My colleague Nigel Scott has tonight held Haringey's Alexandra ward for the Lib Dems, with a thumping majority. The result: Lib Dems (Nigel Scott) - 1,460 Labour - 772 Cons - 443 Green - 221 Other - 27 More later, but the team is now off to celebrate... ...
When I was Mayor 2 years ago I did this, and wrote about it on my blog adding 219 names. The idea is that between 17th and 19th October as many people as possible "Stand up for poverty" for one minute. A powerful message needs to be sent to those with power to eradicate world poverty, so the organisers are aiming to break the Guinness Book of records of 43 million people standing up worldwide. ...
Iceland rarely hits the world's headlines, except when it launches a Bjork or hosts a Cold War summit. But now it stands accused (by the British) of starting a Cold War itself, with its sudden freezing of nearly nine hundred million pounds worth of British assets in Icelandic banks, much of these deposited by local [...]
From the Daily Telegraph: Local government leaders have argued that councils could not have foreseen the risks involved in the Icelandic financial sector when they invested public money. But The Daily Telegraph has established that some local government managers did act on warnings from international credit ratings agencies that the Icelandic banks were becoming less secure. In February, Moody's Investors Service cut its ratings on all the major Icelandic banks. Landsbanki's long-term rating was downgraded "in light of the weaker credit environment." In May, Fitch, another agency, cut the ratings of Glitnir Bank and Kaupthing Bank. Standard & Poors said ...
Adam Sherwin writes in The Times: Guests invited to Nick Clegg's home for dinner find out pretty quickly whether or not they are in the good books of Miriam González Durántez, his Spanish wife. "I love cooking," declares the glamorous highflying lawyer, who is expecting the couple's third child in the new year. "But I have a very emotional attitude towards it. If I like somebody I cook for them. But I find it very difficult to cook for people I don't like ... as far as I'm concerned, they can have a takeaway!"
I thought that those who think that the boy Öpik can't appear in front of a camera without a harmonica, a Z-list celebrity partner and a picture of an asteroid should be pointed towards his appearance on Wales Tonight giving a sombre, measured reaction to a sombre story. Then again, I should warn you both that ITV's answer to iPlayer is criminally inept and that the video you are about to see may
It all seems a long time ago, but Lex Ferenda provides a link to a PDF copy of the Information Commissioner's enforcement notice on the Liberal Democrats over the party's use of cold calling: On 18 September 2008 the ICO received a copy of the script used. This confirmed our view that the message primarily promoted Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats. The ICO noted that those called were asked to indicate which party they would support if a general election were held the next day, whether they were thinking of voting Liberal Democrat next time, and whether they were ...
... And disabled my feed of theyorkshergob. And the reaction of the twitterati to this injustice?Some spammers do post less than you...Which I suppose is true. And here I am, posting again, just to prove them right. Hey ho. View Poll: Question Time ETA: OK, OK, am going to watch QT. But I'm taking the gin with me.
Or, the taxpayer will be screwed if you collapse - now more than ever. Economic theory has it, that as a firm increases its output it approaches a critical point. Before this point average costs decline, after this point they increase with each new unit of output. The reasons for this are usually due to the managerial and administration problems of controlling large scale operations. UK plc. was already past this point. Diseconomies of scale existed in financial regulators such as the FSA, leading to, among other things, the lack of foresight in seeing that Northern Rock was about to ...
OK, I am no fan of the Republicans and I think McCain is simply not up to the job, in extremely difficult times. As Tory commentator Iain Dale said "Not good. Not good at all." Obama deserves to win and judging by the polls, he will.
A recent leaflet issued by the two Labour councillors in Baglan concluded: We want you to know what really went on. Opposition parties have been implying that Baglan has been disenfranchised, up until now we haven't put anything in writing about what happened prior to the closing nominations on the 4"" of April 2008. When we first joined the Ratepayers the focus of the group was, 'People Come First, your local needs and issues. We have never professed to be political animals, we go about the job from day to day because we care and are passionate about our children, ...
Thanks to my friend Sandra for sending me this. It's kind of spookily accurate.
I've been to Harlow today, invited by Councillor Lorna Spenceley, to take a look around the town in the company of the Chief Exec of the local regeneration organisation, Harlow Renaissance. Harlow is one of the new towns built after the war to house Londoners who were either bombed out or living in sub standard housing. Sixty years on, these towns face particular problems - when an entire place is built at the same time, it all needs replacing at the same time and given that most of the houses were built by the local council with a life span ...
With western capitalism imploding - and the even more surprising news that Gordon Brown yesterday managed an unscripted quip - BBC Question Time reports, only a little self-importantly, there "have been some changes to the line-up due to the dramatic developments in the banking crisis." Sadly the BBC don't tell us who they've bumped off the [...]
At least they are if my understanding this story is correct. It seems Gordon Brown has decided that the Icelandic Government's refusal to guarantee the deposits of UK customers of the Icelandic banks they nationalised is 'illegal' and in retaliation has decided to freeze the UK assets of those banks. The easy way to do this, [...]
Well, if you'd have told me that the British Government would use anti-terror legislation to nationalise the UK assets of private companies belonging to another soveriegn state I would have laughed in your face. We don't do that kind of thing in the UK, surely? But it's true. They were, and I quote, "effectively illegal" according to Brown. Effectively illegal. As in, legal. In other words. They just don't like it, which makes it effectively illegal, in that they've sort of effectively decided that it probably should be illegal, just now, and that it's probably terrorism. BBC reports it as ...
I found out this morning when I was phoned by the Evening Chronicle on the way to work that Gateshead Council is exposed to the tune of £4.5 million in the Icelandic banking meltdown. The cash is with the Heritage Bank which is now in administration. From what I hear within local government sources reasonably close to the centre of things, the government is not guaranteeing the local government
It is sometimes hard to believe that I've been an assessor of wannabe Parliamentary candidates for more than thirteen years. When I first got the call, I was somewhat surprised, especially as I had; never been a Parliamentary candidatenever been an agentnever run seriously for public officenever had any personnel/HR experienceGiven that I had just turned thirty, and would be likely to be
A deal to do with the regeneration work in Whitefield collapsed and a ex Cllr for the ward and administration was quick to comment. Ex Cllr Mahboob Ahmed (ex Lib Dem and now Conservative) commented on the status of the Liberal Democrats run administration and he compared it with a ostrich. Then he also ranted and said that Cllr Lord Tony Greaves and Sonia Robinson had "failed miserably". As I can recall he was a Lib Dem and a colleague of these two councillor's that he rants about until Saj Karim left the party and he defected with Saj Karim. ...
In any normal office, workers catch stress as easily as a cold. It spreads round the office like a germ, resting finally with the person who cannot take it out on anyone below them who is usually the one who gets the blame for all the stress in the office. Occasionally it travels back up the food chain to come down again, where it usually rests permanently on the middle manager who is stressed out by their manager and their employees. A bit like a boomerang, stress is often fired back at you when you take it out on other ...
I'll be honest: The Spectator's Coffee House blog is not one of my faourites reads. Despite or because of its prolific output - eight posts today, and counting - too much of it reads as unthinkingly pro-Tory while its visceral contempt for Labour too often blinkers it to serious analysis. Coffee House may speak with [...]
When ever the Panel on Question Time has Chris Huhne on it, its always an interesting show to watch. Today the Question Time Panel will include the following panelists: John DenhamKen ClarkeChris HuhneThe Bishop of RochesterRuth LeaI will write a Post about it tomorrow, that's if they is something that catches my interest!
Low Carbon Ringmer is having an Eat Sussex event on the afternoon of Oct 11th. Read more about it here. And check out the smoothie bike; it's brilliant.
I ask the question that what is most likely to be the future of Pendle MP Gordon Prentice? In the last couple of years Gordon Prentice has become a familiar face, in Whitefield especially with his office being in the ward and him walking around the Carr Road area not actually doing what you would expect him to do. Gordon is like lightning, one minute he is leaving his office the next he is bang straight into his car and off he goes. I would actually expect the Pendle MP to maybe mingle with people he comes across on the ...
Well, I suppose the advent of the mobile phone always meant that phone boxes would fade and it's been coming for a while But this feels like one of the oddest pcitures I have seen for a while. It's taken on Hampstead High Street - it's just next to the still open, long-queue Post Office. There are two phone booths, but one, as you can see is empty, gutted. I find myself split over phone boxes, having had to use one the other day I found that I didn't carry the right change, that the price had gone up of ...
New Clause 8 was the clause to increase accountability and reduce miscarriages of justice in the family courts. This fell yesterday because it didn't have time. It was in fact this amendment that was talked out by the government not the smacking ones - they came later. The way amendments work at the report stage is that they come in strings. Once The House has started to debate a string then
Thu 9th
18:02
Matlessness, Vince for Chancellor, more musicians suing the repubs, & Zombie/Science minister sl...
For the first time since Christmas I find myself Matless and alone. He's off to That London for a web optimisation seminar, and will be stopping two nights with Millennium and his daddies. It's an odd feeling. Tonight won't be so bad, because Shrubby and I will be able to have a girly night and watch lots of Star Trek and eat cookies together, but tomorrow will be a bit of a trial, I think. * pokes alexwilcock * You look after him. I don't want him coming home with no tales of drunken debauchery! ;) Also, if you guys ...
Well, Iceland has a population of around 320,000. What we seem to have from Iceland is Bjork and dodgy banks. It is bigger by population than the Wirral and slightly smaller by population than Wakefield. Were it to be an English local authority by population it would be the unlucky 13th largest. If they borrow approx £3bn from Russia that works out at around £10,000 per resident (including
Gordon Brown and Alastair Darling appear to be relishing this current crisis and - credit where due - acting with due alacrity to address the problems which are arising after a slow start. The latest information I have is that the Treasury has taken decisive action to transfer retail deposit accounts from many of the troubled Icelandic banks to ING Direct. They have also acted to freeze the UK assets of Landsbanki, which manages the 'Icesave' products. The government is working with the Icelandic government to secure the funds of UK investors, including local authorities. Full details will doubtless be ...
It now appears that a large number of councils and other public bodies may have lost money invested in Icelandic banks which were, until as recently as a week ago, considered by financial analysts to have top ratings. The question is, if money is lost (and it is an "if" at this stage), should the authority take the hit or should central Government bail them out. Once you wade past all the politics and empire-building, the question seems very simple to me, even if the answer isn't. No-one's done anything wrong. The councils were behaving responsibly, in line with Government ...
One of the aspects of being a Party apparatchik is that you have to plan your activities in advance. Nominations close in October for the most part, and you end up having to decide whether you've enjoyed a job enough to want to continue before you've done most of it - Regional Conference Chair is a good example of that dilemma. Indeed, by the time you've discovered your fate in Federal or State
Today is National Poetry Day, and that means it's time for my annual poem (as featured previously in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007). This year's doesn't fit on the blog very well, so please have a read in a new window and then come back here to let me know what you think or to report a bug.
Speaking ahead of the Second Reading of the Banking Bill, Liberal Democrat Shadow Secretary of State for Wales Roger Williams MP and Welsh Liberal Democrat MP for Montgomeryshire Lembit Öpik have called on the Government to ensure that the emergency measures taken to support banks don't obscure the need to help ordinary families through the difficult months ahead. On Wednesday morning it was announced that the Government would be committing £50 billion towards part-nationalisation of banks, as part of a £500 billion package to stabilise the economy, a move which has received cross-party support. The £50 billion will be tied ...
So you want to record things from the radio, just like when you were younger and you recorded radio onto audio tapes. Unfortunately, the recent switch to iPlayer for BBC Radio makes this harder. iPlayer is designed to stop you recording anything, so you can't use filesharing to pass it onto a few million people. So here's the tip: Go to your BBC radio website of choice (in the Quist household it's Radio4 and Radio7 with occasional forays into Radio6Music).Find your programme. For example, worryingly funny Chris Addison's Civilisation, currently playing on Radio 7.Click on "listen again or Listen" to ...
Theres a great post today in the Western Mail by David Williamson. It concerns the Welsh Assembly debate (or lack of it) in the siambr. The circular theatre that Assembly members of all parties join to meet. Does the Assembly need to recruit Dennis Skinner or maybe Michael Heseltine to get the place buzzing! What about a cold shower for Assembly members before they go into debate! Or Assembly members of each troop slapping each other on the arms to get themselves fired up! (only kidding) Or turn the heating down (or have none at all!) to make the assembly ...
The recent turmoil in the Icelandic economy has frozen the assets some 20 councils to the tune of around £700m. Following government advice, councils spread their spare cash around into numerous different savings accounts, thus protecting themselves. Or so they thought. With the 3 big Icelandic banks now in government ownership, and the country itself on the verge of bankruptcy; those councils who had deposited into these Icelandic institutions, or subsidiaries of these institutions; they are now facing an uphill battle to gain access to the money that they thought was safe. The British government, at time of writing, were ...
Nick Robinson comments on Gordon Brown taking a call during a press briefing. As he took it he joked about it possibly being another bank falling. Irfan Ahmed has questioned whether this is in good taste. Absolutely it is. When the world is crashing around your ears, if you can laugh it definitely helps. My opinion of the Prime Minister has gone up several points with this bit of news. Keep 'em coming Gordon! And lighten up, Irfan!
Good to see the largely positive and constructive debate in the Scottish Parliament yesterday on the Scottish Broadcasting Commission report. That said, what a bizarre intervention by Christopher Harvie, SNP MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, summed up by the headline in today's Scotsman : "Blue Peter is evil, Hitler was imaginative and BBC bosses are munchkins - (So claims SNP's Chris Harvie)" The Scotsman continued: "His remarks have been described as "loopy" and fuelled claims about how "out of touch" some Nationalist MSPs are." Best comment of the day on this goes to Margaret Smith, the Liberal Democrat MSP, ...
Not quite as racy as it sounds, but today a group of City Councillors met staff from Winchester's Theatre Royal for a "speed dating" session. The Theatre holds annual meetings with city councillors to update us on how it spends it grant money and the services it provide to the local community. This year's format meant that we met a whole range of theatre staff, from board members to front of
Just a quick one - this started out as a response to Anders Hanson's latest post, but got a bit out of hand! It follows on from discussion of green issues that have been on many Lib Dem blogger's minds lately, as you'll see if you visit his blog. I have had the nuclear-as-green spiel from a couple of Lib Dem members. The argument starts from the same page as everyone: that we do need to stop burning coal and gas to produce energy, as it's polluting the earth and galloping through limited resources. Solar and wind power are all ...
An interesting piece in today's Hampshire Chronicle has the Head of Planning & Development for the Church Commissioners, owners of Bushfield, calling for development on the old army camp site. Of course, it's no secret that the Church Commissioners have been wanting to sell off this land for housing for many years. I've always favoured leisure and recreation use of the site, with sports
This Wordle.net cloud of my blog posts for the last 35 days tells us: 1. Yes, I am obsessed with Sarah Palin. 2. I am even more obsessed with John McCain.
Some dare to whisper that Cable may be heading to Number 11. Jonathan Calder doesn't believe a word of it; Duncan Borrowman is quite keen on the idea. If it does actually happen, remember this: you read about it first on Hug A Hoodie, way back in February. Vince isn't the only Lib Dem to be gifted with powers of clairvoyance ...
A serious time or a time for jokes? That is a question we need to ask the Prime Minister who thinks its quiet ok and reasonable to crack jokes about the current degrading status of the economy. I quote from a Blog Post by Nick Robinson, in which the PM says: When some one's mobile phone interrupts his speech he joked "I don't know if another bank has fallen..." Is this the kind of guy, you want running the Country, the Economic Genius of the Country poking fun at the economy!
On his Blog the husband of Ros Scott Mark Valladares has a rule, that if "Lord Greaves has risen to speak in support of Amendment 187K, I've got enough time to get to the Lords to pick Ros up after a day's legislating." I don't know if that is meant to be a Compliment to my friend Lord Tony Greaves or an insult?
Having been critical of Nick Clegg at yesterdays PMQ's I think it only fair to give credit where it is due. Politics Home reports that Clegg has sent a letter to Gordon Brown that: "asks for clarification on the oversight and conditionality of the financial rescue package". The letter proposes that; "that board members of banks should be barred from taking bonuses" and calls for: "- Measures on the structure of executive pay to be introduced now for all banks - Qualified new directors to be appointed to the boards of banks that the Government takes a stake in to ...
If you're a thin person who's never quite understood what it's like to be fat in a modern Western society... or you're a fat person who's always thought no-one else feels the way you do... or you've ever been annoyed or puzzled when someone says "the personal is political" - I highly recommend this comic strip (large PDF, possibly NSFW if an artistic nude is considered a problem.)
Gemar Chatima Tova and best wishes for an easy fast.
Posted by Chris: Council officials have moved East Cleveland Independent Councillor David Williams' seat in the Council Chamber over onto the Labour benches. Liberal Democrats on Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council have urged Councillor Williams to reconsider his decision to join with Labour. The Labour dominated ruling group on the council lost its majority following a crushing defeat at the hands of the Liberal Democrats at the Kirkleatham byelection last week. But now Cllr Williams has joined the Labour-dominated ruling group in order to save them. Cllr Williams was elected last year as a member of the East Cleveland Independent ...
Most of which could not have been withdrawn as they were invested in fixed term deals. Where this leaves the Council tax payers is anyone's guess. It will largely depend on whether central government is willing to protect these investments. It's a lot of money. I calculate about £83 per head for everyone in Barnet.
Barnet are replacing all their street lights using a 25 year PFI deal. I have now had several complaints about the company employed to undertake these works. The new lights are being located in different location to the old ones. The problem is that the planning for this appears to be being done on out of date maps. The letter to residents also states that the lights being replaced are either life expired or in a dangerous condition. From my observations neither is true in most cases. The other interesting question is are the new lights actually owned by the ...
Building greener homes should be a priority. It would help fight climate change and fuel poverty at the same time - and create 'green collar' jobs. What's not to like? So I was interested to be contacted by the National Housing Federation - who represent housing associations - about their 'Green Homes Now!' campaign. The Conservative [...]
There have been six Scottish Councils revealed who may have lost money in failed Icelandic banks after control of Landsbanki was seized by the Icelandic government yesterday. A £120million school refurbishment project In Aberdeen may be the worst hit as the funds for this were in Landsbanki*. South Lanarkshire had £7.5m invested there or in its its UK subsidiary Heritable, South Ayrshire had a further £5m, Moray £2m, and North Ayrshire an undisclosed amount. Perth and Kinross had already lost £1m which it had deposited with Glitnir. With more of these councils being revealed all across the country and the ...
As everyone knows, Lib Dems love elections - and what could be better than our internal elections, where a Lib Dem is guaranteed to finish first? Over on the official party site, you can find out the full list of nominated candidates for the following party positions and committees: Party President Chandila Fernando - www.chandila.com Ros Scott - [...]
I have never been a fan of us getting into bed with other parties in the way that Paddy and Tony discussed. But we are what the experts call 'IN DEEP SHIT' and quite clearly the only person with a paddle is Vince. So I hope this story is true But remember, he is not every Marvel and DC superhero rolled
I hear all sorts of strange goings-on in the Glenrothes by-election where it appears that the Tories are colluding with the SNP to defeat Labour and help elect an MP who wants an end to the union. You can read all about it here.
It's National Poetry Day (thanks for the heads up Jennie), so I thought I'd share two of my favourite poems with you all (I'm nice like that) via the medium of Youtube. Suicide in the Trenches by Siegfried Sassoon as read by Pete Doherty The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe as read by Vincent Price Enjoy [...]
It's not just ID cards that Lib Dem MPs are battling - they're also taking the fight to the EU to stop the introduction of a new system for the electronic tagging of sheep which farmers fear could cost thousands of pounds. The Voice's favourite read FarmingUK.com has more: The Westminster debate will give MPs the [...]
I was relieved to learn this morning that Kingston Council has no investments in Icelandic banks. (That must be my shortest posting ever....)
Already, over 33,000 people have signed our petition at www.gurkhajustice.org.uk : an extraordinary response in support of an extraordinary group of people.
Quote of Brown talking to GMTV: "I am angry at irresponsible behaviour. Our economy is built around people who work hard, who show effort, who take responsible decisions, and whether there is excessive and irresponsible risk-taking, that has got to be punished." .... unless of course by 'punish' you mean 'allowed to fail as they should', as in, banks who take excessive and irresponsible risks and find themselves unable to continue business being punished by going out of business. The people who invested in those banks without asking questions being punished by losing their investments. The people who saved with ...
In response to a question by Lib Dem Councillor Irene Curr, Redcar and Cleveland Council's Labour Leadership have issued the following statement: Redcar and Cleveland Council is one of a number of councils that has deposited money with Icelandic banks. The Council's Cabinet Member for Corporate Resources Councillor Peter Scott said: "There will be no immediate difficulties for the Council as a result of the banks' collapse. "This is, of course, an unwelcome development, and the position is still unclear but there is no immediate detrimental impact to Council services. "I strongly support the Local Government Association's call to the ...
I don't believe a word of it, but The Mole, writing on First Post, seems sold on the idea:What will Gordon Brown do if the bank bail-out doesn't work? One answer being put forward in Blairite circles yesterday is that the Prime Minister will dump his ultra-loyal Chancellor Alistair Darling - and bring in Vince Cable as a part of a deal with the Liberal Democrats. It may sound extraordinary, but the Mole heard it more than once yesterday.The Lib Dem Treasury spokesman's stock at Westminster is sky-high. Like some biblical prophet, Cable has long been warning of the financial ...
Find out more here about National Poetry Day I sat down to write a poem For National Poetry Day But when I tried to think one up I'd nothing much to say...
A few months ago, the sole surviving Plaid Cymru member of Swansea Council wrote in the South Wales Evening Post that Wales could be equal to Iceland in terms of independence and prosperity. I wonder how he feels now. The fact the seven Welsh Councils, have millions of pounds of public money tied up in failed Icelandic banks has caused much comment in the media. It was even raised in the Assembly's Finance Committee this morning even though the Welsh Government have no responsibility for this issue. One member asked the Finance Minister and his Director if the Assembly Government ...
This exciting up-to-the-minute report comes direct from an insider working deep inside the Obama campaign in Michigan! The campaign has been incredible so far. There are so many people helping out and really enthused! I have met families with 3 generations helping out! That is something special. The other thing that is so exciting is the number of new people who are registering to vote. In
Nick Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, has released a statement on the government's moves to intervene in the banking crisis: "When a ship is sinking, we must send out the lifeboats, not argue about who steered the ship into the iceberg. At Prime Minister's Question Time yesterday, I pledged my support for the moves being taken by the Government. Vince Cable and I have been clear that we must do whatever is necessary to halt the downward spiral of the British economy. But the Government must do more. It must use the leverage it currently has over banks ...
Last year a Scot Nat blog had a posting headed "Who are the tartan Tories now?" In this posting there are two great lines: Another of the favourite terms bandied about was of course "tartan tories". The idea that anyone can take this seriously now is laughable. and the Tories are still despised in much of Scotland for the dreadful way Scotland was treated under the Tory governments of Thatcher
Commenting on the £50bn bank rescue plan announced by the Government, Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg said:
As the Norfolk Blogger says: Oh what a joy Sarah Palin is. She's the candidate who just keeps giving. Yes, indeed. Just when you think the great Palin Fun geyser might dry up, another gush comes everyday like "Old Faithful". I am officially declaring tomorrow "Troopergate Day" The Troopergate report is coming out!!!! (Subject to a few legal technicalities being ironed out) Let joy and
Dear Cllr Macpherson When a ship is sinking, we must send out the lifeboats, not argue about who steered the ship into the iceberg. At Prime Minister's Question Time yesterday, I pledged my support for the moves being taken by the Government. Vince Cable and I have been clear that we must do whatever is necessary to halt the downward spiral of the British economy. But the Government must do more. It must use the leverage it currently has over banks to end unacceptable bonuses for senior executives, ensure that home repossessions are only ever an absolute last resort, and ...
The Loss of the Dyson academy for Bath is another sad loss for our City. The idea of having and engineering school that could have led to Bath back at the forefront of the engineering world was a prospect that excited many people and gave our young people something to aim for. The Government has again destroyed any hopes of this by putting up obstacles all along the way and finally...
A couple of Lib Dem bloggers have been waxing lyrical on the subject of class the last couple of days. Charlotte Gore makes too many mistakes about the Marxist interpretation of class to list here so she is the lucky winner of a lengthy comment from yours truly. Forceful and moderate however takes a similar line to Charlotte; that what determines class is not economic or social relationships but how you are as an individual. Both suffer from an inability to explore any relationship between the general and specific or even acknowledge it maybe possible that general social laws can ...
There are many reasons to be Christian. Some people get comfort from it, some people are inspired. For me it is far more prosaic: it is part of the culture. My kids go to a Church school and I want them to be fully engaged with the local community, of which the church is an important part. I also don't want them to have a void within them which some religious nut can come along and fill as they grow up. For me religion is just part of being human, it's not a reason to proselytise or crusade, and the ...
Today is national poetry day, and this year's theme is Work. I therefore present a little excerpt from one of my favourite poems:We tore the tarry rope to shreds With blunt and bleeding nails; We rubbed the doors, and scrubbed the floors, And cleaned the shining rails: And, rank by rank, we soaped the plank, And clattered with the pails. We sewed the sacks, we broke the stones, We turned the dusty drill: We banged the tins, and bawled the hymns, And sweated on the mill: But in the heart of every man Terror was lying still.Any excuse for a ...
At least according to the Daily Post: WELSH Liberal Democrats are facing a marathon session of debate to overhaul the party's rules. No less than 93 possible changes have been tabled to dominate the agenda for the party's two-day gathering in Clydach this weekend. Officials estimate delegates will spend almost five hours poring over the proposed amendments to [...]
I'm shamelessly ctrl+c ctrl+v ing nannyo's words here, although this is also being pushed by LC, and I've seen it on puddingcat's journal, and some other places too:UK folk? This is very important. Please consider signing this petition and writing to your MP about this. http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/abortionNI/ It concerns a vote about whether or not to extend UK abortion law to women in Northern Ireland, who currently cannot obtain abortions in their own part of the country. You can write to your MP here: http://www.writetothem.com/ Thanks N.You all know how important I think this is. The post at LC is worth ...
Last night, it has to be said, was something else! Regular readers will know that I have agonised about who to support in the Presidential elections. Ros is such an inspiration, and as a woman I would very much like to see a champion within the party to ensure women are seen and HEARD. But Lembit is also an inspirational character, which is why I had such a hard time deciding. However, last night I was left in no doubt of why I think now is the right time for him to be President of the party. Of course the ...
Bath will have It's winter wonderland this year as it will after a break of several years have an Ice Rink in during the Christmas period. The hard surface of the 5-a-side courts alongside the Bath Sports Centre and Bath Pavilion will be turned into a winter wonderland on ice. The Ice Rink has been made possible by the kind permission of The Recreation Ground Trust, Aquaterra Leisure & Bath...
While I think making Vince Cable Chancellor of the Exchequor would be an intriguing move, it behoves on James Graham BA(Hons) - Theology and Religious Studies - to point out that "biblical prophets" rarely end up in control of things. Moses died before the Israelites reached Jerusalem. John the Baptist ended up on a platter. That bloke Jesus didn't exactly get hold of the levers of power either (unless that's how he managed to move that bloody big stone in front of his tomb). Prophets rarely profit.
After so many requests, I couldn't really ignore it, could I? So Mat took a picture of my new bra for you all yesterday. Problem was, my new bra's awesome power SO awesome and SO powerful that it broke the internet. So, sorry for keeping you waiting, but if you scroll down... keep going... nearly there... Sorry it's a bit blurry, he took it on his phone... There. Wasn't that worth the wait? >:D
The Lib Dem leader has an article in today's Independent making clear that the party policy of tax cuts is part of the solution to the current economic crisis. Here's an excerpt: These are extraordinary times. Dramatic, even heavy-handed, action is right. It is right to go far beyond what I, as a liberal politician, would [...]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7660409.stm A strangely graphic way of highlighting the depths of the problems we face. As a way of reducing their burden I shall step up my consumption of American Hard Gums.
At the start of the week, Lib Dem Voice emailed the members of our private forum (open to all Lib Dem members) inviting them to take part in a survey, conducted via Liberty Research, asking a number of questions about the current state of British politics, especially as they affect the Lib Dems. Many thanks [...]
Have had no internets for the past 12 hours. Have loads to catch up on. Mat going to London and I will be all lonely. WAAAAAAAH! That is all.
Well it seems that the current financial crisis has brought out the best in Gordon Brown and he finally seems to have found a little of his sense of direction; at the same time the Tories seem to be floundering, bereft of ideas. It's clearly not going to be enough to save Labour's bacon, and [...]
Two new "how to" guides to using ALDC's Councillor/local campaigner website platform "mycouncillor" have been produced. MyCouncillor is a free (to ALDC members) website platform for Liberal Democrat Councillors and local campaigners to create an easy to use website. The two new guides look at Getting more Visitors to your Website - which looks at how you can publicise and attract visitors to your site using Focus, the press, good content and how to use the Hit Counter. Making the Most of Photos - looks at how best to use photos on your website including sourcing photos already on the ...
I'm on duty at the Alexandra by-election today, where my colleague Nigel Scott is bidding for a council seat and working hard to win. Labour, who came second last time. have put out some very puzzling leaflets, with several contradictory claims. The latest one claims the (incumbent) Lib Dems 'can't win' but that we think we have the area "sewn up". Very Odd. I think most voters will see through it. Over breakfast, I also learned that Haringey is one of the Councils with cash in the failed Icelandic bank. Unlike other councils, which are coming clean on their Icelandic ...
... when I heard a familiar voice (about twenty-three minutes in). One of the advantages of being married to Ros, is that it's quite easy to see what she's up to at work. Indeed, I have a rule. If Lord Greaves has risen to speak in support of Amendment 187K, I've got enough time to get to the Lords to pick Ros up after a day's legislating. It's a bit like 'Big Brother', although the public
I was up at 4.30 this morning, which can mean only one thing - yes, it's polling day. Polling day this time much closer to home than other by-elections I've blogged about in the past. Alexandra ward is electing a new councillor today - to replace my Lib Dem colleague Wayne Hoban, who had to stand down after 6 years on the council as he's moved away for work. Fortunately for residents in the ward they already have two other excellent representatives - Cllr Susan Oatway and Cllr David Beacham. Hopefully when polls close at 10pm tonight they will have ...
Vote Nat turn Blue. Andrew Reeves has heard gossip* from the Palace of Westminster that for the Glenrothes by election there are really only three parties in it, Labour, the Lib Dem and the Scottish Conservative and Nationalist Party. What? You haven't heard of the last one? Well apparently in the Halls of Westminster, where the winner on November 6th will eventually take up his** seat, Angus Robertson MP and David Mundell MP, leaders of the SNP and Scottish Tory groups of MPs, were overheard plotting how they will work together to ensure an Labour defeat in the Glenrothes By-Election. ...
So say John Gapper on the Financial Times site: We home buyers and mortgage borrowers share the blame, whether we are American, British or Icelandic.Hear him: In the past, people used to rely on bankers to guard themselves from their own worst financial instincts. They might have wanted to borrow 100 per cent (or 125 per cent) of the value of a home without the need to demonstrate thrift and reliability by making a down-payment. But they were shown the door.Without bankers saying "no", many people borrowed to the hilt, assuming that rising asset prices had eliminated all risk. Some ...
Oh dear Mid Scotland and Fife SNP MSP Chris Harvie has branded BBC's Blue Peter as 'evil' and called Adolf Hitler 'imaginative'. He branded the 50 year old staple of children's television evil during a tirade against the BBC big earners. Probably in relation to the rigged viewer winner when their lines went down life on air one, and not due to their use of every day things you would normally bin for the makes section. He then compared Lord Reith and Adolf Hitler's use of the Radio medium claiming that Hitler was more imaginative in his use of the ...
Here for your delectation is a LibDig Wordpress plug-in. It automatically adds a LibDig box to all your posts and pages. To use it, download and unzip LibDig.zip into your plug-ins directory. No exciting options or menus yet. I'm sure they'll follow at some point.
Right I've been far too angry the last few days, on account of a virus that's stopping me from sleeping and thinking properly, but sadly not stopping me from blogging. I thought it was time for an update on the Drum Villain Challenge - where I try to complete the drumming part of my housemate's video game called Rock Band, having never played drums before, then attempt to play a real drum kit and convince someone - anyone - than I'm a real drummer. Turns out drumming is fun. It is exercise, which I do not approve of, but it's ...
Next Tuesday (14 October) there will be the first full Council meeting for several months. The Council will be posting the full agenda here shortly. The Lib Dem Group has submitted motions on the following policy areas: - Opposing the introduction by the Labour government of a deeply iliberal national ID card scheme; - Urging the Council to adopt a clear and costed tree strategy to protect and enhance Reading's urban forestation for the future (one of Glenn's local campaigns); - And proposing radical reform of the Labour Council's failed bulky waste policy. Once again we are proving that the ...
