Is it growing old that makes you more right wing/conservative or having children? Perhaps it's both. I am quite open about it - I have moved more steadily to the right as I've grown older. I don't think that my views on single issues have changed significantly in the last ten years - I retain an attachment to both economic and social libertarianism - but there is no doubt that I place a greater emphasis and focus on the economic element in middle age and this inevitably shifts you generally in a more rightward direction on the political spectrum. But ...
I've been to London Metropolitan University this evening to a book launch organised by the Global Policy Institute. Professor Stephen Haseler, who is a friend of ours, has called his latest book "Meltdown - how the Masters of the Universe destroyed the west's power and prosperity" and it charts the story of the global financial and economic crisis, going on to pose vital questions about our future economic prospects. Like Vince Cable, Stephen has been warning of impending catastrophe for some time. His analysis is that the roots of this go back to the collapse of communism and the subsequent ...
Inspired by a posting of mine, Stumbling and Mumbling lets rip. Top blogging. And top commenting from Nick Cohen.
Councillors get a silly amount of post, much of it junk. It was somewhat ironic therefore when I returned from dropping off about a ton of it at the recycling facility at Tesco tonight to discover that the latest mammoth deposit had arrived on my doorstep. The Council gets it specially couriered by someone who delights at turning up at strange times of the night. Tonight was a reasonable 21.00, but sometimes I am woken at 3am by a thud on the doormat and the screeching of tyres. I never see his face. I just hear him leave and see ...
I was a little old for Bagpuss, but the Clangers, Pogles' Wood and, above all, Noggin the Nog were central to my childhood. The Guardian has a nice selection of Youtube clips from Postgate's shows, while Ben Davies pays tribute to him on the New Statesman website. Postgate blogged for the magazine between November 2006 and February 2008. Stroppyblog is good on Postgate's radical ancestry: may I be the first 1920s labour history nerd to point out that Oliver was the son of Raymond Postgate and Daisy Lansbury, both lifelong, active socialists, and therefore the grandson of George Lansbury. Which, ...
Having never paid for sex, I can't claim to be an authority on prostitution (although that's never stopped me speaking out on other issues). I was once offered sex for cash as I went to a cash point at Kings Cross; but as it was 9.30 in the morning and I was on my way to a meeting (and the sight of the heavily drug dependent creature was so gruesome), it was hardly an appealing prospect. Anyway, the Government, led by Herr Harman has come up with a wheeze to help prostitutes by making it a criminal offence for men ...
Welcome to the 94th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (30th November - 7th December), together with a hand-picked quintet, mostly courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed. And just one story accounts for all seven of the top places from the Lib Dem blogs this last week: Nick Clegg's comments about members of the party's shadow cabinet, as reported by the Sunday Mirror. As you might imagine, many of the postings were critical of Nick; so, in the interests of balance, can I ...
With the governemnts announcement that shops will no longer be allowed to have cigarettes on display, in a vain attempt to stop people, or more specifically teenagers from smoking. Whilst I would rather people didn't smoke, ultimately it is up to the individual whether they do so or not, and the government on another of its nanny state lecturers. What exactly do the government think they will achieve with this? Instead of having an open and frank discussion, they want hide the problem away. The logic for hiding cigarettes away is right up there with the logic of "Duck and ...
Whilst most Lib Dems will be Digging this I thought I would post the party broadcast on my blog as a post!
If you read the details of the Rod Blagojevich charges, you'll find "Candidate 1" and "Candidate 4" etc mentioned. For example, the FBI document reads: ROD BLAGOJEVICH said that the consultants (Advisor B and another consultant are believed to be on the call at that time) are telling him that he has to "suck it up" for two years and do nothing and give this "motherfucker [the President-elect]
So, the IWF have backed down over Wikipedia (hat-tip gominokouhai). Quelle surprise. We can all get back to our lives now, right? Well, no, actually. There still remains the dishonesty of the ISPs in presenting 404s (or blank pages), rather than you have been linked to something which may be illegal, and we have therefore censored it for your own safety - only Demon even approached honesty here - and there still remains the fact that, as from January, the IWF will have a much bigger remit to block much more content, and much of it will be more contentious ...
You like me may have thought the Kadima Party's (Centrist) leadership of Israel was bad enough. But Kadima may not be running to country after February, they are trailing Likud in the polls. Likud is supposedly center-right, but they've just elected their party list for February. (Israel has Proportional Representation with the whole country using a single party list system, like what we have in regions for the Euro elections) The thing is hardliners dominate the party list! The person on 20th is a settler who wants the vote to be taken away from non-Jewish Israeli citizens! This could be ...
The Daily Mail's political blogger Ben Brogan begins a post today, "Some great stuff in David Cameron's LSE speech today." So far, so Daily Mail, you might think. But there's a sting in the tail for Young Dave: ... he's left a bunch of questions to which he needs to find some quick answers if he is to avoid Labour accusations that he is a younger version of Michael Howard, ready to draw up a James Review MkII. Anyone reading Mr Cameron's speech will want to know: * Since he's calling for an immediate election, what would Tory fiscal responsibility ...
It's not every day that there's a dawn FBI arrest of a US State governor on corruption charges. The allegations against Illinois Democrat Governor Rod Blagojevich are staggering. US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said: The breadth of corruption laid out in these charges is staggering. They allege that Blagojevich put a 'for sale' sign on the naming of a United States senator; involved himself
Following the sad news of the death of Oliver Postgate, creator of the Clangers, Ivor the Engine, Noggin the Nog and Bagpuss, the BBC website has an excerpt from a Clangers episode unseen since election night in 1974. They don't make cutting-edge humour like that any more...
That's the brilliant Cameron plan to keep us in recession as long as possible. Has he never heard of Keynes?
I went to the planning inspector's PROW inquiry held at Fairfield School today. Both parties gave initial evidence: the council and objectors. There was good and lively debate. Some unique points! I made my contribution during the afternoon session outlining my broad concerns to the proposed diversion: a PROW across the proposed pitches being potentially moved southward and closer to the school. I mentioned a few points.: - Background and history to the Purdown debate and brief story so far: cabinet in 2004 and planning permission in 2006. The alternative opportunity of Muller Road recreation ground. -Notable level of interest ...
It's all of a fortnight since Labour chancellor Alistair Darling unveiled the Government's Pre-Budget Report. On the day it came out, LDV posed the following question for our readers: What do you think will be the overall impact of the Government's Pre-Budget Report? Here's what you said: * 7% (23 votes) - The Government's financial stimulus is spot-on, and will get the economy moving again * 41% (134) - Some of the Government's measures are welcome, but overall the impact will be too small and the cost too great * 49% (159) - The Government's measures will have virtually no ...
Lib Dem Voice readers might like to know that a new exhibition, Turning Points: Three Key Elections of the Twentieth Century, was opened by Baroness (Betty) Boothroyd in Parliament last night. The bad news is it's not open to the public. The good news is that it's all available to view online at www.turningpointsexhibition.info. Here's the teaser for it: The 1906, 1945 and 1979 general elections are arguably the most significant elections of the 20th century. Each ushered in a distinct new era in British politics, the impact of which still resounds to the present day. 1906 brought in a ...
A week ago I did an entry on the Flaws of American Democracy, pointing out how as senators get places on the new cabinet, their seats at the senate are replaced by someone chosen by their state Governor. This means that when a Democrat senator is placed on the cabinet, if they have a Republican Governor they will be replaced with a Republican senator who could stay on for a while. There is more evidence of the problems this system is creating. The Governor of Illinois has been arrested, as he is accused of trying to trying to sell or ...
{Michael Martin} I see that Alan Cochrane in the Torygraph has had a right go at local Labour MP, and speaker's defender-in-chief, Michael Connarty about his utterances on Sunday's Politics Show on BBC Scotland. Frankly Alan took exception once Connarty went off the cue cards issued from the Whips' office i.e. the points that MPs couldn't be immune from the law and that serious crimes had to be investigated without fear or favour, and turned it into a class issue. Connarty apparently went on to say that the crux of the matter for his friend the speaker Michael Martin was ...
I was very sorry to hear news of the death of Mike Terry, best known to many of us as the Head of Science at Alexandra Park School. He died last week when he was training for a charity run. Nigel Scott, one of our councillors for Alexandra Ward, who is also a governor at the school told me more about him: Although he was not the head of the school, in many ways, Mike was its heart. He was a pillar of strength to the founding head, Roz Hudson and to her successor, Michael McKenzie. He always had time ...
I received an email from T-mobile today telling me that they were kindly passing the 2.5% cut in the VAT rate on to their customers and I would see the reduction in my next bill. They are not the first to make this statement. Excuse me, but is somebody a bit confused here? T-mobile is not my bank. Nor are any of the retailers now offering to pass the VAT cut onto customers. The 2.5% cut in the rate of VAT is not a shift in the rate at which they buy energy from the government, which they may then ...
The link talks about sending Whistleblowers to mental hospital. In the UK it is the straightforward arrest as part of an illegal criminal prosecution. What the UK also does is to displace people from having a legal position with the use of unchallengeable experts.
Iain Dale is flying to Moscow to speak about Political blogging on Wednesday but the question is, In the UK is they enough political blogging by Journalists and Politicians under 35 years of age? In the UK many of the local newspapers don't have blogs, many freelance journalists dont even have blogs!I have to say the number of politicians blogging has increased but is it a sufficient amount? From with in the Pendle Council chamber we have no Councillor's who blogs!Personally I think more local media companies need to set up blogs, more Councillor's need to set up blogs and ...
Governor Rod Blagojevich (D-IL) has been arrested on corruption charges, for allegedly attempting to sell President Elect Obama's Senate seat to the highest bidder. He was arrested a few hours ago by the FBI, who then went onto to release a 76 page press release explaining all the charges. The most serious of these charges is soliciting bribes, from potential candidates to fill the vacant Senate Seat (which as Governor he alone has the power to fill). The Governor has had a stormy term in office; and has held a rare distinction - he is even less popular than President ...
Blimey but its a busy week! I started yesterday with the Annual General Meeting of the Lloyds Register in the morning, worked steadily through the day, and then went to the Federal Executive in the evening, finishing off with a group meal to mark the last meeting of Simon's presidency. It was an interesting experience to watch the FE in action from the perspective of preparing to take over the chair at the next meeting. The new governance arrangements are still bedding down, and the relationships between the Chief Officers Group and its component bodies are yet to emerge clearly. ...
Man robs petrol station, then flees to police academy. Just when I consider taking metro_weird of my feeds list, this comes up.
So what's the claim to fame here in sunny Kilburn - lots of people seem to think that the fading Irish tradition of kilburn, currently being replaced by an amazing multi-cultural character is the history of Kilburn. In fact it is one of the oldest communities in London - dating from when the Roman Emperor Claudius invaded and conquered Britain in AD 43 and build Watling Street in AD 44. This bust here is from the statue of Claudius that was destroyed in the sacking by Boudicca during her rebellion against the empire. So is there any real reason why ...
Armistice Day Service I attended this service held in the Millennium Gardens in the centre of Sutton. Local schoolchildren had been invited to lead the singing and a Sutton Council officer had kindly volunteered to sound the last post on his trumpet. The Mayor was joined by other councillors and council officers and a number of [...]
Remembrance Sunday Service I attended the Remembrance Service at the Carshalton War Memorial. There was a large turnout of councillors, council officers and members of the public. After the laying of wreaths and some prayers the guns were fired and all were silent as we paid our respects to those who had given their lives for [...]
I really wonder about some of the green movement. You can debate the science behind global warming, but some things they come out with are just plain ignorant. Specifically I received a letter yesterday from some government body about energy efficiency. Fine, energy efficiency can be a good thing, reducing CO2 emissions and saving you money. [...]
Andrew Marr?! And the Queen?! http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7770082.stm Well, alright it's Helen Mirren and not the Queen, and its just an interview joke. Still, there are some things you really don't want to read in the morning. Like this! http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7772725.stm Is this true? Is this the fundamentally inept Conservative party lecturing about economics? Its quite funny that they've stopped bringing Osborne out and have trotted out Cameron. He must be desperate for publicity! But... there's one silver lining for us today. Most popular news result for BBC Wales website yesterday? Kirsty Williams as new Lib Dem leader!
People talking about politics or making presentations often forget they rarely have their audience's full attention. Many TV/radio listeners will hear you while they do something else and even an audience in a hall will not absorb every word. It is just not the way our brains work. You can reduce the harm of this phenomena by your selection of your words. Today [...]
Whether 'tis a pain in the back to suffer,Aft' surviving the arrows of outrageous reviews,Or to take on stage actual human skull,And by resting end pain? To miss: perchance press night.(with apologies to W. Shakespeare esq.) Yeah the news is that David Tennant had to pull out of last night's performance of Hamlet due to an ongoing back injury. With the production having just transferred from the home of the Bard in Stratford to London's Novello Theatre. Whether the Time Lord actor will be able to take to the stage tonight to appear alongside that Shakespearean captain of the Enterprise ...
A report by Sir Jim Rose suggests that the 14 subject areas in the National Curriculum for Primary schooling should be reduced to just six areas: • understanding English, communication and languages • mathematical understanding • scientific and technological understanding • human, social and environmental understanding • understanding physical health and well-being • understanding the arts and design Quite how 'mathematical understanding' and 'mathematics' differs and warrants an entire report being written is beyond me. One wonders why, outside of science, maths and English, schools aren't allowed to teach whatever they think appropriate for the level, intake and mood of ...
The Liberal party of Canada is having a leadership election. I'm hoping for academic and author of a superb Isaiah Berlin biography, Michael Ignatieff, to storm the convention. Here is a taster of his positions. He is unashamedly liberal. He does not hide behind empty promises about border control, or keeping the population under 70M. Indeed, he says: "It is time for Liberals to be nation builders again. As soon as we have improved our application process, we need to ultimately boost immigration, and we also need to do more for new Canadians already here." He calls immigrants 'new Canadians'. ...
At our Spring conference we are going to be debating two highly contentious issues around education policy: tuition fees and how we should approach the question of faith schools. With the latter in mind it is interesting to look at the recent report published by The Runnymede Trust. Entitled 'Right to Divide?'. It is a comprehensive report which consulted parents, teachers,education experts, religious leaders, local authority officials and pupils. So, it cannot be easily dismissed as reflecting the experiences or biases of one particular grouping. Rather than try and cover all 76 pages of the report in this piece I ...
Guildford BC, Stoke Harrogate BC, New Park Stowmarket TC Okehampton TC, East Town Redcar and Cleveland UA, Guisborough
Recently the Tories have had some bad poll ratings. These poll ratings have been averaged out and I have the results below and I have ran them throw the seat predictor.The Polls results used are Mori, YouGov and Populus. The result average is below:Conservative: 39 Labour: 36.3 Lib Dems: 14.3These results give a seat average of:Conservative: 282 seats Labour: 315 seats Liberal Democrats: 26 seats Others: 9 seats Northern Ireland: 18 seats
60 years ago, on the 10th December, the United Nations adopted The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This historic document lays out 30 rights that we are all entitled to and marked the first time that international law recognised our rights to life, liberty, security and freedom of expression. These rights are things that we should be able to take for granted; but people are still fighting
Yesterday a European Naval Taskforce consisting of warships from Britain, France, Spain and Greece was deployed to interdict piracy off Africa under the command of a British officer, Admiral Philip Jones. This was decided by the Member States at the Council of Ministers last week. The taskforce will ensure the safe arrival of World Food Program [...]
You don't need to know anything at all about the farce that is the Torbay mayoralty to get this one: Closure will actually breathe life into Eastphalia.' The master plan would be for one developer to link the Woolies building, Victoria car park, Crossways and Station Lane sites and merge them into one massive regeneration project, including such things as a multiplex cinema, indoor bowling centre, new shops and homes, and with each financing the other. 'Ahmad Hatter explained: 'It's a brilliant plan, especially the way each thing will finance the other in the middle of the deepest recession in ...
Congratulations from all at Lib Dem Voice to Kirsty Williams on becoming the first elected female leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats. There's more coverage over at the Welsh Lib Dems website, but here's a few brief snippets from today's papers: Kirsty Williams makes political history (WalesOnline.co.uk) KIRSTY WILLIAMS made history yesterday as she won the battle to become the new leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats - and with it the first woman ever to lead a major party in Wales. She defeated former acting Deputy First Minister Jenny Randerson by 910 votes to 612 to succeed Mike German. ...
Further to my last missive yesterday on the selection of email lists that I have been added to, I have today received a communique offering me the chance to spend a day at the Government IT09 conference (their spacing), learning about improving ROI on IT and so forth - and because I am a Councillor I am eligible for the special rate of £199+VAT! I always thought that boredom couldn't be measured, but it seems that £199+VAT may now be the standard unit.
Waking up this morning to hear that Oliver Postgate had died. As a child, I loved both Bagpuss and The Clangers and almost 30 years on, our daughter did too. Oliver's narration really made the programmes special. In particular, the words which accompanied Bagpuss. Professor Yaffle (apparently based on Bertrand Russell) and Madeleine coming to life and [...]
People of my age grew up with The Clangers, and Noggin the Nog, and Bagpuss. But my favourite was always Ivor the Engine... The subtle indoctrination into conservationism was very effective. But not as funny as the anti-imperialism of The Clangers, when the astronaut lands and plants his flag, and mother Clanger says "Oh, great! I could do with a new tablecloth!"...
Duncan Brack and Ed Randall, authors of the Dictionary of Liberal Thought, have kindly agreed to let us publish extracts on Lib Dem Voice. Last month the Henry George Foundation; this month Mary Wollstonecraft. The entire book is available on Amazon here and can also be bought at the Westminster Bookshop. Mary Wollstonecraft 1759-97 An English radical, whose advocacy of equal rights for women and men attracted considerable attention in her lifetime, Wollstonecraft has subsequently acquired a reputation as the pre-eminent feminist polemicist of her age. The range and quality of her literary work helps to explain much of the ...
I have some sympathy for the employees of Haringey Council's Social Services at the moment. They have demonstrably failed in their role in defending the tragic 'Baby P' and there is clearly an urgent need for an inquiry into their many mistakes. However, what irks me most is that they are held 'responsible' for the death of the child by the good people of the Fourth Estate. Now, the team responsible for protecting this vulnerable child clearly screwed up badly and the head of their department has quite reasonably been sacked without any compensation - rare among high level public ...
{BAE Hawk on the runway} The arms company BAE is alleged to have paid more than £100m to officials from the South African government, in order to secure a deal to sell aircraft worth £1.6bn. From the Guardian: More than £100m was secretly paid by the arms company BAE to sell warplanes to South Africa, according to allegations in a detailed police dossier seen by the Guardian yesterday. The leaked evidence from South African police and the British Serious Fraud Office quotes a BAE agent recommending "financially incentivising" politicians. In the arms deal, the new ANC government in South Africa ...
Dave said on the Today programme that the government was putting the Pound at risk through its borrowing plans to try to revive the economy following the banking fiasco. He said the Tories would abandon Labour's budget plans for 2010-11. He said little else of note. Now, I don't pretend to fully understand the current financial crisis and I wouldn't seek to provide my own solutions - but then I'm not the leader of the opposition. I am also in no way seeking to defend the government, although I will extend grudging respect to them for having got back into ...
As I sat on the benches in the Commons yesterday for the result of the vote on Menzies Campbell's amendment to set up a committee into the Damian Green affair as per the Speaker's statement - i.e. to sit now and to be non-partisan - when my phone started ringing (silently or Mr Speaker would have my guts for garters!). We lost the vote by three votes - and the Government if it had had any sense would have agreed to the amendment - but no they got their partisan way, discrediting themselves as usual. So the Liberal Democrats and ...
Youth violence is a problem that has hit an apex in recent years. To say, of course, that it is the direct result of todays society is unkind, for we have had dilinquency for many years before today. The problem appears, however, to have hit that height of notoriety in recent years. Sophie Lancaster was kicked to death by a group of thugs in the middle of last year. When the fiends that did it were convicted, Radio 4 ran a short report on Bacup and it's youth problem. Now, I'm not a resident of Bacup, but I do know ...
Sad news. Oliver Postgate has died. They kept playing bits of his narration on the Today programme this morning. The whole house (well, there are only two of us) stopped to listen everytime. I still do a mean impression of Bagpuss, the mice and Professor Yaffle!
With any luck, the news that LDV are publishing a book will now come as no surprise to you. It's paperback book with luridly coloured covers and 153 pages. 6.14" x 9.21", perfect binding, white interior paper (55# weight), black and white interior ink, white exterior paper (90# weight), full-colour exterior ink. Here's another glimpse at the index. We'll be promoting this all week so if you wanna see particular letters in the index, shout up in the comments. We are self-publishing through lulu.com and are currently waiting confirmation from them that the files we have sent them meet all ...
Pssst ga poo, psst ga poo, psst ga poo. Oh look here comes Ivor the Engine with Jones the Steam on the footplate. But Ivor is approaching Merioneth station in a rather mournful way. Dai Station is standing on the platform with a black armband on. A yawn is heard from the first carraiage. Followed by "Nyah, nyah, nyah. Would you mice make sure he stays awake can't have us all falling asleep just because he does." "Oh yes, Professor Yaffle, " piped up little Charlie Mouse. As Madeline, Gabriel and the mice from the mouse organ all help a ...
As a non-smoker I was rather pleased with the ban on smoking in pubs. It made my life a lot nicer when I went out in the evenings. However the news that Tobacco displays set to be banned is just plain stupid. I've never smoked, but that's not to say I've never purchased a pack of cigarettes. And the one thing that I do know is that I can spend five minutes going "A pack of Rothmans", "The blue and red ones", "Up a bit", "No to the right", "Just a bit higher", "20s not 10s" and fingers waving over ...
I'm delighted to say that David Schmitz has been chosen to fight the council by election in Seven Sisters for the Lib Dems. It will be on the 15th January. David is our Parliamentary Spokesperson for Tottenham, and would be brilliant on the Council. He has been campaigning hard on big local issues, such as the controversial plans for the development of Wards Corner. He is a barrister, and has been giving free legal advice to the Wards Corner campaign. A great choice! I hope we can get him elected. ...
Early Day Motions (EDMs) are a form of Parliamentary petition which MPs can sign. They 'lapse' at the end of each Parliamentary session, so with the start of a new one I've tabled an EDM again calling for a public inquiry: That this House deeply regrets the death of Baby P; welcomes the action of the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families to date; believes that many questions remain unanswered; and demands a full independent public inquiry to restore confidence in child protection in Haringey. You can check to see which MPs have signed it here - and ...
In the end the leadership contest was not as close as I had feared. In fact the result very much reflected the canvassing returns held by Kirsty's campaign team. It was a hard fought election in which both candidates did themselves and the party much credit. I think that the difference lay in the quality of Kirsty's literature and in the candidate herself. Members looking for change recognised that the best way of getting it was to elect somebody who had a proven record of campaigning in both urban and rural Wales and who was sufficiently different to what had ...
£19,000 means never having to say you're sorry. Or so you hope, if you are Haringey Council. This is the ammount that Haringey says it has paid for media advice from specialist consultants to coach those fronting for the Council over the Baby P tragedy. My colleague Cllr David Winskill (Crouch End) asked the question as part of his duties on the Council's Scrutiny Committee. It was not money well spent. ...
The Times has the latest Populous poll which shows a Conservative lead of just 4% and them dipping below the 40% mark. Sadly, it appears there was no specific question regarding the Damian Green affair but it does show that Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling have stretched their advantage over the Tory team to a 9% lead. However, that is perhaps not the most discouraging figure for the Conservatives; that comes in the drop of 2005 Labour voters intending to switch down from 19% to just 9%. Other factors show that while David Cameron may have out fought Brown on ...
The Guardian has the story: An attempt by the Commons Speaker, Michael Martin, to establish a cross-party committee of senior MPs to examine the police raid of Damian Green's parliamentary office collapsed amid acrimony on the floor of the house last night. David Cameron and Nick Clegg vowed to boycott the committee in protest at what they regard as an attempt by the government to limit its work, after MPs narrowly rejected a call for the inquiry to start immediately. The failure to get cross-party support for the committee is a fresh blow for Martin, and came as a former ...
Here's another so-terrifying-it's-funny twist in the ID cards saga. No government likes leaks - as if we need reminding - and it seems our current lords and masters believe that leaks surrounding the ID cards scheme could be especially damaging. A fresh leak has revealed that they are taking precautionary measures against possible leaks (o! the irony) from the five companies currently involved in bidding for work on the ID cards scheme. The Times has the story: Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, has suffered fresh embarrassment from a new Whitehall leak disclosing that ministers are seeking new powers to search ...
Whatever thoughts crossed my mind that weren't worth a whole post. 22:56 trying to get to livejournal. Can anyone get to either www.livejournal.com/ or matgb.livejournal.com/ #Yeah, alright, if you can read this then you know LJ is back up again, it wasn't when I tweeted, and besides, I said it three minutes before status updated. Anyway, change of emphasis. My icon is borked, can oyu let me know what you can see as the avatar for this post? It's supposed to be Fineas with the word 'Life' at the bottom, not some ugly bloke. Support say they've fixed it but...Microblogging ...
Like second marriage, this looks like an example of hope triumphing over experience!
The Times captures the mood perfectly: "The economy is plunging deeper into recession despite emergency tax cuts and the multibillion-pound bank bailout, the Bank of England said yesterday." What it fails to mention is that this is all utterly predictable and indeed inevitable. The reason that "Cutting the base rate to its lowest level in more than 50 years, the Bank said the outlook now was worse than a month ago, with manufacturing and consumer spending in sharp decline" is that cutting the base rate is not going to have much impact. The base rate is just one driver of ...
