While I was staying in north Wales, I visited the village of Llanystumdwy (the headline on this posting is the closest phonetic spelling I can provide. In many respects it's a typical Welsh village, fairly pretty but not especially noteworthy, apart from one thing: it was the boyhood home of David Lloyd George. This makes it a special place for anyone with an interest in Liberal history. Lloyd George is one of the greatest Liberals of all time and still an inspiration for many of us today.The Lloyd George museum in the village is a fascinating place. It has friendly, ...
Another reason for LVT can be found in the Guardian today: Property tax leaves cities 'looking like broken teeth' · Government adviser attacks Darling policy · Empty buildings torn down to avoid payment I won't bore you endlessly with the details, suffice to say that LVT is charged on the land itself, irrespective of what is currently built on it. So, you couldn't avoid it by demolishing buildings, yet it would still function as a means of encouraging land owners to fully develop their properties. If Swindon BC are willing to find half a million pounds just to bulldoze over ...
I left my meetings in the European Parliament this afternoon to do a live BBC World TV interview on today's by-election in Malaysia, which sent the supposedly 'disgraced' opposition politician Anwar Ibrahim back into parliament with two-thirds of the vote, on a high turnout. This was not a surprise for anyone who has been following [...]
Assuming Mr Brown is still PM in November a McCain win would be disastrous for Labour. With an Obama win there'd be a sigh of relief - Britons would give the `special relationship` a further go. With a McCain win all trust would be lost with the US as a place where we have a `special relationship` [...]
I should also say sorry to all my fans (both of you) for the recent blogging hiatus, which was caused by my being away for a couple of weeks with no internet access. The occasion was a family wedding in Shropshire which was an excellent occasion. And I decided to take the chance to visit a number of places which I'd wanted to go to for some time, so I stayed in Berwick and the Yorkshire Dales on the way down, and then headed over to north Wales. Weather was absolutely lousy throughout - out of my fortnight away, I ...
The select committee looking at how our "Strategy for older people" was looking at the Bunny Hill Centre in Sunderland today to see how a centre with lots of services in one place was working. An excellent idea, but of course it is not possible to emulate something exactly in another place. Nor would I want to, there were some really good ideas and practices to copy, and some things I think we...
When I twittered Rory Cellan-Jones to ask why he didn't mention Wordscraper in his blog post about Scrabulous, he replied "cos i couldn't be bothered!" Years from now, when British journalism has finally breathed its last, this phrase will be engraved on its tombstone. The thing is, the Wordscraper thing is about the most interesting thing about this whole sorry saga. Cellan-Jones misses the point. Badly. While Scrabulous did indeed cross the line by using the same look as Scrabble and using a name that was far too close to a trademarked property, the fact is you can't copyright an ...
I wish to express my sincerest apologies to Mike Rumbles, as I continued my record of jinxing candidates in leadership elections by voting for them. The only time I have ever voted for a successful leadership election candidate is now more than 20 years ago when I supported Paddy Ashdown. Since then, I have voted for Malcolm Bruce, Chris Huhne (twice) and Mike Rumbles (twice). I have to say that I found my decision in this leadership election to be very difficult. In the end, I went for Mike as I felt he was the candidate most open to new ...
That's the subject of my latest piece for one of the local magazines:It can be truly terrible when a CPZ (controlled parking zone) is put in near you, but you are not actually included in it - and then everyone parks in your unrestricted bit and you then can never get anywhere near your own home to park. Never mind if you have young children, babies, buggies shopping or are older and mobility challenged - you will drive round and round and end up quite a distance from your own front door. This was the case around Claremont Road and ...
Daddy Obama smiling from ear to ear on the big screen, while his kids point and squeal excitedly. It's a PR man's wet dream. "Daddy, What city are you in?" "I'm in Kansas City, Sweetie".
Give praise to the munificence of Wikipedia (albeit by the strange route of John Poulson - John Cordle - Bournemouth East and Christchurch - Christchurch By-Election, 1993) for this profile of the by-election by a scarily young Mark Mardell. Watch out for disturbing evidence of the origins of "The Real Alternative" and a certain Scottish MP making an embarrassing mistake in a former life....
(this entry dedicated to the Honourable Lady Mark Valladares, in hopes that he'll stop typing long enough to read it ;)) Today we went to Totnes (which was lovely, and very Hebden Bridge) and saw the Guildhall and the church and the Museum of Old Stuff Which has About Ten Different Names in Different Leaflets. The kitchen and herb gardens were the best bits of the museum of old stuff, since most of the contents of the Babbage Room have been stolen by the Science Museum in London. There was also a FANTASTIC little record shop, which reminded me a ...
I've just read a post on Edmundo Paz Soldán's blog that made me look around my bookshelves. He was commenting on a "hundred best books" list in El Pais (I'm going to forget accents now unless i can copy and paste - I can't do them on this computer). Paz Soldán points out that there are a lot of books in translation on the list, and speculates that a list in England or the US would be dominated by books in English. He also notes that the choice appears to be of the books writers think they ought to have ...
My day job involves (among other things) administrating the payroll process for a small-to-medium sized business. I'm well grumpy with it today. I've just received (at work) my instruction from the government to raise everyone's tax threshold by £600 on the first pay date after the 7th of September. No doubt Gordon and Alisdair will be wondering why I am so pissed about this - they has 'fixed' the 10p tax débacle, no? Er, no. No Gordon and Ali, you haven't. You have just given EVERYONE, INCLUDING the people who benefited from the shift of the taxation burden more onto ...
With Liberal Democrat Voice starting a poll on the point of Lib Dem Conference I thought I would run through a few of the ones that Stephen & Alix have clearly overlooked: It gives Lembit an opportunity to practice his harmonica skills by "entertaining" people late at night in the conference hotel bar. It keeps Liberal Democrat [...]
Tonight saw the resumption of my Council year with a meeting of the Resource and Performance Scrutiny Commission. Most of the reports presented were mainly for information rather than comment, and it was good to see that the finances of the Council appear to be in robust shape. Whilst we can debate spending priorities and tax levels, at least we're confident that we're not going to go bust, and the officers of the Council deserve credit for that. The most notable item discussed was not on the agenda though. The minutes of the last meeting showed clearly that the Commission ...
The Voice extends its congratulations to our own Welsh correspondent, and master blogger Peter Black AM, who topped Iain Dale's poll of the 40 best Welsh blogs.
Another relaxing day of leave from work* with lots of time to shop** and read. I've certainly found out who my fans are, and that most of my enemies are fellow female bloggers in their twenties, mostly for no reason other than I wrote a satire that they perceived to be about a 'friend' who they've probably never met and who only joined the party a few months ago. Still, most of my biggest fans are male so who am I to complain? On my journey home I read the G2 section of the Guardian. This is a special treat ...
Given that it was the courts that ordered that even roadside GATSOs had to be painted yellow so they were visible from afar, how do Essex police think this will be ruled legal: Helicopter to snoop on speeders New signs are installed warning drivers and motorcyclists they could be caught speeding by a police helicopter. At £1000 an hour, as the Taxpayers' Alliance points out, this is an extremely expensive speed camera! surveillance state
It appears, much to Camerons displeasure, Boris Johnson has gone native. In two ways, firstly he has returned to London, flag in hand, and prophesed his love for the Olympics. Secondly, in what will come as a shock to many Tory watchers, he also made an impromptu policy announcement, more money for sport!! Always good, but will he be as vacuous as Cameron and be all talk - watch this space? Which advisor will go in September, place your bets now. Posted with LifeCast
Lib Dem Leader Robert Gorrie is pointing out how the Labour Council has splashed out on new parking signage at the Civic Centre in Wood Green - just after they decided to flog the building and move into a £12 million luxury HQ up the road. The new signs also have a spelling blooper (see pic), which means the Council will probably have them made again. Not much joined-up thinking in evidence here....
Last week I warned that the Kremlin's news mouthpiece "Russia Today" started their media campaign to soften up people to the idea of Russian annexation of parts of Georgia. Today, it has started to happen. Of course, if Russia is so keen on small republic being allowed to become independent of larger countries, when will they grant independence to North Ossetia and Chechnya ?
Baroness Scott will arrive at Neath rail station at 13:29 tomorrow (provided First Great Western keep to timetable!). She will then accompany Councillors John Warman and Des Sparkes to Cimla, to discuss local problems. This will be followed at 14:30 by a visit to Neath Port Talbot council at the civic centre, where she will sign the Mayor's visitors' book. The afternoon will be completed at around 17:00 by refreshments at Brynhyfryd House in Tonmawr, where the Baroness will meet local activists. From there, she will travel to Bridgend, completing the day with a function at the "Haywain". Members, local ...
Tavish Scott MSP has been elected as new Scottish LibDem leader. Comfortable win on first preferences giving him a strong mandate. Tavish Scott 1450 (59.0%) Ross Finnie 568 (23.1%) Mike Rumbles 439 (17.9%) (Turnout 61%)
Much has already been written about Barack Obama's selection of Joe Biden as his running-mate, but since I wrote my dissertation on the vice-presidency, and consider myself something of a specialist on this subject, I thought I'd offer my thoughts on the selection as well. First off, let me say that I like Joe Biden. I was impressed with him in the primaries, where he was forthright, funny, and crucially honest. He regularly said what he thinks, which at times got him into trouble, but that's to be expected in this age where the media seize on anything anybody says ...
I watched most of the coverage of the opening night of the Democratic Convention last night, via C-Span's online feed. Whilst I found it interesting, it was little more than an evening-long advert for Barack Obama. Fair enough, that's what its meant to be, but it did get a bit dull with a procession of people getting up on stage and declaring why Obama is the messiah. It got repetitive by the fiftieth speech. Now, don't get me wrong, I very much want Obama to win, and to be honest, I'd quite like to go to a Demoratic Convention at ...
Have you ever gone to sleep in a library? Now people can stay in one, at the Library Hotel, New York (hat tip - On The Beat). It's not just that it's near the New York Public Library . Or even that there are lots of books in the rooms. The rooms are broadly arranged [...]
...for a few days. As will responding to peoples' comments. A couple of months ago I bought myself a new great big server and shamefully I have not set it up yet. Since it is priced in dollars and the pound is falling I suppose I ought to get on with it so I can cancel the existing one before it next needs paying! For anyone interested it will be Debian Etch, running Xen virtualization, to give me a Zimbra virtual server for email and collaboration, a web server for my various projects and then back end servers for databases ...
The Heresy? Reform regulation of the housing market to introduce competing downward and upward pressure on property prices. Make implicit or explicit collusion between Lenders, Vendors and Estate Agents impossible, or unlikely. Remove the political benefits associated with Housing Booms. Why is this heretical? Those on the right object to additional regulation, hoping that the market will regulate itself. Those on the left would rather there were not a Housing Market at all, and believe the solution is to build more council housing and to end the right to buy - bringing prices down by increasing supply of housing. Housing ...
Well, some said it wouldn't last. On paper it was a big risk to run off and live with a divorced man almost twice my age but if I had my time again, I can honestly say that I'd do exactly the same thing. I'm not going to tell you that the last 20 years has been all plain sailing - what life or relationship is? We've had our moments, but I know that I could not have had a better husband. I, on the other hand, am a completely rubbish wife - at least judged on traditional values. I ...
With Political Commentary a bit quiet i thought i would do some changes to the blog layout. I hope to like the new template and i also would like readers to please: Bookmark the irfanahmedblog.blogspot.com link and not use the other transfer links.
Congratulations to Tavish Scott as he wins the Scottish Liberal Democrats' Leadership contest. These are challenging times for the Party in many ways and it is important that we make more of an impact on the Scottish scene. The Labour Party are in meltdown and the SNP can't be trusted with our civil liberties. The Tories haven't quite made up their minds what they are for. Government is spending vast amounts of money interfering in people's lives where it's not necessary and not enough where it is. The country faces some really serious problems ahead - energy supply, credit crunch, ...
A News Release this afternoon on local television : TAYSIDE & FIFE LOCAL TV GROUP CALLS ON OFCOM TO BACK LOCAL TV IN SCOTLAND Fife and Tayside Local TV Working Group - a consortium developing local TV in Angus, Dundee, Fife and Perth and Kinross has responded to a recent Ofcom consultation to allocate spectrum for local TV across Fife and Tayside as well as throughout Scotland. Responding to Ofcom's consultation on the spectrum suitable for local television Cllr Fraser Macpherson, Planning & Transport Convener on Dundee City Council and supporter of the local TV initiative, said. "We are fortunate ...
Congratulations to Tavish Scott on becoming the new Leader of the party in Scotland. He received 59% of the vote to 21.3% for Ross Finnie and 17.9% for Mike Rumbles. So what does this tell us? Is it a ringing endorsement of current Lib Dem strategy north of the border? Maybe. Is it more that Scott had the most high profile campaign, and the backing of most of the key figures in Scotland? Probably. The election of a new leader invariably needs to herald a new beginning, and this one certainly needs to, as currently the Scottish Lib Dems are ...
I'm delighted at the election of Tavish Scott as our new Scottish Liberal Democrat leader - and at the wide margin of his victory - with nearly 60% of the vote. Click on the headline above for the BBC news on this. Tavish will be an excellent and forthright leader of the Liberal Democrats in Scotland. He will provide the sort of dynamic leadership the party members want to see and will be a robust opposition leader in the Scottish Parliament. A good decision by the party membership.
Contrary to rumours which Jeff at SNP Tactical voting was starting to circulate Mike Rumbles is not the new leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats. That honour with 59% of the first preference votes goes to Tavish Scott. Ross Finnie was second with 21.3% with Mike Rumbles on 17.9%. On a 61% turnout of party membership I hope that the winner does take onboard some of the issues and discussions
Jo Swinson twitters the results within seconds: Tavish Scott won with 59% (Ross Finnie 23%, Mike Rumbles 17%)
The result of the Scottish Liberal Democrats leadership election has just been announced. On a turnout of 61% of members the result is as follows: Tavish Scott 1450 (59%) Ross Finnie 568 (21.3%) Mike Rumbles 439 (17.9)% It will be interesting to see what direction the party now takes.
For the last month, Liberal Democrat Voice has been asking our readers what you think of Senator Barack Obama, the Democrats' hope for the White House. Slightly to my surprise, you take a pretty sceptical line, with 44% of you viewing him either as a cynical opportunist, or someone who will disappoint more than he [...]
From Index On Censorship Salman Rushdie has done the right thing with his libel case. Rather than going for massive damages, he's just asked that the false statements about him be admitted as false by the accused and the offending writing be removed from new editions of the book. This is surely the best way to go [...]
{graffiti.jpg} Our campaign to tackle the graffiti that is blighting our local area has made media in the Prestwich and Whitefield Guide. The guide has picked up our campaign to get the Council to tackle graffiti, and in response to the letters that were shamefully sent out to local residents threatening them with fines if they didn't remove graffiti from their property.
Congratulations to Jo Dibb and all at EGA (where I used to be a governor) on their GCSE results: 55% of pupils have got 5 or more passes at A to C, up from last year. Across Islington, there are improved exam results this year. For the first time, all the secondaries got at least [...]
No I'm not saying the sons of Prince Charles will be contesting the upcoming Glenrothes by election, Harry Wills is to be the Lib Dem candidate. Harry is a former former Chamber of Commerce Business Man of the Year who had stood for the Glenrothes North, Leslie and Markinch ward last May as well as being a Mid Scotland and Fife list candidate for Holyrood in 2003. Speaking following his
Iain Dale has published the top 40 Welsh blogs as voted for by the readers of more than 60 UK political blogs and the readers of TOTAL POLITICS Magazine. Somehow this blog has come out at number one and I forgot to vote! Congratulations to Stephanie Ashley who is the only other Welsh Liberal Democrat in the list. Her 16th place after less than a year of blogging is well deserved.
Over the past couple of weeks I have been contacted by local residents, following the publication of the Ombudsman's report into the Equitable Life scandal. Now this issue goes back to early 1999 after Equitable Life launched proceedings to cut bonus payments, effectively going back on promises made to policy holders. This affects many people in Warwick & Leamington, some of whom joined Pension Schemes from local employers. The Ombudsman's report into the Equitable Life scandal makes very disturbing reading. Its findings show that many Equitable Life policy holders lost money as a direct consequence of regulators failing to keep ...
Having arrived back at work this morning with a dull judder, I toyed with asking, plaintively, the question: does the UK need more bank holidays? (At 8 annual public holidays, England and Wales enjoy the fewest in Europe, except for the Netherlands: for the record, Scotland gets nine, and Northern Ireland 10). But I thought [...]
August bank holiday week was always the week each year when we took out family holiday. Unlike David Cameron, we went on rather modest, but always completely enjoyable, holidays in England, with our usual destination being Blackpool. I do remember that we were always guaranteed at least a couple of days of bad weather, but we were also guaranteed a few really good days of sunny warm weather. The question is, where has this weather gone ? We all know that our memory of past events can be somewhat whitewashed, but looking back through photo albums, and using my photographic ...
If I hadn't already permanently excluded myself from ever standing for political office, the next few weeks almost certainly will. Much as Europe was doomed to a Dark Age by the over-dominance of the Monarchies and Christianity successfully managing to supress the human instinct to evolve, to adapt, to explore and to create, so we now face a block and a threat to progress from an emerging political dark age. It is the long term prospects for the UK that concern me now: the bigger picture. There are some ideas and policies that are, in effect, heretical. To utter them, ...
As I have already blogged, Haringey Labour have refused to rethink their plans to blow £12million on a new Civic Centre. Despite these plans to move out of the current Civic Centre, new signs have been put up on the councillor parking spaces - just days after they confirmed the building is to become redundant. They might not have cost much in comparison with the £12million to be spent on refurbishing the other building, but seems very unnecessary. Added to that, as you can see from the photo, the signs also have printing errors on them so it seems they ...
Readers may recall the on going set of posts about the mad and appallingly badly researched "Liberal Demolition" document written and circulated by John "Attack Dog" Spellar, Labour's self-appointed Westminster Village Idiot and Chief of Spin against the Lib Dems. One of his attacks on the Lib Dems is that we are "soft on crime" because we support community justice panels and punishment in the
News reaches me of that a new service is being tested that ensures people only have to tell the government once about births and deaths. The 'Tell Us Once' service is being piloted to see if it is feasible for people to report their changes to the government only once. In particular, the service aims to make it easier for vulnerable people faced with major upheavals such as bereavement. A senior
This morning I went downstairs at 5am to have a glass of water, and fell over my cat. This inauspicious start to the day continued when it proved impossible to get back to sleep, and now I face the rest of it in a kind of grey haze, my reactions trailing about 5 seconds behind the rest of me. This was particularly annoying at 10am today when the Post Office rang me back to discuss the fate of the post box on Rainsough Brow. I was unable to fully grasp what was being said until after I'd put down the ...
Just watched Larry King Live - felt i could do a better job. He had 4 republicans whose meme was `the Dems are fu**ed as Hillary's not really involved very much - what happened to the women?` - surely the question should be `when are you going put a woman on the ticket?`. It was [...]
One of the things I do outside being a Councillor is to serve as a Trustee of Manchester Pride. As part of this role I had the honour on Sunday of meeting Prossy Kakooza, and introducing her on stage in Manchester. Prossy is a 26-year-old woman seeking asylum in the UK. She fled Uganda after suffering vicious sexual, physical and verbal attacks due to her sexual orientation. Manchester's Metropolitan Community Church is currently working with Prossy in her campaign to stay in this country. This video story tells more about the campaign and what we can do to help.
I've seen this new meme from Iain Dale floating around but am quite impressed by how quickly it was before Scottish Tory Boy tagged me yesterday. Basically it asks where you were when five earth shattering events took place. Iains were: Princess Diana's death - 31 August 1997 Like Iain I was in my bed when it happened, but had fallen asleep with the TV on BBC1 in my bedroom. So woke up to see
So Alex Salmond dreams of a Scottish Olympic Team got an unsurprising backing from Sir Sean Connery. Now I'm not saying I'd take much sporting advise from either man, maybe a line or club selection on a golf course from Sir Sean, but would avoid golf course location advise from Alex but then golf has only been an Olympic sport in 1900 and 1904. No I'd far rather take advise on what is best for
The breaking news is that there may have been a plot to assassinate Barack Obama. Or maybe not. The New York Daily Times reports Four people with links to white supremacist groups are under arrest in connection with a possible plot to kill Barack Obama at his Thursday night acceptance speech, a U.S. counterterror official confirmed Monday night. Secret Service investigators don't consider the suspects, one of them a woman, as serious threats to the Democratic presidential candidate, they said. All are being held on either drug or weapons charges. The FBI is investigating, but officials said they don't believe ...
What the hell? Wait... Ah I see. Phew! ShareThis
Every now and again I find another reason why I am grateful that I do not live in London. Do not get me wrong, it is a great city with a lot going for it but I prefer to experience it in small doses. I cannot think of a better place to live than Swansea. Chief amongst London's turn-offs is the bizarre public stalking of its Mayor by his immediate predecessor. Sitting here in Wales and monitoring the news on the internet and in the dead tree press the political life of the capital seems to be dominated by Boris' ...
Jo Anglezarke has recently commented on her recent problems with Facebook, and I find myself sympathising with her, at least to some extent. I do have my doubts about the wisdom of her comments that appear to have triggered the issue, and of her somewhat intemperate language, but there is an issue here worthy of thought. Facebook is a wonderful thing, and I certainly found myself semi-addicted
Today is a very big day - first, the announcement of the new Scottish Liberal Democrat leader and, more importantly (more of this later) my 20th wedding anniversary. Most of my friends would argue that my husband deserves a medal for putting up with me for so long and I tend to agree. So, Happy Anniversary, Bob:-)
{Screen shot from Google Images.} To see how fondly Tony Blair is remembered, you only need to see the "related searches" in this image.
This may be the last response to Alex Wilcock's invitation and, technically, I've missed the deadline set. However, you're all asleep, or having sex in front of open fires, or whatever, so give me a break, why don't you... I've been reading through the many blog entries that I have written in the past year to see if there are any worth promoting as amongst my best. It hasn't been easy, as my
