Nick Clegg has called for British consumers to "Buy British" to help boost small businesses and thus the local economy (story here). This strikes me as a sort of soft protectionism. Protectionism is a subject I need refine my opinion on. Orthodoxy has it that it's a bad thing. It slows growth and leads to trade wars. It was a factor that exacerbated the Depression. Nevertheless, there is a clear need to diversify Western economies that that have previously been overly reliant on credit-fulled consumerism and innovative financial services. It is hard to see how this can be done without ...
I steered the car into a parking space, stopped, put on the handbrake and turned off the engine. The examiner looked at his clipboard and said: "I'm pleased to tell you that you have passed your test." That was exactly one year ago today, D-Day, the day I at last passed my driving test. I'm not going to tell you how many attempts I took, as it dozen matter anymore. I can't tell you just what a relief it was to pass. Until a few years ago, I had been quite happy to rely on public transport. But then the ...
Animals were the first subject of Art, drawn on the walls of caves in France and North Africa with astonishing vigour. Through them, early men felt they could enter into a new level of communion with the spirit world, as the venerable art critic, painter and writer John Berger reminded us this evening, when he [...]
Gah! I finally wrote another post for Liberal Conspiracy, proof read it, spell checked it, added some paragraph breaks, then hit post. I just came back to it, and found the last paragraph read: Or will the Republicans, like the post '97 Conservatives over here, fail to understand the depths of their own failure and be condemned to decades of opposition as they fail to understand the way modern America is truly rejecting their failed position?Do you think I may've got a bit too attached to the word 'fail' there? FFS *goes to edit*
Gordon Brown, earlier this month, used anti-terrorism legislation to freeze Icelandic assets in Britain, in response to their government failing to guarantee British deposits in their faltering banks. My links with Iceland begin and end with the purchase of frozen foods from that nation's commercial namesake. But it still troubles me deeply. We should be [...]
To be precise used the analogy, at the NW Regional Conference, to give the analogy of the sub-prime disaster: Imagine the Grand National, an hour before it starts thousands of people put bets on a 100-1 shot. The outside chance wins! The bookies don't have enough to pay out so they turn to their insurers [...]
Lib Dem Shadow Home Secretary Chris Huhne yesterday penned a piece for The Independent setting out his views on the use of a European Arrest Warrant to detain the extremist Frederick Toben for prosecution in Germany for holocaust denial. Dr Toben's views about the Holocaust are offensive, ugly and wrong. But freedom of speech is [...]
Our new riso printer has arrived in our office in Blaydon constituency. And today we have a bit of training with the man from the company that provided the machine. The print room in our office is not large, as you can see in the photo above, but 10 of us squeezed in to have our first lesson on how to use the machine. Since most of us used the old machine, we were already well grounded in what
It's Orange this time. They're taking the spot that was once taken by a budget book store. I can't decide what's worse, having too many budget stores, or having too many phone stores. I think that brings the number - in a town centre with at the most 40 stores - to about 5. 1 in 8 of our stores are dedicated to selling mobile phones. I don't like our selection of stores in Accrington. We have a M&S, a Woolworths, a Wilkinsons and a JJB Spots as our big four, with that planned massive Tesco and the current Asda ...
A blog is not very costing as you don't have to pay for printing or anything else compared to a newspaper. You might pay for a custom domain buts that you just trying to make your blog easily accessible for other people. But what really makes a blog successful? I think its advertising, all bloggers write but not all of them get the same publicity as others, many blogs e.g. Lib Dem Voice can afford Google Adverts which makes their blog known through out the Internet, people like myself don't have the money to pay for advertising so we rely ...
Statistics from the National Drug Treatment Agency released at the beginning of the month showed that more than twice as many people seeking drug treatment drop out of programmes than complete them drug free. They reveal that only 11% of individuals were drug free after completing their treatment. 28% dropped out or left, 6% were imprisoned and 1% of those seeking treatment died before they could complete the programme. Figures from the Office for National Statistics tell a grim tale. The number of people dying from drug misuse is higher than in 1997. The proportion of adults saying they used ...
As the national economic crisis starts to hit vulnerable residents, Islington's Labour MPs (Emily Thornberry & Jeremy Corbyn) complain they are 'snowed under' by people seeking help over rent and mortgage arrears in Islington where home repossessions are up by 15%. The MP's issued a 'dire warning' about a lack of advice for people, claiming that since the only Citizen's Advice Bureau (CAB) folded last year, people have nowhere to go for advice. Apparently they blame the Lib Dem Council's delay in providing a new CAB service since the only CAB folded last year due to financial mismanagement. ( A ...
Hope you like the new design. I've been meaning to replace the old Kubrick theme for some time now. Expect a bit more tweaking, but this is more or less how I want it to be.
The Swansea & Gower Liberal Democrat pool tournament has been won by Morriston activist Jon Clarke. The event, now in it's third year, was held at Rileys in Swansea, and drew competitors from around the local region. Jenny Randerson AM and Kirsty Williams AM, both candidates in the Welsh Liberal Democrat leadership contest, attended the event.
Spent Friday afternoon with Blunt 2 Taskforce - the key policing taskforce set up after the 24th knife murder in London. Well impressed with the Met's concentrated focus and gold service in terms of trying to tackle what everyone is screaming at them to tackle - stopping our youngsters killing each other. The idea is to stop trouble before it escalates into violence - so from a control centre in Central London key hotspots are watched and every bit of intelligence that comes in is monitored. If it looks like problems are brewing - then teams are sent in to ...
Alex Salmond was in Glenrothes again for his 7th visit today. This week he has been there twice and managed to get down to Peterborough to attempt to wow the rest of the UK on Question Time. Sadly he didn't make it into the voting lobby on Wednesday night to try to stop the Lloyds HBOS merger. It's not so much I'd do Anything, but I would do anything for HBOS but I won't do that. Nancy to Meatloaf in a few short weeks:-) LibDig This!
We have a planning application for two new flats to be created out of one House at Vernon Terrace please see www.readmyday.co.uk/westmoreland for more details.
The eighth game of the World Championship has ended in a draw, with Kramnik failing to make much of the advantage of having White. See the moves on Chessdom. The score is now 5.5-2.5 to Anand, with four games to play. The match is being played in Bonn.
Lib Dem plans to help families include tax cuts for low and middle income households, stopping unnecessary repossessions, action to cut energy bills and big cuts in interest rates. Families are facing a difficult winter. Rising mortgage bills, the fear of unemployment and high heating costs mean that the shockwaves of the financial crisis are being felt in households...
I have seen a fair bit of commentary about the governments new sex education proposals. Agnes Poirier writing for the Guardian's Comment is Free feels that a compulsory schooling in romantic love should be part of the curriculum. Meanwhile, Carol Sarler in The Times feels it should all be nuts and bolts but there is no place for teachers in wider teaching of relationship skills. Of course, this debate wouldn't be the same without a hysterical family-loving leftie bashing outing from Conservative Home. Dealing with Conservative Home first; I am happy to report that my family taught me nothing about ...
Opinion pollsters using the telephone for political polls in the UK and the USA face some very different challenges. In the UK, phoning a random selection of people and getting them to agree to take part in a survey has, for more than a decade, regularly produced samples that are too heavily weighted towards Labour sympathisers, [...]
Would they be anything in common, probably not until now but Tom Watson has got himself a mini instead of a Jaguar. Yes you are reading this and thinking What the heck is wrong with him, why would a man ride around in a mini instead of a Jaguar? Anyway Tom thinks that to stay British he needs a British car and he has found the perfect one a Mr Bean car (yes a mini). Watch the video from the daily politics.
A super and very busy morning at Dundee West Church today where Friends of Magdalen Green held their latest coffee morning. A super success although I have concluded that I am not that fast at buttering scones! Sheila Roy, Chairperson of the Friends, summed up a thoroughly enjoyable event thus : "We are delighted with the provisional total of £1,000 but even more importantly very pleased with the excellent turn-out on a very inclement day. We appreciated the facilities and support of the members of Dundee West Church and the presence of all four Ward councillors and MP Jim McGovern. ...
Today is Make a Difference Day, when community volunteers across the country take part in projects in their neighbourhood. It's Britain's biggest volunteering day of the year. Cllr Fred Lawton and I went along to join in a riverside litter pick in the North Riverside area of the ward: an event organised by the North Road Community Partnership. We took our by-election candidate, Anne-Marie Curry
I am a little surprised at myself for not commenting on this before; I have been following the debate on Liberal Democrat Voice and did contribute. Basically, the story revolves around an event this weekend in favour of Global Peace and Unity which all sounds jolly nice until you take a gander at the speakers which is what Harry's Place did and they turned-up some rather 'rum coves' among the speakers. It's list of the speakers drags up this quote from Sheikh Yasir Qadi (listed on the GPU's site as a speaker); "All of these Polish Jews which Hitler was ...
It's an exciting weekend, isn't it? Go on, isn't it? Not just because it's only ten days to go until the US elections (of which more below); not just because it's only six days to go until Quantum of Solace opens; not just because tomorrow's the feast day of Saints Fulk and Quadragesimus... But because tomorrow is our fourteenth anniversary. Richard and I started our celebrations this morning by having an electrician round to replace our bathroom light fitting - ooh, the glamour - and tonight we're off to see Rory Bremner and the Two Johns. What could be finer? ...
58) Richard Holloway, Looking in the Distance: The Human Search for Meaning (Edinburgh: Canongate, 2005, ISBN 1841976031). Designed as a follow-up to Godless Morality, to outline how a spirituality without God might work. I'm not sure this is the best attempt at that - it's a bit vague, and some of it just rehashes the previous book - but the first and last chapters (about half the book between them) are very moving accounts of an experience Christians in Catholic traditions refer to as the dark night of the soul and some former Christians refer to as losing one's faith. ...
A public exhibition on the Bath Transportation Package is being held in the Guildhall Bath at the following times: If you want to see the package or make comments on what you know so far then why not go along. Thursday 6th November 2008 from 3.30pm - 7.00pm Friday 7th November 2008 from 10.00pm - 6.00pm Saturday 8th November 2008 from 9.30am - 5.00pm ...
Just a reminder that the clocks go back on Saturday night / Sunday morning at 2 a.m as I know some of you will forget.
Photo licences replaced paper ones in 1998 and the photo must be updated every ten years, costing £17.50, or you can be fined £1,000. If you were one of the 400,000 who got yours in '98 or '99 then, sort it quick! or you could face a hefty fine.
Back in September I blogged about how the BBC was taking the view that it didn't matter if one of its news stories wasn't accurate; being amusing was a good enough excuse to cover getting the facts all wrong. Good news now though: the BBC has ruled on a complaint over its story and decided that, [...]
The Financial Times tells it as it is: SARKOZY DOLL SALES SOAR French president Nicolas Sarkozy took legal action to try to stop a company selling voodoo dolls in his image, triggering a surge in sales.
Well I do wonder what some people will make of this; Nick Clegg has said that to help kick-start the local economy people should be proud to 'buy British' and 'buy local'. Launching a plan with Vince Cable to give immediate help to UK businesses, Clegg called for a labelling scheme for non-food products manufactured in the UK. He said; "Economic recovery starts at home, so consumers should be proud to buy British and buy local." So, I have a feeling there are some Lib Dems who will feel this is a wee bit protectionist...what do people think??
Millennium has sorted out when the blogger interviews will be at Yorkshire regional. Are you going, burkesworks? Do you need a lift? alex_wilcock, do you need a place to stay? There is room in our little Ka for four people and an elephant, and I will be at work, so you boys can all go and have a good time together... Sorry for the lack of blogging the last few days, btw, everyone. Have been doing Stuff in Real Life. Stop grinning at the back there :P
Another email drops into the inbox of The Voice from A Liberal Democrat Organiser Who Wishes To Remain Anonymous: "Another submission for you good chaps. Occasionally I worry about being too vituperative about party issues on a public forum. Then I remember that I'm a monkey, so what do I care?" You can read the [...]
Quite some time back I wrote a speculative article entitled 'The setting of the sun' which argued that Western power was waning; that the 'War on Terror' would in fact lead the West into cataclysm. My basic thesis was that it would divide Western societies and that it would so destabilise the Middle East that some conflagration was inevitable. Now, the entire Western (and indeed the wider) world is on the brink of economic implosion and the already waning ideological and military influence of the West is matched by a failing economic one and the picture is much more complete ...
A true story from Minnesota in Politico: A woman questioned the accuracy of the certified election results for president in 2004. It turns out she wrote herself in as a candidate for president of the United States. The Secretary of State's office informed Joy Elaine Pendergast that her "single vote was counted, reported, canvassed and certified according to Minnesota law." Unfortunately, the
I saw Video Games Live last night for the first time, and wow - I think that was the most enjoyable concert I've ever been to (and many thanks to solace_aderyn for organising it). It was fascinating to see how different a classical concert is when the audience are encouraged to react not just with polite clapping between pieces, but with cheers and shouts during them. It should be done that way more often. I've never known a concert have such a communal feel to it. As I said to various people afterwards, it reminded me of being at a ...
Last night I went to the presentation evening of 'Waltham Abbey in Bloom'. This is an annual event that gives prizes to a range of entrants. Our prject has envolved over a couple of years. Two years ago during our special week project the then year six teachers decided that the child would design and make a wildlife garden. This they did, raising money from a cake sale to buy flowers and
A relationship that has just shown how similar the Labour and Conservative parties are is the relationship of Lord Mandelson and George Osborne MP with the russian business man. They both have been singing the same song which is very complimentary of a Russian businessman! This dirty politics from the both of them will put people of politics and of voting as people will say "they are all the same", but people need to realise that not all politicians are like these two and not all political parties are scum like the Labour and Conservative Parties.
I have never much liked the ideological concept of the 'War on Terror'; to me it has always been a by-word for the massively unnecessary extension of state power and reckless wars of intervention. This item on First Post thus caught my eye, written by Neil Lyndon it argues that the crisis could bring an end to America's involvement in both Afghanistan and Iraq: "The US occupation of Iraq is costing $1bn every three days. The total spent so far is $800bn. This year's Senate appropriation for Iraq is $188bn. The Congressional Budget Office estimated in 2007 that the combined ...
Labour MP Phil Woolas gets pied in that video and Liberal Democrats MEP Chris Davies tries not to burst out in laughter!
Sadly, it has taken Miller's death to bring the fact to light, but the obituaries agree he was a cousin of the violinist Yehudi Menuhin. This wins Trivial Fact of the Day. It would win Trivial Fact of any Day. Jon Miller? How!? You are all so young. Television Heaven will reveal all.
I can't take the credit for it but someone has posted over at www.vote-2007.co.uk the BNP results in Wednesfield North since 2006, they make good (if good is the right word) reading
Neil Williams, a Liberal Democrat councillor in the London Borough of Haringey, has the story of how the Labour-run council is so desperate to avoid mentioning Liberal Democrats in its publications that it edited out a Liberal Democrat councillor from a photograph. This follows hot on the heels of the news that local MPs have been [...]
I was rather cheered this morning to see that almost no-one is reading Lib Dem Blogs at 7am on a Saturday morning. Sort of suggests that most people (obviously I'm the exception) don't get woken up at 6.30 on a Saturday and then feel the urge to check out the blogs. How do I know no-one's there? Simple: the site's hosted by a provider called DataFlame. There's a link to them in the boring Imprint section no-one ever looks at, right at the bottom of the page. Through this link, Dataflame had achieved the coveted second place on the Top ...
I've been up and down Fitzjohn's Avenue more times than I care to remember and have been involved in countless discussions on College Crescent... but rarely about the fountain. This is located at the bottom of Fitzjohn's opposite Buckland Crescent. The drinking fountain was erected in 1904 in memory to Samuel Palmer - of Huntley and Palmer's biscuits fame - by his family. It's pretty impressive with a walk-around gallery and a conical tiled roof surmounted by a copper and lead connical. It is the 'backdrop' to the local street florist which means it is at least protected from daytime ...
If anyone's in any doubt about the enthusiasm which Barack Obama's candidacy is creating, check out this story.
Learned from a twitterer who also uses the word 'factoid': Factoid of the night: the last time the Republicans won a presidential election without a Bush or Nixon on the ticket, was 1928
I was going to blog about Jeremy Purvis's article in The Scotsman about the Gnats' target setting culture, but I find that Stephen Glenn has beaten me to it and said pretty much everything I was going to say. I was then going to blog about SNP Highland councillor John Finnie's email to party supporters in Inverness, but I find that Caron has already made the points I was going to. This blogging lark is so much easier when other people make the arguments for you.
A key European Parliament legislative report is set to benefit those who use time shares and holiday clubs. Two thirds of time-share owners in Europe are from the UK, and the new legislation will strengthen UK consumers' rights. LibDem MEP Graham Watson commented; "For far too long time share touts have been conning British holiday makers. They will no longer be able to charge fees and deposits upfront and then disappear off the face of the earth. Now money won't be changing hands until after a 2 week cooling off period. "It's going to be much easier for consumers to ...
