I worked an eight hour shift at work today. It was pretty busy for most of it. By the time the end of my shift came I was dog tired and ready to go home and collapse... And the my small person came to pick me up from work. She had (with a bit of help from Mat) baked some cupcakes, and handed them round to my bosses and my co-workers, and told them all merry Christmas. Then my friend Jonny's brass band came in and played some carols, and she sang along with all the customers... And then we ...
Is it just me or is Santa on a bit of a go slow this year? I am sure that he's been in Italy round about 8.30 or 9.00 in previous years but he's only just stopped off in Rome. We are ready for him now and Anna is just waiting her instruction to go to bed from the trackers. We have left a bottle of water and some home made mince pies and cheese for Santa and some special food for the reindeer, made by crushing weetabix with little glittery stars. I wonder what Nigella would make of that. ...
One of the delights of my childhood was the occasional visit to Links Park to watch Montrose FC, then, during the mid-1970s, enjoying the most successful years in their history, including finishing one spot off gaining promotion to the Scottish premiership. Having moved down to Watford, I never had occasion to go back to Montrose and watch the 'Links Park Dynamo' again. But a few years ago, visiting old haunts, I was disappointed to see that the ground had changed out of recognition since the 1970s. To my delight, therefore, I have found a series of short videos showing Scottish ...
An order to the contractor to refresh the hatching marks on the build outs in Coronation Avenue, has been placed by Bath & North East Somerset Council. This is on a twenty eight day order so the works should be completed by the end of December.
In all things I root for the underdog, so naturally I have always believed that George Harrison was the true genius of the Beatles, and I have been rediscovering his solo output recently. To support my case, I cite this early (1976) video This song, a humorous response to being sued over his hit My sweet Lord's resemblance to The Chiffons' He's so fine.
Can I wish all blog readers a Happy Christmas and I hope you enjoy your day!
"This will lead to the abolition of Christmas" - William Gladstone on the 1831 Great Reform Bill. It became an act, our electoral system became rather more democratic and Christmas survived. Thank you from everyone on the team for all the reading, commenting and contributing over the last year and have a great Christmas. If you find yourself at a loose end between the turkey and the gift unwrapping, you can always take five to vote in our LDV 2008 awards.
Many thanks to all the readers who have made positive comments this year to articles in this blog. Can I wish you all a very happy Christmas with all your loved ones and I hope that you all have the Christmas that you wished for.
In Woolworths at Yate this afternoon the staff were busy dismantling the shop around the last Xmas customers - a very sad sight. A message to all the friendly faces at Woolworths - we're sorry to see you go.
NORAD have now posted the video of Santa flying over Mount Everest. The report says that the reindeer eat healthy vegetables all year to give them the strength to fly through the cold. So, there you are, if you, too want to fly over the highest peaks, you know what you have to do. I suspect it would have to be more than 5 a day, though. LibDig This!
On Sunday, the gf and I went to the Hammersmith Apollo to see the final performance of Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People. By coincidence, albeit perhaps not that much of a coincidence given that both being plugged into a lot of the same networks, we hear about a lot of things at around the same time, Will Howells sat almost exactly in front of us. A good time was had by all. I'm not much of a comedy night person (I did have a phase of going to pub standup before I moved up to Leeds in 2000 ...
17:22 We've had a short interlude for a visit from family and are now back to our occasional posting about Santa's journey. Please don't think I'm going to sit here shackled to the laptop when there is stuffing and mince pies to make. We got the promised video from the Great Wall of China and Anna offered the information, which I'd never heard, that Rudolph is Dasher's second cousin. You learn something new every day. Santa is now apparently in Kazakhstan, edging ever closer to here. The NORAD site ties in to Google Earth so that you can actually go ...
Here is a fact which show just how geeky I am - Did you know that Lembit was the name of a warship in the Estonian navy? According to Jane's Fighting Ships of World War I (my bedtime reading material) he was an 875-ton gunboat with two 4.7-inch guns, and capable of 12 knots - a knot being a fancy nautical term for a mile an hour. Lembit was captured by the German Navy at Helsingfors in 1918. A World War II-vintage submarine, also Estonian (then taken over by Russia and seized by Estonia again) also bears the same name. ...
According to the Daily Mail, the Pope has been accused of spreading fear about homosexuals. Imagine!
Central Banks appear to be citing Keynesian monetary policy as a reason for pushing down interest rates to dangerously low levels. Yet it is far from clear that the dead economist would himself have approved of low or no interest rates. According to his General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, when the "rate of interest has fallen to a certain level... almost everyone prefers holding cash to holding debt which yields so low a rate of interest," as a result of which central banks can "lose effective control over the interest rate" (p. 207). The problem, as I have ...
I'm signing off for a few days to enjoy Christmas with my grandson and the rest of the family. Happy Christmas one and all!
You can track Santa's progress this evening here. Wishing you a Merry and peaceful Christmas.
Let me start by wishing you and those you love a very Merry Christmas, and a peaceful and prosperous New Year. It can be a strange time of the year this. Wonderful for children; often more complicated for adults. We are having the family down to us in Hastings, and there will be mixed emotions. It will [...]
Just in case you cannot wait to see what presents you are getting tomorrow, it might be worth checking up on where exactly Santa Claus is. Thanks to the wonders of satellite technology it is now possible to do so here. I particularly like the inset videos. Update: The history of this tracker is set out here: According to NORAD, Santa began his latest flight early Wednesday at the International Date Line in the Pacific Ocean. Historically, Santa visits the South Pacific first, then New Zealand and Australia. NORAD points out that only Santa knows his route. Last year, NORAD's ...
The BBC shows the poll of polls for each month through the year. Here are the results as a graph: That might be hard to make out, sorry. So here are the results for us over the past year. Each result is an average of the polls conducted during the month.January: 18% February: 18% March: 19% April: 19% May: 18% June: 19% July: 17% August: 17% September: 17% October: 17% November: 16% December: 15% So It's looking pretty bad for us. Now I probably make too much of a fuss over these things. I was on The Golden Dozen as ...
"Ring Solstice Bells" by Jethro Tull. Back soon.
Refuse collections and recycling collections will not be operating on Christmas Day or Boxing Day. Black sacks due to be removed on Thursday 25 December 2008 (Christmas Day) will be collected on Thursday 1 January 2009 and black sacks that were due to be collected on Friday 26 December 2008 (Boxing Day) will be removed on Friday 2 January 2009. This follows the same pattern as in previous years.
Who says the US military has no good purpose? Every year they track Santa's progress round the world on Christmas Eve and it has become something of a tradition in our house to follow him on his travels. My daughter is not a child who likes to be early in her bed at night - but as soon as the warning comes that children in Europe should go to bed, she's off there like a shot. I thought it might be fun to do a bit of a live blog - although we've started late. He's done Australia and New ...
This would be my ideal Christmas present this year.
In 24 years of living in the Newbury district I have never had occasion to visit the main council offices as a "punter". This morning came the first occasion as I had to enquire about a council tax matter. Consider my surprise when I was greeted by the Chief Executive of West Berkshire Council, Mr Nick Carter, who was seated at the receptionist desk, acting as receptionist, and who handed me my
Christmas Eve: Millennium is TRAPPED in the MAZE of Conservatory policies... can you help him to find his way out? Mr Balloon's Not so Amazing {Posted by Picasa}
As trailed - here, here and here - Lib Dem Voice's end-of-the-year awards are back this year, bigger and better than last year ever before. In total, there are eight categories for which we're seeking votes in the LDV 2008 Awards. Nominations were submitted by LDV's readers; the short-list was agreed by the LDV Collective; and the winners will be decided by a 'fair votes' ballot using the alternative vote. How much more impeccably liberal can you get? Any LDV reader may take part; it should only take a minute or so to complete the survey. To vote in the ...
Peter Davison's time as the Doctor begins with a vibrant mix of stories and ideas, set to rather beautiful music. There's a return to adventures in history with Black Orchid and The Visitation, and the divide between this vulnerable Doctor's main themes opens up with arthouse stories like Castrovalva and Kinda, each exploring reality, identity and the dark places of the inside, versus macho stories like gripping Cyberman near-movie Earthshock. And in Doctor Who Monthly... The Tides of Time "The scanners indicate a large, hollow plastic object... No means of propulsion... No mechanism whatsoever... In short... "A giant toy duck!" ...
Why is snow so firmly established in our ideal Christmas when there have been only seven white Christmases since 1900? It is all down to Charles Dickens. The Daily Telegraph quotes a Canadian professor as saying: "The whole of A Christmas Carol is really an invocation of his childhood Christmases with his family before his father fell into debt and was sent to the debtors' prison. "A Christmas Carol made Christmas respectable for the English bourgeoisie, who had come to regard it as somewhat antiquated."And what were those early Christmases like for Dickens? The Telegraph says: A decade of unusually ...
Over at LDV Stephen Tall has kicked of the debate of which Lib Dem MP could be the next Dr Who and this is what he has to say about Lembit Opik: Lembit Opik - he's been warning of the dangers posed to Earth by extra-terrestrial objects for years. And now he has his own 'self-balancing personal transporter' (aka the segway) he'll even reduce the Tardis's time-travelling carbon footprint. Now that is exactly what I think, Lembit would make a great Dr Who. He has a segway like Stephen mentions and he is a little bit of a character so ...
At least that is the argument of Geoffrey Wheatcroft in the Guardian today: The Tories nowadays are very short of decent old buffers of the Willie Whitelaw kind, men with what used to be called bottom, possessed not necessarily of ferocious intellect but at least of a certain judgment, and the commonsense instinct that can spot a wrong 'un.The concept of "bottom" is the subject of a chapter in T. H. White's The Age of Scandal: In the eighteenth century, but particularly under the Regency, a gentleman was expected to have "bottom". It was a word of composite meaning, which ...
Well the afternoon at least, which is the Glenn household is cause for celebration as is also happens to be elder nephew's birthday. So I shall shortly be heading to the airport (which will be carbon offset) to attend to uncling duties tonight, to assist mother for the family feast tomorrow, well she has raised two sons who know how to cook and aim for the best. I was all prepared to bus it into the airport but this morning got a text from Caron offering to give me lift. It will make a nice change getting a lift from ...
A few minutes ago I finished writing my diary on my blackberry, which I then put into my pocket. We are currently on the road to London with David driving. As I put my blackberry away, it rang. It was the Evening Chronicle. They wanted to do an interview about flooding on the Derwent. So above the roar of the car engine, the meowing of Freda our cat and Classic FM playing on the radio, I talked
We've covered the press in relation to Lib Dem peer Paul Tyler over the last week in two pieces - first where he was given the slightly unlikely epithet of Che Guevara and secondly when he took a little flak for asking the BBC to publish the full details of the Strictly Come Dancing final vote. It's worth remembering that Lord Tyler is part of the excellent Lords of the Blog effort, and last night, he took the opportunity to answer his critics. It strikes me that politicians are constantly under fire for being 'out of touch', not residing in ...
curtis poe posted an interesting entry on his blog this morning, I think it sums up much of what I think when I hear hardline libertarians like Charlotte or Tristan or hardline lefties like um.. no I can't think of any hardline lefties I find wor... Read and post comments | Send to a friend
We at LDV Towers were quietly distressed by the recent outing of Eddie Izzard as a Labour supporter (and at that, one who seems to be supporting an imagined Labour party of the mid-1960s as opposed to the mediocre corporatist authoritarians who are actually in power). Cake or death will never be the same again. So to drum up some liberal Christmas cheer, I thought I'd take a look at a few other sleb-types whose card, I think, is marked with a big yellow X. 1. Bill Bailey On the face of it, the musician, stand-up and "wizard in a ...
Merry Christmas from your Focus Team. We hope you have an enjoyable festive season. If you're wondering about changes to Council services over Christmas, you can find information on the South Glos website. For example you can find out the opening times for the Sort It! centres, the temporary changes in bin collection days and the library opening times.
So it's Christmas Eve, and shops will be full of people buying that "must have gift" which they have been going to buy since August but never had the time! Worse still is food shopping, when the population collectively decide to pop down to the shops to buy enough food for a year because heaven forbid, the stores will be closed for TWO DAYS!!!! Still I digress, Christmas and the new year is always the time when we look back and plan forward. For us political sort, it's not long before the subject turns to when is the next general ...
As a liberal I simply cannot let the homophobic comments of the Pope pass without comment, not least because they have absolutely incensed me. "The Pope has told members of his Vatican staff that saving humanity from homosexual or transexual behaviour is just as important as saving the rainforest from destruction." His words are reproduced [...]
We have just loaded up the car, one of those rare times when we drive to London rather than take the train. Dad is looking after the house whilst we spend xmas at the other place. We are avoiding the Metrocentre traffic by heading south out of Sunniside, via Stanley. Freda our cat is coming with us as well. We even have a journey's worth of oldie music. Roxie Music is playing at the moment!---
I have put together a short list that you can see below of the award and the hopefuls for the award. Results will be published starting Boxing Day and should be published by New Years Eve. You can see the short lists below: Liberal Democrats Blog of the year: James Graham (Quenquam Blog!) Alix Mortimer (Peoples Republic of Mortimer) Jonathan Fryer Paul Walter Nich Starling (Norfolk Blogger) Not Liberal Democrats Blog of the year: Iain Dale Guido Fawkes Mike Smithson (Political Betting) Bob Piper And Another thing... Politician of the year: Councillor Abu Bakar Anwar for getting elected with the ...
My cultural education is benefitting from avoiding the Steve Wright programme, on the way home from work, from 4.45pm to 5pm by switching to Radio Four. I have an in-built aversion to Radio Four too - thinking it is generally as dry as a dry thing. But I am gradually warming to the intelligent programmes of which I get a little burst while in Wright exile. Last night there was a fascinating
It seems to have been accepted as some form of truism that there's a huge potential growth area in the 'Green' Industry. I struggle to understand why. Where there's consumer demand the normal markets are providing, already. People say, "The British should lead the way in creating the technology of the Green Revolution! Become world leaders in Green Technology! Hurray!" Well, yes, but who's buying? Second, where is the manufacturing industry with the resources, experience and creative talent to innovate like this? Haven't we become Financial Service specialists? We have no Sony to reduce the power consumption of electronic devices. ...
Just a quick post to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a great New Year x
The news that David Tennant is quitting his role as The Doctor in the BBC series Dr Who has prompted a flurry of speculation in recent months about who might succeed him: David Morrissey, James Nesbitt, David Walliams, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Catherine Zeta Jones have all been suggested. To date - and perhaps not so very unsurprisingly - no Lib Dem MPs are yet in the frame for the job. But that didn't seem any reason for Lib Dem Voice not to set our readers a different kind of Christmas quiz while we eagerly anticipate tomorrow's special (BBC1, 6.00 pm): ...
Geoffrey Wheatcroft in today's Guardian believes that the Tories should be charging ahead but they keep on getting knocked back by their leader's lack of judgment: And yet, in this festive season, one is left with the uncharitable reflection that whenever the political match is going their way the Tories score another own goal - from their association with plutocrats to Cameron's recent stunt in Ulster, or even his naff Christmas card. He once claimed to be Blair's heir, and sometimes he does resemble the last prime minister at his worst: a man not so much seeking office to put ...
It is pretty impressive, but the briefest stroll down Eton Avenue, NW3 is a joyful wander through architectural excellence. There is something about the work that is almost casual - I think it derives from the fact that almost every building is adorned with the details and brickwork sufficient to please any home - unless you want minimalism. Each doorway is different, each architrave has it's own distinction - it's as though each individual building has it's own specification. Perhaps that was precisely what happened - you agreed to buy a house, a plot and you then sat down and ...
The link is to the story from the USA about the death of someone in a suspicious plane crash last week. The someone is someone thought to have been involved in the use of IT to defraud the 2004 election in the USA. If we wish to keep elections honest then we have to keep voting in secret on paper and counting the pieces of paper by hand. It is not possible to publicly audit electronic systems
Part Partridge Eschewing the inflatable Santas springing up on houses across the town, we've managed to procure an inflatable Nick Clegg, complete with bedpost sporting 29 notches. It's the talk of the town and, for us, captures the spirit of Christmas pastrties. Whilst Santa can only offer the kids a selection of slightly crappy toys, a few chocolates and a satsuma, Father Clegg brings a sack full of tax cuts and green investment, asking only that the super rich slave away for a year in his Sheffield Lapland factory. Our PPC catches wind of our inflatable Clegg and persuades Mrs ...
The world's leading gas producers have formalised a collaborative association, the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF), which will have its headquarters here in Doha. Qatar has the third largest reserves of natural gas after Russia and Iran; together with Algeria and Venezuela, these countries are responsible for two-thirds of the world's gas supply. It's a [...]
I've been sort of umming an ahing about just how far to post today following the Pope's comments in which I took a satirical look. However, following seeing what young Alistair Wood has had to say I felt that the time is probably right for one of the most heart on a sleeve blog posts seen here on my journal. Some of the stuff you will see below has been hinted at in part though the history of the blog, but this as it were is sort of the lid of the jigsaw box as it were. So the Pope ...
Economists are not traditionally popular as policy advisors. Economics teaches that resources are limited, that choices made imply opportunities forgone, that our actions can have unintended consequences. This is typically not what government officials want to hear. When they propose an import tariff to help domestic manufacturers, we economists explain that this protection will come only at the expense of domestic consumers. When they suggest a minimum-wage law to raise the incomes of low-wage workers, we show that such a law hurts the very people it purports to help by forcing them out of work. On and on it goes. ...
With the Twelve Days of Christmas approaching I thought I would share the link below with readers.
