I was in Asda earlier. I went to buy some storage boxes for the loft, in which to put things like old newspapers and letters and the ephemera which makes up my life and is thus interesting to me and nobody else in the world. These boxed up artefacts are entirely pointless and not worth saving in the least, and yet I cannot bear to be parted from them. I suspect this is because I am an egomaniac, but I live in hope that my sentimentality is shared by others. Maybe there is more than just me in the world ...
For the last few days, Twitter has been alive with people across the world forwarding links to this story on the local BBC site. Apparently some prankster with a colour printer and a laminating machine has been making extremely official looking signs telling Nottingham's revellers that they are allowed to urinate in certain spots after nightfall. A further letter with the official council logo on it explains that the spots will be cleaned by the Council in the early hours of the morning. This is of course not true. It is not permitted to urinate in public anywhere in the ...
As 2008 meanders to a close like injury time in a turgid mid-table goalless draw, it has dawned on me that 2009 will be here next Thursday. My immediate thought is that this is a deeply troubling fact. For one thing, when I was young, the year 2009 seemed so comically far off that it may as well have been the year 5009. We'd all by scuttling about in flying cars and I'd be served my drink of choice by compliant (and incredibly beautiful) robots. Two thousand and nine you say? Do me a favour... Neeeeeever gonna happen! It's miiiiiiiiiiiiiiles ...
I hope everyone had a nice Christmas / Chanukah / opportunity to take advantage of the Godly and simply eat mince pies for no reason. I certainly did, as I presume did the good people at Wordpress who have ensured that the blog has been down and completely inaccessible to me and the world since Christmas Eve. So sorry for the lack of updates. It ain't my fault, guv. Santa was as generous as ever, finding room in his sleigh for all manner of little gifts marked "FAO Cllr Richard Baum," including several DVDs, a worrying array of books that ...
Well perhaps we shouldn't be surprised. Its an election. If anyone is bothered as to who wins then there is a chance someone will try to fiddle it. Congratulations to Sean Thomas for winning until the poll was suspended through fraud. Still when some idiot on the square box next goes on about how more people vote in xxx reality TV programme remember to mentally ask the question as to how many
The Conservatives have paid £500,000 to a company to create social networking groups on Bebo, Facebook, MySpace and iVillage. I personally was an ex Bebo user and now I am a Facebook user but £500,000 for a group is a little too much. It has also been revealed that these social network sites have only got the Conservatives one new member and they as a party haven't actually benefited from the investment they made. Groups on social networking sites are free so why have they paid that much money in the first place? I myself set up a "I'm 4 ...
I'm back people (don't all cheer at once). Obviously we are now at the time of year when people start thinking about New Years resolutions. I think top of Andy Burnham's list should be to try and avoid frankly silly and rather self-satisfied attempts to get his grubby mitt's on the internet. The latest rather daft proposal is that internet sites be classified like films; what makes this so wrong-headed is the rather obvious point that such a system would never work. Pornography sites already display disclaimer's that allegedly only allow over 18s access and we all know how that ...
Maryfield Liberal Democrats work all year round for our local area - we have now also started our website - do please visit us regularly to keep up with all the local news. You can contact us by e-mailing feedback@maryfield.net.
Many Conservatives, men and women don't want attractive women to join their party because they have fears. Attractive women who want to become MP's are for some reason a scary thing for men and women within the Tory party. Women don't want attractive candidates because they are scared their husbands might spend to much time with the attractive candidates! Men don't want attractive candidates because they are scared they may spend money on having makeovers! All interesting fears and coming from the Tories I am not surprised. Tories also revealed they have doubts in David Cameron's Leadership Members say he ...
To see out the old year, and usher in the new, Lib Dem Voice is asking you, our readers, for your votes in our special 2008 awards. So far, over 160 of you have spared a moment to express your views. All you have to do to vote in the LDV 2008 Awards is click here. If you want to find out a little more about the nominees, simpy click here. I'll let you in on a couple of secrets... Vince Cable is in the lead to be named Liberal Democrat Politician of the Year (with Chris Huhne, Lynne Featherstone ...
"Ah yes, but you must admit that our society is built on Christian morality." So say the religious folk when the traditional atheist vs. religious debates kick off at Christmas. Whether or not the whole God thing is true, the argument goes, at least we have a sound ethical basis to our lives thanks to the Good Book. A similar argument runs that we only have all this great architecture and religious paintings because the medieval church was fantastically successful in persuading rich people that they could buy their way into heaven. The morality argument is wrong, as it happens, ...
The link is to the government story about content filtering. Content filtering has been running on the net for a goodly number of years, but obviously Andy Burnham has not yet caught up with this.
My comments about Haringey Council's habit of trying to turn its back on proper scrutiny of its actions seem to have caught a bit of media attention, as with The London Paper: HARINGEY Council needs to shake up the way it scrutinises its own work in the wake of the Baby P tragedy, an MP has said. Liberal Democrat Lynne Featherstone, MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, accused ruling Labour councillors of "scrutiny-phobia" after they refused to hand over the chair of a key watchdog committee to the opposition. She said: "Scrutiny-phobia in Haringey has led to a culture where ...
Throughout the festive season, LDV is offering our readers another chance to read the 12 most popular opinion articles which have appeared on the blog since 1st January, 2008. Third up is this article by Christopher Leslie, which appeared on LDV on 8th July... Opinion: Why we should back liberal Free Schools Tony Blair won his first election in 1997 on the back of his refrain, "education, education, education", and in the run up to a likely 2010 general election the party leaders have already begun positioning themselves as offering radical proposals for education. Nick Clegg and David Cameron have ...
Just a quick note to let people know that I just got back to the UK after spending most of the last day travelling, hence the lack of response to comments to my most recent posts - I appreciate the way that the libertarian side have been very reasonable and friendly, given the rather nasty [...]
Uhoh.. if you're stuck on ideas or short on willpower these links might help.
Lord Bonkers remembers two outstanding figures who passed this Christmas: Pinter was, to my mind, the pre-eminent dramatist of his day, even if he was often poorly served by the productions that were mounted of his plays. I remember, in particular, attending an early staging of The Birthday Party: the long and regular pauses between lines made it all too clear that the cast had not troubled to learn their lines.Eartha Kitt was Tremendous Fun and The Best Sort Of American Girl. One of my great regrets (particularly as I financed the thing) is that her tour in Pinter's The ...
It's time for a look back at some of the stories that have preoccupied me over the past 12 months. January The year began with the unwelcome news that the old Tory Party was alive and well. For some reason I became very exercised by the fact that a funeral had been held at a Leicestershire school while lessons were in progress. I also discovered that two prominent 20th-century figures had been in the same class as boys. ("Hitler and Wittgenstein, I might have known.") And Bobby Fischer reached the eight rank and was promoted to better things. February I ...
I wasn't intending to visit Woolworths this month. It seemed a bit of a ghoulish thing to do. However, we had a bit of an emergency. We were going through some old note books on Chritsmas Day (as you do) and found a Woolworths gift voucher! Could we still cash it in? How much longer did we have? Would they be open tomorrow? Don't panic Mr Mainwaring! Anyway, after wiping away the film of
The Conservative Party has spent £500,000 on a campaign to launch supporters' groups on four social networking websites: Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and iVillage. However, research by the Financial Times has found that the iVillage group had only drawn one new member. Tim Montgomerie, editor of the Conservativehome website said, "The party has very little to show for more than £1m of expenditure on internet-related projects over the last year. Eye-catching initiatives have always been favoured over using the internet for long-term relationship building." As the Financial Times reports: All the main parties are suffering from declining membership. Mr Cameron appears ...
The link is to Smith v ADVFN Ltd [2008] EWHC 1797 (QB) which is also discussed at Out-Law.com This is a judgment by High Court Justice Eady (he also of the Max Moseley case). I hadn't spotted this one, but it raises an interesting point in respect of the spats and trolling that goes on in internet fora. This case was one where a Nigel Smith issued 37 different defamation writs against a
Dame Ann Leslie (for it is her) made an interesting comment on BBC News 24 this morning. Referring to this (I think) photo she said that it had not been noticed that the shoppers queueing at the sales were mostly "foreigners". In keeping with the renowned impartiality and fairness of the BBC, the presenter pointed out that "they could be British". Leslie ploughed on saying that Britain's "ethnic
I know you mean well. At least, I hope you mean well, but this? This is not workable. Cinema age ratings work because there is a person on the door of the cinema who can judge the age of the person trying to get in and demand ID if necessary. Video age ratings work less well, because although shop assistants can enforce them at the point of purchase, they cannot be enforced once the video has been bought. The only way proper enforcement of video age ratings would be possible would be to have some sort of age detection system ...
A survey that I have undertaken of the 'big 6' fuel companies (reported on in the Times today) shows that the vast majority of people living in 'fuel poverty' are missing out on the special deals that the companies offer to their most vulnerable customers. The latest semi-official estimate of fuel poverty (from the chairman of the Government's 'Fuel Poverty Advisory Group') puts the number having to pay more than ten per cent of their income to heat their home properly at between 5 million and 5.5 million households. But my survey finds that not much more than two thirds ...
We're on Heath Street/Fitzjohn's Avenue and we have one of the most striking buildings in NW3 - now Munro House. I've given some of the flavour of the early Victorian history of the buiolding, but would be keen to learn more from anyone out there who has an understanding of the more modern uses of the building... please post in the comment section or email me on ed.fordham@hampsteadandkilburn.org.uk Here goes for some of the history... The National Gazeteer for 1868 mentions the "Sailors' Orphan Home for girls, situated in Frognal" Founded by a Major Powys the home provided domestic training ...
Tory candidates in marginal seats are going to repel the hunting ban? This comes from a few newspapers and has been picked up by Conservative Home. Most of you who think like me will be reading this and will have sussed out these marginal candidates for what they really are. The main party wants to ban hunting but the marginal seat candidates don't? I am not sure but have a feeling that the marginal seat candidates represent constituencies that either have a lot of hunters living their or are rural areas where the hunting takes place!
The Egyptian former TV presenter, Kariman Hamza, has had her book 'The Conspicuous Interpretation of the Quran for Youth and Youngsters' approved by Sunni Islam's most influential seat of learning, Al Azhar University in Cairo — the first time a Quranic interpretation by a woman has received such an endorsement. The move is being [...]
Not Liberal Democrats Blog of the year shortlist: Iain Dale Guido Fawkes Mike Smithson (Political Betting) Bob Piper And Another thing... The Winner is: Mike Smithson, Mike is probably the best blogger their is on the blogosphere on average with 2 million page visits to his blog Political Betting.com every month but for some reason Iain Dale's Blog lists don't give him the ranking that he deserves. He gets more visits and comments on his blog then Guido and Iain Dale, they both can put their figures together and they are still behind his statistics but under Iain Dale's list ...
Apparently it is a bit early for links on the Western Mail website so I am going to have to make do with the hard copy. This is because in an hour or so I am going to be separated from the internet for 48 hours and do not have time to come back and update entries. What caught my attention was the proposed New Year inquiry by the House of Commons' Public Administration Select Committee into Whitehall jargon. No doubt this will involve watching the entire collection of 'Yes Minister' and 'Yes Prime Minister' followed by swift condemnation of ...
HubSpot's "State of the Twittersphere" report documents the sharp global growth in the use of the micro-blogging service Twitter over the last 12 months. It now has an estimated 4-5 million users worldwide, with traffic to its website up 600% over the last year. Between 5,000 and 10,000 new Twitter accounts are being created each day, though without knowing how many are either becoming defunct or never really started, this number is of limited use. Twitter users can type in their location in a brief biographical section. As this is free text, the entries are not easily analysable by country. ...
