Last week, Gordon Brown dubbed the Tories a 'do-nothing' party for not backing his emergency economic package. It is a charge that can't be levelled at the Tories in Essex. Following its intervention to prop up the county's post office network, the County Council has now announced it intends to open a bank in order to provide funding for small businesses. Why it should think it is in a better position than banks to assess investment risk is beyond me. If I was a taxpaper in Essex, I would be worried why my council thinks it should give public money ...
Paul Waugh's blog has a post contrasting what David Lammy used to say about Baby P's death with what he's now saying: November 19, BBC Radio 4's World At One programme: "Over the course of the weekend, 61 headteachers that have more experience than you or I, or Lynne Featherstone, have offered their reassurance that they feel Haringey has been protecting children." December 1, BBC News 24: "Clearly lessons have not been learned. I think it is right that there is new leadership in Haringey. This is a very dark and sad day for the people of Haringey. In relation ...
People think recycling is good for the environment but the sad truth is that it hasn't been because the government has always required local authorities to collect as much recycling as possible with absolutely no reference to environmental impact. Maximum tonnage at minimum cost - it's not a recipe for saving the planet. That's why I pushed for an energy audit of the commingled recycling system when I was elected in 2006. The audit proved that commingling is bad for the environment. To cite just one example - when paper and glass are crushed up together in the back of ...
{An objector's poster on Inderwick Road} An objector's poster on Inderwick Road I have just returned from tonight's planning meeting, where the committee voted 5 to 4 in favour of building a new admin block for Hornsey Girls School right up to the pavement of Inderwick Road. I think this was a very poor planning decision, which will ruin the character of this residential road, where all the other buildings are set back behind gardens. You only need to look round the corner on Weston Park to see the only other nearby example of where a one story building has ...
Neil Collins has a very worrying piece in tonight's Evening Standard warning that if the pound continues to dive, foreign creditors that are currently propping up the Government's record borrowing levels could be persuaded to take their money elsewhere, sending Britain begging for a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The Bank of England is expected to cut interest rates by another percentage point later this week. While this is welcome, it will put more pressure on the pound which has already fallen to below $1.50. After 16 years of economic growth, it is almost unimaginable that a Labour ...
I once wrote that there is something reassuring about public figures who have there for as long as you can remember. Someone who certainly fits that bill is Brian Matthew. Just about my earliest memory is climbing into my parents' bed on Saturday mornings, and I clearly remember Matthew's Saturday Morning Club being on the radio when I did so. I may well have heard some of the Spencer Davis Group performances from the show that I bought last year (volume 1 of Mojo Rhythms & Midnight Blues) when they were first broadcast. Fast forward to my university years. In ...
Cabinet this evening discussed the issue of the proposed sale of part of the Arts Centre to the Sixth Form College. At Council last week the Labour leadership came under fierce criticism for progressing this matter without bothering to inform or consult the local ward councillors. At Cabinet, the Leader, Cllr Williams, and the lead member, Cllr Andy Scott, both apologised to the College ward
Bermondsey and Old Southwark Liberal Democrats invite you to hear Community Organisers Stephen Kearney (Henley by-election candidate) and Julia Olsen speak following their AGM. The AGM is at 7pm for 7.30pm and Stephen and Julia speak at 8pm. The AGM is for members only, but all are welcome to attend the talk afterwards. From Bermondsey and Old Southwark Liberal Democrats: Stephen Kearney and Julia Olsen are both members of the Liberal Democrats. During the late 1980s, they set up a charity that creates networks of individuals who take a role in changing the way public services are delivered and changing ...
We haven't had a break since our honeymoon in May, so we thought we'd go away for a few days during the short recess. It's usually a quiet time, so it seemed like a good idea to escape before the xmas rush and taking over the presidential reins on January 1st. So during this "quiet time", we find that tens of thousands of tourists are stranded in Thailand, a terrorist atrocity has been carried out in Mumbai, a Tory MP has been arrested ( I must admit to doing a double take when I saw the headline "MP grooms mole") ...
On the way to my parents this evening I received a text message from a friend from work telling and I quote: C J is no more- he has been replaced. First of all I panicked. As we are both West Wing Fan, my job share and I call our class' pet fish CJ and Danny (the children have another name) and I had thought that I would have to break the news to the children tomorrow. Then I thought it was
From our You Couldn't Make It Up department. The BBC reports: A Croydon councillor has quit her cabinet post after admitting she had close ties with the Provisional IRA in the early 1970s.A council spokesman said Conservative Maria Gatland confirmed that she is the author of To Take Arms: My Year with the Provisional IRA.Mrs Gatland wrote the book under her maiden name, Maria McGuire.When confronted with her past by a local schools activist, Mrs Gatland offered her resignation from cabinet.The council spokesman said in addition to stepping down as cabinet member for children and young people, fellow councillors were ...
Fellow bloggers have started to write about their fondest memories of Woolworths following news that the chain went into liquidation. Councillor Neil Williams spoke about visiting the store as a child and most recently buying a sink drainer, whilst Susanne Lamido seems never to have experienced the love that most of us share. One of my fondest memories was as a child. I used to love visiting
A few weeks ago, Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell said that if we knew then what we know now, Britain would never have bid for the Olympic Games. She was inferring that hosting the Games isn't the best of things to do in an economic recession. Well a report from 2002 that has come to light today proves that Ministers were told there weren't any regeneration or sporting benefits from hosting the Games other than providing a morale-boosting national party. Nine billion pounds seems quite a bit to spend on a party and the chances are it will cost a significantly ...
Tue 2nd
19:50
Can you sum up the purpose of the Lib Dems in a sentence? (Or 'The Quest for the Lib Dem Holy Grail'...
Today's Guardian carries an interview with comedian/actor Eddie Izzard: interesting for those of us who are fans (especially of his classic mid-90s' shows), but also interesting for the problem it poses for those of us who are Lib Dems. Asked about his politics, and his long-standing support for Labour ('he describes himself as more Blair-ite than Brown-ite'), Eddie sweepingly sums up Labour and the Tories thus: I just believe in the goodwill of people, the power of people to do something positive. And that's why I'm in the Labour party. The Labour party believes in fairness, and the Conservative party ...
I was due to go to see the Counting Crows on Friday at Wembley Arena for a bit of Country Rock but I've just been told the gig has been postponed because of the fluctuations in the currency market. If you don't believe me, just check out the bands' website and they admit: I'm sure everyone's painfully aware of how hard it is for anyone to afford to spend money on anything right now but the fact that every currency in the world is acting a yo-yo at the moment also means that it's very difficult for anyone, bands and ...
Over the last week or two, 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've been publishing the results on LDV over the past week. Today's is the final part. First up, LDV asked: LDV asked: Do you think, as a whole, the Liberal Democrats are on the right course or on the wrong ...
Chief Executive of Haringey Council Ita O'Donovan was previously City Manager at Stoke on Trent Council. As reported at Lib Dem Voice, Ita O'Donovan left to become Chief Executive at Haringey in the same month that Stoke City Council was found to have "critical weaknesses" in its children's services. Mark Pack writes:"Those weaknesses in children's services were therefore there whilst Ita O'Donovan was in post. It looks to me that there are some serious questions for Ita O'Donovan, especially given the response to warnings made directly to her about problems in Haringey's care for children" Read more here.
The Daily Mail are having one of their regular moral panics about John Barrowman getting his chap out on the radio. You know, the radio, where you can't see a bloody thing. But just how many people complained?: The BBC has ... apologised for the incident on Sunday's Switch show, which prompted one listener to complain. [...]
The Queen will be popping in to Parliament tomorrow for the annual Dimblemania State Opening. Word reaches us via ye olde Twitter that Nick Clegg has given his views on what her Maj should be revealing. Watch him here:
Don Foster, the Lib Dems' shadow secretary for culture, media and sport, has revealed the extent of over-charging of football fans by premiership clubs for enjoying a pint of lager. The Daily Mail has the full story: The figures, announced by culture, media and sport spokesman for the Liberal Democrat party Don Foster, reveal that top flight clubs are charging their fans £1.7million-a-year too much for a pint of lager. 'When will Premier League football clubs learn to stop taking their loyalty for granted?' asked Foster, after uncovering the figures. 'As if extortionate ticket prices weren't bad enough, top flight ...
I've altered the title slightly from Malc to whom a hat tip is due. But the impact is the essence of the story. The Vatican are mixing up a decriminalisation of homosexuality with a move to civil partnerships or even same sex marriage it would seem. They are opposing a UN resolution calling on all Governments worldwide to "decriminalise" homosexuality. The resolution is merely aimed at the 80 countries who outlaw same sex-relations in all circumstances, and the 9 states or regions within a state where the mandatory sentence for being homosexual is the death penalty. Indeed the draft resolution ...
Conservative Home carries the below story.... "Cllr Gavin Webb of Stoke-on-Trent Council, who appears to have left the Lib Dem Group and now sits as a Liberal Democrat (Libertarian) has tabled the following motion to Stoke-on-Trent's Council meeting this Thursday (seconded by Cllr Joynson who sits as "Non Aligned.") "This Council agrees to invite and cooperate with the low tax, better government pressure group the Taxpayers Alliance to scrutinise the whole of the City Council's finances in preparation for the Budget Council to be held on 26 February 2008, with a view to identifying waste and needless spending, in order ...
I know the story reported here (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7736245.stm) is an old one, but it raises an interesting point about blogs from elected representatives. And also gives me a bit of a purpose to posting this. If elected representatives can't insult each other, we'll do it! So, a few choice words for one particular AM, Bethan Jenkins. A supposedly committed devolutionist she's more of a committed ditherer. I don't understand why someone so committed to a 'Yes' vote on more powers for the Assembly, would rule out setting up a campaign for one. Why can't people who believe in the Assembly having ...
I wasn't a user of twitter but recently I have picked up the art of micro blogging. Anyway since I have linked it with my Facebook it only makes sense to put a widget on the blog. So I can full blog and micro blog in the same place. You can check the twitter widget out on the sidebar under the links!
PHI100, Politics Home's politically-balanced panel of experts and insiders, have once again rated Vince Cable MP as their top politician: Vince Cable maintains his position at the head of our top politicians league table and hits a new high with the experts and insiders. The panel clearly think that the Lib Dem's deputy leader and treasury spokesman is continuing to strike the right note in the wake of the crisis budget. They give him a rating of 8.3, up from 7.8 last month and cementing his position at the top of the table. We regularly ask the PHI100 to rate ...
Conservative AM, Alun Cairns tells this morning's Western Mail that the Labour/ Plaid Cymru coalition is damaging the case for turning the National Assembly into a proper lawmaking Parliament by the way it treats the opposition. This conclusion is based on the fact that the government failed to support any of Alun's amendments to the Learner Travel Measure and dismissed out of hand his attempt to introduce a Measure to give the Assembly Government the power to seek statistical information on children with special educational needs. Plaid Cymru and Labour have also voted down Measures and LCOs from myself and ...
Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has emailed party members today to publicise Saturday's National Climate Change March in London (email reproduced below). Hashtag fans like me particularly liked the PS: Nick is encouraging participants to use the hashtag #climatemarch on Twitter and Flickr. As far as I know, Nick Clegg is the first British politician to promote the use of hashtags. Whilst it's a powerful thing for thousands of people to join together in one place and show their solidarity for a cause, this is a way for individuals to give their own report on events. Tweets bearing the same ...
Along comes another rumour to send them running back to the trenches. And this time, it's David Cameron expressing unhappiness with his band of merry wanderers. According to the Whip in The Sun: Now senior Tories are aghast at rumours that David Cameron was rubbishing them during a private dinner recently. He is said to have told a pal: "I've got six or seven people in the Shadow Cabinet capable
Tue 2nd
14:22Why the Liberal Democrats SHOULD NOT adopt a free market approach to education by accepting tuition ...
Earlier today, Julian Astle laid out Centre Forum's new policy paper about student finance. We asked Paul Holmes MP to respond. On behalf of Centre Forum Julian Astle makes a very superficial and flimsy case for joining the New Labour/Conservative club and welcoming the free market into Higher Education. First Julian sets up a straw man by making the claim that "Liberal Democrats hope that making tuition 'free' will draw more students from low income families into higher education." Really? I don't actually remember that as being central to any of the Parliamentary or Conference debates that I have ever ...
The following statement has been issued by Bury Council: Bury Council's Environment and Development Services department gritted the roads between7pm and 11pm last night. Council officers assessed the conditions at 11pm last night and there were no problems reported. Bury Council has signed up to receive detailed metrological information from the Met Office. This system allows us to receive up to date and detailed weather forecasts and this has helped us respond to the current weather problems. Staff were called out at 3am to begin gritting during the night. Heavy and sudden snow fell between 5am and 6am The build ...
Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg is inviting people to join him on the National Climate Change March. He says:
Cross-posted from The Wardman Wire: As the dust settles and the hard numbers start to become available, it increasingly looks as if key parts of the grand picture painted during the US presidential election were wrong. This picture - of unprecedented interest by ordinary people in the election - was repeatedly illuminated with stories of record numbers of people voting and donating. We already know that the voting story is largely myth, with turnout looking like it will come out up just 1% on 2004. It also now looks as if the picture of record numbers of people donating was ...
Brian Paddick has been voted out of the jungle, I thought he might win but its not gonna happened. At least the Lib Dem has increased his profile in the UK, maybe he will run for MP at the next general election?
Conservatives 37% Labour 36% Liberal Democrats 17% With the new ComRes poll showing a one percent lead for the Tories, I ask the question is the result reliable or not? I don't know if it is or not but it will have a large affect on the ego of Conservatives! These poll results over the next couple of months leading up to the general election will be worth following and I will try and keep up with them. Will this poll result effect the Conservative ego?
Due to the recession my true love is making cut backs this year. So On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love is planning to send to me: Twelve Turkey Drummers Eleven Red Hot Chilli Piper Downloads Ten Neds a Fleeing Nine Laddettes Pouting Eight things Made in Beijing Seven Swan match boxes Six Cheesey lines Five Cur-tain Rings Four Calling Cards Three Bic Pens Two Turtle Necks and a Partridge egg in a Pear Jus
According to the BBC, Yahoo's marketing arm has announced that Britney is a more popular search item than Obama. This, apparently, is news. It might even surprise someone, perhaps the tribes who live on the Andaman Islands, althougn I understand that they don't have broadband yet so they may not give a damn - just like the rest of us.
Last chance to sign the Kings Cross access petition! Why the petition? The Kings Cross station redevelopment will see the current entrances from the Islington (east) side, which give access to and through the station, close. The only entrances will be on the Camden (west) side. A new platform/track is being built on the east side [...]
Lynne Featherstone published an excellent article on Liberal Democrat Voice looking at ways we can enhance our media presence. I think it is especially relevant as I get the impression that there is a feeling of frustration about how being 'ahead of the curve' is not putting us 'ahead in the polls'. She focuses on us using what we have to get the message across and there is nothing wrong with that; however, for me there is one glaring omission. I have mentioned in several places that during my first AGM of the local party the possibility of a regular ...
There's something very odd about the Sunday Mirror article claiming that Nick Clegg used a flight to Inverness to reshuffle the cabinet and slag off his colleagues. Firstly, how can anyone hear anything so clearly on a flight when they are sat on the row in front. Secondly, if Adam Lee-Potter was sat in the [...]
The Liberal Democrats stand alone among the three main political parties in promising to abolish university tuition fees. They do so in the hope that making tuition 'free' will draw more students from low income families into the higher education (HE) system. This superficially attractive proposition ignores two important facts, however. First, there is no such thing as free tuition - someone, somewhere has to pay, and under the Liberal Democrat plan that 'someone' is the taxpayer. And since most taxpayers are non-graduates with relatively low lifetime earnings, the policy involves a significant redistribution of resources from poor to rich. ...
After several attempts at trying to get an answer to a thorny question from RBS, a company i now seemingly own as a taxpayer, perhaps have some insight as to why it has had to be bailed out. It took seven attempts to get an answer to the following question: `Do temporary employees have the same [...]
After Santa Claus's visit to Prestwich yesterday, Frosty the Snowman has come to town today. This means that Prestwich bins may not be collected today, and that lots of schools have been closed. The following statement has been released by the Council: "Bury Council's Environment and Development Services department gritted the roads between7pm and 11pm last night. Council officers assessed the conditions at 11pm last night and there were no problems reported. Bury Council has signed up to receive detailed meteorological information from the Met Office. This system allows us to receive up to date and detailed weather forecasts and ...
I was going to post about Baby P last night, but having watched the news it was too harrowing. Lynne Featherstone sums it up well (of course).
Bray, the third of the five blocks making up the Chalcots estate is due to be signed off by the Independent Certifier (IC) this Friday 5th December. However, problems still remain in resident's homes, such as leaking radiators, faulty windows and poorly regulated central heating controls, despite the IC sign off process. All the remaining problems will be transferred to the "snagging" process. Security remains a "key" concern of the residents at Bray and indeed the whole of the Chalcots. Inadequate lighting and no provision of a canopy to the entranceways continue to be a BIG concern for all residents. ...
The day of reckoning when finally George Meehan paid the price for not listening, not heeding and not doing the job he promised to do after Victoria Climbie. I remember the breast-beating Council meeting back then - 'this will never happen again', 'lessons must be learnt' and 'I personally will sit on the child protection committee'. Though no-one senior took responsibility and resigned. Mr Meehan's departure this time is, however, just one drop in this dreadful ocean. Liz Santry has gone because her position put her in the legally accountable position. But neither went until the depth of the failings ...
The BBC reports; "A top police officer is being brought in to investigate the handling of the arrest of Tory MP Damian Green as part of an inquiry into Home Office leaks. The probe will be led by British Transport Police chief Ian Johnston. There is widespread anger among MPs after Mr Green, the shadow immigration minister, was held for nine hours and had his Commons office searched. Ministers have been accused of interfering with the inquiry, but have denied prior knowledge of the arrest."
Last night's Christmas Lights switch on in Prestwich was a success. I joined the Mayor of Bury, Cllr Peter Ashworth, the Mayoress, the Chair of Prestwich Local Area Partnership, Cllr Vic D'Albert and Santa Claus himself at the switch-on, which illuminated our festive tree in the Longfield Centre. It ain't Vegas, but it's a nice festive spectacle, and I bet it looks lovely this morning in the snow. Which may well have fused the lights. Thanks to the many local people who turned out to give support to the occasion in the freezing cold. And also to the performers, several ...
I have voted "no" in the congestion charging referendum, and people across greater Manchester have until December 11th to return their postal ballots. I have heard reports that some lucky people in Prestwich have received duplicate ballots, which doesn't bode well for the voracity of the poll. If it becomes anything more than a few isolated incidents, I will write more about that. I have written several reasons now to explain my "no" vote. Here's another - the fact that we're currently at the mercy of private bus companies, and this proposal will do nothing to address that. Anyone serious ...
As regular readers will see I am having a play with a new template. This will gradually evolve, and I think the image in the title bar is just a place holder at the moment. Out go the twinkly pink hotlinks...
... but it's snowing outside and school's been closed. :)
Last year I blogged about the surreal world of celebrities advertising supermarkets at Christmas. This year it's got even weirder: I had an email from M&S advertising their ad... all very post-modern. And confusing given that the M&S ad features Take That - who are still warbling for Morrisons. And now we have Jason Donovan [...]
For years I've been told that spending my money on stuff that I don't really need and doesn't make me happy is a bad habit; one I should kick. I can't say I had much success in reining in my spending and even less success in convincing Mrs Quist she should go without new clothes and shoes (believe me I tried, and have the bruises to prove it). The environmentalists told me I was wasting the earth's precious resources and backed it up with scary facts and figures about how much water, electricity and raw materials were used in the ...
As someone pointed out to me, the Sunday Mirror's exclusive about Nick Clegg slagging off his shadown cabinet colleagues whilst on a flight to Inverness is obviously true. No journalist would go to the trouble of making up a story about people whom most of his readers have never heard of. Nick's comments display a remarkable degree of ingratitude towards Steve Webb. In such a closely fought leadership election, Steve's support for Nick Clegg may well have been decisive factor as it gave him some credibility with the left wing of the party - in as far as you can ...
Woolies in Crouch End was doing a roaring trade on Sunday (see pic). If it disappears from the Broadway, I will certainly miss it. The company has gone downhill in recent years, but as I look around my kitchen right now, I have a lot of bits and pieces I bought in Crouch End Woolies. Only the other day I bought a sink drainer for my new kitchen. It does the job, and it was only a fiver. Though entirely Welsh, I grew up in Ireland, where we had no Woolworth stores. As a kid visiting my dad's family in ...
The Papua province of Indonesia has controversially proposed a law to implant microchips into citizens living with HIV. Papua has one of the worse infection rates outside Africa but the measures which also include mandatory testing, tattooing of carriers and special ID cards for those that test positive sound awfully like some of the anti-Semitic measures taken by the Third Reich. The microchip technology is the modern version of travel permits being able to track the whereabouts of the victims of this disease. However, with much of the Papuan population cut of from towns, electricity or phone coverage even the ...
No doubt the prospect of banning the Labour Party whilst possibly a fleeting pleasant thought across Damian Green's brain will not come to fruition here in the UK despite the news from Thailand. The constitutional court in Thailand has dissolved the ruling People Power Party and two of its coalition partners the Machima Thipatai party and the Chart Thai party for fraud and buying votes in last year's elections. The parties' leaders including the Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat have also been banned from politics for five years. The majority of the parties' MPs will be allowed to keep their seats ...
It seems a milestone has been passed. Just three months ago, Rory Cellan-Jones and - it seemed - half the professional journalists out there who were aware of teh internets (both of them) were upbraiding me for my "pompous" invasion of poor Rory's privacy by quoting one of his tweets on my blog. Yet last week, Rory himself thought nothing about "invading the privacy" of Stephen Fry and his 20,000 close personal friends on Twitter by doing the exact same thing. Suddenly, everything seems to be happening at once with Twitter, with Stephen Fry's genitalia coming in for some exposure ...
I have always lived by the ethos that in Rugby Union you are magnanimous in defeat and that you applaud both teams for their efforts. You also always accept the refereeing decisions. The All Blacks rightly came away from Saturday's Autumn Test as Grand Slam winners. But, not for the first time, I thought that Allain Rolland's refereeing was appalling, and especially where England were concerned.
Firstly, Pratchett: like Nation - the one that's just come out - that's a book for kids. And people will say: 'Well it covers very adult subjects ...' Yeah, that's why it's a book for kids. Because you want kids to grow up to be adults, not just bigger kids. ILU Pterry. Read the whole interview in the Indy, and tip your hat to andrewhickey Secondly, Molloy. I know that this is heresy among certain sections of Who fandom, but Terry will always be MY Davros (if only because bibliophile1887 got him to pose for a Sexy!Davros pic for me ...
