A noisy row erupted at Thursday's Full Council Meeting, with Tories and Lib Dems roaring their disapproval at remarks made by Cllr Williams, the Leader of the Council. A deal has been cooked up by senior officers and councillors to sell off part of our superb Arts Centre, including the Youth Theatre, built just a couple of years ago at a cost of £300,000, to the Queen Elizabeth 6th Form
{Illegal parking outside Tesco} I expect that you will have noticed Tesco's eventual arrival, opening one week ago. I have not yet been in; since working for a small Tesco four years ago I try not to shop with them! However, I have noticed that every time I pass the shop that there are cars parked in the loading bay outisde, in the narrow part by the bridge and even on the double yellow lines on the other side of the road. As a resident I spoke to yesterday pointed out, the legal parking bays are not even full most ...
The leader of the house has become the first cabinet minister to distance himself from the arrest of the Tory immigration spokesman. The BBC reports: Harriet Harman has said she is "very concerned" by the arrest of Conservative immigration spokesman Damian Green. Ms Harman also said she understood MPs' anger at the way police officers had raided Mr Green's Parliamentary and constituency bases. And she said protection of MPs' offices from police raids must be reviewed.A sign of the way the wind is blowing?
As John Denver kindly explains, this is the band that Rod Argent formed after the Zombies. You will see that Argent himself (on keyboards) has followed the change in fashion between the mid sixties and the early seventies assiduously. It's a great record, even though I am not convinced anyone can play two guitars stuck together like that.
Thursday evening was Full Council: usually a somewhat tedious rubber-stamping of Labour's programme, with the occasional fairly innocuous bit of argy-bargy between the parties. But Thursday's meeting was different. When the Constitution Working Group met earlier in the year, one of its aims was to improve public access to the Council. In our discussions I pushed for Questions from the Public to
I don't normally pay any attention to the blog of Nadine Dorries MP but I have just been reading it and discovered that she doesn't have a comment tool neither does she have a RSS feed. I am not a RSS feed freak but as an IT student I am appalled at the fact that her blog doesn't have a feed. A blog is in my view not a blog if it doesn't have a RSS Feed, Nadine needs to I think move over to blogger or wordpress at least then readers will be allowed to comment on her blog! ...
The latest news articles that have been published and posts by bloggers are getting slightly worrying from where I am looking at this whole issue from. Nick Clegg allegedly on a plane packed full of people spoke negatively of fellow Lib Dem MP's, I think that is a load of rubbish and trust Nick Clegg to not have said the words that are allegedly by him as reported from a journalist who was sitting in front of Nick. If Nick made the comments or if he didn't this report is going to destroy the relationship that he has with fellow ...
Well you return to the blogsphere and see this and it's not exactly awe-inspiring is it?? Apparently; Nick Clegg has made a few choice comments about his shadow cabinet colleagues and even let slip he would consider a coalition 'only if the Tories lose'. There are two ways you can look at this; one is that it won't concern the public at all and the other is it might not but it's not exactly a boon for party morale. The first point I suspect would be correct though it's not exactly going to lend much weight to our claim to ...
Well done to ALDC for running an incredible kickstart weekend in Birmingham. It was great to hear from LibDems from across the country and their different situations. Personally I've gained a lot from the weekend. I understand a lot more about how to run good local campaigns. I look forward to implementing some of it locally, it would just be helpful if we had more members! It was a really good chance for the four of us from Worcestershire to work at our plans and what we'd like to do. On the Saturday we listened to a brilliant speech from ...
Repair works are now well advanced at The Bank, on historic Highgate Hill, which are much needed to make safe a danger on the footpath from the threatened collapse of the embankment above. It looks like the wall and footpath are being thoroughly renovated. My colleague Bob Hare spent weeks pushing the Council to take action on repairs. Many thanks to my marvellous colleague, Dr Mark Pack, for this latest picture, received today. ...
Chris Dillow has made the very astute observation that recessions and their reactions not 'real' events but 'hyper real'. You'll probably want to read about Baudrillard and hyper-reality to get his post but if you can't be arsed the central point is this: a recession is not an event but a media spectacle. Or put another way 9/11 wasn't perpetrated by highjackers but by our interreactions with the 'event' and the media's presentation. 9/11 isn't indellible in our minds for the physical action of planes, towers etc but what it has been taken to mean. So Dillow is expressing the ...
Following the Bruce Springsteen concert back in May, Islington Council has licenced Arsenal's stadium for up to three concerts a year. Te concerts will have to be held under existing tough licensing conditions including noise limits, a 10.30pm finish time, and providing a hotline for residents in case of any concerns. Apparently when the Springsteen [...]
Nick Clegg has outlined fairer maternity and paternity leave for parents in an interview for the Politics Show. Under his proposals parents would be able to share 19 months of leave with a limit of 12 months for each. There would also be 20 hours of free childcare once their child reaches 18 months. This is great news. Inequality in domestic childcare responsibility is perfectly illustrated by the two weeks of leave fathers currently can get compared to the mother's year. This would also help mothers who suffer post-natal depression and associated problems...to have the help and support of their ...
During the summer and before the credit crunch morphed into a global financial crisis, I heard Vince Cable speak at an Editorial Intelligence event. The debate focused on the impact of the credit crunch and what it all meant. A remark by Cable stayed with me and has since become more and more relevant. He said there were two potential models for British banks: an open market where banks collapse and new entrants emerge quickly or a regulatory regime that treats the banks like utilities. He didn't elaborate on this. Nor did he offer a view on which was best ...
Just back from my sister's house in Newcastle from a family get together. I pick up my work emails and find a message from Penny Reid, our Leader on Blyth Valley District Council in Northumberland. I'll let Penny explain: As some of you may have already heard, last year's Mayor of Blyth Valley, Councillor Cilla Isles, has resigned from the Labour Party and has joined the Liberal Democrats. Cilla
I received confirmation this week that a long-running campaign to get women the pension that they are entitled to is likely to yield over £100 million in enhanced pensions, as the Telegraph report here. The back story is that I was contacted by the Times newspaper about 18 months ago about cases of women who had spent time at home with children which should have been reflected in their pension rights but for which they had received no credit. I did some very rough estimates at the time which suggested we could be talking anything up to half a million ...
Sniping at Tory mendacity aside, I can't help but feel a palpable sense of complacency in the Observer today over the Damian Green affair. First up, we have the normally sensible Vernon Bogdanor. WTF? It doesn't take a Professor of Government at Oxford University to tell you that the police actions were constitutional. The "virtue" of our unwritten constitution is that pretty much anything the state decides to do is, unless Parliament has the foresight to see that it might happen and the backbone to prevent it (that would be a no, then). The real question is whether it should ...
Welcome to the 93rd of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (23rd-29th November), together with a hand-picked quintet, mostly courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed. There's no doubt which tragic story has been dominating Lib Dem blogs this last week: the untimely death of Neil Trafford, a friend and colleague and to many in the party throughout the country. 1. Neil Trafford passes away on Lib Dem Voice. "Neil was hugely popular with those he worked with, and with good reason, as he was ...
I had an unexpected trip to Corbridge in the Tyne Valley, Northumberland, today, to take David to a magistrates reception. The house where the reception was held was just along the road from the Corbridge Roman site. So I dropped off David and went along to Corstopitum, armed with cameras.I have filmed videos in all sorts of places throughout the Roman Empire. And at some point I am going to pull
With thanks to River Crescent Residents' Association, I had a thoroughly enjoyable time today at their afternoon tea at the Botanic Garden - as you can see from the pictures, a bright but extremely cold day! The rest of the weekend has been spent on "day job" work as I am running a large conference during the forthcoming week, plus catching up on constituents' phone calls and e-mails following the couple of days away I had at Dumfries last week. I spoke on the "Tay Talk In" on Radio Tay this morning, partly to thank Ally Bally for switching on ...
The Georgian Government is having its equivalent of the 9/11 commission for the summer's war with its "Temporary Commission to Study Russia's Military Aggression and Other Actions Undertaken With the Aim to Infringe Georgia's Territorial Integrity". I'm sure it will be totally balanced with a title like that. Some other's a speculating wildly, and others are settling down to theses and books to explain the war. Well... Georgia's former ambassador to Russia has thrown a spanner in the works of Georgia's propagandists. Erosi Kitsmarishvili told the commission that the war was planned back in April, albeit for Abkhazia, not South ...
The Conservatives in Durham have picked a 19 year old student as the candidate for the next general election. Personally I think it is great to see young people getting involved in politics, but I ask the question isn't he inexperienced for MP? He has no experience of life as he is only a student and neither does he have any experience politically, he hasn't served as a Councillor and I don't think he is prepared to be MP. But we will see what this candidate does and what the outcome of the next general election in that seat is. ...
This weekend has seen more campaigning from both sides in the congestion charge debate. Yesterday I attended a debate on the subject, with Graham Stringer MP and Cllr Susan Williams (the Leader of Trafford Council) speaking on the "no" side against Roger Jones, the former Chair of the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive, and Ken Knott the Chairman of Ask Developments. Obviously I have a view on the subject already, but it was clear from the arguments on both sides that nobody will be truly happy with a "yes" vote. Even the "yes" people acknowledged the clear injustices that it ...
Nearly thirty years ago, I watched a tv interview with Horst Mahler, a former member of West Germany's infamous Red Army Faction (RAF), originally known as the Baader-Meinhof group. As I recall, he was still serving a prison sentence for robbery and aiding a prison escape. Mahler explained how he had rejected his life as a "bourgeois lawyer" and become an urban revolutionary and, eventually, a would-be political theoretician for the group. Ever since, I've been intrigued and fascinated, albeit in a highly critical way, with the Baader Meinhof group. Most likely, it is all due to their brutal affronts ...
There's a basic rule in politics: when you're talking about things in public, you never know who might be listening. And Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has proved that once again, by having a conversation with my local MP Danny Alexander on a flight up to Inverness in which he discussed the merits of various members of the Lib Dem Shadow Cabinet. Unfortunately, a Sunday Mirror journalist was sitting in the seat in front. Now, all politicians gossip about their colleagues from time to time, but such conversations are usually held in private. I'm surprised and disappointed that Clegg was ...
I got a lot of stick for criticising our Parliamentary Party earlier in the year. So I'll refrain this time. My only comment is that I wanted Steve Webb to run for the leadership and pushed him to do so. Within 48 hours though he came back to me with his reasons for not deciding to put his hat in the ring. Reasons I understood and respected. He also told me and other friends and supporters across the party that he would be supporting Nick Clegg and gave us the reasons why. Mostly, in Steve's absence, natural Huhne supporters (though ...
We've had a busy few months in Oliver's Battery and Badger Farm. I'll just try to summarise a few of the things that, together with my colleagues Charlotte Bailey and Brian Collin, I've been involved in. The "Greening Oliver's Battery" campaign has been going from strength to strength, proving that as a community we can unite to make a difference even on 'big issues' like global warming. The
I was saddened to read comments today by the Indian-born entrepreneur Sir Gulam Noon. According to the Daily Mail, the "controversial Labour donor" has called for a ten year ban on immigration to the United Kingdom so as to give time for the current immigrant population to settle in and integrate and to make sure that there are enough jobs to go around. In his modestly titled autobiography, Noon, with a View: Courage and Integrity, the so called 'Curry King' writes "Bluntly, I think we are self-sufficient now. We should wait for five or ten years, until all the newcomers ...
I have written before about the tensions between Plaid Cymru activists and their Transport Minister over the proposed M4 extension across the Gwent Levels. Clearly, the Deputy First Minister will have to balance his own party's policy against the less environmentally friendly demands of his Labour colleagues when he makes his decision as to whether to give the go-ahead to this road or not. I have now had a message from the Campaign Against the Levels Motorway to say that Plaid Cymru's National Council voted unanimously to oppose the new M4 at the weekend. That poses a new dilemma for ...
The success behind Labour home with Jag Singh, Alex Hilton is in court after a post written on the blog was insulting to an ex Labour member who defected has now taken Alex to court. Personally after reading the blog I think this is a stupid reason by the defector and shows he has nothing better do, then to sue bloggers. This whole court case is going to cost Alex a couple of thousand pound and he is asking Labour party members to help him out. I personally think with this case in mind we need a Union for bloggers ...
The Mumbai terror attack has probably touched and come close to people everywhere. In this global village, no-one is that distant - and in a busy, vibrant commercial centre like Mumbai there are bound to be numerous connections - some to us here in Hornsey & Wood Green as elsewhere. For me professionally Mumbai came close on Thursday when a constituent - whose son was injured in the raids there - couldn't get a visa from the Indian High Commission despite trying all the night and day before. I rang the Foreign Office and one of my assistants (extremely able ...
The first blog post from the CSLD is just a few thoughts about students and systems. One student I know is very wealthy but gets no help from parents at all. That student struggles on the lowest level of loan and no grant at all. Minus rent for accommodation, that leaves them a budget of around £17 to live on. Just about do-able? Well, then. Take into account books, stationery, and other basic equipment to enable successful university studies. Oh, and the rising cost of food! I was today reminded of someone I used to know in school. They managed ...
From today's paper: The senior council officer at the centre of the Baby P tragedy will come under intense pressure to resign from her £110,000-a-year job tomorrow, when a report by national inspectors into the failings of Haringey council is presented to the children's secretary Ed Balls.Westminster sources said they believed that Sharon Shoesmith, the council's director of children's services, would either quit 'quietly' of her own accord, or be put under such pressure to leave by government and opposition politicians that she would have no option but to go...The Liberal Democrat MP Lynne Featherstone, who was a Haringey councillor ...
The initial report on the Damian Green arrest on the Telegraph website (see clip below from Google news) stated he had "been arrested under the Official Secrets Act". I based my post yesterday on that report. I have since noticed that the Telegraph have changed their report to take out the reference to the Official Secrets Act. Indeed, Andrew Rawnsley today says: Mr Green was not detained under
During a lifetime in teaching I've always envied friends who were sent on business trips around the world. I counted myself lucky if I went on a training session to Watford - at my own expense. Now at last, for the first time, I find myself on a paid-for trip in the service of education. And not in some worthy European capital but in beautiful Barbados. Needless to say this...
Wow, my second blog post in as many days. On Friday night the David, Estelle the misses and me went to watch the Zutons at the Lincoln Engine Shed. Whilst at best I recognised around 7 of their songs (really should have listened to their albums before going), it was a great night. The highlight was the encore where they just jammed for around 10 minutes including a great drum solo. If you get the chance they are great live, and if you live near Lincoln and haven't been to the Engine Shed you should. It's one of the best ...
The Sunday Mirror reports a conversation between Nick Clegg and his chief of staff Danny Alexander conducted on a flight to Scotland. One of the newspaper's journalists was sitting in the seat in front of the party leader, who apparently discussed his plans to reshuffle the shadow cabinet. The paper claims that these include demoting Chris Huhne from Home Affairs and moving Steve Webb from the Climate Change portfolio, with David Laws taking his place. Julia Goldsworthy would move to Education and Webb to Justice. We have no way of judging the accuracy of the report, which claims Nick Clegg ...
When I took on the job of Families spokesperson in Nick Clegg's Shadow Cabinet, I was very clear about the approach I would take. In Britain today, there is no identikit family that represents the best way to live - there are many types of families - but the key thing that often links these families are children. Parents want to give their children the very best of start in life. But balancing the demands of a job with caring for young children is a real struggle. Getting time off work is difficult and finding quality, affordable childcare can be ...
Thanks to Guido for pointing us towards the video above!
Sun 30th
12:50
LDV members' survey (5): when you think the next general election will be (and what you think will h...
Over the last week or so, Lib Dem Voice has invited 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 party and the current state of British politics. Many thanks to the 210+ of you who completed it; we're publishing the results this week on LDV. The last couple of months has seen the British political landscape transformed, with suggestions that Gordon Brown might take advantage of recession-induced panic to spring a quick general election. So we asked ...
I see there is a new spirit of openness and honesty abroad in politics, and Our Glorious Leader has chosen to publicly state what he thinks of various members of the party - either that or he's too stupid to realise that a commuter flight is a public place, and I don't think we want to countenance that, do we? And I'm not even going to TALK about the big hole in his green credentials from taking an inland flight... - so in the spirit of that frank discussion, I'd like to share with you all what I think of ...
Jonathan Fryer has done a post over at his blog about his new group that has been set up to help getting him elected as the second MEP of London. He missed out first time and I think this time he will make it, well I hope so. Jonathan is a great writer and has been writing for many years and has had his work featured in many high profile newspapers and magazines. I think everyone from London should join his facebook group!
Dramatic photos this week of the car that ended up in a Barnsbury basement - just round the corner from where I used to live. It's not what you expect from a Volvo driver. Amazingly no-one was killed. Now it turns out that the driver was using his mobile phone at the time. I've seen [...]
Found this site when reading the Sunday papers online (what else to do when holed up sick?) I favour the lady in the skinny rib accessorised with skinny cat.....
Sun 30th
10:55
Arrogant, Careless and Deeply Concerning; Nick Clegg attacks members of his own shadow cabinet! The ...
For anyone who has yet to see the story, the Sunday Mirror is running an exclusive regarding comments that Nick Clegg made on an internal flight from London to Inverness. In a conversation with Danny Alexander, our leader has managed to patronise and insult three of the the most high profile members of the party's shadow cabinet. The full story can be read here Let me first clarify my own position; I have no vendetta against Nick Clegg. I believe that he has made an assured start as party leader; he has been confident and incisive at Prime Minister's ...
The Local Party Executive of Redditch Liberal Democrats invites application for selection as Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for the Redditch constituency.
One of the most significant transatlantic lessons from the successful Obama presidential campaign has been maximising Internet use in political work, not least social networking sites, including Facebook. Facebook is particularly important in Britain, as such a high percentage of the population has signed up, including a majority of young people. Apart from the obvious [...]
Yesterday's Independent reported how they got on.
Not a terribly good night, but on feeling marginally less ill this morning I managed to ring NHS Direct, which seems more concerned with checking my personal details in triplicate than making a diagnosis. And they say New Labour's dead! I lack the energy for writing Doctor Who celebrations right now, but looking at Lib Dem Blogs Aggregated I find that it's gone back to the 1970s for me. Apparently, it was last updated on Thursday 1st January 1970, which has a few disadvantages. There aren't any blogs, and it's not the ideal time period in which to be stranded. ...
Yesterday Jenny Willott appeared on the BBC talking about figures unearthed by the Liberal Democrats showing that the number of people on low-incomes applying for "Crisis Loans" has jumped by over 40% in the past year. Click on the screenshot to watch her interview via the BBC website: {Jenny Willott talking on the BBC}
The Sunday Times reports that Scotland Yard is in turmoil after senior police officials criticised temporary Metropolitan Police Chief, Sir Paul Stephenson and admitted its handling of the arrest of a Tory MP had been "catastrophic". In fact most of the Sunday papers are full of articles questioning Police tactics and in particular the decision to allow officers to raid the Commons office of Damien Green. Peddling back just a little bit from my initial reaction on Friday I think that Matt Withers is right in his efforts to put this incident into context in this morning's Wales on Sunday. ...
Yes, Victorian Day is back, bigger and better than ever! Full details available from the Chipping Sodbury Lions website
David Cameron, quoted in the Financial Times on Wednesday: "My vision over time is to move increasingly towards defined contribution rather than final salary schemes [for the public sector]". Chris Grayling, his pensions spokesman on Thursday: "That is not a decision we have taken. That is not a decision we have even discussed." Oops.
At last, someone with a bit more radical idea about the sort of thing that needs to come out of this banking crisis. Colin Breed, Lib Dem MP for Cornwall, and a former banker himself, is calling for a radical shift to more local banking. I still think my idea is better and more radical, and have fired off an email to try and make contact with Colin.
Norwich City Council to pursue hairdressers with undercover agents to check they're not giving their customers a glass of complimentary mulled wine while they wait: You couldn't make it up!
Those of you who have been reading a while will know that I have had... shall we say "issues" with the Inland Revenue before. When Mat moved in I decided to stop claiming tax credits because I couldn't bear going through the whole sickening process again; and even though he's not currently earning anything, I'd rather try to survive on my barmaid's wage of less than ten grand a year for the whole family than go through the two years of hell and contradictory bollocks I went through to get them in the first place again. So I haven't claimed ...
Dear Readers, What the hell is a civilian security force? Apparently, Alan Milburn has drawn up a package that will "(force) local authorities to spend more money on youth services and the creation of civilian security force consisting of military trainers, civil servants, police officers, judges and other logistical staff." What the fuck? Does anybody have any idea what this could be? Force - understood local authorities - fine more money - it is Brown after all youth services - I know what those are civilian security force - ?????????????????? Can anybody please explain? Are these Roderick Spode's brown shorts? ...
