Neighbourhood Watch and No Cold Calling Zones were the subject at our scrutiny committee today. I would be very interested to hear from anyone about their experiences with either, whether you are from Stockton or elsewhere. Are you a member of a Neighbourhood Watch ? do you get communication from them ? is it useful ? does it make you feel safer ? does it make a difference...
Conservative activist John Hall was convicted today on one charge of voting fraud. As mentioned previously, the case arose from the Whiteley ward contest (Winchester council) in 2007, where the Conservatives held the ward by just 19 votes and overall control of the council by just one seat.
Given my well know interest in growing food and avoiding food waste, the following issue was bound to catch my attention. Gateshead Council is running a competition as part of a programme to raise awareness of waste issues. The competition is to write the. most interesting recipes using food that would otherwise be thrown out. The prize for the best is a meal for two at the Southern Indian
Prawn Cocktail flavoured Pringles! When I first heard about their existence , my mouth salivated at the very thought of it. A perfect blend of the heavenly Prawn Cocktail flavour and the devilishly moorish Pringle. However when I got to taste them, it was just meh. Not strong enough to leave an impression. Us Brits were bought up on stronger Leicester (and Market Harborough) based crisps...
In spite of all the doom and gloom from the Conservatives, the Rose Theatre has just pulled off a spectacular coup! It is one of only three venues in London that have attracted grants of £50,000 apiece from Arts Council England, to provide free tickets for young people. It shares this honour with the National Theatre and the Barbican. Other theatres have been given smaller grants, but...
It is not. End of.
The problems of Human Trafficking in the UK has perhaps not received the headline attention it deserves. Thousands of people are brought into the UK as slaves by organised criminals in a global business worth billions. Those trafficked are from some of the World's most vulnerable and poor communities. They are promised the World; they are told they will be able to earn lots of money to send back to their families. When they arrive in the UK they are forced into prostitution and/or domestic work, and horrific things happen to them. So it's pretty disgusting that the Government will ...
I am just trying to work out how I can effect the surgical injection of this PA press release into a region of Robert Peston's anatomy where solar illumination is uncommon.
I have the freedom to post whatever the hell I like on this blog, and am not subject to random and unpredictable "editorial control". This makes me happy, even if it might be a downside for the rest of you.
Back in September I reported that Labour's Derek Draper was exploring plans for an online rapid rebuttal unit to kill off damaging stories circulating in the blogosphere. Now, according to Guido Fawkes, he has raised his ambitions: Tomorrow morning Derek Draper is convening a "New Media Breakfast" meeting with dozens of Labour bloggers and New Media types to hear from Blue State Digital how Labour can use the internet to win the next election. Blue State Digital are the people that did Obama's online stuff - rather well.Guido also claims to have the list of attenders. Among them is Sunny ...
I am declaring today, or what's left of it, as "Rowan Williams Day". First there were his welcome remarks to the Spectator about church disestablishmentarianism (sorry I can't put an "anti" at the beginning of that and win an award for the longest word on this blog since....since....oh well since since). Now he's popped up again on Radio Four. He's trying to drag religion into Christmas isn't
Question: Which country's monarch is the first ruling sovereign of another country in the line of succesion to the British throne? Answer: Norway Perhaps I should have known that but it wasn't the country I would have guessed at. King Harald V of Norway is 62nd in the line of succession, way ahead of many other monarchs [...]
The Times has an article today to mark the centenary of the birth of the actress Celia Johnson. It is written by her daughter Kate Grimond. Grimond? Yes, it turns out that she is married to Johnnie Grimond, the middle child of the Liberal leader. There are more family details - including names like Ian Fleming and Helena Bonham Carter - on the IMDB entry for Kate Grimond.
Telford & Wrekin councillors Denis Allen and George Ashcroft have today resigned the Conservative whip. Their action follows a "significant deterioration in the working relationship between them and the leader of the Conservative group at Telford & Wrekin". Telford & Wrekin Council Watch has all the details. The Conservative-run council became notorious earlier this year for harassing innocent penguins and questioning single people found in the town's parks.
The Labour party are having a get together with bloggers tomorrow according to Guido to discuss how they can win the next general election via the Internet. I have to say, if what Guido is saying is true, then Derek Draper the guy from Labour who wants to be the Labour parties Iain Dale needs to leave the blogging to the experts like Hopi Sen or Alex Hilton and personally take a back seat. If Labour were to award bloggers for posting daily, with the help of press releases that were then commented on and debated Labour would become more ...
My article on Clegg's Demos speech is now up on Comment is Free: At a time when the Department for Work and Pensions is to be put under renewed pressure, limiting talk of social justice to tax cuts is unconvincing. What's worse, it is clearly failing to win people over. Today's ICM poll may show us slightly up, but over the past year the trend has been slightly down. Too much faith has been placed on Vince Cable's punditry being capable of lifting the rest of the party up with it. Vince has bought the party enormous repositories of credibility ...
On his first anniversary as leader, Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg will today set out plans to put Britain on a Green Road out of the Recession, creating jobs and leaving a legacy that will save energy, put money back into people's pockets and fight climate change. The plans will cost £12.5bn, which would be paid for by scrapping the proposed VAT cut. The vast majority of that money will be spent immediately, making a real impact on the economy and people's lives right away. Green Road out of the Recession proposals include: - A five-year programme to insulate every ...
The Archbishop of Canterbury is something of a loose-cannon it must be said; this Guardian article has him backing disestablishment while this Comment is Free piece says he didn't. I tend to take the view that he didn't actively say it would be a good idea so he isn't actually supporting it positively so the article is somewhat misleading. His comments for a New Statesman actually just say it wouldn't be a disaster and say it *might* be a good thing...judge for yourself from this; "I can see that it's by no means the end of the world if the ...
Today is chockfull of celebrity birthdays—Brad Pitt, Keith Richards, Christina Aguilera, and more. What celebrities do you share your birthday with? Do you find any similarities between you and those who share your birthday? QotD Gerard Depardieu, Marlene Deitrich, and Louis Pasteur. In toothlessness news, I give praise to Mr C Brook and his marvellous Yorksher crisps, which are suckable enough for me to be able to have managed a bag.
If the newspapers are anything to go by, Nick Clegg has taken the party irreversibly to the right; we are all economic liberals now. Strange then that, on the day Clegg marks his first year as leader he unveils a policy of purist Keynsianism. Still, as the old saying goes: if you have a reputation as an early riser you can lie in until noon. The Green Road Out Of Recession is not merely not a tax cut - it is an alternative to a tax cut. That low rumbling noise you can here is David Laws' teeth grinding. But ...
Thu 18th
17:20
Opinion on Nick Clegg's first anniversary: Mark Littlewood - A number of clouds, but some silver lin...
Clegg's first year: Clegg on Clegg | Tall on Clegg | Land on Clegg | Clegg on YouTube As Nick Clegg reaches his first anniversary as Liberal Democrat leader there is much for him to reflect on, but not - at least yet - a great deal for him to celebrate. Let's start with the bad stuff. Then look at some areas of success. And end with some grounds for genuine optimism. The principal bad news is the state of the party in the opinion polls. It's as simple as that. There are, of course, staging posts of "real votes ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOqr0XwldBM
Flamin' heck..smell like your favourite er...fast food!with BurgerKing's 'Flame'! Well, made me smile...
Reading across the blogs this year it was noticeable that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, had become a times a rather unlikely hate figure amongst some Liberal Democrats. I don't have much to do with Archbishops or organised religion in general, and I would disagree fundamentally with many of the teachings of the Church of England, but I did think this was somewhat unfair. I
The link is to yesterday's debate in Westminster Hall about the Motor Industry. Here we have another credit crunch issue that is not being resolved by the government's actions This hits trading volumes.
I would like to wish Nick Clegg a happy first Birthday as Leader of the Liberal Democrats and I hope he celebrates more birthdays with us as a party. personally I think Nick is a good leader, he might not be as popular as Charles Kennedy but he hopefully will go onto being as popular after the next general election. Clegg took over at a tough time, Ming was on his way out and Cameron was getting stronger day by day. Since Nick Clegg came into power as leader I have to say he has really started to shape up ...
Chris Davies the North West Liberal Democrats MEP has started a blog and I have to say so far it is looking good and it is a good read. Chris is a valued addition to the Liberal Democrats blogosphere (I sound like a Guru of blogging) and he will hopefully influence other politicians to blog. Before defecting to the Conservatives, Sajjad Karim MEP was a blogger. At least Chris has taken up blogging and made up for the lost blogger, currently according to what I know Chris is the only MEP in the North West that blogs! To Read Chris ...
Following up my Twitterati post, you can now check to see if your MP is one of the (very small number of) MPs on Twitter with Tweetminster. It's inspired, I believe, by the US version, Tweet Congress and its Liberal Democrat page carries the party's official Twitter feed, as well as the most recent posts from our twittering MPs.
I have to say following Robert Llewllyn on Twitter is that as befits the man who has fronted scrapheap challenge he does appear to be greeny technophile. Hence I followed his link to this about the last Top Gear of 2008. The gang were testing the Tesla Roadster the electric sport's car on Sunday night's show and claimed it had run out of power for them on the track, not once but twice. Well as you can read the scenes at the end with Jeremy Clarkson walking along an empty, quiet track claiming that while he expected the electric car ...
Happy Anniversary to Nick Clegg; I have to say having anniversaries this close to Christmas has always struck me as being potentially a bit tricky on the present front. However, I digress from serious comment and there is plenty out there as you might expect on this issue. Firstly, the man himself penned a piece on Liberal Democrat Voice. It was a good enough article; solid and steady, focusing on policy. Herein lies a problem which Stephen Tall alludes to in his piece when he talks about Clegg being a 'policy wonk'. It seems our strategic vision is to have ...
Last night's "Evening Telegraph" featured an article regarding my concerns about the long queues at the GPO following the recent Post Office closures in the city, including Nethergate Post Office and Lochee Road Post Office in the West End. You can read the article by clicking on the headline above.
Nature is the recurring theme on a clear majoirtiy of the Christmas Cards sent to me this year: either animals (mostly reindeer also robins, penguins and seals- but no golden retriever, beaver or otter cards on this occassion) trees (Christmas trees or otherwise) or snow covered pastoral vistas. At a rough count these outnumber the other cards (those with snowmen, Father Christmas, angels, [...]
Clegg's first year: Clegg on Clegg | Tall on Clegg | Land on Clegg Complementing his piece for The Voice earlier today, Nick Clegg has also released a YouTube film to mark the anniversary of his election as Liberal Democrat leader: Joining in with the Nick Clegg's annual performance review - Iain Dale gives his take, and links to Fraser Nelson.
On his first anniversary as leader, Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg will today set out plans to put Britain on a Green Road out of the Recession, creating jobs and leaving a legacy that will save energy, put money back into people's pockets and fight climate change. The plans will cost £12.5bn, which would be paid for by scrapping the proposed VAT cut. The vast majority of that money will be spent immediately, making a real impact on the economy and people's lives right away. Green Road out of the Recession proposals include: · A five-year programme to insulate every ...
The entire Arab world is abuzz about the shoe-throwing at George W Bush by Iraqi TV journalist, Muntazer Al Zaidi, earlier this week. A Facebook fan site for Al Zaidi is attracting members across the region and an Egyptian gentleman has offered the miscreant reporter his daughter in marriage (with her consent). The Iraqi Prime Minister, [...]
Some bloggers have already pointed out the absurdity of punishing car owners who choose cars like Jaguars and Land Rover's range of fine Chelsea Tractors, then being surprised when the company gets into financial difficulty, then demanding the Government bails them out of the financial problems caused by the Government's own attempts to get cars like Jaguars and Land Rovers off the roads in order to save jobs. But the problems for Jaguar/Land Rover aren't directly related to running costs. Fuel economy is not at the top of the list of considerations for prestige car buyers. Of course, when people ...
Clegg's first year: Clegg on Clegg | Tall on Clegg Well, it has been a year. I'm sure its felt even longer to you Nick. Take some time over the holidays and quietly reflect. I know you're busy, so let me help you: The good bits 1. You have had a good year. Sure the odd slip-up, but no leader is ever surefooted straightaway. You've had the odd 'baseball cap' moment, but public recognition is increasing and I think they like what they see. Try to get angry more often though. After all, you are only human. Let people see ...
Responding to Gordon Brown's statement to Parliament on the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq, Nick Clegg said: "This was the single worst foreign policy decision for the last 50 years."
I've just read through the latest Lib Dem press release again on the Green Recovery Plan (see previous blog entry) and just seen a howler. It says that: "The vast majority of [the £12.5 bn] will be spent immediately, making a real impact on the economy and people's lives right away." So it then lists the things that the money will go on: • A five-year programme to insulate every school and hospital, with 20% completed in the first year (so that leaves 80% of the work until 2010 at the earliest) • Building 40,000 extra zero-carbon social houses (can ...
For the last few years, I have remained in the Lib Dems as a reluctant traveller. I despaired at Charles Kennedy's trip into socialism and was encouraged by Nick Clegg's arrival particularly when he started talking about repositioning the party with its classical liberal heritage of small government, lower tax and less regulation. Today, Clegg has blown it. He's just put out a press release calling for Government to scrap the VAT cut and to use the money instead on a public spending splurge. I thought the party was trying to reposition itself as the low tax party. How will ...
Having fought my way through the Baghdad-style security into the inner sanctum, the first edifice you come to is the awesome Westminster Hall, the 1000 year old heart of the whole complex which simply oozes history - and a very atmospheric damp smell to boot. Rather incongruously there is a Christmas tree inside this otherwise empty chamber, which doesn't really fit. However, its nice that they tried. We then climbed up through flights of stairs and along warrens of corridors to the very top of the building where we met Nickers himself and the estimable Julia Goldsworthy. Both are very ...
About 8 years ago I went to Parliament to meet someone. I entered at St Stephen's Tower and walked by the ever-present policemen, who acknowledged me in a relaxed manner. I walked through one of those airport security machines and then into the main lobby. Fair enough, a little security for the seat of our government is entirely appropriate and I didn't bat an eyelid. I returned yesterday to meet a couple of LD MPs and found things had changed a bit. The police scowled menacingly, although I don't recally seeing any guns. The building is now surrounded by concrete ...
I was about to break my blogging drought with a piece about how our Roll back Beeching could really catch people's imagination and should be the centre of any February 2009 General Election campaign but I see that Nick Clegg has just launched the Green Road out of the Recession. The main points in the order used are: A five-year programme to insulate every school and hospital, with 20% completed in the first year Funding insulation and energy efficiency for a million homes, with a £1,000 subsidy for a million more Building 40,000 extra zero-carbon social houses Buying 700 new ...
Nick Clegg launches the Green Road out of the Recession, read about it here.
- I have a lovely fiancé who looks after me in my maudlin grumpiness because my lack-of-tooth still hurts and I still can't eat anything with bits in. - I have a lovely f-list who have posted a wide variety of interesting entries which have entertained me, and are considerate of my feelings in the comments to my own entries. - I only have to survive a four hour shift at work before I can go back to bed.
It makes sense that most of the GDP growth data here is from 2007, with slightly earlier data from one or two countries. But why are the latest Liechtenstein figures from 1999? Hasn't the twenty-first century reached them yet?
I have a much simpler solution than TechCrunch to the problem of annoying PR firms and people who break embargoes: if someone breaks an embargo, I bite their ankles. If someone sends me the same story 20 times, I bite their ankles. If someone steals my bone, I bite their ankles. I do a lot of ankle biting.
Thanks to Mat Bowles I now have about 5 more condoms on my pc - though can you take these things too far? For instance, the adblock add-on in FF3 - when i raise www.libdemblogs.co.uk it says the likes of `www.libdemblogs.co.uk relies on ads to make its money blah blah blah.....please add our website to your [...]
Thanks to the Elders of the Internet I can now bring you a video of the internet. (sorry no audio)
No, this isn't another ball-aching post about Leonard Cohen. It is a paean of praise to our Venerable Archbishop of Canterbury who, drawing on his experience as a priest and a bishop of the disestablished church in Wales, has said: ...it would not be the end of the world if the established church disappeared. What's more, in an interview with this week's New Statesman, the Archbish argues
To describing politics as, "The art of the possible," is to describe politics at its best. Sadly in the UK today politics is more a game of plodding along a predictable path. A tired government plodding through a crisis that some of us predicted. An opposition whose response is as predictable as panto. Is anything better possible? The first job Obama had to do in the States in order to get elected was to convince his supporters that change was possible. In handing over the slogan, "Yes we can," he got his base to articulate and believe that they could ...
Clegg's first year: Clegg on Clegg It's a cliché that the leader of Her Majesty's official opposition has the most difficult job in British politics; unusually the cliché is wrong. For sure, David Cameron's in an unenviable position (and not just because he's a Tory); utterly powerless, the only weapons he has in his artillery are words. But at least those words are listened to; debated and disagreed with; quoted and used against him. They are not ignored. Nick Clegg, the leader of the third largest party in the UK, the Liberal Democrats, does not (yet) enjoy the frustration of ...
Sally Pickup, from Holyrood Nursery in Prestwich, brought home the 'Chef of the Year' award at the prestigious Nursery Management Today Nursery Awards 2008. Konnie Huq presented the award to Sally Pickup at the awards ceremony which took place at the Hilton Metropole Hotel in London on 28 November. Sally has been tempting toddlers' taste buds for fifteen years; she has worked as a qualified chef at the nursery since it opened in April 1993. Her winning menu of 'cous cous and roasted vegetables with tomato and herb sauce, followed by oaty apple crumble and custard' was taken straight from ...
Last night I proposed the Liberal Democrat motion to Council criticising the government's decision to award Bury Council a less-than-inflation grant settlement. This means less money for the Council to spend on vital services. Below is the speech I made to propose the motion. It may read like a long critique of the government, but I think it's justified. Labour's priorities are wrong, and their reliance on councils to provide more for less has gone on too long and is no longer working. I was accused after speaking of plugging my own Bury North parliamentary campaign. I didn't mention it ...
At the risk of being accused of watching too much television, I thought I would offer a few thoughts on the X-Factor result this week. How can he possibly manufacture a political article out of the X-Factor I hear you ask? Fear not, there is no end to the near-impossible feats that Lib Dems can achieve! There [...]
If I were, I'd be celebrating the 21st anniversary of the release of the very first version of Perl. But I'm not, so I'm off chasing cats instead. Woof woof.
By majorities of more than 600 to 100 the various legislative elements of the EU's climate change package were approved today by the European Parliament. UKIP and its fellow travellers voted against I believe, and the Greens carped, as Greens do, but opposition from the Germans, Poles, and others voicing concern about loss of profits and loss of jobs faded away once the 27 governments had given their assent. The result is not as ambitious as I would like, and there will be a real battle ahead when we try to implement the promise of making a 30% reduction in ...
Last night's meeting of full Council was the last one of the calendar year, but before we adjourned for mince pies with the Mayor, there was some serious business to attend to. Much of the proceedings did slip into jollity rather easier than the rest of the year though, particularly during one worrying question about public toilets, the hugely enthusiastic response to which was so riddled with words which tickled my inner-child that I was in grave danger of losing it completely, crying with laughter in my seat. And I was far from the only one. It really wasn't on, ...
The ink is barely dry on the Queen's Speech and already the UK Government are involved in an elaborate u-turn. In this morning's Guardian we are told that the government has abandoned plans to make the police more accountable to local communities through direct elections because of opposition from senior officers, Labour council chiefs and concern that the proposals would politicise forces. These are genuine concerns though I did express the view back in November that the possible outcome of an election should not be a consideration as to whether to have it or not. My questionmark over the proposals ...
I recently learned of the plans by Newsquest, who own and run the Bury Times and the Prestwich & Whitefield Guide, to move their Bury operations to Bolton as part of a cost-cutting exercise. I think this move will be hugely detrimental to Bury and to Prestwich, and it's one I fundamentally oppose. The value of a local newspaper to a community is enormous, helping bring people together, inform, and hold people like local Councillors to account. The Bury Times is a local community institution, a "friend of the family" according to its own strap-line. Plans to move its operations ...
Last night was the regular meeting of Bury's Full Council. This is the meeting that brings together all 51 Councillors across the Borough. Radcliffe Riverside There was a strong presence in the public galleries, and about six questions submitted by members of the public, on the future of the Radcliffe Riverside School. The Council is currently consulting on the options for the future of this school, looking at options of the Derby High either merging with or taking over the Radcliffe Riverside school, and moving to a brand new school (on the East Lancashire Paper Mill site). Many parents and ...
A year ago today I was elected as leader of our great party. It has been a challenging and exciting year. I am very proud that in that time we have made all the running on so many of the important issues facing us. Across the country in my Town Hall meetings, of which I've now held more than 30, people regularly raise with me their concerns about housing repossessions, fuel poverty and personal debt. These are the bread and butter issues that I have been consistently raising in Prime Minister's Questions, and on which our party has long been ...
The Labour Government keeps on wanting to collect and keep more and more data about us. I've often mentioned how I think it is a waste spending large sums of money keeping tabs on the innocent rather than focusing resources on catching the guilty - but one of the other problems is that the more data that is kept about us, the more scope there is for the data to be lost and misused. The Open Rights Group have a fun online survey which lets you find out whether any of your own personal data is likely to have been ...
As a civil servant, I've experienced a lot of target setting over the years. It tends to replace genuine management, as it allows senior staff to give the impression of doing something whilst not requiring them to do anything other than collect data (actually, someone else does that for them, usually the person doing the work). Think of it as getting the slaves who built the pyramids to whip
Mike Smithson thinks we should. Over on Political Betting he indulges a little bit of fantasy politics; with Labour getting the most seats with less than one third of the vote cast (graphic above). Not an implausible scenario says Smithson and indeed it isn't. I know Liberal Democrats don't like to talk about coalitions because, amoung other things, they exacerbate ideological tensions within the party. However, not talking about them in a climate where all the polls are now agreed we could be headed to a hung-parliament would be a bit like the proverbial osterich burying it's head in the ...
The Liberal Democrats will never develop a successful, unique narrative for our party; and neither will Labour or the Conservatives for theirs. No such thing can or will ever exist under our current political system. If we're lucky we might stumble across a distinctive narrative that chimes a little more with the Lib Dems than other parties. Why? The parties are broad churches. Much as political activists naturally caricature their political opponents, most Lib Dems realise at some level that there are people in the Conservatives and Labour parties who think much the way we do and are in their ...
Whilst the news of latest company in what was once known as "Silicon Glen" to relocate 140 jobs from its Linlithgow base is sad news the motion lodged by Mary Mulligan MSP about Sun Microsystems reeks of partisan politics. "Parliament notes with deep concern the decision of Sun Microsystems to relocate around 140 jobs from its base in Linlithgow to Oregon in the United States of America; notes that one of the company's executive vice presidents is Crawford Beveridge, a prominent SNP donor and member of the Council of Economic Advisers; understands that the Council of Economic Advisers exists to ...
I've been fascinated by this one for ages and it has taken me a while to get the necessary pictures but here we are... It's not all of the faces, but it's a pretty good spread. On the buildings of the victorian Cricklewood, on the building pillars - between each shop front - there is a ornate 'top' facade - usually corinthian or doric columns, these are topped by a face. These are drawn from a gothic almost rustic tradition and involve leaves and flowing water swirls. Many of them appear to draw on the 'greene man' tradition of olde ...
Seriously, there's a major security hole in Internet Explorer that also opens up vulnerabilities in other browsers. Even if you rarely if ever use IE, you need to secure your system if you're running Windows. If you don't know how to, Yahoo! Tech has a handy guide. It's fairly major, several popular websites have been hijacked, one well known webcomic artist got infected while looking at his own comic. MS normally only patch at scheduled times, for them to rush something out this quickly is almost unheard of: Acting with record speed, Microsoft has issued a patch for the just-announced ...
