I wanted to post up this picture to illustrate a small victory over Labour in my village of Sunniside. Labour declared that putting a cash machine into the village post office would lead to the end of the world, plague, pestilence and so on as an explanation for refusing planning permission for the machine. Well, here is the machine, suitably installed, despite the best efforts of the Labour
So I've talked about the "Battery Hen Economy", how the great wheeze of the 'third wayers' is - in a slight twist to the metaphor - gave up being the old fashioned vampires that would kill their victims sucking them dry of blood, and "modernised." Now their victims are left with a certain amount of blood so that they could remain alive and be fed upon another day, and they victims should be grateful they've not been killed this time. Hurrah! How marvellous for everyone, what ho? So, continuing with the vampire metaphor: At the moment we've got a problem. ...
The Beeb's put a lot of effort in to promoting its new post-apocalyptic Sunday night drama Survivors, so it was with some anticipation that I settled down to watch it tonight. The original series has a cult following, but I can't see this new version having the same sort of appeal. There were just too many holes in the script of this first episode. The problems started early on. Apparently a major disease outbreak is only the responsibility of the junior minister of health. The government also allows the media to operate as normal, rather than taking direct control. And ...
BBC News is reporting that Labour is going to introduce a new super tax on those earning over £150,000 after the election. Will there be anyone earning such a sum after the recession has hit us? Well yes according to the Tax Payers Alliance. There are at present nearly 400 public sector staff earning more than £150,000, working across 140 government departments, quangos and public corporations. And the number continues to mushroom. Those on the public sector rich list enjoyed average pay rises of over 10 per cent last year. With the government actively encouraging more public spending, they are ...
When I was at school, I had a maths teacher. In fact, I had several. Nothing unusual about that. But one, in particular, stood out. She was as hard as nails in class. Exactly the kind of teacher required to actually get any work out of a bone-idle student with natural talent like me. After I finished school we kept in touch, and she became a friend. When my daughter was a couple of weeks old, I had to go up to the school for some reason, and I remember sitting in Sue's office (she was deputy head by then) ...
Interestingly the Gender Analyser is 73% certain that this blog is written by a man. It then asks, "correct or incorrect?" to which it then reveals that it guesses correctly 53% of the time, and guesses incorrectly 47% of the time (according to user submitted verification). Well done that team. But, see, I have some idea how these things work, having been curious about this sort of thing on and off. Sadly they do not publish their methodology but several of these things have been seen before and they've been more candid about their methods. It's about how often you ...
Here is a song from Gibraltars greatest gift to the pop world that I remember from Top of the Pops in 1973 and have hardly heard since. It was Hammond's only UK hit, though he had several in the USA and also enjoyed considerable success as a songwriter in partnership with Mike Hazelwood. They wrote "The Air that I Breathe", which was a hit for The Hollies, for instance. Hammond is the father of the imaginatively named Albert Hammond Jr, who is a member of The Strokes - I believe them to be popular with the young people.
Nearly every broadsheet newspaper today ran with the story that the Chancellor is to cut VAT in tomorrow's 'emergency budget.' Given that every political journalist seems fully briefed about the tax cut, it suggests to me that there may be some other surprise that the Chancellor is holding back for his announcement. The news of the VAT cut seems to have divided opinion. On the one side are those that think a tax (or fiscal) stimulus is absolutely essential to get the UK through the recession. Even some traditional economic conservatives believe the banking crisis is so great that monetary ...
I'm cautiously optimistic about the rumoured plan of a 2.5% drop in VAT. It sounds like a good move to me, for several reasons. One thing a VAT cut won't do is lead automatically to a reduction in prices. Most food isn't VAT-rated and it is hard to believe that a CD priced £9.99 this week will be priced £9.78 next week. However, taken together those 11ps start to add up. At the top end of the scale, being able to shave a bit more off the asking price for that plasma screen might just make the difference between whether ...
If you are looking for one classy bit of disc at the moment you could do worse than `Hurricane` by Grace Jones. It sounds luxurious without being overdone - in short it `looks after you`with brilliant music-making. In the meantime i've also listened to the new Girls Aloud album which has some great moments with a [...]
One of the few things Linz is known for outside Austria is its characteristic confectionery, 'Linzertorte' – a tasty pastry made with ground almonds, cloves, blackcurrants, sometimes chocolate and even rum, amongst other ingredients. Just the sort of thing to have a slice of with a strong coffee after struggling through the snow, as I did [...]
A bold relaunch for the series, in colour, consistently impressive, but with the Doctor exiled to modern-day-after-tomorrow Earth. UNIT, the Brigadier and fabulous scientist Dr Liz Shaw join new Doctor Jon Pertwee in investigating such strange occurrences as Auton shop-window dummies bursting to life in Spearhead From Space, missing astronauts in The Ambassadors of Death, lycanthropic slime in Inferno and breakdowns at a research station in... Doctor Who and the Silurians "Three people have seen them. They do exist. And we've got to attack them first." "Just because they're an alien species, that doesn't mean we have to kill them." ...
I have just been lead to a news article from a Lancashire based newspaper about Councillors who have defected to other parties and then not been selected as their new parties candidate for the seat they currently hold. First it was Cllr Nawaz Ahmed who got the chop from his new party when they decided to make Cllr Iqbal (Leader of the Labour group) the candidate. Then a Preston County councillor who like Nawaz left the Lib Dems didn't get a seat. Now I am not going to sympathise for these two as they are selfish politicians who have only ...
The County Times a few days ago quoted Lembit Opik MP as saying that his public profile may have contributed to his defeat for the Liberal Democrat presidency. "I am dead serious about my politics but I do it with a smile. Sadly some people have mixed up my political narrative with my high national profile." But here's the stark reality: Lembit Opik's "high national profile", with all its highs and lows, is his narrative. They have become one and the same thing. Lembit Opik is another example of how you can have a political narrative, but you can't own ...
Feeling much better now and so off to the switching on of Stockton Christmas Lights. I was lucky to travel with Father Christmas, Emanuel Pogatetz ( Captain of Middlesbrough Football Club) and Charlie Hardwick (Val Pollard in Emmerdale) on the only steam bus in the Country, Elizabeth, from Whitby. The switch worked and on came the lights. Brilliant. The High Street lit up, ...
Welcome to the 92nd of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (16th-22nd November), together with a hand-picked quintet, mostly courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed. How about starting with the most popular blog-posting, and we work our way down? Here goes... 1. Baby P: David Lammy finally speaks...and insults Lynne Featherstone! on Andrew Porrer's LibCync blog. Not that Gordon Brown's Labour party believes for one moment in playing politics. 2. BNP membership list on Paul Walter's Liberal Burblings blog. Anyone not sorted the list ...
Writer Bob Holmes' first two Doctor Who scripts hit the screen, and there'll be far more from him once the series goes into colour. This is the last black and white year, topically fascinated with going out into space, though the bleak, epic final story seems very down-to-Earth. Where 1968's The Mind Robber had forces exploiting humanity's creative talents, here it's our talent for destruction in a story where the Doctor's people are finally revealed and the prospect of a black Doctor is shown to be distinctly possible... The War Games "Use the conventional forces. It could be quite amusing." ...
It is widely tipped that Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling will lower VAT from 17.5% to 15% in the pre-budget report - this will cost about £12.8billion and achieve, oh very little. the reduction in prices will be so tiny as not to be noticed and the consumers will not be encouraged to spend more.
BathNES Conservatives refused calls for an independent review of the Transport Package which controversially includes the Newbridge bus road and Bathampton meadows Park & Ride. The Liberal Democrats had called for a review, following the radical changes to the package and protests from residents across the city. Increasing evidence suggests that alternatives to the Newbridge BRT have not been properly assessed. Where the package has been changed, placing a Park & Ride car park on Bathampton Meadows, residents and the parish council have been poorly consulted. Despite your Lib Dem councillors best efforts, the Tories are determined to ram the ...
Quite an enjoyable weekend, starting with two Focus rounds on Friday night (mine and djm4's - he's away at the moment, but we usually do them together anyway, so his is becoming as familiar as mine.) I'm one of those odd people who enjoy leafleting, and I had help and company in the shape of my younger son C, who also quite likes it. I mostly dozed for the rest of the evening, as envoy was ill and had had to cancel his plan to come over to us for dinner. On Saturday, it was my daughter R's turn to ...
Here is a confession: I find a perverse pleasure in reading things I shouldn't for sanity's sake. Asinine newspaper columns with illiberal and Blairite attitudes, I soak them up. Likewise, it was with a furtive delight that my clammy fingers rustled the glossy pages of the latest Oxfordshire bulletin from the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England. They sound such a nice organisation. Don't they have that warmly bearded American with a jovial smile as their President? And don't we all love the countryside. I certainly do and I could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the CPRE on some issues, like ...
More monsters hit the screen as hypnotic seaweed rises from the waves and the fabulous Quarks appear, but 1968's most lasting contribution to the series comes when London is attacked by Yeti and Cybermen in The Web of Fear and The Invasion. Rising to fight these threats is Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, to be a friend of the Doctor's for many years (and soon to be back on TV). The year's most striking story, though, is memorable less for its monsters than for its sheer postmodern weirdness. The Mind Robber "I think we may be in a place where nothing is impossible." ...
I don't know whether it was the journalist or Tory MSP Alex Johnstone who got this wrong, but I had to laugh when he was quoted in today's times, calling for the return of the belt to schools, as saying "School discipline is reaching crisis point and giving individual head teachers the power to decide whether or not to use capital punishment would be a good move." I am sure that even the Tories wouldn't approve of executions at play time. It's of course disappointing that they can't come up with anything more imaginative than a return to the days ...
Reports today suggest that the Government is considering cutting VAT as the main element of its fiscal stimulus plan. If the Government does go down that route, it would illustrate how out of touch they are with the real problems people face in this country. Both Norfolk Blogger and Mark Gray have highlighted some of the problems of this approach and their concerns are valid. In addition to that, the proposal doesn't really make sense economically. We had a boom fuelled by unsustainable levels of personal debt, but now that things have turned down, that level of debt means people ...
The Tories really are having enormous problems with their image in Europe at the moment. Below is a news chronology in reverse order of Conservative activity in the European Parliament over the current year. When Osborne and Mandleson swapped time in the papers over stories about dalliances with Russian oligarch billionaires the old issue of [...]
Niall Ferguson's The Ascent of Money began last Monday. If you missed it, just click here and watch it on Channel 4's website. The first episode looks at lending, the emergence of the banking system and the sub-prime market. Ferguson ended on a cliffhanger: a promise to explain the financial markets.
This afternoon I took part in the 'Welly Walk' organised by BLAST (Bring Leamington Allotment Societies Together) to continue our campaign to protect Leamington's allotments and to protect the greenbelt to the north of the town. This is in response to Warwick District Councils 'Options for Growth' consultation document that placed some of the arrows on their map directly across some of Leamington's popular allotments. This has naturally raised concern amongst allotment holders who do not want to see their allotments, many who have tended their plots for decades bulldozed to make way for housing. I visited Binswood Allotments earlier ...
The SNP spokesperson quoted in this article is correct - at the moment, the Lib Dems in Aberdeenshire do seem more interested in fighting among themselves than in representing the people who voted for them. Martin Ford's decision not to have anything more to do with the council group is understandable, but very disappointing. And it highlights once again the appalling way in which the council group leadership is operating. For loyal Lib Dems such as Martin and Debra Storr to be driven out of the council group, it has to take some really shameful behaviour on the part of ...
As Patrick Troughton's performance as the Doctor becomes compelling, his stories really hit their stride. He faces his own double, a would-be world dictator in the twisty-turny The Enemy of the World, as well as a host of monsters: giant crabs that mess with your mind in The Macra Terror; the eponymous The Abominable Snowmen and The Ice Warriors; the Cybermen at their most chilling in The Tomb of the Cybermen; and even, could it be, the final end of the Daleks...? The Evil of the Daleks "Somewhere in the Dalek race, there are three Daleks with the Human Factor. ...
The new wind generator has been installed in Sainsbury's car park at Emerson's Green. Sainsbury's store is now open again following the major changes. It's very nice inside, with a lot more choice, but the outside has lost its distinctive gables and it now looks like any other boxy retail store - a backwards step. Also please note the parking restriction - two hours free, maximum stay three hours. So don't try to use it as a Park and Ride to travel to Bristol for the Xmas shopping - parking attendants are patrolling enforcing the time limit.
I was the victim of a drive-by earlier. Not the type of machine-gun rattling, bullets-flying, flesh-spraying drive-by that you might find on the streets of South Central LA, but instead a much more genteel and Prestwich-esque drive-by which involved a taxi driver spotting me, winding down his window, shouting at me and then driving away waving. I wouldn't have minded going down in a hail of bullets at that moment actually, because it would have spared me the enormously unpleasant task of continuing to leaflet in the freezing rain. And it would probably have got my picture in the papers, ...
I wrote two posts about the tragic death of Baby P. One suggested that the shiny new computer system being used to enhance the service being offered by social services might be doing more harm than good. The other warned against the dangers of over-reaction and I wroteto save the life of the next Baby P, we may need to damage the lives of hundreds or thousands of children by taking them into care unnecessarily.Neither of these points were original and many other people have been making similar points. If reports in today's Observer are to be believed, both should ...
I do hope Chancellor Alistair Darling is going to announce a great deal more than a 2.5 per cent reduction in VAT. Reducing VAT is not the kind of targeted support for low and middle i...
I was out leafleting earlier down St Ann's Road, and it was marvellous to see the many "Dig For Victory" posters displayed in windows of the houses backing onto the Clough. I imagine it was just like Prestwich in the war, except without the rationing, the conscription, and the constant fear of death. The "Dig For Victory" campaign, of course, is the name residents have given to their ongoing battle with the Council over gardens given over during the war for vegetable growing, and now belatedly reclaimed after 70 quiet and uneventful years. A couple of months ago, someone at ...
With the Government planning on cutting VAT by 2.5% on Monday the only people who will be fearing this VAT cut is the Conservatives. Cameron is falling behind on the Poll's and this could be the sort of final blow to him. This is either going to knock Cameron back and turn the people of the UK against him, or this is going to not effect him but the next poll will tell us what the people think. If these tax cuts are the final blow and it gets a boost for Labour then we may see the rumoured June ...
Well after Bollox what a come down to discover that my credit card was defrauded by a figure of £700. Naturally, i'm still wondering how. I'm particularly careful with my transactions and online activities with firewalls/anti-spyware and tracker cookies yet i suppose it only takes one blink of the eye. This seemingly is on the [...]
Mr Darling and his Treasury madarins ought to win a Nobel prize in economics, for (unbeknown to the rest of the economists practising and writing today) they seem to have come to the remarkable conclusion that one can reflate an economy by means of reducing VAT by a modest 2%. Yes, the VAT the we all discount as a part of the purchase price of goods and many services. The VAT that we pay at a fixed rate on most purchases, whether they be capital or non-capital goods. The VAT we expect to have no chance of escaping unless we ...
Grand historical tragedy in The Massacre, far-future space opera with Earth's survivors, Wild West comedy and song in The Gunfighters, panic on the streets of London in The War Machines, even a serviceable Dalek movie on the big screen... Most strikingly for the series' future, The Tenth Planet creates two of Doctor Who's biggest ideas, spare-parts techno-zombies the Cybermen and the astonishing concept of regeneration, with Patrick Troughton as the Doctor facing The Power of the Daleks. But the year opened to building tension in a huge Dalek epic... The Daleks' Master Plan "One Dalek... Is capable of exterminating all!" ...
After hearing the BBC Phil play Rachmaninov's 1st and a little-known Rachmaninov opera with a fellow OUTer (LGBT social networking site) I did the usual monthly outing to `Club Bollox`. It's a night full of bears, gayers, lezzers, bis and students on the alternative music club night out - basically started as `bollox to the [...]
The answers to yesterday's history quiz. The first quote, as correctly guessed by both Daniel and Alex Wilcock, was Peter Hain, once Young Liberal firebrand, now Labour MP for Neath and, until recently, veteran Labour minister. He was writing for a booklet called "Scarborough perspectives" in 1971. His fellow essayists were Bernard Greaves, Lawry Freedman, Simon Hebditch, Gordon Lishman and Victor Anderson. The second was from the 1993 Young Lib Dem booklet "Riot and Responsibility" and the author was blogger, former PPC and former FPC member Alex Wilcock (Alex did spot his own writing). R&R was edited by Kiron Reid ...
Yesterday marked 23 years David and I have been together. And as I am 45 tomorrow, that means we've been joined up for over half my life. Shockingly, we have now been together longer than some of the interns in our office at Cowley St have been alive. That must make me seen exceptionally old to them!I am in Rowlands Gill now, having just finished a couple of leaflet patches. David is back home
Details of the postal ballot on the Greater Manchester Congestion Charge have been announced. 24 November - Ballot packs will start arriving on door steps 28 November - Individuals should have received ballot packs - if you haven't you need to contact the Council. 11 December - last day of voting. If individuals have not posted back their ballot papers they will be able to drop them off at key points around the borough 12 December - Count at Manchester Central (GMEX) and results
David Sumberg the Conservative MEP has been claiming £40,000 for an office that he doesn't even have according to LibDemVoice. I am a constituent of this MEP's and I am insulted that he doesn't run a constituency office, fair enough if he was an MP who didn't run an office I might not have minded much but an MEP this is bang out of order. The Conservative MEP's in the north west need to stop riding on the gravy train and start serving us the constituents properly!
It's now up on my website, and is about the issue of the moment - Baby P:Our justice system has done its part with the prosecution of those responsible, but we also need to be sure that we learn what can be learnt. There is much we do not yet know - such as why there was a four month gap between the decision to have Baby P checked over by a paediatrician and the appointment actually taking place. But we do know how Haringey Council has been responding to warnings about how it was looking after children. For all ...
There were four votes in the House of Lords on Tuesday, two on the impact of the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) on charities, one on scrutiny of the CIL and one on the Local Transport Bill. None of these are front page news, but they are typical of the detailed work that the House of Lords does. What caught my eye was the voting pattern. Despite there being less than half as many Liberal Democrat peers (74) as Conservative, there were more Lib Dems in the voting lobby for three out of the four votes than Conservatives (and that's not ...
Via The Sunday Times: One of Britain's least active MEPs has been receiving more than £40,000 a year for office expenses despite having no office in his constituency. David Sumberg, a Conservative MEP for the North West of England, has already declared he pays £54,000 a year for secretarial support from his wife. Since the current European parliament was elected in 2004, Sumberg has made just two set-piece speeches and 12 one-minute "explanations of votes". He has tabled five questions and sits on a committee but has not written any of its reports or tabled any resolutions. "If there was ...
The series stretches out into new territory, creating the archetypal Who story of mixing history and science fiction in The Time Meddler, experimenting with great comedy scripts like The Romans and The Myth Makers, trying a story with no 'humans' except the regulars in The Web Planet and even a one-off grim Dalek adventure with none of our heroes at all but a James Bond-like lead instead, Mission to the Unknown. And a huge Dalek nightmare begins, though more on that story later, after... The Crusade "You defy me with the Pope?" "No! You defy the world with your politics!" ...
Ros had been invited to be the guest speaker at the first ever Annual Dinner held by Greater Ashfield & Mansfield Liberal Democrats, and I took the opportunity to attend my first event as First Lady-elect. After a pleasant enough trip up, I arrived in what felt like the Arctic tundra but turned out to be Mansfield. Gosh, it was cold.... I found my way to the restaurant, where Ros had just arrived
The footway in Glamis Road on the east side - adjacent to Balgay Cemetery - is in poor condition. I have received complaints from residents about a problem of the surface erosion from rain here, and at the corner of Glamis Road and Elliot Road, it is exacerbated by the fact that rain water runs out of the cemetery gate at this location. I have been in touch with the City Council about the issue and am pleased to note that this section of Glamis Road is in this year's unadopted footway programme with an expected start date early in ...
The government wants to cut VAT by 2.5% on Monday to try and save the economy, now I have to agree with them, as this may have some effect on the economy. Any tax cuts are welcomed especially at a time like this. But will these plans by Brown and crew save the economy and win them the next general election?
As the saying goes actions speak louder than words, therefore my conclusion the way the SNP are using Holyrood they must be whisper. Of course with all the bravado and rhetoric that exudes from Alex Salmond's mouth you may be led to believe otherwise. However, using a devolved Parliament as nothing more than a talking shop to knock down your main opposition's governance in the Parliament that devolved that power is a waste of resources. What is more that when the Scottish Parliament does have a vote over something it does have the power if that doesn't go the way ...
Today's Observer reports on the views of the Electoral Reform Society that directly elected Police Authorities will fall under the control of the Tories in vast swathes of the country. Elsewhere there are concerns that the BNP will win seats on these authorities. The possible outcome of an election should not be a consideration as to whether to have it or not. That is called gerrymandering. However, one does have to question whether directly elected Police Authorities will make any difference to the way that our communities are policed or even to how the constabularly is run. The Home Secretary ...
Friday is our combined waste and recycling collection day. Slightly disconcertingly I came home to find my green box had not only been emptied but had vanished completely. But there were two green boxes abandoned on the other side of the road, next to the park, so I've rehomed one of those. Very odd. Some [...]
Matt Withers continues to get cattier and cattier in his weekly columns in the Wales on Sunday as this example proves: But realistically, [Leighton] Andrews was never a serious bet for the leadership. Undoubtedly a very clever man, with an astute understanding of the media one would expect of a former head of public affairs for the BBC, Andrews affects the air of a particularly grumpy GP. He would probably have done very well as a technocratic politician in the former East Germany but would struggle as a successor to professional man-of-the-people Rhodri Morgan, the First Minister who walks a ...
On the Andrew Marr Show just now, David Cameron to Peter Mandelson: "We should have Vince Cable back, he actually knows what he's talking about". Admittedly they were talking about ballroom dancing. But they're right.
Dear Bill, Thank you for your abusive message calling me a liberal wanker.
Cast your mind back to the end of the 2007 Six Nations. England had Jonny Wilkinson coming back to fitness and while he was away had discovered two promising fly halves. Toby Flood had the authority and calmness to control a match, while Shane Geraghty looked an exciting, more attacking option. Since then the two of them have been junked in favour of Danny Cipriani, whose performances have never looked likely to justify the extraordinary faith that has been placed in him. Because of his tabloid lifestyle, it was natural that the newspapers should show interest in him. But a ...
Huffpo provides another set of samples of actual ballots cast in the Minnesota Senatorial election, which are now being pored over by legions of lawyers. They are getting nuttier and nuttier. My particular favourite is this one:
In 1964, and not for the last time, Doctor Who becomes a massive ratings hit. There's psychodrama inside the TARDIS on The Edge of Destruction; the Doctor's adventure with Marco Polo hits the Radio Times front cover; his arch-enemies return after their total destruction (imagine that happening today!) for The Dalek Invasion of Earth; and the show's terrific first novelisation is, naturally, Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks. So, what's my pick for the year of Dalekmania? The Aztecs "But you can't rewrite history - not one line! ...I know. Believe me. I know." "Not Barbara. Yetaxa." ...
I do enjoy a good train ride. So, whilst Ros was entertaining Woking Liberal Democrats, I was on the East Midlands Trains service from York to London St Pancras. This is one of those oddities not designed to carry people from A to B but to drop them off and/or pick up at points C, D and E in between. Indeed, I may be the only person on the train who will be onboard throughout, as even the crew
anisiriusmagus 5 - A large box containing many many many... er... toys.
Need you ask? It all begins on 23rd November 1963; several brilliant people invent "the best idea ever invented in the history of the world" ((c) Russell T Davies) and Verity Lambert puts it on TV with the impossibly brilliant William Hartnell as the Doctor. The weird, alienating Pilot episode's awesome, The Daleks and their world look fantastic... But really, there's only one choice for why 1963's Doctor Who is brilliant. They nail it from the very beginning. An Unearthly Child "Have you ever thought what it's like to be wanderers in the fourth dimension? Have you? To be exiles?" ...
