I am sure many of us feel the same. As soon as we become aware of the reality of death we start to worry about losing our parents - that probably started for me around the time, aged four or five, when I sat on our garden wall wondering if there was a God or not. I came to the conclusion that if not ,that would mean the Queen was in charge.......wasn't quite sure how I felt about that! - and I guess we never stop worrying, the only difference being is that as they age the inevitable draws closer. ...
Wed 14th
23:31
Causes of the credit crunch: if you're going to try to blame David Bowie, you really should also bla...
David Bowie: the case for the prosecution The idea that the credit crunch can in part be blamed on David Bowie is the, um..., slightly unusual thought thrown in the air by Evan Davis ahead of the broadcast of his TV documentary on the City. As Evan Davis put it in The Mirror: Even when it comes to finances Bowie leads the way - and back in 1997 he did something called "securitisation". He thought, "I have a lot of money coming in over the next 10 years from my back catalogue, but I'd rather have the cash now and ...
Lots of memories flooded in when John had his open afternoon at the Town Hall. If you haven't been there already it really is an interesting place to visit if you can. We had some very interesting visitors who told us a lot about old Stockton from their memories. 2 gentlemen in their 80's between them remembered this ditty sung when Harold MacMillan was defeated by Jackie Riley in 1929, we...
The BBC is reporting this evening that the government will announce tomorrow that it has approved a third runway at Heathrow. If this is true it will be an appalling decision. The South East is already horribly overdeveloped and this will just add to the problem. A better policy would be to invest in the railways and regional airports. Meanwhile our efforts to reduce CO2 emissions consist of irritating trifles like putting up with light bulbs that don't come on at once and paying for paper bags.
The BBC has the story: A Labour MP has claimed dyslexia is a myth invented by education chiefs to cover up poor teaching. Backbencher Graham Stringer, MP for Blackley, describes the condition as a "cruel fiction" that should be consigned to the "dustbin of history". He believes the reason many children cannot read and write properly is that the wrong teaching methods are used. But Charity Dyslexia Action said the condition was "very real" to the 6m people in the UK affected by it... Chief executive Shirley Cramer said: "Once again dyslexia seems to be making the headlines for all ...
On Monday Charles Walker, the Tory MP for Broxbourne, called a Commons adjournment debate on mental health advocacy. As I did not write about it in this week's House Points, let me plug it here instead: The role of advocates is to stand and sit by that person and to ensure that they understand as far as possible their rights under the Mental Health Act 2007—their right to say no and to question the treatments and recommendations proposed by health care professionals and clinicians. That is a hugely important part of the Act.You can find the full record in Hansard. ...
There I was, minding my own business (and my neighbour's bone), when the shocking news reached me that viewers had been complaining to the BBC about too many dogs on the TV. And the BBC agreed. And the BBC was going to get rid of as many dogs as they could. And they had issued special anti-dog reminder instructions to managers. And they want the public to ring in RIGHT AWAY if they spot any dogs on TV that they think shouldn't be there. And then I realised, there is another type of dog. Pheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew!
Ryanair are threatening to sue Cornwall County Council over the recent temporary closure of Newquay airport. The airport used to be owned and managed by the RAF. Back in December, the RAF handed over ownership of the base to the County Council. The requirements for a civillian airport differ from those which are owned by the military. CCC therefore had to do urgent works to the land and the airport had to close while these were done as a safety certificate couldn't be signed off until they were. Ryanair objected to this move and promptly cancelled their flights from the ...
The Tory Troll blog brings the good news: Fair's fair Boris, you've made a good decision here: "Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, today announced that over the next year London's half-price bus and tram travel scheme will be extended to include thousands of unemployed Londoners in receipt of Job Seeker's Allowance (JSA) or the new Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)."... Lib Dem Assembly Leader Mike Tuffrey, who campaigned for the extension, said today: "No one should be forced to turn down an interview because they can't afford a bus fare. Yet Boris Johnson has put up fares this month by ...
1928 - 2009 A fond farewell to the man who instilled in me my love of the Caterham Seven (Lotus Seven as was) and made one of the best TV shows ever. Does anyone else have this image of him at the Pearly Gates, saying to St Peter that he won't be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered, and that his afterlife is his own? Still, at least he and Leo McKern are reunited now. ETA: I just hit post on this and now I find that Ricardo Montalban has gone too. :( I'm thoroughly depressed now.
So one Labour peer seems to think she has seen signs of green shoots in the economy. I think we would all disagree. They are not green shoot, they are a dead plant. By the way, what a fabulous name Baroness Vadera is, it sounds like the female other half of Lord (Darth) Vader. You could just imagine them being announced at a function "Lord Vader and Baroness Vadera".
Back in the days of yore, I used to work for Peter Brand who became the MP for the Isle of Wight between 1997 and 2001. Peter had (still has) many great causes that are close to his heart, but one that mattered to him even more than most was dyslexia. Both Peter's wife and son are dyslexic. And both Peter and Jane would work very hard to make sure that people suffering from dyslexia were not abandoned by the education system as being too difficult or thick to teach and they campaigned hard to make sure they were kept ...
Why would anyone want one of these in the first place?
It always gladdens my heart to see the po-faced taken down a peg or two. And the Czech artist David Czerny has certainly managed it with his sculptures commissioned by the Czech government to celebrate their EU Presidency.
Today the Liberal Democrats voted against the SNP Budget. We did so after careful consideration, as this is a very serious issue affecting Scotland. The SNP Government's Budget is only one per cent different in the choices it makes from the figures published in the Spending Review of October 2007. That was well before what Finance Secretary John Swinney has described as an "economic storm" engulfed Scotland. A variation of one per cent forms the weakest response of any Western European Government, national or devolved, to the economic difficulties we face in 2009. We believe that the economic downturn, unprecedented ...
I've been to First Minister's Questions a few times now and, to be honest, I'm not thrilled by the panto-esque bollocks that the half hour usually consists of. Alex Salmond to me has never really taken it seriously as a chance to bring his Government to account to Parliament. He rather impatiently and imperiously swats aside questions rather like you or I would swat away a wasp. He's the showman, putting on a performance, rather than a dignified leader of a government. Well, Tavish Scott isn't prepared to put up with that any more and has laid down a marker ...
Hat tip to Lib Dem Voice for the news that David Heath, Lib Dem Brian Blessed look alike and Somerton and Frome MP is to introduce a bill aimed at ending fuel poverty. This measure, if it becomes law, would introduce two measures which would make a huge difference to those struggling to pay their fuel bills: an energy efficiency programme and statutory social tariffs to reduce the impact of high energy costs for the most vulnerable. A worthy measure, worthy of parliamentary support. Let's hope the Government backs it so it has a chance of becoming law. LibDig This! ...
There are several inventive and entertaining books, from Paul's The Taking of Planet 5 and Unnatural History, through Pat's grave The Final Sanction to Benny's hilarious The Joy Device (cheering me up, stuck in a grotty hotel). Perhaps the most memorable is Lawrence Miles' Dead Romance, disturbingly brilliant and reaching across the ranges. Meanwhile, Big Finish starts producing full-scale Doctor Who audio plays starring Peter, Colin and Sylv, while on Red Nose Day the TV brings even more Doctors... The Curse of Fatal Death "He was never cruel, and never cowardly. And it'll never be safe to be scared again." ...
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } 14/02/2008, originally uploaded by salimfadhley. According to Christoph Hartmann, the president of the game-publisher 2K, the Wii Market is "Flooded with Crap" - something that Wii owner could not have failed to notice.
I see that Jeff has taken time out from his extended break in the Far East and down under to ask ""what are the Lib Dems Playing at?". Well strangely I think exactly the same with regards to John Swinney. In October 2007 the spending review issued plans for this budget period. This was long before most parties the SNP or Labour woke up to just what was going on in the world around them. It was indeed a long time before John Swinney or Alex Salmond told us that an "economic storm" had engulfed Scotland. The change is this ...
Scottish Lib Dem Leader Tavish Scott sent out an e-mail to members and supporters today outlining his reasons for the party's refusal to support the SNP's budget in Holyrood. Slamming it as "weakest response of any Western European Government, national or devolved, to the economic difficulties we face in 2009", Tavish outlines Lib Dem proposals for permanent tax cuts, pointing out that the Nationalists have the option of varying the rate of income tax north of the border and could, if they choose, give us all a 2p in the pound tax cut. This would put around £330 back in ...
Welcome to the 99th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (4th-10th January 2009), together with a hand-picked quintet, mostly courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed. As ever, let's start with the most popular post, and work our way down. 1. EXCLUSIVE: Lib Dems FPC vote to keep Scrap Tuition Fees policy on Anthony Hook's blog. And in doing so spoil half the fun of the Harrogate spring conference. 2. Time for London Region Liberal Democrats to go back to the drawing board on ...
In a new way of engaging the American people, Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi has released the following video of... her cats in her office. And an unexpected change halfway through. Click here to view the embedded video.
A week is a long time in politics. Just a couple of days seems like a long time this week. So much has happened. I came back from hols after a good week off to recharge batteries, hillwalking and various other adventures. I came back to 170 emails. A nice healthy couple of deliveries of Councillor post. Also a full council to attend and voicemails of course. Very often it is the minor things that take the time as a Concillor. But all of this as well as attending the meetings (such as full council etc) gives a real broad ...
So, not surprisingly, the Sun adopted a censorious and outraged tone over the Prince Harry incident. That's right, the Sun was going all politically correct on us. This is, of course, the same paper that publishes semi naked pictures of women every day, but we'll let that disrespect of half the world's population pass just for a minute. It amazes me that the editors either don't notice or don't care about the blatant hypocrisy of, on one page printing all this finger wagging stuff at Prince Harry and a few pages further on making a great song and dance about ...
The Vigilante Journalist The comparison with India is interesting - India suffers far more at the hands of terrorism, but they have a nuclear power next door so they don't dare do what Israel does...
19:38 First it was called off. Then it was back on. Or so the BBC said. Chelsea's replay at Rootes Hall is live on ITV this evening, so I thought I would try a Liberal England first: liveblogging. 19:44 Because this game matters to Chelsea. The team has problems. The only width comes from the full backs, but their incursions upfield can leave the centre backs exposed. The impenetrable defence of the Mourinho years is a distant memory. The midfield is growing old together - Essien's reputation grows the longer he is out. Up front we have two world class ...
As part of the budget process, Teignbridge District Council are going out to residents to consult on proposals. Teignbridge District Council's Lib Dem/Independent administration are proposing a freeze for car park and leisure charges, and the proposed Council Tax rises have been kept to 3.9% (or £5 a year for a Band D property) Previous consultations have shown that residents put affordable housing and employment as their top priorities, and Teignbridge will be offering the chance to influence key decision-making in these and many more important service areas. Other plans include a £2.8million economic development scheme for new employment at ...
Here we go again. Apparently Lady Vadera the business minister has made a "gaffe" by indicating that she thought she was seeing some "green shoots" with respect to the economy. In fact here is exactly what she said: "It's a very uncertain world right now globally... I wouldn't want to be the one predicting it. I am seeing a few green shoots but it's a little bit too early to say exactly how they'd grow." It was in response to a question from seasoned pro Alistair Stewart who actually asked her is she could see any "green shoots". Now political ...
Today the Liberal Democrats voted against the SNP Budget. We did so after careful consideration, as this is a very serious issue affecting Scotland. The SNP Government's Budget is only one per cent different in the choices it makes from the figures published in the Spending Review of October 2007. That was well before what Finance Secretary John Swinney has described as an "economic storm" engulfed Scotland. A variation of one per cent forms the weakest response of any Western European Government, national or devolved, to the economic difficulties we face in 2009. We believe that the economic downturn, unprecedented ...
Today the Liberal Democrats voted against the SNP Budget. We did so after careful consideration, as this is a very serious issue affecting Scotland. The SNP Government's Budget is only one per cent different in the choices it makes from the figures published in the Spending Review of October 2007. That was well before what Finance Secretary John Swinney has described as an "economic storm" engulfed Scotland. A variation of one per cent forms the weakest response of any Western European Government, national or devolved, to the economic difficulties we face in 2009. We believe that the economic downturn, unprecedented ...
As blogged here back in December, four Lib Dem MPs were drawn in the top 20 for the Private Members' Bills ballot for the 2008-09 session. David Heath won second place, and has today announced that he will be bringing forward a bill on ending fuel poverty, the proposals for which formed part of the Lib Dems' Green Road out of Recession package. The Fuel Poverty Bill will bring in two measures: • A major energy efficiency programme to bring existing homes up to the current energy efficiency levels enjoyed by modern homes; and • Social tariffs to limit vulnerable ...
A couple of planning committee meetings ago we heard an application to demolish The Rookery on the basis that the foundations were substandard. The planning committee asked why underpinning or some other means of strengthening the foundations wasn't being considered and asked for evidence that it wasn't possible to save the building before making a decision. I thought it was quite obvious that
Last night was the first Prestwich Local Area Partnership (LAP) meeting of 2009. I normally give the meetings a plug on here before they happen, so apologies if you were waiting for that. You've now missed the meeting... Still, lots of people managed to find their way there despite my tardiness in publicising it, which is a testament to the British public's undentable spirit. And possibly the fact that nobody reads this blog normally. In the past the LAP meetings have had an unfortunate tendency to come towards the bottom of the excitement scale, somewhere between watching a stranger lying ...
You may think Hugo Chavez is already power crazy. The problem with socialism, is it demands of so much power that in the process, personal freedoms are crushed and Government's are corrupted by their sense of power. Unfortunately that's what I believe will happen in South America's Socialist experiment. Venezuela of course has led the way. But Hugo Chavez has been pushing for constitutional change so that he can be President for as long as he likes. This was only just defeated in a referendum but Chavez is pushing again. This was a major point in his speech to the ...
So an MP gtes itno tourlbe for cilaming Dsylexia deons't eitsxt. Oh daer. My felieng is taht it's sineomthg aobut Eilsgnh. Stringer is rhigt to hghighligt taht ohter laggunaes and wirtnig stsyems do not hvae the smae iesuss. Eilsgnh semes to riqeure asomlt vodooo biran slkils, as tihs wirtnig gmicmik slhuod dtmnoeraste. To be hnoset wirtnig tihs way is vrey pfuinal. Hveniag to cnoicsuolsy cnoisder ervey wrod is excruciating. I tinhk I argee taht phonics colud.. wait.. see, writing like this has broken my brain. I have just struggled to work out how to spell "could" Could? It doesn't look ...
Credit Crunch hits fire-fighters Six Arizona fire fightershave been arrested for deliberately starting fires, so that they could be paid to put them out. The six now face numerous charges, and if convicted could be in jail for up to 10 years. Inauguration = Emergency President Bush has declared a state of emergency in Washington D.C ahead of the inauguration of President Elect Obama. The emergency has been declared, so that the city has access to federal funds to pay for the security operation and not because the Bush administration is planning another disaster like their response to Katrina. Illinois ...
JonStewart in top form as he turns his attention to Sarah Palin's recent self-justifying video. .cc_box a:hover !important;}.cc_links a{color:#b9b9b9;text-decoration:none;}.cc_show a{color:#707070;text-decoration:none;}.cc_title a{color:#868686;text-decoration:none;}.cc_links a:hover{color
{Ming Campbell} Speaking ahead of tomorrow's debate on the Replacement Forth Crossing in the Scottish Parliament, North East Fife's Liberal Democrat MP and MSP Sir Menzies Campbell and Iain Smith have condemned the SNP and Labour's "petty political posturing" and called for an end to the uncertainty over its funding. Sir Menzies Campbell said: "The importance of this project to the people and businesses of Fife is beyond question. The battle raging between London and Edinburgh as to who is responsible for the invoice only adds to the uncertainty. "I am astonished by the SNP's claims that the cost of ...
It has become a truism to say that interest in politics has hit an all-time low among "ordinary" voters. All parties have come up with proposed remedies, but none of these shows any sign of working. At the same time, we have recently seen in the US an example of how exciting politics can be. Why, in a country which boasts of being one of the world's oldest democracies, should things have come to this pass? Part of the answer is that our present political model is totally inappropriate to the contemporary scene. We have a system which in every ...
Baroness Vadera has done a Norman Lamont with her prediction that she can see the 'green shoots' of recovery. Maybe she's been reading Knight Frank's outlook for the commercial property sector. The report confirms that 2008 was a horrific year for the property sector. It shows that that in the 18 months between June 2007 (at the peak of the market) and November 2008, capital values in the commercial sector fell a staggering 32% with a significant further drop anticipated in December. Compare that to the early 1990's when values fell a total of 27% in a downturn which took ...
Just picked up on this: Tories attack Baroness Vadera's claim that she could see a "few green shoots" of recovery as "insensitive." (BBC)Let me get this straight, the party that has recently made choices statements like:[The economic crisis has created] "an incredibly good moment for us" Andrew Mitchell, Conservative Shadow International Development Spokespersonand "Recession can be good for us" Andrew Lansley, Conservative Shadow Health Secretarysays that comment was insensitive?? Hypocrisy doesn't come much better than this.
According to this article in Computer Weekly nearly a year ago now, the troubled £447m project to provide a national case management system for magistrates courts should have been rolled out to all 370 magistrates courts in England and Wales by the end of last year. This scheme is already 16 years late and will cost nearly three times more than expected. I have no knowledge as to whether this roll-out has been completed on time and to budget and would welcome any information anybody has. However, a memo I saw recently suggested that the system is incapable of issuing ...
I rarely watch The Daily Politics except for Wednesdays, after forgetting to watch Prime Minister's Questions. Today's boasted all my usual reasons for not watching (unfailingly smug tosser Andrew Neil, Labour apparatchik, Tory sneerer, Tory Press Office's own Nick Robinson and no Lib Dem), but the lucky Labour Party were handed a late Christmas present. Presented with Norman Tebbit, Labour's oleaginous Phil Woolas couldn't believe his luck. On their loathsomely racist immigration policies, you can't slip a BNP membership card between Mr Woolas and Lord Tebbit, but as a reminder of the wicked '80s, Lord Tebbit was an open goal. ...
Labour backbencher Graham Stringer has attacked the very concept of dyslexia, claiming it is a myth designed to cover up bad teaching. He suggests that, currently, 35,500 students are receiving disability allowances for dyslexia at an annual cost of £78.4m. "Certified dyslexics get longer in exams," he said. "There has been created a situation where there are financial and educational incentives to being bad at spelling and reading. The story has been picked up by Janet Daley in The Telegraph who, quite rightly in my opinion, takes to task the figure given by the Chief Executive of Dyslexia Action, Shirley ...
Is chairing a panel on intangible assets in government at an Intellectual Property Office event.
I've commented in the past about the failure of the Government to understand that, unless you offer competitive salaries, you risk facing difficulties in recruiting and retaining the quality of personnel required to run efficient public services. The Irish Independent reports that, no matter how bad I might think it is here, things are about to get much worse in Ireland, where the Taoiseach,
Iain Dale has started the chattering of a September general election because Labour have advertised jobs that will end in September 2009 and they are jobs like Campaign organiser and campaign related jobs. Then a commenter on Iain Dale's blog has gone onto saying: "Or they fear that the Labour party will be bankrupt, and so unable to pay staff, beyond that date." Now the comment is interesting because it could be true, Labour might be down on funding so they thought temporary jobs would help them over the next couple of months until some money started coming in from ...
Cast your minds back 10 days, and there was a sudden eruption of fevered speculation, mainly in the right-wing blogosphere, that Vince Cable might be tempted to accept the post of Chancellor if it were offered to him by Gordon Brown. LDV was always dubious about the claim, even if it would prove popular with the public, as well as business leaders, as well as 'money-saving experts'. But we decided to see what our readers thought of the proposition, asking: if offered the job by Gordon Brown, should Vince Cable accept the post of Chancellor? Your answer was pretty clear-cut: ...
I am all for opening up government. Indeed I think that the way this current Labour administration has done its best to go against the spirit of its own FOI legislation is a sad indictment of them. At the weekend there was a report in the Independent on Sunday which indicated that the 30 year rule which has been in place for many years and prevents the publication of sensitive government information for 30 years (when presumably the protagonists will have retired or passed away) may be changed to 15 years. I personally think this is a good move and ...
Hilary Clinton was asked yesterday at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during her confirmation hearing, whether she would be willing to engage directly with the Islamic extremists. She said: "You cannot negotiate with Hamas until it renounces violence, recognises Israel, and agrees by past agreements." So that's a no then.
I was shocked to find that the New Statesman (owners I assume) is refusing to recognise the NUJ. It is incomprehensible to me how the ownership can be so piggish. Perhaps (and I understand that Labour MP Geoffrey Robinson still owns around half) it is because their intentions are entirely dishonourable. Is it sackings for recession? Is it sackings linked to wanting to impose a new direction editorially? I don't know but when - of all things - a left-of-centre magazine refuses to recognise the key union for their staff - we can only fear the worst. This stinks. Shame ...
Betsan Powys has had a whisper that all is still not well with the Welsh Language Legislative Competence Order. It appears that when the Secretary of State for Wales told the Assembly before Christmas that the order had been scrutinised by officials and was sitting on his desk awaiting sign-off some may have come away having drawn the wrong conclusion. According to Betsan, there is still no agreement as to whether criminal sanctions should apply to those who are in breach of any measures arising from the order, whilst there are other issues that remain "to be resolved at the ...
Welcome to the sixth edition of Lib Dig Pig, being a roundup of non-Lib Dem oriented gems on the internet, as voted by Lib Dem members using Lib Dig (if you aren't yet a Lib Digger and are a Lib Dem member, sign up here: http://libdig.co.uk). This week's Lib Dig Pig is brought to you by the theme of technology-gone-bad: a bad thing in Labour's hands (except when they are taking the mickey out of the Tories) and something the Daily Mail doesn't seem to approve of very much. Snoopwatch By far the most popular story of the week is ...
Last night the Council's Connecting with Communities Team held its latest consultation event in the Dolphin Centre, open to all residents to attend. This time the topic under discussion was the Council's need to produce a travel plan to provide sustainable access to Bank Top Station. Research shows that fewer people walk to Darlington station than in other towns taking part in this national
The United Kingdom has a duty under international law to exert its influence to stop violations of international humanitarian law in the current conflict between Israel and Hamas, according to a distinguished group of international lawyers headed alphabetically by Louise Arimatsu of LSE (who is a prominent LibDem activist), in a letter in today's 'Guardian'. Written in [...]
Bit slow at updating, but on Monday night a group of us went to Bella at Chapel Ash for dinner - they have a Monday night special on at the moment.
There have been some interesting shifts in position at PMQs over the Christmas break. In the latter half of last year, Clegg was continuously met with Brown's stock reply that the Liberal Democrats wanted to "cut £20bn in spending" [sic]. This required him to either let the point pass or waste his second question in pointing out that as much of the saved £20bn as was necessary would be spent on Liberal Democrat policy priorities. And the latter did no good at all because Brown simply repeated the accusation. That particular paper umbrella of Brown's seems to have blown away, ...
Seriously, ouch. What an ignorant moron. Yes, lets have widespread use of linguistic phonics in teaching, mate. It really does help. But make sure your Government, and your Party, is willing to fund such an expensive change. And then don't start bullshitting about "oh, no, dyslexia doesn't exist", when almost everyone has seen people struggling with it through their life. I've had friends who've wanted to enter great careers, who find themselves terrified by their condition. I've had friends who were diagnosed with it even after secondary school. They can read, they just get muddled, and make mistakes. Its all ...
Set our below is my motion for the next Council meeting. The serious point that I'm making is that the Leader of the Council who is also Chair of the Cabinet Resources Committee which oversees the Council's treasury strategy did not know where Barnet's money was invested. When he did finally find out he blamed the officers and when that didn't wash he tried to blame the opposition for not pointing it out to him. In order to shoulder all this responsibility he gets over £51,000 in allowances and allows his group to stack allowances together. The result: £27.4 million ...
Wednesday: Call me old fashioned, but I thought that the banks were now owned by US (i.e. the Great British taxpayer). But it seems that the directors of OUR banks think that they're going to carry on treating us with the same amount of CONTEMPT with which they usually regard their shareholders. Far from accepting that they've trollied the economy and now ought to JOLLY WELL DO WHAT THEY ARE TOLD! and help put things right again, it appears that they have to be BRIBED to lend money. And the Hard Labour Government are so CRAVEN that they'll cough up! ...
{Rubbish laying in Hamilton Rd} As a little background information: According to DEFRA, since New Labour took power, total municipal waste in the UK has gone up by 21% between 1997 and 2006 - that's a 10 % increase per head. Although the rate of recycling has increased - from 6 to 23%, because total volumes of municipal waste have kept rising the actual volume of waste that is not recycled has increased since 1997.Within the CA report waste management was identified as one of the six 'service improvement priorities singled out by RBC, which falls under the SCS ambition ...
Commenting on the publication of the Corporate Assessment in Reading, Liberal Democrat group leader Cllr Gareth Epps has sounded a warning about the failure of Labour political leadership to improve the Council's performance, and a 'culture of spin' which may be hiding failings in performance. The assessment shows that Reading Borough Council having made no progress under Labour; Reading remains a council with a score of 3, with no improvement from the last Assessment in 2002.Commenting, Cllr Epps said:"This report recognises much good work being done in Reading, but it is clear that the Council is doing no more than ...
So where's the credit crunch now? According to today's papers, Manchester City are willing to pay double the world transfer record and pay £100 million to bring Brazilian international Kaka to Eastlands. That would rate one player as costing more than every other Premiership club's squad and indeed more than over half the squads added together. [...]
Lib Dem MP Lynne Featherstone has been given the new job of overseeing the party's online campaigning as chair of its new technology board - this video illustrates the sort of issues she'll be grappling with.
Listen to the segment on this morning's Woman's Hour about Nicaragua, where they outlawed abortion 2 years ago. I feel sick.
The Government announced early this morning that the appointment of the Chairman of Standard Chartered Bank Mervyn Davies as trade minister in the Business department (BERR), to help the Government respond to the banking crisis (Telegraph). He will be made a Peer and becomes the latest BERR Minister to hail from beyond the elected House of Commons. Before the Business Committee this morning Lord Mandelson of Hartlepool and Foy defended GB's latest unelected appointee saying " I don't think we should deny ourselves access to the talent pool of the Lords." Surely as Davies is being made a Peer in ...
After 19 Days Number of Palestinians Killed: 1,000 plus Number of Israelis Killed: 13 Average Number of Israelis killed in Car Accidents EVERY 19 Days: 23
The campaign to stop the SNP selling off the family silver, Scotland's forests continues at a pace. In todays Scotsman, Jim Hume MSP argues on behalf of the forests, the heritage and the hundreds of Scottish jobs that will be at risk if the SNP go ahead. The thought of the SNP Government contemplating cutting jobs during this economic crisis is a strange way of boosting the economy. How on earth the SNP Government can be contemplating this idea is beyond me, but they are and Mike Russell MSP is defending it in the Scotsman. If you want to see ...
Despite the fact that the Lib Dem led coalition that run Leeds City Council is NOT going to build an incinerator as this conversation in Council in September shows: "COUNCILLOR LYONS (LAB): Can the Executive Member for City Services please tell me where his administration plan to site their proposed incinerator? COUNCILLOR MATTHEWS (LIB DEM): I am happy to stand in. There are no current plans for an incinerator in Leeds. (Applause) COUNCILLOR LYONS (LAB): He wants to look at what people are telling him to see if it is true before he answers these questions! (laughter) Could you then ...
Ah yes! It's obvious isn't it? It was staring us in the face all along, if only we had eyes to see. Never mind greedy banks and lack of regulation. David Bowie is to blame for the whole credit crunch thing and the whole recession. David Bowie is to blame for the recession and the current credit crunch, the U.K. press reports today. According to a BBC Today host, it was the Thin White Duke, Ziggy
Sheer genius...
'Normal' politics, what a relief. The European Parliament votes for controversial compromise proposals for new laws on pesticides that represent the last stage of two years of discussion. One part has become almost non-controversial: each EU member state should draw up plans to use less pesticides. There is good evidence that we really don't need to use the quantities we do. But then there is the issue which arouses so much angst, the 'banning' of certain pesticides (actually the refusal to renew authorisation of some existing products when the time comes, which is rarely before 2013). The lobbying, stimulated by ...
Boris Johnson starred in a pantomime whilst campaigning to be Mayor of London and PartyPolitical.com has the link to the video. I have seen it and I think its worth watching it really shows something which is that MP's shouldn't be serious characters when in their constituencies and they need to chill out. Will we in Pendle ever see Gordon Prentice MP in a pantomime, probably not but we live in hope?
I am pleased to report that on Monday night, at the Planning & Transport Committee, the City Council committee I chair, agreement was reached to finalise the speed limit reduction on the westmost part of Perth Road (west of the Invercarse), the small stretch of Riverside Drive north of the Marmalade Pot and on Ninewells Avenue. This follows a consultation exercise - the responses received both from residents and from West End Community Council strongly supported the speed reduction. The fact that the speed limit in this area has been 40mph, whereas all the residential roads east of it are ...
This is certainly novel. A judge halts a trial because the witness is "too believable". Mind you, the headlines on these sorts of things normally belie the full story. The judge sits through the whole case and if he thought a "three second" glimpse of the robber was insufficient to ensure a safe conviction, then that is his judgment. He is paid to exercise his judgment. It would be interesting to
The Bridge Chapel Centre on Heath Road is holding a meeting next week for anyone interested in the Food Bank concept. There is a suggestion that we might want to set one up in South Liverpool and the organisers are getting someone from a group that already runs one elsewhere to come along. The Food Bank concept is about providing emergency help to people who find themselves in a crisis when the provision of some free supplies might make a difference. Obviously people would get more help and support than the free supplies of food, but that is the centre ...
The Harlequin shopping centrein Watford seems to have escaped the worst of the recession so far. True there is a big boarded up area at the end of the centre, where two eateries used to share a large plot, but that closed some time ago and would need work to be carried out to its [...]
Continuing on my current theme of breasts, I see that a debate has blown up on Tory Home about the Tories' latest video release: Dad's nose, Mum's arse, Gordon Brown's debt. The video shows a baby being bottle fed and Tory activists are up in arms demanding real tits. It seems contributions from Cameron and Osborne doesn't satisfy them. As readers of this blog will know, I'm a controversial advocate of the bottle. But I do agree with the breast is best lobby on this occasion - tits look much better than bottles on screen. So I think it's time ...
Back in December 2008 I wrote about how the Conservative run Preston Council had banned swearing and I also mention here how they had started putting signs up. Since then my reporter on the streets of Preston has been busy to get me a picture of the sign but now he has got me one. The whole banning of swears is just another example of Thatcherism coming back via Cameronism and social engineering, the Tories want to be the goody to shoes and change the social lives of people. Preston is an example of what the Tories would do to ...
I have submitted total of 11 questions in four different subjects to Conservative Cabinet member for tonight's Cabinet meeting of Bath & North East Somerset Council on Subjects that I feel that they need to be addressing they all affect my ward of Westmoreland in one way or another. I have printed the questions below and will publish the answers when they are given. ...
This is yet another indication that if a Conservative government is elected, we'll just be exchanging one set of dodgy shenanighans for another. David Cameron has appointed William Hague as his de facto deputy. That is, William Hague who is a "biographer, after-dinner speaker and paid director or adviser to a total of five private companies." (The latest Register of MPs' Interests lists paid
Following on from their piece on Monday about the impact of the recession on Council services, this morning's Times newspaper has published the results of a survey of forty local Councils that indicates substantial job losses as part of the current budget round: Forty councils approached by The Times yesterday were planning a total of 7,000 redundancies, and unions fear that few of the 442 local authorities across England, Scotland and Wales will escape the cutbacks. Although most of the job losses will be among backroom staff, there is concern that services will be affected. The scale of the proposed ...
Lidl have submitted a full planning application for a new supermarket an three other retail units on the former Herman Miller site on the Lower Bristol Road. The former Herman Miller building has been derelict for some time now and it seems that this application may be just what is needed in this area as it would give local shopping that is needed in this area and give a cleaner approach into the...
My thoughts yesterday concerning the freedom that we allow our children has provoked some reactions, mostly in agreement. My old friend Costigan comments "The real risk here is parents feeling emotionally blackmailed into tracking their kids: 'what if something happened and you could have done something about it'." And that to me is a nagging concern. The loss [...]
Ada Lovelace was an incredible person - one of the world's first computer programmers (arguably the very first), she wrote programs for Charles' Babbages' never-built Analytical Engine. Suw Charman-Anderson has called for people to blog about a female techie they admire on 24th March, Ada Lovelace Day. She has a pledge on pledgebank (which has been achieved, with over a thousand pledges). Suw writes Women's contributions often go unacknowledged, their innovations seldom mentioned, their faces rarely recognised. We want you to tell the world about these unsung heroines. Whatever she does, whether she is a sysadmin or a tech entrepreneur, ...
Interesting letter in this morning's Western Mail from John Ball, the former Plaid Cymru candidate for Swansea East that is worth quoting in full: SIR - The decision by the Assembly to stop payment of an automatic grant to Welsh university students and replace it with a means-based scheme is a serious retrograde step. This decision raises three fundamental questions about how the Assembly works, how it views education and its role in it. The first of these is the integrity of a supposedly left leaning coalition - I remember many Plaid Cymru conferences when speaker after speaker became apoplectic ...
I was over at my mother's house on the other side of Market Harborough at the weekend. The warehouse across the road is in the process of being demolished. Seeing this reminded me of my posting about Karl Popper and Market Harborough. In it I recorded that the great populariser of Popper's thought in Britain, Bryan Magee, mentions this warehouse in his memoirs Growing Up in a War. He was evacuated to Harborough during the war and lived literally around the corner from where I lived as a teenager. I did not learn this until I had contributed the entry ...
According to the Market Harborough Liberal Democrats website (and I should know because I posted the story there last night) Bill Newton Dunn MEP has come out against the proposed Pennbury eco-town: "Only a few weeks ago, during a visit to Market Harborough, I placed on record my deep concerns regarding the proposed eco-town. The suggested site is inappropriate and its impact concerning, and the potential legacy for future generations is negative."He is to write to Margaret Beckett, the housing minister, asking her to remove Pennbury from the shortlist of proposed eco-towns.
The headline on The Independent's story about Labour councillor Ben Grower in Bournemouth is fairly self-explanatory. More details over on their site. Ben Grower is, though, a mere amateur comapred with the former Labour leader of Swansea council, Lawrence Bailey, who managed 253 fake letters just over a year ago.
I've sat through a presentation this morning of a proposed design for a new building in the local area - frankly it was flat, disappointing and timid. It did nothing to reflect the diversity of the community, the rich heritage of the local area... So I dipped into my photo file to see something by way of contrast - it wasn't difficult. Here is the former Horse and Groom pub in Heath Street, Hampstead - tall, impressive, glamorous and bold and adding to the local architecture. Sure I understand that such a build now might be condemned by local groups ...
... And apparently so do Peter Oborne and I. He says in the Mail that: "not a single member of the Cabinet has ever occupied a wealth-creating job." I did a similar exercise just a few days ago when I estimated that around one-third of contributors to LabourList had worked in something besides PR, journalism, think tanks or for the Labour Party. There is a distinction between this and '
Went with a trio of humans to hear/see the last two episodes in the current series of Recorded for Training Purposes being recorded (for broadcast rather than training purposes, I hope). Good points: lots of jokes, not too many retakes (though us audience had to do two retakes when we didn't perform right), no cats, bizarre heckle during one of the sketches about page numbers (I feel safe to say I will not hear another page number heckle in my life, even if I live to a human-number-of-years age) and best radio traffic reports ever. The humans with me got ...
I is very excited this morning as Mister Stephen, following my interview with Mister Viking Leader last year, has landed me another all star interviewee. So Mister Sooty. There has been a lot of coverage in the press recently about your relationship with the Prince of Wales, would you care to comment. What was that I didn't quite hear? Excuse me readers I have to lean in so he can whisper. Oh. What do you mean you hardly know Mister Prince Charles? Sorry folks I'm not sure if the mic is picking up Mister Sooty here. But he said that ...
John Swinney looks certain to clear the first hurdle in getting the SNP Government's budget past its first stage this week after Labour have said they will not vote against it, yet. He still faces and uphill task to secure the votes necessary to pass it later this month as all three of the other main parties have issues with the £33bn spending plans. Although he has already secured the two Green Party votes. Labour have said that while they will not block it at this first step they "are looking for some big concessions on jobs and there will ...
Going Green. Sort of: I've thrown together a cheap and cheerful chromakey, or "Green Screen" studio. This is where you shoot some video footage and everything that matches the green colour is keyed out and replaced with something else. It's tiny and badly constructed but fingers crossed this should provide some amusement in the months to come. The plan was to make homebrew music videos but then, the thought occured: Could I make interesting political videos for this blog? Now I've already made it clear I don't think I'm going to make the transition from written word blogger to video ...
To be honest I'm not surprised - prices too high, business model too old! I should imagine the Soho and Manchester ones will survive as they have both the market and er herm other `facilities` well the Manc one has anyway! Plus I I mean people I talk to buy all their stuff online. Cough cough. [...]
Earlier today, a friend asked me "how about some social mobility discussion on the blog Nick?" When I noticed that the report of the Social Mobility Commission, established by Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, was published today it was too good to miss. The report was managed independently of the Liberal Democrats and chaired by the Chief Executive of Barnardos. I admit that my professional experience makes me better qualified to comment on things which can be kicked (roads, town planning, buildings, public realm etc) rather than those which should not be kicked (children, elderly people, social workers etc). ...
