but thank f*ck I'm with the boring old Nationwide! Thank f*ck that it was a Lib Dem cllr (he had a funny name and represented a ward in Richmond - can anyone remember him?) that stood out against demutualisation of Nationwide. Thank f*ck I and thousands of others have consistently supported by votes the mutuality [...]
Gordon Brown's proposals to deal with the economic slowdown are too little too late, say Hastings & Rye Liberal Democrats. The Lib Dems have published their package of proposals designed to help people left struggling by the credit crunch. And the plans are being strongly backed by members in Hastings & Rye. The Lib Dem measures include [...]
Over the last few weeks an awful lot of energy and angst has been consumed by the debate within the Liberal Democrats over the new position towards tax cuts. Yet while that debate was being held in our bubble in Bournemouth the economic storm has been swirling around outside. While the votes were being counted the global financial crisis was washing away the ground from underneath us. I was
Not many people have come out of today's vote against the Wall Street bail-out plan in the USA with their reputations enhanced, but some have come out in a worse state than others. There are some fairly obvious losers. Firstly, and most importantly, is the whole financial system in the USA, and the world as a whole. Banks and shares are likely to continue to tumble over the next few days and weeks, putting more financial institutions at risk. And that's having a knock-on effect across the whole economy. Although the debate on the bail-out plan has often been characterised ...
The bogeymen-of-the-moment are clearly bankers. Photographs of bankers with their heads - or boxes of their possessions - in their hands are commonplace. The sympathy for the former Lehmans employee does not appear to match that felt for the unemployed docker or miner. Schadenfreude is de rigueur at the moment. And if the banker is the bogeyman, the free markets is the wicked system that is now being exposed for what it is (if only!). But are our current problems really the fault of capitalists and bankers? There is an altogether different narrative that points the finger in an entirely ...
Good if very succinct analysis over at MyDD: overwhelmingly those in close races for their re-election voted against the bail out.
I was finally personally affected by the credit crunch today. There shouldn't be any real repercussions for me but my bank here in the US, Wachovia, was bought out by Citigroup today in a $2.1 Billion deal. Apparently the bank "did not fail". From the FDIC press release: "For Wachovia customers, today's action will ensure seamless continuity of service from their bank and full protection for all of their deposits." said FDIC Chairman Sheila C. Bair. "There will be no interruption in services and bank customers should expect business as usual." And Wachovia's press release in full (although I haven't ...
A long day at what was called a "Priority Setting Event" for Stockton Rennaisance. Lots of people were there from the voluntary sector, the community and people involved in the Local Strategic Partnership. I enjoyed, as always, the chance to meet such people and make new contacts or catch up with old one's. keeps your feet on the ground. How much "priority setting" was done I wouldn't like to...
Busy day today, starting off with a useful meeting this morning with Professor Malory Nye, Principal of the Al-Maktoum Institute For Arabic and Islamic Studies, regarding the proposal for a cultural centre on the former Logie Secondary School site. Although the project has run behind schedule, I was assured of Dubai's commitment to the project and it is hoped to see progress in future months. Meantime, I was pleased to hear that a further clean-up of the site will be organised in the next few weeks, including tree trimming where these are impacting on adjacent properties in Rosefield Street. After ...
Like petulant primary school children, Republicans in the House of Representatives have seen fit to defeat the $700 bn plan to save the US economy. Why? Apparently because Speaker Palosi hurt their feelings by implying that Bush's economic policies might in some way have contributed to the problems. Yep, seems like a very mature reason to instigate the biggest ever one day points fall in the Dow to me too. Twats
Monday 29th September 2008 may go into history as the Black Monday of this swing of the economic cycle. The failure of the US Congress to agree the bail out proposed by Treasury secretary Hank Paulson was quite clearly unexpected by the markets an the immediate and dramatic sell-off that followed was astonishing. Britain and the US remain in the eye of the storm, yet the UK is following a consistent policy. The breakdown of the US political consensus leaves policy makers with no clear path as to what to do next. Sterling has its worst day's trading in nearly ...
Opinion polls are beginning to bring down the tories lead in face of the economic crisis. A poll suggested that just by a margin people trust Brown more than Cameron with the economy. Since he backed out of a snap election last November people have talked as if the next election will be May 2010. But would Gordon Brown really want to go for the Major effect. Stay in Government as long as possible and make people resent you. Most of the time we have a General election every 4 years, which would mean one is due in May 2009. ...
First of all this little Assembly website has got to be commended. Jane Davidson the Welsh Assembly Government minister for the environment is promoting the ideas that people in Wales should be trying to limit their Carbon footprint. This is fine too. The minister says; Climate change is a real challenge for us all. This campaign marks a major step in encouraging people in Wales to change their habits. It is the responsibility of everyone, from individuals to big businesses, to do their bit and help reduce our carbon footprint. However, taking action doesn't have to mean radically changing our ...
The Tories are calling for a centrally-imposed freeze in council tax, as part of their commitment to localism. I thought I might refer to their previous announcement on the subject of localism, and found that the page had been removed. Luckily google cache comes to the rescue All fine-sounding stuff of the type tories say when they are behind in the polls. And
I attended a briefing for Councillors tonight on the Equal Pay / Job Evaluation issue. The presentation was given by the Director of HR and the Director of Strategic Finance, and they answered sa lot of questions on all sorts of topics for nearly two hours. Their time was appreciated by the many Labour and Lib Dem members who were there. Sadly, the conservative Executive were notable for their absence. I know it's the Tory conference this week, but I still think that it is an absolute disgrace that not a single Executive member was at tonight's meeting. Not one ...
I'm third on this week's Top of the Blogs for my entry "Face it: at this rate it won't just be labour loosing seats". My very pessimistic entry obviously caught attention. Perhaps a stark warning. I don't really know what led to my pessimistic tone, I always used to be so optimistic. But I'm not hopeless. We have a very relevant message to the people of Britain, we've just got to get that across.
Chris Dillow writes at Stumbling and Mumbling: Bradford and Bingley lived for 149 years as a mutual company. It lasted just eight years as a quoted firm. Halifax survived for 144 years as a mutual, but just 11 as a quoted company. Northern Rock lasted 157 years as a mutual, 11 as a quoted. Not a single building society that demutualized in the 90s now survives as an independent company. Does anyone see a pattern here?He goes on to discuss possible reasons why the building societies have done so badly as quoted companies. On a personal note, my mortgage was ...
Welcome to the 84th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (20-27th September), together with a hand-picked quintet you might otherwise have missed. How about starting with the most popular blog-posting, and we work our way down? Here goes: 1. [...]
Ashish Prashar has worked for the last two and a half years in and around the Conservative Party. He's spent the last 11 months within the press office, serving as a spokesman for the Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office, Shadow Leader of the House and the Conservative Head of Policy. Ashish has written an article in the New Statesman saying that he spent those two and a half years believing
Readers may recall that a copy of the so-called "Liberal Demolition" fell into my hands a couple of months ago. This rag is the fruit of the fertile mind of Labour MP John (The Toothless Attack Dog) Spellar MP and his interesting publication brought hours of endless amusement to me (and allowed me to write reams of blog posts as well). One of his big attacks on the Lib Dems was an allegation
There's been a double-dose of criticism from the Spectator today for Conservative peer Lord Ashcroft and his refusal to come clean on whether he has kept the promise he made at the time he was made a peer. As I've blogged before (such as here), on being appointed to the House of Lords, Lord Ashcroft promised [...]
Ceredigion's Welsh Liberal Democrat MP Mark Williams has today welcomed the news that the European Commission are considering expanding the Telecommunications Universal Service Obligation (USO) to include access to broadband. The EC reviews the USO every three years, and once a telecoms service is being used by more than half of the population it must form part of the service to which everyone is guaranteed. Currently, about 36% of EU households have a broadband connection, but uptake is growing so quickly that the review is being brought forward to meet the Commission's stated aim of all EU citizens having broadband ...
Bad BPIX, bad BPIX. Snarl, grrrrrr.
Carriages bearing the missing fairies in the new worldof Cameronism turned up at the party's Conference in Birmingham this morning, but only one was allowed admittance. Mrs Saywhateveryouneedtobeelected was escorted to a key position on the platform, but her colleague Mrs Bebelievedasyouachieved was refused accreditation and the butler called to escort her from the premises. Matters became crystal [...]
Health and Well Being Scrutiny Committee The two main issues to be addressed at this meeting were the Elizabeth House regeneration scheme and the Mental Health Trust's application for Foundation Trust status. I was pleased to find the audience area filled with residents of Elizabeth House and their representatives, as that had been the intention of [...]
Members Development - Foundation Trusts I attended a very useful training session presented by Sally Brearley on the nature of NHS Foundation Trusts. This was particularly aimed at Health & Well Being Scrutiny members and served as excellent background information for our scrutiny of the South West London & St George's Mental Health Trust proposal to [...]
The Poll for who to vote in the EP Elections in 2009 has now closed and the results are below: Liberal Democrats 51% Conservatives 26% Labour 8% UKIP 8% BNP 5% Others 3% I know the Poll is going to be Lib Dem biased as a majority of my readers and participators in the Poll are Lib Dems. But despite that it is a very interesting turn out. If this was to be the actual voting decisions in the 2009 Euro elections in the North West of England then the Number of Seats would be: Lib Dems 4 MEP's Conservatives ...
"It is the common error of Socialists to overlook the natural indolence of mankind; their tendency to be passive, to be the slaves of habit, to persist indefinitely in a course once chosen. Let them once attain any state of existence which they consider tolerable, and the danger to be apprehended is that they will thenceforth stagnate; will not exert themselves to improve, and by letting their faculties rust, will lose even the energy required to preserve them from deterioration. Competition may not be the best conceivable stimulus, but it is at present a necessary one, and no one can ...
Chers amis, Nous avons besoin de votre soutien. Dans ce contexte de crise économique, nous avons le projet de sortir un site et un tract national (20 000 exemplaires, diffusé partout en France) pour expliquer les origines de la crise et les solutions pour en sortir, à l'opposé du « tout interventionnisme » tragiquement redevenu à la mode. Cette opération coûte 9 000 euros. Si nous touchons à travers elle 40 000 à 50 000 personnes, c'est un excellent rapport efficacité / prix (18 centimes d'euros par personne touchée par la campagne). Comme vous le savez déjà, Alternative Libérale s'organise ...
This is incredible - live blog - updates at the bottom They're just approaching the vote on the bail-out/buy-in in the US House of Representatives. I was much entertained at watching the Dow Jones Industrial Average as Rep. John Boehner was speaking. He's minority leader of the Republicans in the House. When he started, the Dow was down about 2.67% on the day. His preoration was somewhat gloomy
Courtesy of Jenny Rigg (heck, I even stole her artwork) and Sara Bedford, I bring you Radio Four's Vince Cable fan club. The fun bit is here at 8.10am. If this is an example of how the Today programme will be treating the Tories I may have to reconsider listening to Radio Wales in the morning rather than Radio Four. Sara Bedford has a transcript of the really interesting bits of Evan Davis' interview with the Chancellor of the Exchequer and his Tory shadow. Apologies for reproducing her whole post but I just know how difficult it is for you ...
Just watching the news. Oh my God! What an idea the Conservatives have come up with - a high speed rail link from London to the North! But hey - wasn't that something the Liberal Democrats announced ages ago? Another one bites the dust. What really cheeses me off isn't the Conservatives nicking our ideas - they clearly need them - but the lack of any credit for it. Strangely enough none of the broadcast news I saw mentioned the fact that the Liberal Democrats have been beating this drum for some time. So the question is not - how ...
Watch his video on Ros's campaign website.
Terry Pratchett is not politically aligned, apparently. Odd, then, that of the three main parties, he's chosen only to talk to the Tories... Now, on the one hand, it's a move born of a fairly decent calculation as to who the next government is going to be and where a busy man might best spend his time to try and get something done... But on the other hand, making it appear that a Tory victory is inevitable, and the others are not worth bothering with at all might end up backfiring a bit. And an endorsement? After the amount of ...
George Osborne's conference announcement that the Conservatives would plan to freeze council tax bills over a two year period is a thought provoking, yet timid incursion into the debate surrounding council tax. Let us be clear about the nature of the proposal, one that is small in scale but intended to be large on political impact. Osborne estimates that the freeze on council tax bills will cost in the region of £1.5bn over the course of two years. He emphasises that the Conservatives would be able to fund this proposal by trimming government consultancy budgets; by £270m in the first ...
Martin Kelner has a piece in the Guardian Media section today that mentions his time in local radio. He remembers presenting an evening show for several northern local radio stations that combined news and sport: My guest was the former Liberal MP Michael Meadowcroft, newly returned from former Yugoslavia, where he had been advising on how democracy could be brought to the region.Alongside my conversation with Meadowcroft, I was to take regular reports from numerous midweek football matches across the north. While I was lining up the football reports, I half-listened to the internationally renowned expert on democracy explaining how ...
My sister is reading Immortality by Milan Kundera and Peter Kussi and came across this passage: Don't tell me that two men who deeply disagree with each other can still like each other; that's a fairy tale. Perhaps they would like each other if they kept their opinions to themselves or if they only discussed them in a joking way and thus played down their significance...But once a quarrel breaks out, it's too late. Not because they believe so firmly in the opinions they defend, but because they can't stand not to be right. Look at those two. After all, ...
The Official who left secret Details on a train is "meant to" be getting Charged for the offence. As you may have noticed "meant to" is highlighted this is because I don't think anything is going to happened to this Official. When the Government mess up they always say they are going to investigate of charge their own, which basically means they are gonna give them a slap on the wrist. This guy who lost the data is still going to be in a job, he probably will get a pay rise for getting the Labour Party some Media Coverage, ...
The Conservatives really have hit it of with the BBC as majority of the Politics Issues on their site are Conservative news from Conference. Labour had a Conference and so did the Liberal Democrats and TUC but they didn't get that much of a Media Coverage to the extent the Conservatives are getting. I don't think the BBC will keep the name for much longer if they continue like this, they probably end up becoming the TBC the Tory Broadcasting Channel They probably even start covering how many times Cameron Farts or how many visits the Shadow Cabinet make to ...
Picture thanks to guido. That is the Banner you will see outside the Rocket Club, the place you will see the likes of Karim and Cronies and many other Tories, and even Guido!
I would just like to take this opportunity to wish all Jewish residents of Bury, and all Jewish readers of this blog, a happy new year and well over the Fast. Rick
Tonight is a session for Councillors on the Bury MBC Job Evaluation process which has been so controversial. The session has come about after Lib Dem Councillors asked the Leader for it, and I hope he is there tonight to answer the questions which we have submitted and which we'll be asking after the presentation. It is vital that we get to understand what has happened and why, and to ensure that the process is as fair and open as possible. There are rumours flying everywhere, staff morale is very low, and I am hoping that this will be the ...
Since they are incapable of managing my car tax history without sparks flying from within their addled brains, I can only assume that the DVLA's sole purpose is to irk me until I suffer a seizure. I appreciate their efforts, but really, a government agency spending millions should be doing more than just that. And right now I'm not sure that it is. Today I attempted to get a tax disc, after they failed to send me a reminder and for some reason known only to themselves wouldn't let me renew on line or over the phone. I could almost ...
Worcester conservatives must be furious. George Osborne has announced that the tories would freeze council tax. Why would Worcester conservatives by furious? Because their leadership of our city council has put the council into huge debts. Wanting to show how they cut taxes, they kept council taxes in Worcester lower for longer than they could. This year they've had to bring a sudden jump in raising the tax and the council's debt is out of control. Worcester city is one council that certainly couldn't freeze its tax. Anyway didn't David Cameron talk about localism. Well they're clearly not interested in ...
The News Shopper carries a damning story cataloguing the failures of Bromley Hospitals NHS Trust as reported in the 156 page Taylor Report. A few juicy paragraphs are: A DAMNING report into how a health trust got into more than £100m of debt says it will never be able to pay it back. and It found that members of the executive team under John Watkinson, who was trust boss from May 2003 to December
With all this talk of Sarah Palin and her Alaskan roots ('people being outnumbered by Moose' and 'The only time she gets awoken at 3am is when there's a moose going through the garbage can' etc etc), I thought that a blast of Lord Rockingham's XI's "Hoots Mon" was well overdue.... The lyrics are extensive, as follows: Hoots mon, there's a moose loose aboot this hoose Hoots mon it's a bracht
Sat in front of BBC Parliament this morning, this thought crossed my mind: "Why don't we get to play music at Lib Dem conference, to show off our edgy, liberal tastes in music, in contrast to these bland, painfully "hip and modern" choices the Tories make?" Then I remembered: it's because we don't need to cover up for a lack of anything actually happening at our conferences.
The most interesting thing the Tories have said today is not, of course, George Osborne's council tax "freeze", but Theresa Villiers's suggestion that they are now opposed to Heathrow's third runway. I know I should be partisan about this, but I genuinely want to congratulate them on this announcement, not least because certain Tories seem to be in denial about it. It's been a long time coming,
With McCain now trailling by about 5-9 points in the tracking polls (Rasmussen -5, Gallup -8, Diageo/Hotline -5, Daily Kos/Research 2000 - 9) I think we can safely expect a McCain bombshell at any moment. We've had the Palin "Moose in the Hoose". We've had the "suspension" nonsense. Now we can expect another "googly". My money is on this guy rearing his ugly head again....
Society - broken or not? Looks like someone can't make up their minds: Cameron retreats from his claim that Britain has a 'broken' society (Independent) BBC must help to heal the broken society, say Tories (Telegraph)
This morning, immediately before the speech by George Osborne, there was a bit of a buzz around the rolling news channels and on the Daily Politics that Osborne might be about to pull a bit of an inheritance-tax style rabbit out of his rhetorical hat. "Something to do with local taxation", hinted Andrew Neil. Then I went out for lunch. Intrigued to see what it was when I returned, I flipped on
I'm not the only one with a conference survival guide this year, W4MP's Dean Trench (not a real trench) has his out too: Everybody knows that party Conferences have the ability to bring out the inner Scrooge in the most upstanding of hotel proprietors, so make sure that you book your accommodation early if you don't [...]
For anyone interesting in security, especially computer security, this presentation of security maxims makes interesting reading. The authors think that, whilst not always true, these maxims probably work out right in 80-90% of cases. Those following Labour's attempts to foist ID cards on us might read these with some recognition, along with a slight sinking feeling. For example: Arrogance Maxim: The ease of defeating a security device or system is proportional to how confident/arrogant the designer, manufacturer, or user is about it, and to how often they use words like "impossible" or "tamper-proof". Ignorance is Bliss Maxim: The confidence that ...
rule out tax increases (at about 3min 40) but we will freeze council tax for two years... Am I the only person this makes no sense to? Surely it has to be one or the other... Or are we going back to the old days of making good spin and taxing by the back door? NB it is amazing how quickly the BBC removed the story that was there this morning on not ruling out tax increases,...
I'm fortunate enough to meet people who are making a real difference in our community as part of my job as Deputy Leader of the Council. Today was no exception. I met Liz Wilson, Head Teacher at Sutton High Junior School and we talked about how she is working with children and parents and the Council's parking team to make the roads safer for children on their way to and from school. Mrs Wilson has welcomed the council's high-tech smart car as a deterrent to dangerous parking. The car is fitted with a CCTV camera and it patrols the roads ...
There's lots of stats around to tell homeowners how screwed they are but this is the starkest I think I've seen. The net amount that banks and building societies (cough) lent in August was 5% of what they lent one month earlier in July. They say stats don't fall off a cliff. I suppose we'll find out whether they're right when we see this month's figures.
Ros because.... (he is at top of page at time of posting!)
On 27th September the latest "Inspiration Day" was held in London by the Campaign for Gender Balance. These are friendly and informal events, designed to give female members the opportunity to learn more about becoming more active in the Liberal Democrats. More than fifty women attended Saturday's session, which included advice on becoming an MP, [...]
The country's best shadow Chancellor Vince Cable has pointed out that the collapse of Bradford & Bingley is part of the sad end of the traditional mutual building societies. Credit Unions can provide safe, local alternatives. Islington Community Credit Union is a member-owned not-for-profit savings-and-loans co-operative (a mo-nopro-sloco?) dedicated to encouraging savings rather [...]
The SNP were quite enraged about the removal of nursery school provision of teachers from some council areas. Indeed in their 2007 manifesto they promised: Life should be easier for young families. The SNP will increase by 50% the amount of free nursery education available for 3 and 4 year olds. Well it appears that what they mean by the amount of nursery education being available only equates to a qualified teacher being available at least one day a week. Nothing new there the Lib Dems pointed out that this pledge was missing from last years budget. Indeed the First ...
On the eve of their national conference a source close to Sutton's Tories has alleged that they have dumped Terry Faulds, their Shadow Finance councillor. Councillor Faulds had only recently replaced his predecessor, but like him, he had failed to produce an alternative budget for the Council, disappointing local residents. According to Tory sources Faulds will be replaced by Tim Crowley. Let's hope Councillor Crowley will take Sutton's residents more seriously than his predecessors and let them know what his party stands for by preparing a budget for the council.
I am a bit of an evil poker player, it has to be said. Between the launch of this blog and the demise of my first blog, I put a tenner on a betfair account and began playing online poker, and managed to quadruple that in a month. We're not talking huge money here, and it was the effort to reward ratio (at the very bottom level of the game) that eventually made me cash in my winnings and decide that, you know, having a life is better than this. You have to be able to play full time and ...
Hurrah. The Kentucky Fried banners adorning Crouch End are apparently coming down this week, or so says Haringey Council, in an email on Friday. The Council says the campaign has run its course. However, Haringey has yet to answer a couple of questions I have put to them about how the Council's planning rules are supposed to work for these banners. They're now in breach of their own protocol on the time-limit for providing such answers. I wish I could say this doesn't happen often, but this is suspicious, nonetheless. It's important, as otherwise this problem will keep raising its ...
... such as when a blog post that has been up for over an hour suddenly disappears without trace (YAY Wordpress! ... not.) Or when people approach you in the pub and say "hey, aren't you the Yorksher Gob?". Or, as has been happening today, when you find yourself happily flirting with someone who has been dead for 126 years (see comments on this blog post). Oh well. Undead, yes; Unperson, no! And it's not like I ever objected to Reg Shoe or Zombie Mr. Grimsdyke; why should I treat Zombie Charles Darwin any different? And it does seem fitting ...
I picked up the Guardian at Bickley station this morning to see the article at the bottom of the front page: Tories plan £20bn 180mph rail link instead of Heathrow third runway I was stunned to read that the Conservatives are proposing exactly what I have supported for a long time. But as James Graham highlights, Greenpeace have said: "The true test of their commitment will come when, like the
That is the effect of calling, similar to Alex Salmond, for a two year council tax freeze. Ploughing national revenue into local government may sound attractive in the short term, but in the longer term it means even less fiscal autonomy. Given this will be happening during a higher than average period of inflation, we're talking about a real shift here. My rough calculations put that as representing local government going from raising £1 in every £4 it spends to nearer £1:£5. How can the Tories continue to claim to be localists?
All 110 seats have gone to pro-President candidates. Belarus is trying to become Western allies and the US Government and EU are thought to be concidering declaring the election free and fair so that they can get Belarus as an ally. They hope to do this so that they have a full front against Russia. Hopefully they won't recognise these elections as free and fair, because they're far from it.
Sara Bedford has very helpfully typed up the exchange that occurred on the Today Programme this morning which had me grinning at the radio and nearly made me late taking the small person to school. Evan "Prince Albert" Davis to George Osbourne:It sounds to me like I should vote for Vince Cable. Vince Cable was against demutualising the building societies back in the 1990s, when your government was doing that. Vince Cable was sending me, as an economics editor, emails every three weeks about the levels of debt through the last five years; and he has been instrumental in saying ...
Results of Austrian legislative elections Social Democratic Party of Austria (Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs) The centre-left Socialists 29.7%, 58 seats, down 10 Austrian People's Party (Österreichische Volkspartei) Conservatives 25.6%, 50 seats, down 16 Freedom Party of Austria (Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs) Far Right Fascists 18.0% (!!!! up by 7%), 35 seats, up 14 BZÖ - Jörg Haider's List (BZÖ - Liste Jörg Haider) Right-wingers 11.0% (!!! up by 6.9%), 21 seats, up14 The Greens - The Green Alternative (Die Grünen - Die Grüne Alternative) Centre-left Greens 9,8%, 19 seats, down 2 Liberal Forum (Liberales Forum) Liberals 1.9%, no seats, :( Total seats, ...
My recent Facebook update, indicating that I am somewhat more intelligent than my cat, has drawn a number of comments, and I am reminded just how many Liberal Democrats are 'cat people'. It's been a difficult year for the feline element of the family, with Victoria dying from cancer, Franklin from old age aggravated by a meeting of my Local Party Executive, and then Eleanor from renal failure.
From The Independent: All the building societies that transformed themselves into banks quoted on the stock exchange between 1989, starting with the old Abbey National, and 2000, when Bradford & Bingley took the plunge, have either failed or had to be rescued. Following Bradford & Bingley's demise, there is not one left. Meanwhile the building societies which [...]
Theresa Villainous is absolutely correct to call for the cost of a third runway in Heathrow to be ploughed into a new high speed rail link between St Pancras, Manchester and Leeds. But Greenpeace are even more correct to say this: "The true test of their commitment will come when, like the Liberal Democrats, this position is written into their manifesto." That's cheers all round then.
Following on from the success of the Amazing Alamein litter pick your local environmental group has now arranged a swap shop. This is an ideal opportunity to bring along things you no longer want and swap them for something you do want. Recycle and reuse rather than dumping things. Also on offer is face painting, cookery demonstrations and a treasure hunt. The event takes place on Saturday 11th October from 12:00 noon at the Smannell Road church centre. Full details are given on the attached poster swap-shop-poster.pdf
I want a poster of this: That is all. ETA: SQUEEEE!
Hat-tip to Luke Akehurst for this one; John Mann MP has produced a report called 'Dave's decline' which documents a decline in Conservative Party membership during Cameron's tenure. Mann says; "From reports to the Electoral Commission, 90% of local associations with a sitting MP report either no recruitment or a fall in members. Since Cameron's election: Constituency membership has fallen by an average of 24 in 2006 and 93 in 2007. Each Shadow cabinet member lost an average of 81 members in just the last year. George Osborne experienced a net loss of 240 members since joining the Shadow Cabinet. ...
Bridgnorth Town Councillor, David Walker, has criticized the current unitary pilot scheme running in Bridgnorth as being too narrow in scope and only focused on grant funding. Members were informed during a debate on Unitary at the Town Council, that the pilot scheme was not very effective at representing the issues and views of Bridgnorth. Speaking [...]
I keep reading comments which take it as accepted fact that the Bones commission report, and by extension the party leader, is about centralising power within the party and reducing democracy within it. Now, while this may be the perception of people who haven't actually followed the report's progress carefully (and it seems to me at the moment that the number of people who have actually read the report is in inverse proportion to the number who insisted furiously over the summer on their right to read it!) I think anyone has actually read even the summary of it would ...
This is just a quick thank you to all of my family, friends, neighbours and colleagues who have been tremendous support to me over the last few weeks. In case you missed the acknowledgement, £1000 was raised by the generous donations made at Julie's funeral. The money was split between Whixall Social Centre and St [...]
The love-in with Mr Cable and his incredible economic insights has spread north and east from Bournemouth to Broadcasting House. On this morning's 'Today' programme, Evan Davis gave both Alistair Darling and George Osbourne a dressing down over their economic failures, telling them: "You both represent this part of the very same system of deregulated capitalism [...]
Gordon Brown's attempt last week to reassert his authority as Prime Minister has had some success in reducing the Tories' lead in the opinion polls. However, all that work is under threat this week not as a result of the Conservative Party Conference but rather the internal shenanigans of the Labour Party. Yesterday's Sunday Times reports that the PM's plans for a cabinet reshuffle on Friday are in disarray as it emerged that a string of ministers could resign if they are moved: Downing Street sources say that Brown is likely to put off a reshuffle again amid fears that ...
On advice, I pulled my previous post. Thank you. For the curious, I have been informed that my application for Voluntary Severance has been accepted. My current employment ends on the 31st December, so I'm now officially in the market for a new job, or a new way of making a living. I suspect that I will not be looking at the finance sector.
'Soft power' and 'public diplomacy' have become buzzwords in both international affairs and domestic politics as countries and political parties hone their image and message. So the appearance of a new short book on the theme, Options for Influence (Counterpoint, £11.95), is timely. As the joint authors, Ali Fisher and Aurélie Brockerhoff note, 'the aim of [...]
Firstly apologies for the lack of updates, the impact of the emerging crisis left me somewhat at the eye of the storm, and though there was much to write about, the speed and scale of the events left me too busy to comment. In addition I was scheduled to make a keynote speech at the Lithuanian economic forum, and this left even less time to devote to commentary. This is not to say that there has been nothing to talk about. The complete capitulation of the near century-old Wall St. investment bank model was more sudden and more complete than ...
I am pleased to be able to give you some information that you may find useful. Child-Safe a local charity, is holding a free introductory seminar on child protection for arts and cultural groups. The seminar takes place on Wednesday 8 October, from 6.30 - 8pm, in The Aix en Provence Room at The Guildhall in Bath. It is aimed at all small, voluntary arts and cultural groups,...
Fifty years ago, the Labour MP for my home town of Lincoln was Geoffrey de Freitas. In those days, Lincoln was a very safe Labour seat and Geoffrey de Freitas was a very wealthy man. In common with many MPs of that era, de Freitas did not maintain a home in his constituency (a practice that [...]
A quick follow-up to the questions over BPIX's secrecy: the British Polling Council has confirmed that BPIX has never approached it with a view to joining.
I welcome the news that the Government is to finally to give Councils the tools to tackle the issue of high concentrations of student houses or 'Houses in Multiple Occupation" (HMOs) in specific areas of their authority areas. My colleagues and I have been campaigning for this for a long time and I would give particular thanks to Councillor Shaun McGall who has...
Mon 29th
08:40
The Monday morning blog: voodoo and alchemy - Cameron's solutions to the economic crisis
With the nationalisation of Bradford and Bingley, journalists have naturally been asking the Conservatives what they would do if they were in power and faced the same crisis. As they gather at their luv-fest at Birmingham, Michael Fallon, George Osborne (the man who put the pip into squeak) and David Cameron say they would have solved the crisis by "working harder" to find a private sector
Previously, on Lib Dem Voice... MP Lynne Featherstone penned us an article on the brittleness of British politics; Alisdair Murray fed back on how joint Lib/Lab meetings went at both our conference and theirs; Jeremy Hargreaves let us know about the Lib Dem Hospital Governor's Network; Tom Papworth shared his views about tax; and Rob Blackie [...]
Just heard David Willetts on the radio, touring Birmingham. He was arguing - bizarrely - that the experience of Victorian Birmingham under Joseph Chamberlain shows how the Conservative party is relevant today (and he had a totally uncritical hearing from Evan Davies). David Willetts pointed to Chamberlain's powerful role as leader of Birmingham council; how [...]
I was watching BBC this morning and heard that George Osborne the Conservative Shadow Chancellor was to be on the Breakfast Show at just turned 8am talking about the economy. Well I could hardly believe my ears as I set foot into the kitchen where the radio was playing to hear the following records being played and they were Thin Lizzy, ( Don't believe a word ) followed by Queen (...
From Harry Wills' Fighting for Fife website yesterday : "The Conservative party conference opens today in Birmingham but there is little hope of their message getting across to Scottish voters. As the conference starts, just down the road Britain's first Snoring Boot Camp is helping people to get a good night's rest. Fitting, as the Tories message makes Scots voters want to seek the comfort of sleep. Six snorers will be put through their paces at the army-style Boot Camp complete with a Sergeant Major. They will take orders from a leading Ear, Nose and Throat specialist, a professional personal ...
{Alexandra Palace} Last week Nigel Scott (Liberal Democrat by-election candidate in the Alexandra by-election) published his plan for the future of Alexandra Palace: Establish a new board with independent, expert trustees representative of local and national interests, with an independent Chair.Ensure proper consultation with residents about the Palace's future.Refurbish the ice rink, make the Victorian theatre fully usable and multi-purpose, make the historic TV studios an educational visitor attraction and support the organ society's restoration work.Protect the CUFOS community centre and its valued activities.Make getting to the site via public transport easier (such as Oyster at Alexandra Palace rail station).Provide ...
Time for an update on this blog's great hope for English cricket: Adil Rashid, Yorkshire's 20-year-old leg spinner. Rashid was awarded his county cap a couple of week ago. Then, in the match against Sussex at Hove, where Yorkshire were fighting against relegation from the first division, he scored a career best 111 before taking 7-136 in the Sussex second innings. The result was that he finished as the third highest wicket taker for the English season. The sage of Taunton, Vic Marks, writes about the selection of the England party to tour India this winter:The second spinner is likely ...
Yesterday morning Iain Dale looked forward to the Conservative Conference: I shan't shed any tears if the Conservatives get no big headlines from their conference. Steady as she goes, should be the motto of the week. Boring is good.I don't think that will do for the Tories. The world economy is facing its gravest crisis for at least 35 years, and the main opposition party should be content if it has nothing much to say? It hardly gives anyone a reason for voting them into government. And I am not being partisan here. (Perish the thought.) I said much the ...
Over the weekend I was discussing with my mum the ever increasing problems caused by the credit crunch. My mum relayed to me a discussion she had had, with her mother in law, who accused her of being wasteful by peeling not scraping her carrots. These days we always peel our carrots, mainly due to pesticides, but it did remind me of how we lived, even in the 80's. On a Sunday we would...
So Santander, already owners of Abbey and Alliance & Leicester, come in to help out the Government by taking over the profitable parts of Bradford and Bingley ie the braches, retail banking and savings. Leaving us the taxpayer with more nationalised mortages and loans in the Brown Building Society, aka Northern Rock poc (publically owned company) for it does appear increasingly that the governemnt may soon be owning a huge proportion of the nation's mortgages. Sr Bradford: Hola, Senor Bingley. Sr Bingley: Hola, Senor Bradford. Que t' al? Sr Bradford: All the better for consolidating our bad debts with Senor ...
Nick Perry, Lib Dem parliamentary campaigner for Hastings & Rye, has slammed Government proposals to require non-EU language students to buy expensive ID cards. Speaking at the weekend, Nick said, "There will be many unintended outcomes of the Government's stupid and wasteful plan to introduce ID cards. One such outcome could be for language schools in our [...]
Liberal Democrats in Hastings & Rye have thrown down the gauntlet to the Conservatives at the time of their conference by demanding answers to questions about the economy. Leading the charge for the local Liberal Democrats is Nick Perry, the party's parliamentary campaigner. He said that with the credit crunch biting hard, residents in Hastings & Rye [...]
