It is not easy to turn on the news without seeing the Lib Dem Shadow Chancellor, Vince Cable MP, holding forth about something or other. This last week, Vince has received two awards at the Channel 4 News political gongs: Opposition Politician of the Year - beating David Cameron and Ken Clarke among others - and [...]
A. This sort, if you're Conservative Councillor from Dover, Roger Walkden: (preserved in screencap form in case it gets deleted, and with a hat-tip to Anthony Hook) This is why I will always, always support freedom of speech. Because if we didn't have freedom of speech, people with this kind of reprehensible view would hide it, instead of displaying their naked racism for anyone to see. Now, who is going to be the first to try the it's only a joke, lighten up? defence?
Chris Huhne, the Shadow Home Secretary and Liberal Democrat MP for Eastleigh, has launched a new Liberal Democrat website, www.gosportfocus.co.uk, and an online campaign to save Haslar Hospital. Chris Huhne called on Gosport residents to visit the website and to sign the online petition which calls on the MOD to hand over the site to a Council-led partnership which plans to take it over and keep beds and services open. He also warned that the Tories were not to be trusted on health issues. Huhne said that the Liberal Democrats were now the only party committed to saving Haslar following ...
Liberal Democrats have forced the Home Office to admit that police 'shot' children with taser guns 28 times in a 20-month period. At the same time, experts have questioned Home Office claims that tasers are "non-lethal". Police officers must be able to protect themselves, but these weapons have killed more than 300 people in the United States and should not be issued to untrained officers. We need an in-depth inquiry into the use of Tasers before they become commonplace on British streets.We must not slide down a slippery slope towards fully-armed, US-style policing.
By 9.30am a few of those councillors have made it to my flat to start the report back on the survey. We spend the morning delivering leaflets to shops and businesses, informing them on the results of our business survey. Some results are still coming in either over the internet (at http://www.libertyresearch.org.uk/take/508 ) or through the mail. It would be good to get a few more in though. There is a very good response. halfway through the morning Graham Longley calls to tell me that Southend Radio want to do an interview on the survey results. There is still time ...
According to the Independent online, bankers are demanding a pay rise to compensate for the loss of bonus payments. "Base salaries at investment banks across the board will have to rise to compensate people for the falls in bonuses they have seen," said one senior corporate finance investment banker. Surely the laws of supply and demand suggest that this is completely perverse, as there is a currently a significant reduction in the demand for bankers as the sector contracts. If members of the financial services community are managing to pull the wool over the eyes of their shareholders, this suggests ...
There's a big pile of Tory bloggers who are always crowing about how awful and incompetent and corrupt and authoritarian the Labour government is, and how different the Tories will be when they get in. And if anyone brings up past performance, they point out that it was a terribly long time ago they were last in government, and anyway, look at David Davis!!! Ah yes, David Davis. The man who thinks 42 days is worth resigning over, but 28 days is A-OK! Well, you know, you can paint him as a Tory champion of Liberty if you like - ...
I am working in London on Monday, but get back for the evening. I don't make a habit of attending group meetings, but there are a couple of things coming up that I feel we ought to discuss, so for once I go along. You have to feel sorry for councillors when you see the long sets of minutes and decisions they are meant to read. We are there until 10.15.
Government education adviser Mike Tomlinson estimates that up to 25,000 teenagers are leaving school before starting to study for GCSEs. In other words, thousands of young people are dropping out of school early because the education system has let them down. This shows just how ludicrous it is for the Government to raise the education leaving age when it can't even get 14 year olds to turn-up. Ministers need to get a grip on this problem and create a system which motivates and challenges all young people. Instead of producing more targets and gimmicks, ministers need to provide a better ...
Reading the latest issue of Tripwire this weekend, I spotted this little morsel in an interview with Paul "Human Nature" Cornell about his comic book series Captain Britain and MI-13: Tripwire: Placing it in that context lead to a cameo appearance from British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. I heard that there was also going to be a cameo from Opposition leader David Cameron, but my understanding is that this isn't happening now. Paul Cornell: My plan was to portray him in a favourable light. Basically, he was going to be meeting with Dracula on the Moon and Dracula was going ...
Every UK home could be made energy-efficient within 10 years in a revamp of British housing stock equivalent to the "digital switchover". It is estimated that carbon emissions from British homes account for a quarter of the country's total. Under EU agreements, the government has 42 years to cut emissions by 80%. Currently just one per cent of our housing stock is energy-efficient, yet only half of Britain's poorest households are ineligible for help from the £852m "Warm Front" scheme set up by the government to try to cut fuel bills with grants for home insulation and heating. The government ...
Sunday starts at 10am with a campaign committee to talk about the Euro-campaign. A good discussion, a lot of ideas and a good deal of consensus (two qualities that don't always go together). Peter Wexham, candidate last time around and a Leigh councillor is there. This is good because he is both experienced and very practical. Indeed he solves one of the problems on our list (but a couple of days later, rather than on the spot).
I felt this was a bit lazy. Late start, breakfast cum brunch with the kids in My Kitchen in Leigh Road, then onto the Leigh Ward coffee morning. This hosted by Al Smulian (father of Mark, from Liberator). Everyone there is busy stuffing envelopes, which is good to see. In the afternoon, a good spell of delivery recruitment. One of the volunteers strikes me as someone who would make a good councillor.
Liberal Democrats are gearing up to officially launch their new package of education education policies which aim to offer long-term proposals to invest in every child from their first day in childcare, through their time at school, to their last day at university. The policies will be a key plank of the party's manifesto at the next election, just as education has been in past elections. It is through education that we can break down the barriers to social mobility and truly create an opportunity society in Britain. We can train our young people to be productive members of our ...
Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor Vince Cable has hit out at the Royal Bank of Scotland's plans to pay almost £1billion in bonuses - despite being propped up with £20billion of public money. "This is unbelievably crass and irresponsible behaviour by people who have learned absolutely nothing and appear to have no standards of honesty." Around half of the total would be "discretionary" payments to RBS staff. RBS are "contractually" obliged to give the rest of the cash to employees of ABN Amro, the Dutch bank they bought last year in a catastrophic deal.
Dundee's Local Community Plans are now available to view on the Dundee Partnership Website, complete with minutes of local community planning meetings and West End briefings. You can read more by clicking on the headline above.
Michael Martin, the Speaker of the House of Commons, has started a new row over Parliamentary secrecy by blocking the release of information about foreign trips for MP's. The dispute started after the Commons Registrar of Members' Interests, decided that MPs should not have to declare details of trips they make abroad as guests of the British Council, which is a taxpayer-funded body. Since February 2007, 12 MPs have travelled overseas with the British Council to destinations including Thailand, India and Malawi, often at a cost to the taxpayer of thousands of pounds. MPs are required to declare any hospitality ...
When we lost our local Woolworths last summer, we didn't know then they would all be going. I was sceptical about the plan to replace our busy Woolworths. It was one of only two in Islington, the other all the way up at the Archway (it's also now closed of course); and we already had 2 [...]
Just caught up with the first episode of the first episode of Law & Order UK. Fantastic. All the best aspects of the US version - great acting, credible characters, insights into the life of the city as well as the workings of the law, and a page-turning story. And it's set in Islington - [...]
Guess which party has a Councillor in Kent who said this: "white skin like the British" "you are English, you're entitled to f*** all" BNP? National Front? British Union of Fascists? Let me introduce you to Conservative Councillor from Dover, Roger Walkden. He has written on the Dover District Council website, "Much of my time is spent working on how [...]
You can now read Chris Hall's profile on the Votewise website - simply click on the headline above to view.
Lib Dems have launched a raft of proposals to boost the availability of affordable housing, stem the tide of repossessions and rescue the beleaguered construction industry. Among them are plans to introduce a "Repair and Renewal" loan scheme for owners of empty properties if they agree to lease them for at least five years to housing associations. As the recession deepens, social housing queues are growing ever longer while the construction industry has ground to a halt. Renovating empty and abandoned properties can provide low cost homes while boosting the struggling construction sector.
Those words used in the title of this posting were used by Ming Campbell today to make the point that Labour, so keen to tell us that we need ID cards because "If you've nothing to hide you've nothing to fear", are running scared (with lots of Tory support) or providing the Freedom of Information requests of cabinet minutes in the run up to the Iraq war. Labour motives are obvious. But we know why the Tories support Labour in this lack of freedom. Aside from David Davis, there is hardly a history of open government and a willingness to ...
The Liberal Democrats have called for the introduction of basic mortgages secured by the Government to protect borrowers from the collapse in lending by banks and building societies. "Safestart" mortgages would be fixed for five years at a suggested interest rate of around 4.5 per cent and would be available to borrowers with a 15 per cent deposit. There would not be any fees attached to the deal. The plan by the Lib Dems is designed to break the deadlock in the mortgage market, caused by the collapse in wholesale moneymarkets which traditionally supported new mortgage lending. Mortgage lending fell ...
The man responsible for the collapse of HBOS back will collect a pension of over half a million pounds a year. Whilst 50-year old Sir James Crosby is picking up a fat pension, the taxpayer is picking up the pieces of his mistakes. Crosby ignored repeated disaster warnings, and now we are all paying the cost. Can we have our money back, please Sir?
It would sound like the start of a comedian heading towards a punchline if it weren't about another SNP failure to deliver an election pledge. In their manifesto in 2007 they pledged to reduce class sizes to 18 for P1-3 by 2011. Now West Lothian's progress, though welcome, does not a whole country make. Just look at the shocking progress in Dundee where progress has actually gone backwards in 2008. I heard on the BBC News earlier that on current rates of progress it would take 18 years to reach the Government pledge. So that would only be 16 years ...
The Glandular Fever at the moment is decreeing that I spend the vast majority of my time either on the sofa trying to stay awake or in bed asleep. I know it will pass eventually and I'm not looking for sympathy, but I suspect blogging will be more intermittent than it has been until I get rid of it. Twitter is much more suited to me at the moment, as I seem to have the attention span of a goldfish, and 140 characters is about right:-) LibDig This!
Today, like many of my days, has been taken up with meetings of one kind or another. With my first Conference as Party President coming up fast, I was pleased that several of us met this afternoon to run through the agenda, discuss detailed timings and generally sort out any last minute wrinkles which have come up. I've known for some time that I will be making a speech at the rally in Harrogate on the Friday evening, but it wasn't until my agenda papers arrived last week that I focused on the other tasks I have to do over ...
I finished February Campaign Ammo this evening and anyone on our circulation list will get it overnight. It is slightly revamped so hopefully our troops will find it even more useful in the political ground war. I then went straight into doing a desktop publishing job for those nice people at the Policy and Research Unit who sweet talked me into doing it. And with that finished at 8.15pm, I had a
Tomorrow's Commons sketch by Quentin Letts has just gone up on the Daily Mail website: The Tories' Dominic Grieve huffed a great deal but was torpedoed by derision when he eventually said he agreed with Mr Straw's decision.A steelier, stiffer speech came from the Lib Dems' Rumpolian David Howarth, who said that we weren't interested in knowing which Cabinet ministers said what.We were interested in knowing whether or not there had been ANY discussion of the war decision.This was about 'a momentous, controversial and disastrous decision to go to war and the collapse-of Cabinet Government under Mr Blair,' said Mr ...
First there was the Atheist Bus Campaign, whose ads looks like this:Then a bunch of nutters came up with this (although you're unlikely to see it, because they don't have many supporters so can't afford to put it on more than a coupla dozen buses):which to my uneducated eye looks remarkably similar. So:
Yesterday the Shropshire Star reported that Virgin Trains is planning a new service from Shrewsbury to London. It would call at Wellington and Telford before going via Wolverhampton, Walsall and Nuneaton. The Nuneaton stop means that I could catch it there and get to Shrewsbury without having to change at Birminghan New Street. (I used to change at Coventry to get there in the days when there were direct services from Euston to Shrewsbury and from Leicester to Coventry.) But I couldn't picture the route it will take across the West Midlands. The Sutton Coldfield Observer makes it clear that ...
The decision by Justice Secretary, Jack Straw to veto the publication of minutes of key Cabinet meetings held in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 seems almost certain to make the war an issue again. The BBC report that Straw is to use a clause in the Freedom of Information Act to block the release of details of meetings in which the war's legality was discussed: Releasing the papers would do "serious damage" to Cabinet government, he said, and outweighed public interest needs. The Information Tribunal ruled last month that they should be published. They had rejected ...
I woke up the other day with an idea in my head, one that itched at me until I'd blogged it. It was taking Asimov's Laws of Robotics - three 'laws' designed to make sure robots were a safe and useful tool in the service of humanity - and rewriting them as rules for humans to live by. It came out as: An individual must not injure any other individual, or, through inaction, allow another individual to come to harm. Individuals must obey orders given by those designated as being responsible for the care of others, except where orders conflict ...
When David Davis resigned as shadow home secretary to fight a by-election there were those who saluted him. I was not one of them. Just how great a blow his resignation was to hopes that a Conservative government would take a more civilised view of civil liberties has been made clear: David Cameron yesterday downgraded the Tories' commitment to civil liberties when he declared that the sole focus of the Home Office under a Conservative government would be to tackle crime. In a sign that the party is distancing itself from the era of David Davis, the former shadow home ...
Tomorrow is a special meeting of full Council, where the budget for the year ahead will be set. This includes what the Council Tax level will be next year, and which services get investment, and which will get cut. The meeting will start at 7pm in the Town Hall in Bury, and it's open to the public so you can come along and see it all for yourself! Rick
On Thursday 5 March young people across Bury will be taking part in an election for the Bury Member and 2 Deputies of the United Kingdom Youth Parliament. This year there are 14 candidates from across the borough. {3734_UKYP09_elect_v1_RG} Last year 7,500 young people voted in the election and we are hoping to improve on this figure this year. The count will take place on Friday 6th March from 1pm in the Council Chamber and the result will be announced by the Returning Officer at 5pm. I think these elections are a fantastic way of getting young people involved in ...
Sorry I spelt something in my title yesterday wrong! I wrote "thinger" instead of "finger", a common mistake I make a lot. I also take this opportunely to apologize for my many other spelling and grammatical mistakes, if you read the blog regularly, or just a few times in the past you will have even found sentences you didn't understand at all.
One of the matters I learned about for the first time at the Ruislip Manor Chamber of Commerce AGM was a youth shelter which Ruislip High School were proposing in Shenley Park. I thought at the time nice idea but I wouldn't have put it there. A few days later a letter arrived for me from a resident with a copy of the consultation document sent out by the school. The letter was a party political broadcast for the local Conservatives. It is completely unacceptable for a local school to be seen to so partisan. Sometime ago I had agreed ...
It's been a bad couple of weeks for Internet users. Sure, millions of us use the Internet and computers for several hours a day. OK, so we've been doing that for well over a decade now. And society has notably failed to collapse, nor have the hospitals been full of people with Internet-related afflictions. Last week we had a suggestion from a doctor that, where using the Internet replaced normal face-to-face interaction, it could be bad for us and lead to health problems. This is what's called a hypothesis. It's an idea someone's had. It's plausible and sounds reasonably, and ...
A rather disturbing story. Cerrie Burnell is a presenter on CBeebies. You can read about the furore surrounding her here in the Daily Mail.Basically, nine complaints have been lodged with the BBC from parents who think their children may be upset by Ms Burnell, who has had a disability from birth. And, of course, as usual, coverage in the media has whipped the whole thing up so that there have
Hello again, fluffy friends! So a new President has been elected, scoring a stunning victory based on a grass roots campaign and famous badges! Tragically Baroness Ros ISN'T in the White House, but the GOOD NEWS for us is that that means she will be coming to Spring Conference and has made time in her packed diary for a Bloggers' Interview at 3pm on Saturday 7th March. Yes We Can! President Ros was elected on a pledge to be a link between the members and the leadership, so this is your opportunity to try that out! Ms Ros also has ...
According to research done by a panel of experts for Politics Home most people think the Tories are not ready to become a government. For the question asked "In your opinion, are the Conservatives ready for government?" 76% said that No and 51% of the saying No said, they will need to step up their game for 2010 if they want to become a government. These are all interesting results, as it proves the theory that is supported by many including myself, which is that Cameron is an armature politically and personally I don't think he has what it takes ...
Liberal Democrats on Redcar & Cleveland Council have condemned a proposal to raise the pay of the Council's Labour leader by 33.8%. The recommendation to raise the Leader's special responsibility allowance from £12,550 to £19,710 comes in a report from the Independent Remuneration Panel, to be discussed by the Council on 2 March. But local Liberal Democrats are horrified by the proposal to increase allowances so much during a recession. At a time when people are losing jobs, struggling to pay bills and the country is in the deepest recession for 60 years, we should not be even considering giving ...
Pancakes do not need chocolate. Nothing NEEDS chocolate. With that in mind, can everybody stop going on about chocolate, and how marvellous and wonderful and amazing it is, please? Because some of us can't frigging have it, and when I got to the fourteenth mention of how wonderful and amazing and fantastic chocolate is on my f-list from the last six hours I started to get a bit pissed off. People like chocolate. I get it. Can you stop going on about it please? This entry brought to you by the urge for a bar of Green and Black's, even ...
Jack Straw's decision to veto the release of cabinet minutes in the run up to the Iraq war is causing some consternation at the moment. However, I agree with his decision. There is an understandable desire from the public and some politicians who are not in government to have this sort of thing released but it would be wrong to do so. What would end up happening is that cabinet would move away from being the forum for open debate and discussion and instead the decisions would be taken away from there and then rubber stamped by cabinet. It would ...
There is a lot of cynicism out there about Twitter, and, yes, for some time I was one of the realists. No longer, for a couple of hours ago Twitter almost provided Lib Dem Voice with a genu-ine world exclusive shock horror with bells on. Jo Swinson tweeted from the Chamber at 15.39 as follows: in Parl hearing Jack Straw vetoing releasing Cabinet minutes of Iraq war even though FOI tribunal ordered it - shocking Now, if only I'd been farting about on Twitter like I should have been and not doing productive things like speccing for new work, I'd ...
There seems to have been an almighty media storm over one of eight finalists on University Challenge last night. From a rough estimate, the person who scored the most solo points was actually the team captain of the Manchester University team. Boyd, I think his name was. Well done to him. There was a chap to his left who was also very good.Out of the Corpus Christi team, the lady from Chicago (
Yesterday in the House of Commons Defence Debate I questioned the Government's seemingly contradictory stance on additional troop deployments in Afghanistan. From the outset a fairly small number of Western troops have been trying to overcome a large county and stabilise a large population. It seems odd to congratulate America's decision to send 17,000 additional troops, and urge our European allies to send more troops whilst neither committing any further British ones nor having any apparent plans to do so. (more...)
There was a 10 Minute rule bill today. These Bills rarely get anywhere. However, there is notionally a vote on "whether the member has leave to introduce the bill".The bill was about having parliamentary approval for new runways. The government didn't want a vote on the issue so those wanting a vote had to force a division and put in tellers on both sides of the division.Hence I "told" for the
{Our money} £140,000 of public money has been spent so far trying to keep reviews of the Government's plans for ID cards a secret. The Office of Government Commerce has spent the money on a four-year legal battle to avoid releasing the relevant "Gateway reviews" (stage-by-stage assessments of Government projects) . The Information Tribunal, which hears appeals against Freedom of Information rulings, ordered ministers last week to publish two reviews into the progress of the ID cards scheme within 28 days. However, the OGC is not likely to do so readily, and costs could rise even higher, as Computer Weekly ...
A very useful public meeting last night at the Millenium Hall on the thorny issue of the proposed allocations for gypsy sites. I say a thorny issue, but really all sides were in agreement - there must be no travellers sites in Burbage. The rumpus was caused by the two Conservative County Councillors trying to claim that a site will be built near Rugby Road. Fortunately the public requested to hear from us, and David and Stuart were able to give the solid assurance that no site will be built in Burbage - even if that means throwing the whole ...
Whilst one branch of the government pushes its ID card agenda with unsupportable claims that they will make us all safer, another branch introduces cuts that could lead to a growing fear of crime and less safe streets. It is well-known that Labour has funded its bailout of the banks by cutting the funds available to local councils, according to The Times Police Authorities are not immune from these cuts either. They say that faced with reductions in their funding large numbers of police forces are planning to cut thousands of officers despite the threat of a recession-driven surge in ...
With 28% of Somer tenants in arrears on their rent, Bath MP Don Foster has expressed concern that the planned average rent increase of nearly 7.5% (7.34%) could lead to a further steep rise in tenants in financial difficulty. At a meeting on Monday [23rd February] with Angela Gascoigne, Managing Director at Somer Housing, Don recommended that Somer investigated ways of phasing the...
Despite the current economic climate, the Conservative Council is seeking to impose 40% rent rises on some local businesses. "Short 'n Curlys" hairdresser on Lower Borough Walls and neighbour Bath Pet Centre were both informed their rent would be going up massively. Thanks to intervention from the Liberal Democrats, Short 'n Curlys were able to negotiate a rent increase of only 5%...
Cambridge - bastion of male dominance - still! So- I've referred the buggers to the Equalities and Human Rights Commission for investigation. It's because of the appallingly wide gap between what the university pays men and women. The university's own Equal Pay Report shows that men are paid on average nearly a third more than women - £37,157 compared to £28,247. There are two reasons for the gap - if you compare people on each pay grade, then for two-thirds of the grades, women on that grade get paid less than men - and also the higher the grade, the ...
I am just reading a copy of the Times, and on the front page there is a headline "LDV rescue ruled out". I thought wow, Lib Dem Voice hits the national headlines, but we can all lie safe in our beds tonight. I can assure you that Lib Dem Voice is not seeking a £30milion bridging loan and is not in any financial difficulties. Although on a serious note Van maker LDV has asked the Government for a £30million bridging loan, which has been turned down citing that the parent company, Gaz should cover the losses.
When the all-party Camden Council Sustainability Task Force recommended a "less meat, better meat" policy last year it was kebabed by the Tories. Their Executive Member for Health, Cllr Martin Davies reaffirmed in the Ham&High recently that the Tories remain unwilling to take action on the issue of meat. I struggle to understand what their beef is since a wide range of experts agree that cutting down on meat is one of the best ways we can help both the planet and our health. In 2006 the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation estimated the carbon emissions associated with the ...
From Beth Lister on Comment is Free: Boris Johnson has decided to go back on his manifesto pledge to fund four new rape crisis centres (RCCs) in London. These centres provide long-term counselling and specialist care to women who have been affected by sexual violence. Having previously promised to spend £744,000, financed by a 20% cut in the mayor's media and marketing team, Johnson now promises just £233,000. This is not even enough to keep the capital's one existing centre open, let alone fund four more. You can read the full piece here.
No, I don't hit 70!But until I read this I didn't realise you have to renew your licence every 10 years!
Are you a Lib Dem in Southwark (or Kingston & Surbiton or Twickenham) and a veggie.Well this menu from the Pizza takeaway in the Old Kent Road around the corner from my daughter's flat in East Street has a superb selection of veggie "fake meat" options. And if you collect it is two for the price of one! I assume the other branches, including Surbiton and Twickenham have the same choices. And you
I'm not long back from a terrific three-week holiday in my home country, New Zealand. Nearly five years since my last visit, I was delighted to find that the waters of Auckland's Waitemata Harbour still sparkle like no other; that the beaches of the Whangaparaoa Peninsula are just calm and beautiful as ever; and that Great Barrier Island remains a paradise, unique in the world. Each visit, however, I notice something big and important that is different from the time before. Last time, in 2004, it was the amount of change and new prosperity in Auckland and the extent to ...
Today's Independent reports that the Justice Secretary, Jack Straw, will make a U-turn over sweeping new powers which were to allow public bodies to swap the data they hold on individuals. It seems that the Government is worried about growing criticism that it is creating a "Big Brother Britain", so Mr Straw is to rewrite his Coroners and Justice Bill to build in new safeguards to protect the public. Whether these safeguards go far enough we will have to see, however the fact that they are being considered is welcome. Will the government now backtrack on other 'big brother' measures ...
The leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, Kirsty Williams has warned that lives could be lost if retained fire-fighters are not allowed to opt-out of European Union regulations on working times.In a debate at the Assembly tomorrow, the Welsh Liberal Democrats will highlight concerns that stations in Wales, crewed by retained fire-fighters, could be under threat and vital emergency fire cover
The new(ish) system in Liverpool is that while any councillor can submit a motion for Full Council, they won't all get selected for debate. The ones that don't will still end up being discussed and voted on - but at a committee rather than at the Full Council meeting. This one (below) is one I wrote with Cllr Colin Eldridge. We expect it to be discussed at the Overview and Scutiny Committee in mid March. ****** Council notes the progress of the Government's 'Coroners and Justice Bill'. Council, whilst welcoming the strengthening of the laws surrounding child pornography, and witness ...
Very clever ad from First Direct. They show clips from old films of people getting treats from friendly retailers - a buttonhole from the florist, a bone for the dog from the butcher, a lollipop from the corner shop - all part of the nostalgia for traditional customer service in an uncertain consumer world. (They are not [...]
I recently started a PhD and I've decided to share my experience of scholarly life. These are the stages I've been through on my journey into academia. I'm going to skip the stage where I went into university straight from school, didn't really know what I wanted to do or study, and, after four years [...]
Once again the Tories try to steal Lib Dem clothes, this time to appear as if they are the party that will put more power in the hands of the individual and revive local government. Their plans for local authorities, announced last week, included a proposal for the 12 biggest cities outside of London to have a referendum on whether they wanted an elected mayor. This proposal is truly laughable. It is merely a rehash of an existing policy from Labour, which allows a town or city to have an elected mayor if 5% of the voters sign a petition. ...
The Spectator Coffee House Blog brings us more rubbish concerning the prospects of closer co-operation with the Tories. Reporting Tim Montgomerie's piece over on Conservative Home regarding the a "group of shadow ministers" who want to engage in closer co-operation with the Lib Dems, as they feel that was one of Blair's biggest mistakes to let things slide after having allied himself with Paddy Ashdown. The rebuttal to the absurdity of this suggestion is covered in more detail over at Lib Dem Voice, but I wanted to focus more on the assertion of the left-right split in the party that ...
The Liberal Democrats Account system (LDA) allows party members to create one username and password which then work across a range of different party sites - including the members only site, the OurCampaign online petition tool, Flock Together (scroll down on the front page to the section just underneath the map), our letter-writing tool and our online surveys tool Liberty Research. The LDA system is also used by LibDig, which lets you share interesting or useful things found online with others. LDA usernames are only available to party members or staff, and each time you login the system checks that ...
Governor Gulab Mangal has been in charge of the Helmand province in Afghanistan for a year now and has developed a formidable reputation both in the international domestic communities. His first achievement has been to survive in the precarious world of Afghan politics. Unsurprisingly he came to our meeting, with a small group of Lib Dem Parliamentary Colleagues in the House of Commons, with a message. He was initially, uncharacteristically, restrained but with a bit of teasing he was blunt. "The people of Helmand expected more from the UK," was the assessment. In line with Britain's commitment to stabilising his ...
{Bath Guildhall} Bath and North East Somerset Council set it's budget last week for the next year. The Conservatives increased tax by 3.5%, including £1million to prop up the council pension fund, and a further £800,000 to investigate building new offices. Despite being a potential beneficiary of both offices and generous pension fund, I did not vote in favour! The Liberal Democrats instead proposed an alternative budget. Our fully costed plans cost less than the Conservatives, yet still managed to find £500,000 extra to spend on street cleaning, significant extra investment in the Youth Service (subject to Tory cuts), improved ...
Iain Dale has headlined his blog post on today's Hansard Society / Microsoft report, "MPs Not Very Good At T'Internet Shocker", but it seems to me you could just as well draw the opposite conclusion. There's much that's good and thoughtful and interesting in the report, but ... it still suffers from what most such reports suffer from, which is the chain of assumptions, "The internet is good. Politicians should therefore use the internet more. The more different ways they use the internet the better. If there's any way they're not using the internet, that's bad." There is some truth ...
Cllr Richard Kemp, leader of the Lib Dems in local government, has challenged Tories to take action on their new pledge to push for more mayors in English cities. We covered this tangentially whilst discussing lovebombing last week, when we also linked to Millennium Elephant's masterful dismissal of the entire policy: The proposal to increase accountability will actually DILUTE it; the promise to return power to people will really move power IN to a new centre that is less representative and more remote; the plan to free local government from central government control will, in reality, SHACKLE local councils even ...
No, not a post about opinion polls. Although it could be. The crocuses are out in Morton Road gardens, the park opposite my home. It seems unbelievable that only three weeks ago we were deep in snow. There are some great photos of the snowscenes, including this one of Canonbury, looking like a winter version of the set [...]
And now on ITV 17, "Welsh Labour Politicians Say The Stupidest Things"... Excuse Me While I Hate Myself Our first clip comes courtesy of Rhys Williams, the Labour PPC for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr. A strongly Welsh-speaking area, Carmarthen East and Dinefwr is fairly iconic for Plaid; it's the successor to Gwynfor Evans' old seat and is now represented by The Next Leader Of Plaid Cymru™ and The Minister For Smoking In The Eli Jenkins. Equally, having been held by Labour so recently, it's also often identified as vital for Llafur in re-establishing its Welshness. Nevertheless, Mr Williams went in ...
Cross-posted from The Wardman Wire: With Michael Ashcroft back in the news over his financial support for the Conservative Party, this post provides a quick recap of the past controversies over Michael Ashcroft, the Conservative Party and political funding. Ashcroft's sequence of senior Conservative posts Under William Hague, Ashcroft was Treasurer of the Conservative Party (1998-2001), becoming a peer and member of the House of Lords in 2000. He was involved in a protracted dispute with The Times, which had been investigating some of the sources of his wealth. A libel action was settled out of court, with both sides ...
It's ages since I was sent this (so by now, everyone is probably fed up with them) but it has taken me ages to come up with things that are at least vaguely interesting and make me seem like a fairly rounded individual rather than completely nuts. Despite that I love these things as when you [...]
We have eggses, and flour, and milk, and limes, and muscovado sugar. We're ready to rock! Om nom nom pancakes!
Last weekend I attended the weirdest Hustings. You see about three months ago I agreed to act as a returning officer in the selection of candidates to fight the forthcoming local council elections. Now in my experience us activist usually spend our time trying to find just one person for a vacant seat in the council elections and I'm sure like a number of you, have in the past, actually spent a "fun" evening before the close of nominations trying to fill that last spot by calling on every member in that ward and begging them to be a candidate. ...
The Labour Party is in revolt this morning over proposed part-privatisation of the Post Office, complicated by news that the pension fund is apparently in crisis, and by signals that, if Labour MPs don't vote for the Labour Government's proposals, Tories and Lib Dems will. Now, I've written before that I'm agnostic on Post Office privatisation; I've always been economically pragmatic rather than ideological, looking at what works. Where there is privatisation, I instinctively favour increased competition and decentralisation, which it strikes me would make a bigger difference than painting the words 'under new ownership' onto a big state monolith. ...
Test Valley Borough Council has now set its budget for 2009/2010 after a 2 ½ hour debate during which the Liberal Democrat opposition questioned many aspects of the proposals. Test Valley's council tax will rise by 4.5%, 23 vacant jobs have been deleted and a further 20 - 30 redundancies are expected. The Lib Dems argued that while the increase in council tax was inevitable it should be tempered by a freeze on increases in fees and charges, set to rise by 5%. Deferring increases in charges would cost the council £50,000. This could be more than met by savings ...
On Thursday 5 March young people across Bury will be taking part in an election for the Bury Member and 2 Deputies of the United Kingdom Youth Parliament. This year there are 14 candidates from across the borough. {3734_UKYP09_elect_v1_RG} Last year 7,500 young people voted in the election and we are hoping to improve on this figure this year. The count will take place on Friday 6th March from 1pm in the Council Chamber and the result will be announced by the Returning Officer at 5pm.
Recently the Liberal Democrats have had two polls that have put them at 22 but the recent ICM that was released yesterday evening puts the Lib Dems back in their place at 18. And puts the other parties back at what they were in the previous poll. The results for the poll are as followed: CONSERVATIVES 42% LABOUR 30% LIBERAL DEMOCRATS 18% Personally this would be a kick to the ego of a lot of Lib Dems who thought the Lib Dems were on their way to getting 22% at the next general election, but that can still happened. My ...
The Hansard Society, reported on the Beeb, says that MPs are too passive in their use of the Internet. They talk a lot but don't listen enough, apparently. Whilst most MPs have websites, fewer than a quarter are on Facebook and only one in ten blog. Andy Williamson from Hansard said "They use the internet as a tool for campaigning and for organising their supporters, rather than opening up two-way communications with constituents." and, of course, wheels out the example of Obama's Internet campaigning. All these studies seem to start from the idea that MPs doing more on the Internet ...
11. Dobbin Though his chief contribution was made pulling the heavy roller, Dobbin was always happy to turn out if we were a man short and once played out the final over to secure a draw against Mebyon Kernow at St Austell. Earlier selections: Len HuttonC.B. FryDavid SteelViolent Bonham-CarterMike BrearleyL.T. HobhousePaul KeetchNancy SeearSimon HughesPhil Willis
This is all part of my preparation for the history tours I do in the spring and summer. But the great weather gave me the chance to do some snapping on Saturday. In a way they are just pictures, but I realise that in taking these pictures and placing them on this blog we end up creating and capturing the history and the value of the local community. Street name signs have a unique effect on the local area and the range of plaques, cast iron names and the tile lettering.
February 24th 1918 was the day that the Estonian Maapaev declared the independence of the Estonian Republic. Throughout the period of independence between 1918 and 1940 the day was celebrated with certain traditions. While every day the flag of the Republic was raised at sunrise from the Pikk Hermann tower of Tallinn castle, and the national anthem played, on the "Eesti Vabariigi aastapaev" - the anniversary of the Estonian Republic- there were special celebrations. Speeches were made and during the day a great parade and an evening ball hosted by the President. After the occupation, first by the Soviets, then ...
No, not his views on policing. His expenses. Obviously, I'm far from Grayling's biggest fan, but it's the tabloids' insistent foaming that gives one pause for thought. "If you thought Jacqui Smith was bad," they have screamed for the last few mornings, "Look at THIS! With EXTRA ADDED OUTRAGE!" The latest "expose" from the Mirror is hopefully titled: Fury as three more MPs rake in cash for second homes - Exclusive The "exclusive" element appears to be the work experience kid looking up the addresses of various Tory and Labour MPs and measuring their distance from Westminster on Google Maps, ...
Yesterday Iain Dale asked the question "Are the Lib Dems a Political Party or a Pressure Group?" I thought I'd leave my response overnight in the hope that I would calm down. As the title suggests I didn't really. He basically started a piece about rumours of cooperation between a Tory Government and the Lib Dems with a rant about how he'd personally like to see the Lib Dem's 'obliterated' and then this tirade in his final paragraph. It is sensible at this stage to see what levels of cooperation are both desirable and achievable. If nothing else, it will ...
Fans of the Book Quiz can almost hear Kirsty Warke ask who wrote these words: "The tiny Borders town of Wanlockhead looks like a Scottish version of the American Deep South terror film Deliverance, it is difficult to walk through Glasgow without falling over a drug addict and the Union flag over Edinburgh Castle is an 'awful mutant tablecloth'." The answer is the new minister of Arts and Culture Mike Russell it comes from a book he wrote in 1988 In Waiting: Travels in the Shadow of Edwin Muir. The Minister tried to distance himself by time and saying that ...
Responding to the publication of the report of the 'Archer Inquiry' into how thousands of haemophiliacs were infected with HIV and Hepatitis C through contaminated blood products given to them under the NHS, Jenny Willott, Liberal Democrat MP for Cardiff Central said:"The Government must not hide from this tragedy anymore. Lord Archer is right to call for full compensation for everyone whose
Anyone but Brown, the opinion polls are saying — and one can understand why. I am starting to feel sorry for the poor man. But frankly, the ineptitude which 'Incapability' Brown has shown in trying to lead Britain out of this crisis is breath-taking. Thank goodness Vince 'The Invincible' is around to inject some common sense. [...]
There has been a lot of reaction to the "Blues Under the Bed" editorial in the latest issue of Liberator Magazine. Part of Liberator's mission is to stir things up from time to time and it seems they have certainly succeeded in some quarters with this.Scarred as they undoubtedly are by the internal party battles of the 1990's, I often think the Liberator collective display a degree of paranoia
