Rather like Christmas, Chinese New Year goes on for several weeks, but the Chinese Liberal Democrats' (CLD) banquet to celebrate the Year of the Ox in the Top of the Town restaurant in London's Chinatown this evening certainly crowned the festive period. CLD, in partnership with Ethnic Minority Liberal Democrats (EMLD), took the entire top [...]
The bankers have laid the apologies on thick this week, even though it was difficult to see this as anything other than an insincere attempt to put some heat under the iceberg of anger that threatens to sink them forever. What is lacking however is the apology from Brown and Labour. No doubt Gordon Brown would choke if he ever said the word "sorry". Labour find it politically useful to see the
Very quick one here - I've just updated the links in the sidebar to include at least seven blogs I've meant to link for *months* (estoreal, quaequam blog, penny red, chicken yoghurt, vibrational match, doctor k and the factual opinion - I may have added more, I can't remember). I read a lot more blogs [...]
The Liberal Democrats have published a consultation paper on women's policy, covering issues like sex, money and safety. As a consultation paper it's all about questions not answers. The questions range from the big picture - Can women really 'have it all'? Can men? What is 'it' anyway and is it worth the effort? - [...]
And so we move on to the second of today's posts. This one, in honour of Honest Abe, will talk about freedom as I see it. The libertarian blogger Charlotte Gore left a comment yesterday on the heavily-edited version of my Why I Am Not A Libertarian post that's up at LibCon, asking how someone who [...]
Thursday: You've probably already missed this, as my Daddies and I caught the last screening at our local flicks, but if you get the chance, see FROST/NIXON. Why's it not called NIXON/FROST? {Posted by Picasa} Maybe it's time, maybe it's his being dead, maybe it's the utter utter bad-word-ness of the Monkey-in-Chief, but at the end of the film, the power of this drama is that it allows you to feel sympathy for this man who broke the idea of America. We can at least say this: he did wrong, but he did admit it. (And yes, that's the irony-meter ...
Just back from the St Laurence and Eastwood branch meeting. Southend is covered in snow once more.
Everyone in Lee Green Ward should have recieved a letter by now, but just a quick reminder that it's our next local assembly meeting this coming Tuesday at 7.3opm at the Church of the Good Shepherd on Handen Road. We should be discussing Leegate, youth provision and our local environment, so do make it along if you can - anyone who lives, works or learns in Lee Green is very welcome.
Next week is half term in Islington - only a few days after the schools went back from the unscheduled school closures. (Some of them, that is. St Andrew's CofE primary in Barnsbury, where I'm a governor, opened every day despite the snow. But we all have half-term.) So what to do with the kids? The [...]
Lefty liberals have launched a new web based talking shop - the Social Liberal Forum. They are openly anti the 'classical liberalism' that Richard Cobden espoused and their values have little truck with me. The new Forum's website says: We believe that individuals should have the freedom to develop and grow as they wish. The creation, protection and nurturing of this freedom should be a central objective of all governments. Clearly this entails guaranteeing the individual freedom from state interference. But is also entails public action, sometimes in the form of action by the state, to protect the individual against ...
For the second week running, there's no Lib Dem representative on tonight's Question Time (BBC1 and online, 10.35 pm GMT) - in fact, to be honest, it looks like it's going to be a depressingly tedious show this week. But don't let that put you off contributing to our LDV Open Thread! The panel comprises Labour's Minister for the Cabinet Office Liam Byrne (let's hope he'll have had his cappuccino and soup), Tory shadow minister for communities and local government Justine Greening (whose face was beamed out of Putney on election night 2005), Birmingham City councillor and leader of Respect ...
I've been contacted by several people about the dumped fridges that are currently in the doorway to the New Tigers' Head at Lee Green. This corner of the junction is actually in the London Borough of Greenwich, so I'd asked my Lib Dem colleague Cllr Brian Woodcraft of Middle Park and Sutcliffe Ward to take this up. The council can't remove them straight away, as they're on private ground, but Brian's contacted the owner of the site and got their permission for Greenwich Council to remove them - so hopefully they'll be gone soon! You might be interested to know ...
I wrote to the new Lead Member for Children's Services in Reading at the end of last week, to welcome him to his new role and to spell out our position on Child Protecton. It's very clear that we have not yet got to the bottom of what has happened in this department; there is a real need for public scrutiny to make sure we understand both what caused the problem and also to work out the best way to ensure we have a robust system for safeguarding children.My letter received detailed coverage in the Post this week (you can ...
Today's decision by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to ban Geert Wilders from entering the UK is spectacularly inept. Not only is it wrong in principle (I thought we were meant to have freedom of movement in the EU?), it's also been counter-productive. The decision has ensured far more publicity for Wilders' views than he would ever have got if he'd been allowed in. Like many people, I looked on the net to see what all the fuss was about and watched Fitna, the video at the centre of the controversy. And, having watched it, I am clear that it does ...
As you probably know, today is the 200th anniversary of the birth of two of the greatest people who ever lived, Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin, and given that I write here about politics and science it seemed absurd not to mark this (those waiting for the last Final Crisis post will have to wait [...]
The good news is that Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood are playing 14 more concerts in June of this year. The bad news is that they are all in America. Oh well, there is always Youtube.
From the press centre on the 9th floor of an office block, Gaza City looks pretty good, a normal metropolis with a few green spaces and a football stadium between the buildings. It gets even better as I leave because it takes me a couple of minutes to get through the traffic to cross the road. In truth this is exceptional, and the cars are ancient, but it gives the appearance of normality. And why not? Gaza is a modern city, albeit one on a site inhabited for 4,000 years, and in different circumstances it could be thriving. Instead it ...
Whenever electoral reform - ie, proportional representation or 'fair votes' - is debated, those who oppose it will almost inevitably use a variation on the following arguments: • it produces coalition governments which are weak, divided and indecisive (far better, obviously, to have strong government regardless of whether a majority of people actually voted for it); • coalition are created by political deals in "smoke-filled rooms" which the voters have no control over (unlike our Parliamentary system of whipping and Prime Ministerial patronage, of course); • The government which emerges bears no relation to the individual parties most voters support ...
Boris Johnson and Keith Vaz are the biggest clowns I have ever heard of in my 17 years of living on planet earth. The two exchanged a phone call in which Boris swore and Keith got his knickers in a twist and made it public. This whole childish game had nothing to do with being offended personally and my opinion is that both of them are a pair of girls' blouses. This whole incident is just a stunt that has been played by Labour to undermine the established clown that is Boris. If you wanted a living version of a ...
You couldn't make it up.
New Blogger The Speaker has launched a campaign that I have found very interesting, and you can read more about it by following THIS link to the campaign post. He has created a sidebar button so you can put it on the side of your blogs to promote his campaign, I enjoy the effort of the badge but can I give him some pointers. Firstly he should set up a Blogger or Wordpress account and create a information site about the campaign or if he doesn't want to do that then he should create a label for all the posts ...
By Yvonne Stewart Taylor Dear Irfan Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me. If you go on my face book profile Yvonne Stewart-Taylor and then type search for SOCIAL SERVICES...MORE MISTAKES you will be able to read our story. You are welcome to share it with other interested parties at your discretion. I will try to copy it too you as well so that you can e-mail it around. The objective, is to get this into the public domain and warn would be victims before it happens to them, as any one of us could ...
Just for today, unglamorous Rochford District is very close to being the scientific centre of the known universe. Following last week's surprising revelation that Britain's first airfield was probably in the tiny village of South Fambridge, we can celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, knowing that the last resting place of HMS Beagle was near the equally tiny village
We shouldn't be so shocked that a Tory employee attempted to change an historical fact on Wikipedia , instead we should be more worried about the Tories attempt to whitewash their past and claim the oral high ground in the wake of the credit crunch. on BBC Radio Five Live this morning George Osborne simply ignored Nicky Campbells questions regarding Tory leader David Cameron speeches from less than two years ago when he criticised attempts to regulate the City of London and the banks. The presenter seemed to have a list of speeches and dates from Mr Cameron which Osborne ...
Chris Huhne was on the Today programme this morning, defending the government's decision to ban Geert Wilders from entering Britain. He has just been on Channel 4 news doing the same thing. I think the government is wrong to ban him. You need only see Wilders' hairstyle to realise that he is a vain and silly man. The idea that his presence will be enough to incite violence against Muslims in Britain is ridiculous. Rather, the ban has given Wilders what he craves: publicity. This argument was put very well on Channel 4 by Maajid Nawaz. I wish they had ...
The Leigh Times is one of the best free newspapers I know. It is published once a fortnight, and packs in a lot of good editorial material among the advertising. One of the features of the newspaper is that it gives a column each edition to a local political figure. This time around it is my turn. And as I can't point it to you on the internet, I have reproduced the text below. The Lib Dem Team also features as we were photographed surveying local businesses a fortnight ago. I said it was a good newspaper, didn't I? COLD ...
Simon Turnbull beings his piece on Scotland's team for Saturday confidently: Thom and Max Evans were both schooled at Wellington College in Berkshire. So was Eric Arthur Blair, or George Orwell as he preferred to be known when he wrote "Down And Out In Paris And London".Wrong. Orwell attended Eton. I shall remember this next time a journalist moans about bloggers. Later. I take it back slightly. According to Wikipedia, Orwell spent a single term at Wellington before going to Eton.
As the BBC reports: A Dutch MP who called the Koran a "fascist book" has been sent back to the Netherlands after attempting to defy a ban on entering the UK. Freedom Party MP Geert Wilders had been invited to show his controversial film - which links the Islamic holy book to terrorism - in the UK's House of Lords. But Mr Wilders, who faces trial in his own country for inciting hatred, has been denied entry by the Home Office. He told the BBC it was a "very sad day" for UK democracy. Interviewed on this morning's BBC Radio ...
Like maybe 99.5 % of Europeans, I'm not a baseball fan, and I had barely heard of Jackie Robinson until last week. I'm now aware that he was the guy who broke through the colour barrier in baseball in the late 1940s. The reason I know more about him now is that I stumbled upon this account of his fight before he was famous. A fight to sit where he liked on an army bus. A gripping story...
The SNP were determined to do all they could to keep the Scottish banking sector Scottish that they gathered financiers to try and put together a bid for HBoS (or at least the Bank of Scotland part). At election time the Saltire's flying from Nationalist cars makes it hard to see the wood for the trees. Which is probably just as well as the party that wants Scottish Independence has since they got elected in 2007 been negotiating lease out a quarter of Scottish forests to overseas timber companies. Based on the amount of land that involves that should make ...
The good news we were hoping for - Jacksons Lane has today been given a two year reprieve, in terms of its Arts Council grant, so is no longer under threat. The Haringey Independent has the story here. Thanks to everyone who joined in our email campaign. And credit where due - the Cabinet member circulated a summary of your comments back to the Arts Council on why Jacksons Lane matters so much to Highgate and Haringey. I'm reproducing the comments of local people here:...This centre forms a vital hub for the creative and performing arts in Haringey and is ...
I seem to be posting a lot about Jacqui Smith at the moment. I don't fancy her or anything honest! She just seems to be doing a lot of stupid things lately. Her latest wheeze to ban the contraversial Dutch MP Geert Wilders from entering the UK to promote an anti-Islamic film seems totally wrong headed as usual. Before a day or two ago, I had never heard of Wilders. If he had been allowed to come into the UK quietly and get on with what he wanted to, invited by a UKIP peer to the House of Lords to ...
Thu 12th
18:19
Jenny Randerson lodges official complaint against Rhodri Morgan with, erm, Rhodri Morgan
Jenny Randerson AM, Welsh Lib Dem Assembly Member for Cardiff Central, has today lodged an official complaint against Wales's First Minister Rhodri Morgan amid concerns he may have broken the Ministerial code when discussing school closures in Cardiff. Her letter of complaint was sent by Jenny to Wales's First Minister Rhodri Morgan because, as she noted in her letter: My enquiries have shown that I have no alternative to write to you yourself over this issue as the Ministerial Code does not make provision for how to complain about the First Minister, only Welsh Ministers as a whole. I trust ...
Appropriately enough for Darwin Day, Small Person's free tree of life poster arrived today. We're hoping that the skies are clear above Huddersfield observatory, too, because it's one of their open nights tonight, and we're going to pay them a little visit. YAY Skience! Tomorrow, I shall be hosting the Carnival On Modern Liberty. Apparently I have to call it that, even though the Carnival of Liberty would make more sense, grammatically and purposefully. Still, host it I shall, over here in pedant's corner. You're welcome to contribute; if you think you've found something astoundingly Liberal that I should link ...
If the One Wales agreement between Labour and Plaid Cymru is famous for anything amongst us anoraks it is its opposition to public private finance. Despite the looming £500 million cuts that the Assembly Government may shortly have to make to key services, Plaid Cymru politicians still roam around Wales claiming that they have persuaded the government to rule out private finance options in the delivery of public services. Disappointingly the only reference to this I can find in the document itself is the section on health where it states: We will rule out the use of Private Finance Initiative ...
Commenting on today's MoD statement on the cost of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, which showed that the cost of the British military presence in Iraq increased by around £0.5bn to nearly £2bn last year, Liberal Democrat Shadow Defence Secretary, Nick Harvey said: "These figures show that this Government's catastrophic decision to take Britain into an illegal war in Iraq still casts a long shadow on our Armed Forces. (more...)
Thank you to everyone who voted in the hamster naming poll. The results were as follows: Harry 29.2% Fluffball 25.0% Snowball 25.0% Another suggestion 20.8% Some of the other suggestions were brilliant - Baldrick suits a hamster of little brain, Gumby, as suggested by Jennie, also went down very well with Anna. As we always said, this poll was purely advisory but at least she has chosen a name that is on the list. So, the little white ball of fluff is now officially Fluffball. LibDig This!
I have been spending the last month following hot on the heels of the Heatseeker van (no pun intended!) that has been driving around the streets of Salford, detecting heat-loss from poorly insulated homes in the area. With the full blessing of Salford City Council, Heatseekers is a new scheme aimed at homeowners and private tenants - with the intention of ensuring that homes are kept warm this winter. The results have been staggering - we've only contacted a few hundred homeowners and private residents so far, but in the majority of cases loft insulation has either been non-existent or ...
The Welsh Assembly Finance Minister, Andrew Davies has warned that things are going to get worse for public services with an estimated £500 million budget cut in the 2010-2011 financial year due to the economic downturn. This will have a massive knock on effect on health, education and local government spending: Chancellor Alistair Darling announced in his pre Budget report (PBR) that to pay for
Ryan's LibDig is a social bookmarking service for Liberal Democrats. In other words, it's an easy and convenient way for party members to share interesting, funny, useful or panic-inducing stuff* they find on the internet, and to see what other people have come across. If you are a LibDig user, thanks to some new coding by Ryan you can now use an RSS feed to display your choices in other places, such as on your website. For example, if you look at my page - http://libdig.co.uk/profile.php?id=5&cmd=dugg - there is now an "RSS" option to the right of the photo. Why ...
I have started a campaign named "peace through dialogue" which is aimed at the Israel and Palestine situation. I encourage all website and blog owners to display this logo, so that we can start a campaign and present a petition which i will start very soon to the British government. This campaign will promote dialogue between the forces of Israel and Hamas and the Palestinian government. The dialogue will ensure a lasting peace a little like the Northern Ireland dialogue which has over the last few years seen peace.
Hardly a day goes by without me thanking the Lord for Boris Johnson. He certainly fills in the twiddling bits on the mosaic of life! Just when you think he's got all sensible and is concentrating on mundane things like snow types (right or wrong, huge or not) the good-natured gaffe geyser which is Boris explodes into a vast spurt of life enhancing activity. The latest Boris emission is this one
The Social Liberal Forum has just launched. Take a peek. * If you don't get the reference you are either too young or too old. Deal with it. But since I'm in a good mood:
You're about to appear before a Parliamentary Select Committee. You've been in some controversy about who you spoke to and when. It's an affair involving the police, Parliament and heavy media coverage. Do you therefore: (a) Prepare yourself to answer detailed questions about what you did and when, or (b) Stuff all that, decide to turn up, wing it and moan afterwards if people complain you keep on changing the details of what you said? If (b), congratulations - looks like you have what to takes to be Mayor of London, for as the Evening Standard reports: Boris Johnson launched ...
Welsh Lib Dem Assembly Member for Cardiff Central, Jenny Randerson AM has today lodged an official complaint amid concerns that the First Minister may have broken the Ministerial code when discussing school closures in Cardiff. However, due to a strange quirk in the Ministerial code, Jenny had no option but to lodge her complaint to the First Minister himself, while suggesting in the strongest
This afternoon I had my first meeting with Peter Lewis - the new broom for Children's Services brought in directly by the Secretary of State, Ed Balls, following the sacking of Sharon Shoesmith. I am hopeful that someone with Peter's extensive experience will make the changes necessary to give our children's services the guidance, enthusiasm and improvements to make it within three years an examplar department. He certainly seemed completely committed to that aim . Haringey has published its response to the urgent investigation by Ofsted commissioned by Ed Balls in the wake of the Baby P tragedy. It goes ...
Met with Dave Grant, Haringey's police commander, this morning. Haringey police are doing really well and almost all the indicators are green (they use a traffic light system to show what's on target, what's nearly on target - and red shows that something is not right). The next key area they are going to tackle with the same determination as the crime reduction targets is public confidence - which is a really good area that does need some work. A few years ago I was so fed up with hearing from local people that they couldn't get through by phone ...
A group of party activists has launched the Social Liberal Forum to help set out a bold Liberal Democrat vision to tackle inequality in Britain. The SLF is a new progressive voice in the party that will focus on how the mainstream social liberal traditions of the party should be applied to the huge challenges facing British society and the world. The Conservative Party tries to disguise its indifference to poverty with empty words about a broken society. Labour rhetoric on equality has not been matched by actual achievements. The challenge for the Liberal Democrats, in the next election manifesto ...
Thank goodness - the Arts Council have been as good as their word and approved the grant to Jacksons Lane. They said it was dependent on Haringey Council showing commitment by increasing the core funding to Jacksons Lane. It was a narrow thing - as the money was only agreed by Haringey at the very last moment. But the really good news is that this time the grant is continuing for at least another two years which is brilliant news. Thank you Arts Council. And thank you to the hundreds of people who took time to write and email in ...
A list of ten people from Bradley who want a by election for the town council seat that was resigned by Donna Carley has been handed to Pendle Council and a by election will take place. The idea to hand in the list of ten was first brought up in the comment section of this blog. Personally I think its great that a by election is going to take place as it will show that democracy has taken place in electing the Councillor whoever that might be. Lets see who the Labour Independents put up as they will be gasping ...
Geert Wilders is a popular right-wing Dutch politician. He's sat in the Dutch parliament for a litte over a decade. Most famous for his hard-line anti-Islamic views, Wilders' political philosophy blends libertarianism (small state, less regulation, lower taxation, less state welfare) with a tough line on crime (three strikes and you're out) and on immigration. And he's been banned from entering the UK because, according to the Home Office, his opinions "threaten community security and therefore public security". He was due to show his short film on Islamic extremism, Fitna, in the House of Lords. Apparently their lordships will still ...
{AWElogo} I've already posted this on the main Redlands blog and in Reading Forum, but the long and the sort of it is that there has been a application to west Berkshire Council, by AWE, for the construction of a Main Process Facility. Application details: Construction of main process facility (MPF) and support building with 16 lightning protector towers, associated plant building, gate houses, vehicles inspection bays, sub-station buildings, security fence, access roads, hardstanding and sustainable drainage system (SuDS) infrastructure. I made a request on 2 February 2009 to set up a joint briefing on this with planning officers myself, ...
{Logo} After Christmas a friend of mine pointed out that the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) had put in an application to construct a new warhead processing facility, to the south-west of Reading at their Burghfield site. This was filed with West Berkshire Council (WBC) and it would seem they hadn't spoken to RBC planning officers, despite its proximity to suburban-Reading.The MOD has operated at Burghfield since 1954, and it now forms one of the two primary operating sites for AWE. This new facility will be used to decommission old Trident nuclear warheads (WE177s) and manufacture the UK's new ones. I ...
Vince Cable, the treasury spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats and economic guru who predicted the recession years ago has been awarded with the Channel 4's political award for opposition politicians. As reported by Iain Dale he is the only non Labour politican to win an award. He beat the opposition leader David Cameron. I think Vince is a fantastic politician and deserves the award for his valuable contributions to the economic crisis. The Lib Dems have renewed their spending and tax plans under the guidance of Vince and he has along with the whole Lib Dem team taken the party ...
The current edition of Private Eye (No 1229) makes a couple of good points about the Private Finance Initiative. Firstly, the labyrinthine processes necessary to tee up any project will inevitably slow down any economy-boosting investments to the point where they are too late to be fully effective. Secondly, even the pretense that the private sector was [...]
According to Sky, Glen Moreno the man who overseas the taxpayers stake in the bailed oyut banks may loose his job. He was appointed as acting chairperson of UK financial investmensts Ltd, by the govt last year, but he is a former trustee of a Liechtenstein bank accused of facilitating massive tax evasion. The govt chooses people with strong allegations of corruption, do you think this person will serve in the taxpayers interests??
As City Council schools and other council facilities were closed today at 2pm due to the weather, my surgery tonight at 6.15pm at Blackness Primary School has had to be postponed. Hopefully things will be back to normal for next week's surgeries.
The lady at the Borders check-out counter smiled: "Thats a good choice." I was buying a copy of the latest Neal Stephenson novel: Anathem. His previous novels include Cryptonomicon, a tying together of the code-crackers of WW2 with the rise of the Internet, and The Baroque Cycle, so mighty a trilogy that it has reportedly been republished as 8 books. This thunders through his unique take on the history of the late 17th / early 18th century, thrashing together the science and banking of Isaac Newton, thoughts on the rise of the modern world (and its financial, scientific, political and ...
For several years, the idea of letting people vote in person ahead of polling day (e.g. at the Town Hall or in a local shopping centre) was tested out in a range of different British elections. Lots of time and money went on the tests, all of which came up with the same answer: it makes almost no difference to turnout, and the money that it takes up could have gone on other measures which would have been just as good, if not better, at raising turnout (e.g. general publicity campaigns reminding pepole to vote). The pilots themselves went on ...
The world is safe from the communist threat for another day. The protestors have left after getting token concessions - a fund for Palestinians to come to Glasgow (shame it doesn't help people from other poor countries, but what can you expect?) and a uni-wide day of fund-raising for the DEC appeal (which is actually [...]
Vince Cable has won an award in the Channel 4 politics Awards for Opposition politician of the year beating David Cameron, Ken Clarke and Nadine Dorries to the award. This is interesting news because it could show that the real political master of 2008 was indeed Vince Cable and Cameron might have got stronger in the polls but come general election time the Tories are in for a surprise. Vince, is an interesting man when it comes to his pre knowledge of this recession which no one took notice of. I personally think Vince is just a politically unknown and ...
A mixture of sickness, moving and losing my Dad has kept me from the blogosphere recently, neither contributing or reading much. So much to say about so many things, some of you will be grateful I have kept my thoughts to myself! With much needed help from Andy Strange I am getting my Euro Campaign website in shape (more on that later) - so have asked a few people for quotes, one being our illustrious leader. Unfortunately I must have been a little obtuse in my request because I got the message back that he was happy to do a ...
"The council tax is deeply oppressive, deeply unfair. We see that, virtually everyone in Scotland I meet knows that. It's wrong and we're going to abolish it." - Alex Salmond, April 2007. "I have no doubt Scotland will judge harshly any MSP who votes to keep the council tax in the face of the overwhelming benefit that would flow to millions of ordinary Scots" - Alex Salmond, September 2008. "There will be no misunderstanding. We are determined to abolish the unfair council tax. The council tax is an inherently unfair tax with a very loose connection to people's ability to ...
Well it only took a year and almost three weeks but Andrea Stephenson has finally found something to talk to the people of Linlithgow and Falkirk East about. She has chosen the supbject of improving your High Street by giving it a makeover. To highlight this initiative from the conservative concessions on the Nat budget has two pictures. One is at the cross in Linlithgow, possibly the most picturesque stretch of High Street in the constituency. The other looks like a renovation that is being carried out in Bo'ness. The poeple of Bathgate, Armadale and Whitburn with their more egalitarian ...
It's fairly rare, even in the "We could have fought an election on the issue of competence" era, for a minister to get their political willy out and wave it in the air shouting "Look at me, I'm a complete and utter moron". We should therefore hold today's example of that art in the highest regard. It comes from Geoff Hoon, whose Department That Thinks Transport Is A Jolly Good Idea And Somebody
I hear that Chris Huhne was on the radio calling for suppression of speech today. I always thought he was an authoritarian at heart, and know I know it. Geert Wilders is a nasty piece of work. He is authoritarian, he wants to stir up discord, but that does not matter one jot. He should be [...]
There is doubt about how much Sir David Crosby, who has been forced to step aside as deputy chief of the Financial Services Authority, genuinely believed in his bank's policy at the time he allegedly fired a whistle-blower. In the Independent yesterday, Vince Cable was quoted as saying that at HBOS Sir James privately accepted the banks were taking risks. The banker was "smart enough to realise he was on a very dangerous treadmill", he said. In meetings with him, Sir James argued he would be "fired" if he changed HBOS's behaviour while other banks pressed on, Mr Cable claimed. ...
The Barnet Press are reporting the proposed sheltered housing cuts that I blogged about a few days ago. click here to see what they have to say.
I came across a web page today with 15 photos of senior US politicians from their High School yearbooks. Check out Al Gore who seems to be auditioning for The Godfather: And Jimmy Carter in his best "Village of the Damned" pose: See the rest here.
I occasionally label up the odd IP address I see perusing these endless and pointless burblings. 194.203.158.97 has often visited my site and, as it had CCHQ written all over the IP record, I labelled it up "Conservative Party" a year or so ago. Lo and behold, it now turns out that this IP address has become the nexus of the storm which is Titiangate. But of course, when 194.203.158.97 made
This morning we got two leaflets from a Zahid Iqbal, claiming to be our parliamentary candidate. No, I don't think you are, Mr Iqbal.
A new website called 'Faith in Affordable Housing' is being launched today at Church House Westminster, headquarters of the Church of England. WWW.FIAH.ORG.UK Under the cooperative banner of churches' campaign Housing Justice, it offers practical and technical information to help local churches of all traditions offer their land or property for housing aimed at those in social and economic need. Converting existing church buildings into affordable housing provides a win-win situation, argues the website. Not only does it provide a much needed resource for the local community but also brings in an often urgently needed revenue stream to the church. ...
"Arguably, the global economic crisis will turn out to be more significant for us and other developed economies than the collapse of communism. A New Capitalism is likely to emerge from the rubble. For many, the New Capitalism may well seem fairer and less alienating than the model of the past 30 years, in that the system's salvation may require it to be kinder, gentler, less divisive, less of a casino in which the winner takes all." Robert Preston "Impossible to ignore and reminding us all of our vulnerability, the crisis that threatens us seems to be us; we are ...
Last night I went to see Frost / Nixon, the Ron Howard film chronicling David Frost's interviews with Richard Nixon in 1977. At the end of the film the President expressed regret about Watergate and what happened thereafter. I won't review the film, (suffice to say that I thought it was better than Benjamin Button!) but something that did cross my mind afterwards was the regret Nixon expressed at how his behaviour set a bad example for people thinking about entering public service. I know that the film was dripping with historical inaccuracies, but the sentiment remains even if Nixon ...
Answer: a total shambles. The numbers in detail: 45,000 + 12 = The number of homes expected to be repossessed in Britain in the next twelve months. 200,000,000 = The amount in pounds that the government has set aside to help. 6000 = The amount of households that the government estimate will be assisted (note, not saved). These figures are taken from a brief introduction to the new Mortgage Rescue Scheme, that I received in my council post this morning. The aim of the scheme is to assist households who own their own home, but have got into difficulties with ...
The Welsh Liberal Democrat MP for Cardiff Central, Jenny Willott has released information showing that the Ministry of Justice is having to spend an extra £4 million upgrading the massively over-budget and hugely delayed 'Libra' case management computer system for Magistrates' Courts so that it can issue court summonses in Welsh as well as English. The 'Libra' project began in 1998 and was
Welcome to the tenth 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 one, and are a Lib Dem member, sign up here: http://libdig.co.uk). You can now get twitter updates of stories which appear on libdig - simply "follow libdig" (http://twitter.com/libdig) to sign up. 1. Henry Porter: The horror of the ID card system (Comment is Free). Submitted by me: "Welcome to your future: a world were bureaucrats screw up your data and then you have to sort it out." 2. ...
"Disunity is our worst enemy," the Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad tells us, and EU spokesmen would say the same thing. We want to deal with a single Palestinian negotiating partner. The Egyptians have invited 13 factions (13!) to meet on 22 Feb to discuss the principles of dialogue, with the aim of holding a conference on 2 March to bring it all together. Fayyad says a technical government supported by all factions could emerge, or a government of the factions. "If dialogue doesn't work then we have at least to try and freeze the animosity with Hamas," says Fayyad. ...
You know, this place could be alright. The sun is shining. The view over to the blue sea is fine. The donkey carts are quaint. The streets are packed with school kids (mainly girls). There is less litter than I remember though maybe that's because there aren't many things that can end up as litter as much as through organised collection. Fruit and veg seems plentiful judging from the stalls. Pity about the bombed buildings. You come across them everywhere. Have just been looking at the ruins of the American International School, utterly destroyed in a targeted operation: "They want ...
OK, so it's probably from having read The Sky Road far too many times, but the news that two satellites have collided in orbit creating hundreds of pieces of debris gets me somewhat worried. The idea of this event starting an ablation cascade - where the debris created today damages other satellites, which creates more debris, which causes more damage, and so on until Kessler Syndrome kicks in and there's no way out of the gravity well. Here's a thought - is this a possible explanation for the Fermi paradox? Unless civilizations take advantage of a very narrow window to ...
Norman Lamb has tabled Early Day Motion 754, "MMR vaccine and the media". This follows a public dispute between award-winning blogger Ben Goldacre and radio station LBC over a broadcast by Jeni Barnett that Goldacre describes as a "44 minute tirade against MMR". According the party's press release, Norman said: "Suggesting that the MMR vaccine is dangerous in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary is massively irresponsible and could put children's lives at risk. "This kind of scaremongering has had a serious impact on public health in the last decade. "Cases of measles have risen dramatically in ...
Our sparrows are having a right old chirp today. (They're not exactly ours but some live under our eves.) Yesterday I heard some rooks. Neither of them are the most musical of birds but it's nice to hear ...
It was a very cold night last night but instead of turning up the bedroom radiator I went back to the old fashioned hot water bottle. Bliss! And a kettle full of water must surely have used a lot less energy than heating up a whole room all ...
Not a B movie but an update by War on Want of their shocking report, Fashion Victims. The original report, published in December 2006, exposed the appalling conditions of garment workers supplying some of the most popular UK highstreet names. Now Fashion Victims II reports that workers making clothes for Primark, Tesco and Asda are [...]
... this t-shirt. Woof woof!
Yesterday evening the sky was clear and it was very cold and still. A friend nearly slipped on black ice as we left choir practice. Gerald told me there was a chance to see this satelite that people have been talking about so we went out with ...
The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs has recommended that ecstasy be downgraded to Class B. The Council's chair, Professor David Nutt, likened the levels of harm caused by ecstasy to those caused by horse-riding. Apparently, horse-riding causes about 10 deaths per year and the use of ecstasy in isolation causes between 10 and 17. So have the government accepted the evidence of their own advisory body this time, having recently rejected their advice by upgrading cannabis from C to B? What do you think? The Guardian has more: The credibility of the official system of drugs classification suffered ...
This place is such a farce. Fortunately I have a good long book with me. Erez is the pedestrian crossing into Gaza. It was revamped a year or two ago so now consists of a very modern, spacious 'terminal' building. But it's almost deserted at 9am as usual. Hardly anyone gets to cross. It takes an hour for the 11 people in our party to have their passports processed by the Israelis. One of our number gets sent back, then is allowed in. The whole process is deliberately arbitrary and intimidating. Or maybe the Israelis are hopelessly inefficient. Then it's ...
The Liberal Youth are to select a new Chair and an executive and for Chair a candidate Sara Scarlett has won me over and I think she is the right person for the job of Chair. She is an interesting candidate who has a colourful background in all sense and she is from an ethnic minority as she was raised in the Middle East. Personally not knowing anything about the previous Chair of the Liberal Youth its good to know that she has already as a candidate started making her public profile known, making it even better for members who ...
News Broadcast 11 February 2009 My heart goes out to the couple who lost their three children as a result of a wrongful conviction for child abuse. It turns out their son has a genetic condition which makes him susceptible to broken bones. ...
If you don't know already, I now have a Twitter account.
We asked you to submit the coronation plans, and you did. Now, to the universal and overwhelming lack of surprise of the entire political world, Vince Cable has won the Channel 4 News Political Impact Award 2009, voted by C4 viewers. C4 has this: Few politicians can reliably claim to have seen the recession coming, but Vince Cable is one of them. The housing market bubble and the surge in household debt were among his key battlegrounds long before the credit started to crunch. The collapse of British banks - and the subsequent recapitalisation process - brought Cable even closer ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ce5ER7bx-pI My latest rant - we will get better at this, just learning the technology at the moment.
My telephone lights up with a new message: "Jawwal welcomes you to Palestine. Smell the jasmine and taste the olives." Sounds great. I'm in Ramallah, with the European Parliament's Palestine Delegation, specifically to explore the possibilities for recreating some kind of government of national unity. It's the day after the Israeli elections. The Palestinian Negotiations Support Unit brings us up to date with the latest details of the dismemberment of what so many in the world want to become a Palestinian state. The Israeli land grab proceeds apace with the expansion of settlements, house demolitions, extension of the Wall, building ...
Today is the 200th Birthday of Charles Darwin - so Happy Birthday Charles.
Residents have complained to me about the untidy and overgrown site of the former laundry on the north side of Roseangle. Having taken up the matter with the Council's Planning Enforcement Officer, I am pleased to have been advised by her that weeds have now been cut back and removed.
There once was a party who made loads of election promises, such as : * A £2000 grant to all first time home buyers * Dumping student debt * Abolishing Council Tax ... then they got elected and dumped the lot. Can anyone ever again take another SNP promise seriously?
Happy 200th Birthday Charles Darwin.
Wolverhampton Liberal Democrat campaigner Darren Friel has set up a website at http://darrenfriel.co.uk/default.aspx
I am fully aware that irony does not work well on blogs so please bear with me here. Today's Western Mail reports that Conservative Shadow Justice Minister Eleanor Laing told the House of Commons during a debate about who should sit on the Electoral Commission, that all politicians should be elected under the traditional first-past-the-post system. This immediately caused a flurry activity in Wales with the realisation amongst journalists and politicians that such a change in policy would devastate the Welsh Conservative Group, many of whom including their leader were elected under a system of proportional representation. The Welsh Tory ...
Is the minimum wage redundant, in this era of redundancies? Yesterday Christopher Chope MP, introduced a Private Members Bill, the Employment Opportunities Bill, to "introduce more freedom, flexibility and opportunity for those seeking employment". It would enable those currently out of work, but would be willing to work for less than the minimum wage, to negotiate their wage. Its an economically liberal proposal, giving the employee power to choose their wage. Of course the flipside is employees can drive down wages as they please (after all who is going to check that the business can't afford the minimum wage), which ...
Last month I wrote about what Dire Straits owed to Market Harborough. But according to an intriguing snippet on the Scotsman website, the town played a part in Scottish rock history too: January 1963 ...The Mark Five, featuring Manny Charlton who later plays in Nazareth, walk from Edinburgh to London, hitching a ride whenever photographers were not present. The walk is a publicity stunt to protest about the lack of record companies coming to Scotland to see Scottish bands, and a ploy to demand a record deal.They are met in Market Harborough by a record company executive and offered a ...
Sunday's Observer had an article suggesting that health campaigns to encourage people to avoid the sun , lest they get skin cancer, may be doing more harm than good. Because exposure to sunlight produces vitamin D in the body, and deficiency in that vitamin has been linked with the development of diseases like diabetes, breast cancer, prostate cancer and tuberculosis. The newspaper also cited new research suggesting that a lack of vitamin D can play a part in the development of multiple sclerosis. More than that, said the Observer: In 2007, the Department of Health revealed that up to one ...
I have blogged previously about the Kinks' links with Fortis Green, but I've just come across another musical link with my ward that I had no idea about. Fairport Convention were apparently formed in a house on Fortis Green. A house called Fairport. I've delivered leaflets there for 7 or 8 years now and always liked the house name... never occurred to me there might be any link to the band though! It has inspired me to look into the history of Fortis Green and Muswell Hill more (not just the musical history) - I've obviously picked up various bits ...
Apologies for the lack of link here, a quicky before I go to work. Apparently someone's got into trouble for pointing out that more people die from falling off horses than die from taking the drug esctacy - something like 150 versus 30 in a year. Jacqui Smith was very clear, "it sends the wrong message." The truth is the wrong message? The 'right' message is that Esctacy will definitely make your head explode and you'll definitely die and you should definitely not take it ever because it's deadly. The truth is, pfft... it's wrong. Of course, let little girls ...
Charlotte Gore (fluffy or icy? you decide) bemoans the death of liberalism in the Liberal Democrats. She makes some good points - and it's worth reading - but I don't agree with it all. It got me thinking into why so many people, both inside and outside the Liberal Democrats, are so keen to help people "improve" themselves by telling people what they should be doing (Change4Life) or forcing them to do it (seat belts, drugs). Why are people so keen for the State to spend billions of pounds of our money interfering in people's lives, saving us from ourselves ...
"Go back to Highgate, and have you high tea!" Yes he did actually said that, I've just checked. Not a remark to rival "go back to your constituencies and prepare for government" - but it lacked accuracy in just the way that David Steel's famous line lacked foresight (sadly!). It was the new Labour councillor for Seven Sisters, who made a maiden speech on Monday which was more entertaining than was probably intended in places. But another remark that raised eyebrows with me was some quite sneering criticism of one of my colleagues for holding a councillor surgery in a ...
I watched the weather report with interest this morning as both today and tomorrow I'm in the North East (of Scotland).The snow would avoid Edinburgh this morning and there might be a flurry around noon.Now, unless the clocks have gone back 5 hours they've got it wrong.So, I wonder what its really like in Aberdeen? Ho hum ------------------
The Chipping Sodbury North East by-election is taking place today, Thursday 12 February. Voting is from 7am to 10pm. Three things to remember... The Liberal Democrats keep in touch with regular FocusWe work hard all year round for you and your neighboursWe get things done The Sodbury Focus Team... STEVE WEBB M.P. Poole Court, Yate BS37 5PP Tel 322100 steve@stevewebb.org.uk LINDA BOON 1 Leaman Close 320613 linda.boon@southglos.gov.uk SHEILA MEAD 30 Cotswold Rd 882812 sheila.mead@southglos.gov.uk ANN HULME 37 Batten Court BS37 6NJ 329930 annhulme5@btinternet.com ADRIAN RUSH 1 Leaman Close 320613 ensignp@globalnet.co.uk PAUL JOBBINS 56 Horse Street 324880
The have received a mauling in the press and blogosphere about the amount being paid in bonuses following their Government bail out. But yesterday Royal Bank of Scotland boss Stephen Hester has announced there will be an overhaul of the bank's pay structure. Amongst the admissions yesterday to the Treasury select committee was that pay in some areas of the business were too high. But is this too little too late in reaction to the public outcry that while others in other lines of work are struggling, the bank had announced the go ahead to £1bn in bonus payments in ...
Ah, free speech. Should we allow a committed racist into this country to peddle more racism, attempt to divide the country and use propaganda to get more people to think as he does? More people than you'd think would apparently be happy with letting Hitler in for tea.
Liberal Democrat councillor Des Sparkes is pressing for a long-overdue safety inspection of the children's playground in Tonmawr. The community council promised last October to send the community's footpaths officer on a course that would enable him to carry out this function. Four months later, this has still not been done. Des Sparkes says: "To my knowledge, the playground at Tonmawr has not been inspected for five years. This not only flouts the law, but also the duty of care the Community Council has to the children of Pelenna. I am calling on my fellow county councillor, the member for ...
The number of people on Jobseekers in Wales is four times higher than the number of jobs available, the Liberal Democrats have revealed. The figures, revealed through Parliamentary Questions, also show that: · There are 6 Welsh constituencies in which Jobseekers outnumber vacancies by more than 10 to 1. · There are 16 Welsh constituencies in which Jobseekers outnumber vacancies by more than 5 to 1 - 14 of which have Labour MPs Commenting, Jenny Willott, Welsh Liberal Democrat MP for Cardiff Central, said: "These figures underline just how badly Wales is being hit by the unemployment crisis. "Gordon Brown ...
"Make Votes Count" explains why the Israeli system leads to governmental constipation.
Today (since it's well past midnight now) is Charles Darwin's 200th birthday. Happy birthday Chaz. I'm glad you're on my tenner, and I'm sad so many people still deny the essential truth of your theory. Not as many as the Torygraph claim, perhaps, but still too many.
Tuesday evening's public consultation event on private rented housing went very well. It was the second part of our scrutiny review into the private rented sector. I would like to thank everyone who gave up their time to attend: officers, residents, landlords and councillors on what was a pretty freezing evening in February. I chose the Hexagon for the venue because I was keen to get away from the usual stale council meeting format which doesn't appeal to many members of the public and show that the council can engage people outside the Civic Centre. A few months ago it felt like ...
