The word partnership is a much overused word in local government. There are times when it seems that everything is supposedly done in partnership with someone else but more often than not the benefits are hard to identify. This morning was not one of those occasions. As a member of Egglescliffe & Eaglescliffe council (formerly Egglescliffe Parish council) I chair the recreation committee. 
The Newsnight London Mayoral debate has not long ended and Brian Paddick was a revelation. I doubt I was alone in having some concerns over the strait-laced copper holding his own against slimy Ken and Bumbling Boris, both of whom are consumate politicians whatever their myriad faults. Paddick started falteringly with his brief presentation, which he fluffed a bit but he made up for it in spades with his bravura performance once the real debate began - Paddick made the first interjection of the discussion and it was a good one. Paxman even seemed to defer to him to some ...
Well, apparently he is on holiday. So it was tea in his rather beautiful office without him, sadly. The last time I was at the DCSF or DfES as it was in those days, was for a meeting with then Minister, Ivan Lewis. On that occasion (with my Unison hat on) I was kicked under the table by my national officer because apparently one is not supposed to interrupt a minister when s/he is speaking, I thought that only applied to the Queen It clearly didn't apply vice versa since he wasn't kicked under the table by his adviser when ...
Least plausible comment: Ken Livingstone saying that his donations will all come from reputable sources and we can be sure of that because the money will pass through the Labour Party. David Abrahams scandal anyone Peter Hains problems anyone Least convincing reason given to believe: Ken promising that he will keep his word on the [...] 
After weeks of deliberation, the Government’s Planning Inspector has made her decision on the Caffe Nero case. As reported previously Caffe Nero opened its premises without planning permission. Faced with the enforcement action by Southwark Council, Caffe Nero then applied for planning permission. But they were refused because allowing another cafe would have broken rules designed to protect the balance [...]
Last night I had a wonderful time at the Harbour restaurant in Upper Street at Meral Ece's fundraising dinner. The atmosphere was fantastic, the company awesome and the food delicious........and all in a splendid cause too! As often happens, whilst chatting with someone (who shall remain nameless) about a topic (that will remain a secret) concern was expressed that what was said may end up on my blog.......moi! And to think this nameless character restricted themselves to one glass of wine for fear of spilling too many beans.....shame! However tempting, there are private conversations which will remain private and personal ...
For goodness sake. Why is it that our London mayoral campaigns are so bad at projecting any kind of big idea or vision Ive just watched Brian Paddick, an excellent candidate in so many ways, on the Newsnight debate. His opening statement raised a couple of problems, notably knife crime, but offered no believable solution. Even his passionate explanation at the end about what he would do about knife crime was too bland and unspecific to seep into people's minds. In fact, the kind of local partnership between police and neighbourhoods is exactly what was done so successfully in New ...
Paddick up first giving a speach. Opens on crime. Slightly hesitate in his speaking. Not as assured as 7/7. He doesn't drive. Attaking Ken on his record, attacking Boris on his lack of record. Not that inspiring. Ken's up now. Looks very relaxed. "London has now caught up or overtaken New York". Talking about transport and climate change. More policy than Brian. Housing, youth work. Paxo asked why he said he'd only do one term in 2000. Ken says he's changed his mind and Mayor of London is the last job in politics he'll do. Boris. Nice line on Venezuela, ...
On Sunday night we came back from a short break in Pisa, recharging our batteries before the final surge of campaigning for the London elections on 1st May. It wasn’t exactly getting away from elections because Italians go to the polls on 13 April. Sipping a coffee in a cafe, we were handed election leaflets. [...]
It may have been snowing here yesterday, but it feels like summer today. The Americans most definitely lead the world in how they cover sports and I'm taking full advantage with the new baseball season. Logging on to MLB.TV allows me to watch up to six baseball games at a time via the wonderful mosaic system. And the feed for each one is up to 1.2MB - so it's just about broadcast quality picture. With the current state of the dollar it costs me around £8 oer month. Fair enough - I don't expect everyone to like baseball the way ...
This months Marie Claire features a Janet Street-Porter interview with Boris Johnson. Silly-Boris-comments excellently extracted by sneaky and cheeky journo Janet include snorting cocaine at the age of 19, funding three of his kids through private school whilst leaving the fourth to fester in state education and, yes, cheating on his wife Marina. Poor, poor Marina On drugs: Youve said in interviews that youve snorted coke Well, that was when I was 19. It all goes to show that, sometimes, its better not to say anything On infidelity: How does your wife feel about Andrew Gimsons biography of you [It ...
The Evening Standard reports: The Olympic flame fiasco has ignited a row over foreign security services helping to police the 2012 Olympics, the Evening Standard can reveal.As alarm grew over the Chinese guards who accompanied the torch through London it emerged Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair has approved a plan to hand over some of London's Olympic security to visiting countries.Although a final decision has yet to be made,it is understood police officers from abroad accompanying their own teams may be allowed to carry guns.It has not emerged since the torch fiasco at all. The story was reported by ...
As if it something of the night about it, we have a new sign, this thanks to Smannell Lib Dems and County Councillor Robin Hughes. You may recall that I reported the sign outside the Oak at Smannell in Feb 2008, to Lib Dem County Councillor Hughes. In my earlier blog report I commented that it looked that it had been eaten by something. Alas nothing as exciting as Hants CC said that it was a lorry! (See link for orignal story) We included this sign as part of our ongoing campaign to improve the signage in the parish ...
The Olympic torch has been dogged by protests this weekend as it has made its way through London and Paris. China’s government has responded predictably, saying that the protests were the work of a ‘few Tibetan separatists’ attempting to ’sabotage’ the event. Spokespeople for the International Olympic Committee have lined-up with the Chinese government and [...] 
Labour are losing voters - on their own website: Stuart Message left at 12:13 pm, Tue 8th Apr 2008 I’m a new Labour loyalist. However, I’m in a *state of disbelief* about Gordon Brown and the Government’s chosen path of hitting some of the lowest income tax payers through the abolition of the 10p rate. I’m *ashamed* [...]
Just home from several days away and I see in the Press Gazette that the two Kent Messenger titles the Bexley Extra and the Bromley Extra are set to close. Both these titles were launched in 2004 with great fanfares by KMG that they were now covering all of Kent, including the Kentish London boroughs as "the majority of local residents still see themselves as Kentish". Well the market just wasn't
It has been commented on by me, but also but scores of others how Africa has rendered itself impotent and unable to take on the mantle of a vibrant modern continent over the prolonged and deliberate inactivity in dealing with Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwean regime. The African Union's uselessness over many years has seen Zimbabwe turn from the very model of a modern African state, with good health care, education and an open door to investment, to an utter basket case. But the latest reports from Africa show just how short sighted African leaders might have been in pandering to Mugabe's ...
How could he not mention the importance of recruiting more police dogs in this We've got double the legs of any human police officer you know.
To mark the centenary of Herbert Asquiths accession as British prime minister, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography has set up a page on him and his descendants. But there is no mention of a character to whom Lord Bonkers often refers: Violent Bonham Carter, the East End gangster. And his lordship also insists that the correct plural is Bonhams Carter - along the lines of courts martial, I suppose. Thanks to Lib Dem Voice.
And it’s me, in the upcoming Hertsmere Borough Council elections*. How do I know Because the Borehamwood Times told me so: In a surprise move, the Liberal Democrats will field a candidate in Hillside. In February, 22-year-old Law student Gavin Whenman announced his intention to stand for the party in Cowley Hill against Ms Harrison, but [...]
If you can't stand the heat - get into the kitchen! That, at least, seems to be the way one Tory candidate in Newcastle has rewritten that old proverb. Brian Moore, Tory candidate for Gosforth East, one of the very, very, very few Newcastle wards where the Conservatives stand a chance of more than one in a million of winning (generous estimates put their chances at about 2 in a million), has
It’s being show on TV on Wednesday, but you can already watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watchv=9mAIgMAOlII
That, at any rate, is the finding of a YouGov poll published in yesterdays Telegraph. Among all voters, 34% chose Margaret Thatcher as the greatest post-war premier; for Lib Dem supporters the total was 27%. She was followed by Harold Wilson and Winston Churchill, with 14% of Lib Dem voters naming them as the greatest [...]
No offence was intended Lib Dem Voice forgot to remark yesterday upon the appearance of the new Politics Home website, Stephan Shakespeares grown-up, non-partisan successor to the Tory telly of 18 Doughty Street a noble example of dumbing-up, as 18DSs Fox News style is ditched in favour of a Bloomberg-esque design. Actually, Politics Homes approach [...]
I seem to collect these. Why can't I find a few that pay though! I have just been elected a director of the SE2 Partnership Limited (Social Enterprise South East) which takes over from a SEEDA funded project supporting and promoting social enterprise in the South East region.
This will be my only post today as I have been too busy beforehand and am now in a mood so foul that I'm sure that I'd end up committing some written crime beyond reason. Hopefully I shall have calmed down to a frenzy by tomorrow and shall be able share my normal quota of rants and ramblings with the wider world.
Watch it below. I think its really rather good. What do you think
Just spotted these old Tory posters on the BBC website. Great stuff. Not knowing the context very well, I can't tell if the early posters with Tories slaying reptilian socialists would have worked or not. I suspect probably not. With equal ignorance I suspect the "Dearer Beer" poster - an attack on Lloyd George on distinctly populist, opportunistic and even left-wing grounds - hit the mark, even if it made no difference at all to the election...
The dear leader, who I'm still very keen on, made more than just the "Cleggover" gaff in the GQ interview. Danny Finkelstein quotes part of the interview on the war in Iraq. Tragic. Without clarity. And on such a strong LibDem issue. Poor. Piss poor. You need to raise your game Nick.
No I am not about to disclose some highly confidential problem this is a genuine cry for help. I would like to improve my IT skills. I would like to add an interactive map to a website with tags. Hackney Lib Dems have one on their website, you may need to scroll down. Is there anyone out there who can point me in the right direction
Tristan quotes a terrifying verbal assault by Democrat Illinois State Senator Monique Davis at an atheist who was testifying to a Committee. What you have to spew and spread is extremely dangerous . . . its dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists! This is the Land of Lincoln where people believe in God. Get out of that seat . . . You have no right to be here! We believe in something. You believe in destroying! You believe in destroying what this state was built upon. Great. More Chicago religious lunacy. P.S. If you get ...
See if you can guess which one’s the malfunctioning peeper: "Sarah Connor, come with me if you want to survive the recession*" * Unless you are a single-person earning under £18,500, in which case you can smile and go fuck yourself (not a verbatim quote from the Prime Minister).
Today 8th April is the 100th anniversary of the accession of Herbert Asquith as Prime Minister. the occasion I can bring a picture taken just last week of a group of descendants, Henry Brand (great-great grandson), Virginia Brand, nee Bonham Carter (great grand-daughter), me (unrelated), Violet Brand (great-great grand-daughter), Baroness Jane Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury (great grand-daughter), Lady Leslie Bonham Carter (Mark Bonham Carter's widow) and Adam Ridley (Mark's nephew and Asquith's great grandson). It's all quite appropriate as it follows fast on the heels of the 50th anniversity of the Torrington by-election which saw the election of Asquith's grandson ...
The Daily Post leads today on the shocking figures released by the Government that 600 North Wales children were added to the DNA database in just three months. They tell us that youngsters aged between 10 and 17 accounted for around one in four new additions to the database. The figures also show that the rate North Wales police officers took samples from under 18s was above the national average. Officials can hold under-18s genetic fingerprints indefinitely, even if they are released without charge. Jenny Willott is absolutely right to claim that this practise is leading to the mass criminalisation ...
It is the first day of term so here is the next 20 questions from the quiz put together by John Jenkins from the BMA. Part Three is here, answers are in the comments. 61. Which AM once tried to brown chips with coffee 62. Which AM describes herself as part Welsh, part Irish 63. Which AM played on the wing for Cardiff Medics 64. Which AM spent a day working on a hill farm during the lambing season to get a taste of life as a farmer 65. Whose grandfather worked at Cammell Lairds shipyard and was involved in ...
News just arrived from Derwentside in Co Durham. Bob Cook, Independent Councillor for Burnopfield has joined the Liberal Democrats. Derwentside Council is being scrapped next year and elections are now taking place to the new, unitary Durham County Council. Bob is standing as a Lib Dem in the ward on the county. Though I am in Gateshead, Bob's Burnopfield ward borders Whickham South and
The other day I was thinking about the old chestnut about how difficult it is to name 10 famous Belgians. I came up- eventually- with 10 at least significant Belgians: Magritte - Painter Georges Simenon -Writer Herge -Creator of Tintin Rubens - Painter Adolphe Saxe -Inventor of the Saxephone Breughel - Painter Mercator- Geographer Jacques Brel -Singer/Songwriter Godfrey of Bouillon -Inspirer of the Crusades Jean-Claude van Damme - Actor Then I thought, that this is a game that any country could play, How about 1o Finnish heroes: Sibelius - Composer CGE Mannerheim - General Tove Jannson - Creator of the ...
I seem to have discovered the secret to my own field of dreams this morning when it comes to blogging. First you need the headline that catches the eye. After all those good people at Liberal Democrat voice only preview your headline. Second have a hint of a scandal. Even if it referring to a old scandal the whiff of further revelation leads them all in. Add in a hint that sex may be involved
Apparently with Mark Penn, Clinton’s chief strategist, now kicked off her campaign, Hillary will undergo a "mini-makeover" to emphasise her more human side. A "human side". Hmm… Don’t you need a reflection for that Anyway, she’s made an early start, calling for George W Bush to boycott the Olympic opening ceremony unless China acts on [...]
… Herbert Asquith formally became Prime Minister, the last leader of a Liberal government. To mark the occasion, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography has put up this webpage to Asquith and the dynasty that came after him.
OFWAT have fined Severn Trent £35.8million - apparently the biggest fine ever imposed by the water industry regulator.
This message is for Londoners: Tonight The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra-La-La Band play at the Scala in Kings Cross! They played there last night, I saw them, they were incredible! Online tickets have sold out but I was informed by one of their violinists that there would be tickets available on the door this evening. Silver Mt Zion most commonly thought of as post-rock. However over their last three records they have increasingly used vocals (they all sing) and percussion. I post about them here partly because they present powerful political messages through their music, lyrics and ...
Im still bemused by the number of people who wonder why narratives are so important in politics. Im even more bemused by the number who try to dazzle the rest of us with their knowledge of this clever new concept, as if they were a modern day Moses. The truth is, everyone uses narratives that is, everyone tells and hears stories every single day. Thats because we need them, all the time. Lets start by going global. Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times provides an interesting explanation for the growing tension between the United States and China in the ...
When you see a headline like that you just know the story comes from Shropshire. Sure enough:A Shropshire farmer says he has lost 15 cattle after they fell into mine shafts on his land and died.Jim Roberts, who has farmed in Little Wenlock for 40 years, said he lost 12 heifers and three bulls when the ground opened up under their hoofs.This one is from the BBC Shropshire pages rather than the Shropshire Star.
The Conservatives nationally made great play of the fact they came to Gateshead to hold their spring conference in March. We were told this was a clear indication of Conservative revival on Tyneside and a commitment to making sure the party of Mr Cameron is back on the political radar screens of North East voters. This upbeat message flowed out of an interview Cameron did with our regional
The graffiti problem in Reading is well-known to my fellow residents in Park Ward. It is damaging to property and is far from good to look at. {Graffiti_on_wokingham_road_near_sho} Recently, your local LibDem team (including Gareth Epps PPC, councillors, candidates and myself) spent a morning with the RBC Street Care team. They do an amazing job removing graffiti from increasingly challenging positions around the city, and from your walls and road signs within Park ward. Over the past year I have reported many cases of graffiti in our area, and within a week its gone. Reading Borough Council have put ...
Thanks to those residents who have complained to me about graffiti vandalism of a number of local street signs at: * Blackness Avenue (opposite Hillcrest Road) * Elm Street (south junction with Logie Avenue) * Logie Avenue (at south junction with Elm Street - see above right) These signs can be repaired by cleaning rather than the need for a replacement and I have reported this to the City Council.
I have mentioned in previous blog entries that, over the last year, Help the Aged has been calling for age discrimination to be included in the new Equalities Bill. Last month over 500 people supported the campaign by emailing Harriet Harman MP and calling for an end to age discrimination. I myself wrote to the Minister and you can see the response I received at If you haven't done so already, there is still time to add your voice to this important campaign. Click on the headline to email Harriet Harman MP, Leader of the House of Commons. Please ...
Up until September 2006, I worked for the Electoral Reform Society - sometimes known as the provisional wing of the Liberal Democrats. One of the major accomplishments whilst I worked there was the transformation from a very niche pressure group which only talked about STV to a well-respected organisation which was happy to provide neutral briefings on all aspects of elections and voting. Clearly our raison d'etre remained advocacy of a fairer method of election and STV in particular. But we were happy to give informed comment on any aspect of the process. One of the areas on which I ...
Tonight I am back on the campaign trail, and it will be nice to be back and taking the opportunity to meet more local people. I particularly enjoy knocking on the houses of people I met last year, and receiving just as warm a reception now as then. Afterwards I am meeting a constituent to discuss a school admission issue which I am keen to get to the bottom of. I know how lots of local people get very stressed trying to get their children into good schools, and whilst we all want every school to be as good as ...
Good to see that Brian Paddick's new website is up and running - and worth waiting for. Having had a look at Ken and Boris's sites - Brian is now definitely winning the website battle! It's direct, well-designed, colourful and easy to use. Looking at Ken's very dull, very drab effort, strikes me he feels that he has so much publicity through the state publicity machine that he doesn't feel the need to put anything into his website. Lord knows he has plastered his face on enough things during his term of office - albeit with 'Mayor of London' as ...
A former city mayor has been jailed for nine months after being convicted of vote-rigging. Labour’s Mohammed Choudhary, 49, former mayor of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, was jailed at King’s Lynn Crown Court. Party candidate Maqbool Hussein, 52, was jailed for three months and Tariq Mahmood, 40, received a 15-month term. All three from Peterborough, were convicted of forgery over [...]
“What you have to spew and spread is extremely dangerous . . . it’s dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists! This is the Land of Lincoln where people believe in God. Get out of that seat . . . You have no right to be here! We believe in something. [...]
I was in Paris last weekend (yes, lucky me!) and was rather taken with their new 'bike transit system' known as Velib. In fact I was so taken by it that I couldn't resist pointing out each and every Velib bike that I saw going by; that wasn't at all irritating for my partner (unlucky him)! Velib is a short term bike rental system. There are cycle racks dotted about all over the city and about 20,000 bikes in total. You have to purchase a subscription card and off you go! The first 30 mins is free and then as ...
It appears bloggers (including myself) may have jumped the gun in stating that Part 6 of the Constitutional Renewal Bill grants the same powers to the executive as the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill. From the Save Parliament blog: The scary-looking provisions in the Constitutional Renewal Bill don’t let ministers make arbitary law, they just [...]
The link is to a prosecution in Peterborough. Sadly the same activity in Pendle never saw any prosecutions. All parties have problems with people who abuse the electoral process. My criticism of Labour rests primarily on them changing the law to make electoral fraud easier as well as resisting tightening up on the rules. I am also unhappy with our candidates last year being set up. There
Just about every part of Britain has some kind of local Lib Dem website nowadays. So it’s a bit presumptious to make a fuss about the one that I help edit. But we are coming up to our 1000th post for www.onlinefocus.org - and I don’t know have many other Lib Dem sites have written [...]
GCSE's were thought to be a true assessment of a pupil's abilities. Not any more. It seems that under new proposals, teenagers are to be allowed to boost their grades by resitting certain sections of their GCSEs to enable them t o pass. Now, some of you may be asking yourselves - is that fair Apparently fairness has nothing to do with it - it's all designed to make the exam process less stressful. Less stressful! Sorry, I'm with Graeme, from Edinburgh on this one: Exams separate the educationally gifted from those who are not. therefore the educationally gifted can ...
Once upon a time. Not so Long ago, there was the news story that one of the party leaders had had no more than 30 lovers. But also not so long ago there was a little shop. It was different from other little shops in that is didn't sell anything. The things in it's window had all been found and repaired by a couple of rag dolls, ornaments on a Mouse Organ, a carved wooden bookend in the shape of
Several theatres in Fortaleza, as well as the Cearį Film Festival, have hit on an ingenious idea, which is actually doing some good. Seats for certain performances are very cheap — or even free, in cash terms — except that everyone in the audience must bring with them one kilo of non-perishable food. Rice, beans, [...]
Oooh, that’s nice, and it looks to come with the full set of social networking - not just Facebook, but also Myspace, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and (new today) Eventful.
Hurrah. The WTO has stated that EU import duties on Bananas are against international rules. This is a great victory for consumers in the EU, the developing world, and free trade advocates everywhere. This ruling is good for Europe, the Caribean, South America, and Africa. Sense has prevailed. Thank Nietzsche.
Sense has prevailed.
I was so busy thinking about how reprehensible it was of Labour to double the tax rate for low-earners yesterday (which I blogged about last year, including this telling quote from Gordon Brown), I completely failed to notice that it was this blog’s birthday. Happy birthday, blog. As is now traditional, anniversary day (or, in this case, the day after) is the one day of the year when we do blog stats here. So here we go. Previous three years’ figures are in brackets, last year’s first. 2 (2, 2, 2): number of servers this site has been hosted on ...
Saturday: Hooray! Doctor Who is back! This makes my Daddies very happy. And, to celebrate the return of Ms Catherine Tate as Donna we ooh, a new flavour of Pringle! Noble Elephant {Posted by Picasa} Scoff, snarff, snargle over to you, Daddy Brilliant, that's the first thing to say. A successful combination of comic and dramatic in the same way that "Smith and Jones" and even "Rose" managed, and that failed to come off in "New Earth". There's a terrific stunt sequence in the middle and a magnificent special effects finale, with one big shock in the coda. Russell Davies ... | < | April 2008 | > | ||||
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