The UK has the largest database of citizens' DNA in the world. Around 3.4 million people have their DNA information stored on police databases - at least five times higher as a proportion of our population than any other country.And while DNA is a vital tool in crime-fighting, there are tens of thousands of people on the police database who have never even been charged with an offence - let alone convicted.The police have the power to take and store DNA from everyone they arrest, even if that person is released without any charge. Once your DNA is on the ...
{Andrew Stunell MP (photography: Zoe Horwich)} A Lib Dem MP has demanded that gas and electricity companies be forced to use a £9 billion subsidy to help protect some of the most vulnerable people from the effects of fuel poverty. Andrew Stunell made the call after the Liberal Democrats published their document Tackling Fuel Poverty, which sets out measures designed to help people struggling from rising energy costs. An estimated 4.5 million households are in fuel poverty in the UK Energy firms have received an estimated £9 billion windfall through the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme, designed to push them ...
I have been deeply touched by the comments left by fellow bloggers on my post about my sister last week. Thanks so much to all of you, mental illness can leave the families as well as the sufferers feeling isolated and misunderstood and you have so encouraged me. As someone who occasionally "shouts the odds" about all sorts of things, this is something I feel I have not shouted about enough. There are excellent campaigning organisations out there such as Mind, Young Minds, The Mental Health Foundation and others. But their campaigns so often fall on deaf ears. It takes ...
{pre-payment-meter.jpg} According to a news alert from 'Inside Housing', The Treasury has refused to confirm reports that it is considering giving fuel vouchers to cash-strapped families. The government is understood to be planning a scheme that would see poor families given vouchers to help them cope with rising energy costs - which have been increasing dramatically over the last year or so. In response to the news alert the Treasury have said the idea was 'speculation' and it was not right to comment about plans before the pre-budget report this autumn. 'The government has said continuously recently it is looking ...
There were a lot of upset residents at ward surgery last week as they had happened to find out about an application for an entertainment and alcohol licence from an advert in the local paper - and the building, Stockton Town Football Club in the grounds of Stockton 6th From College, was right opposite where they lived. They were upset, had lots of questions that Julia and I could not answer, and...
Nice to see a Councillor with excellent taste in music ;) Will Forum Admin, "Let's Talk Dusty!" http://www.dustyspringfield.info/
A day without formal meetings meant I could catch up with what happened while I was away, including the arrangements for appointing a new chief executive for Stockton Borough Council. Although many people think of the Council as something quite small and local it also resembles in many ways a large business. The chief executive has to make sure that all the services, whether very visible like
Okay so, TV show format: A problem is posed to three teams of normal people. They're each given a wonk from a political party as their 'expert' and the teams then have to propose a solution to that particular problem, and have got just half an hour to present their solution to celebrity voters, who will then have to decide who the 'winner' is for that show. It's The Apprentice meets Scrapheap Challenge meets Dragon's Den. A winner, I tell ya!
Today's Evening Post picks up our campaign calling for action to repair road surfaces around Erleigh Road. If you live in the area and are sick of the potholes please sign our petition!
The Sky box (cardboard variety) has been consigned to the recycling bin, as Percy has gone off it as a perch. He is currently draped elegantly on top of the TV (no flat screen here). It's OK, he's house-trained; my former inlaws had a new kitten, years ago, who peed on their video player. Try [...]
I have just finished watching Channel 4's Kevin McCloud and the big Town Plan. It gave a great insight how communities can work together to tackle anti-social behaviour and work more closes as a community. Where a community felt alienated and not listened to, the park that was developed was not uses and left to become overgrown. Whereas where the communities were consulted the parks thrived.
This blog's pretentions to be topical are generally undermined by the long gaps between postings. During the July hiatus, I missed out on the news that government minister Margaret Hodge has decided not to list the controversial neo-brutalist 'masterpiece' Robin Hood Gardens, Poplar, designed by Alison and Peter Smithson. Although the building has many champions, the decision not to list it apparently now clears the way for its demolition and a redevelopment scheme. My late great-grandmother, Sarah Bridges was for many years a resident of Robin Hood Gardens, and made her own valiant attempts to demolish the building. As she ...
{national-dna-database.jpg} Nearly 600,000 people who have committed any crime - now have their details stored on Labour's DNA database, and of these 400,000 were added in the past two years. There is now grave concern that the Government is building a genetic record of the entire population by stealth. The figure of 573,639 people on the database who have not been convicted, cautioned, formally warned or reprimanded has pushed the overall total to 4.2million. Civil rights campaigners and MPs want the police to destroy the DNA records of anyone without a criminal record. In the past two years alone, a ...
I watched Dawkins on Darwin tonight, and found myself wondering if fundamentalist minds seek out other fundamentalist minds. He really hates Christian fundamentalists, but he can't seem to stop himself scratching the itch. While I agree with his analysis of what the idiocies of creationism do to the world we see around us, he seems to be unable (or perhaps unwilling) to understand how the minds work of people who believe it. In the end he seemed to me to make a statement of faith in science that was as emotionally based and as irrational as the people he combats. ...
{pre-payment-meter.jpg} According to a news alert I received today from 'Inside Housing', The Treasury has refused to confirm reports that it is considering giving fuel vouchers to cash-strapped families. The government is understood to be planning a scheme that would see poor families given vouchers to help them cope with rising energy costs - which have been increasing dramatically over the last year or so. In response to the news alert the Treasury have said the idea was 'speculation' and it was not right to comment about plans before the pre-budget report this autumn. 'The government has said continuously recently ...
Near to where I live in Carmarthenshire is one of the most remarkable works of art by a Welsh artist. Sir William Goscombe Johns 'Grief' is a funerary monument to a London born Philanthropist Rice Powell. Powell was a Victorian M.P. for carmarthenshire and paid out of his own pocket for some of the fine buildings in Llanboidy. Including the market hall and a square of houses. Though the piece has somehow gained the reputation it was carved by John under Rodin's guidance in Paris.This in fact not true as it was carved in London by John in 1891. It ...
{cllr-de-freitas.jpg} Join the debate in this exciting live event DO you have a burning question to ask? Then now is your chance to speak up! North East Lincolnshire is holding its very own Question Time event - putting key local people under the public spotlight for an evening of discussion and debate. As part of North East Lincolnshire Council's Community Engagement Week, the North East Lincolnshire Council Question Time panel will be inviting questions and debate at a live event at Whitgift Theatre, Grimsby, on Monday, September 15. On the panel will be: the Leader of the Council, Councillor Andrew ...
There is a new poll up on the Guardian website. The headline figures are Tories 44% Labour 29% Liberal Democrats 19% The Guardian reports this as being a 1% increase for both Tories and Labour and no change for the Liberal Democrats. But in fact the last ICM poll was done for the Sunday Express. Comparing with this, changes are Tories down 1%, Labour up 1%, and Liberal Democrats up 3%. This is good news for Liberal Democrats: 16% would be a normal result for YouGov but looked very low on ICM. The poll also asked about the impact of ...
The other morning I caught a piece on Today about police targets and how they were having a damaging impact on policing in England and Wales. This follows on from a Civitas report in May about police targeting trivial crimes in order to meet targets. This caught my ear because I had been having an interesting conversation with a youth worker from Manchester earlier in the week. He was telling me that the police were being withdrawn from preventative work with young people in his patch because they weren't meeting their arrest targets with crime falling. Is this arse-backwards or ...
Transport for London are consulting on people's views over local bus services. TFL are looking at the following factors: - enhancing social inclusion - corridors or areas that might benefit from new or enhanced Sunday or night services. - areas or corridors on which you feel increased frequency or larger vehicles are needed to cater for demand - identifying routes which you feel are unreliable - ideas which improve integration with other transport modes or interchange with other bus routes or improve access to major developments Bus routes that go through Oval ward include 2, 155, 88, 77, 333, 59, ...
It still looks like the Russians are stalling on even beginning their withdrawal, and the increasingly blood curdling threats against all and sundry suggest that all is not well in the Kremlin. The longer the Russians continue their occupation, the more united the voices in Europe calling for sanctions are becoming. While it is disappointing that Germany remains "unconvinced" about taking firmer measures, the tart comments from Helmut Schmidt are placing the dove-ish foreign ministry in Berlin firmly on the spot. Even with Germany, Russia has severely damaged its long term relationship. Unless we see a withdrawal and a far ...
Gilderoy Lockhart, author of "Magical Me" from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Over a short break in Tunbridge Wells, I pledged to myself, with inverse appropriateness, to be less angry. Less of a ticker-tape machine, knee-jerkingly condemning every utterance from David Cameron, par exemple. Well, I did very well. I managed to breathe in and out for half a day before pressing "create" on
A few people have posted this video, and I think it's worth watching. It's about an hour long, so if you can't face sitting down and watching that long a vid, scroll to about 51 minutes in and watch from there for about a minute and a half. It's the best answer to Jo's Why do you blog? question that I have ever seen. Although I think the tears really started flowing around the "hold me" hand message point. I don't do YouTube, having always been more of the written word type of person, but my daughter does, with the ...
... Which I found interesting View Poll: #1243921 You can comment on his post here.
I am increasing my blog roll and if they is anyone who wants me to put a link to their blog then add it as a comment but please remember in return can you put my link up.
Tory leader David Cameron admits "I'm a ditherer" Nannygate tory Caroline Spelman in new cash probe
Good news, in that the Council has finally taken action on our calls to repair a dangerous wall in Highgate. They have issued a press release admitting that The Bank, which runs parallel to Highgate Hill, is at "risk of collapse" - a mere two months after my colleague Bob Hare first raised concerns. Haringey is (rightly) trumpeting the works as an emergency - but the Council has done nothing about the problem for weeks. It seems that users of the footpath have been in danger throughout. The delays are a nuisance as well as a danger, as all this ...
Local Liberal Democrats met on 11 August to finalise their position statement on the County Council's proposed Academies plan for Hastings. Local members met with Cllr Kathryn Field (Battle & Crowhurst) who is the Lib Dem shadow member for Children's Services. Following the meeting Cllr Field said, "I am pleased to have met with colleagues to discuss this [...]
I don't usually read The Independent, and Johann Hari is one of the reasons why (though he is more a sympton than the cause). However, Free Think Blog has drawn my attention to today's typically bone-headed article. Mr. Hari thinks that democracy is not working properly in the UK, and makes three suggestions for how to improve and reform the system. Each is paternailstic, expensive and illiberal, and at least one is self-serving. Lets look at them in turn. Proposal 1: Deliberation Day, would "Declare every general election a national holiday, and offer every citizen £150 to take part... in ...
A while ago I highlighted the case of Hitch Yezza. If you're not familiar with the case please take a minute to read the link. He has been released without charge but is now facing deportation to Algeria. He has written a superb piece in the Guardian about his arrest, terror laws, and the Kafka-esque situation in which we now live. A real must read.
Ivan Lewis has demonstrated how ideologically bankrupt New Labour is. He wants to tax the mega rich instead of "the people who work long hours for their two holidays a year, leisure club membership, meals out with family and friends and ability to buy their children nice things". This is redistribution from one portion of the above averagely rich to another. I think he is hoping to tap into the class envy of the professional classes against the mega rich. Is this really the type of redistribution a government should be engaging in? It appears merely an attempt to keep ...
The Democratic Party is a pathetic vehicle for preserving civil liberties. But the Republican Party is a splendid vehicle for actually smashing them. - The Art of the Possible The Democrats will almost certainly not roll back the abuses of the Bush years, in some cases I'm sure they will enthusiastically use them. What is less [...]
Well it's still going - the olympics. It's increasingly difficult to find anything sane to watch or listen to in the media that doesnt invovle the games. I try to block out the background noise from the adverts but i suppose some of it goes in. Subliminal stuff hey! I have taken solice in my novel. Also on sunday I was painting my kitchen. Has it really come to this....
Cameron has said at the moment his favourite political joke is Nick Clegg. What he has said has made me think that is Cameron all he makes out to be. Its easy to criticise rivals especially when they have put policies like "Make it Happen" on the table unlike him and his party that have a lot of Press Releases but no solid Policies have been laid out to the public. So how can he call the Leader of a Party that has allegedly done a deal to help the conservatives get into Government if its a hung parliament a ...
Russian incursions into Georgia over recent days have left the EU sorely divided. France, as the current President of the Union, has been following a diplomatic course that has tried to charm the Russians into leaving, rather than threatenening them, whereas the former Baltic states and Poland have been notable in their forthright support for Georgian [...]
"What do we do about it?" was the question, voiced by a good friend of mine at a recent politicalbetting.com barbeque. A favourite of the chattering classes, the topic of conversation was of course - Islamicism. A short silence ensued, broken only by your narrator mumbling through a half-masticated prawn: "Nothing" Concerned that I may already be drunk, my fellow munchers looked across blankly. "Do nothing. We shouldn't do anything" I repeated, with typical lucidity. Having swallowed the unfortunate crustacean, I attempted, very badly, to explain that neither governments nor white Englishmen with a penchant for politics (for this demographic ...
I don't think so, do you? One of the biggest mysteries before I laid off blogging in July was first of all why the Tory PPC for Taunton had asked me to be his friend on facebook, and secondly, if he did know who I was, then why he didn't already know I'd been employed by Jeremy Browne, and am a member of the Lib Dems? Surely if you are the Tory PPC and you live in the area and meet hundreds of people per week in the town jumping on every bandwagon under the sun then someone somewhere would ...
Slow news month so here is a summation of a few of my thoughts on the last few weeks: People don't vote for parties they vote for generations. If New Labour is now old Labour and the Tories are now the neo-cons, what are the Lib Dems? Make it Happen Nicks inner thoughts, was a brilliant document that was reported as a process story, i.e. very very bad PR planning led to news stories about the launch, rather than the document, I hereby offer my PR services for free for the next policy launch. A basic google search wasnt even ...
An attempt to have land at Cambrian Drive, Yate, given village green status has been turned down by South Glos Council's Public Rights of Way Committee. Instead a housing association will now build 70 homes and a day centre for elderly people on the site. The Gazette gives more details about the Cambrian Drive decision here.
While some detect hubris and over-confidence in the remarks made by David Cameron that are quoted from a new book about him, what struck me was how ordinary they make him seem. I don't mean that in a good way. While I am convinced that Cameron will win the next election, I am also pretty well convinced that he is not actually up to the job. What he has been good at of course is PR. Making
Johann Hari's piece in the Independent today (Do we want a democracy or a pantomime) outlines three radical new ways of injecting our dormant and dull democracy with some energy and engagement. The most drastic measure of which is the introduction of a 'Deliberation Day' which would occur on election day every five years where citizens would be paid £150 a piece to scrutinise and question their political leaders and to come to reasoned judgements regarding their vote. By introducing this Democracy Bill, Hari hopes to reinvigorate our tired democracy to the tune of a 'few billion pounds'. Hari's suggestions ...
I am listening to CBeebies on BBC Radio 7 with the small one, and Charlie and Lola was just on. This episode could quite easily have been titled "Clever, Resourceful and Brave Little Girl Repeatedly Outwits Dim and Meanspirited Older Brother". It's unusual for it to be this way around in adult entertainment, but I seem to recall a proliferation of it on CBBC when I was a youngster... What happens in between kids' and adults' entertainment, I wonder? And then I remembered Maid Marian and Her Merry Men, in which a woman does all the work and is brave ...
We're trying a little experiment - if you can access the Internet on your mobile phone, you can see a cut-down version of this blog at http://localfocus.mofuse.mobi/ You just get the latest stories without the comments or the sidebar, but it loads very quickly. There are a few sponsored links at the bottom of the page, but that's because it's a free service. You can click here to preview how it will look. If you use it, please let us know how you get on.
With Musharraf resigning Miliband has said that we need to keep links with Pakistan despite Musharraf resigning following the Government wanting to trial him. Well Pakistan has had a fresh breath of fresh air hit it with the evil dictator resigning. But with the country to face a presidential election will the new Prime Mister have good international links or not. The Stock Market in Pakistan increased after the resignation of President Musharraf on National TV and i think his resignation will benefit the country as with him in power the country was in shambles. What do you think?
David Cameron has pledged to mend our broken society. That's interesting because Margaret Thatcher claimed that "There is no such thing as society". So very clearly David Cameron is taking a different line from Thatcher, and that is no bad thing for the Tories. Margaret Thatcher, for all the good things she did (and I don't doubt she halted what seemed like terminal decline of the economy), also did a great deal many awful things, be they stopping school milk, Clause 28, destroying our manufacturing industry, selling off nationalised industries for too little money, the Poll Tax, laying waste to ...
Wow! Is there any stopping our boys and girls on the cycling track? Of the 21 medals awarded so far, 9 have come our way. There is every prospect that of the 9 awarded tomorrow that we'll win another 4. Luckily for everyone else, there are fewer olympic track cycling events than in the world championship. Given the BG team's form in the last world champs, we would have been walking off with even more golds... It's unlikely that we'll get to see our olympic track cycling champions riding competively in Birmingham, but there is the outside chance that Birmingham ...
Alex Wilcock asked that Lib Dem bloggers pick their favourites of their own posts. I am pretty prolific, so I have probably missed some stuff here, but these are the ten that grabbed my attention as I was skimming. 10, Jeremy Clarkson's Bank Details. This is a post illustrating my despair when people miss the point of a story in order to indulge in some ad hominem point-and-laugh at a bete noire. 9, How Not to Argue. Something we could all do with bearing in mind (myself included). 8, A Liberal Response to Being Verbally Abused in the Street. 7, ...
President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan has resigned ahead of impeachment proceedings due to start this week.
No one wants to see a recession. But it's good to see that Oxfam is doing very well as we all tighten our purse strings and second-had ceases to be second-best. Sales from Oxfam shops increased by 7% last year and the charity expects a further increase of 20% this year - meaning total sales of over £100 million. These increases come at a time when the latest High Street figures show a drop of 4% on retail sales. Oxfam's Director of Trading David McCullough said that a focus on ethical shopping was also helping the charity. He said: "Oxfam ...
A new Calder's Comfort Farm can be found on the magazine's website. It covers Tim Leunig, The Bog Centre, the Telford penguins and Allison Pearson - all subjects that will be familiar to readers of this blog.
I know I seem to be earning a reputation as a bit of a Clegg basher at the moment, but I am a bear of very little significance. Compare this with David Cameron's latest jibe: Asked for his favourite political joke: "[Lib Dem leader] Nick Clegg, at the moment." Classy. This is a quote from a book which, on the basis of the selected quotes the Beeb as listed and the write up on Amazon, seems to be drenched in hubris - something you would expect considering the author is a lifestyle journalist and editor of a glorified lads mag. ...
Been catching up with work and politics since I got back from DC, then my university friend Laura's 30th birthday at the weekend, not had time to blog. With plenty of leaflets to deliver in my ward, might not get much time to blog for a few days... so on my lunch break at work just thought I'd post this photo of a house I saw when walking through DC - at least I don't have houses in my ward with this many steps! In the heat of DC, even the thought of leafleting down this street made me feel ...
You may have seen in the news last week that local Lib Dems were oppsoing the Council's ludicrous heavy-handedness over the issue of graffiti. The Council had sent letters out to local people who had graffiti on their homes, threatening them with court action and a £1,000 fine if they didn't get the mess cleaned up. Many of the recipients of the letters were scared and annoyed, and local Lib Dem Councillors were livid. The Council were not only abdicating their responsibilities to act to prevent and clean up graffiti, but the letters were outrageously over the top. Now though, ...
Zac Goldsmith, the Conservative candidate for Richmond Park, is facing questions from the Electoral Commission for apparently making donations whilst not being on the electoral register. This would be against the law and the Electoral Commission has taken a hard line in other cases where donations have been made by someone not on the register, most [...]
Are you, like me, fascinated by the social impact of the Web? If so, then find an hour to sit down and watch this brilliant presentation given a couple of months ago by Michael Wesch at the Library of Congress.
DO you have a burning question to ask? Then now is your chance to speak up! North East Lincolnshire is holding its very own Question Time event putting key local people under the public spotlight for an evening of discussion and debate. As part of North East Lincolnshire Council's Community Engagement Week, the North East Lincolnshire Council Question Time panel will be inviting questions and debate at a live event at Whitgift Theatre, Grimsby, on Monday, September 15. On the panel will be: the Leader of the Council, Councillor Andrew De Freitas; the Deputy Leader Councillor Keith Brookes; Great Grimsby ...
Is it a coincidence that a few days after Tim Leunig apparently goes to Australia, a mayor in that country gets in trouble for saying this? Share This
{harsh-reality.jpg} Regeneration areas have been hit harder by the property market slump than other types of development, according to figures. In the IPD Regeneration Index, released in early August, it shows the total return for regeneration property fell to -6 per cent in 2007, compared to -3.4 per cent for the property market as a whole. The IPD Regeneration Index was first created by IPD, Morley Fund Management, English Partnerships six years ago and last year it was expanded to include residential view with the support of Savills. The index was originally conceived to discover whether the property investment worlds' ...
Inspired by Lib Dem Voice's Golden Ton, last week I recklessly started a meme - wouldn't it be great if Lib Dem bloggers picked out their own favourite posts they've written, so we could all marvel at just how good these blogs are (and have researching awards nominations made that much easier)? Amazingly, over ten people have already posted their own lists, which I'll round up later. Though I'm usually rubbish at responding to memes, as it's my own I really can't get away with missing it, so here's my own selection of my best ten from the last year. ...
The German communications agency Euro-Informationen has come up with a neat way of making the point that together European countries can form a bloc with enough clout on the world stage to rival the USA and China. If the EU were a country, it would be well out in the lead in the table of gold medals at the Olympics: at the time of writing having 51 golds, compared to 35 for China in 2nd place and 19 for the USA in 3rd place. Of course the EU isn't a country and in many ways this is just a piece ...
Anyone who followed the recent Camp for Climate Action at Kingsnorth could have a range of views of the policing of that event. It could be anything from: "The police successfully prevented an extreme element from injuring protestors, police and horses" to "a legitimate and necessary protest went ahead despite an extreme element within the [...]
I've now encountered two fellow bloggers who didn't seem to know I was elgible for the 'Best New Blog' category in the Lib Dem awards. They have instead nominated me for 'Best Lib Dem Blog'. Or so they tell me... My blog started life on My Space, where I blogged a total of 16 times before I moved to google. I have since deleted these posts as I thought they were terrible and the chances of someone going to My Space to read me were minimal. My blog started officially on google on November 20 2007, but I started the ...
The Tayside & Fife Local TV working group has now written to the First Minister on the subject of local television across Scotland. This is in support of a request from the Scottish Local TV Federation, arguing for an additional digital TV spectrum allocation for Scotland - the "seventh mux" - to ensure delivery of local TV across the country. You can read the letter by clicking on the headline above.
Mon 18th
08:54
'It's not where you live, it's HOW you live', says sink estate single mum whose quadruplets got into...
Watching television pictures last week of jubilant teenagers celebrating their A-level results, I was filled with an amazing sense of accomplishment. In my home that joyous feeling has been felt fourfold. For my 18-year-old children - quadruplets Tolu, Tayo, Tobi and Tosin, who were conceived naturally - all achieved A and B grades at the St Francis Xavier sixth-form college in Clapham, South-West London.They have secured places at Manchester University, Goldsmiths, Queen Mary University of London and Cambridge. I am, understandably, bursting with pride. Because, although I've not had to cope with too many social disadvantages over the years, the ...
Sometimes I do wonder...On Saturday, in my shop, a customer refused to have her delicious freshly-baked scones put in a recycled paper bag: "I don't like recycled bags", says she, "You don't know where they've been."
Back from holiday to the bad news that the High Grove Road post office on Silverdale Road is one of 12 across Stockport Borough that will close, despite protests and objections from local people. I'll post more in this when I have more information.
Visiting Orkney for the first time has been a revelation. Our twenty-eight hour visit has just left us wanting more and plans are afoot for a longer stay next summer 'when this damned war is over' :-). My friend, Alastair Carmichael, has been the MP for Orkney and Shetland since 2001 and is clearly very proud of the constituency he represents. Not only was the hospitality offered by Alistair and Kate, the island's vet, warm and generous, but he found time to take us to see some of the key attractions on mainland Orkney. The neolithic village of Skara Brae ...
This morning's Western Mail carries news of the rather limited survey being conducted on-line by South Wales Police. This use of new technology is unfortunately compromised by a poor understanding of its potential and a failure to think through why the survey is being carried out and how it can improve Police performance. If you click on the section entitled 'Your Comments Count' it transpires that this is only the case if you are prepared to agree that the service offered by the Police is excellent. At no point is there an opportunity to express any other opinion on the ...
There is something vaguely uncivilized about catching the train at 6.30am. It means getting out of bed at 5.30am. And since I foolishly sat up til after 1am watching a film called 'The Go Between', the I am already feeling a bit knackered (I last saw the film 24 years ago when I studied the novel for A' level English Lit.)Much to my delight National Express have not cancelled the train though as
Just watching skins on BBC America. They have had to subtitle it.
So much to choose from, where does one start? Actually reading back through my list of posts at Alex's suggestion I realised that most of it was tat. I am actually quite ashamed. I think my new blog year resolution should be to write a bit more thoughtfully so that come this time next year I rule the world. Bwhahahaha. But here are four posts which I would like you to re-read, even if not actually worthy of votes at LDV towers: An early description of La Nuit des Musees in Lausanne. I still don't know whether anything like this ...
So it is time to choose which one of us is the greatest. It is, of course, me, but let's, just for fun, pretend for a moment that someone else stands a chance and think about who that might be*. I am not shtupping anyone in the party so this is an unbiased list: Best new Liberal Democrat blog It hasn't quite been clarified as to whether she is eligible for this award, but if so, my first choice for best newcomer goes to Jennie at the Gob. Why? Well a) I think she comes from the same brand of ...
So there's a couple of you have had trouble logging in with open ID. Your fearless scribe therefore logged out of her EllJay account and went a-testin' with her trusty blogger log in. And lo, I found that logging in with an Open ID account is easy, when you have a hunch how to do it... The method I used is easiest in a tabbed browser. You need three tabs open: 1, the post you wish to comment on (or, as it might be, the poll you wish to vote in) 2, This list on the Open ID site 3, ...
Politics and Olympics - maybe some parallels to be drawn? Years of hard work punctuated at regular (or irregular!) intervals by a huge competition, scrutiny over spending and debates over whether to keep politics out of it altogether! In keeping with the current Olympic mood, just wanted to share an inspirational sequence from the BBC - Dan Snow calls it "the greatest piece of television ever made". I think it captures the supreme effort and sacrifice required to excel in any field, with mind over matter being the final hurdle: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics/7538810.stm (Sir Steve Redgrave won gold medals for Britain at ...
A memorandum by the Welsh Affairs Select Committee calling for a cut in the number of bids by the Welsh Assembly Government and AMs for more powers have received short shrift from the Presiding Officer. In a letter to the Secretary of State for Wales released today, he makes it clear that the idea that the current volume of proposed Orders is "swamping the system, both at Westminster and in the Assembly" is "clearly contrary to the evidence". He writes: "The Assembly acquired its new legislative powers on the 25 May 2007. During the first twelve months following that date, ...
Today was the annual open day at Chris Rich's market garden. He started this last year and found it really successfull. Chris has been one of the stalwart stalls in Bath Farmers Market since it started. Increasingly customers are wanting to know how food is produced. Chris has his market garden in Batheaston and provided fresh food to the market year round. As oil prices go up food...
Last Friday I had a visit round Milsom Place. This is a new shopping centre in the heart of Bath using an area that connects Broad St and Milsom St and includes the Octagon and opens up access to Baths two Elizabethan buildings. It is an amazing development that Colin Darracott and myself pushed to get underway four years ago and which is now nearing completion. It has also refreshed the Shires...
I am a co-chair of B&NES Learning Difficulties Partnership Board. Reporting to the board we have three networks based in Radstock, Bath and Keynsham. The Keynsham Network has been conducting a high street survey to assess all the shops for accessibility. On Saturday they put on a presentation of their work which was open to the public. Free coffee and cakes were added to encourage visitors and it...
Well done to the Boys From Bath. It was always going to be difficult in the last 5 as all the choirs are excellant. I cast my vote for Bath but not enough did to avoid the sing-off and the judges verdict. The Chor Members I know and speak to have really enjoyed the experience. Grenville was great and the chouir did Bath proud.
Mon 18th
00:02
Action for UN Renewal - 'Who rules the world? Global challenges and the role of the UN in peacekeepi...
Action for UN Renewal will be hosting the annual Erskine Childers Lecture 'Who rules the world? Global challenges and the role of the UN in peacekeeping, human rights and international law' on 9th September 2008 starting at 7.00pm at the Friends House, 173 Euston Road in London
