerns about the proposed closures of local post offices. In our area Station Road (Tesco) post office is threatened, and a little further afield Old Sodbury and Tytherington post offices are on the closure list as well. These are just three of thousands of post offices at risk across the country. Elderly people from the Cranleigh Court area told the Yate meeting that they are very concerned. It's not just a fair walk to the main post office in the shopping centre ...
My latest column is up on the New Statesman website: About this national identity business. On the whole, I think we are rather good at it. For centuries my ancestors coped with being English and British, and with all the subtleties those identities involve. They were there to tut and say Well, really when the Romans invaded. Later, they gave the Jutes a hard stare.
On The Wardman Wire.
New facilities have been opened at YOSC, financed by local councils. There is a a new indoor sports hall, improved athletics facilities and a dance studio. The all weather pitch has been refurbished, an expensive job in itself, but vital for local clubs and organisations. The funding came from South Gloucestershire Council, Brimsham Green School, Yate Town Council, Dodington Parish Council and Iron Acton Parish Council. The Gazette has more details about the YOSC improvements here.
I should have seen it coming. It was always going to be an irresistible headline. I was saying we all need to eat less meat and dairy because of the associated carbon emissions and health risks. But the Standard's headline writers turned that into "Council's Green Advice to Staff: Go Vegetarian". Oh well - at least they published the story. The fact is that the livestock industry produces an estimated 18% of the world's carbon emissions. That's partly because cows burp methane, but mostly because of the industrialisation of the meat supply chain. We use huge quantities of fossil fuels ...
The Friends of Yate Common are celebrating their latest project, seven new fully wheelchair accessible gates onto the Common. They are an enlarged version of a kissing gate. The work has been financed by a £3000 grant from South Gloucestershire Council. The Common is very rich in wildlife - for example 169 species of birds have been spotted in the last year.
A special election court ruled earlier today that Eshaq Khan and his supporters carried out “corrupt and illegal practices” to secure his election in Slough. A by-election will now be held, and Eshaq Khan has been expelled from the Conservative Party: He and his electoral team were found to have created hundreds of false names in [...]
John Harris writes in today's Guardian about how the Tories are trying to claim the music of anti-Thatcher bands of the 1980s for themselves. He starts by recalling events from January this year when David Cameron visited Salford: On January 10 this year, David Cameron was in the north-west, visiting a youth project in Salford, Greater Manchester. On the face of it, the trip chimed with his passion for "social enterprise", but as Cameron well knew, his destination was a local holy-of-holies: Salford Lads Club, the local Victorian landmark where the Smiths were photographed in 1986 for the inside cover ...
One hesitates to take a gratuitous shot at an open goal, so I will restrict myself to a couple of comments on Heather Mills. A publishing career obviously beckons....Heather Mills on "How to make do on a tight budget" or "The Heather Mills book of Public Relations" or "The Heather Mills legal manual". I was baffled by her reference to "A" and "B" Class travel yesterday: She is obviously meant
Writing in yesterday's Independent, respected psephologist, John Curtice wrote:"On its own one such poll could be dismissed as a "rogue". Statistical theory tells us that even a well-conducted poll will under- or overestimate a party's true standing by more than three points one time in 20. Just occasionally the error will be even bigger. Perhaps, it is YouGov's misfortune to have suffered such a fate." Labour slides in polls as Darling works his magicHe was writing about two opinion polls that appeared at the weekend that gave the Conservatives big leads. The Sunday Times published its YouGov poll which had ...
The worst thing about the whole economic situation is that new Labour have conned people with a profligate frontman. gaze to b) If it’s all been show - and, new Labour have lied about their influence over the economy to gain votes. c) If they DO have such influence why has it all gone wrong experience and Can we have a detailed account about the warnings and any papers relevant thereto We have to decide as a party how we can lift those a new economic and dissuades future overextending behaviour. We need to be on the [...]
The tectonic plates- as John Prescott once had it- are shifting. The instability on the global credit markets is undermining people's sense of confidence and as the avilability and terms of mortgages- if not the actual interest rates- grow more onerous, the era of cheap money, at least as far as the UK housing market is concerned, seems to have finally ended. So what now Well, no one really knows, though i notice that the political climate is changing in the UK. The opinion polls are showing a more entrenched lead for the Conservatives. Interestingly, for the first time for ...
Fans of Monty Python that also read sites such as mine should be familiar with the fantastic Election Night Special. If so, they may recall my favourite moment, when a rival Very Silly candidate splits the Silly vote.Voice Over: Hello, from Harpenden. This is a key seat because in addition to the official Silly candidate there is an independent Very Silly candidate (in large cube of polystyrene with only legs sticking out) who may split the silly vote. Officer: Mrs Elsie Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... (obvious man in drag with enormous joke breasts) Voice Over: Silly. Officer: 26,317... James Walker... Voice Over: Sensible. ...
Another day, another stinging criticism of the Brown governments climate change record. Its not just the usual suspects. Today, the Sustainable Development Commission says that more than half of all government departments are failing to reduce their carbon emissions sufficiently to reach levels that the nation as a whole is expected to meet. Yesterday, the National Audit Office concluded that ministers use two sets of accounts when reporting greenhouse gas emissions. One covers emissions from international flights and shipping. Using the more stringent accounting standard, the investigation finds "there have been no reductions in UK carbon dioxide emissions" from the ...
Eliot Spitzer pays call-girls $80,000 over several years for sex and has to resign. Sir Paul McCartney pays £24.3 million for five years of sex and no-one bats an eyelid. I think we should be told why the media are applying such obvious double-standards. Could this be the most blatant case of biased reporting
Firstly it is worth me pointing out that this is a relatively new subject to me. So comments and suggestions are most welcome. Today is the official opening of nominations for the London elections a campaign that could be invigorated even more if opponents were allowed to present their plans for their level of tax for London. The axe the tax campaign, the Liberal Democrats current campaign for a local income tax is quite interesting. In it we are proposing a shift to a tax based on ability to pay at the local level. The tax system in Britain has ...
Never having experienced personal anxiety about the state of the world economy before, I'll forgive myself for indulging in a little comic apocalypticism. I was reading a look-back on Black Monday 1987 recently, and was struck by the Wall Street trader who said that on the evening of October 19 he went to see REM play in Providence, Rhode Island. Apparently everyone went wild for their performance of 'It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)', which was released as a single a couple of weeks later. Aptly, they were supported by 10,000 Maniacs. ...
Like most people I spoke to after Spring Conference I was very impressed by Nick’s speech. I absolutely, 100%, agreed with everything - well almost everything - he said! I even whole heartedly agreed with his promise that if we had money to spare we would give it back to those most in need of [...]
Given my dislike for the whole Fairtrade organisation but being concerned with the levels of poverty across the world, I like to look out for things I can do to help (aside from rabbit on about freedom and free trade in the hopes that I might change at least one mind on the issue which [...]
After a year of campaigning for reductions on bus travel rates for children in Bury, the Borough’s young people will be able to save £1 a week on the cost of school travel from next month. Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority (GMPTA) is introducing a new £6 weekly ticket for three of the school bus services it provides in the borough. It currently costs 70p for a single child ticket. The Bury members of GMPTA are my fellow Lib Dem Councillor Andrew Garner, and me. The School Saver ticket will be valid on the 799 service to Derby High and ...
An article in today's Guardian highlights yet another set of targets the government are on course to miss, this time on carbon emissions. The paper tells us that the government is in danger of losing credibility on climate change because more than half of all its departments are failing to reduce their carbon emissions enough to reach levels that the nation as a whole is expected to meet: Apart from the Ministry of Defence, which significantly reduced its emissions in 2005/6 following a part privatisation, central government now emits 22% more than it did in 1999, according to the sustainable ...
So the Premier of China is still trying to blame the Dalai Lama for the Tibetan people protesting against Mao Tse Tung's "liberation" of Tibet in 1950 and China's continuing repression of Tibetans Come off it, we are not deceived. This is the era of the Internet. We share information! Dear reader, do tell your friends to log on to the BBC and "listen again" to first hand evidence about torture and murder of Tibetan women in prison, at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/ And do read the Chang/Halliday biography of Mao, which will give you a shrewd idea what Mao meant by "liberation". ...
Childrens’ Secretary Ed Balls (yes him) is today going to announce a major expansion of “Family Intervention Projects” under which children as young as ten are asked to sign “good behaviour contracts” and their progress is monitored by an “assertive and persistent key worker”. It is expected around 1,000 will be asked to sign these [...]
Scottish Government Education Secretary Fiona Hyslop is due to visit China later this month to foster better links with the Chinese Minister for Education. Lib Dem MSP Tavish Scott has correctly called for her to cancel the visit due to the atrocities being visited upon the Tibetan populace by the Chinese oppressors. Tavish said: "I have written to the Education Secretary appealing to her to abandon her visit until the crisis is satisfactorily resolved." "It cannot be right for the International Community to go on as if nothing is happening and we cannot turn a blind eye while pro-democracy campaigners ...
I have wanted to write a post on Kilburn Priory for some time and it's only in the last few days that I have had the time to wander round getting the pictures I needed in order to illustrate the story. It's quite good and there is much more to see than people realise, so here goes... Early in the 12th century there was a small hermitage - not that unsual - near the Kilburn river (Kilbourne and various other spellings) and prob also on the edge of the wooded area that led from Kilburn up to Shoot-up-Hill. Amazingly Hermit ...
News reached me this morning of a highly charged meeting of the Wolverhampton Conservatives last night which resulted in Cllr Paddy Bradley being ousted as Leader and replaced by Cllr Joan Stevenson as temporary Leader.
I promised yesterday that I'd write about ways to reduce your Council Tax bill. To be fair, these do not apply to everyone, but if you are entitled to these discounts then you most certainly should be getting them. So here we go: 1. Are you the only adult in your home If so you are entitled to a discount of 25% on your Council Tax. And when you count up the adults you can exclude...
Later this year, party members will elect a new President to succeed Simon Hughes, and any party member can put themselves forward. The Federal Executive last night agreed the timetable for the process, which will run between September and November. Nominations papers will be available from 1st September, and nominations will close on 24th September. Presidential [...]
Today sees the official start of the campaign to elect London's Mayor and the 25 Assembly Members. The phony war of words we've witnessed over the last few months ends, (the Boris and Ken slanging match) and we enter the real election campaign. At the last London elections back in 2004, Ken Livingstone, still enjoyed a comfortable lead, having always distanced himself from Blair's NuLabour, and trading on his detachment from party politics, after he took on the NuLabour machine back in 2000, stood as an Independent, and badly defeated the Labour candidate Frank Dobson. This time it's different. There ...
Visitors can once again relive the sights, sounds and smells of the smuggling trade from over 200 years ago as a popular visitor attraction, run by Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, reopens in Saltburn. Set in authentic fishermen's cottages, the story of Smuggler King John Andrews is being brought to life in the three-room Saltburn Smugglers Heritage Centre, next to the Ship Inn, as it reopens in time for Easter on Good Friday, March 21. Opening times are Wednesday to Sunday 10am until 6pm until May 31. June 1 - June 30, Tuesday to Sunday 10am - 6pm. July 1 ...
There’s something a little strange about political dynasties in a democracy. Two Bushes in the Whitehouse. The Benn family. The attempts of Prescott fils to get onto the green benches. But nothing quite as strange as Matthew Taylor’s discovery. He was adopted, and didn’t discover his birth parents’ history until late in life. Taylor was elected to parliament at the young age - long before he discovered his great-grandfather had also been an MP. It’s a fairly exclusive club, so quite a co-incidence to discover a relative you didn’t know you had was also a member.
Defence Village Idiot Minister Des Brown has tried to forbid coroners from highlighting when deaths of armed forces personnel result from serious failings on the part of the M.O.D. Apparently, if British troops loose their lives as a result of failings on the part of the Minister - poor equipment, flawed procedures etc. then the [...]
Oh dear! Brian Paddick's campaign to become the next Mayor of London appears to have hit a snag. A YouGov survey for the London Evening Standard suggests Boris Johnson has the support of 49% of London voters, with Ken Livingstone on 37% and Mr Paddick on 12%. It would seem that, short of a Lazarus-like recovery, the writing may well and truly be on the wall for Mr Paddick. Of course, you may very well think that, I couldn't possibly comment.
An area which has long been a priority for Lib Dems and which as tackling climate becomes ever more crucial is the UK’s transport infrastructure. But in recent years it has not been an area where we have made promoting our policies a high priority. A policy working group, chaired by Shaun Carr, [...]
Chuka Umunna, the recently selected Labour candidate in Streatham, has been the object of some fairly wild comparisons with Barack Obama (one is yet to become an MP, and if Chris Nicholson has anything to do with it, certainly won’t become one for a good many years yet; the other is running for President of the [...]
I'm sure joke writers somewhere are having a field day working out how Gretna's next two home games will boost Livingston's attendance figures now that they are to be played at Almondvale. Personally I'm glad that something is finally being done about Motherwell's Fir Park pitch even if it is a little late to avoid so much fixture conjestion. So yes the current team in adminstration in the SPL
11:16 awake. Remind me why #Microblogging by SMS, it's all the rage donchaknow. Using LoudTwitter and Twitter.
The Government had to change the law to prevent an anti-discrimination quango missing its own equality targets the Liberal Democrats have discovered. After realising that the Equality and Human Rights Commission was set to miss the deadline for meeting internal equality regulations, ministers put down a statutory instrument extending the deadline. Commenting, Liberal Democrat Youth and Equality Spokesperson, Lynne Featherstone said: You have to question what authority this body will have in monitoring other public organisations if it cannot comply with its own rules and needs to be bailed out by ministers. Labours greatest concern has been to hush up ...
Who knew Who coulda guessed it She's got immunity and I bet this whole scandal can't have hurt her career. Her myspace page has over 9 million hits. She's probably going to make it big off the back of this.
Shin Bet, Israel's equivalent of MI5, has launched a blog of 4 of its agents. Its anonymous, of course, and fucking bizarre. Everyone wants a piece of the web 2.0 action. I don't know how good your Hebrew is but you can check it out here.
It has been announced that Floridians would loose the right to send any delegates to the National Democratic Convention, to formally nominate their candidate. This due to the fact that the Florida branch of the Democratic party decided to hold their primary in January, without the DNC's permission. The DNC said that it would allow Florida to use a postal voting system, but both candidates would have to agree to the re-run. Hillary did, but Barak's team wasn't so sure. I really do not understand what's wrong with Floridians and elections. We had the hanging chad situation a few years ...
Wednesday: Today's BIG news was, obviously, the GREEN LIGHT for latest in the long-running and much-loved series of Carry On Films. But never mind THAT, we have the long-running and NOT much-loved Whitehall Farce to talk about instead. It's funny how Sooty's budget seems to have fallen through the news agenda like a grey cloud through a sieve. The reason that it's become OLD NEWS so fast is that everyone knew what was in it because Mr Frown presented it all LAST year, so that if things had gone to plan we'd now be four weeks from a General Election. ... | < | March 2008 | > | ||||
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