He's the Chippenham Town player who got himself sent off after just three seconds in a football match today, snatching the previous record from the Italians for good old Blighty. Mind you, had he had a proper number of legs (viz four), I'm sure he'd have been able to manage it in less than three seconds. Woof woof. Football pundit trivia corner: Chippenham have lost two play-off finals and one play-off semi final in the last four years.
....on being noticed by Iain Dale, the Tory one, finally, despite your wonderful blog having been around for quite some time. You don't blog often enough, but I love reading it when you do. Edit just to say that I've just looked on Iain Dale's directory, and he has you twice:-) LibDig This!
Via the main Liberal Democrat website comes Ed Davey's views: David Miliband may not be prepared to say it, but the Israeli reaction is utterly disproportionate. From the standpoint of ordinary people in Gaza this is a full-scale attack, which is leaving women and children dead and thousands of innocent people suffering. The rocket attacks by Hamas are totally unacceptable, but Israel ought to have learnt from its attack on Lebanon which only served to strengthen the cause of extremism. If David Miliband does not realise this action is disproportionate then he must be the last person in Britain who ...
....carryng out airstrikes, killing innocent civilians, there would be talk of military intervention, UN resolutions, sanctions, possible invasion and war, lines in the sand and "this will not stand." Why do they always get away with it? I'm not sticking up for Hamas, by the way - their record at pursuing peace isn't great. Chosen by the Palestinian people out of frustration after decades of oppression and being ignored by the international community, they are not a bunch of cuddly teddy bears by any stretch of the imagination. Someone, somewhere, has to make this stop. President-Elect Obama, Secretary of State ...
Welcome to platform 1 here at a pretty cold Welling Station. At least, it's apparently pretty cold, although I've worked up a sweat delivering for Grace Goodlad's campaign to be the new Liberal Democrat councillor for East Wickham. Given that I've commuted in from Suffolk this morning, put in a full day at work and then come to Bexley, my enthusiasm for getting Grace elected is undeniable. I
I'm not going to spoil it by saying what it is but it was in Feb 2008. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=6qgWH89qWks
It is worth pointing out that Barack Obama won the presidential election by only 5%. As far as US elections are concerned, that is supposed to be a big margin, but lets bear in mind that despite the monumental failure of US foreign policy in the Middle East, and notably Iraq, the Republicans were actually inching ahead until the US economy took a sharp downturn. It is hard to imagine a more incompetent president than GW Bush, yet the Democrats won by just 5%. In terms of the demographics it was women, and a late swing from Latinos that built ...
Hat tip to Morgan for re-alerting us to the issue of Facebook deleting photographs of nursing mothers posted to members' individual photo albums on the social networking site. I fail to see how a breast, mostly obscured by the back of the baby's head, could be offensive to anybody. And if some people do have an issue with it then they don't have to look at them. It's time for Facebook to grow up and be more discerning about what it considers to be obscene. LibDig This!
Whilst I'm on the subject of former Soviet States, Radio Free Europe also brings news that thew Azerbaijani Parliament has voted overwhelmingly for a referendum that will give the people of Azerbaijan the ability to remove term-limits on the President. Currently, there is a constitutional requirement that a President can only serve for two terms, much like in the United States. The two standout quotes from the article include this worrying statement from Ali Ahmedov, a Parliament Deputy, and executive secretary of the Yeni Azerbaycan Party, which happens to be in power: "The number of presidential terms is not a ...
This month, the Bathwick Police and Communities Together meeting re-affirmed their commitment to the previous priorities: - tackling speeding - mnaging anti-social behaviour in Sydney Gardens - getting a zebra crossing over Bathwick Hill Although there has been improvement in all of these areas since the previous meeting, the meeting decided to retain the priorities. There were very few attendees this time, so any new priorities would have been unrepresentative of the wider area. Thank you though to those who did take the time to participate. In the last few months, our beat manager (local policeman) has moved on and ...
Radio Free Europe is reporting that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has stated that Ukraine's economy will face "sanctions and demands" from Russia if they do not pay off their looming gas debt. This is the latest in a long line of recent moves by Russia to flex it's muscles in an intimidatory fashion against former Soviet States, after the invasion of Georgia earlier in the year. Medvedev, with Putin surely pulling many strings as well, has proved to be exceptionally hawkish since his inauguration, and Russia's continued posturing is threatening the stability of the region. Whilst the article conveys the ...
I was astounded whilst watching the Middlesbrough-Everton game on Boxing Day at just how many times the Referee, Mike Riley, was blowing up for fouls on the goalkeeper. I know that goalkeepers have long been a protected species, but the level of protection that keepers get is bordering on the ridiculous. Now, don't get me wrong, I've played in goal myself, and I know that keepers do need some protection from burly strikers using them as their own personal punch-bag, but it has got to the stage where a goalkeeper cannot be touched. During the Middlesbrough game I watched as ...
The terrible bombing and bloodshed in Gaza by Israel continues while the world stands by and watches, with a limp response from Western governments about 'concerns' and 'disproportionate' action. So far 300 Palestinians are dead and over 900 wounded, while 2 Israelis are dead. I watched news footage today on Turkish television - the unedited version, that the BBC does not show, and it was stomach churning and sickening. I was reduced to tears. I saw pictures of dozens of Palestinian bodies wrapped in blankets in makeshift morgues, many of them children. I saw mothers of babies with missing limbs ...
I'm finally back to blogging after a few months where I didn't have a computer, and had limited Internet access. The last time I wrote a post about Everton, we had just secured our first home win of the season. I write this now the day after I witnessed our second home win, a confident and assured performance against Sunderland. It was the fist time I'd been able to get up to Goodison Park since Boxing Day 2007, and it was well worth it. We were good value for our 3-0 win, looking completely in control against a Sunderland side ...
In a desperate attempt to avoid blogging about anything very political over Christmas, here are my five reasons to still buy CDs in this iTunes-crazy world. 1. They last Like mosts of you, I still have CDs from the early '80s. Computer files from the '80s and '90s have long since vanished with crashed hard drives, new computers and accidental deletions. 2. Music when, where and how I want it From a CD I can rip the music in lossy (e.g. mp3) and lossless (e.g. wav) formats, copy it onto my computers and mp3 players and burn it onto mp3 ...
The Liberal Democrats have an unerring ability to not see the big picture when it comes to their own self-esteem and empowerment. At local level there are ruthless Genghis Khans who get our message across in an audacious and positive way. At national level we seem to fail to have the self-belief except in certain [...]
Forgetting, for the moment, the wider speculation about whether there should be an election in 2009 I think there is a compelling case that Gordon Brown owes this country an election. The most obvious one is that Brown lacks a democratic mandate from the people. He has only ever been elected by the Labour Party. Incidentally, I feel this is a rather compelling case for a codified constitution which includes fixed-term parliaments and the stipulation that a change of leader should automatically facilitate the need for a fresh mandate. With the economy being in the state it is it is ...
BBC2 showed the 1973 Generation Game Christmas Special the other night, which I duly recorded because I adored the show when I was a little girl. I also would never have seen this one as we were on one of the two family holidays we went on during my childhood, in Estoril. In those dark, prehistoric days, there was no infernal wickedness of Sky Plus, or even VHS, and colour tvs were the must-have item. I was totally unprepared for how Anna reacted when we watched it back together. I had billed it as "come and see what Mummy watched ...
So are things getting dirty in the yet-to-be-announced Wales Labour leadership contest or is there a concerted attempt by outsiders to seek to discredit the supposed front-runner? I only ask because of a letter in this morning's Western Mail which is couched in near identical terms to two other missives that appeared in the same paper before Christmas. This morning's contribution is as follows: SIR - I do not wish this in any way to be considered an ad hominem attack, but the recent assertion by the counsel general (Carwyn Jones) at the National Assembly that he is a unionist ...
The current edition of the Ecologist has an article castigating carbon offsetting. I have a lot of sympathy with the sentiments expressed. The price of carbon used in the offsetting business is far too low, because the market price of carbon is far too low, and investing in trees on the other side of the world, trees which might be chopped down one day, has never seemed to me to be a very sensible way to deal with the carbon problem. That said, there are, I think, two perfectly legitimate ways that individuals and local authorities can carbon offset. 1) ...
My blogger friend Darrell and I were talking via Facebook chat just a while ago when we came up with the idea of creating a Facebook group for people who want Brown to call a general election in 2009. The group goes by the name of "Brown call a general election in '09". I would like everyone who is reading this to join and to promote it to others, lets use Facebook and get the Prime Minister to listen to our cries and call a general election! Follow the link to join!
Jeremy Browne MP has received 3000 responses to his survey which was distributed in recent months across Taunton Deane. Residents of Taunton are shown to be optimistic and content with their standard of living. "Mr Browne received 3,000 replies to his questionnaire and key findings include: *76% think the outlook for Taunton Deane is good; *55% want the council tax replaced by something 'fairer'; *75% favour heavy polluters paying extra to help the environment; *84% want the Government to do more for Somerset post offices; *66% rated local NHS services 'good'; *80% said they had no problem finding an NHS ...
Having been away from the internet for a few days I have not had a chance to comment on the latest public relations initiative from Culture Minister, Andy Burnham to censor the internet. My first reaction was that he has bitten off a bit more than he can chew. It is a view that is reflected by quite a few commentators including Quarsan on the Blairwatch site. Many of us have concerns at the influence that the internet can have on children but we understand that the best way to deal with this issue is proper supervision at the point ...
This is the most extraordinary map, courtesy of the superb strangemaps site. It shows Poland's last legislative election results overlayed onto the old border between the Tsarist Russian Empire, and the German Empire. Those who live in what was the German Empire were far more likely to have voted for Donal Tusk's Civic Platform, whilst those who live in what was the Tsarist Empire were far more likely to have voted for the Kaczynskis' Law and Justice Party. The Ukrainian divide is well correlated to the borders of the Poland-Lithanianian Commonwealth. Those who voted for Yushchenko (in the west) live ...
Watch narcoleptic Fred Thompson explain the bailout. Its well worth watching. Hat tip: Guido
Try as I might, I didn't go out for lots of bracing walks over the Christmas period. In fact, the most exercise I took was when I went to watch boxing day rugby match and ended up running the line. Instead, most of the time seems to have been spent watching as much TV in four days as I normally watch in an entire year. Highlight to date was probably the Gavin and Stacey special which was completely nuts and very funny. The Royle Family was a welcome return - especially for the 'Cup a Soup in a bowl' line. ...
Once again, the Government are being far too generous with our data, our tax-funded laptops, memory sticks, hard drives, etc, etc. Home Office Watch has the story.
Chris Rennard has written to us all; considering the financial distress this year for the Liberal Democrats I can understand a certain 'obsession' with money.The section that most interested me was where he talked about the prospects for a general election in 2009. He says; "You're probably reading some of the speculation about the date of the next General Election. I have been discussing possible timings with Nick Clegg and the Shadow Cabinet. Certainly we have to be ready." He ranks a general election in 2009 as being "quite possible". I agree with this analysis and would make such an ...
Home Office Watch has an excellent post about how the government is handing out computers. According to Home Office Watch nearly 3000 computers have been lost or stolen since 2002. To read more about these computers getting lost follow the link. Personally I think this is a shamble and another piece of evidence to tell us that this government is not trust-able with information and ID cards are a silly idea as they will have more information on their hands to leave around so it can get lost or stolen!
The Liberal Democrats have sent out an email to members in which Chris Rennard has the following to say: You're probably reading some of the speculation about the date of the next General Election. I have been discussing possible timings with Nick Clegg and the Shadow Cabinet. Certainly we have to be ready. It is quite possible that there could be a Westminster General Election before the Summer. We are already gearing up for European elections on June 4th and local elections in much of England on that day also.He then went onto saying: We need to use the most ...
Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip seem to be more driven by an emotional desire for revenge than a proportionate response to deal with a defined threat. This is a time when the UN Security Council should meet as it appears that Israel are intent on using the US Carte Blanche until the change of administration. Whether this would have any practical effect is unclear, but at least it would kick
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. Fifth in the series is this posting by Christopher Bones, which appeared on LDV on 12th February... Chris Bones writes... The Party Reform Commission - taking the Lib Dems forward At the beginning of the year Nick Clegg as Leader, Simon Hughes as Party President, and Chris Rennard as Chief Executive asked me and my colleagues, Cllr Duncan Greenland, Kate Parminter and Paul Burstow MP, to produce a report into how ...
{A computer key} In the shops, the sales have started early, but did you know that Government departments are being equally generous with desktop and laptop computers? Why, it's as though they're giving them away! Figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats show that nearly 3,000 computers have been lost or stolen from Government departments since 2002. From the Daily Mail: "In total 1,774 laptop computers and 1,035 desktop computers have been lost or stolen, a rate of nearly five a week and three a week respectively. This year alone 238 laptops and 40 desktops have gone missing. The past seven ...
Ananova carries this story which says that the Tories feel more pupils that are suspended should be excluded. It follows the release of official government statistics which show; "79,180 suspensions for assault against a pupil, 18,590 suspensions for assault against an adult, 16,090 suspensions for threatening behaviour against a pupil, 89,880 suspensions for threatening behaviour against an adult and 3,500 suspensions for sexual misconduct." One obvious concrete question that arises is how taking these people out of education will actually achieve anything. In reality, what we seem to be dealing with here is more posturing that exists in the vacume ...
Just resting. Wish my neighbour wouldn't practise his DIY at such ungodly hours, though. For one thing, I can hear that he's doing it wrong. Mind, it did make MAt giggle when I yelled at the wall if you're GOING to drill at this time of day, at least DO IT PROPERLY!!! Honestly. He's going to end up with uneven and malformed holes. And that's not a threat of violence on my part, because I'm too lazy. Anyway, not dead, birthday awesome, bed ever so slightly broken (whatever your imagination is coming up with for the reason why is probably ...
Anyone watching last night's Celebrity Mastermind might have thought that a young seemingly bright MP, a barrister who studied at Harvard and had recently been promoted to Minister of State for Higher Education, would be a good bet to win Celebrity Mastermind. These thoughts might have been increased on seeing his opponents: an Eighties pop singer [...]
Just received the email off Chris Rennard. The subject title is, "Getting the liberal democrat voice heard". So I felt a sudden bit of excitement, hoping to read an email explaining how we will get our voices heard, and motivating us to take action in our communities so we are heard. Instead Rennard explains that we need more money, using the link https://secure.libdems.org.uk/donate?ref=1229 twice! And instead of an email motivating people to get their voices heard, the email is meant to motivate you to tell others to donate as well. I've commented on Rennard's strange messages before. In a Liberal ...
Palestine and Israel, who is to blame? Hamas might have started the rocket launching and I agree they shouldn't have but Israel is going a little to far with all these invasions. The troubles between Palestine and Israel have been going on for so long and they probably are going to carry on, but the people who are benefiting from these attacks are the Israeli's. Why you may ask it is benefiting the Israeli's, that's because the western countries are for some reason are sympathising with the Israeli's and not the Palestinians who are coming out much worse from this ...
Black mould (Fungus) growing on the NEW window frames hits the £150M PFI "Chalcots" project. This serious and potentially hazardous situation has continued to become worse due to the moisture condensation during these cold and dump winter nights. The new "state-of-the-art" window metal frames (with no internal insulation) conduct heat from the warm inside surfaces to the colder outside surfaces. Therefore, all the inside metal frame surfaces become very COLD which acts as a condensing surface for the moisture in the air of resident homes. It is believed that the condensates which collects on the lower window frame and window ...
Nick Perry, Lib Dem parliamentary hopeful for Hastings & Rye, has responded to the news that Rye is losing a valued community support officer by slamming the Government's ID card proposals. Nick said, "I was, like many others, saddened to hear about the move of local community support officer Dan Bevan from Rye town, and I [...]
70) D.N. Jha, The Myth of the Holy Cow (London: Verso 2002, ISBN 18598442430. This book is banned as blasphemous in India; it argues that the sanctity of the cow in Hinduism is a relatively late development dating back no further than the end of the first millennium CE, well after Hinduism's sacred texts were committed to writing, and cites examples of cows being sacrificed well into the twentieth century. It's well-referenced and on the whole convincing to this non-expert (I took the equivalent of one undergraduate module on Hinduism). The main weakness, so far as I could detect, is ...
Partly, admittedly, because I set up a Google Alert of his name earlier this year during the Presidential election, Lembit Opik never stops getting in my face. His latest interview was in Wales On Sunday yesterday (odd since just a week ago Lembit was dismissing the same paper as "poor use of [his] time"). Regarding the presidential election, to the surprise of no-one, he is utterly unrepentent: "I've been thinking about why the party establishment did not support me for the presidency. I put forward a new agenda, painting politics in primary colours, and perhaps they're just not ready for ...
The most popular names for children born in 2008 have been revealed today. Now 2008 isn't actually over yet, so I assume that there won't be a seasonal surge lifting Holly from its fall to 25th in the list. But the list is as ever a guide to trends across the UK. When we were choosing names for our daughter [...]
Iain Dale has wrote a thoughtful and considered piece on the current situation in the Gaza Strip which deserves a considered response. Firstly, it has to be established that nobody in this debate is here to defend Hamas actions in rocketing Israeli towns. I am not here to play the body count game either; it is a fact that Israeli's have been killed and injured by these rockets just as it is a fact alot more have been killed by Israel's actions. Making simple points about the comparative ratio of the dead is tempting because it tends to amplify the ...
More monsters, still more vivid villains and rich themes: cannibalism, transformation and television feasting on itself. Vengeance on Varos anticipates reality TV with an irresistible new villain; Colin Baker's passionate Doctor is interested in everything, soaring when paired with Patrick Troughton against a chef fancying best end of Jamie in The Two Doctors (also, with The Myth Makers, an outstanding novelisation). In the comics, the Doctor's having more hallucinatory adventures with an occasional penguin. And the postmodernism hits a stylish climax in... Revelation of the Daleks "Bring that woman to me. And while you are there, destroy that prattling DJ!" ...
From 2nd to 31st January you can recycle your Xmas cards in aid of the Woodland Trust. Our nearest card recycling point will be at the Tesco supermarket, but other stores collecting are WH Smith, TK Maxx and Marks & Spencer. Also don't forget to save your stamps - take them into our local charity shops, or drop them off to Paul Hulbert at 35 Blaisdon (he's collecting them for Cancer Research) or leave them at Dodington Parish Council (at the Parish Hall, next to Raysfield School in Finch Rd) for him to collect. You can read more about the ...
On the current slaughter in Gaza, its difficult to think of new things to say. Happily (!) Robert Fisk can find the right response in this article. And as ever our government calls for restraint...Oh, and the Middle East Envoy, one Tony Blair, says precisely bugger all. Happy New Year everyone.
A year ago, Lib Dem Voice posed 10 questions, the answers to which we believed might shape the Lib Dem year - time to revisit them, wethinks. To read Part I dealing with Qs 1-5, click here. 6. Will Nicol Stephen's leadership of the Scottish Lib Dems continue to bounce back? No, it didn't, though this was in large part due to Nicol's decision to resign the party leadership at the beginning of July, in order to put "the health and wellbeing" of his family first. The Scottish party has had a tough time, playing third fiddle to the Labour-SNP ...
Shortlisted for award: David Davis for resigning for the 42 days and calling a by-election Lord Jacobs resigning the Lib Dems to become Independent Winner of the award David Davis by far with his resignation for the 42 days terrorism bill that ended up getting thrown out of the Lords, David Davis did not get any opposition from the Lib Dems or Labour and I think we did the right thing at the time. We were against the 42 days so it was great to see a Conservative standing up for civil liberties. With rumours next year of laws to ...
[Letter to The Observer] Dear Editor, May I, via your Letters Page, attempt shamelessly and briefly to bathe in some of David Mitchell's reflected glory, and congratulate him on another successful year in the long path towards National Treasure Status! Since the days when I knew him at Cambridge (same college, same subject, different year) and he undoubtedly [...]
Strange that the BBC fails to mention claims of vote-rigging in the poll to find the Greatest Russian. Could it be that they felt it would be a little rich coming from them? If the BBC had run the poll, no doubt Stalin would have come third, only for them to come up with some convoluted excuse for why he managed to come first after all.
We all piled in the car and trouped off to Pett Level yesterday for a walk by the sea and then the river, to try to work off some of the Christmas pudding. What a truly beautiful piece of countryside there is here, protected by the Pett Level Reservation. I really encourage those of you [...]
One of the more interesting Christmas-related stories this year was the claim that the hymn "O Come All Ye Faithful" was a coded rallying call for the Jacobites. The Latin "Adeste Fidelis" was written by John Francis Wade, an English Catholic who fled the country after the failed 1745 rebellion, and it was not translated into English until 1841. The Daily Telegraph quoted Professor Bennett Zon from Durham as saying: "There is far more to this beloved song than meets the eye."Fideles is Faithful Catholic Jacobites. Bethlehem is a common Jacobite cipher for England, and Regem Angelorum is a well-known ...
I read a piece on Paul Linford's blog about another boy who died in terrible circumstances at the hands of his foster parents - who astonishingly had been cleared to adopt. However, it was this boy's tragic death, John Smith, that brought about a change in the law - a change that was able to be used for the trail following the death of Baby P: A group of journalists from the Brighton Argus launched a "Justice for John" campaign after murder charges against his adoptive parents were dropped in favour of a lesser charge of cruelty on the grounds ...
You may think that this was just another political YouTube film, this one happening to feature Nick Clegg talking about ID cards. But watch carefully 30 seconds in for the man entering stage left with a piece of string and a banana, eaten. Ten months on, I still have no idea why he would have been doing that: Click here to view the embedded video. While you're wondering about that, why not sign our petition against ID cards?
It's simple and it should epitomise London yet somehow the joy of cycling has not been embraced here yet. This picture is from West End Lane of a bike scheme little rolled out across London. When I was in Spain(Valencia) and France (Paris) it's obvious that cycle schemes are supported and encouraged and they are not just tourist playthings. The fact is this should be a cultural shift and I hope that this coming year will see Camden moving forward. There has been a sudden rush of cycle lock up point across the boroughs of Brent and Camden - many ...
When I landed in Bahrain a fortnight ago, Manama was a sea of red and white flags, marking National Day. Most buildings (and many boats!) were flying them and quite a number of the grandest edifices in the capital were illuminated with strings of red and white lights at night. But last evening, I was taken to [...]
OK I've attack the church a little bit recently but when they point out that the divide between rich and poor is getting wider that is something that the Lib Dems have been pointing out to Labour for a while. The Church is often a good judge of how the poorest are getting on as they are usually behind, involved in running or knowledgeable in the conditions of such. So when they say there is a growing divide not aided by the debt culture that is being encouraged they should be listened to. However, Labour in what is now their ...
I don't play MMORPGs like World of Warcraft. I try to avoid buying too many computer games, especially new ones, as I know what I'm like. Up until now though, I had no idea that Jennie was, in actualy fact, worse than me in this regard as well. She's hidden it well. Those of you that read miss_s_b or theyorkshergob might be wondering if her silence today is due to hangover or similar from her birthday yesterday. You might suspect she's recovering. Well, she is, sort of. She's sat on the sofa. Playing Speed Racer on the Wii. She's been ...
