I suppose one of the other reasons for my dearth of council-related posts is that it's been pretty rare so far for me to come away from a council meeting angry. No doubt that's one of the advantages of being a member of the ruling coalition, but either way it is the way of things thus far. I was particularly surprised, therefore, to find myself angry on my return home from two consecutive council
BBC Wales' Political Editor, Betsan Powys has just been on Dragon's Eye to report on developments with the Welsh Assembly Government's Affordable Housing LCO. In essence the Assembly Government asked for the power to suspend the right to buy, but the order they submitted went further than that and also gives them the power to abolish it in Wales if they wish. The Welsh Affairs Committee established that the Deputy Housing Minister had no intention of going so far so they recommended that the order be curtailed. The result was an almighty row between AMs and MPs, led very ably ...
Speaking today, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said "Some people are saying that infecting the entire country with herpes is wrong, that the Government has no right to do it and it costs too much. But these people are nothing more than apologists for terrorists, rapists and paedophiles. Is a paedophile really going to abuse some lovely little kiddie when it feels like his genitals are on fire? Will terrorists be able to carefully plan an attack with aching, fever and painful urination? No. Under this Labour plan, crime will be eliminated at a stroke or, at least, an unpleasant discharge." ...
Well, there may be no Lib Dem parliamentarian on tonight's BBC Question Time (BBC1 and online, 10.35 pm GMT), but there is a well-known supporter, musician Brian Eno, formerly of Roxy Music star and an adviser to Nick Clegg. Brian will be appearing on the panel alongside the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice [...]
It's not a great time for the jobs market, locally or nationally. According to local government stats, Islington's employment rate is just over 8% (the national rate is 5.7%, which itself is at a 17 year high). So it's timely that Islington Council leader James Kempton is taking a leading role working with the [...]
Sometimes things have more weight when they come from certain people. If you won't take my word for it...
Lib Dem councillor Paul Elgood was one of the 125,000 people celebrating Barack Obama's election victory in Grant Park, Chicago, on the night of 4th November. Here's his eyewitness report... Chicago: Nov 4th 2008 It seems as if the whole world has come to Chicago. Planes full of the world's press have descended on the city and [...]
Why oh why oh why do so many people these days use the expression "a tad" to mean "a little"? It is folksy. It is false. It makes me feel slightly queasy. It must stop. If you doubt that it is so common, just try a Google News search for the phrase. Where does it come from? The Mavens' Word of the Day enlightens us: What is most surprising about the common phrase a tad is how new it is. Though it seems the sort of slightly old-fashioned thing an elderly relative might say, it never really had much currency ...
Tuesday so Barack Obama winning the presidential election in the USA with a landslide loosing me the LDV as he got more electoral colleges then I predicted, and it is a grudge that I am going to hold against him! :) Today is the day of the Glenthroes by election, which is going to have an interesting result which will not only show who the people of Glenthroes prefer but it will show if the people of Glenthroes and further afield like Brown's economic package. And Saturday will see the announcement of the all important party presidential election, with me ...
This video from Keith Olberman on MSNBC offers a chance to see again the highlights of US election night. The moment the election is called still sends a tingle of delight down my spine.
Just two hours to go until the polls close. So time for a brief update. Ran into my first Labour people on the street at 14:40 yesterday out in Leslie. However, shortly after meeting then the Nats swarmed in. However ran into a second set about half an hour later. Today actually saw Alex Salmond in the SNP moving A-board to make the it's polling day speech. We're on you side in X, in this case Pitteuchar. Then ran in Kezia out running a canvass in the same street. Anyhoo I'm off to get changed out of my wet smelly ...
Obama's historic victory is made a tad more extraordinary with the news that AP has declared him the winner in North Carolina. An October comment from Andrew in North Carolina on this blog, underlines the scale of this achievement: ...from here in Durham, NC is a run-away lead for Obama - I have seen literally nothing from McCain.I got out into the state a bit last month (if you ever get the
The Register reports that the anti database state pressure group No2ID has "borrowed" a glass thought to have Jacqui Smith's fingerprints on it from a Social Market Foundation event where the home secretary was speaking. Earlier this year the group offered a £1000 reward to anyone bringing them the dabs of Smith or Gordon Brown. It seems that personal biosecurity is something our rulers will have to get used to if they are determined to inflict identity cards upon the rest of us. When Bill Clinton had a drink at a city centre pub during the G7 summit in Birmingham, ...
Old election hacks like me remember the days when news reports on polling day would only ever describe turnout in two ways. It would either be 'brisk' or steady'. Regrettably, nowadays we also have to resort to the word 'slow'. But it is good to see that the Times at least is upholding the old traditions. via Darrell G
The Times reports that the report of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry's will not be published until late next year: The controversial inquiry into the killings of 13 unarmed Catholic civilians during an illegal civil right parade in Londonderry in January 1972 has cost more than £181 million to date, the most expensive legal tribunal in British history.It concluded gathering evidence four years ago, since when Lord Saville has been writing his report based upon 2,500 witness statements, 160 volumes of evidence, containing an estimated 20-30 million words, plus 121 audio tapes and 110 video tapes.Lord Saville had previously indicated that ...
The US Presidential election maybe, perhaps diverted attention away from this post on Lib Dem Voice on Tuesday night, highlighting the three Tory councillors in South Norfolk who have, independently of each other, ended up with criminal convictions. The incident did, however, inspire one local Lib Dem, Terry Gilbert, to compose some verse to commemorate [...]
Ipswich's Labour MP Chris Mole has called on the BBC to sack Jeremy Clarkson for a joke he made about lorry driver & prostitutes alluding to the Ipswich murders. He said: "For Mr Clarkson to make light of murder in any circumstance must be a dismissible offence. "To do so with complete disregard for the families of the murdered women should make this a matter on which I would expect you to take immediate action." If a comedian makes a joke is made about Fred West, should we expect the MP for Gloucester to try and get them sacked and ...
How many normal people, on a day to day basis, get to just 'bump' into Jackie Smith, our most non-non-non-non-non-non heinous Home Secretary? I mean, does she regularily mingle with the proles, or perhaps even the outer party? And, honestly, if you did bump into Jackie Smith, and assuming you knew who she was, and assuming you're not a member of the inner or outer party yourself, and assuming you're sane.. is the one question you'd ask her this: "Gee Ms Smith. When can I sign up for an ID card?" Apparently, this happens regularly. Airport workers have rebelled and ...
Hooray! Women Liberal Democrats are going on the Reclaim the Night 2008 march with the Women Liberal Democrats banner! I went last year with my Mum (yes, that's us in the picture) but there was no organised Lib Dem presence. This year, inspired by the Finn McKay, from The London Feminist Network, speaking at the WLD fringe on Domestic Violence, they're going. Finn was great at the fringe and spoke with real passion but I did smile as she called out to us as 'comrades'!! Not what you normally hear at a LIBERAL Democrat fringe! I was absolutely chuffed that ...
Guido Fawkes writes today that Jacqui Smith's fingerprints have been taken away for analysis and potential copying: Jacqui Smith gave a speech today at midday on ID cards to an audience invited by the Social Market Foundation, at the end of the event the glass she was drinking from during the Q & A was whisked [...]
After one big election night we now have another not quite as big but still significant one in Glenrothes. The Times is reporting that voting is brisk; "campaign managers in both main parties were optimistic that it would top the 56 per cent achieved at the 2005 general election." Earlier, Liberal Democrat Voice ran a piece asking if Labour's pessimism was deliberate. I think it was; it goes back to something Luke Akehust said last month. He felt the chances of Labour holding the seat were minimal and thought; "Labour folk from the PLP down need to get their heads ...
You could be soon. On the dying echo of the primaeval scream of terror that was our most recent post, comes news of a heartening babystep victory. Earlier today, No2ID campaigners seized possession of Jacqui "We'll just change the law" Smith's fingerprints and are holding them, rather excitingly, at a secret location (no doubt for [...]
Last night I spoke out against the proposal for a massive development in Dickens Yard, just behind Ealing Town Hall at Ealing Council's Planning Committee meeting. There was huge puublic interest in the application, but there was (in my view unnecessarily timid) concern about moving it to a larger venue, so it was held in the Council Chamber with a video and audio relay to a larger hall for the
More detail has emerged on the technical reality of the government's plan to store data on every email and internet transaction in the UK. The Independent has the story: Internet "black boxes" will be used to collect every email and web visit in the UK under the Government's plans for a giant "big brother" database, The [...]
"Pendle needs an MP who is going to be here in the constituency resolving local problems, not one who spends his time playing Party Politics in Westminster." Quote from Pendle Conservatives website Has Andrew Stephenson really thought it out properly before moving to Pendle and becoming a candidate in the borough for the general election? I ask this question as the above quote is from Andrew's website and he has made a very big mistake. Andrew clearly hasn't done his research as he will have noticed that Pendle MP Gordon Prentice never votes in favour of his parties Government so ...
I'll say straight off that the economic situation, the unpopularity of the Bush administration and the superb campaign run by Barack Obama all made this a very difficult year to be the Republican standard-bearer. But John McCain certainly didn't help his cause by running one of the worst campaigns in modern presidential election history, rivalling even Mike Dukakis's dire efforts in 1988. His campaign was unfocused, even confusing, and lurched from message to message without ever making anything stick. It was also overly negative and centred on trivia. How could he have run things differently to make thing at least ...
Well now you do!
So the Bank of England have taken 1.5% off the base rate, which was a bit of a surprise to all. When Rachel(my wife) came home I asked had she heard the news?. "..... 1.5% off amazing hey! " There was a pause..... "is that a good thing ?" She asked. "Well could be if the banks pass it on to us. I replied". "And will they?" She said. "errr not sure, might do" You see the thing is, they don't have too. On the news earlier, they interviewed a woman who can't get a competitive rate on her mortgage ...
We in the People's Republic now realise that we have spent a totally deficient amount of time over the last year's blogging activity on fostering a culture of cynical corrosive nihilism. We are obviously hopelessly out of step with the zeitgeist, what with our all-too-frequent postings on such subjects as the teaching of history, Herbert [...]
Smokers in the north-east London borough will not be able to foster children from January 2010 - unless there are 'exceptional circumstances'. Even if the foster carer undertakes only to smoke on balconies or in gardens the ban will still apply. It was the Conservative cabinet that voted through this move. The move was given a mixed blessing by the Fostering Network which said; "We certainly view this as a good move in terms of creating a smoke-free environment for a child, but we don't agree that a blanket ban on any smokers becoming foster carers is the right thing." ...
Here is an absolutely mega "wall" of all the Obama front pages across the entire world's press today. It really is stunning. Thanks to Geoff Menegay via Votemaster I grabbed four papers this morning and they will be deposited securely at the bottom of my jumper drawer.
Commenting on the 1.5% cut in interest rates, Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor, Vince Cable said: "Naturally we welcome this bold move, which now amounts to a 2% cut in rates in under a month. This is exactly what we've been calling for." Vince Cable went on to say: "It is much more radical than had been anticipated in the City, and goes a long way to restoring my faith...
Commenting on today's announcement that workers at two UK airports are to be given ID cards, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Huhne said: "Ministers are choosing a limited number of guinea pigs at two smaller airports because they are aware of how unpopular ID cards are." Chris Huhne continued, saying: "The Government is too scared to force ID cards on voters...
Hazel Blears MP for Salford which falls into the North West of England and has MEP's representing it like Sajjad Karim, made a silly mistake with her comment that she made and you can read the article by following the link. At a time when an election has just passed in which bloggers helped President Obama get elected in the US of A, Hazel should have thought and kept up to date with current affairs before making her silly comment on political blogging. What if political bloggers, started a campaign against her and made her loose her seat in the ...
I have heard it all now. The Government have tried to justify ID cards on the grounds of preventing identity theft, that they will stop terrorists and that they will help in the fight against crime. On each occasion they have been shown to be wrong. Now it seems that the main reason for introducing identity cards is that people want them. Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith told the Social Market Foundation today that she regularly has people coming up to her and saying that they cannot wait for the opportunity to carry an ID card. Really? I am not so ...
Following lots of requests from a few people, especially Jennie, Toran, Helen and Mat, I'm resurrecting my blog. The point they made was that I've been writing Facebook notes and posted items that are effectively blog posts so I've been persuaded by popular demand to drag myself blinking and stretching from the cozy burrow that is Facebook back into the blogosphere. Let's see how it goes.
In a surprise move, the Bank of England today cut the official base rate of interest by 1.5% to 3%, the lowest level in half a century. The move's been welcomed by Lib Dem shadow chancellor Vince Cable - not surprisingly, as he has consistently called for deep interest rate cuts in the last few [...]
The European Parliament has published a report on action to protect timeshare owners. The UK has more timeshare holidaymakers than any other state in the European Union. Sharon Bowles' press release is here Posted in Campaigning, Europe, Liberal Democrats, Uncategorized
You might have thought two-homes-is-outrageous-but-don't-ask-how-many-we-have was as bad as it could get. The cherry on top is that the Dover Conservatives are quoted as saying this article was a bitter response to an election result on 30 October. But notice the date stamp on the post in question. Or look at when it is listed on www.libdemblogs.org.uk. It was written and published days [...]
Efforts by local Lib Dem Councillors to clean up graffiti in Prestwich came to a head at the meeting of Bury Council on Wednesday night, when Liberal Democrat Councillors presented the ruling Conservatives with a host of photographs of long-standing graffiti in Prestwich. Liberal Democrat group Leader Cllr Tim Pickstone asked the Leader of the Council why so much graffiti remained on local walls and signs, four months after the Council promised to take action. Lib Dem Councillors alerted the Council to graffiti hotspots after a commitment to get them cleaned, and at last night's meeting Councillors showed their dismay ...
Here is the speech I made last night to the Council, proposing the Lib Dem group's motion on the Credit Crunch. You can read the motion itself by visiting "Thank you Mr Mayor. Earlier this year I was lucky enough to be able to buy my first home. Since then though, it's fallen in value, and the identical house next door hasn't sold despite being on the market all this time. There is of course the very real possibility that I might be the reason people don't want to live in the house net door, but for this evening's ...
Liberal Democrats in Bury last night called on Council to help Bury residents through the credit crunch, suggesting new measures for local families and businesses. In a motion to the Council which was passed unanimously, the Lib Dems noted the rise in local unemployment, the fall in local house prices and the threat to the survival of well-run and established businesses induced by the credit crunch and the economic slow down. In response to rising fuel and food bills, the Lib Dems also called on the Council to do more for those on low and fixed incomes. The Lib Dem ...
The Conservative Party affiliated website ConservativeHome has published an article advocating arranged marriage. Call me old-fashioned, but in a free society I do think adults should have the freedom to choose their own spouses. Government, and political parties, should keep out of our bedrooms and out of our weddings. Posted in Civil Liberties, UKIP/Conservatives
Tonight's "Evening Telegraph" also features an item about the Vacant and Derelict Land Fund and my comments welcoming the funding coming to Dundee. You can read the item by clicking on the headline above.
Complain here.... Dear Sirs, I am writing to complain about the general quality of your programming covering the recent US elections. My main complaint is that the coverage paid little or no attention to all the other votes that were going on that night both for Congress and on various local propositions. While recognising that the race for the White House was the main event surely it should be recognised that especially the Congressional elections have widespread implications for the political situation in America. I also felt that you program was very very slow in declaring a winner of the ...
Lib Dem Voice's Alex Foster has drawn attention to the mandatory recount in Minnesota's Senate race, in which Al Franken currently trails Senator Norm Coleman by a mere 571 votes in almost 2.5 million. But what of the other three Senate races which are still listed as undecided? With the Democrats currently on 56, it [...]
And turns his back on environmental forms of transport.... Well, that was inevitable, wasn't it? Relieved as I am, as a Crystal Palace resident, not to have the East London Line Extension scrapped it seems that Boris have slashed swathes of budget off key transport infrastructure projects including, as listed on the BBC website: £1.3bn cross-river tram plan which would have connected Peckham to Camden £500m Thames Gateway Bridge scheme in east London £750m extension of the Docklands Light Railway to Dagenham Dock in east London £500m Oxford Street tram scheme £170m Croydon Tramlink extension Public space proposals for a ...
I'm sure this local news clip has done the rounds already but I've only just seen it:
Unsurprisingly, the blogosphere hasn't reacted totally positively to the telling-off it's received at the hands of Hazel Blears, MP for Salford and Government minister. Bloggers are negative and sniping, interested in digging dirt and uncovering alleged hypocricy at the expense of making a positive contribution to the national debate. I feel I ought to redress the balance a bit by pointing out that Ms Blears has lots of very sensible things to say. She's concerned about the growth of a professional political class with no experience outside politics (not really a growth - it was always like that - but ...
Thu 6th
12:50
Day 2878: Bank of England: By "Steady as She Goes" we actually meant "PANIC! PANIC NOW"
Thursday: The UK central bank has cut its interest rate by a THIRD, that's a one-and-a-half percent reduction from 4.5% to 3%. The last similar reduction was a two-percentage-point cut in 1981, at the height of a RECESSION. Surely no coincidence! In their full statement, the Bank admits that while they HAD thought that the rise in fuel and food prices would continue to push inflation up, they now realise that the complete collapse of the housing market means we'll all be living in caves and bartering with beads and necklaces by Christmas, so they may as well stuff it! ...
Bloggers have today complained that Hazel Blears is undermining politics. Bloggers have expressed dismay that she could be so dim as to think that free comment on the internet could damage democracy. Blears is well known for being short, for her nervous grin and for her alarming use of platitudes over sensible comment but this latest attack has been seen as evidence that the whole political system could be irreversibly damaged if this pointless woman is allowed anywhere near to any positions of authority where she might be free to criticise free speech any more. Ms Blears is the Minister ...
Hazel Blears MP has once again displayed her shocking ignorance and unbelievable arrogance in a speech on journalism and blogging (see here). Leaving aside the fact that her speech is jammed full of ignorance and inaccuracies (see here), it was the unfettered arrogance of some of here assertions that got me. First, on the dead-tree-press Hazel has [...]
Stating the bleeding obvious here, but I wish to point out that no matter what Hazel Blears says, the blogosphere does not answer to the Government, nor does it have to justify itself to Government nor does it have any obligations, responsibilities or duties to politicans, the Country, or anything. Blogs are owned by individuals. They are private property. We can each do with our blogs whatever our wit, intelligence and fancy demand we do. It is, frankly, none of their business. So, no, I do no not intend to address Hazel's accusations, because they're worthless - utterly without merit. ...
November's edition of Total Politics carries the following piece from me about finding information on the internet. Here's a slightly extended version of the piece: There is no shortage of information out there, but getting what you need, when you need it can be a challenge, particularly when your inbox, mailbag, radio and TV are all [...]
I was on the Wave 102 news this morning about the Vacant and Derelict Land Fund allocation to the City. Click on the 'play' button above to listen.
F1's head honcho Bernie Ecclestone has embarrassed the sport by saying that those Spanish "fans" who blacked their faces, wore Afro wigs and barracked Lewis Hamilton weren't being racist. He said "It's all nonsense. In Spain people supported Fernando Alonso and in Brazil they supported Felipe Massa." Adding "I don't think it's anything to do with racism." Well it seems pretty obvious that he doesn't think. He fails to comment on the overtly racist banners on display for 3 days at the Spanish Grand Prix. He also fails to take into account the views of the person who was on ...
Here's my latest piece for our of our local magazines (the Crouch End Flyer): A story with a happy ending - shock horror! Without being overly twee - and not necessarily being always on the side of conservation per se (as to me it kind of depends what you are conserving) - I do believe that the appearances of Crouch End Broadway is definitely worth preserving and conserving - which means sometimes taking up the cudgels in its defence! Let me explain. Crouch End Broadway is in a conservation area. But Haringey Council has introduced contracts to display adverts on ...
People living in Yardley will be aware that we are unhappy with the proposals in terms of locations of fire stations and closures of Hay Mills and Sheldon. We now have the files with the maps of timings now and proposed timings. Anyone who wishes to see those should contact my office. They are big files of about 5Mb each and there are over 10 so we cannot email them. Constituents with a
Last night, while most people were either enoying or avoiding the fireworks, Bury's 51 Councillors were at the regular meeting of the Full Council. Under new rules introduced by Bury's Conservative administration, we have limited opportunity to ask questions nowardays - must 30 minutes answers to written questions, and 20 minutes for oral questions on the night. Nevertheless the Liberal Democrat Group made good use of the question time to raise a number of important issues. These included: Mary D'Albert asked whether council vehicles will have to pay the congestion charge - the answer is they will - which presumably ...
Obviously I have a vested interest in this question since my lack of ballot papers has denied me a say in the elections for the Party president and elections for FPC, FCC etc. Now, being totally honest I have moved well beyond the being cheesed off stage with this and am defiantly at the cheese, wine and doing the limbo stage. Having said that there is a central point here, namely; ITS TIME TO ALLOW E-VOTING IN PARTY ELECTIONS. It is quite simple to set-up and check against a central member database so why don't we do it?? It means ...
Blimey! Liberal Revolution draws our attention to this video. I think this needs wider attention! She thought Africa was a country? I'm not sure whether to be amused or angry about Bill O'Reilly trying to defend her. I guess this is the kind of Fox Schadenfreude I was looking for on election night. So, do you feel proud of yourself now Mr. Dale?
Unsurprising that Hazel Blears would attract alot of venom from the political blogsphere for her rather whiny remarks to the Hansard Society. Her remarks were not so much an attack on political blogging as a generalised rant against the media in general for 'dragging political culture down': "Famously, Tony Blair called the media a "feral beast" in one of his last speeches as prime minister. But behind the eye-catching phrase was a serious and helpful analysis of a 24-hour broadcast media and shrinking, and increasingly competitive, newspaper market which demands more impact from its reporting - not the reporting of ...
Imagine you wanted to speak to your local Citizens Advice Bureau to get some help. You find out that, instead of there being someone you can speak to five days a week, it's only open on Monday mornings and Friday afternoons, and not always then. Opening times change without notice. Even worse, you find out that each CAB office doesn't have any obligation to help you at all. In some towns they're very helpful; in others you can't get to speak to anyone and letters go unanswered. Not long ago MPs had little to do with helping constituents. Their job ...
Hazel Blears' speech to the Hansard Society is attracting a fair amount of attention in the blogosphere today, perhaps not surprisingly given the inclusion of this paragraph: This brings me to the role of political bloggers. Perhaps because of the nature of the technology, there is a tendency for political blogs to have a Samizdat style. [...]
We have just arrived back on Tyneside after our visit to Amsterdam. We were welcomed by the rain. We are on our way home now in the car. I have a council meeting this afternoon to attend. So it's back to work straight away!---Sent via BlackBerry
The Daily Mail's Ben Brogan at least is convinced that Labour are down-and-out in today's Scottish by-election: Labour word is that Glenrothes is a lost cause. The SNP will take it by 1500, give or take 500. I don't detect a Brown Central attempt to prepare a "shock" win. Instead they say that had they had [...]
Back in the summer your local Lib Dem Councillors brought the problem of graffiti in Prestwich to the attention of Bury Council. As many local people will know we have some terrible stretches of graffiti, mostly in a few areas such as the Village centre, Sedgley Park and on our own side of Prestwich in the area around Heaton Park metro and up Bury Old Road. When we raised the issue in the summer we were asked to let the Council know the problem areas so that they could clean the graffiti up. Some excellent work has been done, particularly ...
The Mirror are apparently running a campaign to, er. Well, it's not clear. The opening line says it's a campaign to "stop the swearing on the telly" and claims politicians and commentators of all stripes agree with it. But all the quotes it provides indicate a milder ambition. Even the Tories culture spokesman Jeremy Hunt only [...]
An impressive (free) exhibition of photo portraits by young photographers, photography students and gifted amateurs opens today at the National Portrait Gallery in London (where work by the American super-photographer Annie Leibovitz is coincidentally currently on display). There is something about good portrait photographs which I find eerily compelling, as they can give one an [...]
I will be blogging very lightly if at all over the next couple of days - polling day in Glenrothes then the count and tomorrow, at some point, sleep........... Back at the weekend......... LibDig This!
Plaid Cymru AM, Helen Mary Jones has an excellent article in this morning's Western Mail explaining why the existing Legislative Competence Order process is not fit for purpose: The scrutiny process is complicated and wasteful, with one piece of legislation being scrutinised by AMs, then by MPs, and then, in the form of a measure, by AMs again. Apart from anything else, this puts serious pressure on civil society in Wales. Take the voluntary organisations that represent carers, for example. With my LCO, or the Government LCO that has now taken its place, they had to lobby politicians to raise ...
The Conservative leader David Cameron was backing McCain in this election race but made out to the media he was backing Obama. The Conservative leader according to a blog post by Tom Harris MP was backing McCain all along and from the very start yet he still met up with Obama on his visit to the UK. Cameron was showing his true Conservative colours and backing another conservative across the pond. Just shows how cosy he is in the conservative bed and yet like Sajjad Karim MEP has made up his own political belief of being a "Liberal Conservative".
Today this - the Pryors - is one of the premium residential areas in Hampstead. In the 1740's this was a single house on the heath just east of the Wells estate. The name, 'The Pryors' is thought to come from Thomas Pryor (d. 1821), son-in-law of Samuel Hoare (d. 1825, of Heath House, Jack Straw's Castle) . These impressive Edwardian mansion blocks on Hampstead Heath date back to 1904, 1906 and 1910 and retain many of their original features internally and externally. Landscape painter Walter Field lived here. Taught by John Rogers Herbert and John Pye, he exhibited ...
After a timid cut last month, when the MPC should have cut interest rates then by at least a whole percent, now they have to be bold. If they don't and bottle it again then the recession is going to be drawn out and very bumpy indeed. The need to be cutting rates by at [...]
Saturday Soon it will be Bonfire Night again, and here at the Hall we pride ourselves on having the best blaze for miles around. For weeks I have been having my men collect fallen trees and the roof timbers of evicted cottagers and the resultant pile of wood has not grown to quite dizzying proportions; nor should the efforts on the Well-Behaved Orphans in collecting kindling be overlooked. A supply of rockets, Catherine Furlong wheels and the like has been laid in, and Meadowcroft has provided us with a sack of potatoes to bake in the embers. Only one detail ...
Seems that my instincts were totally right about that person Sarah McSame. She seems to have been totally unfit for office both emotionally and intellectually. Yep - as I thought - emotionally and intellectually a teenager without the adolescent reasons. Hey, look at me I'm the new GOP pinup girl - do you like the way [...]
This was linked to in the comments to someone else's entry: I voted here in San Francisco's Noe Valley neighborhood about two hours ago. It took about an hour to get through the line, and while standing there I was chatting with the 75-year-old retired cop in front of me, and the young 30-something gay couple in front of him, who had their two little girls in tow. Everyone was in good spirits as the conversation moved from the Obama-McCain contest to the farce that is Sarah Palin, and then on to non-political matters, like the road work being done ...
As President-elect Obama picks his cabinet and administration, leaks suggest Rep. Rahm Emmanuel (D-Ill.) will be his Chief of Staff. After the inspiration for The West Wing's Matt Santos has tapped the guy Josh Lyman was based on, can it be long before George Stephanopolous (aka Sam Seabourn) is recruited as Emmanuel's deputy? Probably less [...]
I was one of many millions watching the TV anxiously in the early hours of Wednesday morning for the American election results. With my remote control flicking between the BBC and CNN coverage, I followed every projection and prediction. It soon became clear that after eight dismal years with one of the worst Presidents in their history, the American people had voted by a clear margin for 'change they could believe in'. It was so good to feel positive about a US election, especially after the depressing experience of seeing Bush just cling on in 2004. I really hope Barack ...
On Tuesday I joined local residents at a small celebration of the Grove Wood campaign in the Masons Arms at Stapleton. Last week the Council's planning committee for this area agreed to place Tree Preservation Orders on the trees in the wood. From now on any pruning work the owner of the land wants to do will have to be approved in advance. This is a victory for common sense at last after many months of campaigning. The campaign to save the wood is far from over, but this is an important first step.
I wonder whether the GOP would actually consider the Alaska Independence Party's views on seccession. Looking at the results last night it is clear that Alaska is so full of fruit-cakes that it no longer understands the difference between right and wrong or the proper standards that are required in public life. One doesn't have to do [...]
What a fantastic result for the United States and for the world. What a truly historic achievement. And as I said to Mike Buxton of Arrow FM, I am very happy for Barack Obama to call himself a liberal Democrat! Here is a link to his victory speech. There are many political lessons to learn from this man's campaign. But [...]
