And so to Brunswick Square for the launch of the 2009 Radio 3 Composers of the Year. It is: the 350th anniversary of the birth of Henry Purcell;the 250th anniversary of the death of Georg Friedrich Handel;the 200th anniversary of the death of Joseph Haydn; and,the 200th anniversary of the birth of Felix MendelssohnIt is a very rich year for musical anniversaries, especially given the connections
So it says here, and on the radio earlier today. Apparently it's going to save public money: Mr Cameron said: "I think the House of Commons could do the job that it does with 10% fewer MPs without any trouble at all." Does any of this sound familiar? Well, perhaps not. We did word it better: There are too many national politicians, and they cost too much, so we'll shrink parliament by 150 MPs. But you know, it's on page *twelve* of the Make It Happen document we launched three months ago, so I expect it's taken dopey call-me-Dave this ...
As reported in today's "Courier", I am pleased to report that Scottish Water contractors have committed to removing a multi-coloured mess from the pavements and roadway of Thomson Street. During autumn of last year, Scottish Water's contractors Carillion undertook site investigations in Thomson Street to look at the condition of the water main, to see if it required replacement. The investigatory works required marking the different utilities piping, jointing, etc on the street - with different utilities in different colours - leaving the road and pavement something of a patchwork of coloured markings, detracting from the look of the street. ...
I would love to have the nerve to do what Chris Evans did to the Police ! Well done to him.
I'll be posting more about Final Crisis when the next issue comes out (and between following up on Batman on Thursday and then getting Superman Beyond 3D 2 next week, I'm tingling with anticipation (and incidentally, everyone, the title isn't just Superman Beyond but Superman Beyond 3D - because he's travelling beyond the third dimension...)). [...]
(with apologies for the title - in my defence I was chanelling the spirit of Ian Dury at the time) I enthusiastically signed up to Suw Charman-Anderson's Ada Lovelace Day pledge and now I have a dilemma: who do I blog about? I'm wracking my brains to think of someone and am struggling. This in turn presents me with a second dilemma: do I suffer in silence or admit to my failure and ask for help? I've opted to go for the latter. Can anyone help me?
I have a basic knowledge of these - I have one on my Freehold house for £2.50 a year. Does anyone know why these exist, whether there are any tax breaks for those that hold them (ie the proprietors) or whether or not there is any legal impediment for a policy that just scraps them. This [...]
The day started with Shadow Cabinet which I've now started to attend fairly regularly. Discussing future business in the Lords and the Commons, it's noticeable that most of the major Bills have started life in the Lords, whilst business in the Commons centres mainly on debate. One reading of these particular runes is that this is to allow Labour members to get out of Westminster and work in their constituencies. And here in Brent North, Mark and I received a missive from our Labour MP Barry Gardiner, the first since, oh, just before the election that never was in 2007. ...
Something escapes me here. Perhaps Vince can advise? Let's just take Bank X. Apparently we (the taxpayer) now own 43% of this wondrous institution. And now, having brought shares, pumped in capital, extended its credit and guaranteed its very essence, just so it starts lending, we are also going to underwrite it's loans. Now, having studied economics at university in my youth, I'm obviously at a disadvantage here, because I just don't get it. Aren't we just guaranteeing their profits? Aren't we just encouraging the sort of profligacy which got us in this mess in the first place? Can't we ...
Perhaps David Cameron will come to regret doing his interview with Andrew Marr from his own home. I know that he has taken the decision to open up his home and his family to the media (something Nick Clegg has refused to do) and that is fair enough if you are prepared to cross that threshold. But the BBC staff apparently took agin what they perceived as high-handedness (surely another example of BBC bias). And then the line went down three times during the course of the piece. And now the Guardian has published a 'How to live like Cameron' ...
Nick Clegg today announced the membership of the party's Commission on Privacy. It will examine the use, abuse and retention of private data, and propose new safeguards to protect individual rights. The members are: David Heath MP (Chair)Simon DaviesShami ChakrabartiBaroness Sue MillerHenry PorterProf. Ross AndersonRichard Rampton QCRichard AllenA very impressive list, particularly with the inclusion of Davies, Chakrabarti and Porter. Further details on the party website.
There's a typically forthright article in today's Times by David Aaronovitch excoriating all three major political parties for their pusillanimous response to the anti-immigration movement represented by Labour's Frank Field and the Tories' Nicholas Soames. His ire was provoked by BBC Radio 4's Beyond Westminster programme (available here on iPlayer for the next few days) and specifically the responses of the politicians interviewed: Not one of the pols, Chris Huhne, of the Lib Dems, Damian Green, of the Tories, or Phil Woolas, of Labour, could find anything good to say about immigration, except in passing on quickly to how tough ...
CAMRA will tell you that 30-odd pubs close every week, and that this is a terrible thing. What they don't tell you is how many of those pubs are like this one, which the owners want to demolish. The Parchmore Tavern is at the top of my road, and has been a crappy pub for all the time I've lived here. The beer was bad, it was dirty, and it didn't attract a particularly pleasant crowd. I suppose it's a bit similar in that respect to the Fountain Head nearby which has also closed - indifferent beer (although better than ...
Tuesday: 1. According to the BBC, Monday the 23rd of March will see the release of a long-awaited new album from the Pet Shop Boys, to be called "Yes". (Presumably to be accompanied by an even-longer-awaited* new album from "Yes" called "Pet Shop Transcendental Unicorns and stuff"). The album will feature Mr Jonny Marrmite. Which isn't as funny as if it featured Mr ANDY Marrmite. But then HE's in Mr Kevin Space-age's new play, so go figure! 2. Ms Lynne Featherweight posts to tell us the excellent news that Tuesday 24th of March will be Ada Lovelace day. In case ...
I had been planning to write a posting asking why the BBC thought that repeatedly listening to James May belch in the trailer would make us want to watch Oz and James Drink to Britain. But I did watch it this evening and one of the tracks they used for background music was Trampoline by the Spencer Davis Group. So that's all right then.
With a tip of my hat to The Times's Sam Coates, may I present exhibit A), this latest posting by that tedious caricature of right-wing Toryness, Donal Blaney, chief executive of the Young Britons' Foundation: Guido links to Derek Draper's appearance on Channel 4 News last night, debating with Tim Montgomerie, on the launch of LabourList. When Channel 4 tried to link to LabourList, the site crashed. For once Chris Paul's paranoia was correct. What Guido didn't reveal is that that was down to a coordinated effort of Conservative Future activists! Oh! the hilarity. Complete the following sentence: while Conservative ...
Today has been an interesting day for cyber politics, David Cameron has shown that he is one of the lowest campaigners of 2009 by creating a party video that just pushes it and then the Labour party activists have created a video replying to it. Personally I think Cameron has played it low but Labour have done good with the counter attack, lets see Cameron's crewe come out with anything better. The Tory video talks about Gordon's debt to new born babies and the Labour video talks about the lack of benefits available. If I was to have a child ...
Just had a quick look at the new LabourList website and I can't say I was terribly impressed with what I saw. It's being billed as the Labour alternative to Conservative Home and Lib Dem Voice, but so far it's not a patch on either of them. Its contributors list is stuffed full of the great and the good of New Labour, so I doubt it will provide a real voice for grassroots members that both its major party rivals do. The feeling of a top-down, Pravda-style publication is enhanced by having as its main headline at the moment: 'Responding ...
It's official. The cost of baby formula/milk is kept at an artificially high price - all because of the European Union. Last night, I noticed that Sainsbury's were running a 1/3 off all its baby products with the sole exception of baby formula. I guessed that this was down to the pressure from the 'breast is best' lobby and banged off an email to Sainsbury's customer services department. Today, Brian from Sainsbury's called (I'm very impressed they got back to me so quickly) and told me that: No company is allowed to promote baby formula - this is to ensure ...
Writing this morning of Greenpeace's attempt to frustrate the building of a third runway at Heathrow by selling off numerous small plots of land to different owners, I said: I do remember Friends of the Earth trying to use a similar tactic to prevent a road being built across Otmoor in Oxfordshire and getting nowhere.It turns out that the motorway in question was an extension of the M40. And it was not built across Otmoor after all. Was this due to Friends of the Earth's tactics? The Alice's Meadow website claims it was: In order to construct the motorway, all ...
According to Jonathon Clarke neoconservatism will die as George Bush leaves. That's great news. Here's how he summarised neocon foreign policies: a tendency to see the world in binary good/evil terms low tolerance for diplomacy readiness to use military force emphasis on US unilateral action disdain for multilateral organisations focus on the Middle East Western leaders often talk about concerns of the extreme state of Iran, or socialism in South America (such as Chavez). But neoconservatism is perhaps far worse. The reality is the US Administration has been so hypocritical towards countries like Iran and perhaps the USA has been ...
This afternoon, I decided to pop down to the Starbucks on the ground floor of my otherwise unappealing office skyscraper, to buy a skinny vanilla latte with sugar-free syrup (as I'm sure you all do). It isn't something that I do every day, but often enough that the staff recognise me. Today, however, I found myself behind a couple of young, smartly dressed employees of Deloittes, that ubiquious
With all the on and off speculation there has been ever since Gordon Brown became Prime Minister about whether and when he will or won't call an election, something has been bugging me. We don't have a presidential system in this country and yet it is the PM and him/her alone who is tasked with taking the decision about when an election should be. Now I personally think that we should at least try and have some sort of fixed term parliament such as this campaign is trying to achieve. There are all sorts of practical barriers to this with ...
Did you follow Simon Hughes' example a while back and pledge to refuse to carry an ID card, even if the alternative was going to prison? I don't think I did, to be honest. I'd like to be brave enough, but I thought about the effect on myself and my family and wimped out. Even if I had signed the pledge, I'd have thought twice before going through with it when push came to shove. So thanks to John over at Liberal Revolution, for reminding me about the plight and bravery of Senegal's LGBT community, who face up to five ...
Anyone who remembers the years of job losses under Thatcher and the Tories during much of the 1980s will surely remember the News At Ten's regular roundup on every Friday evening bringing figures of all the redundancies announced during the previous seven days, and all those new jobs announced. It used to be a rather bleak thing, with you being able to see a snapshot of the misery the country was suffering, but given all the news of job redundancies that we hear every day, you have to wonder if we are not in need of the job map in ...
At least according to this article appearing on the Yahoo website, stretching credibility just a little. A case of Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc methinks. Although if it was his fault, then he's a bit of a rebel, rebel. I'll get my coat.
Whilst driving into Watford to collect my daughter and her friend, my mind was obviously on my earlier posting. The words of the Lee Anne Womack song 'I hope you dance' came into my mind, probably as a result of being featured at the weekend as one of the 'Inheritance Tracks' of Gavin and Stacey [...]
The Conservatives have put out a new video on YouTube with the aim of highlighting the long-term effects of Gordon Brown's economic policy. Unfortunately the video features a baby being fed formula milk from a bottle. This is a double boob(!) for David Cameron's Tories. Don't they know that breastmilk is free? They are doing the public a [...]
I don't think we need to cut the number of MP's in the North but I am not sure about the South but for some reason David Cameron and Nick Clegg currently have started the chattering of cutting MP numbers. It comes from a post done by Will Howell who blogs about how David Cameron would cut 10% of the number of MP's we currently have and Nick Clegg has said we need to cut 150 MP's. Personally I think cuts should not be brought in and if they are then both the Lib Dems and Tories need to talk ...
Gordon Brown, Saviour of the World, is on a new mission to protect the population of the planet Earth from impending disaster. Having cured the banks of imminent death and destruction, Flush Gordon wants to turn his hand to stamping out cancer, so claims The Sun in one of the most sycophantic and stomach churning articles I have read in a newspaper. Speaking about the impending presidency of
If anyone fancies writing anything on here please let me know.
Interesting article in yesterday's Times regarding the impact of the economic downturn on local councils: One in four councils in England has reported an increase in homelessness and more than half have experienced a rise in housing benefit claimants as the recession bites. A snapshot survey also shows that the demand for free school meals and state school places has shot up, and more people have sought help for mental health problems. The study carried out at the end of last year shows the extent to which the downturn is affecting demand for a range of public services. Almost all ...
Kudos to Greenpeace. In their campaign to stop a third runway being built at Heathrow, they've bought a football-pitch sized piece of land that's in the way. The plan is to split it into thousands of tiny plots and sell them to people around the world, giving BAA, and the Government, a nightmare of having to negotiate to buy each mini-plot individually before development can proceed. It's a clever idea. Given that both the Conservatives and Lib Dems (not to mention a number of Labour backbenchers - those with spines, presumably) oppose the expansion of Heathrow, it's a battle that ...
I've just found this which suggests that laughter can help to control weight loss. If only it were that simple, that reading George Osborne's speeches, or the SNP Guide to Budgeting would have me in a size 12 before the year was out. But what if it were true? What would be the laughter equivalent of superfoods to boost weight loss? Clearly, humour is very much in the eye of the beholder. Believe it or not, there are some people who find Roy Chubby Brown funny. I haven't yet forgiven my sister for giving me one of his videos one ...
Lib Dem Voice has invited both the Liberal Democrat Friends of Palestine (article published here yesterday) and the Friends of Israel to submit articles looking at the current Middle East crisis. Today we publish this contribution from Matthew Harris, Secretary of Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel. At the pro-Israeli peace rally on Sunday 11 January, Trafalgar Square echoed to the sound of speaker after speaker calling, as the thousands of placards read, for "peace for the people of Israel and Gaza". As a Liberal Democrat who believes in human rights and the rule of law, I cannot echo those calls ...
Childhood has well and truly come into the 21st century with the invention of the nu.mate. Revealed to the world this week and on sale from March, this device takes the form of a GPS tracker contained within a digital watch that allows you to track your child's movements anywhere they go and follow them [...]
The tragic events unfolding in Gaza right now have shocked people around the world. Like many of the people who've contacted me about this, I am appalled at the totally disproportionate response of the Israeli government to the ending of the ceasefire. Liberal Democrat MPs and campaigners are working hard to ensure the Government does [...]
Tue 13th
14:20
Another Conservative forgets how the public sector works - or is Lord James of Blackheath not paying...
David James was, in his day, a 'company doctor' of some renown, rescuing a series of British companies from misfortune, incompetence, or the vagaries of the economic cycle. In recent years, however, he became better known for his review of government spending, carried out on behalf of the Conservative Party prior to the 2005 General Election. That review called for fairly swingeing cuts in
I've been riding on the ghost bus today. It was rather a pleasant journey, meandering through the backroads of west and south London accompanied by friends, fellow Lib Dems, public transport exports and the world's press. The clerk in the ticket office at Ealing Broadway station was amazed that Wandsworth Road became one of the most popular destinations for a few minutes this morning. But not one person on the bus was actually trying to get from Ealing Broadway to Wandsworth Road. We were all there in our various ways to draw attention to how absurd this once-a-week coach is, ...
I've been riding on the ghost bus today. It was rather a pleasant journey, meandering through the backroads of west and south London accompanied by friends, fellow Lib Dems, public transport exports and the world's press. The clerk in the ticket office at Ealing Broadway station was amazed that Wandsworth Road became one of the most popular destinations for a few minutes this morning. But not one person on the bus was actually trying to get from Ealing Broadway to Wandsworth Road. We were all there in our various ways to draw attention to how absurd this once-a-week coach is, ...
The real shock in this morning's Western Mail article about Welsh Tory Leader, Nick Bourne's expenses was not the fact that he allegedly claimed more than £1,800 from public funds to run a website, but that he used his expenses to pay Preseli Pembrokeshire Conservative Association a total of £3,450 in respect of room hire for his surgeries - at £150 a time. If these figures are right then they raise questions about value for money. Like the Welsh Conservative AM for my region, Alun Cairns, I use a room in Killay to hold surgeries for which we each pay ...
William Stone died at the weekend at the amazing age of 108. He was one of the last four surviving servicemen who had served in both World Wars, and you may have seen the him, with two others, laying wreaths at the Cenotaph last year. A couple of years ago I spent a very cheerful time with him, travelling on one of the Dunkirk little boats up the Thames. Here he...
From today's Telegraph: The number of staff earning three-figure salaries at the Department of Health has shot up from just eight in 1997 when Labour came to power. Norman Lamb, Liberal Democrat health spokesman who obtained the figures in response to a written Parliamentary question, said: "For too long the Government's priority has been increasing the amount of bureaucracy in the NHS. "The explosion in the number of managers, not just in the Department of Health but across the NHS in general, is crazy when front line services are under huge pressure. People will be shocked that so many civil ...
Illinois Secretary of State has signed all the paperwork for Roland Burris' appointment to the Senate, now he has to be seated.
This letter in the most recent Sunday Times is signed by my UEL professor and a number of other prominent lawyers and academics. Probably unsurprisingly, I agree with it.
An email from the Conference office reminds us: It may not feel like it, but spring is just around the corner and that means the Liberal Democrats Spring Conference in Harrogate is fast approaching. Early signs indicate that this is set to be our biggest spring conference yet, so if you've not had a chance to register, book your place now! (And if you've already registered, thank you!) This is your last chance to save up to 30% on registration rates. Register online before 21 January to take advantage of fantastic offers. And why not save yourself time and money ...
NUS have called another extraordinary conference for the 20th of February. If I'm really lucky this will be almost as interesting as the last one! (I know sarcasm doesn't come across that well on here but believe me thats what that was!) It will hopefully ratify the proposed constitution passed at the last conference and start implementing it.
Here's a post I've been meaning to write for weeks but haven't managed: the subject seemed too big and I was having trouble marshalling my thoughts and finding a way to put in a blog post that made sense. It isn't really the answer to everything - not quite. It certainly isn't the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything - we all know that one, anyway. It doesn't even compare to God's Final Message to Creation. But it's not bad as these things go. And, as with many of the best answers, it won't really surprise you either. You ...
One of the problems with the Government inventing lots of complicated tax credits and benefits is that people very often don't get what they are entitled to. One example is something called the "children's tax credit" (not to be confused with the 'child tax credit' which is what you can get now). This ran for just two years 2001/02 and 2002/03 and the deadline for claiming for 2002/03 is the end of January 2009. The 'children's tax credit' was introduced in 2001 to make sure that people with children did not lose out when the married couple's tax allowance was ...
Brian Paddick, the Lib Dems' candidate for Mayor of London in 2008, married his partner Peter Belsvik in Norway this weekend. The Sun has the full story, revealing that guests included some of Brian's fellow jungle contestants on I'm A Celebrity, including Simon Webbe, Nicola McLean and George Takei: Brian, 50, was the sixth celebrity voted out of the reality show last year, after undergoing gruelling challenges such as sleeping in a cage full of rats and skydiving. After leaving the jungle, he said: "For a long time, in the police force, I've been doing serious stuff. It's all bad ...
Back in the peace and safety of my Strasbourg office questions come to my mind. How did we get into Gaza given that the Israelis had made clear that they would not let us in? Who knows, but I imagine it was all down to the UNRWA people. In effect we were smuggled into Rafah to take the briefest of looks at what was going on, with the risk being taken that the Israelis would not stop a UN convoy. We also had great assistance from the Eygyptian authorities, again for unknown reasons but given the peace treaty between Israel ...
This is one of the more inventive ways of stopping the Heathrow expansion. Apparently, this new extension will bring in 60,000 jobs to the UK. I'm not entirely convinced. But even if it did, with the current economic problems, how many of us will be flying abroad? Rather than focusing on 60,000 jobs in one place (which will be built on a weakening sector, tourism), maybe the Government can encourage home-tourism? Keeping towns throughout the UK going, by encouraging us to visit the many incredible places we have here, is far more effective (and patriotic!) than just bunging a massive ...
Our eyes have been focussed on Gaza - yet we mustn't forget the other outrages in the world. http://www.afrol.com/articles/32108
Tue 13th
11:23
Job Evaluation - Information on Dismissal Letters asks as many questions as it answers
I have some more information regarding the Equal Pay / Job Evaluation dismissal letters which were sent out and then withdrawn. The facts on this issue have always been a bit murky and complicated, and they get no clearer as time goes on. Apparently the Council were informed by solicitors acting for Unison, on Christmas Eve, that there hadn't been the required consultation on the dismissal element of the JE process. Bury Council then responded (also on Christmas Eve) to the solicitors that there had been lots of consultation on JE. They were met with a response saying that the ...
Cross-posted from The Wardman Wire: The 1992 polling debacle The 1992 general election was a bad one for the British political polling industry. During the campaign, the vast majority of polls put Labour ahead and of the final round of polls three put Labour ahead, one put Labour and the Conservatives neck-and-neck and only one - Gallup - gave the Conservatives a lead, but even that was a mere 0.5%. The actual result? A Conservative lead of 7.6%. A declining number of opinion polls The response of the polling industry was a series of post-mortems and experiments with changes in ...
As readers may recall, I 'accidentally on purpose' failed to get my nomination in for both the Regional Executive and English Council. You know how it is sometimes... However, all was not lost, as there were still vacancies to be filled at last night's Regional Executive Committee meeting. I had taken the precaution of writing to the Regional Secretary, Andrew Horsler, a thoroughly decent guy
New Blogger Mr Speaker has an interesting post in which he talks about how Labourlist.org crashes live on TV. I am not going to base this post on that but instead I am going to look at the report and its significance. Having bloggers brought up on the media is a very positive thing it will increase peoples interests in reading blogs and it will lead to readership hopefully going up. I only yesterday realised that someone who works for the BBC with Internet connections linked to a server in Slough is a reader of this blog via Google Reader ...
This post has inspired a reply posting from Mr Benn (and no, of course I don't mind you linking, silly goose) in which he explains his reasons for not having comments enabled. This post is my stream-of-consciousness reaction (it's all getting a bit Meta, this, isn't it?) They are perfectly understandable reasons. I suspect it's possible that I hang around political blogs too much, and my views are therefore coloured by that experience, but there is a commonly held view that a blog which does not allow comments somehow doesn't count as a blog (Y HALLO THAR MS DORRIES!) and ...
Now, you might be seeing in the media today that David Cameron wants to cut the number of MPs. But as Will Howells has spotted, in fact the plans are a watering down of the previous Conservative plans to cut the number of MPs. Rather than wanting to cut them by 20% (their previous plan), now it's a 10% cut. Will's blog has the details...
I've just seen the image of the 10 year old Palestinian boy who lost his eyes in an Israeli air strike in Gaza. Pictures like this always speak more eloquently than words ever can. I wonder how many missiles this 10 year old sent into Israel? I wonder what he thinks about Israeli 'security' now. I wonder how many of his peers will choose 'peace' - with an army boot on their necks - as a result of seeing him maimed for life. I do hope that all those bleating about 'peace', 'security' and 'defending Israel' will give it up ...
A non-musial interlude now with this brief foray into politics. I read the news today, oh boy, and it said Cameron would cut MP numbers which was like déjà vu all over again. Haven't the Tories talked about this before? Ah, yes. Here's Michael Howard's pledge from 2004: The Conservative Party would cut the number of MPs by about one-fifth if they were elected, Tory leader Michael Howard has said. [...] The precise number of MPs to go would depend on the result of the Welsh referendum [to scrap the Assembly], but it would probably mean a reduction of around ...
Israel likes to portray itself as a model democracy in a region where various forms of non-democratic government are more the norm. Certainly it has just about the purest form of PR in the world, though its lack of a threshold means that some real nutters get into the Knesset as long as they can garner [...]
I often get asked this question (but more often get asked 'Why did you join the Lib Dems?!'). The simple answer is I joined for the same reason as many others in my generation did, the three great betrayals of the Labour Government: Iraq, tuition fees and ID cards. The Lib Dems have been right on all these issues and we have been consistent from start to finish unlike the tories who don't know where they stand on the things affecting young people today. However the answer to this question is quite boring (and if these were the only things ...
In a ZDNet UK article, two security vendors have said they would block police attempts to hack into systems without a warrant. The Home Office on Friday said it was working with the European Parliament on plans to extend police powers to conduct remote searches of computers. UK police already have the power to hack into suspect systems without a warrant, due to an amendment to the Computer Misuse Act, which came into force in 1995.However, security vendors Kaspersky Labs and Sophos told ZDNet UK they would not make any concession in their protective software for the police hack. Kaspersky ...
Been emailed to highlight an excellent idea - Ada Lovelace Day. As the blog post that kicked it off says: I've mainly stayed away from the discussion of gender issues in technology. I didn't think that I had any real expertise to share. But over the last six months, after many conversations, it has become clear that many of my female friends in tech really do feel disempowered... Thus was born Ada Lovelace Day, and this pledge: Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging to draw attention to women excelling in technology. Women's contributions often go unacknowledged, their ...
In response to authoritarian socialists trying to claim socialism as soley to describe themselves (in contradiction to historical usage, but in keeping with modern usage) Socialism is the belief that the next important step in progress is a change in man's environement of an economic character that shall include the abolition of every privilege whereby the [...]
A new blog has been added to the side bar and I think all readers need to head that way and read his blog. His name is Mr Speaker and it is an anonymous blog. I think he will go onto one day being a good blogger but at the moment he is a new comer into the playground and might not have a lot of readership. If he wants any information about building a readership he can email me at irfanahmed91@gmail.com.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ys26cs-qeE Back To Business
{Traffic at King Edwards} King Edwards School last night re-launched their travel plan. A working group was formed to update their Travel Plan and pursue the recommendations. While there may have been slow progress in the past, the school has worked hard to get all 'stake-holders' represented for the new plan. School pupils, parents, teachers and neighbours were invited and represented at last night's meeting, plus BathNES staff and local councillor Nicholas Coombes. "I am encouraged that the school has chosen to work with local residents on this." said Cllr Coombes, "Travel arrangements are a matter of good neighbourliness and ...
The Times has news of a new tactic against the building of a third runway at Heathrow: Greenpeace has bought a field the size of a football pitch and plans to invite protesters to dig networks of tunnels across it, similar to those built in the ultimately unsuccessful campaign against the Newbury bypass in 1996. The group also plans to divide the field into thousands of tiny plots, each with a separate owner. BAA, the airport's owner, would be forced to negotiate with each owner, lengthening the compulsory purchase process.The Greenpeace website suggests that dividing up the land between numerous ...
Unmitigated England has a photograph of this little ruined church near Market Harborough railway station. There is more about St Mary in Arden at Bowden Before the Conquest: In his History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester John Nichols tells us that until about 1660 St Mary had a tower and spire, presumably of a similar style and scale to St Dionysius' church in Market Harborough. It appears that this was damaged in an earthquake in 1626 and it seems it finally collapsed in a severe storm in about 1658 and destroyed, or rendered unsalvageable, the rest of the ...
I hold no brief for the Israeli attack on Gaza, it strikes me that the conventional wisdom on the incursion: "worse than a crime, it is a blunder" seems about right. The attacks seem to have more to do with the Israeli electoral calender than with any real determination to solve the long term problem of Hamas control over Gaza and the Arab-Israeli conflict. That being noted, we should also be quite clear that the immediate resumption of rocket attacks from Gaza by Hamas after the end of a six month ceasefire was a quite deliberate provocation- in the full ...
Whilst last week saw me emerge from the winter break with a few meetings and an event in Brentwood & Ongar, the first day of the new Parliamentary term required a major change of gear. With a meeting of the Federal Executive due next week, it was time to start the process of preparation in earnest. First up was a meeting with David Allworthy, our Compliance and Constitutional expert, to discuss the implications of some internal elections related to the Federal Executive, as well as some local party compliance issues. It is essential that any potential breaches of Party procedure ...
The BBC reports: Israel's election authorities have voted to ban two of the three main Arab political parties from running in next month's general elections. The Central Election Committee (CEC)voted overwhelmingly to ban the United Arab List-Ta'al (UAL-Ta'al) and Balad, accusing them of supporting terrorism. An MP for UAL-Ta'al said the move was racist and he would appeal against it. Arabs make up about a fifth of Israel's population and hold seven of 120 seats in the Knesset, or parliament.The Daily (Maybe) has more.
The Tories have put out a new campaign video featuring a very cute baby with the comments that the baby has "his dad's nose, mum's eyes and Gordon Brown's debt." The shot then moves to the baby being given what is clearly a bottle of formula. Are we not supposed to be challenging the idea that bottlefeeding is the norm and encouraging and supporting breastfeeding? All the evidence points to human milk being far superior than anything you could ever manufacture. I'm not suggesting that the Tories should necessarily have shown the baby breastfeeding, although it would be good to ...
So LabourList launched yesterday with Lord Mandelson declaring that in "new media command and control doesn't work" the article may well have been written by his second life avatar who appears along with the piece. However, I read in today's Times diary column that within hours of the launch yesterday there was a tightening of the comments moderation. Well if you're going for a high profile media launch of a site supporting an unpopular government you are going to have to expect a few abusive comments at the off. It would have been better to launch with tighter moderation at ...
A treat for anyone who enjoys Downfall mash-ups and, erm, investment banking. This is a mini-series using clips from the 2004 film depicting the final days of Nazi Germany to tell the story of an investment bank slowly going bust after it buys dodgy financial products shortly before the start of the Credit Crunch. I think that's the problem anyway - "The Spiral" starts shortly after the products
Yesterday's post was a bit long so I've decided to create a bulleted summary of the main points. Introduction Doomsayers say declining newspaper sales and the many visitors to big blogs like Guido shows professional journalism is dead. They say that:The internet means people can read content that they previously paid for, for free, putting print newspaper and magazines out of business Bloggers
God, all my wishes are getting pretty forlorn, aren't they? I've written about the upcoming Watchmen film fairly recently. What I will add is that I spent the early hours of Sunday morning watching the various promos and video diaries that the production team have been pumping out on the internet about it. The portents are not great, I'm afraid to report. Two of them give me particular pause for concern, the first possibly unreasonably. This film is about how kewl the Owlship is going to be. If I were a fourteen year old, and this was a Batman film, ...
Madeline Bunting is atheist baiting again. In her Guardian column this week she makes one spectacularly silly point, one mildly silly point and one good point which is a genuine issue for secularists. But it is a problem for the religious as well. Firstly, the really silly point - worth quoting in full: At first I thought it just plain daft; why waste £150,000 putting a slogan on hundreds of London buses: "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life." It managed to combine so many dotty assumptions - belief in God as a source of worry ...
James Graham has written an interesting piece on the Conservative claim that some people do not "deserve" basic rights. James writes: ...the anti-HRA brigade consistently fail to come up with concrete examples of how eeeeevil people are using it for "personal gain. Two related stock examples I have heard from BNP and Conservative activists are: 1. Thompson and Venables, [...]
The first Short Trips collection delights with stories like Model Train Set; Pat upsets Dreams of Empire; Peter faces the expletive-deleted Pope in Zeta Major; Bernice seeks The Sword of Forever and goes Where Angels Fear; the Doctor regenerates again in a DWM graphic story - or does he? And Big Finish's first audio play stars Benny in Oh No It Isn't! (Paul Cornell's book rewritten for actors? Fancy). While back in history... Doctor Who - The Witch Hunters "Rebecca Nurse, you have been brought here to answer accusations that you are a practitioner in the black art of witchcraft." ...
