{NerdTests.com says I'm a Cool Nerd King. Click here to take the Nerd Test, get nerdy images and jokes, and write on the nerd forum!}
Just thought I'd advertise a blog of someone I know. A couple of weeks ago I met my friend Des from Chippenham (another Gayer) who happens to work with someone that likes `to dress` and become Jill. Well, I've got to know these people and they're such fun and sometimes a little brave. I first got to [...]
... since this meme just declared me a God: {NerdTests.com says I'm a Dorky Nerd God. Click here to take the Nerd Test, get geeky images and jokes, and write on the nerd forum!} BOW DOWN AND WORSHIP ME, PUNY MORTALS!!!!11ELEVENTY!! Aww, go on! You don't have to come to church or nuffin'.
I was pleased to hear today's news that the £50m appeal to secure the future of the Titian painting Diana and Actaeon within the collection of the National Galleries of Scotland and the National Gallery has been successful. I made a small donation to the appeal, as I believe it's important that investment is made in culture, and having world class art collections in Scotland and the UK is part of that. Obviously, some people question such expenditure at a time of economic crisis, but many of those people don't think we should ever spend anything on cultural matters. That's ...
I'm watching Richard Dawkins's pleasingly iconoclastic "The Root Of All Evil?" documentary. In it, he spends some time with Ted Haggard - bigot, hypocrite, far-right-winger, christian, self-hating homosexual and habitual drug user - who looks like this. No, really. I've paused it three times now when there's a close-up on his face, and every time it looks like this.I can only assume that his mouth has got stuck in this shape from sucking off rent boys so often. But damn, that means he uses his teeth!
We has about 6 inches of snow, and it's still ongoing. I have a cold. Small person has conjunctivitis. It's The Time of the Moth. Nan's funeral is tomorrow. Still, mustn't grumble... -_-"
Right, well Stephen Tall from LDV has tagged everyone on the LibDemBlogs aggregator to list 25 random things about themselves. Apparently I am supposed to tag 25 more people but seeing as if everyone did that, in about 7 generations (25 to the power 7), the entire population of the world would have been tagged I think I can safely not do that. Here are 25 things about me if you are at all interested: 1) I was on Question Time a couple of years ago and had a brief rant about John Prescott. 2) I have not drunk any ...
Remember I told you I asked for a webcam overlooking Market Square in Nottingham? At the time I thought it would be interesting to share the view that councillors got of the progress of the nearly £10m works being undertaken on the square. Over the weekend, some wag thought to use the newly fallen snow in the city centre to write a very rude word in enormous letters to be displayed wherever the webcam was seen. This included the local BBC Nottingham pages, which for a goodly few hours blithely displayed the very rude word on its webcam page. Just ...
Some people are whining "where were the snow ploughs?" and "why weren't the roads gritted" because of the current SNOWAGEDDON. Of course, grit doesn't do any good either on top of or below 8 inches of snow. And in the last paragraph of this article a chap from Westminster City Council makes the obvious point that snow ploughs are only any use if there's somewhere to plough the snow to.The chap from Camden is a bit silly though. Speed bumps are irrelevant. Why? Because if he had spent money on purchasing, storing and maintaining machinery that is only useful for ...
Now Final Crisis has finished, I can really start talking about it. This week will (barring Events of the kind that marred last week) be Final Crisis Week here, where there will be a post a day on Final Crisis and related comics. Don't worry, those of you here for other things, I will find [...]
Femme de Resistance and LibertyCat are now blogging at www.newsgeeks.co.uk. Please change your links. You can follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/femmeder. There are still some teething problems with the site, namely the frame redirect and the rollover links. Suggestions/advice from anyone geeky enough to understand what I've just written will be gratefully received!
As the whole of Britain is brought to a grinding halt by the descent of some iced preciptation, rumour had it that the House of Parliament had also shut down for the day. And just think what chaos might have ensued then! Fortunately, reports of its dearth proved to be exaggerated, and so today's Lib Dem opposition day has proceeded as planned (though I concede the possibility it might have been slightly overshadowed by metereological events on the news): (1) Government capital expenditure during the recession; (2) Standards of conduct in Parliament and constitutional reform Anyway, here's how Vince opened ...
Party chair Rob Cooper (pictured left) welcomes Tom McCann (right) as our new Parliamentary Candidate North West Hampshire Liberal Democrats are pleased to announce that experienced Liberal Democrat campaigner Tom McCann has been selected as their Parliamentary Candidate. Tom was elected by the party membership at the Andover Guildhall on the 30th January 2009. Tom is 47 and has been married to Margot for 22 years, and has two daughters in sixth form education. Tom has been in the south east for 27 years, working within the construction industry. He has been a Town/District Councillor for over 14 years with ...
The Liberal Democrats have taken a sensible and positive approach to the Scottish Budget - it appears that the SNP government is finally listening ...
The Beddington & Wallington Local Committee due to take place on Tuesday 3rd February has been cancelled. I will advise of the new date as soon as I know.
...Sounds like the title of an H.M.Bateman cartoon. (In this case, Melanie Phillips plays the role of the horrified waiter who was asked for a whisky and blackcurrant). Caroline Petrie is a nurse who has been suspended after she offered to pray for a patient she had treated at her (the patient's) home. I have prayed for many people but they have all asked me to pray for them or they do not know
It appears that the SNP Scottish Government has woken up to the fact that it has to take the views of all parties in the parliament seriously. On Calman, I think Tavish Scott will have achieved the concession from government that will last for the longer term. To quote the Sunday Times : "Mr Scott wants Mr Salmond to set out his views to the Commission on the argument over whether Holyrood should acquire borrowing powers to help cope with the fall-out from the economic downturn. While Mr Salmond will have no difficulty with the principle of pressing the case ...
Last year there was an almighty row, aided and abetted of course by politicians taking opportunist (but unrealistic and possibly illegal) positions ahead of elections, about huge rent rises in the five year Covered Market rent review process. A modicum of peace was restored when the city council pledged to spend the paltry sum of £50,000 on some painting and decorating. Today we learn that the cash strapped spending slashing council has withdrawn the funding and, quite rightly, some of the traders in the market are pretty pissed off. {Oxford Covered Market 1 (31-1-09)} Image copryright SteveBell @ Flickr (I ...
The Lib Dem blogosphere does not have a lot of time for the strikers at Lindsey oil refinery and their supporters elsewhere in industry. Alix Mortimer even writes: "But you PWOMISED!" is basically what the strikers are saying.though is seems unfair to accuse these strikers of childishness when they are concerned with their ability to pay the mortgage and put food on their family's table - surely the most grown up thing of all? This support for the consequences of globalisation is consistent with out strong support of the concept in the European Parliament, even if our more communitarian instincts ...
I never miss an opportunity to turn a meme into an excuse to write Haiku. Many libertarians have been making very obvious slogans today, somewhat embarrassingly. Here's my effort.
I have just got back from a meeting in Manchester. Until I got back to Leicester this afternoon all the trains turned up on time, and even then there was only a 30-minute wait. The evening news will be full of "Britain in snow chaos" stories, for which read "London is snow chaos". The real position was more mixed than that and I was impressed with how well the railways coped. True, the train to Manchester this morning was diverted because of "a fatality at Stockport", but that just mean we took the more picturesque route via New Mills and ...
David Blunkett has launched a campaign to get yellow school buses back on School routes according to a post by Guido. The post then was updated later on during the say with an update from Guido saying that a co-conspirator had tipped him off telling him the following: "pointed out he is paid £25,000-year by a bus company." This is an issue that I think really needs to be discussed in Parliament and by the general public. The people may their taxes so that MP's can go to Parliament and be our voice but is that possible if they are ...
Well - it was indeed snowy today - and as I span 180 degrees I did at least remember the advice to take my foot of the brake and steer into it. Luckily I was doing 5 mph at the time but I wont be back out there again this evening. Car and driver intact! My day started early with son No.2 desperate to listen to the Radio and see if his school was closed. I've seen very little of him since he got the "good" news that it was closed. It's been a quiet day really. Focus was finished ...
Government offices have closed today and sent workers home early because of the weather, so the next time its too hot or too cold or even too wet the Government will shut shop and just stay at home. The Department for Work and Pension is closed across most of the country due to the snow as Iain Dale has reported and you can read more by following the link! Personally I think its a joke, MP's don't have to go into Parliament because no votes have taken place because of the snow. Departments are closed because of the snow, but ...
On Thursday evening, djm4 and I went to the launch of the Detained Lives report. Here are some of the highlights, or perhaps I should say lowlights: *About 3,000 people are held in immigration detention in the UK at any one time, many because they are effectively stateless and cannot return to their country of origin. The UK has no procedure for recognising people as stateless and will often hold them indefinitely pending a deportation which is never likely to be possible. *The Home Office does not keep statistics on how long they are detained (except in the case of ...
This snow malarcky has rather amused me today. Panic! What do we do? Will our whole infrastructure, indeed, our whole way of living collpase under such grave circumstances?! Well Ceredigion is still here, unbowed, unabashed and only very, very , very, very slightly the whiter shade of normal! I've heard from many friends this morning who couldn't make it into London to work which gives them that bonus extra day off. Or then does it? In such circumstances should it be a day off or just an opportunity to work from home? I know which one I'd choose given the ...
A mixed meeting this afternoon with the new Managing Director of First Great Western. I highlighted the very poor service on the Yate-Bristol route, with too many overcrowded trains, carriages not turning up and lack of information when things go wrong. In the medium term, there is a hope of improvement. A few new carriages have so far been allocated to the West of England, but a bidding process is currently going on involving First Great Western which should hopefully mean quite a few more carriages - but they probably wouldn't be in service for the best part of two ...
A little more on that rather frank election prediction for Haringey found at the Haringey council offices (see a few posts below). It predicts a Lib Dem council, and it turns out that the anonymous document was the work of the Labour party office at the council. No surprise really - but a far cry from the official Labour line. Their new councillor describes the recent by-election result in Seven Sisters as a "vote of confidence" in Haringey Labour. ...
As Britain stares down a 1970s-style Spring of Discontent, with the Credit Crunch now being supplemented by industrial strife and wildcat strikes, who is to blame for the crisis on the Humber, and how can it be resolved? First of all, these workers have every right to feel angry. We all do. Like the rest of the country, they were told that 'Things Can Only Get Better', they were even promised 'British Jobs for British Workers', and yet here they are again, back to picketing and strikes. Now, that isn't to say that companies like Total shouldn't be able to ...
Hello all, it's been a while. And it's this snow that has left me with a few spare minutes to have a go at kickstarting the old blog. December, Christmas, New Year and January have all been and gone, but winter has only just properly started it seems - the photo is Muswell Hill Broadway this morning around 8.30am... not a bus in sight, for a change, as they were all withdrawn from service this morning. Having made it into work, left early to make sure I got back before it got cold and the pavements got slippy. I know ...
Take a hefty bit of anxiety about the economic downturn, when people are worried about whether they will still have a job at the end of the week, month of year. Add the idea that foreign workers might be stealing British jobs. Whip into frenzy. That will give you the angry and unpleasant scenes we've seen at Lindsey, Longannet, Sellafield and other places across the country. It's deeply depressing to see such hatred and I worry that it's only a matter of time before somebody gets hurt. Pandering to prejudice is no way to relieve people's concerns about the economic ...
I don't really indulge in too much statporn. It just gives me a headache. Every so often, though, I like to have a wee look to see who my readers are and how they are finding this blog. I suppose I must be a little bit geeky to even know this, because I wouldn't have had a clue a few months ago, but my counter has a page which tells me, when it can, the website which referred the reader to me. From that I can see that my posting of Bishop Gene Robinson's Inaugural prayer and the the Tony ...
I was on a course with work today, and noticed with some alarm, during the first of several unnecessary coffee breaks, that I'd had three missed calls from Tam. Under normal circumstances this could only mean one of a small number of distressing things - death of relative / car accident / cat-related incident blown out of all proportion but still requiring the wiping away of tears. Today though, it was an enquiry I hear all too infrequently in my day to day business. She wanted to know if I knew of anywhere that sold sledges, since she'd been sent ...
Traffic As at luchtime today (Monday 2nd February) Woodcote Road through Wallington town centre was accessible to traffic although not completely clear of snow in the centre. Vehicles were still moving too fast for the conditions. Stafford Road is treacherous; there is still snow over all of the road and cars are liable to skidding. Vehicles are [...]
The latest information from the Guildhall is that no refuse and recycling collections were made today, and are unlikely tomorrow. Bins and recycling will probably be collected two days late, with crews working on Saturday and Sunday. In the meantime, the refuse drivers have been busy helping with the extra gritting which is keeping all the through routes clear.
{Robert Cooper (left) welcomes Tom McCann (right) to NW Hampshire} North West Hampshire Liberal Democrats are pleased to announce that experienced Liberal Democrat campaigner Tom McCann has been selected as their Parliamentary Candidate. Tom was elected by the party membership at the Andover Guildhall on the 30th January 2009. Tom is 47 and has been married to Margot for 22 years, and has two daughters in sixth form education. Tom has been in the south east for 27 years, working within the construction industry. He has been a Town/District Councillor for over 14 years with a wide range of interests ...
This morning's Western Mail raised a number of issues in relation to the state of Wales' health service. The paper predicts an impending crisis in the Welsh health service as front-line workers face the consequences of damaging staff shortages. This forecast is prompted by figures which show that there are more than 160 vacancies for doctors in the Welsh NHS. In the meantime the much-criticised
Wait. I don't know anything about artichokes. Ah well. Start again. 25 things you did not know about Huw Dawson (because, you know, I know quite a lot about that subject). 1) Despite viewing myself as a Lancastrian, I spent the first 12 years of my life in West Yorkshire. 2) Despite viewing myself as a Northener, my father is from a reasonably well off family from The South. 3) I spend a great deal of my time thinking up excellent posts for this blog, and then subsequently never putting pen to paper or finger to keyboard and writing them. ...
So says I in a piece I've written for Liberal Democrat Voice.
If anyone in the London area needs an appliance engineer, I can heartily recommend AA Service. I made an online booking with them this morning at 9 am, thinking that between snow and the usual delays it would be the end of the week before anyone actually turned up. In fact, I had a phone call around 1 pm promising an engineer between 3 and 6. Then they had a cancellation, so the engineer actually showed up at about 2.25 pm and proceeded to sort things out with minimal fuss or mess and maximal courtesy. The main culprit was a ...
With millions of us sitting at home unable to get into work, what do you think is the most popular webpage on the BBC at the moment? Heavy snow hits Britain? Snow disrupts London travel? After all, most of the travel information websites seem to have gone down. Er, no. It's Super bowl porn hits US viewers, a story about how an American cable channel accidently broadcast porn during last night's Super Bowl. Are the British more interested in American football than the weather?
And as I look out of the window it is still snowing. I have put a set of pics up on my facebook profile: Ed Fordham so have a look there... But hey, London may have ground to a halt but it aint half beautiful and look good under a scene of snow and calm. And London without traffic - where you can walk in the road, enjoy the expanse of the area - it's so much better and nicer and quieter and... The snow does make it trickier for bicycles however, and I nearly fell down the road - ...
Other local blogsites are putting up pics of their areas in the snow, so here at Oval News we see no reason why we should not join in the fun. On a more serious note, updates from Lambeth Council on their website can be found here saying what they are doing. School closures today included the Ashmole Primary School. A few pictures below of the heaviest snow in London for almost 2 decades.. Vauxhall Park was transformed into a winter wonderland... The Albert Embankment lights were looking very seasonal... The Vauxhall Park fountain was just about visible under a couple ...
I went to see Frost-Nixon last night, it was very good and well worth a watch even if you are only slightly interested in politics.
The house is filled with the sound of children sticking snow down each other's coats and screaming outside, and most of the local schools are shut. Hail to the triumph of The Green Man over Jack Frost, then, and nature's sense of irony. I might get out of bed at some point, but since Mat has taken great glee in telling everyone what a lazy arse I am, I might as well live up to the stereotype.
This one is easy - all you have to do is answer all the questions with a word that starts with the same letter as your name.... 1. What is your name: Jennie 2. A four Letter Word: Join 3. A boy's Name: James 4. A girl's Name: Jemima 5. An occupation: Juror 6. A color: Jade 7. Something you'll wear: Jumper 9. A food: Jerusalem artichoke 10. Something found in the bathroom: Jizz (what? WHAT?!) 11. A place: Jumples Crag 12. A reason for being late: Joined on the bus by Vince Cable, and was stunned into fangirly awe ...
What does an innocent person have to fear?" That's one of the most common arguments rolled out time and time again to justify chipping away at our freedoms. If you're innocent why should you be worried if the government can do X, knows Y or stops Z? The counter-arguments tend to be a mix of principle and pragmatism. Principled arguments around issues such as rights that we have as humans and the restrictions there should be on what governments can do. Pragmatic arguments such as the costs (e.g. spend money on ID cards or on police?), practicalities (e.g. what odds ...
Reading this report on the BBC News site, I was struck by the following paragraph: Today's report will contribute to the growing debate about heat, which produces 47% of the UK's CO2 emissions - much more than electricity or transport. The government will soon launch a consultation on a heat strategy.Aaaaaaaaargh!!!! Why the hell hasn't the government already started working out the most
Today's a good day to check - if you've had a snow fall. Just look at the roof. If there's loads of snow on it, it suggests a well insulated roof. If the snow has melted away, then it suggests poor insulation. Or am I talking rubbish? Here's a photo of a couple of rooves on a pair of semi-detached houses, which I took today. The one on the left seems clearly better insulated. (Or maybe one
An hour ago, I blogged about the weather - the fact that all my friends and colleagues (and my Mum) thought we would have snow here in Edinburgh - wasn't that surprising, however we had blue skies. We had a mini blizzard at 4am, then another around 10.40am but now we have snow but I am not convinced it will settle that much. The weather man on STV has just predicted heavy snow for Edinburgh this afternoon and evening so let's see. The weather we are seeing down in London is bizarre to say the least, but what still annoys ...
I will give a prize to anyone who can give me a good reason why anyone who cares not a jot for notions of civic responsibility should vote in the June european elections. It is a fact that MEPs can have more influence over the shaping of laws than MPs possess. It's a consequence of the separation Of powers and of the personally non-combative nature of the institution. But the Parliament is not an executive body and has no say over taxes or foreign policy. At best it is worthy not exciting. We need to give people some positive reasons ...
My press and communications officer warns me that my last blog may lead to my being targeted by 'pro-life' groups. Time to circle the wagons. Mossad attacking on one side and SPUC on the other. To deter the pigeons we had some spikes put on the window ledges of my office in Castle Street, Stockport, a while ago. I suppose the pointed wooden stakes now erected around the doorway are a touch more ostentatious.
This service has been around on a trial basis for a little while, but I've only just started using it myself: www.planningalerts.com It's pretty straight-forward: give your postcode and email address and in return you get news of planning applications by email. The email alerts look to me to be better than many offered by councils themselves, so this may also be a useful service for councillors and colleagues to promote to the public in their patch. It covers 315 local authorities at the moment, and if your isn't one of them then you can help add it to the ...
Was this where Gordon Brown got his mad analogy of last week from? Or is the country as a whole just saying "let's keep the Titian, it's less costly than Gordon Brown". If Gordon Brown is mentally unfit for purpose, can we claim all the debt he is mounting up is "odious debt", worthy of debt forgiveness as the actions of a person unfit to sign a contract? Apparently Davos had a Moroccan theme for its last night parteee. Since this is a world trade event, I wonder if they got to sample some of the country's finest export. Ingenious, ...
As Facebook devotees will know, there's currently a rather virulent meme afflicting all users, called self-explanatorily enough, 25 random things: Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you. So far LDV's Facebook page has escaped being tagged ... but why let that stop us? So here goes with 25 random things about the Lib Dems: ...
There's nothing new in manual workers travelling to work in another EU country. It's been going on for ages, even before the current freedom of movement and freedom to trade. In fact before the German building sites of the title for this post, think of the Irish navvies working on the canals and railways. The protests [...]
As much of the UK is under 6 inches of snow I thought I'd show the view from our flat - see, no snow! ------------------
BRITISH SNOWMEN GIVE COLD SHOULDER TO MIGRANT WORKERS Snowmen in Cumbria went on a go-slow in protest against the decision by local children to build snowmen using snow imported from Eastern Europe. A spokesman said, "These snowmen blow in from Poland and Lithuania, taking our jobs. The Government should act now!". A Government spokesman said in response, "We believe that freedom of movement
I have purchased the domain http://www.irfanahmed.org/ for this blog and it should hopefully become active in the next couple of days, please update your URL's when it has. You will be transferred from this URL to the new URL when it is in full working order! My email address is still irfanahmed91@gmail.com and if you would like to ever contact me use that address!
{Sir Ming and Iain Smith MSP} North East Fife's MP and MSP Sir Menzies Campbell and Iain Smith have today written to John Swinney MSP to lodge their objections to a number of the proposals in the modified Fife Structure Plan which is currently under consultation. In their letter, Sir Menzies and Mr Smith said: "We support the view of Fife Council that the housing requirement in the Structure Plan should be 5% and not the 8% being proposed by the Scottish Government. "We endorse the objections raised by our colleagues in St Andrews Councillors Melville, Sangster and Waterston with ...
This is the severe weather services update on the Council website, as at 9.45am..... ===================================================== The South East of England has been affected by unprecedented snow fall overnight and the MET Office has forecast more heavy snow during the day. The following Councils services have been affected: Recycling and...
How do you get out of a recession? Well, first - as Keynes taught us all if we had the wit to notice - you can't expect to do more than stimulate recovery, possibly at the cost of inflation. The liberal prescription for a recession ought to be, modestly, along the same lines. Whilst Gordon 'Batman' Brown claims he is saving the planet, liberals should be saving our sanity and hope by making it clear that old fashioned deep recessions like this (not the stagflation of the 1980s) are not easily remedied by fiscal or monetary policy alone - that ...
There is something odd in the recent wildcat and illegal strikes at oil terminals (and now Sellafield). British jobs for British workers? Actually, these are French jobs for British workers, for it is British workers working for a French company who are striking in opposition to other, non British workers being employed.Foreign businesses such as Total, and, for us in the North East, Nissan have
I'm not sure if Welsh AM Peter Black is a Beautiful South fan. But his post this morning, was entitled with the refrain from one of the more appropriate songs for the current government. Don't know what I'm doing here I'll carry on regardless Got enough money for one more beer I'll carry on regardless Good as gold, but stupid [...]
Don't worry - this graph will explain it all.
I went home, on Saturday night, to Newport. It was a very relaxing couple of days, until I read about a new Assembly action, which will slice funding to schools in Newport, considerably. Somehow, my old school escapes this hammer-blow, but the neighbouring school Duffryn, does not. This school will see its funding slashed by £300,000! Considering Duffryn has been working extremely hard to increase its standards, and offer chances to some of the more troubled teenagers in Newport, I find this budget slashing unforgiveable. What makes it worse, is the name behind this action. John Griffiths AM. For Newport ...
Monday 2nd February: The refuse collection service has been suspended today whilst council staff concentrate on gritting the roads. The refuse service will be resumed as soon as the weather permits.
I wrote to the BBC complaining that although Gordon Brown had 20 minutes on Today (that interview with Evan Davies) this opportunity was not extended to either Vince Cable and George Osbourne (I thought I was increasing my chances by adding Osbourne but that doesn't seem so) as the reply I received was: `We're extremely mindful [...]
Now i know its bad and we can not drive in it because of idiot drivers, but how the Scandinavians must laugh at us Brits, the country has come to a complete standstill with no trains, buses or tubes?? why because we have had the annual day of snow. I have been to Finland, Sweden and Norway in the winter and this is a mere sparrows cough to them, have you ever seen the sea frozen, looks like a
Oh dear - "programmed to be upgraded"! And since when did putting all of the text on a sign in capital letters make it easier to read? {Haringey Council CPZ sign}
There's a rather remarkable feature in today's Independent - a fair and balanced feature article highlighting Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg's town hall tours. The first part focuses on what Nick's learned from the process, and how he feels these Q&As have helped keep him grounded as leader: The public meetings have convinced him that all politics is personal as well as local; people want to know what it will do for them. He is straight, not flashy, very good at connecting with people, and genuinely enjoys the town-hall circuit. "It's good to know what people are thinking; sometimes you ...
Just a note for parents of children who attend Bandon Hill School: the school will be closed today and tomorrow (Monday 2nd & Tuesday 3rd February) due to the bad weather.
I have been a zealous radio listener since childhood, probably because my brother works for a radio station and I have followed his career accordingly. For this reason, when DAB came along I rushed out and bought a range of DAB radios which have generally offered more choice in this corner of Oxfordshire but which have also been somewhat of a disappointment as the myriad new radio stations close or retrench to London and other more heavily populated areas. This morning we got caught out as the weather descended and, predictably, England ground to a halt as the light dusting ...
I struggled along the icy pavements to the tube station this morning, only to find that it was closed. No buses running, either, of course. So a day's work at the university goes up the spout, and this evening's LIBG memorial event for Russell Johnston at the National Liberal Club has to be cancelled. The [...]
Is it just me, or has Tony Blair turned into the late Derek Jarman? Strange indeed....
When Gordon Brown steps down as leader of the Labour party who will succeed him? According to a blog post over at Political Betting three members of the party are already campaigning to become leaders after Brown. The three being James Purnell, Ed Balls and Ed Miliband all high flying Labour party members that are known to anyone who watches political movement in the UK. What do the three have in common is something that is not very publicly known which is that all three went to Oxford University and all three studied the same degree! I personally don't think ...
Power of Information Taskforce report out in beta at http://poit.cabinetoffice.gov.uk
This isn't actually in my patch - as is in other half of Haringey - but I thought some local people might wish to put their comments in on the planning application on the garden of a pub called The Fountain in N15. See: http://www.fancyapint.com/pubs/pub3334.html for details and a picture. The Fountain pub is a few minutes walk along West Green Road from Seven Station, N15. The pub has a large garden - which of course makes it a target for developers. The residents successfully won against the previous plans to flatten the pub and garden on the grounds that ...
Sainsbury's want to extend their edge of town centre Darlington store with more car parking, a petrol station and a customer restaurant. Seems a good idea to me: cheap supermarket petrol near the town centre and more free car parking just across the ring road for the town centre shoppers. I shop there once a month, for pet food mainly. I prefer to use the market and farmers' market (and my own
Here's a bit of historical context: in the last major house price slump, prices peaked in the third quarter of 1989*, hit bottom in the first quarter of 1993 when they were 20% lower and did not rise back above the pre-slump peak again until the first quarter of 1998. What would similar timescales mean for us this time round? Prices peaked in the third quarter of 2007, so that would mean them not hitting bottom until the first quarter of 2011 and not getting back to their pre-slump levels until the first quarter of 2016. In other words, not ...
As wildcat strikers adopt Gordon Brown's dog-whistle slogan of 'British jobs for British workers', the Lib Dem leadership has made clear that it sees no point in getting in to "a blame game" with other European workers. Vince Cable, the party's deputy leader, commented at the weekend: We've got to be very careful - on the one hand we've got to listen to workers who are angry, we need to help them to find some way forward. But it would be very, very dangerous and foolish to fall into this beggar my neighbour game with people in one country fighting ...
So things are not as they seemed a few days ago when it looked like the Government were going to crack down on the dubious activities of a number of errant Lords of the Realm. According to today's Times those peers who influence or amend laws to benefit companies that pay them will not face any new restrictions after the cash for amendments row. The paper also quotes Government sources saying that an attempt by Harriet Harman, the Leader of the Commons, to restrict MPs' second earnings to 15 per cent of their main salary is unlikely to make progress. ...
Further to my post in October last year questioning whether the Black Police Associations (BPA) are idiots (more of a rhetorical question it turned out) for their policy of dissuading BME recruits, Himmelgarten cafe posts about the BPA response to the appointment of the new Metropolitan Police Commissioner. Seems they are still Idiots. No question this time.
The Conservatives have announced that Carol Vorderman will be heading up a commission to look into improving maths teaching. Congratulations for getting the big name celeb, but is Vorderman a good person to have? Carol Vorderman, lest we forget, has recently been earning lots of money by conning the poor and desperate into consolidating their loans, tricking people into thinking that loan consolidation will somehow leave them owing less or be an end to their problems. Vorderman was happy to be paid to sell financial snake-oil when she could have promoted better options, for example by encouraging people in debt ...
Back on the train, and heading south-east to Salisbury for our final event of a busy weekend - afternoon tea with the Local Party and our Parliamentary spokesman, Nick Radford. For the second time that day, I heard at first hand just what a mess the Government have made of local government reorganisation in Wiltshire. Wrangling over the boundaries is not due to be resolved by the Electoral Commission until March, for elections due to take place on 2 June. This is an intolerable state of affairs and one that we've seen year after year. It merely reinforces a sense ...
From the beginning of his leadership Nick Clegg has made a determined effort to get out of the Westminster bubble so as to engage directly with people all over the United Kingdom. So far that has been largely unheralded in the media. After all journalists are not so keen on politicians who do not use them as a filter to reach the great British public. However, the Independent has broken with the pack this morning to provide an interesting and well-informed piece about Nick's travels and the favourable reaction he is getting in 'town halls' around the country: Mr Clegg ...
Wow! 8 inches of snow and it's still falling. Haven't seen snow like this in London for about 30 years.
The police advice is ... don't travel unless absolutely necessary. The schools across Norfolk are shutting by the dozen. Norwich Airport is closed. I am supposed to be on a literacy course at a training centre in Norwich and ... Norfolk County Council have insisted the course is going ahead and when I phoned asking do they really expect me to attend given the weather, they just made plain that the course was still running and that would be my decision. Impressed ??? No !!! Update : Having now returned I can confirm (despite comments from one idiot) that the ...
.... and lots of it. The snow has covered a multitude of sins - rusty railings are now picture perfect. The twigs and patchy grass of the winter garden have vanished like so much marzipan under an elegant curve of icing. The recycling box looks fur-trimmed. Of course it's easy to admire from the warm [...]
The Times is reporting that costs on Government IT projects are overrunning by a staggering £18 billion. Over £100 billion is due to be spent on IT projects over the next five years. But there's no real oversight on this huge amount of money (over £1,500 for every man, woman and child in the United Kingdom). Contracts are shrouded in secrecy with commercial confidentiality often being given as the excuse, and the Government does its best to spin the worst failure as a stunning success. I wrote about this just a few days ago and suggested an approach to start ...
Bury Council are currently only reporting two school closures today (Monday 2 February). I will update this if things change: Wesley Methodist Primary School, Forth Road, Radcliffe, Manchester Heaton Park Primary, Cuckoo Lane, Whitefield Please take very special care driving and walking today - it is treacherous out there. {jamcamcache} (The M62 just past Simister Island on the edge of Prestwich. This image is courtesy of the BBC, and is Crown Copyright. The lane nearest the camera is Eastbound, towards Leeds - Prestwich in the background). LIVE motorway cameras at BBC Manchester here. The Council's Environment Executive Member (Dorothy Gunther), ...
Party insiders fear this week's extreme weather could see the lowest number of Focus leaflets delivered since records began. Lib Dem branded gloves (especially designed to make putting leaflets through letter boxes easy), scalfs, snow shoes and weatherproof bags are available from the party's website.
We are currently stuck in slow moving traffic heading towards Newcastle. The tailback of traffic was almost up to Sunniside. I'm not sure if this can be blamed on the snow but nevertheless, snow is what we have. And for once, we seem to be less affected than other parts of the country, especially London and the South East, which is where I am heading to. I got text messages from London last night
Over the weekend there's been discussion amongst Liberal Democrat colleagues about our MPs voting records, as recorded on the excellent website They Work for You. My colleage Richard Baum reports more on this. According to the report on our local Bury South MP Ivan Lewis, our representative's voting record includes the following "highlights" (or is it lowlights?): Voted strongly against a transparent Parliament. Voted strongly for introducing ID cards. Voted very strongly for introducing foundation hospitals. Voted strongly for introducing student top-up fees. Voted very strongly for Labour's anti-terrorism laws. Voted very strongly for the Iraq war. Voted very strongly ...
This is the sight that greeted me when I opened the curtains this morning. I don't think I'll be rushing out! Fortunately I don't have any council meetings today so the only trip needed is for hospital visiting time this afternoon, followed by some much needed shopping. There's a down side to every beautiful sight of course, and this one is the cost of gritting the roads. Stockton has already
The Ham and High this week has a piece about plans by the Council to sell off Morven House in Highgate (with a comment from me) here. There is also a comment from Charles Adje, the Labour councillor who is in charge of 'disposals' like this, which does not fill me with confidence that we will get the right outcome (see earlier posts). Morven House is a wonderful listed building on North Hill N6. This pic was taken last Thursday. The windows have been boarded in. I said it was like selling the family silver - but it is more ...
If, like me, you are desperately trying to find out if your local school is closed in Norfolk because of the snow but cannot find it because Norfolk County Council's Schools website is so appalling and the "School Closures" section is no longer displayed on the home page of the website and is now hidden, click on the link below. http://www.schoolclosures.norfolk.gov.uk/
Mon 2nd
07:27
Is someone who left University with a Third Class degree the person to go to for Maths advice
David Cameron, it seems, is slightly obsessed with female TV personalities. Not content with Kirsty Allsop (from Location, Location, Location) being involved of a Tory taskforce on housing, David Cameron has now put Carol Vorderman (is there anyone who grates more on my nerves than her ?) in charge of investigation maths teaching. Let's not forget, Carol Vorderman left university with a third class degree. Yes, it is a pass, but for a number of employers this is not actually good enough to get a job. From what I have heard from David Cameron on GMTV this morning, what he ...
It looks likely that later today (weather permitting) the SNP and Liberal Democrats are likely to seal a deal that will smooth the passage of the reintroduced Scottish Budget. The actual details of what has been agreed between Alex Salmond and Tavish Scott have not been disclosed just yet but it is rumoured that part of the deal may be that the Nats engage with the Calman Commission looking at future powers short of full independence so that not all of Scotland's eggs will be placed in one or another basket should a referendum on the issue come about. Another ...
As you'll perhaps have noticed from the "block" on the bottom right of my pages, I've taken the "Political Spectrum Quiz". I find these quite fun - if only to see how someone else decides to define my political viewpoint. On the similar "Political Compass" quiz I have steadily moved along the bottom row from "left" to "right" whilst remaining pretty well hard-core libertarian. The "Political Spectrum" quiz though puts me firmly in the bottom right corner, describing me as "a far-right social libertarian". But I really do dislike the characterization of my position as "far right" with the connotations ...
Five things the publication of the Welsh Language LCO later today won't do: 1. Give any extra rights to Welsh speakers; 2. Put any extra burdens on Welsh businesses; 3. Change any aspects of the law as it currently stands; 4. Transfer any powers to the Assembly; 5. Unite the nation. And a couple it will... 1. Generate a lot of heat, and very little light; 2. Distract the media from providing a
You spent a long time on the graphics for this, guys. Would it have killed you to get someone with a more than rudimentary grasp of English to spend 30 seconds proof-reading it? Because now you just look like rank amateurs. I don't want you to look like rank amateurs. I want you to look like you know what you are doing.discreet adj 1 careful to prevent suspicion or embarrassment, especially by keeping a secret. 2 avoiding notice; inconspicuous. discrete adj separate; distinct.Yes, the vast majority of people don't care if you use the wrong word, so long as they ...
The contempt with which I hold this man is such that I cannot bring myself to waste time thinking about writing something of my own, but fortunately an old liberal wrote quite eloquently enough for me three centuries ago and some... ...whenever the legislators endeavour to take away, and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any farther obedience, and are left to the common refuge, which God hath provided for all men, against force and ...
