"You should be on the beach," Cameron told Obama. Political Punch has the story.
Our eleven year old daughter is rarely without a book. Yes, she loves her computer. DS and MP3 player, but she's still happiest with a book in her hand. And like me, she enjoys a broad range of books, fiction and non-fiction. Over the years, she has been allowed to choose pretty much want she fancies reading, whether from the library or the bookshop. She loves having the chance to buy a new book and pores carefully over the synopsis on the back and any other information which might guide her. If I buy her a book, I may buy ...
My House Points column from yesterday's Liberal Democrat News. A bit of a stream of consciousness, it was written in Shrewsbury Reference Library on Monday. Country carping With Parliament winding down for the summer, there is just time for a last visit to the minister for fish. Jonathan Shaw, you will be pleased to learn, is working to reduce the impact of American crayfish on our native British species. The American variety is bigger and more aggressive - quite possibly it has more money and wears loud check trousers too. Similarly, mink - many of which were released into the ...
Last week's ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) meeting in Singapore produced some very muted criticism of the military junta in Myanmar: ASEAN foreign ministers, frustrated after years of fruitless overtures to Myanmar to reform, expressed "deep disappointment" in a statement on Sunday that the ruling generals had extended Suu Kyi's house arrest. That's nearly as softly [...]
Today the 44th Billingham International Folklore Festival opened under a glorious blue sky in Billingham Town Centre. The formal opening was preceded by a lunch for representatives of Stockton Council, the Festival organisers and sponsors and the performers. I was fortunate to be one of the council representatives and shared a table with representatives of the German group. This group comes
Earlier today, Ryan unveiled a new design for Lib Dem Blogs. I really like it; not just the cleanness of the design, but also the new mute feature and the improved mobile phone support. Ryan's explained some of the thinking and features behind the new site on his blog. Since Lib Dem Blogs started there have [...]
Today was the official opening for the Billingham International Folklore Festival, and we begun with lunch with representatives of all the groups, and also the Principal Technical Officer for the Ministry of Tourism for Malta, along with "dignitaries". He gave an interesting speech encouraging us all to go to Malta! A film crew from Malta were here and they also had an artist who was painting...
Brown whilst about to start his holiday told the media that he will not be stepping down as Leader of the Labour Party or as Prime Minister. Despite him having three consecutive parliamentary by election looses he still believes he can take the country forward. I am still a bit shaken that he will not resign i just hope the Labour Party don't force him out as that would be a mockery. Well do you think Brown can actually take the country forward from the declining status it is in at the moment?
Lib Dem Blogs has done a great job with the theme that Ryan has put up on the website. The new look design is very good and people who haven't yet visited Lib Dem Blogs can do at www.libdemblogs.co.uk the new template is great and very user friendly. Once again i thank Ryan for the great template as he has made the best Liberal Democrats aggregator a huge success and really made it into a blog that i have always felt proud to be a contributor to. I would once again like to say great job Ryan!
Gordon Brown is finished. He may hold on until the next election, but if he does he will almost certainly lead Labour into a humiliating defeat, possibly worse than Michael Foot's result in 1983. More likely, he will resign before then and a new Leader will emerge to take Labour into the next election. Personally, I think that speculation about Brown's leadership will drag on over the summer up until Conference, when another dismal Brown performance will prompt colleagues to move in for the kill. A new Leader will be in place by the end of the year or the ...
Well done to Ryan Cullen for continuing to be the pro-creator of LibDem Blogs and, in particular, it's latest good-looking update. I have often said that LibDem Blogs is one of those unsung miracles of the modern age - like the chunky Kit-Kat or squirty cream.
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The Islington Tribune has letters on two of our current campaign issues. On Kings Cross access, campaign organiser Sophie Talbot and Lib Dem Cllr Marisha Ray have both written in urging support for the new bridge. And on the Angel crossing, there are letters of support from James Graham and Cllr Jyoti Vaja - plus [...]
There will be an absurdly large number of Lib Dem and gay readers of this blog who will be interested in this. Well, here it is, Jonathan Wallace reporting live from the O2 where Kylie Minogue is due to perform in just under an hour. And we are already in our seats! I really need to get out a bit more, and not take my blackberry with me. The programme retails at £15 and comes with a sample of
Nick Robinson notes that Jack Straw's support for Gordon Brown is notable by its absence from his "keep calm" pronouncements. If there was a young Bambi - a young Tony Blair Mark 2 - waiting in the wings, then this would be a simple situation. But there isn't. Harriett Harman is no Harriett Jones. James Purnell is a photo-shop job. David Miliband lacks sufficient gonads. So who the heck is left?
My adopted county of Berkshire (or should that be my county of exile?) seems to be positively teeming with connections to Barack Obama. First we had the night Obama sensibly excused himself from a stag night do in Wokingham when a stripper arrived. That was for the wedding of his half-sister who lived in Reading. No another Berkshire town of my intensive acquaintance, Bracknell, is at the centre
I've spent the last month working on a new version of LibDemBlogs, most likely you are now reading this on it. The most obvious change is the new theme, which is modified version of the Rainbow theme from Theme Lab. The old theme has been around for two years now, and didn't actually work in IE6, so it needed replacing. The newest feature is the Mute function, this allows you to hide/silence blogs that you don't want to read. More info about this feature can be found in the about pages. Some of you may have already seen the new ...
The choice of a community councils representative on the Neath Port Talbot standards committee came before full council on Thursday. But there was no real choice: it was pushed through without discussion on the council leader's say-so. (Regular readers will remember that the standards committee has not actually met since last October, when the last external member left. The failure to recruit replacement external members since then has meant that a backlog of cases has built up. External volunteers have now been found, leaving the choice of a CC representative as the last piece in the jigsaw.) There were three ...
Since becoming Prime Minister, Gordon Brown has had a hangdog expression that is painful to behold. And as P.G. Wodehouse memorably remarked, it is never difficult to tell the difference between a Scotsman with a grievance and a ray of sunshine. Gordon has taken quite a kicking from the bumptious Alex Salmond at Glasgow East and [...]
That's the topic of my latest piece for the Highgate Flier and Muswell Hill Handbook: It's all sorts of dads we should be thinking about - not just black ones! I refer to both Barack Obama and David Cameron's recently zooming in on the world of fatherless black children. Now yes - there is a disproportionately high number of black families being brought up essentially by the mother - but it's also an issue in white communities. I've been a single mother myself since my children were 7 and 12. And two things that used to annoy the whatsit out ...
Sat 26th
17:46
South Norfolk and Breckland Councils - Has someone not told them about the local governnment review ...
Norfolk local government is set for a shakeup with plans for unitary authorities or a single super council to be set up for the whole county. The problem is, nobody seems to have told South Norfolk Council or Breckland. Breckland Council are determined to farm out some departments to outside companies (presumably meaning the staff getting farmed out would not be guaranteed an equal chance of getting jobs in the new super councils, after all only existing council staff will be considered for jobs). What utter chaos this will cause if some parts of Norfolk have farmed out their services ...
I'm thrilled that Kent have made it into the final of the Twenty-20 Cricket Cup today after an excellent performance earlier against Essex. Best of luck to Rob Key and the lads for this evening's game against Middlesex!
There's still time to respond to TfL's consultation on the route 38 improvement programme - which is our big chance to get Angel crossing sorted out. You can read more about the plans and download a consultation document here; the consultation period ends on 31st July (next Thursday). Say YES to Option A to get [...]
Bounds Green tube station was opened on 19th September 1932 and was designed by architect C. H. James in the "Box-style" of his colleague Charles Holden. The station is a well-preserved example of the modernist house style used by London Transport in the 1930s (and credit to London Transport in its various incarnations over the years to have kept these features well-preserved). In other words - it's a great piece of our architectural heritage which deserve protecting. John Oakes is one of the Bounds Green councillors and puts it well:"Bounds Green station is a beautiful example of the art-deco design ...
Not good news about Muswell Hill Library - promised plans to refurbish Muswell Hill Library and provide vital disabled access that were due to take place this year have been postponed yet again by Haringey Council. As my colleague Gail Engert (Muswell Hill ward) put it:"Muswell Hill Library is in a lamentable state with wallpaper hanging off the walls, toilets in an unacceptable condition and the top floor not accessible to disabled residents. Residents and local Liberal Democrat councillors have been campaigning for years to have this listed building returned to a fit state and accessible to all. "Yet again ...
Well, this is hardly going to get me into the Top 10 Lib Dem Blogs, but what the hell... In a previous life, I was a Marketeer. With a conscience only limited by the vague ethical system inherited from my parents, I was willing to sell everything from cakes to contraceptives. Indeed, with the exception of the Tory Party, I think I could market and promote anything without too many moral and ethical quibbles. And, if I say it myself, I was rather good at it. I still get the industry paper, 'Marketing' whenever I pass a WH Smith. With ...
We were out in Finsbury again last week - highlighting the threat to local health services from the proposed closure of Finsbury Health Centre. We ended up in the nearby Eagle pub on Farringdon Road (London's first gastropub). The old nursery rhyme Pop goes the weasel talks about 'going up & down the City Road, [...]
Journalists of the Press Gallery have started their annual search for the best young political writers of tomorrow in a competition designed to encourage students to voice their views on government and politics. The winners are invited to tour the Houses of Parliament and meet leading politicians and political journalists. The topics for this [...]
Being of a sensitive disposition, I nearly choked on my Earl Grey this morning. I can't remember why, but I found myself looking at Stephen Glenn's Facebook profile and saw that he had two blogs, the second having the seemingly provocative name of nippledom.blogspot.com. Well, I just had to have a look. I suspected that I was on fairly safe territory, but even if I hadn't been, my curiosity would have got the better of me. The blog itself, although entertaining, is not quite as exciting as it sounds. It's all about Northern Irish Professional People Living Elsewhere! I remembered ...
The Independent revealed that a lot of MP's have other jobs and this got me thinking... Many MP's who have second jobs either work as a columnist or a political annalist or editor of some sort. The main issue is that Party Activists like my self and many other people who have blogs keep writing and getting their thoughts to the people yet they lack the big pay packet that MP's get for exactly the same thing. MP's get paid to do things like writing books, Columns and Blogs yet we write more interestingly then them yet don't get the ...
Many people including Nick Robinson from the BBC are talking about the silence from Jack Straw following the Labour Party loosing in another By Election. So i thought i would do a post about it too. Jack Straw is the person that if Brown was too step down and call a Leadership Election would most likely be the person to take Brown's place. Normally if the prime Minister is under the spotlight Straw is fast to support the prime minister but not this time. The PM is under a lot of pressure from rebels and from the Conservatives to either ...
If I worked for Kit Kat's marketing department I would be preparing the campaign right now. According to an ABC News blog, a private conversation between David Cameron and Barack Obama was picked up by a microphone. The two politicians were heard discussing the need to take a break. Here's an extract - "Do you have a break at all?" asked Cameron. "I have not," said Obama. "I am going to take a week in August. But I agree with you that somebody, somebody who had worked in the White House who -- not Clinton himself, but somebody who had ...
Our prime minister is certainly doing his bit for the Union by spending his summer holiday in Southwold. As the town's website says, "Southwold is a quintessentially English resort town". It is also "charming", as that website claims. By contrast, Aldeburgh, just down the coast, is rather a bleak place and would not be such a tourist destination were it not for the Festival and the Britten connection in general. But, in line with the view of Englishness held by this blog, Southwold has its sinister side too. This was brilliantly brought out by Peter Greenaway in his film Drowning ...
The coda to this news story made me giggle. Some dude got drunk and shot his lawnmower with a sawnoff because it wasn't working. The response of the local lawnmower salesman?A local retailer said that Mr Walendowski might now have difficulty getting his lawn mower repaired. "Anything not factory recommended would void the warranty," said Dick Wagner, of Wagner's Garden Mart in Milwaukee.
At a Lib Dem Conference a few years ago, a Prominent Liberal Democrat told me with glee that Iain Duncan Smith had recently visited his constituency. While he was there, I was told, IDS had his car broken into and a briefcase was stolen. What struck me was the gleeful attitude of the Prominent Liberal Democrat. He was not pleased that IDS had been the victim of a crime, but he was delighted that he had been caught not obeying police advice by leaving the briefcase in his car where it could be seen. Behind this was the implication that ...
Season five of The Wire began last week on FX. For those that don't know, this is the last season of the police-based drama. It can be seen every Monday at 9pm. I have posted about the show before. Each season has looked at a different institution: the police, the unions, government, schools and in the last season the media. Its creator, David Simon, says the show is about the death of America. I am not so sure but who am I to argue? For me, it is about the problems we all face and our valiant, if doomed, attempts ...
... than agreeing with Rod Liddle. Stupid Any Questions. That is all.
Gordon Brown has, I believe, already left for his summer break. Then again, if I had written this post a few days ago it would have been highly unlikely that he would have read it. After all, there ar e a lot of other people giving him advice right now. So if it was a pointless blog then, it is even more pointless now. But for all that, here are my suggestions for his summer reading. The Political Brain by Drew Weston Weston is clinical psychologist and Democrat. His book explains the part emotion plays when people cast their vote. ...
well on this post i am going to tell you about something that i so which i think is ridiculous and very shameful for me being a resident of Whitefield. Nelson Area Committee and Nelson Town Council both are chaired by Cllr George Adam's yet on the streets of Pendle we fight dead rats. Well the town council is only starting so that can be an exception to a certain limit but the fact that the Chair of a council and a committee is doing nothing for the town and the town still has dead rats lie in on the ...
High Profile Labour Party members are saying to Back Bench MP's who want Brown to hold a leadership election to "grow up". I am totally against the comments made by the high profile Labour as everything is laid out on the table they does need to be a new Government and to make that change the Labour Party have to option one is to have a leadership election and choose a new Leader and Prime Minister. The second option they have is to make Brown call a General Election and let the people decide if they want Labour or Brown ...
I've just come back from a trip to Paris. One of the striking things is how easy the public transport system is. the Metro is regular and cheap; for instance it's about a quid a trip - and that's across the centre. On some stations there is even piped music. How's that! Bristol I understand doesn't ahve the geological structre to make a metro viable. Yet we could probably do more with light rail. There is a freight line across and over Horfield - Southmead. A no brainer to explore passenger options. Especially for Mem ground - match day traffic. ...
I aten't dead. I would proclaim I've been busy, but that'd be a lie—I've been doing stuff (currently revamping and adding content to the local constituency site—nowhere near finished) but mostly I've been reading, playing Starcraft and doing stuff with SB. Just lost the need to post at the moment. Ah well. In lieu of actual content, I thought I'd do a meme, might break the block... The instructions are quite simple: You bold the things you've done!So I thought I'd add some commentary to some of them, no idea how many yet, there are 200 of the things... 01. ...
I suppose that depends of whose shoes. The dire predicament will leave Labour members wondering just what can be done to restore their party's fortunes. That is assuming they have not become resigned to defeat and relearning the arts of opposition.It seems some are preparing for just that eventuality, and preparing to do it big style by adopting the left wing drivel that kept Labour out of power
I'm pleased to report a positive response from Torbay Council to my concerns over the Facebook beach party that never was - see below. The real problem was the publicity the local newspaper gave the e...
... I link you to cabalamat2, who has stolen the thoughts out of my brain, again.
Now we all knew, at least within Lib Dem circles, that Ross Finnie was away on holiday and that he wasn't going to formally announce his candidacy for the Lib Dem leadership until after the Glasgow East by Election but to do so yesterday with part of his message seemed rather amiss. In fact I myself missed it completely until I looked at this morning's papers, sorry Ross. However, his launch
I am currently sitting on platform 3 of Newcastle Central Station waiting for the train to London (which remarkably has not been cancelled by National Express!) My early return is due to my attendance tonight at a concert by a Miss Kylie Minogue, a provider of popular light music. So I'm off to the 02 for some entertainment. It could not have been more badly timed. This is the final weekend of
I got up this morning to be greeted by Malc's second take on Glasgow East, in it he concentrates on the Liberal Democrat showing, or lack thereof, in the vote. Now I know my recent return en force to the Scottish Blogosphere had a minor seismic (yes the Nats don't own the word) effect on the Scottish scene. First many of the other party bloggers started to comment on my blog, then add me to
An email arrives at LDV Towers reminding party members that: For those of you who have yet to register for the federal party conference in Bournemouth, please note the next price increase is fast approaching. Sign up before 31st July for the advance booker rate of £89. The late booker and on site registration rate will [...]
American public radio were interested in a story that went national over here and it has now been braodcast State side.It's the story headlined - Denied Treatment, UK Vet stands up for liberty. http:/...
As I type the TV is reporting Barrack Obama's visit to 10 Downing Street. Because the Prime Minister's meeting with John McCain was low key the same arrangements need to be applied to the Democrats' presumptive nominee. This means that there are no rallies, no joint press conferences and no opportunity for the sheen of power to rub off onto a politician seeking to establish himself in the public's affections, namely Gordon Brown. In many ways this is just as well, the contrast might have been just too great. On the one hand there would have been a popular left-of-centre ...
The Western Mail's piece on where Assembly Members will be spending their summer holidays is as predictable and dependable as the first cuckoo in spring. It is the first sign that summer is here. It appears that we are all going green or at least are trying to make it look as if we are environmental friendly. There also seems to be an effort not to be too extravagant in the face of widespread belt-tightening due to soaring fuel and food prices. Of course this only applies to the 26 AMs who responded to Matt Withers' survey. Nobody knows what ...
Whilst outside yesterday just getting some sun as the weather was good i come a cross something very unusual. A man walked past and called me and my friend a bunch of "liberal cowboys". Well the question i would like to get an answer to is he some one who reads this blog or is he someone who hasn't yet discovered irfanahmed TV. As that would explain to him that we are not the cowboys its the labour party who dreamed of knocking a large part of whitefield down and not the lib dems or me and my friend who ...
In recent months, I have had a number of complaints from residents about the condition of the road at the junction of Hillside Road and Glamis Road. As this junction is the only entrance to Hillside Road, Hillside Drive, Hillside Place and Hillside Terrace it gets a considerable amount of traffic, and I have therefore raised this concern with the City Council. The City Engineer has now responded in the following terms : "The Roads Maintenance Team is aware that the carriageway surface in Hillside Road and particularly the junction, is less than ideal. "It has been assessed for possible ...
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The Conservatives won in the Muxton Ward by-election on Telford and Wrekin Council.
What concerns me about this trial is that tenuous medical evidence which is insufficient to convict was allowed to get to the stage of charging and prosecution. I suggested to the previous Attorney General that they needed some people in the CPS with scientific training to check the expert evidence. This as usual raises the question as to how much money has been made by the experts giving
Barack Obama needs to be very careful. I see that ABC News reports that he has now received an "all but" endorsement from President Sarkozy of France. This is the last thing Obama needs. I suspect there are still people in backwoods America talking about "cheese eating surrender monkeys" even now. "Obviously one is interested in a candidate looking towards the future rather than the past" - was
Er... anyone find this pic slightly bizarre? {obama-plane_781580c.jpg} Perhaps I'm not quite with the programme. Did I miss a meeting? Perhaps Barak Obama IS YOUR NEW BICYCLE
Again, I'm starting a new post to respond to some very interesting comments by Tim Carpenter. My inept attempt at a Drupal template means it's almost possible to follow a thread of comments and especially given this is going to be another long response I think it deserves an airing on its own. For anyone coming new to this debate, it follows on from my original "three point plan" for equity and economic justice and some clarifications and responses I gave yesterday to comments on that original by Tim Carpenter, Head of Policy at the Libertarian Party UK. Tim, thanks ...
The Dark Knight? Everything I could have hoped for and more. It was bum-numbingly long, but I can't think of a single scene that I would cut. I am having difficulty with that whole coherent thought thing. And... (for those of you reading on LDV, with their silly HTML-stripping? WARNING! HERE BE SPOILERS!) - Tommy Lee Jones is still MY Two-face, but holy hell was the make-up/CGI/whatever-the-fuck-they-did-to-Aaron-Eckhart was amazing. It's been a long time since I was seriously impressed, SERIOUSLY impressed by something in a film, but it happened tonight. - Gary Oldman? You rule. - I got my hopes ...
All day I have thinking what I could say about the latest by-election. Certainly everybody else has put in their two pence worth. Well, Nick hasn't said anything of course, best to keep your head down when your candidate loses his deposit and you are beaten into fourth place by the Tory in a Labour strong hold....... But that's just the side show. The real action is second guessing what this will do to our PM. You could see the political reporters, pencil at the ready ( err should that be laptop at the ready), eager to hear dark plans ...
