{chris-huhne.jpg} Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrats Shadow Home Affairs Secretary recently announced radical plans to tackle youth crime. The dual approach aims to stop young people committing crimes in the first place by enabling them to play a full role in society through increased training and volunteering, as well as stopping criminal behaviour early by making young offenders face up to their crimes.The main proposals contained in the paper A Life Away From Crime include: Ø The creation of a Youth Volunteer Force, to engage with young people, involve them in community projects and give them skills to benefit them ...
Ian Swales and Glynis provide the entertainment whilst the Yorkshire Ridings' Society and Redcar Ladies Lifeboat Guild sell white roses to raise funds for Redcar Lifeboat. Glynis recites 'The Council Cat' by HB Whitehead, whilst granddaughter Charlotte listens in.
A happy Lammas to all of you at home, and what better time to look at a Doctor Who story set over Lammas Eve? It's dark, scary and full of bitchy workplace arguments, so it must be a British Summer. Tom Baker stars in a very fine sci-fi ghost story with a clever script packed with Hammer horror, subverted expectations and character names that pop up all over the new series. So why is it that most discussions about Doctor Who: Image of the Fendahl centre on how the Doctor gets through a door? Spoilers and arcane detective work follow... ...
Who is that guy behind the Mayor? Could it be George Dunning Labour Leader of Redcar & Cleveland Council wearing a white rose? Wonders will never cease. Picture by Cllr Val Halton. Lib Dems on parade. Third right. Cllr Margaret Wilson, Cllr Irene Curr, Cllr Mary Ovens. Centre, in front of flag, Cllr Madge Moses, flanked by her son and daughter-in-law. Picture by Cllr Val Halton. Chris and Glynis carry the flag. Picture by Cllr Val Halton. The Lib Dem Chain Gang. Just some of the Lib Dem Mayors, Mayoresses and former Mayors pictured in the grounds of Guisborough Priory. ...
Today was rather frenetic in this sleepy village. Desk work and feeding chickens. My friend has gone off to see his father in Bedfordshire. So I'm left with Chickens, ducks, geese and three cats to feed. I quite enjoy it. Him and his wife are fantastic people. We have a weekly Bible study in there house. Has not been on recently. Its moved to Narberth at the Old Court house. I quite like it a few doors down from me. But having to go to Narberth for it. I lack conviction at this moment in time. I hope God can ...
Printed song lyrics are rarer than they used to be. Who remembers when they appeared on the inner sleeve of vinyl LPs? With the advent of music downloads, that small pleasure is now history. New research published by the National Year of Reading campaign suggests that people's appreciation of songs is affected by a lack of accessible lyrics. According to the survey: "Despite a staggering 90% of respondents feeling that reading lyrics helped them gain a full appreciation of music, half (50%) felt they were less accessible than just five years ago. 62% of respondents felt that despite the huge ...
A wonderful day, celbrating all that is good about Yorkshire. Part of our Stockton Borough (south of the river Tees) is in Yorkshire for "civic and ceremonial purposes", so there we were on behalf of Thornaby, Ingleby Barwick and Yarm. I have never seen such a magnificent display of civics heads, and it is good to be able to celebrate our wonderful countryside, natural resouces, wealth making...
There are some fascinating and imaginative murals by various local schools on the hoardings around the Health Centre building site at Yate Shopping Centre. They're well worth looking at - this photo shows just some of them. Maybe we need more local spaces for art - for older people as well as children? What do you think?
{NI2ID Logo} Thales, the successor to Thomson CSF, has won the first contract to start the design process for the National Identity Register which will be the more sinister side of the whole ID card system. For those of us committed to opposing ID cards and the NIR at every opportunity and wanting a way to boycott suppliers this presents a challenge. Many of the possible suppliers of course are not ones with big "brand names" you can easily boycott. Thales itself is mostly a government contractor, making war machines. And they are nearly a quarter owned by the French ...
Well, well. Here we go again. Not content with overlooking the existence of a key Olympics memo, forgetting that he spent £465,000 on consultants, both ruling out and also not ruling out North Kent as an airport location, both wanting a statue of Sir Keith Park on the fourth plinth and yet also not wanting [...]
Oops, Jeff at SNP Tactical Voting posting this earlier on and I just knew that the main argument from his opening paragraph had been used by other parties, not least by his new found best paid friend Alex Salmond. Sadly for him I am somewhat of a political anorak and hoarder of news clippings, leaflets etc. Sure enough a little digging and I found the quote I was looking for it was in the
...South East England European Region, hereby give notice of a recount, as required by Paragraph 5.3(g) of the European Selection Rules. Yes, we've had a withdrawal, and a replacement candidate is required. Luckily, we had runners-up, so a recount will take place. In fairness, the 'excitement' will be further down the list, so don't get too aerated... Once I have a result, I'll let you know...
Yesterday I attended the last Board meeting of the International Centre of Excellence for Local e-Democracy (ICELE). The Department of Communities and Local Government (CLG) brought it to an end in June - more about it here - and the last month has been spent tidying things up. I'm still desperately sorry that it has been closed down. For the last five years ICELE, and the National...
Sharp-eyed readers may have noticed that some recent blog entries have been written by Claire Young, while regular editor Paul Hulbert was away on holiday. Claire is the editor of our sister blog Focus on the Ladden-Frome Area, which covers the Charfield, Frampton Cotterell, Ladden Brook and Westerleigh wards of South Gloucestershire. Thanks for keeping things going, Claire, especially with major issues like the housing strategy around.
I thoroughly recommend the LibDem Voice members' survey which is accessible over at the LibDem Voice members' forum. The questions are very intelligent and relevant. However, one question, with its two possible alternative answers, had me having to contain an episode of apoplexy: And do you think Make it Happen's tax-cuts pledge is a tactically smart thing to promise, regardless of whether you
Welsh liberal Democrat Am and Soprano Eleanor Burnham has hit out at Welsh Labour's policies towards devolution for Wales. When we talk about Welsh devolution we do not mean Independence but de-centralisation of powers from Westminster and more law making powers being imbued to the Senedd in Cardiff. To the Philosopher Jean Jacques-Rousseau small is run more efficiently than big. He took his ideas by observing Swiss city states. This has also been the case for Wales since the Welsh Assembly came into being 11 years ago. The Assembly has been able to deliver policies which are more relevant to ...
The Liberal Democrat M.P. for Ceredigion consistently proves he is one politician who takes into consideration the issues which effect his local constituents . Mid-Wales' western seaboard county is one of the most beautiful counties in the UK. But it also lacks industry and relies on tourism. 52% of Ceredigions' residents are from outside of Wales. Mark has been campaigning about rural fuel prices. Which are more expensive than at urban petrol pumps. He told the Kite newspaper "I am disappointed, but not surprised, to see that Morrisons' petrol in Ceredigion is more expensive than their petrol elsewhere in the ...
Following discussions today regarding the Dundee Post Office closures announcement with the City Council's Depute Chief Executive (Support Services) in her role as the City Council's chief legal officer, I have sent out the following news release : NEWS RELEASE : Possible legal challenge to Post Office closures Dundee City Councillor for the West End, Councillor Fraser Macpherson, tonight revealed that he has been in talks with a senior City Council legal officer about the potential viability of mounting a legal challenge to the decision by Post Office Limited to close four Dundee Post Offices, including two in his own ...
The Duke Street rising (not) bollard is still shy: hiding away in its little hole in the ground. There is evidence of investigative work (after more than a month of waiting) with some cobbles having been dug up and replaced by tarmac. But repairs are still awaited. For a couple of days at the start of this week a temporary barrier was moved into place, but that didn't last long and yesterday and
Its now august so its time for the ten posts of the month for July. Here they are: Chinese Regime Instability Welfare Reform - the radical proposal Boris Johnson - prallack The Politics of Nudge - say no more Sharia Law, the BNP, and Irfan Ahmed Frank Field on the individual and the State Melanie Phillips thou art an ass Hezbollah and the terror list Come on Imperial. Give a bright boy a chance Bush splashes out on bush
With no Council meetings for the past couple of weeks, the main political activity has been in the ward. The latest North Road Focus (number 106) as usual stimulated a steady stream of phone calls and emails from constituents about local problems. During the past week I have been contacted about bus routes, litter, dog mess, anti-social behaviour, a dangerous wall, a planning appeal and the
Just a quick note to tell you that I'm going to be on Sky.com News again next Friday 8th August talking to Martin Stanford about the top web stories of the day! It's possible I may mention it again, sometime in the next week
The news that Barry George has been found not guilty of the murder of TV presenter Jill Dando is hardly a surprise and should be greeted by everyone with some knowledge of the case with relief, but also thanks that we do not have the death penalty in this country. There appeared to be so many holes in the prosecutions case against Barry George, not least of which was the fact that nearly all the police accusations against him turned out to be false. I was going to list the flaws in the case again Barry George, but Nation of ...
I like entertaining writing on politics and sometimes that is best done by people other than the usual political commentators, so I really enjoyed "Raise the dread flag" by Jesse Armstrong. This bit particularly; "...Gordon Brown is a wounded beast. Almost all you can hear when the prime minister speaks in public is a low wookie-moan of pain and regret."
Nick Clegg gave an excellent interview on the collapse of EdF's bid for British Energy on today's World at One. He welcomed the collapse as an opportunity to rethink the whole [energy] strategy instead of selling off British assets at a cut price to pursue its nuclear strategy. He also commented that, as I have argued in previous posts, there is simply not enough competition in the UK energy market with too much power concentrated in too few hands. Quite right!
Some time ago I BLOGGED to say that I believed there was a strong possibility that FCO Ministers had been given 'deniability' by civil servants, the secret intelligence service and US officials. Further pressure has now emerged on the Foreign Secretary David Miliband as he faces fresh claims that he was "duped by the US on a colossal scale" A former senior American official told Time magazine that in 2002 and possibly 2003, the US imprisoned and interrogated at least one terrorist suspect on the island.Mr Miliband has repeatedly denied claims the US has detained terror suspects on British territory.But ...
Nick Perry, Lib Dem parliamentary campaigner for Hastings & Rye, has welcomed Vince Cable's recent policy announcement on fuel poverty. Amongst other ideas, Lib Dems are demanding that energy companies use their £9bn windfall to mitigate the effects of price rises for our most vulnerable citizens. The windfall has been due to the giveaway of free [...]
Following the recent industrial action by local government workers on 16 and 17 July, a joint statement issued on 24 July has revealed that local government employers are willing to return to the negotiating table.Nick Perry, Lib Dem parliamentary campaigner for Hastings & Rye (a mental health social worker) who joined UNISON colleagues in the [...]
Cardiff UA, Pentyrch Con 554 (41.9; -7.8) Lab 542 (41.0; +10.2) PC 129 (9.8; -10.0) LD Alex Evans 97 (7.3; -0.6) [Ind (0.0; -7.1)] Majority 12 Turnout 48.2% Con hold Percentage change is since May 2008 Cherwell DC, Kirtlington Con Elected Unopposed (100.0; +26.6) [LD (0.0; -26.6)] Con hold Percentage change is since May 2006 Gateshead MBC, Whickham South and Sunniside LD John McClurey 1612 (
I want to be Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats because I believe I have the ability to drive the Party forward by making Liberal Democrat values and policies relevant to the people of Scotland. At present I believe our message has become blurred and lacks a distinctive Liberal Democrat edge. We lack a political narrative [...]
Look at Guido's graph of YouGov results of answers to the question of who would Labour be better off, GB or TB? I think its high time he turned his hand to campaign literature, I haven't seen a more brazenly manipulative graphic in ages!
Slogans and titles are tricky things. Does the title of the Liberal Democrats new policy and consultation document, 'Make it Happen', work? I'm not sure. They could have gone a bit more Trekkie and tried out 'Make it So'. But if the title is a bit dodgy, what of the contents? Not wanting to rush to judgement I have now read it for the second time and mulled it over and reached the conclusion
A modified version, but it still originated in the Guardian. The Register has the details. I take it this was written by bloggers, because as the main stream media are forever informing us, they are much more reliable...
Travel West Midlands (apparently know known as National Express West Midlands) is taking advantage of high fuel prices to try and encourage people to use buses. It is offering a free Daysaver ticket to local residents (only one per email address) and you can sign up here. You can find out where your nearest bus stop is and the bus timetable in the company's website here. Apparently average
Nick Clegg has a strongly argued piece in the Yorkshire Post on the Al-Yamamah case. One of the points he makes is that Al-Yamamah is still being investigated - but by the Americans, not by ourselves. And there is no sign that the Saudis are punishing the Americans for pursuing the case.
We tend not to be too poll-obsessed here at LDV - of course we look at them, as do all other politico-geeks, but viewed in isolation no one poll will tell you very much beyond what you want to read into it. Looked at over a reasonable time-span and, if there are enough polls, you [...]
Stockport Council Officers have prepared a "Community Strategy" document for the borough. This is currently in draft format - it hasn't been approved by councillors and is, quite rightly, going round all the area committees for comments. As Anna Triantis of AboutMyArea tells us, the Cheadle area committee (covering Gatley, Cheadle, Cheadle Hulme and Heald Green) had several comments, some of them not very polite! You can read Anna's report but I'll give you the summary. Councillors raised three issues with the document. First, the suggestion that green belt land might be built on. Brian Millard made clear that wasn't ...
To shamelessly steal burkesworks's (sadly f-locked) words: Happy Yorkshire Day to you all, even the Lancastrians. * dashes off to get ready for work *
I was having a quiet drink in the King William IV (Kensal Green, Brent) and there on the junction with Harrow Road and Warfield Road are three newish pieces of political contemporary comment - or graffiti as it is more fashionably and dismissively referred to. Now let's be clear - I loathe graffiti - it's destructive, mindless, scruffy, unecessary and when it becomes a plague, the effect on a local community can be quite debilitating. So when I saw these three I hesitated - all within 50 yards it causes you to pause and think - how do you define ...
The Government has been forced to drop adverts which implied newly qualified teachers could earn £34,000 a year when it was pointed out by the relevant authorities that this figure is wrong. The government believes that the best way to get people in to teaching is to tell them what they could earn after ten years and with added responsibility points rather than being honest about starting pay. It's like suggesting all MP's earn the same as the Prime Minister. Of course the government are not averse to telling regular lies about teacher pay, they've done it already once this ...
Sailing through the Bosphorus the other evening, with Europe on one side and Asia on the other, I wondered (not for the first time) exactly where Turkey is heading. So do many Turks. The events of the past week have included two terrorist bomb attacks in Istanbul and a judicial attempt to oust the democratically-elected government [...]
The Times reports that missing Lib Dem mega-donor Michael Brown has changed his name in an attempt to avoid detection... ...to Michael Campbell-Brown. Not exactly the most evasive of measures. Perhaps he became tired of sharing the Great Leader's tawdry surname.
The Financial Times reports: BAE Systems, the British arms manufacturer under investigation in several countries for alleged bribery, paid at least £20m to a company linked to a Zimbabwean arms trader allied to President Robert Mugabe, documents seen by the Financial Times show... The payments raise fresh questions about BAE's dealings with outside agents, intermediaries who sometimes act as brokers in arms deals. Agents have featured in investigations into whether BAE channelled bribes to foreign officials to win contracts. BAE refuses to provide details of its relationships with agents, although it has pledged to introduce reforms as part of an ...
Labour's attempts to cut off the flow of Conservative money into key marginal seats has hit a snag as the result of resistance from the Electoral Commission. The Government has proposed new legislation to restrict spending for a whole parliament, from the moment a candidate is adopted by the party, starts leafletting constituents or gives media interviews. No local candidate would get more than £12,000. In reality the idea was doomed to fail as parties would just have resorted to adopting candidates later and promoting them as campaigners instead. Nevertheless the Electoral Commission has raised a number of practical objections, ...
The BBC's iPM programme has picked up on the furore taking place on the net about NYT putting an article about the Blogher conference in the fashion and style part of the paper. Everyone from the Huffington Post to the BBC is now on the case! Hooray!Wha'ts more, the NYT have been dealing with the complaints in a particularly gauche manner. And why am I telling you about this again? Because it 'twas me that wrote into the iPM programme to tell them about the indignation springing up all over the blogosphere! BBC's iPM programme on Saturday evenings is a ...
Miss Wagstaff reports that due to a number of complaints from Labour party members [including a reasonably well-known UK blogger; a Labour Special Adviser; and a member of the National Assembly] and one from a member of Plaid Cymru her Facebook page has been erased. Her blog has also been blocked on Welsh Assembly Government computers. I wonder if they can still read mine. This level of paranoia does no credit to the One Wales Government. Are they really that worried about adverse comment that they might seek to suppress it soviet-style? It says a great deal about Labour and ...
Look at this oddity from Ananova. I think this is what the final scene of Animal Farm might have looked like: I think it might be Squealer as it looks a tiny bit like Molotov.
I've always had a lot of respect for Ed Balls. I think that the way he has established himself in the schools portfolio has been commanding, not allowing David Laws the sniff of a chance to embarrass the Government's bold reform plans. In particular, I would single out his fantastic leadership over the SATS marking issue. I think that this has firmly marked him out as the best possible replacement for the PM if he is forced out of office... OK, ok. I'll stop pretending. It's just that with Ed Balls in charge of Labour, they would fall behind the ...
Earlier this year, I mentioned that the 100th Anniversary of Blackness Library takes place this October. Click on the headline above to view the earlier story. I have now had an update from the Leisure & Communities Department, who inform me that the following activities are planned : A visit from the author of 'Robodog' - Frank Rogers Bill Dow, a local historian , will give a talk During the week a Toy Library will be launched A Celebration cake has been ordered from Goodfellow and Steven A number of displays by local groups will be on show A Celebration ...
The things have I have to put up with when working from home!
The Liberal Party of Andorra (Partit Liberal d'Andorra) has recently elected the third president of the LPD and the new Executive Committee, following its 16th National Congress.
Welcome back to Gavin Webb who is now back to describing himself as a Liberal Democrat (Libertarian)! The bird of Liberty flies high on his web site again! Trebles all round! The period of his suspension obviously expired without any serious move to expel him from the party (precious little evidence, I understand, had been presented on which to base a case) so he has now presumably reverted to
Imagine what it's like to be a Liberal Democrat prospective parliamentary candidate - tasked with leading and motivating a group of diverse volunteers against all the odds, and organising foot-slogging campaigns on a shoe-string budget that will get you and the party noticed. Lib Dem Voice contacted a dozen PPCs to find out what they really [...]
I have encountered a wide range of political responses to things, but yesterday's conference call with Michael Wills MP has to take the biscuit. Here we have a situation in which a Crown Dependency's police investigation has clearly found evidence of 5 children whose bodies have been disposed of unlawfully and concealed in a childrens home. We have a large number of witnesses to various forms
Well it did rain but the storm reached us a little later than predicted: Outside our front door The garden pond
MP's are urging Brown to sack Miliband after he started campaigning for a Leadership Election and the said he wasn't doing it. But now its clear that the young Miliband is out and about campaigning for the Leadership of the Labour Party election. Well two MP's have now called for Brown to sack David Miliband! Mr Miliband will be packing to go to his holiday's tomorrow and i think he should pack up his stuff from his office as he probably wont be getting a seat in the new Cabinet reshuffle as anyone who was leader if some one was ...
On 1st August 1908 the Old Age Pensions Act completed its parliamentary stages, the first step in the development of the modern benefits and welfare system by Asquith's Liberal government and the culmination of several decades of debate and lobbying for some provision to be made for the "deserving" poor in their old age. An alternative to the Poor Laws. On 1st January 1909 half a million or so people over 70 years old became entitled to a 5 shillings a week non-contributory payment administered via the Post Office. It was not universal; only 5% of people lived beyond 70 ...
Looks like Gordon has been rearranging stones on the beach in preparation for reshuffle and following on from yesterday's calls for the Foreign Secretary to be sacked David Miliband has be ordered to cancel a trip to India. Oh dear, it looks like the young buck has indeed been caught too much in the headlights while the boss is away. If he is being told to stay while a reshuffle is pencilled
Bath Liberal Democrats have given a cautious welcome to the Council's change of heart on the Lambridge Park and Ride. This follows the announcement that the preferred site for the east of Bath park and ride will be Mill Lane. However, they have urged the Council to use this proposed change to the Bath Transport Package to also reconsider the route of the Bus Rapid Transit scheme. Bath MP, Don Foster commented: "I have always opposed the Lambridge Park and Ride scheme. It would have cost a fortune, done nothing to reduce congestion and pollution on the London Road and ...
Your starter for 10: what do you think Labour's Emily Thornberry is getting upset about here? Labour MP for Islington South and Finsbury Emily Thornberry described the council's move as "absolutely outrageous and completely unjustified". She added: "They said they didn't need permission. It's extremely arrogant. "I'm concerned about the intrusion into people's private lives. It's a civil liberties issue." Sounds pretty serious. What on earth could Islington Council have been doing? Selling people's rent statements perhaps? Putting CCTV in people's back gardens? Naming and shaming those who don't vote, even? No - this "civil liberties issue" is a completely ...
No - this isn't a post about Miliband's hypocrisy. (Although I will say either Miliband is doing something sneaky to become the next Labour leader or he is so political naive as to not merit being the next Labour leader.) What this post is about is the publicise the think tank Progress and the recent series of green papers they have been publishing. Progress is to the Blairites (now the Milibandians) what Policy Exchange is to the Portillistas (now the Cameroons). I'm going to sit down and work my way through them to test them for consistency. As consultation documents ...
So it's time, I had one last look about half an hour ago and soon it will be gone.. ..I will miss it, as it's been part of me for the last ten months, but I need to move on....... to let it go. Actually to be honest I never liked it all that much. I mean it did the job, looked okay, but let's face it. It never really made a difference. Yep it's bye, bye to my web page! The strange thing is, I set it up for the PPC campaign which as you know, ( of course ...
British Gas owner Centrica has announced it is to raise gas prices by 35% and electricity prices by 9% with immediate effect. The move comes just a few days after rival EDF Energy put up gas prices by 22% and electricity prices by 17%, with other firms expected to follow suit. Watchdog Energywatch said it believed the 35% gas bill rise was the biggest single increase in the price of a utility seen to date.British Gas, which has 15.9 million customers, also announced that its profits for the first half of the year were down by 69% to £166m. The ...
The Joint Committee on the Government's Constitutional Reform Bill have suggested the reforms need work but are a decent step in the right direction. A great deal of the reforms are merely making existing traditions and recent precedents statutory. The lifting of the ban on protests in Parliament Square is hardly a "reform" but a repeal. In this post I discuss the necessity of a codified constitution alongside special arrangements for its amendment and also suggest a slightly novel method for the implementation of such. What is a constitution? On a simple level it is a move from the abstract ...
