49) Kancha Ilaiah, Buffalo Nationalism: A Critique of Spiritual Fascism (Kolkata: Samya 2004, ISBN 818560469X). A collection of Ilaiah's newspaper columns, full of passionate criticism of the Indian caste system and Hindutva political philosophy. In his eagerness to denounce what he sees as fascistic elements in Hinduism, he sometimes falls into the trap of assuming that Christianity, Islam and the cultures that have grown from them are intrinsically superior. I'm not qualified to comment on most of what he says about India and Hinduism themselves, but I found this an intriguing read. (Looking back over the books I've read this ...
With less than an hour to go until we reach 2009, I would like to take this opportunity to wish a HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of you who visit this blog. As regulars will know I've not been blogging much these past few months, primarily for health reasons. I'm happy to report that I seem to be well along the road to recovery although still waiting for an appointment with the Neurology department at PRI (letter last week saying that I'll get an appointment within the next 18 weeks which will undoubtedly become the kernel of a future post). ...
It's been a bad few months for retail businesses in our area. In Yate Shopping Centre Helibeds, Motor World and Woolworths have closed. Now Card Warehouse is closing down, and Chipping Sodbury hardware shop Lanes is also shutting its doors. Yate children's clothes shop Adams is in receivership but continuing to trade. Let's hope that 2009 brings better news.
One untold big story of 2008 was a political power shift, from the baby boomers to generation X. The baby boomers are, broadly speaking, the cohort born between 1946 and 1961. Having ruled much of the world, they are now on their way out. The boomers are being replaced by "generation X", the 28 to 45 year olds; though some would say that there's also a transitional generation, currently in their late 40s. Look at what's happened in 2008. In the United States presidential election, Barack Obama (born 1961) trounced John McCain. McCain was born in 1936 and is not ...
This blog started on the back of a trip to Sierra Leone as part of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) - and earlier this year I went back to West Africa to The Gambia. It's a part of the world I find myself fascinated by - geography, climate, history - and the people I've met are just stunning, optimistic and charming in the extreme... So the closing of 2008 and the opening of 2009 brings for me the chance to hope and pray for better living standards - Africa remains one of the great issues facing any developed nation, ...
I wasn't going to blog now, and leave it till 2009 to continue writing but I had to comment on Nick Clegg's call for suspension of EU and Israel talks. Personally I think Nick Clegg has done an excellent thing by speaking out about the disgusting behaviour shown by Israel. Many will say that its typical of me to support action when its towards Israel, if they is anyone reading this thinking that then I only have one thing to say: You are right! I support any calls from politicians in the UK upon Europe to stop talking with Israel! ...
So this time last year I posted my eight wishes for 2008 and now it is time to see how I did, not very well I fear: 1. To see the Liberal Democrats sustain poll ratings at least in the mid-twenties throughout the year - OK that was a bit optimistic, but I think that we have held our own in the face of a classic squeeze. Need to do better next year though. 2. To retain control of Swansea, Cardiff, Bridgend and Wrexham in May and make further advances both on those councils and elsewhere in Wales - in ...
A small boat (the SS Dignity) carrying doctors, human rights activists and three tonnes of medical supplies from Cyprus to Gaza was rammed by the Israeli navy in international waters yesterday, forcing the damaged boat to dock in southern Lebanon instead. Those on board the Dignity said they were rammed twice in the dark and without warning by the Israeli navy. The latter insisted they were the victims of a media stunt...English captain David Halpin told Reuters the wheelhouse glass of the boat was smashed and the rail ripped almost all the way from bow to stern. He also said ...
Glad to see that our leader, Nick Clegg, is urging the EU to suspend a proposed co-operation deal with Israel. It would be a start and a major signal that a significant body of international opinion opposes Israel's continued and disproportionate action in Gaza. LibDig This!
Britain is facing a difficult year. Every day, 200 families are now at risk of losing their homes, and three million people could be out of a job.
Wed 31st
18:20
LDV Awards 2008: Lib Dem Campaigner of the Year & Most Desperate Press Release of the Year
Many thanks to the 200+ LDV readers who took part in our end-of-year awards, which ran between 23rd and 28th December. Voting was conducted via Liberty Research using the alternative vote method of ranking the nominees for each of the eight categories. Yesterday, we announced the winners of Politician of the Year, and By-election Performance of the Year. Today, the next and final two Lib Dem categories: Liberal Democrat Campaigner of the Year There were four very strong contenders in this category. In particular, can I highlight Neil Trafford, a Lib Dem councillor in Manchester and the party's regional campaigns ...
So once again at Christmas time the Government has dug out those old chestnuts for a new attempt at making some decent stuffing. This year it is sat nav driven speed limiters that make it onto the fire for a slow roast. These voluntary devices will save the world, cutting down on fuel emissions and reducing road accidents as we cut speeds to the legal limit we are told. So the questions have to
Did you back Barack Obama in the presidential election? Were you delighted by his victory? Do you want a keepsake by which to remember this historic occasion? Well you're in luck! (Hat-tip.)
The Guardian reports: The private sector will be asked to manage and run a communications database that will keep track of everyone's calls, emails, texts and internet use under a key option contained in a consultation paper to be published next month by Jacqui Smith, the home secretary.If that is the sort of society she wants to live in, the sooner she fucks off to Pyongyang the better. And that's swearing.
I was interested to see, when I looked at the Observer website on Sunday, that in the poll about New Year's resolutions, 60% of those responding said they had never managed to keep one! Last year in this column, I strove to keep my personal resolutions to myself, and wrote instead about a political priority - [...]
For those who have escaped, Grace and I have had dreadful flu since before Christmas, to cap what hasn't been a great year! While we were holed up on the Norfolk coast with our infections, Mark Valladares was a hero and came to do some delivery in East Wickham. Overlooking, what a hero he is for this, and his previous visit the week before to help with clerical efforts, and what a heroine Ros is
Doctor Who's last year on TV for a while is among the best, with a dark and complex feel, female empowerment and echoes of magic... In books we get The Nightmare Fair, on stage it's The Ultimate Adventure, and what's on screen is jaw-dropping. The Brigadier gets a final stand-off against a demon; Ghost Light's evolutionary parable has great ideas, dialogue and characters; Survival is both domestic and otherwordly, and offers the perfect epitaph; and vampirism is reinvented in... The Curse of Fenric "Objects can't harm us - it's human belief. And you stopped believing when the bombs started falling." ...
"Under this Government, Britain will not return to the boom and bust of the past." Gordon Brown, Pre-Budget Report, 9th November 1999 "Britain does not want a return to boom and bust." Gordon Brown, Budget Statement, 21 March 2000 "Mr Deputy Speaker, we will not return to boom and bust." Gordon Brown, Budget Statement, 7 March 2001 "As I have said before Mr Deputy Speaker: No return to boom and bust." Gordon Brown, Budget Statement, 22 March 2006 "And we will never return to the old boom and bust." Gordon Brown, Budget Statement, 21 March 2007 November 2008: Gordon Brown ...
A Very Happy New Year to all of you. If you are out tonight then please take care as it is bitter cold and the ground is Frozen and hard and a fall will hurt even more than usual.
Can I take the opportunity to wish all that are reading this blog a very happy new year whatever your political persuasion although as you will al know I have my preferable political opinion. 2009 will be a very interesting year will Gordon Chance his arm and run to the polls? Will the Tories wake up to the fact that they do not have an economic Policy that will stand up to...
2009 will be an election year in Britain. If we do not see a general election, we will certainly be holding local and European elections. And by 2010 there will definitely be the general. The political parties hold their fire before well before an election. After all, there is no point in laying out your wears and seeing them ripped to shreds by your opponents. It is considered better to wait and reveal all when the campaigning begins. Despite that there are some clear trends in British politics. Talk of reforming public services is continuing. It is something that all ...
Being awarded the O.B.E. in the New Year's Honours, was completely unexpected, and yes, a huge honour! I received the letter notifying me a month ago, that the PM had recommended me for the honour in recognition for 'services to local government' To say I was gobsmacked, is an understatement! If you'd told me years ago in my radical youth that I would be offered, and accept such an offer, I'd have scoffed at the suggestion. But age brings a different perspective. My family, friends and community, feel genuinely thrilled for me, as indeed I do. Serving as a councillor ...
Back in 2004 I started what has become an end of year ritual of putting together a best of the year mixtape. This has evolved into quite an effort. Choosing the right tracks for what ends up at around three CDs worth of music and then sorting them into a hopefully musically coherent order using iTunes and, this year for the first time, some DJ mixing software usually ends up taking more time than
James's post reminds me that it's time to check back on my eight wishes for 2008 to see how they turned out. 1. That the fourth series of <DOCTOR.WHO> will be at least as good as the third; that the second series of The Sarah Jane Adventures will be at least as good as the first; and that the new series of Torchwood will be better than the first (and I'm sure it will). No, yes and yes. The most recent series of Who had the usual mix of good (Midnight and Turn Left) and not so good episodes (Planet ...
Obama's `Enough` - this moment at 3:50 was in my opinion what kicked off the 2008 election. This was THE speech for a generation. The `Enough` still sends shivers down my spine! I even stayed up until 3am to watch this live.
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 up is this posting by Matt Michael, which appeared on LDV on 21st November... Welcome to Nursery Britain Are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin. In 1945, perhaps in a desire to continue the communal spirit of the war, Britain elected its only Socialist government. Swathes of privately-owned businesses were nationalised, capitalism was abandoned in favour of state ownership, and Liberalism, which had taken Great Britain from a dreary archipelago ...
2008 has been an interesting year for me and for this blog. In May 2008 after some thought I started this blog in hope to entertain a very small number of people with my political punditry. This has since grown and since May 2008 I have had more then 40,000 visits to my blog! Since starting to blog it has enabled me to stay on top when it comes to the latest political news, commentary and statistics. Since May this blog has grown a huge amount and I hope it continues to grow like this in the future, I can ...
Local residents in Twerton will be pleased to hear that the food retailer in Twerton High Street trading under the name of Nearby Stores (Nisa local) has been saved after being bought out by CO-OP Southern after Nearby Stores went into administration a few weeks ago. The local store is an anchor store and is vital for the well being of Twerton High Street. It is great news that...
My New Year's Eve confession is that I've never before mustered the enthusiasm to watch a Lib Dem video. I used to watch the party political broadcasts, but I've given up on them in recent years. So with some trepidation on a quiet afternoon I took the plunge and spent ten minutes of my life (which, by the way, are now lost forever) watching the three Cleggster videos. We have Nick's New Year message, "The Liberal Democrats are Changing Britain" and "Ordinary people will pay for the mistakes of the Government". Where to start? Perhaps by saying up front that ...
Today's Daily Post carries a story about the Cabinet meeting in Liverpool early next month, plus a rather po faced comment from Downing Street saying that when they have something to announce they will. Err.. this publicity stunt has been well telegraphed for several weeks now. The local voluntary sector network has been e mailing its members asking for nominations for individuals to come and meet ministers after the meeting (hardly a big secret then). I fully appreciate the need to keep venues secret but for goodness sake I can't see any reason why Downing Street can't confirm what thousands ...
The condition of the Lower Bristol Road over the past few weeks has deteriorated very badly with rubbish at all points along its length now. Westmoreland Liberal Democrat Councillor Sharon Ball has called for this area to receive more attention. In a letter to Bath & North East Somerset Councils executive member responsible for cleaning I have called for a deep...
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Ruler of Dubai, and King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain have cancelled all New Year celebrations out of solidarity with the Palestinians currently under Israeli onslaught. Certainly, the carnage in Gaza makes the Holy Land a troubled place this year's end — as indeed it is also for [...]
Went out with PPC Colin Eldridge the other day to do some post Christmas deliveries in Kensington. A lovely bright day. A tad on the cold side but felt very virtuous at having worked off a bit of the Christmas food. Having helped in this part of Liverpool several times now I couldn't help but notice that the regeneration which has been going on for several years seems to have made some impact now. New homes for sale, some of which are occupied already, and some rennovation work on terraces.
Most of this article was written on Monday but I've only just got around to finishing it. I enjoyed the Nine Carols and Lessons for Godless People enormously and 2009 will, by all accounts, be a bit of a party for atheists. Starting in January we have the Atheist Bus Campaign and then throughout the year people will be celebrating both the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species. And yet, and yet... If there was one thing that bugged me about the Carol Service, it ...
Most of these reviews can also be found on Amazon.In the fourth quarter of 2008, I read the following books: 1. War For The Oaks, by Emma Bull I knew this wasn't going to be good after reading the overblown similes in the first two sentences - "By day, the Nicollet Mall winds through Minneapolis like a paved canal. People flow between its banks, eddying at the doors of office towers and department stores". Thankfully, it's not all like that - much more and I'd have just had to stop like I did with Moby Dick. Even so, it's a ...
The Doctor's taking on mighty enemies: Remembrance of the Daleks is brilliantly made and intelligently scripted, from the pre-titles to the flying Daleks; The Greatest Show in the Galaxy mixes scary clowns and ancient powers; both have alarmingly large explosions. In shops, Doctor Who videos start affordable releases. And one night, the Doctor just turns up and topples an empire... The Happiness Patrol "Why don't you do it, then? Look me in the eye? Pull the trigger - end my life?" "No..." "Why not?" "I can't." "Why not?" "I don't know." "No, you don't, do you... Throw away your gun." ...
The Liberal Democrats are a fundamentally different kind of organisation to the other main political parties because of our internal democracy. Labour and Conservatives' organisational model is a "strong man" at the top to dictate policy and and strategy. The Liberal Democrats are different in deciding policy through a representative party conference and electing principal officials of the party [...]
Last night I went to Simpsons in Edgbaston with Mat and Dean.
Rod Blagojevich who faces federal corruption charges has appointed former state attorney general Roland Burris for Barack Obama's Senate Seat.
Best wishes for 2009. For this, the second year of the website, I shall try to include more city-wide and national news. Here's Nick Clegg's new year message - it's very watchable and only 3 minutes of your time! http://www.nickclegg.com/video/
Four political events that SHOULD occur in 2009: 1. A General Election. Issues are now so different from 2005 and government and opposition policies so different from the manifestos of that year that MPs and the government should ask for a fresh mandate. 2. The House of Lords should be reformed. Any of a score of ideas put forward for the the composition of a [...]
Part One - Two Big Surprises It's thought that Gordon Brown will have a January reshuffle in anticipation of a 2009 election. We could have a long debate about whether or not there will be an election in 2009 but, regardless, a potential election will be at the forefront of Brown's (and Mandelson's) mind when appointing the next batch of Ministers. A lot has been written about a potential return to the Conservative Shadow Cabinet for one of their dwindling number of 'big beasts', Ken Clarke. But nothing has been written about any of the Liberal Democrats' 'Big Beasts', probably ...
"A private company could be asked to run a huge database containing details of everybody's telephone calls, emails and internet use, it has been reported." "The database, which critics claim would cost up to £12bn, is not intended to record the content of communications, but only the details of internet sites visited and what emails and telephone calls have been made, to whom and at what times. " As reported today on BBC News This is getting perilously close to George Orwell's 1984 vision of society. Liberal Democrat Lords challenge telephone and internet record database proposals Mon, 17 Nov 2008 ...
From Gaza, with Love, a blog by Gazan Dr. Mona El-Farra who is a physician by trade and a human and women's rights 'by practice', has some insights into the current situation which bear sharing. Specifically, El-Farra shows how the Israeli blockade of Gaza has crippled the medical services and hampered the effort to save lives; "The siege of Gaza has left our hospitals without one hundred basic medications and many important diagnostic and laboratory equipment is not working because spare parts aren't available and the fluctuation of current from our irregular power supply has left some equipment beyond repair." ...
Nominations for the Party Presidency opened on 1 September. We knew that Lembit would run, although his campaign was a bit of a slow-burner, as James Graham took great pleasure in pointing out. The 'I'm 4 Ros' campaign, already in high gear, launched officially with a video, a launch event, a campaigning event in Kingston and a database that was beginning to show just how valuable it would
A happy new year to all the readers of the blog, and to everyone else in the ward, in Bury and, what the hell, the entire world. 2008 has seen lots of action from the Lib Dem Councillors in St Mary's. There's been really big stuff like the plans for the regeneration of Prestwich and the big improvements that are going to come courtesy of the new Prestwich plan. We've also seen the creation of exciting plans for Drinkwater Park in conjunction with the Forestry Commission, which will start to come to fruition this year. And of course we led ...
For all who are interested in the cause of Middle East peace, there are demonstrations in Edinburgh and Glasgow this weekend. We hope to be going to the Edinburgh one, depending on how Bob is, to show our opposition to the thoroughly disproportionate and indiscriminate Israeli action. Sending the bombers in is not going to bring about any sort of lasting peace and will only breed greater resentment and carry on this hatred for anothe generation. It has to stop somewhere, and the international community has a responsibility to take action. Saturday 3 Jan, Gaza Protest, (Glasgow) 12noon outside Lloyds ...
There is an intriguing article from Robert Fisk in the Independent today where he talks about Hamas and the Israeli Army, both of which he criticises strongly. What is interesting is the point he makes that the Israeli Army has not won a conflict since 1973. All its incursions into Lebanon ended in chaos, stalemate and eventual withdrawal, with Hizbollah able to establish itself as a serious threat to Israel and a state within a state in Lebanon. Not much to celebrate there, then. This is interesting because it hints at the possibility that the assault on Gaza is not ...
Darlington has a rich and exciting history, thanks largely to the Quaker families who dominated the town for so long. One of the great joys of living here is that we can read all about their exploits in Echomemories, Deputy Editor Chris Lloyd's regular page in the Northern Echo. For those of you outside the area, www.northeasthistory.co.uk and www.northernecho.co.uk/audiovideo are links to
I don't know many people who read the Daily Record. Maybe that's because it's a Scottish paper and most of my friends aren't Scottish, or maybe because the Record is one of the worst examples of the words 'tabloid' and 'red-top' and my friends have good taste! So I hadn't heard about the Record's 'exclusive' on Dr Ewan Crawford, [...]
Can't figure out why Super Grub Disk will not boot properly from USB and desperately needs this to fix a confused Master Boot Record
If 2008 was many things it also taught us the credibility gap between the shine that some countries use to pull in tourists/travellers and the actual reality on the ground. It's all well and good for these countries to say `ah but you should have looked at the rules` - why then do they not [...]
Nick Clegg calls for suspension of EU/Israel agreement: "Innocent people are being killed and injured by a military operation that will only serve to further inflame extremism, and weaken the moderate Palestinian and Arab opinion which Israel's long term security depends on." Vince Cable criticises knighthood for Treasury chief: "I would have thought it a rather premature judgment on government policy, which is far from assured of being a success. There is a slight element of self-congratulation about it." Ken Macdonald, the former Director of Public Prosecutions, criticises Labour's plans for a database to track emails and phone calls - ...
... recycle it! But only if it is a real one, of course. The Council will collect your tree on the day when your wheelie bin is emptied, starting next Monday. That means some people will have to put theirs out before Twelfth Night, the traditional day to take down Christmas decorations. Don't forget that next week, everyone's collection day will be a day later than usual....
There is an article in today's Courier (click on headline above to view) regarding the continuing - and, indeed, increasing - parking charges at Ninewells Hospital and I spoke on Radio Tay this morning about the issue. I made clear that SNP Ministers are shedding crocodile tears over the matter, having made little effort to tackle the issue of parking charges at Ninewells, subject to a PFI contract, whilst introducing free parking at other hospitals. SNP Public Health Minister Shona Robison's claim that she believes "NHS resources are best directed at patient care" is a weak excuse as it contrasts ...
Pendle Lib Dems press release: Liberal Democrat Councillors have welcomed the planning application for the proposed new Health Centre on the "Kwiksave" or "Railway Street Mill"site off Craddock Road. The Leader of Pendle Council, Councillor John David, said that they were very pleased that the East Lancashire Primary Care Trust of the NHS had chosen the site that local Councillors preferred from the beginning of the consultations a year ago. Councillor David said: "This is really good news. This is the best available site for this really excellent new facility for people in Colne and the surrounding area. We had ...
The holidays have given me time to explore the World of Warcraft, lured in by the 10 day free trial accounts they are offering right now. What a dangerously seductive game this is - cleverly crafted to make you keep coming back to bring your character up to 'just another level'. As Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films were a brilliant realisation of JRR Tolkein's books we were brought up on, so Warcraft is a near-perfect visual representation of the paper-and-dice Dungeons and Dragons games of my youth. I was also interested in the pricing model. To upgrade to ...
Perhaps the oldest fraud in the financial system is the Pyramid scheme, a fraudulent operation that pays returns to investors out of the money paid by subsequent investors rather than from profit. In America, the Pyramid is known a the Ponzi scheme, after the name of one high profile fraudster of the 1920s. The principle is simple: the scheme usually offers abnormally high returns in order to entice new investors. The perpetuation of the high returns that a Ponzi scheme advertises and pays requires an ever-increasing flow of money from investors in order to keep the scheme going. Yet the ...
Table from Political Betting. After much study of the table above I have made some interesting finds. The Tories and Labour party at the last European Parliament election lost 13 seats between them across the UK. The Conservatives lost 8 whilst Labour lost 5! Image what 2009 could bring, if the Conservatives lost that many this time round and the Labour party will most likely lose that many seats anyway but image what could be the outcome. I personally think that the Tories loses in the next election (if they are any) will be in the North. Cameron isn't very ...
It will be hosted here at Liberal England and should go live on Sunday evening. If you see any British blog postings you think particularly fine this week - including ones on your own blog - just send the links to britblog [at] gmail [dot] com by Sunday lunchtime and I will do the rest.
A true friend is someone who's prepared to tell you when you're wrong or you've made a mistake - even when they know that message may not immediately help your friendship. With its current massive attack on Gaza, Israel is clearly wrong. Worse still, it's in danger of making a historic mistake. In criticising Israel's bombing, no-one is making light of the rocket attacks its civilians have endured for months by Hamas - even during the ceasefire. Nor do I question Israel's right to defend herself. Yet the rationale for the attack put forward by the Israeli Government - that ...
Sylvester McCoy is the Doctor in a series that's brightly coloured and inspired by comics and modern life. Dragonfire brings streetwise new companion Ace and a host of film references (from zombies to noirish love and betrayal, and a villain's horrible death from Indiana Jones), but I particularly love... Paradise Towers "Are these old ladies annoying you?" "No." "Are you annoying these old ladies?" "No, she isn't! ...And I do wish you wouldn't keep breaking down our door to 'save' us." "That's the third time we've had it repaired, and it's not as if we've ever been in any trouble!" ...
I only wonder but ... the job of being a local council Chief Executive involves being responsible for far more staff, far bigger budgets and (much though I think my colleagues in our media team are important) far more important issues than heading up a media. The awful fallout if a council bungles its Children's Services is perhaps the starkest indication of how much more important running a council is than running a media team. Yesterday Eric Pickles was in the news attacking councils, some of whom paying their chief executives six figures salaries. Leaving aside the embarrassing for him ...
A local nursery may be forced to close due to its funding being withdrawn by Bath & North East Somerset's Conservative administration. The Nursery under threat is the Crèche at The Hut at Hinton Close Twerton. Bath & North East Somerset Council's Conservative executive member for Children's services has decided to only fund one Nursery at First Steps in Twerton that...
Ah, the glories of the internet: try out this site and pop your cares away.
Like the Bourbons this Government seem determined to learn nothing and forget everything. This morning's Guardian confirms that Britain is leaving this year in the same way as we departed 2007, at the bottom of the World league table when it comes to protecting people's privacy. The paper reports that the Government is planning to go-ahead with creating a huge database that will keep track of everyone's calls, emails, texts and internet use but, as if to add insult to injury, they are going to ask the private sector to manage it: External estimates of the cost of the superdatabase ...
Listening to the Today programme this morning I was reminded of the interesting attitude we have to our politicians when it comes to sex and drugs, where people (or, at least, newspaper editors) seem to genuinely care about whether or not someone who's been an MP for a decade or two might have smoked pot at university forty years ago. The Today piece (suggested by excellent guest editor Jarvis Cocker) pointed out that the politicians of yesteryear got up to as much or more when it comes to unconventional lifestyles but it rarely became public. It also asked whether the ...
So, it is New Years Eve and one can't really avoid reflective and prospective blogs because after all tis' the season. I am told by my (much) better half that the fact that I attach perhaps greater meaning to this Eve than the one the previous week is a bit odd so maybe during the course of this post you will have to indulge me a little. Speaking personally for a second; don't worry there is politics coming-up, I have come an awful long-way in a year and an awful lot is due to my partner. I remember vividly being ...
I was fascinated for most of yesterday by the discussion around a report by government transport advisors that Speed-limiting devices should be fitted to cars on a voluntary basis to help save lives and cut carbon emissions. They believe that the technology will cut road accidents with injuries by 29%. The campaign group Safe Speed say that this system will encourage drivers to enter a "zombie mode" and are concerned that it will be another automated system that deals with speed rather than bad driving. In some vehicles that carry this technology drivers have been known to lose concentration and ...
It may be Hogmanay but that means the announcement of Queen Liz's New Year's honours. Those plucky British Olympians are adding to their Beijing honours with one knighthood, six CBEs, 13 OBEs and 35 MBEs in Queenies New Years Honour lists. No prizes for guess who will be having the royal sword dubbed on his proud shoulders, it's Mister Chris for his three cycling golds. But Liz didn't take poolside advice from the Water Cube proffered by Miss Cassie by only making 'Dame' Rebecca Adlington only an OBE. Paralympian Miss Ellie Saunders becomes the youngest ever recipient of the MBE ...
YAY! Also, innerbrat and ms_ntropy seemed to enjoy themselves chez SB. Tomorrow I have to supervise the installation of my new bit of furniture by burlesque_bunny's other half, give my daddy a Facebook tutorial, and work till 2 am; and then we're going to Devon on Thursday, if Mat ever gets around to ringing his family to tell them we are coming... So you may not see much of me for a bit. Just so you know ;)
