I took a break from campaigning and work this evening, to go to hear my friend Rose Collis talking about her writing, at Brompton Library in Earl's Court. When I first met her she was working on her biography of the Daily Express columnist, cookery writer and lady about town Nancy Spain and it was interesting [...]
The former chairman of the Standards Committee, Sir Alistair Graham, has acquired rather a habit of speaking out bluntly to put pressure on MPs over their standards and he's done it again on Newsnight: "It must not look as if you're manipulating expenses for your own financial gain." If it is found Ms Smith resides in her London home more nights a week than her Redditch home, he said: "She'll be in the clear in the sense of the rules, but in the sense of her political career - she won't be." (PoliticsHome)
Today has been something of a horror in more ways than one. One of the many things which has upset me is this. We really need to do something about this. Is it time for a new Geneva convention or something? Still, there are many things which have cheered me up, not least of which have been my lovely F-list, and watching The Lay Scientist lay into "alternative medicine". And speaking of cheering up, if you need it, and you're into CCGs, why not hop over to nannyo's, because she's got some going begging. Mat and I are watching the ...
Like all the best people - 36,902 and counting - I have signed up to be a beneficial owner of the field that Greenpeace has bought at Sipson near Heathrow. Now the charity has launched a new Airplot website devoted to this campaign and issued the video above.
Chris Hall's latest Maryfield FOCUS newsletter has been delivered to local residents and can be downloaded by clicking on the headline above. Issues covered include : Road Safety Concerns Stairwell Concerns Digital TV issue Recycling locally SNP MSP Gets £688 Extra Every Month From The Taxpayer Clepington Primary School Survey from Chris
An Open Letter to Those Considering SuicideJumping in front of a train is a bad idea, for several reasons. First, it doesn't always work. Lots of people who try it survive. All of them Hurt a Lot. Some of them are sufficiently damaged that they are no longer capable of killing themselves and they Hurt For Ever. You don't want to be one of those people, you want to be a dead person!Second, consider the effect on the poor driver.Third, and most important, it disrupts the journeys of tens of thousands of other people, all of whom are your betters. ...
The post on Labourhome I wrote about the other day - the one in which Alex Hilton appeared to be complaining that he had been threatened by Derek Draper - has disappeared without any explanation. It lives on for a while in the Google cache. Now Labourhome has a touching post that ends: Despite our differences we have worked together on our own projects and hitherto been supportive of each other. Having agreed to disagree on MessageSpace that will now continue.Yours in comradeship,Alex Hilton and Derek DraperMeanwhile, Dogstarscribe's Weblog has written in reply to my original posting. He says:Telling Alex ...
The Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member for Cardiff Central, Jenny Randerson, is seeking legal advice following a reply from the First Minister stating that he will not be investigating himself on claims that he may have broken the Ministerial Code by discussing school closures in Cardiff last week.Jenny has twice written to the First Minister, lodging an official complaint regarding a
Dundee City Council proposes to make an Order under Section 14(1) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 for the purpose of facilitating road filter lane extension works. The Order is expected to be in force for four weeks from 9 March 2009. Its maximum duration in terms of the Act is eighteen months. The effect of the Order to prohibit temporarily all eastbound vehicular traffic in Riverside Avenue between its junction with A90 Kingsway West and its junction with Apollo Way. The works will be carried out seven days a week to minimise disruption. An alternative route will be ...
Marios Matsakis is a Greek Cypriot MEP, a member of ALDE, and well known as a 'maverick' In December he managed to offend gays and lesbians across Europe, when he objected to photographs in an exhibition of gay families. When he was inundated with complaints, he claimed he was "being harassed by the gay lobby" I've heard about the well known antics of this anti-Turkish and anti-British MEP over the years, and been told that he is seen as an embarrassment in Cyprus and the European Parliament. I've been asked by progressive Cypriots why the Liberal Group have accepted him ...
It seems that Parliament no sooner returns after the Christmas break than its the February recess and another holiday. Having spent much of the last 6 weeks away from home, I've decided to spend the week in Suffolk; punctuated only by the short trip to Norwich where there is a City Council bye-election, and a quick visit to the Yorkshire & Humber Regional conference in Bradford. I've promised to write a pamphlet on local government for "Unlock Democracy" and I have several speeches to write, so taking much of the week to get this done seems like a good idea. ...
That nice Mr Dale, the Tory one, not my tribute one has asked his followers on Twitter to direct message him with their nominations for their favourite political blog. There's one slight problem, though, that I don't think he anticipated. On Twitter, you can only direct message someone if you are both following each other. Of his 2027followers, he is only following 124. So, unless he starts following a lot more people, his selectorate will be limited to a few of the great and the good and not so many Lib Dems. Although Stephen has a vote - so use ...
Nick Clegg's article in yesterday's Times - in which he looked at the impact of the recession, and predicted it would lead to a reinvention of traditional parenting roles - has provoked an entirely predictable knee-jerk from the right-wing media: The Sun - LIB Dem boss Nick Clegg yesterday HAILED the slump as a chance for sacked workers to make a fresh start. In an astonishing gaffe, he said mass redundancies would have a "liberating effect", allowing men to "reinvent" themselves as stay-home dads. The Telegraph - The father-to-be has gone so far as to declare that redundancy could give ...
My article on what the Scottish Lib Dems should do in the wake of the SNP's abandonment of abolition of the council tax is now up over at Lib Dem Voice.
Jacqui Smith may well have informed the relevant parliamentary authorities about her living arrangements and I am sure she does have a letter telling her that her arrangements conform to the letter of the rules. However, does she really think her arrangements fit the spirit of the law ? If we asked 100 people on the street the simple question, which of these is the person's main home ? a) The house they own. The house where their spouse and children live. The house where the children go to school from. or b) Their sister's spare bedroom where they spend ...
This is the first in a regular series of articles by Scottish-based bloggers giving their thoughts about developments in Scottish politics. Bernard Salmon is a Lib Dem activist based in Inverness and blogs at thesoundofgunfire.blogspot.com. Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond proved himself to be a wee sleekit cowerin' tim'rous beastie last week. His betrayal of the SNP pledge to abolish the council tax and replace with a so-called 'local' income tax (in reality a nationally-set tax of 3p in the pound) was supposedly motivated by the fact that the parliamentary arithmetic was against him. Although the Scottish Lib Dems supported ...
This morning I was up and out early to meet residents and local councillors at Highbury Corner. There's a bus stand next to Dixon Clark Court, and a long-standing beef of residents there is that some of the bus drivers using the stand keep their engines running - against all the rules - generating more noise [...]
The latest economic news out of eastern Europe is not just bad in itself. It underlines that the epicentre of the financial crisis has shifted from America very firmly to this side of the Atlantic. Rapid devaluations of all the free floating currencies in Eastern Europe, irrespective of the policies or the circumstances that apply in any given country suggests a collapse of confidence that borders on the irrational. Meanwhile, the other European free floating currencies, such as the Swedish Krona or Sterling have also devalued. This leaves the countries that have fixed their currencies to the Euro zone, but ...
I have to admit that I'm suddenly rather impressed. I comment on Liberal Youth and, as if by magic, they demonstrate exactly why one could be optimistic about their future.I have been approached by a number of key Liberal Youth personnel, each of them pointing out some element of recent efforts that address some of my concerns. It seems that there are all sorts of things going on to streamline
A woman came to my surgery last week (obviously cannot go into detail) but I wanted to place in public the utter poverty of treatment and support for those suffering from mental health issues and their families in Haringey. Services just seem to diminish and diminish endlessly. The ward at St Ann's where you can be admitted as an emergency is not suitable for many of those admitted due to an episode of one sort or another - for example an episode for someone with a long-term bipolar condition. Such a person needs to be taken in - but where ...
It's budget season in town halls up and down the country, and in the rare moments of silence when Councillors stop carping on about stuff, those with super-sensitive hearing may be able to detect the tell-tale "snip snip" sound of Council accountants trimming service budgets to make up for funding shortfalls. In Bury it's no different, as another below average government grant this year has meant an even more challenging set of circumstances for the Council. Once again, I suspect, the budget will ask the people of Bury to pay more for less when it's revealed to the waiting populous ...
Tory Bear has sent around an email to Lib Dem bloggers which is as followed: Liberal Youth elections getting murky. Seems the Liberal Youth are at each others throats: Cheers Tory Bear editor@torybear.com Once you visit the link that he asks you to it sends you to a blog post that he has written about how the Liberal Youth chair election is becoming a little bitchy with both candidates up each others throats according to Tory Bear. He writes about how things all messed up at the Liberal Youth conference, I wasn't at the conference and to be honest ...
{Lynne Featherstone at my dental care} Half-term - good time to go to the dentist if you are a child! One of our locals - 'my dental care' in Myddleton Road, Bounds Green - has made it a special children's week. Existing and new young clients are invited in for a check up so that they get used to the dentist. And they then receive a goody bag with very special toothbrush, toothpaste etc. They have made a huge effort to get the word out locally that there is a very friendly and happy NHS dentist ready to meet and ...
I dropped Alex Hilton an email to ask him about the blog posts and why they had disappeared and he sent me the following link to a blog post on Labour Home in which Derek and Alex both write about how they have put their differences aside e.g. the relationship between Alex and Guido and will continue to be chums. I from the start blamed Derek for it because I thought he was the only person who would do such a thing and now Alex has proved and made public that it was indeed Draper. Personally if Alex is happy ...
Inside Facebook has the story about changes due in the next few weeks: With the Pages redesign, business Pages will now look much more like Facebook profile pages. According to information provided to advertisers, Facebook is moving Pages to a "Wall and tabs" design: * The Wall tab, containing all the latest updates and Wall posts, will become front and center. * Most static information will live on an "Info" tab, and most Photos will now live on a "Photos" tab. * Most custom content and application boxes will be moved to a "Boxes" tab, though some narrow boxes can ...
Paul Dennett who is unknown to me but follows me on twitter has tweeted something very interesting that after I investigated it is true. He tweets: "The posts at Labour Home about the threatening phone calls to Alex Hilton have mysteriously vanished. So everything's okay then..?" After checking the posts to see if they still were at Labour Home it confirmed that Paul was not joking and they have disappeared. Now this is going to start the conspiracies. My conspiracy is that Alex has been forced to remove his blog posts by the person threatening the phone calls and the ...
Ever since I heard that morris dancing was suffering from modern times, there seem to be more and more mentions of it in popular culture. I mean, it's always been the stuff of Pratchett, but last night we watched Oz and James do it, and this morning, via LibDigPig, I discover that there is a film, with Derek Jacobi: Man, I really want to see that.
The Proposal Thomas Hemsley: As part of a wider effort in strenghtening select committees (through allowing members to be elected by the Commons/Lords themselves) and democratising the second chamber, I feel we should look into having US-style ratifications for government appointees. {housecommonspa_468x278} These ratifications would not be for ministers, but for members and heads of QUANGOs/NDPBs. So, for example, ratifications would be held for the Director General of the BBC, as well as the Chairman of the Trust and its members, and would be done so by the second chamber's DCMS committee. Similarly, the Chairman of the Environment Agency would ...
Finally some Independence shown by the Westminster sleaze watchdog, by accepting the complaint against Jacqui Smith (Home Secretary). It was confirmed that John Lyon wrote to Jacqui asking her to shed some light on her £116,000 commons expenses. Ms Smith said: "I have always said that I would be happy to answer any questions in relation to my expenses and will provide the House Authorities with any additional information they may require. "I have always acted fully within Parliament's clear rules on expenses and sought written approval from the Parliamentary Fees Office in 2007 over my living arrangements." Full story ...
I have linked this blog post to the European Court Judgment that the government use to justify the lawfulness of the maltreatment of mothers (particularly, but also fathers) in Public Family Law Proceedings.The key part of the judgment is as follows:2. The case of RK and AKa. Article 3 of the ConventionThe Court recalls that the Government have argued that this complaint falls to be dismissed
Despite the gap between rich and poor rising by official figures, there is an impression in Britain today that the class divide is less important than it once was. Nick Clegg, in his leadership campaign, made clear reference to several chilling facts that prove that view naive and wrong. He pointed out that children born in one part of his Sheffield constituency will live shorter lives than those in another part. He pointed out that a middle class child, "less able", would soon take over a poorer child who was more able, simply because of money. Well, today I want ...
Does anyone localish fancy dogsitting while we are at Spring Conference? This would be from the morning of the 6th of March to the evening of the 8th of March. We actually arranged a dogsitter for Conference well before Christmas, but due to a shotgun wedding in (I think) Suffolk it's all gone horribly awry. I reserve the right to reject volunteers out of hand, but the fact of volunteering will be much appreciated. Volunteer Obtained! Does anyone else here feel sick to their stomachs about this? Because there seems to be a BIT of fuss being made, but not ...
Just a quick mention for this clip from a 1960s sex-ed film on the BBC website - sheer brilliance. Watch out for the boy demonstrating his manliness at around 2m40s - not to be missed.
Paul Waugh blogs the news that Home Sec Jacqui Smith is being investigated by the Commons Standards Commissioner about what is her first and what is her second home. It turns out that she stays in London with her sister who lives in Nunhead. I used to live in Nunhead and suffered a fair amount of crime: - We suffered a burglary during which more than £12,000 of camera and computer equipment was stolen. No Police Officer came to investigate - only a forensics person who took one look and announced that there was nothing they could do; - A ...
Jacqui Smith might have been thinking that she had got away with her fiddling of the figures of the money that she gets from Parliament but actually she hasn't. Iain Dale reports about how she has received a letter from the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner questioning her allowances by asking for more information. Personally I am pleased that she is at least getting investigated, I like many have lost belief in the officials when it comes to holding allowance fiddlers and election fiddlers to account. So to even have an investigation is something for me. I am pretty sure nothing is ...
Colin Eldridge makes the case against elected Mayors here in the Liverpool Daily Post.
Welcome to the eleventh 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. This week, predictions of a dark future: a police state run by Noel Edmonds and Labour Spin Doctors in which everyone is forced to morris dance five times a day. Or something. 1. The sorry state of ...
Following the Conservative announcement of their plans to give more power to local government (that's the spin, anyway - not everyone's buying it) and give lots more cities elected mayors, I haven't heard much comment on their referendum scheme. The idea, as I understand it, is to scrap council tax capping. Instead, when a local authority increased council tax by more than the minister's allowed, it would trigger a situation where 5% of local voters can trigger a referendum. Now, as my favourite nine-year-old blogger has noted, this rather misses the point that most local authority money already comes from ...
Paul Waugh has the story: Jacqui Smith's expenses claims are set to receive fresh scrutiny today. I've learned that she has now been written to by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards John Lyon in the light of fresh allegations made this weekend by her neighbours in south-east London. Having turned down two previous requests to investigate the affair, Mr Lyon has asked the Home Sec to provide additional information on how often she stays at her sister's home in Nunhead. Dominic and Jessica Taplin this weekend told the Mail on Sunday that Ms Smith was rarely in her London home ...
Britain and the US are famously separated by a common language. And it's not just our currency that's different from the rest of Europe. I'm a Euro-phile, but I still think of distances in miles, my weight in pounds, my height in feet and the weather in farenheit. So here's a handy online converter for the [...]
I did a strange thing yesterday evening. For a long time I have wanted a .wav of Jack Hawkins shouting "Open Fire" in the war movie "The Cruel Sea" (for purely personal use, you understand - I also spent years trying to find a .wav of Terry-Thomas saying "You're an abosolute shower!").My memory of the film, addled by several semi-conscious persuals of it on Sunday afternoon, is that Hawkins
The number of international students in the UK has ballooned in recent years. According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency one fifth of last year's graduates were overseas students, after year on year increases over the past decade: only 14 per cent of graduates were from overseas in 1996/97. More importantly for university coffers, non-EU students, who pay two or three times more in fees, totalled 14 per cent. In post graduate courses, which are often used to fund undergraduate ones, the number was close to 30 per cent. Why so many overseas students? A lack of cash. Fees from ...
Would it be naive or churlish to want to put some of the blame for the current economic crisis on Margaret Thatcher ?I can remember when banking was boring. My bank manager was particularly boring. He sent me a very stroppy letter when I went overdrawn by £20 in 1978. He was quite incandescent with rage and demanded to know what I was going to do about it.Then it all changed with the "Big Bang"
It's a busy time for roadworks on Nibley Lane. From the 18th to 24th February there will be temporary traffic lights outside the Old Mill for cable pulling and on Wednesday 25th February the section between Badminton Road (A432) and Westerleigh Road will be closed from 9.30 to 2.30 for street cleansing and drainage maintenance work. This will affect a lot of people because it's a popular cut-through between South Yate and the Badminton Road.
Quantitative easing.The Bank of England committee have voted unanimously for it.Sounds like some dry technical term.So let's translate it using the helpful services of economist Milton Friedman, who explained quantitative easing as randomly dropping money out of helicopters to try to kick start the economy."Helicopter money" in other words. And indeed, US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke,
I don't know whether to react to the Tories latest wafer-thin "proposals" for greater "localism" by being angry by the BBC's constant repetiton of the Tory spin in their news headlines (i.e, "radical decentralisation" yeah right!) or laugh at the sheer vacuity of them. I think I choose to laugh. Their headline proposal seems to be elected mayors. These of course have already been tried and have already been rejected by a lot of people when asked. I do wonder whether their enthusiasm for mayors comes from having Boris Johnson as Mayor of London. But surely, you wouldn't fundamentally change ...
Or so people would have you believe. This may sound crazy, and you may want to hold on to something when I reveal that Nick Clegg has recently expressed an opinion that may have differed slightly from the norm!
Howard Dean is coming to town! Barack Obama certainly has two up on him in the Presidential election stakes - Obama got the nomination and got the Presidency - but for many interested in the question of how best to engage with the public and with active supporters in the internet age, Howard Dean is the real inspiration. What Obama did last year was truly impressive - but impressive in quality and scale and eloquence rather than in innovation. When it came to breaking new ground in picking technologies to use and structuring a campaign around involving people rather than ...
The androgynous fairies that opened Edward Hall's all male production of A Midsummer Night's Dream wore both. This was just one strange but captivating element in this highly inventive staging of the play at the Rose. I loved it. It's magical and funny. Do catch it if you can before the end of the week. The all male, colourblind casting - no, stop there. I ardently dislike...
Logging in to facebook this morning, I am greeted by this message: "Over the past few days, we have received a lot of feedback about the new terms we posted two weeks ago. Because of this response, we have decided to return to our previous Terms of Use while we resolve the issues that people have raised" Looks like another unpopular Facebook change has been thwarted by user pressure. There is a Times article on this here. I think this kind of thing will continue to happen as the owners of Facebook desperately scrabble around for a way to make ...
Himmelgarten Cafe posts about the Liberal Democrat Spring Conference in Harrogate, but forgets to draw attention to the ever popular Constitutional Amendments. This year we'll be adding to 6.10(c): "(State Parties may appoint a substitute member should the elected member be unable to attend a specific meeting of the FCC)". Should be a lively debate !At university there was this man called
With the economy in such a state and with British firms laying people off by the day, any small thing the government can do to promote British made products really can make a difference. So why are the DVLA encouraging people to use their online services by offering each and every month as prizes Spanish built Seat Leon cars ? Surely this would be the ideal time to be offering a Nissan made in Sunderland or a Honda made in Swindon or even a Mini from Oxford ? No. Not this government. It's a Seat from Spain that wins ! ...
The chief's at the top of the Labour party are busy threatening bloggers like Alex Hilton and asking Derek Draper to hand his blog in to them. The asking for the blog LabourList comes from Guido that Dougie Alexander has said to Derek to hand over the blog which is quiet enjoyable even for me and especially for the critics of Draper and Labourlist. Will Draper hand over the blog because Labour have asked him to, he has had breakfast parties that are probably paid for by the Labour party so now his blog is basically their child that he ...
Craig Murray posts in characteristic trenchancy about Tessa Jowell, arguing that if she didn't know what her husband David Mills was up to she was stupid but if she did, she was corrupt.Comments from contemporaries on Camden Council suggests she may not be the sharpest tool in the box. For myself, I first took notice of her when she attempted to ban the Stop the War march from using Hyde Park
The power of Himmelgarten Café has been brought to bear yet again, bringing the mighty Facebook to its knees. Yesterday I reported on a change to Facebook's Terms and Conditions meaning that they held wide rights over anything you post there forever (previously you could remove their rights by deleting the content from Facebook). This morning, according to the BBC, Facebook head honcho Mark Zuckerberg has backed down. The Café isn't mentioned specifically in the article (outraged users, just a misunderstanding, new proposals to be developed with users, blah, blah, blah) but the subtext is pretty clear. Yesterday the Café ...
According to the Echo today, our MP Alan Milburn has asked for more signs to be erected so that people from out of town can find the way to Darlington's Memorial Hospital. These may well be needed, but I hope no unnecessary expense will be incurred just so that our MP can find his way there without consulting his A-Z.The report goes on to say that a "review" will take place and that the public
The Chief Executive of the Welsh Local Government Association, Steve Thomas, warned the Cardiff Business Club yesterday that he expects 2,000 public sector jobs to be lost over the next couple of years, the Welsh Assembly Government grapples with the challenges of smaller budget increases from the Treasury:Mr Thomas, who body's members includes all 22 unitary authorities in Wales, as well as the
Yesterday morning the postman brought my "Fun in Harrogate" pack in the post. Not a guide to Harrogate's best lap-dancing clubs (rumour has it that's in the special MPs' conference guide) but lots of exciting information about the Lib Dem Federal Spring Conference in the delightful town of Harrogate. Best of all is Reports to Conference, clearly a labour of love from all concerned. The report from Federal Conference Committee reveals that we're going to have a conference, Federal Policy Committee's report tells us that we're going to discuss some policy there, the Federal Executive's done some dull stuff over ...
Last night I attended the Chipping Barnet Residents' forum. The format for the forums does not work. There is either no one there with the knowledge to answer residents questions or the written answer does not actually answer the question that was put. it is also far to easy for one person to dominate proceeding to the detriment of others. My solution would be to change the way the forums operate. Instead of generic forums have specific forums to cover a particular topic. For example. If we had a Highways forum then all the senior Highways officers could attend. If ...
5. Mike Brearley Quite where to bat him was always a puzzle - he once came in at number ten with two of the three Beverley Sisters at nine and eleven - but there was no doubting that he was Terribly Clever and quite the best captain England have had. These days he works as a psychotherapist and is well versed in the theories of Clement Freud. Earlier selections Len HuttonC.B. FryDavid SteelViolent Bonham-Carter
Last Thursday, The Guardian's G2 section carried this rather surprising claim: According to Keep Britain Tidy, we write more letters to our elected representatives, locally and in Westminster, about dog fouling than we do about anything else. I did a bit of a double-take when I read it because, in my time, I've both dealt with quite a lot of correspondence from the public to elected representatives, worked closely with people who have dealt with even more correspondence and trained people who have dealt with yet more correspondence. And I've never got a hint that this is anywhere close to ...
The Royal Bank of Scotland are the first of the banks supported by public money to have their bonuses hemmed in. Following public outcry that the bank that was bailed out with public money was still paying out bonuses of astronomic proportions when making such a heavy loss it issued its new plan after discussions with UK Financial Investments (who oversee the Government's shareholding in banks). The new deal is (from the bank's full statement): No Reward for Failure: No bonuses or pay increases will be made to staff associated with the major losses suffered in 2008. Board Remuneration: As ...
If anybody is going to be in a credible position to attack the government's exploitation of the fear of terrorism so as to bring in laws that restrict civil liberties then it is the former head of MI5. And that is precisely what Stella Rimington has done: Dame Stella, who stood down as the director general of the security service in 1996, has previously been critical of the government's policies, including its attempts to extend pre-charge detention for terror suspects to 42 days and the controversial plan to introduce ID cards. "It would be better that the government recognised that ...
Watch the latest news and make sure you sign up for your plot of the land to stop the third runway - it's important. We all need to join together to protect the environment before it's too late.
In an interview by the Evening Post, Neath Port Talbot councillor and former Rail Users Consultative Council member John Warman argued that the powers that be should be doing more. He said: "People are disappointed by the Assembly's stance on transport. "Fares need to be reasonably priced and we need to have a good service. There are benefits to the economy and to communities from having good public transport and that includes the rail network. We are forcing people off trains and onto the roads and that is defeating the environmental arguments. "Unless something is done to improve public transport ...
The Justice Minister encouraged people to spy on their neighbours, but she couldn't have reckoned on her own neighbours casting doubt on her explanation of her Commons expenses.
The Welsh Nationalists have gone quiet on their manifesto commitment to oppose council tax, while the Scottish Nationalists have done a complete U-turn.
Until a few days ago I thought Twittering was yet another gimmick that wouldn't interest me, but then pal Louise Macdonald convinced me that I really should start and she was clearly hooked! So, I decided to give it a go, signing up to Stephen Fry, Al Gore and Louise immediately. I began to see the point, especially given the Euro campaign I could keep supporters up to date, texting snippets as I waited for the lift, tube, train, or as happened tonight waiting for the person (who will remain nameless except to my followers!) who I was supposed to ...
A good report in today's Times on Duwayne Brooks - the energetic Liberal Democrat candidate in this Thursday's Downham byelection.
Huntsman Christopher Marles, who used his horse to assault a hunt monitor, has been convicted at Honiton Magistrates' Court. The hunt monitor, 61 year-old Helen Weeks, was monitoring the activities of the East Devon Hunt in March last year when Marles used his horse to knock her to the ground. The assault was caught on film by a League monitor.Welcoming the conviction, Chief Executive of the
I am very proud to have entered and for my submissions to be successfully accepted for The Orwell Prize 2009: Blog Prize. The next milestone for me will be the Longlist Announcement - Wednesday 25th February 2009. Actually, if I get that far I will be very pleased especially as the standard of entries of my peers is very high. The shortlist will be announced on Wednesday 25th March 2009.
Imagine you have a choice of three catch-free giftsOne year's sunscription to a Sky Sports package, currently worth about £500£500 in gift vouchers to spend at Lush and/or B Never£250 cash View Poll: Hypothetically speaking...
