One of the highlights of the live broadcast review of the papers I was on tonight on PressTV, with host Amina Taylor and the Independent's Amol Rajan, was a story actually from yesterday's 'Daily Telegraph' about the rumpus that has blown up over the founder of the Persian Empire, Cyrus the Great (d. 529BC). A magnificent cylinder [...] 
It has been drawn to our attention that South Bank Labour Councillor Pearl Hall's name and address has been omitted from the list of Councillors in the Council publication People, Progress, Pride. Has this Councillor actually resigned from the Council? If not why has the name been omitted?
I heard a snatch of a radio programme that I don't usually listen to today and found myself laughing aloud. The comedian said (not a verbatim quote so forgive me if you heard the original) 'We've put so much effort into causing global warming and what do we get? Cold, wet miserable July'. He went on to suggest that we all find another appliance to turn on and warm the world up a bit more!
Liberal Democrats on Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council are concerned that attempts to limit the number of hot food takeaways will not apply to smaller parades of shops. The Labour-run Council today voted for an interim policy of restricting the number of hot food takeaways on main shopping streets. Redcar Lib Dem Councillor Mary Ovens (pictured) is concerned that smaller parades of shops will not be included. Cllr Ovens said: "I fully accept that hot food takeaways have their place and that there is demand for them. "But there is a danger that some shopping areas get dominated by them. ...
Liberal Democrat councillors at Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council today accused the Council's Labour leadership of hypocrisy over road safety issues. The Labour-run council recently scrapped its Road Safety Committees and transferred their functions to Area Committees, where road safety issues will not get the same attention. In 2003, when in opposition, Labour wrongly accused the Council of scrapping Road Safety Committees. The Coalition then running the council did not scrap them but simply stopped paying expenses to councillors for going to the meetings. In the Northern Echo in July 2003 the current Leader of the Council, Labour's George Dunning, ...
Yesterday saw the launch of the Lib Dem 'values and vision' paper Make It Happen. Much of this is very good stuff and is the sort of thing I was wanting to see when I said that the Lib Dems needed to develop a narrative. It's a good first step, but we need to integrate it into our whole campaigning approach if it's to make any impact. A couple of minor quibbles first. Like Jonathan Calder, I'm not a big fan of the name - it doesn't convey a distinctive liberal approach to me. I also agree with him that ...
Posted by Chris I told told a meeting of Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council tonight that it is a real shame a town the size of Redcar does not have a senior football team playing at least at Conference North level. I have been impressed by the way football fans in Scarborough got together and rallied round to form Scarborough Athletic FC when Scarborough FC went bust. I understand they set up a trust and each contributed around £12 to help get the new team underway. They may be playing home games at present in Bridlington but at least they ...
For as far back as my political memory goes 'regulation' has been a dirty word. Of course, this hasn't stopped politicians reaching for new regulations and regulators at every opportunity (would it be too cynical to say in response to every tabloid headline?) Unfortunately the QUALITY of regulation is not matched by the QUANTITY and as a direct result the government has problems at every turn. First to blow was Equitable Life on which the Parliamentary Ombudsman has just reported. As Paul Braithwaite of the Equitable Members Action Group (EMAG) put it: The UK regulators were fully aware for a ...
This election to lead our party comes at a moment of great opportunity for the Scottish Liberal Democrats. While Labour and the Nationalists bicker over the constitution, people are facing enormous challenges as a failing economy impacts on their daily lives. I want our party to talk their talk. Not the constitutional navel gazing of the others, but the challenges that we all face on energy costs, fuel prices and the rising cost of food. The temptation for political parties can be to talk about the things that motivate and interest them and not the things that concern the voters. ...
The queue snaked all the way down below Edinburgh Castle, right the way along to Princes Street. I had come down from Inverness and some people next to me in the queue had come up from Leeds. There were some people who must have been in their 70s, as well as a few who might have been yet to reach double figures. There were men in suits, and I also saw a guy with a pink mohican. The reason for such a diverse crowd? The world's greatest living Canadian, Mr Leonard Cohen. His gig at Edinburgh Castle on Wednesday was ... 
The talking point in the Lib Dem blog sphere is the new announcement by Nick Clegg, fetchingly entitled 'Make it Happen'. There seems to be some surprise, but much praise for our leader's new proposals. Indeed, even Iain Dale in the Daily Tory has praised it. I too, have come to praise Caesar, but then as this was the first time I actually voted for a winner in any party election in 35 years, I feel obliged to support him. There is the usual speculation about how this revolution has come about and most people seem happy about it (despite ...
Sorry Labour, I know your are gagging for it but eFocus is delayed til Monday. I have a video to add to it but it needs editing. I will do it over the weekend. So Labour won't be able to nick all our material over the weekend and pass it off as their own. Tough!!! And now for today's National Express screw up. I booked a forward facing, window, airline style seat. I find myself in an aisle
The Conservative group running Bury Council has once again created the type of headlines that make all local Councillors look like idiots. The only mild saving grace is that they look more idiotic than we do, but I'd much prefer it if the brand of arrogant silliness that seems to be running through the leading group at the moment went away entirely. The Bury Times today told the story of one Conservative Councillor's allegations of assault against another member of his group. The whole thing makes Councillors a laughing stock, and whilst I don't know the details of the incident, ...
I'm a big dog, and I'm prepared to admit it when I'm wrong. Regular readers of this blog may have got the impression that spoons are bad, aiding and abetting crime around the world. I know this is an unfair characterisation of the world's spoons, many of whom are very hard-working helping out front line public services such as school canteens, hospital wards and providing police with a cup of tea that tastes just right. So you too can get a better understanding of the many good things spoons can do, I point you at this:
I am having to contain myself here. Someone who I respect very much works at the Ministry of Defence, and I am sure it is made up of very earnest and hard-working people. So I separate the people at the Ministry of Defence from the corporate body which is 'The Ministry of Defence' - if that makes any sense (probably not, in which case go swiftly onto another blog, please). Suffice it to say
I am tiling my bathroom and will be up to my armpits in grout for the next two days so expect only occasional blogging. Normal service will be resumes as soon as the bathroom is done.
From Lindylooz Muze A Topsy Turvy World - Cameron or Clegg on tax? : THIS IS WHAT MAKES MY BLOOD BOIL!!!!!!!
When I posted yesterday afternoon that a senior Assembly Member had been asked to leave a Cardiff Bay public house on Wednesday night for smoking in the bar it seemed like an innocent enough piece of gossip. However, events nowadays have a habit of moving very quickly, far more quickly than I remember during past controversies. I could speculate that one of the reasons for the swiftness at which these stories develop is down to a combination of 24 hour rolling media and the over-sensitivity of party machines to the prospect of scandal, but I digress. I was not there ...
On top of their admission that their staff had over the last four years had lost 347 laptops, containing official information, the Ministry of Defence has now revealed that over 100 flash memory devices have been taken off MoD premises and mislaid. The story and Sarah Teather's response are here. It is all very well to say that commercial organisations have been just as careless with data (which they were - see previous stories on this blog), but government servants have an extra duty of care towards personal data. The MoD, which has sensitive data relating to our security, and ...
The first time I tried to write this post there were so many expletives I had to delete it all and start again. So this is my calmer second attempt. The Mayor of the City that I call home, Boris Johnson, has a new scheme to combat binge drinking. He's asking offies not to sell booze to anyone under the age of 21. Obviously he can't change the law and every single off license in London is still entitled to sell to anyone over the age of 18, and I hope they pay no attention whatsoever to the floppy haired ...
I can't be the only one. Surely everyone must listen to or read the news these days and think 'WHAT? You're going to do WHAT?' on a regular basis. It seems that the two main parties decide policies these days by saying 'ooh, there's a lot of headlines on this issue' and half-baking an idea before having one of their front benchers open their big gobs to the media and see what happens. Hot on the heels of Labour's 'wheeling knife-weilders through casualty' debacle earlier this week (and I'd like to point out that the Tories' ideas on the matter ...
This picture was taken in Marks and Spencer in Swansea. Apparently, the photographer checked but there were no Ood on sale.
Anybody know what is happening with the Buckmore Park Sports centre in Chatham? It was such a great asset to the local area and it seems a shame to think it's just sitting out in the park unused, especially as Lottery money helped to fund it. How many years has it been standing unused? With the London Olympics on the horizon it seems crazy that such a great sports facility (climbing wall, badmington, gym, pool etc)is idle, probably tied up in legal wrangling etc. Talking of Olympics, as Beijing has temporarily closed down factories and industries etc to try and ...
A reader of this blog and a good friend of mine approached me to ask me what i thought about the following issue http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7514281.stm so in this post i am going to discuss the fact that the MoD has lost information on USB sticks in the hundreds. Well near enough all computer user's have a USB memory stick but most people never loose their USB memory sticks yet the MoD have lost more then a 100 USB sticks. Now you decide if one of the most important Government departments is loosing vital information on Memory sticks then can we really ...
The longer this government lasts, the more its rhetoric sounds like the bad old days of the Thatcher years - and the easier it gets to spot its mistakes coming. Today we see a leak of new 'work for dole' plans, which have had the Tories hopping up and down claiming they published the same ideas six months ago - but, if they did, they cribbed them from some dusty document left over from the days when the favourite target of the popular prints wasn't asylum seekers but benefit claimants. Political discourse was dominated by questions of eligibility and whether ... 
Well, maybe not such a happy anniversary after all. It is now one year since the Labour candidate for Hornsey & Wood Green updated her website with any news. Selected last June to take on Hornsey & Wood Green's Lib Dem MP Lynne Featherstone at the next election, things have been very quiet on the Labour front since. Lynne, on the other hand, has been up to plenty. So if you are looking for community and political news - and a local team that is actually active and busy all year round, then you can see what has been going ...
Last night Kirsten and I were knocking on doors on Blenheim Road, launching our petition on the state of the roads in Redlands. We were shocked by {Img_1146} the number of houses of multiple occupation (HMOs) with rubbish and waste furniture dumped in the front gardens. We are campaigning to get the Council to change it's disastrous policy of charging for bulky waste. While we welcome the increase in waste collections at the end of term, but at present no one is taking responsibility for tackling regular flytipping that goes on year in year out around Erleigh Road. Landlords ...
Well, if the press and media reaction is anything to go by, the launch of the Lib Dems' Make it Happen policy paper has succeeded way beyond the party's expectations. No need for LDV to round them all up, as Centre Forum's Freethink blog rounds up the newspapers' responses, while Julian H's Orange By Name [...]
Robin Hughes County Councillor who has been campaigning for over 10 years for a 30 mph speed limit in Enham is pleased to announce: I have received notification and a copy of the order THE HAMPSHIRE (A343 AND MACCALLUM, ENHAM ALAMEIN) (30 MILES PER HOUR SPEED LIMIT) ORDER 2008 made by the County Council on the 14 July 2008. The order will come into operation on the 29th July 2008. Regards Robin Hughes, County Councillor Andover North, Tel 01264 355241 Fax 01264 323583
On Tuesday, Islington Tribune journalist Peter Gruner and I took our lives in our hands to witness the scenes at Angel crossing at rush hour. The Tribune is widely-read locally, and I wanted Peter to see for himself how bad the current crossing is, and how much better it would be if relocated further north. [...]
It has been estimated that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac between them underwrite debt of some $5,000,000,000,000 and that US losses from the current credit crunch could amount to $1,600,000,000,000. The entire external debt obligations of the world's 40 odd Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCs) is some $300,000,000,000 - that's about 6% of Fannie and Freddie's problems. So any bailout of the US mortgage system is going to amount almost certainly to more money than would write off all that, mainly African, debt (were that the best way to proceed, which I believe it is, with conditions). By contrast the ...
Ros gets to turn up at the debate, whereas I only get to read the papers afterwards. Not unreasonable, I suppose, and I almost certainly wouldn't get to read some of the more intriguing documents otherwise. By the way, don't worry, I don't get to read anything that isn't in the public domain! Amongst today's reading matter for the train journey to Lancaster (hi Mum, I'm on the train!), is the
Don't people like Brian Coleman make you sick? Where on earth does he get off thinking he deserves to spend £8,000 worth of our money on taxis? Ok, so the letter of the law hasn't been broken but surely spending this much on taxi, including over £600 in one day just shows contempt for the people of London? A while back, I blogged that although I thought Boris would be one bigga mistake-a for London to make-a, I hoped that his term off office wasn't disastrous for London ('cos I just love London so much) and that things would get ...
Up and down the country local authorities, independent retailers and residents complain that rents are squeezing out interesting independent retailers and creating "Clone Town Britain". Well, I have an idea. This week the Co-operative Group agreed terms to acquire Somerfield supermarkets. There are some, say management, which directly compete with existing Co-op shops and so one or other may be up for sale. One of these is in Headington in Oxford where there is a fairly recently refurbished MidCounties Co-op store on one side of the road and a Somerfield on the other. Some people are all excited that someone ...
in their daily newsletter and I answered...and they put it up on the PM blog.
Unusually, today saw a Friday sitting in the Lords, and I made my way to the chamber to take in part of the debate on the recently issued report from the Select Committee on Economic Affairs on the 2008 Finance Bill. The august Chair of this Select Committee is none other than Iain Vallance, formerly of British Telecom, and now Lord Vallance of Tummel. Somewhat unexpectedly to many, I suspect, he sits on the Liberal Democrat benches, providing further evidence that whilst our benches may be comparatively few in number, the quality is disproportionately high. In fairness to the Committee ...
Derwentside DC, Castleside Ind 297 (82.3 +8.3) Con 64 (17.7 +3.7) Lab [0.0 -12.0] Majority 233 Turnout 27.49 Ind hold Percentage change is from 2007 Hillingdon LBC, Townfield Lab 1031(45.3 -12.6) LD R Chamdal 506 (22.2 +8.7) Con 445 (19.6 -9.0) BNP 186 (8.2 +8.2) National Front 74 (3.3 +3.3) Green 33 (1.5 +1.5) Majority 525 Turnout Not known Lab hold Percentage change is from 2006 Redditch BC,
I blogged in {Img_1143_3} April about my efforts to help an elderly constituent in my ward get the Council to install a stairlift in her Council property and I was really pleased today when I popped round to find that it has finally be installed (see pic). I checked back through my emails and found out I first asked Council officer to look into this last July - a long time to wait. The process residents need to go through for adaptations like this is too slow, as well complicated for many people to understand. Anyway, I'm very glad I ...
I am off into the wilds, so no posting for a day or two. Unless I end up at the Stiperstones Inn. Which is entirely possible.
I spotted someone seemingly scouring my blog for articles relating to "citizens' Income" and came across this now seemingly very prescient post I did nine months ago about our tax policies hitting the mark or not. debt money, monetary reform
Its inane title - make what happen? - and the way it arrived with so little discussion within the party reinforce my feeling that politics as it is practised in Britain today is no longer an occupation for grown ups. But let's try to be fair about Make it Happen. I think Nick is absolutely right to move the party away from arguing that putting a little more money into the existing structure of the public services will transform society. New Labour has tested that argument to destruction over the past decade. He is also right to argue that taxation ...
There is high praise for Nick Clegg's tax plans from Iain Dale in today's Telegraph: I hate to say it, but if they truly mean what they say on tax, the Lib Dems are in danger of being in touch with the overwhelming majority of the British people, who are now feeling overtaxed, over-regulated and over-governed. Clegg has tapped into the Zeitgeist and may reap the electoral rewards. His political
I had a go at the Guardian Friday politics quiz today. It said I got nine out of ten, and that the one I got wrong was a question about how many Prime Ministers had had a State Funeral since the turn of the nineteenth century. I reckoned four (Wellington, Palmerston, Gladstone and Churchill), they claim three. Who is correct? Or have I missed something?
The youth centre on Leeds Road nelson well i say Youth centre but i really am talking about the cabin on Leeds road is going to b hopefully replaced with a new Youth centre in the area. Bradley like Whitefield is a very deprived area since the Liberal Democrats come into running the council these deprived area's really have been whipped up into shape but the problem is that they is a lot of work still remaining and if people get fooled by Conservative and Labour then these great plans might end up being scrapped and millions of pounds ...
I have spoken to a lot of people who have been affected by the public sector workers' strike this week. People who are working class, sympathetic, and would normally support anyone's right to strike if their working conditions or pay were bad enough. They're pretty much all 'united' in fury. They're furious, and not with the bosses who the unions want them to be furious with, but with the people who took part in the strike themselves. As far as I can see they have only succeeded in creating a common view of council employees as greedy and short-sighted, which ...
Mister Stephen left for work this morning mutting something about football, by elections and wrong place, wrong time. So with the flat to myself I did a little research. During the last Westminster by election, Mister Stephen took one evening off from heading over to Dunfermline, that was to see Dunfermline play Livingston at Easter Road in the CIS Cup Semi final. Well with another by election
Yesterday, we asked whether the launch of Nick Clegg's new policy document, 'Make it Happen', would get good coverage ('Can Clegg make it happen in the papers?'.)There is certainly a raft of coverage and comment across the papers - and the vast majority of it is favourable:The FT, Independent, Telegraph and Guardian, have coverage in the news sections. Interestingly, its The Daily Mail that gives most coverage to the detail of the measures ('Lib Dems vow to slash taxes for poorer people by cutting billions in Whitehall waste'). The sketchwriters also give the launch a fair amount of attention. Both ...
Has been a busy week, as usual. Monday night was Full Council, if you want to see what happened you can view the webcast here - but I wouldn't really recommend it, it wasn't the most productive meeting. Tuesday night we went to see Moonlight & Magnolias at the Tricycle in Kilburn - I really like the Tricycle , and the acting was perfectly good, but I can't recommend the play, just quite dull and pointless. Wednesday night I went with a few friends to see the Zutons at Somerset House - they were great again and the rain managed ...
I'm sure it was intended as an improvement but the fact remains the tarmacing of Perrin's Court, Hampstead, just off of Hampstead High Street and Heath Street, has been clumsy and a PR disaster. It looks new, that's for sure, but it feels highly inappropriate. Local community activist David Christie has set the record straight pointing out that though once cobbles covered the whole thing, that a photograph of 1908 confirms the presence of tarmac even then. But has rightly goes on to suggest that when re-doing this surface that residents and traders might have an opinion and that the ...
While looking for a picture of the town for you, I came across this... That's me on the far left of the picture in the blue shirt. Of course, this is all displacement activity. What I really came here to do is write my New Statesman column.
It is always nice to come across events on holiday. It doesn't quite rank with hearing Runrig play in Portree, but last night I was invited to the launch of a new long-distance footpath at Bishop's Castle town hall. The bc ring is a 62-mile route that circles the town. The press release (PDF) on the launch describes the route: The bc ring walk passes through some wonderful scenery starting with the well known Kerry Ridgeway and then along the world famous Offa's Dyke and via the Shropshire Way to Clun with its majestic ruined castle.The path continues via Hopton ...
Anybody listening to the Education Minister in Plenary yesterday would have thought that all was hunky dory with the Foundation Phase. She was at her most robust when defending the scheme in questions from Kirsty Williams: Jane Hutt: I am sure that all will be revealed on how we move forward for the benefit of children and their education because of the commitment and the decisions that I have made, which have given our schools the stability and confidence that they can deliver the 1:8 ratio for the statutory curriculum for three to four-year-olds. I am seeking further funding, but ...
"Now Labour plans to bar white men from jobs" - just one of the recent screaming tabloid headlines about the Equality Bill. What a fantastic nine-word summary of what is wrong with so much of our tabloid journalism: whipping up fear and division based on a fairy tale. I'm not sure what is worse - believing that the person who wrote the headline was so ignorant of the story they thought it was true - or so cynical they were happy to write it knowing it wasn't. Because the truth is there is no provision like that in the Equality ...
This was the second time I have visited the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show, the first some ten plus years ago, and it was interesting to see how the show has grown. Last time the northside of the Long Water was for picnicking on with no stands or marquees or show gardens but provided a place to escape from the frantic bustle of the show and, on a sunny day, just chill for a while. Now the show is twice the size and the northside is as busy as the south and as such, makes for a long day ...
Exam markers are stupid. Celine Dion is a pickled egg. And I have done the netcast on LC this morning because Aaron is onna plane. Some of you folks might find your fame marginally increased today. If you want to subscribe to my LC posts, add {[info]} jennier_lc_feed (plug plug plug). Incidentally, my usual days for posting the netcast are Sunday and Monday, so if you want me to link to you, post your interesting stuff (publicly) on a weekend. Or if you can't wait for the weekend to post, you can email links to your posts to tips(at)liberalconspiracy(dot)org and ...
I was enjoying a LibDem barbecue on the banks of the River Tone at lunchtime on Sunday when news reached me of Bronislaw Geremek's death in a car accident. My press team, who are first class, issued my statement in English and French within two hours. Bronislaw Geremek was Lech Walesa's intellectual inspiration in the building of the Gdansk shipyards' 'Solidarity' movement which brought down Poland's Communist regime and started the chain of events which led to the Soviet Union's collapse and the EU entry of ten former Soviet bloc countries. He founded a Liberal Party called the Union for ...
Good news! Conservative London Assembly member Brian Coleman has cut his taxi bill by a fifth. Bad news! He's still racking up over £8,000 a year in taxi fares that Londoners then have to pay for. P.S. He also gets a free travelcard. P.P.S. Average taxi bill run up by other London Assembly members in the same period: [...]
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As reported in the Grimsby Telegraph, work on the War Memorial at Nuns' Corner Memorial had been due to be carried out earlier this year, but specialised stonemason and restoration expert Mark Stafford was unable to start, blaming bad weather and raising concerns among residents. The cenotaph will soon be cleaned using the latest low pressure washing techniques, and repointed using traditional materials, to reverse the effects of age and acidic pollution which have taken their toll, creating a number of cracks. The go-ahead for the much-needed spruce-up was given by North East Lincolnshire Council and members of the British ...
Earlier this week the Parliamentary Ombudsman, Ann Abraham, published her report into the near-collapse of Equitable and the resulting financial losses incurred by many of Equitable's customers. Her conclusion is that the regulators made repeated mistakes over the years: I have alerted Parliament to the injustice which I have found in this case resulted from serial [...]
Redcar & Cleveland's Highway Services Department have issued the following information to residents: As part of the Council's continuing highway maintenance programme, we shall be shortly carrying out essential resurfacing works at the above location, in conjunction with our Highway Services partner, Carillion. All our highway improvement schemes have been programmed to minimise disruption to the local community and the Borough as a whole. The works are programmed to start on Monday 4th July 2008 and will take approximately 5 days (weather permitting) although we will endeavour to carry out the work in a shorter period. The scheme involves the ...
Today is my Birthday, I'm 43, and yes I know I don't look it! Of course as it's still a work day for me so I am working hard as ever from home and not taking time out to write this blog.....err honest. You may know that in the real world part of my job is to see children in the care of a local Authority who have claimed asylum. The boy I saw this week was clearly not the eleven has was telling us ( I guess he was around 14) and I suspect did know where his mother ...
For the last two days I've been attending the Bury Council and "Team Bury" strategic planning event. This is an annual event that brings together the Council's Executive Committee, senior officers and the two opposition leaders. On the second day we were joined by the Council's partners in "Team Bury" - the Police, Primary Care Trust (NHS), Fire service, Bury College and a representative of Bury's voluntary sector. It is really useful to spend time with these partner organisations, and there was a great sense of how things are moving forward in Bury though different organisations working together. The conclusions ...
A trailer for the film version of Watchmen has been released (large version, so may take a while to load) and it does look rather good. Mind you, I thought the trailler for V For Vendetta looked good, and the film turned out to be someone using the original comic series as toilet paper, so I'll resist the urge to get too excited about it yet.
Could you play for ten hours? Kingston Philharmonia will be attempting just that tomorrow as they tackle their 'Beet-o-thon'. I'll be there for much of the time because they have chosen to support Young Kingston as one of their charities. Everyone is welcome to drop in to hear them during the day - it's in Kingston Parish Church from 10am to 8pm. They will work...
I've been working with Mark on an online version of the cost of living survey that he recently put in the Hampshire Chronicle. Surveys are still coming in and we are still collating the full results, but Mark already used the early results in a debate on the cost of living on July 9th. All the survey responses to date have helped give a clear picture of the pressures that people locally are facing. It's a very long time since we've seen such rapid increases in food and fuel prices - combined with continued increases in council tax and fares. ...
Having not been keeping too well for most of the week and still feeling a bit below par I decided that I'd make an effort to get into the office this morning. Up at 06.30 and Catherine drove us up to her Parent's house for showers (our boiler has broken down for the third time in 8 weeks so no hot water or heating), then a quick coffee before getting dropped off at Perth railway station for the 08.13 to Glasgow (£21.70 return). I arrived in the office just after 09.15 and was surprised to find the door locked and ...
Redcar and Cleveland Council is suspending car parking charges on Redcar's Majuba Road car park on Sunday, July 20, between 8am-midday in support of the 11am Great North Bikini Challenge on Redcar beach, which is hoping for over 1,010 women to claim a new world record
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7511615.stm The BBC has done a article on the page above about the plans set out by Nick clegg. On that it shows that the conservatives were very fast to react with silly comments like they 'will never have to implement them'. I think them plans set out by Clegg are great and they can really help students like my self. If the Liberal Democrats were to continue with their 'scrap tuition fees' campaign then they would really be able to make a difference and they would have the Vote of most young people who are going to and are ...
A sign that politics is now all about the economy is that a story with words 'fiscal rules re-writing' can lead the morning news bulletins. This from the BBC: The government is considering re-writing its own rules on how much it can borrow in order to counter the effects of the economic slowdown. The new framework, [...]
The Grimsby and Cleethorpes Citizens Advice Bureau has benefited from a funding boost from North East Lincolnshire Council. The council has agreed to provide the local branch of the CAB with £540,000 in additional funding for the coming three years, which will help develop support services for the community. This cash injection will allow the CAB to have extra interview services to dramatically increase the number of clients seen on a weekly basis, as well as allowing the reintroduction of telephone advice services, which have been unavailable for the past four years. Tony Gaskins, chief executive of the Grimsby and ...
Ok not quite Mike Tysonesque proportions but boy it is getting bitchy in the Scottish Blogosphere of late. The reason of course is a little matter that next Thursday is the first Scottish by election since 2006, and we're all focussing on one race rather than picking over our own turf. In the red corner doing her sterling best to defend the title is Kezia Dugdale who is getting sources which are
Yesterday Dwain Chambers took his case to the High Court to try and get an injunction against the British Olympics Association bye law, which state that any Athlete since 1992 to have cheated using drugs is ineligible for selection to the GB & NI Olympic Team for life. Today he will get the verdict of that court. Meanwhile across the Channel is news that the third and most prominent rider of this
After the Nats, and particularly Alex Salmond, accused Gordon Brown of trying the bribe the Glasgow East electorate and his previous warnings of a quake if the SNP were to win it appears a blip may be all that is left on the screen. Yes the leader of the fifth largest party in the House of Commons says that a win for his party next Thursday will not see the leader of the largest party resign.
What follows isn't strictly Kantian, more personal. It finally feels like this is the end and I don't know about anyone else on my side of the political spectrum but I'm a little disappointed that this was it; this was the liberal decade. We have much to show but not enough. Nothing feels as bitter as the last wheeze of the New Labour being to abandon its plans for constitutional reform. It began with such promise and such energy; now the moment has been lost and may not come again for a long time indeed. After what may be twelve ...
The Evening Post picked up a campaign led by Cllr Gareth Epps and myself into the scandal of a 'hidden tax' on Council house tenants in Reading. As a result of Labour government policy,15% of Council rents in Reading end up going back to government coffers. Cllr Epps said: "It is absolutely outrageous that Reading council tenants are paying rent, not to go on maintaining Reading's council housing, but to go into a Treasury black hole. Council tenants will be shocked to discover that 15 per cent of their rent doesn't come back to Reading at all. "Yet again the ... | < | July 2008 | > | ||||
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