It is pouring down and am I keen to set off on the regular "Estate walkabout" with Council officers around the Council estate. Frankly - no. However it was a chance to wear my new "Tilley Hat" bought last week in The Dales. Excellent it was too, and kept my hair and face as dry as could be. It was useful to walk round in the pouring rain as it showed up clearly where drains were blocked,...
Tue 12th
23:16
Jo, silence doesn't imply apathy, it might just imply that I don't need to waste my time repeating w...
I have a lot of time for Jo Christie-Smith. So much, in fact, that I encouraged her to apply for the selection of a PPC for Dulwich & West Norwood whilst I was running to be Chair of the Local Party. We haven't always agreed on the best route towards making our Prospective Parliamentary Candidates more reflective of our society (she is rather more interventionist than I am) and I remember a
Right?
The BBC has expressed shock and sadness at more lying from the Chinese Olympic organisers. This time, they have admitted that the charming little girl who awed viewers of the opening ceremony with her singing was actually miming to the voice of another, less photogenic child. Asked why, the "show's musical director said Lin [Miaoke] was used because it was in the best interests of the country". Well, that explains it, then! At least, it explains the socialist/conservative mindset that pervades China and most of the rest of the world. It is surprising how often the "National Interest" corresponds with ...
The Licensing Authority met this evening to consider the Mix Grill application to run an all-night cafe in the Crown Colonnade, on Cemetery Junction. Along with nine or so residents, I had written to express local people's concerns on noise, anti-social behaviour, odour. I spoke at the the meeting along with two residents from neighbouring properties, making these points and quizzing the cafe on what they were going to do about the potential problems. A representative from Police was there, and objected on the basis of potential disorder, and officers from environmental protection spoke and objected on noise / waste ...
A date for your diary - the next Lee Green Ward Assembly will take place on Monday 15th September at 7pm at Lochaber Hall, Manor Lane Terrace. See you there!
Dominic Grieve has pledged that the Tories will give the police more unregulated surveillance powers if they win the next election. After David Davis won his fatuous by-election victory at Haltemprice & Howden, I wrote: Dominic Grieve, who has taken Davis's job in the Tory shadow cabinet, has an honourable record of fighting for liberty in the Commons. Yet you sense he is a good lawyer who has done the best he can with the brief he has been given. If the balance of power in that shadow cabinet changes or David Cameron changes his mind about where advantage lies, ...
I've resisted the urge to title this post "My Streetcar Desire" because I used that in a printed copy of Focus back in 2007 when we launched our campaign to bring a car club to Lee Green*. But my desires have been sated, and we now have a car club (run by Streetcar) in Lee Green! Car clubs are a great alternative to individual car ownership. The car's there when you need it, but you don't have the overheads of car ownership. Users say they think more carefully before using the car - which reduces unnecessary trips, and of course ...
The article of the day is John Kampfner's piece about the death of the husky-hugging side of David Cameron. It begins: These were words to gladden the heart. "Wealth is about so much more than pounds or euros or dollars can ever measure. It's time we admitted that there's more to life than money. It's time we focused not just on GDP, but on GWB - general well being." This was David Cameron, 2006 vintage. His speech to the Google Zeitgeist conference suggested a new set of political and economic priorities. He spoke of a "passionate desire for capitalism with ...
{exam-papers.jpg} During the run up to 1997 General Election, Tony Blair placed Education at the heart of Labour Party Agenda, but I just wonder what appears to have gone wrong. I can remember his words ringing out loud and clear "Education, Education, Education"! Now, the education system is in crisis. The latest crisis has been announced tonight by the Schools Minister, Jim Knight. He said that expected delays in the marking and appeals to push back publication of the annual school league tables. "I think it's likely that they won't be published at the same time as last year - ...
{Mr Nick Clegg} Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg recently launched the party's Make it Happen document, which is a statement of the party's vision and values.'Make it Happen' sets out in clear language the party's position on important issues such as the economy, taxation and the health service. You can read Make it Happen by clicking here.
The planning department have now received a revised version of the Northbrook School planning application - it's available to view on the Council planning website here I understand the deadline for comments is officially the 26th August. I have asked if this can be extended, given the time of year, but apparently the 21 days the Council have given is an extension of the usual 14 days, so the Plannign Dept aren't prepared to extend further. I have, however, been assured that any comments received after the 26th will still be considered up to the day of the planning meeting. ...
This picture shows the contemporary interior of the Senedd in Cardiff Bay. Well well.....the latest saucer of milk for newspaper readers to lap up! This is one of the reasons I hardly ever watch TV anymore! Todays big stunt is the Expenses Assembly members take. The Beeb made a FOIA act request to the Assembly Commission for the Expenses that its elected members have taken out in the last year. I have not seen the detailed FOIA act. I'm also wary of second hand information. Lets get to the crux. M.P.'s earn £61,820 per annum. while Assembly members earn £50,692. ...
I wish to retract the congratulations I gave to Indesit for their customer service back in January. Since then my Indesit BAN144NF fridge/freezer has broken down twice more. Firstly I need to explain how this fridge/freezer works. Unlike a conventional fridge with separate chilling, it works by using a fan to circulate cold air from the freezer into the fridge section. The engineer who came in
The Inverness Chronicle has a very full report on the funeral of Lord Russell-Johnston, including the full eulogy delivered by Lord Steel, of which this is the first few sentences: Russell would not have wanted this to be a sad or over-solemn occasion. Yet we are all left still with a sense of shock at his sudden departure. Judy and I had spent our last evening with him before setting off on a
I am sorry OK. I didn't know when I ran polling day in the Goresbrook Ward in Barking and Dagenham on 13 May 1999, when we gained the seat from Labour that the winner Liam Smith would go on to defect to Labour. I certainly didn't know he would end up being cautioned for saying to a 60 year old woman 'shut up you f***ing fat dyke'
Pretty damn cool HT: Ben Goldacre
The Birmingham Post reports on the Liberal Democrats and their targetting of three parliamentary seats in Birmingham: Liberal Democrats are gunning for Home Office Minister Liam Byrne after party leader Nick Clegg named his Birmingham seat as a key target in the West Midlands. Mr Clegg has ordered his party to divert resources away from Conservative-held constituencies and focus on 50
Not, perhaps, my greenest headline, but a reflection of my day. I'm sitting here watching the television. Well, not the television, technically, but the box it's lurking in. Or rather looming in, as it's quite a large TV set, with even the box for its stand pretty humungous. Having rented a big telly for years, we finally decided it's much cheaper to buy and so I recently accompanied Richard to John Lewis for ninety minutes of merriment with a man from Grace Brothers as we decided on a set and he pretended to know how to operate their order system. ...
On Channel 4 News they interviewed a foreign issues advisor to Barack Obama on the issue of the war in Georgia. He spoke of how the West had acted too late. That we should have used UN structures months ago to get both sides to talk. He said with the right use of these structures, war could have been avoided. He's probably right, it was quite obvious these problems were escalating but European countries and the US Government did nothing about it. Because we acted late it meant we were left with not that much we could do. It's just ...
Bill Emmott is a former editor of the Economist. As well as generally knowing his economic onions, he is an expert on the economies of India, China and Japan. His article today in the Guardian is most welcome: Crisis, what crisis? Enough kerfuffle it's just a slowdown. He sums up my feelings with this passage: The only statistics that point strongly in a downward direction are those for bank
Following Ian Oakley'sconviction for a vile campaign of criminal damage, harassment and vile abuse, LibDem spokesman Ed Davey called upon David Cameronto hold an inquiry into the procedures and activities of the Watford Conservative Party. Today we got Cameron's answer. Asked what action he was taking to ensure such people could not be selected as candidates in future, the Conservative leader is quoted by the Press Association as saying: "There are certainly procedures in place to get a new candidate in Watford. Clearly what this individual did was completely unacceptable. He is no longer the candidate, he is no longer ...
The problem with all this CCTV footage purporting to show Madeleine McCann in Brussels (no doubt as part of an EU plot), is that for a five year old she seems remarkably tall. Is it just me or does the child in the footage look about eight? Share This
We've just had a postcard from my brother Phil & family, camping in the Lake District. For the climate campers at at Kingsnorth it was less a holiday, more a protest. As the Guardian reports, environmentalists are targeting Kingsnorth because its owner, the German energy group E.ON, want to build a new coal plant there [...]
I feel sorry for Tom Daley. A few months ago we thought it almost miraculous that a 13-year-old could qualify for an Olympic final. A few months later he is 14, the press has made the mistake of believing its own hype and as a result he is treated as a failure for not having won a medal. But I did like Sam Wollaston's take on synchronised diving in the Guardian this morning: It's clear that no one understands the scoring, not even the people doing it. A dive by the German pair gets four and a half out of ...
This all seems a bit bonkers at first. Mining old rubbish dumps for plastic. But, listening on Radio Two to a fellow from one of the companies pioneering this business, it all made sense. Good luck to them.
I think I just heard George Monbiot's head explode. From Justin at Chicken Yoghurt: A liberal mind-hammer How's this for messing with liberals' heads... The US military have embraced renewable energy, specifically, wind turbines... To power Guantanamo Bay. (Via Greenpeace UK's Twitter feed)
Or on game shooting at least. From September 2005: Nor even does pheasant shooting, where each man arrives with a small army of loaders, valets and cartridge boys, appeal to me.No, give me the Rutland partridge: shoot at this fellow and he will take cover and fire back. That's what I call good sport.
With all the recent interest in local television, Peter Williams of United for Local Television and an adviser to Scottish Local TV Federation, has written an excellent piece, published today on the "Broadcast" site. You can read it by clicking on the headline above.
We are now counting down the months to the end of the oil era - the age of convenient, cheap and abundant oil-fueled energy that has made the World we know today. This evolving energy crunch will shake the World to its foundations and bring almost unimaginable change over the next five years. Ajusting to a post-oil [...]
The French National Front, led by Jean-Maire Le Pen is the equivalent to our BNP. However their a bit more popular. Le Pen got 10% of the vote in the 2007 Presidential election. He's campaigned under the slogan "Keep France for the French". There is good news. The National Front has huge debts of 9million Euros (£7mn). It's so desperate it just sold it's national headquarters to a Chinese University! How Ironic.
The little girl who starred at the Olympic opening ceremony was miming and only put on stage because the real singer was not considered attractive enough, the show's musical director has revealed. This reveals how sick the Chinese Government are. They have put so much pressure for perfect olympics, that sick things like this happen. It's a disgrace, that the real singer couldn't sing as was thought not attractive enough. It's perfection at an unnatural height.
The Evening Post has reorganised its website and consequently a lot of older links on this site no longer work - clicking on them just takes you through to their home page. The Gazette has reorganised too, but in their case you just get an error message. We've also had to take the Evening Post headlines feed off the sidebar because their feed no longer gives the complete addresses. We've written to them about it. The Gazette headline feed does work, however. Apologies to our regular readers. Update 12 August - We have removed the Evening Post dead links. The ...
Over recent months, the Labour government has been tightening up the surveillance society in which Britons live. At the beginning their excuse was that this was to protect us all from terrorism. But with government encouragement, local authorities are now using surveillance techniques to snoop on people for a whole range of matters that have [...]
{puppetry-workshop.jpg} The Arts Forum Festival presenting an action packed programme including the Rocky Horror show; Street Dancing; and Hula Hoop Workshops. There is something for all of the family. There is a month of artistic events including workshops, performances, exhibitions, film and installations across North East Lincolnshire. This event showcases local, national and international talent with something for everybody. Various charges throughout the festival apply. Events include: A thousand Cranes by Fusion Youth Theatre; A Tribute to Atlantic Jazz; Battle of the Band's Final; Comedy Night, Dance with MOTHER; Film Night with the Rocky Horror Picture Show; etc. Workshops include: ...
I thought as I was making myself unpopular anyway I would get everyone's hatred towards me out in one fell swoop. Not a bright idea this close the LDV blog awards true, but I am nothing if not brave. Here goes. Dr Who. Why? It's effing dreadful. I have always avoided it due to some unconscious childhood incident that put me off but they seem to show nothing but on BBC America so have felt compelled to view a few episodes. It's shit. The writing is close to bloody awful and the acting is embarrassing. I thought David Tennant was ...
I only ask, because I'm wondering how many men woke up to the Today programme to hear that the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) had been reducing rape victims compensation if they had been consuming alcohol before the event and felt so strongly that this was an outrage that they had to do something about it? If a blogger they might choose to blog about it, or perhaps, a man might start up a conversation about it with other men or women, say, after Georgia and the Olympic Games had been dealt with? I'm only aware of one male blogger ...
This post has been influenced by Sajjad Karim Fans. I don't understand why this cross party fan club of Sajjad Karim have this "Wow" about Saj Karim. Mentioning his name to these disciples is like telling them a holy story or pointing them to the straight light but i am not fooled by this man who has no policies or beliefs. His Disciples say he has through his work at the EU done many deals for Pakistan as he is ethnically a Pakistani but i don't think that is true. In Pakistan at the moment the status of the economy ...
That's how one retailer in the Indoor Market described how he felt today when I went down to canvass views on the new Tesco store. I've known some of these guys for 20 years or more, during which time the Indoor Market has been allowed to deteriorate to become a shadow of its former glory. At the moment, with household budgets under pressure, we're all suffering from a significant fall in
{peoples-park.jpg} A further week of action began in the Grimsby yesterday, and this is North East Lincolnshire Council's third consecutive week in a row following on from the successful East Marsh and West Marsh weeks of action. This particular week has been timed to coincide with the 125th anniversary of the park. To kick off the fun, town centre police officers got into full Victorian garb and patrolled the newly-refurbished People's Park. The week will continue with a host of events - all aimed at cutting down on crime and anti-social behaviour in the area surrounding the park. Coun Andrew ...
Several days late, maybe, yet I can still report that think tank Reform made Chris Huhne their "Reformer of the Week" (last week). Our Home Affairs shadow won the title "for saying that prison should be a 'last resort' for young offenders. Pointing out that three quarters of children who are sent to prison go on to commit new and more serious offences, Mr Huhne drew attention to the folly of spending vast amounts of money on locking up children when resources could be better used for preventative measures which work better." I have previously pointed out how the think ...
There are a few news reports around expressing consternation that the firework 'footsteps' from the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony were faked. Expect a) on NBC at least, they said they were fake when they were showing them and b) unless your last experience of CGI effects was Dire Straits' Money for Nothing video then they were obviously computer generated!
{vince-cable-mp.jpg} The UK's annual rate of inflation rose to 4.4% in July, its highest level since records began in 1997. The 0.6% rise was also the biggest monthly change since records began and took the figure to more than twice the government's target. The rise in the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) was more than expected, with food prices up a record 13.7% on the year. Inflation as measured by the Retail Prices Index (RPI) - often used in pay negotiations - rose to 5% from 4.6%. Therefore, we can expect greater pressure from Trade Unions when it comes to pay ...
{annette-brooke-mp.jpg} Commenting on today's SATs results for 14 year olds, Liberal Democrat Children Spokesperson, Annette Brooke said: "Ministers have once again failed to meet their own targets. After three years of secondary education, thousands of pupils are not reaching the expected level in key subjects. "It's a disgrace that on the day the results have been published, many schools will still not yet have received their marked papers. "The shambles surrounding the marking of this year's tests undermines the credibility of these results. The Government must waive the re-marking costs to schools for this year's exams. "These tests taken by ...
A quick plug for the Liberal Democrat Blog of the Year Awards, which will be handed out at our party conference in September, and which this year include a new category for non-Lib Dems, "Best non-Liberal Democrat politics blog", which will be voted on by readers of Liberal Democrat Voice. Nominations need be emailed to ecampaignteam {at} libdems.org(.)uk var mailNode = var linkNode = document.createElement('a'); linkNode.setAttribute('href', tNode = document.createTextNode("ecampaignteam {at} libdems.org(.)uk"); linkNode.appendChild(tNode); linkNode.setAttribute('id', "emob-rpnzcnvtagrnz@yvoqrzf.bet.hx-70"); mailNode.parentNode.replaceChild(linkNode, mailNode); by the end of August. See my posting on Lib Dem Voice for more info, including the list of categories.
{Ming with Cupar Driving Instructors} Menzies Campbell with members of Cupar & District Driving Instructors protesting against the test centre's closure. North East Fife Liberal Democrat MP Menzies Campbell is continuing to fight against the closure of the Cupar Driving Test Centre and has again written to Jim Fitzpatrick the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport to press the case for keeping it open. Menzies Campbell said, "The Minister has informed me that the Cupar Test Centre will close on 30th September 2008 but I am not prepared to accept this without a fight. "I have called on the ...
A blog is only an opinionated wittering of one or many. With that in mind I have to say... ...I don't like it. By it, I of course mean the new Liberal Democrat main party site. {New Party Website} (Pic from Paul Walter) Like Paul, I have had a little sneaky. Unlike Paul, and it seems others, I don't like it. I had written why I don't like it but thought I would wait for it to go 'live' first and allow everyone to see it before I slagged it off, so as not to prejudice you all. I hope ...
If you've ever thought complaining was no use, read the inspiring outcome to the case of a rape victim who was treated shockingly by the Ministry of Justice's minions and refused to put up with it. Incredibly, she was told by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority that her £11,000 compensation would be slashed to £8,250... Because she'd been drinking before the attack took place. She mounted a legal challenge, and the authorities have now apologised, awarded her the full amount - and admitted the same disgusting approach in fourteen other cases. But why did it happen in the first place? ...
I am enjoying the BBC's coverage of the Olympic a lot. Being a teacher and it being the holidays, my daytime habits might have in the past involved me getting up at eleven, a visit to the gym interspersed with the ITV 2 repeat of Jeremy Kyle, Bargain Hunt and something about World War Two on UKTV History. But this holiday is very different. I am up at seven thirty when my one year old son wakes up (I actually had to wake him up at eight this morning), then wall to wall coverage with the red button of the ...
The Post Office has confirmed that five post offices in Bury will closed. This is after its period of "consultation" with local people on which post offices to close in Greater Manchester. The Lib Dem team in Bury have campaigned against the post office closure programme consistently for a number of years, and were successful in getting Bury Council to agree a "no closure" policy at a recent council meeting. The five post offices to close are: Elton, 73 Crostons Road, Bury, BL8 1LB Greenmount, 337 Holcombe Road, Greenmount, Bury, BL8 4BB Limefield, 293 Walmersley Road, Bury, BL9 6NX Rochdale ...
Prestwich today is making national press (or at leas the Daily Telegraph online!), with the story of Bury Council threatening to fine local residents who don't clean up graffiti on their property. Click here to read the story.
I have a new pet that might start doing posts from time to time on this blog. His name is the Political Monster and he is the bogeyman for the likes of Cameron and Brown. He hides under their beds to get their dark secrets and reveal them to the world. Here in Pendle he scares the pants of Politicians like Cllr Iqbal and Cllr Asjad Mahmood. Councillor Asjad is so scared of Political Monster that sometimes he doesn't speak out for his constituents as he is scared the Political Monster might get him. The Political Monster has a crack ...
The Conservative Leader David Cameron is hitting at the Government for wanting to axe Stamp Duty temporally. Well the conservative is wrong to say that at a time like this.Many Lib Dems might be saying that they shouldn't axe the Stamp Duty but i am not in that boat i believe it does need to be axed if we want to have any chance of getting our economy back to normal and stable. The Conservative gets paid enough and probably isn't going to be buying a home but if he was he would have enough money to pay for the ...
The news today confirming that 5 Post Offices will close in Bury, despite wide spread public opposition, is shocking but sadly not surprising. When the closures were first announced, there was total condemnation from all sides. The Post Office and the government claim to have engaged in a "consultation" since then, but today absolutely nothing has changed, and the five due to close are still going to close. Whilst I know that there's sometimes a difference between consulting with people and doing what they want, the universal opposition to these closures from people of all backgrounds and political persuasions has ...
This festival is well worth a visit.
Russia Today, for those who do not know is the Russian Government's "sponsored" World News Channel which gives The Kremlin's version of the news. For anyone who wants an example of one sided news without balance, facts or any real journalistic skills, then RT (Russia Today) is the channel to watch. Perhaps the most chilling is the way that British Journalist are employed by RT and appear to throw away anything they have ever learnt about fair and even handed journalism and instead report news which appears to have been typed out for them by Vladimir Putin's henchmen. For me, ...
Newcastle University student Xi Zhou and her boyfriend, Zhen Xing Yang, were savagely murdered in their home some time towards the end of last week. By chance my wife and I were served by Xi Zhou at the city centre restaurant where she worked only the Sunday before and we were both hugely impressed by her charm, vitality and efficiency. The BBC reports that her colleagues at the restaurant found her a 'joy to work with' which I can well believe. Near neighbours confirmed that they too had the highest possible opinion of the couple but were to upset to ...
Kashmir seems to be on the brink again. Today Indian security forces fired into a crowd that had gathered for the funeral of Sheik Abdul Aziz a prominent Kashmiri separatist leader who was shot dead yesterday, killing three people.
I have had a number of residents' complaints that the bushes along the pavement on the east side of Ninewells Avenue (see right) are badly overgrown. These are maintained by the local authority so I have contacted Dundee City Council about this, asking for the bushes to be trimmed.
Two text messages at stupid o'clock meant that my already-broken night's sleep was completely buggered. I am NOT in a good mood for work. Arse. Anyway, links and stuff: Why Abstinence Only sex education is a big crock of dangerous shite. The comments are well worth reading, if you have the time. There's some interesting genuine debate. Abby O'Reilly checks out virtual boyfriends on The F Word. Nominations still open in The Very Prestigious Blog Of the Year Awards. At the moment it's looking like we're goin g to have shortlists of four, unless some people nominate some more sexy ...
Over in Beijing the British men have finally set foot on a podium, ok a British man. And no not accidently as they slipped up moving past it to scurry off away from the chasing media hoardes. Having started the day in 4th place David Florence was leading with one man to come in the C1 Slalom event. However world number one Michal Martikan of Slovakia was last down and held on to his lead, leaving
There are vacancies within North East Lincolnshire for plots on various sites. · Beat the credit crunch and grow your own fruit and veg. · Be organic - know what you eat, grow what you eat! · Why join the gym get healthy exercise while you cultivate your plot. For more details on vacancies please contact Lesley Smith - Allotment Officer on 323394 or come to our stall at the Farmers Market this Friday 15 August.
31 October 08, 09:00 to 31 October 08, 16:00Funded through the Youth Opportunity Fund the young people's support service has 12 places for young people aged 13-19 to attend a free sport first aid course. This course is recommended for young people who would like to gain skills for the necessary first aid skills to deal with a whole range of Sporting injuries. This course is aimed at young people who are involved in sporting activities such as coaching and referees.Friday 31st October 20089.00 am - 4.00 pm@ Young People's Centre, 39 Heneage Road Lunch will be provided
27 October 08, 10:00 to 27 October 08, 13:00Funded through the Youth Opportunity Fund the young people's support service has 12 places for young people aged 13-19 to attend a free basic life saving skills first aid course.27th October 2008@ Young People's Centre, 39 Heneage Road 10:00 am - 1:00 pm
People's Park will play host to a number of activities on Sunday, August 17 to mark the reopening of the park to the general public and also to celebrate its 125th Birthday. Park Pride Day, which has primarily been funded and organised by North East Lincolnshire Council, is to be opened by Councillor Colin Eastwell, the Mayor of North East Lincolnshire, at 12pm. Visitors are welcome to sample the celebrations from 11am to 4pm. Alan Fletcher, parks and open spaces manager for North East Lincolnshire Council said: "Thanks to a £1.93m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and funding from ...
Fred Lawton, my fellow North Road ward councillor, has organised a visit to the CCTV control room in the Town Hall for residents of North Road ward this Thursday, August 14th at 7pm. There are still places available, so if anyone wishes to go along for what is a highly informative and interesting tour, please contact Fred: fred.lawton@darlington.gov.uk or 01325 467413.PS: you don't have to live
Well Gordon was to one to set the government's inflation target at 2% so his best friend, while Chancellor, prudence has been let down today when the Consumer Price Index went more than double that expectation hitting 4.4% while the Retail Price Index hit 5.6%. The government is going to have to start acknowledging that pay rises above their 2% inflation target are no longer inflation creating
Safer Communities will be holding another Outstanding Safer Community Awards on Tuesday 9th December 2008 at the Grimsby Town Hall. The Outstanding safer Community Awards is a prestigious occasion that aims to recognise, give honour and praise to those individuals, groups and organisations that work hard to make North East Lincolnshire a better and safer place to live. As many of you know, this isn't an easy task, but the event highlight's a myriad of groups and individuals that rally are making a huge contribution to community safety. The awards night was last held in November 2006 and was a ...
It is that time of the year again when those of us who opposed tuition fees for students on the grounds that education should be free at the point of access are able to stand up, point at the latest statistics and say I told you so to all those who want to turn higher education into a market economy. The Guardian reports that although the number of first-time undergraduates has increased substantially every year since 2004, the proportion from the poorest areas, or of ethnic minorities which are under-represented at university, has hardly changed despite a multi-million pound drive ...
My colleagues have been demanding a public meeting for local residents to have their say on a new planning application for the Concrete Factory in Cranford Way, N8. London Concrete - who despite massive local campaigns against their planning application to create a plant right in the middle of a residential area - succeeded. But they only succeeded on appeal with the planning inspector imposing a significant number of conditions. The new application seems to be trying to get modifications to those conditions - so plenty of reason for the whole community to be on its toes to make sure ...
Admittedly pedantic and perhaps semantic, nonetheless I would like to have a brief moan about this tendency to refer to PMs and Presidents as people who "run" countries. "... and I'm the guy running the country" joked Anthony Lynton Blair, once, almost-infamously, after he'd failed to pronounce the word 'thrombolysis'. Presumably our beloved ex-PM should know how to pronounce this term as he was, of course, running the nation's health system (or at least being the boss of whichever crony was pissing around with it at the time). Alas, we still live in an age in which it's deemed totally ...
'Tis the season for lists... All this week we are publishing the top 100 posts by Lib Dem bloggers, in descending order of popularity, for the last year - August 2007 to July 2008, inclusive, according to click-throughs from the Aggregator. (Profuse thanks to techno-wizard and stat-monkey Ryan Cullen, who runs the Aggregator, for compiling this [...]
It's always disconcerting to find myself agreeing with George W Bush, and agreeing with him twice in one week is surely impossible; I feel a little queasy, and can't rule out the possibility that I'm still asleep. But there it is - Chinese human rights, where he was more forthright than Mr Brown (almost impossible not to be), and now telling Russia their actions over South Ossetia are unacceptable. Good for President Bush. Of course, it's impossible for anyone to take him seriously over ignoring human rights or illegally toppling other countries, and probably impossible for him to understand why. ...
Yes the opinions on South Ossettia and Azkhabia are mixed - yet we must keep our eye on the ball of Georgia `proper`. Russia has no business in Gori or Tbilisi. Having been to Gori and Tbilisi my heart goes out to them. In the mean time i've put a few vids here of Georgian music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E97ZfemlQfQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVnk6kSjRB4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2z7RD1Xe6M [...]
