I am furious with the Government making announcements sounding as though they are helping people about to have their homes repossessed, when most people needing it will get no help at all. Although the Government is going to reduce the time that someone will have to wait before they can claim for help with mortgage interest payments from 39 to 13 weeks if eligible for Income Support...
OK, maybe not literally, but I was amused by her comment today, in response to Alex Salmond's legislative plans, in which she said that the package would "literally cut the legs out from under local government." Really? That certainly conjures up an interesting image. The acting Scottish Labour leader is not alone in her grammatical faux pas. I work as a sub-editor on local papers and it is literally stunning the number of people who use literally incorrectly. There used to be one sports jounalist in Inverness who literally had the word literally on the brain. He literally sprinkled it ...
Back in January, I blogged about the campaign to get improvements to the dangerous junction at the top of Penton Rise. Now my colleague George Allan has taken the petition to the GLA, helped by Lib Dem Transport Committee Vice-Chair Caroline Pidgeon. It's taken us years to get TfL to agree to consider action on [...]
I'm told that the developers seeking to develop the old Tatton cinema site have withdrawn their application. My understanding is that this puts everything back to square one: the process would have to be started again for a future application. I'll post more on this when I have more details, but it looks like the Tatton site is going to stay as it is now for a while to come.
The reason I ask is that big chunks of the legislative programme unveiled by Alex Salmond today will not happen unless the Gnats prove themselves willing to compromise. The most obvious area where the minority Gnat government will have to compromise if it is serious about governing rather than posturing is on the abolition of council tax. Salmond knows there is no majority in the Scottish Parliament for a nationally-set 3p income tax to replace the council tax. The Scottish Lib Dems support abolishing the council tax and replacing it with a tax based on ability to pay, but for ...
Via Reuters: "We will go into the next election with not just tax cuts for people on low and middle incomes, but net tax cuts overall, and that is a big shift for the party," said LibDem MP and campaigns chief Edward Davey. He said the party would seek to reallocate 20 billion pounds of public spending [...]
Since the Annual Meeting of the council earlier this year it has been decided that a Cabinet of 8 is not big enough and Stockton needs 9. Wheels had to turn slowly but finally a 5th Labour member of the cabinet was appointed in July. As a result there was a vacancy for a committee chair to be decided tonight. Looking at the membership of the committee it seemed obvious that the best person for
I blogged a couple of months back about how the Democrat primaries were appearing to reflect the series six of The West Wing. But the latest developments are certainly giving a sense of dé·jà vu. The selection of the running mates emanate the selections in the popular television series. Leo McGarry was selected to be Santos running mates as it was felt he could bring more foreign policy
Scrutiny Overview Committee This meeting was the day after the Council meeting and as Councillors Scully & Kennedy are both members of this committee I was interested to see whether cross-party working relations had soured or if Cllr Scully was minded to kiss and make up. Unfortunately I didn't get the opportunity to find out as [...]
In April 2008, Parish Councillor N J Gooding reported to Hampshire Highways that the sign erected at the junction of the Finkley/Smannell Road has two glaring errors. The first being Smannell was spelt incorrectly and the second was St Mary Bourne was also spelt incorrectly. The County Council Highways department apologised to Councillor Gooding for the incorrect spelling and promised that they would get the signwriter to correct it! 5 months later and the sign still has not been changed or altered to show the correct spelling. As a result of this delay Councillor Gooding has asked for an update. ...
Okay, it's fantasy politics time. I wrote on Monday about the terrifying thought of Ed Balls as Chancellor. This produced an interesting response from Paul Linford who suggested quite plausibly that the appointment of Balls would be the clearest sign yet that Brown had sunk into bunker mentality. In effect, it would mark the final collapse of the government.I have argued constantly (except
Orange Broadband are a unique company in my experience. They manage not only to offer insulting levels of customer service to anyone unfortunate enough to be contracted to them, but have reached an exciting new zenith with me by haunting me even from beyond the consumer grave. Despite having left them 9 months ago, they continue to harangue me with their incompetence. The pain just won't go away. Dealing with Orange Broadband is like repeatedly being stung in the eye by a wasp which just won't die no matter how many times you whack if over the head with a ...
Oh yessie I appear to have the maximum break for a blog. Number 147 on Total Politics top blogs. I knew when Ian Dale posted a comment earlier today that 89 of the Top 100 were English I wouldn't feature in the top ton, but pot the reds and screw back for the yellow, green, brown, blue pink and black does me nicely. Alnong with 11th best in Scotland (although with Freedom and Whisky just behind and ASwaS just 4 ahead overall shows how tight a top 10 Scottish spot is) and 15th Best Lib Dem. Once again thanks for ...
On Cricinfo: Botham was young and reckless and self-indulgent. He convinced himself that he could take everyone along with him on his adventure. It was a fantasy that became a nightmare. Pietersen is more ruthless, experienced and individualistic. He is prepared to make unpopular decisions. Indeed his career tells of little else.The article also links to the scorcard of the match that Pietersen played against England as a youngster with KwaZulu-Natal (alongside Hashim Amla). He batted at 9, scored 61 not out and bowled a remarkable 55 overs in England's only innings.
Charles Clarke has an aricle on the New Statesman website - I assume it will be in Friday's magazine. If I read it correctly, a shorter version would run: "You don't have to be part of a Blairite plot to think that Gordon Brown is a disaster and to want to get rid of him to save the party." I suspect he hopes that when Brown does go Labour will turn to an experienced former minister who is not identified closely with either Blair or Brown. And who has large ears. Just William politics sounds the sort of thing that ...
Sorry to see that Scottish Tory Boy has decided to call it a day. I've enjoyed reading his blog, even though I obviously don't agree with him on very much. He will be missed and I hope he re-appears in some other guise in the future.
I've just been having another squint at the polling in the "toss-up" states. The national US Presidential race numbers are relatively meaningless unless you also look at the Electoral Votes from the states. I obtain the "toss-up" states from Charlie Cook's list. Obama has 240 solid, likely or "leaning" states. McCain has 174 of the same. Then there are 124 electoral votes up for grabs in the
Peace at the top of the Labour party lasted a month. Indeed, it had almost begun to seem as if Labour's leadership crisis in July - the disastrous Glasgow East by-election defeat, David Miliband's manoeuvrings - had been a figment of the mass imagination of the political commentariat. But first Alastair Darling went blisteringly off-message, declaring [...]
My husband turned up for his usual train this morning to find it had been cancelled. He was annoyed, but this is a markedly less usual occurrence than it was under the previous holders of the franchise. What he did grumble about was the fact that there were five ticket inspectors on the platform. He asked them what they were doing and they told him they were there to clamp down on fare dodgers and stop people travelling without tickets. At the moment you can't buy a ticket from Livingston North Station - the machine has been removed while they ...
(Requires some knowledge of US tv shows) The Senator had worked himself up into a rage. Anxious aides had to swoop in with tissues to remove spit from his shirt-front, in case some long-range camera was focused on the office windows. There was nothing they could do about the red-face and clenched fists - except skip out of their reach. "I wanted Lieberman. You said I couldn't have him. Republicans wouldn't stand for it. But you said, go ahead, anyone else - just not a Democrat. So I said Ridge - now he isn't any good either. Hell, who won ...
Last night's meeting of the Rainsough TRA Executive was successful - we learned a lot about the current issues, and now have a few tasks to get on with ahead of the next full meeting next month. I am going to try and reconnect with Cllr Peter Connor in Salford to try and get some movement on the long-running Chapel Road shops saga. It is difficult to suggest a solution that pleases everyone, but what is certain is that the current situation isn't in anybody's best interests, so we need to get some progress at least. I will keep trying. ...
Just been skimming through the Bournemouth Conference agenda. A few thoughts: a) I'm thinking of writing an amendment for the Europe policy paper, but I'll blog about that seperately. b) No-one has requested a seperate vote on Road User Charging in the transport debate. Not being a conference rep, I don't have that option. Anyone? c) Regarding membership fees: the Bones Commission recommends making the "recommended" rate the "minimum" membership fee (but keeping the concessionary rate). I agree. Would anyone support an amendment to this effect? Or, if you think that is too big a step in one go, upping ...
The mood in Thailand at the moment seems revolutionary. The People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) are still occupying government buildings they took a week ago. Thousands of their supporters are holding the buildings and say they will stay until Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej resigns and his Government ends. Unions are coming out and supporting the movement and nationwide strikes are taking place today. Protesters have been blocking airports and roads. The PM declared a state of emergency after pro- and ant- Government protesters clashed, causing the death of one person. What's the reasoning behind this revolutionary mood? Prime Minister Thaksin ...
Will he?
I'm a Councillor encourages young people to engage with public life and think more about policy issues. We have web chat, potential visits to schools and Q+A to look forward to. Two years ago I went for it - and came fourth (I think). This time I will be putting my best foot forward! I'm not sure what the competition is like from the other two parties but lets hope I can shine through! Vote for me. Vote for me! Or something like that......
Still no sign of the Lembit for President campaign. However, I do feel that I have been a little unfair. Lembit has, in fact, been preparing this campaign by raising his profile in the mass media. A winning formula, since far more members watch the telly than read boring old political blogs. Even better, he appeared this year on Comic Relief's Celebrity Apprentice. Here is Lembit demonstrating the sort of negotiation and management skills that he will need as Federal President of the Lib Dems:
Tom Brake, MP for Carshalton and Wallington and the Liberal Democrat spokesman for London and the Olympics, was filmed by at least 40 CCTV cameras on his journey from Wallington to Westminster this morning, he informed attendees at the Wednesday Circle lunch at the National Liberal Club today. And those were just the ones he [...]
The SNP are going to scrap council tax and replace it with a local income tax. Of course these things are difficult for the SNP as they are a minority. But they could push through this particular change with all SNP, Green and LibDem members. I expect the LibDems would support this unless they find something wrong with the plans, while scrutinizing them. It should be interesting to see how they manage, so then we can learn from what they've done.
It seems that she is hated by Alaskan Republicans (the story about her child being her daughter's originated with Alaskan Republicans). She's stood up to the oil interests in Alaska (prompting speculation that this is an attempt to move her on so they can get their way), which I think she deserves some respect for. I rather [...]
Cameron is in Pakistan to meet the PPP Prime Minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani according to reports. He Probably is going to look at the Government in Pakistan, to try and take notes on "how to have a unsuccessful government". If you are as disheartened with Pakistan's coalition PPP and PML-N Government as much as I am, then don't hold your breath the Conservatives will be just as bad as the Pakistani Government. It will be a Government that plans but all plans got up the sprout in the end!
Charles Clark has attacked the Labour Party. He has joint Mr Prentice in the group of Labour's who have attacked the Labour Government. So will Brown have a Political comeback or not!
CNN leads on the issue of teenage pregnancies, as highlighted by the situation with Jamie Lynn Spears and Bristol Palin: Many people question the newsworthiness of Bristol Palin's pregnancy. Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, the son of a teenage mother himself, declared it a private matter and said families, especially children, should be strictly off limits. Others believe that the
McCain's choice of Sarah Palin has certainly stirred up the Democrat-leaning blogosphere and now even the mass-media are moving to question her suitability as VP. But, as George Lakoff (of Rockridge Institute fame) warns in a fine piece of analysis, elections turn not so much on policy specifics as on how the candidates and their policies are cognitively framed in voters' minds. The Democratic responses so far reflect external realities: she is inexperienced, knowing little or nothing about foreign policy or national issues; she is really an anti-feminist, wanting the government to enter women's lives to block abortion, but not ...
I urge residents of Bath to join the World's Biggest Coffee Morning for Macmillan cancer Support on Friday 26 September and help raise a much needed £8.5 million for people affected by cancer. It's so simple and everyone can make their cuppa count by holding a coffee morning, at home, at work or at school and if the date isn't right for you, then hold it on another day. It's...
The second part of the Ancient Landscapes/Pastoral Visions exhibition opens at Bath & North East Somerset's Victoria Art Gallery on 13 September and runs until 19 October. This two-part exploration of the romantic response to the British landscape continues with the Brotherhood of Ruralists, founded at Wellow near Bath in 1975 by Peter Blake. In 1975 a group of artists gathered for a dinner...
Rebecca Sinderbrand of CNN makes an interesting point about the opening session of the Republican National Convention: Besides drawing on the persecution factor, the Palin talking points of the week have been aimed at bolstering the Alaska governor's commander-in-chief credentials. Viewers were reminded that she'd run a municipality and the largest state in the union. The fact that her city had
Ok so Alex Samond has announced his plans for the next year. Including what the BBC seem to automatically assume is a replacement of Council Tax with a 3p flat rate Scottish National Income Tax. Cathy Jamieson seems to think that by calling the bill the replace Council Tax an Abolition of Council Tax Bill somehow that created a fairer tax is something to be ashamed off, or at least the name Local Income Tax. Maybe she should check out the Abolition of Slavery Act (1807), Wages Attachment (Abolition) Act (1870) [relating to poor law loopholes], the Abolition of the ...
Mayor Johnson has today unveiled the London Crime Map. Watch as house prices fall even more in the unfortunate areas shrouded in red. I'm moving from a below average crime ward to a high crime ward. Wished this had come out a few weeks ago before I signed the contract. What about you?
And also just to show how far things have moved in 84 years... the worse Political Convention in US history was probably the 1924 Democratic Party convention which took 104 ballots to nominate a compromise candidate for President and also failed to carry a motion denouncing the Ku Klux Clan in a vote of 543 and 3/20th of a vote in favour and 544 and 7/20th of a vote against. Now that was a piece of vote-counting excitement. Not surprisingly the Democrats were thrashed in the polls that year. The presidential candidate selected by the way was John W. Davies ...
At last the authorities have worked out what is causing the current spate of stabbings. It is poetry. The BBC reports:An exam board is removing a poem about a knife-carrying violent loner from its anthology for GCSE English because of fears over teenage knife crime.The AQA exam board has decided to withdraw the poem Education for Leisure written by Carol Ann Duffy.The exam board is writing to schools to advise them to destroy the copies of the anthology - and says it will send replacements not containing this poem.You can, at your own risk, read the poem here. Is this ...
I have just used the new electronic voter registration at Bath & North East Somerset Council and it was so easy. When you get your voter renewal from the council why not give it a go it only took me 15 seconds. Many other councils are also using this system and I feel that it will mean an increase in registration of voters as it is not so easy to forget to register in the future as there is no...
Sarah Palin, the Republican Vice Presidential candidates used to be a member of the secessionist Alaskan Independence party (AIP) - whose motto is "Alaska First"
Last night, Mark and I attended a social event organised by Bexley Borough Liberal Democrats and PPC of Old Bexley & Sidcup, Duncan Borrowman. The event was held in the Happy China restaurant near Bexley Station, and an excellent meal and some lively conversation made for a really good evening. Bexley Borough is one of those Local Parties who have struggled in recent years, with setbacks at local government level and, stuck out on the periphery of London as they are, there is the risk of disconnect with the Regional Party. However, given that they have been successful in the ...
At the beginning of the year Nick Clegg as Leader, Simon Hughes as Party President, and Chris Rennard as Chief Executive asked me and my colleagues, Cllr Duncan Greenland, Kate Parminter and Paul Burstow MP, to produce a report into how the Liberal Democrats' internal organisation could be built upon to double our number of [...]
The University of Cambridge has announced that it will stop using the Law National Admissions Test after this year's application process (for 2009 or deferred 2010 entry). It says that:...the numerical scores awarded to applicants in the multiple-choice section of the test do not provide sufficiently distinctive and useful information within the Cambridge admissions process to justify applicants being required to sit the LNAT and pay the fee involved in doing so. It's likely that future applicants will be required to write a timed essay in Cambridge as part of the interview process. I fully understand why this decision has ...
One of the reasons why Downing Street is now hotly denying that Mr Brown was ever going to unveil an economic strategy to counter recession is that, put simply, 'economic policy' is pretty much emasculated now. It doesn't really exist. Margaret Thatcher (in her various guises as arch-monetarist, supply-sider and non-interventionist) had one outstanding effect on economic policy making. She shifted the goal posts by moving them off the pitch. Instead of accepting that economic policy management is difficult, frustrating and risky and involves utilising a range of economic policy instruments, she embraced the myth of the single instrument (monetary ...
I was told by one of the web masters of the Pendle Liberal Democrats site that this blog is one of the main transfer links to Lib Dem Pendle site. Well its great to see that my readers are interested in Afzal Anwar's and the Pendle Lib Dems Campaigns and news. So Please keep visiting www.pendlelibdems.org.uk for all the latest info from the Pendle Liberal Democrats.
There's still time to register for federal conference in Bournemouth - but if you really can't go, you can still participate in some of the sessions. For the four Q&A sessions, featuring party spokespeople and outside commentators, questions are welcome from any party member: Sunday 14th September, 14.50 - 15.35: Q&A session with Nick Clegg, Leader [...]
I have had a bad back for a few days now so treated myself last night to a full body massage, I now feel so much better.
Steven Johnson, author of Emergence and Mind Wide Open, explains why he think Sarah Palin may step down in his post Will she stay or will she go?
The Republican National Convention has now started. A real vote winner for them made a speech last night. George Bush. Excellent. What seems to have possibly happened in the last week is that there has been a sort of "message swopsies" between the two camps. If you like, a sort of double "excuse me" in that old-fashioned dance when partners swopped around. Obama/Biden now looks like the ticket
We're in Broadhurst Gardens and looking west from the bus stop, up towards West End Lane and immediately on the left is an interesting stark red brick building. Currently it is Lillian Baylis House, home of the English National Opera (ENO). It began life in 1884 for the Falcon Works - I'm unclear what this would have been - and was built by Thomas Bate. It was he who put the crest plaque at the top in the pediment - but in fact it's not a falcon at all it's an eagle and a castle and is the crest of ...
Yesterday's announcement that free car parking is to return to most Scottish hospitals will come as a welcome relieve to most patients, their families and members of staff at affected hospitals who had to pay to get to work. The three exceptions are the PFI initiative funded hospitals the Edinburgh and Glasgow Royal Infirmaries and Ninewalls in Glasgow. So for West Lothian residents that fact that some of the services removed from St. John's at Livingston in 2004 would now have free parking and local access if not removed to the ERI adds to the discord of services being spread ...
I've long held the belief that small scale renewable projects as well as the mass scale ones is the best way forward to help reduce our reliance on carbon based energy generation. Therefore I'm glad to see that the Forum for Renewable Energy Development has reported that an extra 650MW of Hydro power can be produced by hundreds of small scale projects. That's about 50%, or 600,000 extra homes (equivalent of Edinburgh) of what is currently produced primarily through the big dams up in the Highland Glens, even before the new Glendoe facility comes on line next year. Smaller schemes ...
Following the discussion on this blog and others following Miss Wagstaff's exclusion from Facebook at the beginning of August I have now had a reply to my question to the First Minister as to whether the UK Civil Service guidelines entitled 'principles for participation on-line' apply to employees of the Welsh Assembly Government. In a letter to me Rhodri Morgan explains: 'All civil servants are subject to the requirements of the Civil Service Code. Separate Codes exist in Wales, Scotland and England reflecting the differing legal position of civil servants in relation to their respective ministerial accountability. A Welsh Assembly ...
Whatever thoughts crossed my mind that weren't worth a whole post. 00:24 trying Chrome to see what I think. Nice. #Microblogging using LoudTwitter and Twitter. matgb_twitter is there if you're mad enough.
...but the economic objectives of the housing package are much harder to fathom. George Parker and Jim Pickard in the FT are on the money, claiming that the whole thing is "mired in confusion" but that "The political objective is clear enough: the prime minister hopes that by taking steps to alleviate problems in the housing market and, next week, to address rising fuel prices, he can show he is on the side of "hard-working families"." But there seems a big difference in emphasis between No 10 (where this is expected to boost house prices) and No 11 (where it ...
Having given my initial reaction to the Bones Report and highlighted some of the juicy bits - it is now time to have a look at the detail of the report. I say "report" (and will use that term throughout this article), but we should keep reminding ourselves that what we have is not the full report but an executive summary of the full report. However, it is worth reading in full. Those of you who
Sod's Law has it that every time I have a nice dinner lined up, the TV rings and asks me to do a live Press Review — but I can't complain, as they pay, and I know that if I said 'no' they would only ask someone else... So, I missed the middle bit of the [...]
Firstly, a link for the girls to toss out at people who just don't get basic feminist tenets: It's like JFGI for men who think They Know Better. ginasketch, innerbrat, steerpikelet, why yes, I did just put it on a certain Griffin's facebook wall. Secondly, Jamie Sadler has been reading Simon Hughes on Gender Balance. I agree with him that the idea is an interesting one, but have some misgivings too. Will possibly elaborate on another occasion.
Team Hopeless-Ness (Graeme Littlejohn, Fraser Grieve, Gavin Steel and Matt Maguire) hope to raise at least £500 for Alzheimer Scotland by taking part in The Monster Challenge which takes place on 13th September.
Sunday: Is this a Star Wars movie, or isn't it? In a lot of ways it's half-way between one thing and another. The animation, aiming for "Thunderbirds" (bold choice, George), is half-way between live-action and the manga-esque Clone Wars cartoon series. Similarly, the Jedi powers are about half-way between the physically "real" versions in the films and the much more now-that's-what-they-OUGHT-to-be-able-to-do powers evinced in the cartoon. Particularly the bit where Mace Windu shows you what he can do with his PURPLE LIGHTSABRE. In the same way, The Clone Wars cannot QUITE decide if it's a Star Wars movie or not. ...
