In less than half a hour there will be a ceasefire over Gaza; we hope. However, with Israel saying that any rocket fired after the 02:00 Local Time 24:00 GMT deadline will be met with a surgical strike (we've seen how inaccurate some of these have been over the last 3 weeks) and Hamas saying it will not accept one Israeli soldier still being present in Gaza. It looks like a very uneasy peace and we will only be able to tell just what happens after it takes effect.
4) China Mieville, Un Lun Dun (London: Macmillan, 2007, ISBN 9780230015869). Children's fantasy book, which I got because I was in a mood to read things set in unusual versions of London. At first the obvious parallels with Neverwhere irritated me, but that eases off after a few chapters. I mostly enjoyed the story and liked the main character a lot, but UnLondon isn't recognizable to me the way Neverwhere's London Below is. To me, it reads like the way C.S.Lewis might have imagined a future London rather than the way London seems to me now. The young people in ...
There was a Europe break-out session at today's Liberal Democrat 'Creating a Progressive Society' Policy Conference at the LSE, focussing on key issues that will feature in the European election campaign. Fiona Hall (MEP for the North East) gave a detailed presentation on top environmental concerns, notably underlining the fact that it is the [...]
The Guardian's Simon Hoggart gets his readers to help him build up his pension. (Mind you Wogan has been doing it for years with his listeners' letters). They send in Festive Season "Round Robin" letters which people have sent round to family, friends and, sometimes, complete strangers. Hoggart then publishes the best bits in his column, and indeed, books. He publishes a selection today. Some
The Czech architect Jan Kaplicky has died. He's best known for his major buildings, many of them in Britain where his practice, Future Systems, is based. Exciting curvy buildings, using the latest materials, they include the media centre at Lords, and the Birmingham Selfridges. Rich & I went up to Birmingham last year, [...]
Highgate councillor Neil Williams has blogged about the belated but very welcome moves to introduce streetcars to the borough, whilst Martin Belam has a great write-up / photo collection from a recent Alexandra Palace open day.
Details of London Concrete's plans for a concrete factory on Cranford Way (behind Uplands Road and Chettle Court) went to the Planning Committee this week. The application to build the factory was originally rejected by the Committee following a huge campaign by residents (backed by Laura, Ed and I) - but the Government's planning inspector overuled local councillors at an appeal hearing. However, the inspector did put 44 conditions on the development (many relating to dust and noise) and on Tuesday the Committee looked at London Concrete's proposals for meeting these conditions. Some of the detail is good - the ...
This week's Times/Populus opinion poll suggested that the meltdown boost for Gordon Brown's personal rating has faded. But there is rather more to these latest data than simply a restoration of the Conservatives' double-digit lead. An interesting syndrome has come to light, and I am dubbing it 'this depression is going to be very bad for Britain - but I'll survive'. There is now what the researchers call a gap between personal optimism and public pessimism. What can this mean? It could mean any number of things: far too many people still just carrying on carrying on. Figures from elsewhere ...
I have been consistently critical of the lack of hard policy coming from the Conservative Party over the past year. The Cameron-led attempt to re-enact the Labour strategy pre-1997 had been pretty successful until the wheels fell off of the economy and it became clear that the lack of stated policy masked an absence of any real, coherent policy worth writing home about. The political strategy
Above : Stobsmuir Ponds Above : Maryfield LibDem Chris Hall at the Princes Street/King Street junction Above : Keiller's building, Mains Loan Above : Chris Hall in the High Street Above : Reform Street and High Street junction Above : Baxter Park Above : Albert Street
With thanks to Hansard... My Lords, I am very grateful to the noble Lord for initiating this debate and for enabling us to debate issues which, while not exactly on the top of everyone's agenda of very important things to discuss, nevertheless form a kind of daily backdrop while people are trying to go about their business. It is certainly something that leads to high levels of irritation and anger. I was thinking the other day about when I was a child in the early 1960s, and I remember the excitement when someone in our street got a car. They ...
Rail travellers in Britain pay the most expensive rail fares in Europe, according to new research by the Liberal Democrats. The research considers the cost of 'Anytime' single rail tickets across Europe and finds that: · In Great Britain, £10 will only take you on average 26 miles · In Serbia, £10 provides 512 miles of rail travel · In Sweden, £10 will...
Commenting on the Conservative energy proposals unveiled by David Cameron today, Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg said: "This announcement is like David Cameron riding his bike, but what is important is what is in the car behind him." "In there we find a Conservative Party that despite all its rhetoric will dodge a vote on Heathrow's third runway; that supports future nuclear power...
Commenting on reports that the Government may be planning to merge Channel 4 with Five, Liberal Democrat Shadow Culture, Media and Sport Secretary, Don Foster said: "If this is true then the Government is about to deliver a major blow to the provision of Public Service Broadcasting in this country." "Channel 4 makes an enormous contribution to ensuring the quality of programming and...
Election campaigns are about inspiring or scaring people to vote for you. Real government is about dealing with events. A lot of people seem to be expecting Obama to somehow break the iron laws of political reality and I can promise they're going to be disappointed. He may be a charismatic speaker. He may be the first non-fictional black President of the USA. But last time I checked, he didn't have the ability to magic money from nowhere, nor do I think for a moment he will suddenly convince Islamic extremists to lay down their weapons, or Israel and its ...
After a quick search on the Internet I came across this video that someone has created to mock and show how "greedy", Councillor David Whipp is. Councillor Whipp serves as a Liberal Democrat on Pendle and Lancashire County Council's. Currently Cllr Whipp is the leader of the Lib Dems on County Council and if this video is true and he is raking in that much money, he is obviously doing the work to get paid that much or the opposition would have raised the issue.Its just a propaganda video by the di**es of Pendle in the form of Labour and ...
Keith Olbermann gives his summary of the Bush years:
I am at the LSE to do photos with Nick Clegg and members. The session is now finished. Format was the usual one we use for conference photo ops. There was an invasion of staff at the end of the session to have pics taken and I suspect there will be plenty of them appearing on Facebook soon.But forget politics for a moment. Seems as though some people here are far more interested in my food
In another round of railway industry job cuts, South West Trains have announced the loss of 480 jobs, 10% of their workforce. According to their website, "Subject to consultation with staff, our plans will involve a reduction of around 480 management, administration and other roles across the company. Train drivers, guards and frontline fleet maintenance staff are not affected by these proposed
I did not have time to highlight this yesterday but the views of two retired defence chiefs that the Trident missile system should be scrapped are sufficiently important to merit a late comment. Lord Ramsbotham, a former adjutant-general who became the chief inspector of prisons, and Field Marshal Lord Bramall, a former chief of the defence staff, have appealed to ministers to think again about their 2007 decision to renew Trident at a cost of up to £20bn. They argue that the money would be better spent on the precision weapons needed for current conflicts. I believe that their case ...
Speaking to the Lib Dems' one-day policy conference in London today, Nick Clegg has highlighted the party's policies to address the UK recession, and attacked the Labour/Tory "cosy consensus" for ignoring the needs of ordinary people and communities: Our problems are systemic. Take a look at the problems in Britain today, from the economic crisis to the lack of social mobility, from disengagement with politics to our failure to get the best out of the European Union. The blame lies squarely at the feet of Labour and the Conservatives. The Conservative adulation of the City of London, replicated by the ...
"This is the route out of recession. But the other parties will not deliver it. Liberal Democrats - and Liberal Democrats alone - can truly change Britain for the better. "Together, I know we can make it happen." Is how Nick Clegg finished his speech opening the One Day Policy Conference at the LSE about Progressive Society. He accused Labour and the Conservatives of forming a cosy political cabal sucking the life out of politics. "Both parties' dependence on special interests, their centralising, micro-managing ways, that ignore the needs of ordinary people and local communities, that's what's sucked the life ...
The PoliticsOnline website ran this book review from me last week. As it touches on wider issues about how political parties should, or shouldn't, approach the internet, I've reproduced it here: We-Think, last year's Charles Leadbeater book, is - as you would expect from him - an interesting and thoughtful study. It clearly and persuasively lays out how "an unparalleled wave of online creativity" is upon us, with collaborative efforts such as Wikipedia providing information for free and in a way that would have been previously unthinkable. Underlying it though is an assumption which features on the book's cover: "The ...
The Indian government has taken great umbrage at David Miliband linking terrorism in Mumbai with India's continued problems in Indian controlled Kashmir. It does seem odd that India cannot see that what happens in Kashmir is a continual recruitment banner for any Islamist who wants to radicalise younger Muslims or who wants to hang their hatred of India on to something tangible. Anyone who cannot see this is blind to the problem and will never solve it. The odd thing though is that Miliband is part of the same government who cannot see a linkage between growing radicalisation of Muslim ...
Yesterday LDV reported the Parliamentary speeches of Norman Baker and Susan Kramer opposing the Labour Government's planned expansion of Heathrow airport. And today we can note that Richard Younger-Ross has become the 15th Lib Dem MP to become a 'beneficial owner' of a plot of land on the site of the proposed third runway at Heathrow airport, a Greenpeace move aimed at holding up the scheme in planning red-tape. As Susan says on the Greenpeace website, At every stage the Government has ignored public opinion and shamelessly ignored the grave environmental risk of expanding Heathrow. At every stage, residents have ...
It's not just the questions of the opposition MSPs that Alex Salmond decides to ignore, or answer erroneously. Apparently the great ego presiding over his devolved fifedom of Scotland is also ignoring his advisers. At this time of economic crisis he should be being praised for assembling consulting his Council of Economic Advisers made up of leading businessmen, economics (some of whom are Nobel laureates) and chaired by a former chair of the Bank of Scotland. Such a panel of wise men should be able to steer the financial future of Scotland. However, the First Minister's response to these sages ...
Liz Broumley of the Friends of Magdalen Green has a super set on photos of the Green on Flickr - she's kindly allowed me to link to these on the blog, so if you click on the headline above, you can view the photoset! Thanks, Liz.
I spent part of this morning doing a Reg 33 visit. These are visits that councillors make to children's homes (in this case a respite care facility) every month. Its part of our Corporate Parenting role. The visits are unannounced and I am one of a team of four councillors who visit our facility on Prescot Drive (which is in Fairfield). It is good to have a chance to do this as either you are impressed or, if there is anything going wrong, you have the chance to change things to help the children and young people in our care. ...
In between spreading scurrilous gossip about the government and overusing the "c"-word, Guido Fawkes makes the occasional sensible post about financial markets. Unfortunately, he does so in the lingo of willy-waving trader types (he worked for a hedge fund before losing it all after falling out with his business partner, so this is probably the lingo he used in the office). Femme-de-Resistance
Neil Williams has welcomed the arrival of streetcars in Haringey, and I have to admit that I was quite excited by the prospect. So I read the article, only to find that it was a bit of a let down. A car? What is this all about? No use to me, I fear, as a non-driver. To me, a streetcar is one of these... an Art Deco example from San Francisco's F-line (no, sniggering at the back, Jennie...),
There are all sorts of aspects of the Party President's job which are not really widely known about, and one of them is the international dimension. With that in mind, last week I met with Robert Woodthorpe-Browne, Chair of the International Relations Committee (this is a post elected by the Federal Executive), and Paul Spellar who heads the small, but perfectly formed, International Department in Party H.Q. There are several strands to the work of the International Relations Committee, which was created some years ago because the F.E. was spending too much time on international issues. They liaise and work ...
On `Saturday live` there was an intriguing item about life in a submarine. The most intriguing item for me was the fact that you were `newsless` for months apart from an allowance of 120 words a week from a named person. This communique is checked by someone on the vessel in case it contains code. Thus, knowing [...]
Today's Guardian reports on Labour's latest attempts to dilute the very Freedom of Information Act (2000) which it once passed: Ministers today faced a backlash following the revelation that they are backing plans to exempt MPs from Freedom of Information Act legislation. The Liberal Democrats denounced the move, saying the party's MPs would be advised to vote against the plan when it is considered in a free vote next Thursday. Tories are being urged to abstain. However, with many backbenchers from the two main parties privately in favour of the move, it is expected to be approved. ... Downing Street ...
Earlier this week, Nick Clegg announced the membership of the Lib Dems' new Commission on Privacy, "which will examine the use, abuse and retention of private data, and propose new safeguards to protect the rights of individuals." Its membership comprises: * David Heath MP (Chair) - Liberal Democrat Shadow Leader of the House * Simon Davies - Privacy International; Fellow at LSE * Shami Chakrabarti - Director of Liberty * Baroness Sue Miller - Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson in the House of Lords * Henry Porter - Journalist on The Observer * Prof. Ross Anderson - Professor of Security ...
A quotation for your next Focus leaflet from this morning's Daily Mail: Libdem leader Nick Clegg deserves undiluted praise for speaking out against the bloodthirsty invasion of Gaza and calling for sanctions to be imposed on Israel. Again and again - on Iraq, Lebanon and now Gaza - the LibDems speak out for a foreign policy of which Britain can be proud, while the other parties sit on their hands.
Today's policy conference in London has been trailed in the media this morning, including for example this from the Press Association: Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg will warn a generation of young people risk being consigned to the economic "scrapheap" due to the failure of Gordon Brown's policies. In a speech to a one-day Lib Dem conference in London, Mr Clegg will say school and college leavers aged 16 to 24 look set to bear the brunt of the worsening downturn. He will accuse Mr Brown of offering only "pointless initiatives" in response to the crisis and will call for ...
Brilliant Razorlight spoof.
There's been much comment in the news and blogosphere of the Christian bus driver who has declared himself offended by atheist adverts and so refused to drive buses carrying them. (The slogan on the buses reads 'There's probably no God. Now stop worry and enjoy your life' in case you missed it). Perhaps surprising to some is the lack of outcry about this. Most supporters of the campaign, including its founder, have no problem with this chap, Ron Heather, coming to an agreement with his employer not to drive buses carrying the advert. I agree. If he doesn't want to ...
Well, I suppose the headline isn't really accurate, as the bus itself probably isn't atheist - it's just the advert it's carrying. I was amused by the tale of Ron Heather who, as a Christian, felt that he could not drive a bus which had the Atheist Bus Campaign's advert on it. His employer has agreed to accommodate his request. I can understand Ron Heather's strong feelings. If there were Nestle ads on Liberal Democrat literature, you can bet your life that there's no way I would deliver them. On the other hand, I opposed the idea that a registrar ...
So today we are looking at the The Roebuck Hotel, Pond Street. Until you pause, step back and look up you don't have a real sense of just how big the damned place it - three stories with a full pediment atop it is truly large and with the landscape of the hill it really takes you by surprise. It has a pretty long historical pedigree having opened circa 1860. Nineteenth century directories for NW London list the landlords/licensees as: 1866 - William John Tolladay 1885-7 - G F Dettmer 1874 directory - Paul Paris 1894 - William J Harris ...
The Islington Tribune has printed a number of letters on the Gaza situation, including mine. And I'm not alone in pointing up the failures of the Government's position. Mike Heeneman of Finsbury Park writes: "Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has called on Gordon Brown to condemn both sides' tactics, not just the Palestinians'. Only with such [...]
LabourList is making me really, really angry. Why? Because Labour activists have wanted a decent aggregate/group blog for ages. LabourList came along and it's so woefully inadequate that it makes me want to scream. I feel aggrieved on behalf of Labour activists everywhere. I'm so annoyed that *I* would produce a decent version of LabourList if I could program CSS well enough to code a Wordpress
Exhibit A: an email arrives with the following opening line, "I wanted you to know straightaway that your bill is now ready for you to view online at britishgas.co.uk" Exhibit B: when accessing the section of the British Gas website for viewing bills online, the following text displays, "Important Information! Parts of our website will be unavailable until 4am [...]
Let's give a big hand to Labourist. It's a beautifully designed website hosting the same content as the widely derided LabourList, but without the excessive comment moderation. But how long will this copyright statement stay on LabourList before being tightened up: "All content is the copyright of LabourList but we give permission for its use, unless otherwise stated."Is there anything
At last, the Council is pressing ahead with plans to introduce 'streetcars' at 41 locations in Haringey. This has taken eons, and neighbouring boroughs have had streetcars for some time - the pic shows Lynne Featherstone booking herself a streetcar in Islington, in 2007. There is more info at http://www.streetcar.co.uk/. It's a great service, though I would like to see more than one provider in the future. As the website says: "Streetcar has cars parked in a dense network of dedicated spaces across London and several other UK cities, typically within a few minutes walk of your home or work. ...
The UN failed to force them to do it, but after over a further week of death and destruction the Israelis are prepared after talks with Egypt to vote on whether to declare a unilateral ceasefire on Gaza later today. It is all very much like the talks in Northern Ireland as while both parties are in Cairo they appear not to have been in talks with each other but with Egypt acting as a intermediary. These were the talks that America wanted to see how they progressed when they abstained on the UN security councils resolution. As with Northern ...
Its bloody scary, when you look at this list. It (edited slightly) is taken from the Facebook Group which I joined yesterday, and one which I urge all Liberal Democrats (and anyone else reading this) to join. Since 2000, there has been a deluge of anti-liberty legislation. This group has listed most of them, and it is chilling, terrifying reading: - The government can ban any groups it labels 'terrorist' - The government can monitor any and all private communication - Armed forces can be deployed domestically in peacetime. - Property and assets can be seized without warning or compensation ...
Well, that law allowing bailiffs to use 'reasonable force' just killed a 78 year old man. I can't really add much to what Laurie has to say at Penny Red. We are getting very close to the point where this government can be described as fascist without that being hyperbole. Those of you who have voted [...]
I'm still far busier than I expected this week, so I'm still behind on my email correspondence - apologies to those who've emailed me recently. Anyway, in lieu of a longer post, here's some links: Debi writes about Thomas Hariot - the most pioneering scientist you've never heard of. Bobsy shows us his pants. Over on Lib Dem [...]
